Aria Menon Wins Spelling Bee, By Jondi Gumz • Dientes’ Tiffany Turner Wins National Award

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Aria Menon Wins Spelling Bee

By Jondi Gumz

Aria Menon, 9, a fourth grader at Mountain Elementary School in Soquel is this year’s elementary winner of the Santa Cruz County virtual spelling bee.

She will go on to compete in the state spelling bee in person May 14 in Stockton.

Her mother, Sita Kaimal, said her daughter is an avid reader and was inspired by her brother Adi, 13, who competed for two years.

During winter break, she got a spelling list from the school and invested her vacation time in spelling.

The payoff: She got every word correct and bested fifth graders and sixth graders.

No doubt she’s reviewing new words this very minute.

The elementary division is for grades

4-6.

Runner-up was Ihan Kang, who attends Westlake School in Santa Cruz, and Manuel Mattila, who attends Valencia Elementary in Aptos, placed third.

In the junior division for grades 7-9, Ella Webb, a freshman at Scotts Valley

Aria Menon

High School, earned first place and the right to go to the state bee.

Runner-up was Vikram Sathigh, who attends Scotts Valley Middle School and Sage Kelly who attends New Brighton Middle School, placed third.

Locally, the spelling bee is organized and hosted by the Santa Cruz County Office of Education. n

Dientes’ Tiffany Turner Wins National Award

Tiffany Turner, chief operations officer at Dientes Community Dental Care in Santa Cruz, was honored with the prestigious Emerging Leader Award at the National Association of Community Health Centers Policies and Issues annual conference in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 16.

The Emerging Leader Award is given by George Washington University’s Geiger Gibson Program in Community Health Policy to exceptional young leaders whose work has helped further health care and better health for medically underserved patients, communities, and special populations.

Turner’s initiative throughout the pandemic enabled Dientes to reopen its

clinics following strict protocols after a two-month shutdown for all but emergency visits. Her attention to detail has resulted in zero COVID outbreaks in Dientes’ clinics to date, colleagues said. “Her high expectations, guidance to achieve goals, and team-orientation, combined with on-the-job experience, has allowed multiple front-line staff to advance without formal management training,” said Dientes CEO Laura Marcus. She added, “Ms. Turner Tiffany Turner goes above and beyond to mentor and promote women of color to leadership positions … We couldn’t be prouder to have a young woman of this caliber leading our operations. She is an inspiration.” n

“Wildlife Photos” from page 17 • Bald Eagles in the Angeles National

Forest (Andrew Lee) • Yellowed-bellied Marmots in Yosemite

National Park (Vishal Subramanyan) • Coyote leaping for food in Yosemite

National Park (Alice Cahill) • Golden Eagle versus Ground Squirrel (Shravan Sundaram) • Northern Pygmy Owl in Santa Cruz

Mountains (Robin Agarwal) • Spotted Owls at Golden Gate National

Recreation Area (Maximilian Rabbitt

Tomita) • Sea lions at Channel Islands National

Park (Ken Howard) • California Condors at Tejon Ranch (Loi Nguyen) • White-tailed Kites mid-air food transfer (Don Henderson) • Great Gray Owl at Yosemite National

Park (Vishal Subramanyan)

Two photographs received special recognition. California Watchable Wildlife chose Alice Cahill’s shot of a leaping coyote as a favorite, while the Sierra Nevada Conservancy picked Vishal Subramanyan’s photo of a pair of Yellowed-bellied Marmots. Both were taken in Yosemite National Park. n •••

To view all of these photos, go to https:// www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=240797574895 527&set=a.237260935249191

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