Beatrice Wambui may be young, but she’s got big plans.
At just 16, the Kentlake High School student already has a national leadership law forum under her belt, and she’s continuing her studies in earnest, in hopes of pursuing a law degree.
“I’m dedicated to want to be a lawyer,” said Wambui, a Kenyan-born teenager who is now a U.S. citizen and who speaks English along with Swahili and Kikuyu, the last two the languages of her former homeland.
She wants to practice family-court law.
“I’ve always wanted to look out for children,” the Covington teenager said.
Thanks to a pilot program between the University of Washington and Kent School District, Wambui may be getting a heightened chance of attaining her dream.
In coming years, she could be starting at the UW with her freshman year already behind her.
Called the UW Accelerated Learning Program, the new alliance between Kent and the Huskies operates similar to Running Start. But instead of earning an Associate’s Degree at a community or technical college as a graduating high-school senior, students who pass their coursework in the UW Accelerated Learning Program can start their university career as sophomores. Due to an agreement between the UW and the Kent School District, they could be learning their way through their freshman year in college, while still in high school.
Communities in Schools of Kent, a nonprofit organization devoted to helping youngsters stay in school, is having its biggest fundraiser of the year and you’re invited.
The CISK Annual Fundraising Breakfast runs 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. March 16 at the Kent Senior Activity Center.
Kent Elementary and Kent Mountain View Academy, both of the Kent School District, are recipients of the 2010 Washington Achievement Award. The two schools joined 184 other Washington State schools receiving the award based on three years of data from the Washington Achievement Index. The state index has several functions including providing feedback to schools and districts and identifying exemplary student and school performance. The Washington State Board of Education and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction sponsor the award.
King County Executive Dow Constantine will deliver his 2011 State of the County address at 10 a.m. Monday, Feb. 28 on the third-floor rotunda at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
A 13-year veteran of the Kent Police Department has been fatally injured in a local traffic accident. Officer Robin McCuistion, 53, was driving home early Thursday morning when his car left the roadway on Kersey Way Southeast in Auburn. The car traveled down a steep embankment and struck a tree. Officer McCuistion died of his injuries at the scene.
Stefano Langone has cracked the top 24 of 'American Idol.' At tonight's nail-biter 'Idol' episode, judges Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler sat Langone down and after a some discussion pregnant with anxiety, they gave hin the news:
He's in.
Every Friday morning, Scott Skinner goes to Scenic Hill Elementary knowing he’s got a friend waiting, just for him.
But rather than playing Four Square or the other things typical sixth-graders do, Scott’s friend does something else.
She shows him how to be successful.
Scott, 12, is the recipient of a mentor – a grownup who spends time with him each week, to help him get the most out of school.
Thanks to the Communities in Schools of Kent organization, Ann Hagensen for the past two years has been helping Scott navigate the tricky shoals of being a teenage student. As a volunteer, Ann helps Scott understand some of the basic elements of being a good student: to connect and have fun with other kids, to be organized, to follow directions.
Kent city street crews will de-ice and sand streets as needed Thursday night and Friday morning as freezing temperatures are expected to turn any moisture on roads to ice.
King County is growing and has a diverse multitude of residents, based on data revealed Feb. 23 by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The census counted 1,931,249 residents in King County, a number that confirms the county's rapid population growth during the first decade of the 21st century, according to a county media release.
Many buses on snow routes, warming shelters open, some King County government agencies have delayed start
Residents urged to prepare for a slow commute, check ahead, and have patience as region wakes up to overnight snow
Although King County government as a whole is officially open, several departments affected by the weather conditions have announced delays for Thursday, February 24.
The Kent City Council last week approved a $1 million cut to the city’s 2011 general fund budget, and another $288,000 reduction in the city’s street and youth-fund budgets this year because of an unexpected major drop in revenue from the city’s 6 percent telephone-utility tax.
“This is one more hit,” Kent Mayor Suzette Cooke said in a phone interview Tuesday. “We can’t seem to get a break. It took us all by surprise.”
Cooke hopes the city gets a break from any Green River flooding the rest of this winter.
That’s because the city plans to use its $1 million flood-emergency fund set aside in this year’s budget,to plug the hole in the general fund left by the drop in telephone-utility tax revenue.
“Hopefully, we are still in a position where we do not need to use the flood money,” Cooke said, of events in the months ahead.
Jury selection is expected to start Wednesday at King County Superior Court in Seattle for the man charged with stabbing to death a Kent woman in 2007.
King County prosecutors charged Randall Edward Connor, 31, with first-degree murder for killing Merianne Lorentson, 24, in her East Hill apartment.
The city of Kent is opening its severe weather shelter Wednesday through Friday nights at Kent Lutheran Church, 336 Second Ave. S., due to predicted dangerously low temperatures and snow.
Anywhere from 1 inch to 6 inches of snow could strike Kent and the rest of Western Washington Wednesday afternoon with even heavier snow showers predicted for Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
Kent Predators quarterback Charles McCullum shares a hotel room with another player and gets one meal per day as an Indoor Football League player.
The team covers the cost of the hotel and meal for McCullum and about 16 other out-of-state players on the 30-member squad. The rest of the players are from the Puget Sound area and most have full-time jobs. Players are paid $225 per game for their only football income.
The retrial of a former Kent businessman accused of the first-degree murder of his wife in Federal Way has been scheduled for April 4 at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent.
King County prosecutors announced Feb. 9 the second trial date for Joseph Naimo, 63, a former general manager at AAA Pest Control in Kent. He remains in custody at the county jail in Kent in lieu of $1 million bail.
Firefighters from the Kent Fire Department and South King Fire and Rescue are assisting Highline Community College staff in Des Moines in cleaning up water damage following a small fire at about 8 a.m. Tuesday in the Community Outreach building in the 23800 block of Pacific Highway South.
