Schools

Chattahoochee Beta Club Team Wins Big

Team brings home multiple awards.

By Yogi Blackman, Chattahoochee High School 

The excitement was palpable among the team at the Beta Club annual State Convention in downtown Atlanta. Jared Moro said it all – “We did it! We came out as champions!” The Beta Convention, which was held at the Hyatt Regency, gave students an opportunity to prove their academic skills in an arena where they competed against Beta Club chapters from around the state.

The mission of the National Beta Club, according to its website, is “to promote the ideals of academic achievement, character, service and leadership among middle school and secondary school students.” These elite students, selected and invited to membership, must have a grade point average of 8.95 or above.

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“They are bright kids,” says Chattahoochee Beta Club sponsor Angela Moore-Rivers. “They’re the crème of the crop,” she beams as she describes this group of talented teens, whose motto is “Lead by Serving Others.”

Moore-Rivers and Gabrielle Larson are full-time staff at Chattahoochee High School who volunteer as the sponsors and supervisors of the Beta Club.

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Moore-Rivers has been active in the Beta Club for several years, since first getting involved in Washington DC, where she taught junior high school. She had a chance to preview last year’s competition, and was determined that Chattahoochee Beta Club could compete. She knew these students had the skills to spare, and could benefit from the experience, as well. Compete they did, and they came home with eight awards.

Moro, this year’s Beta Club president, was voted last year as state-wide vice president, and has been a very active member of the club. Moro was the master of ceremonies at the event, and thoroughly enjoyed calling out the names of the Chattahoochee Beta Club team as winners.

Jenna Brandvold placed third in English. Brittany Whitlock, who placed third in the Special Talent Competition, played guitar and sang “Alleluia!” Brandvold also sang the National Anthem at the event, and will be Chattahoochee’s Salutatorian this year.

Sushmi Muppidi won second place in the Acrylic Painting Competition; Melinda Chou, second place in the Colored Pencil Drawing competition; Sophia Chen, second place in Spanish.

Chen, Valedictorian of Chattahoochee High School, is a senior who collected a Georgia Top Scholarship Award and is captain of the Quiz Bowl team. Chen won the overall first place award along with her team, which also included Sunny Sharma and Siddharth Naik.

Beyond academia, Chattahoochee also took away prizes for philanthropy. The team ranked third place in raising money for their chosen charity, the American Cancer Society. They came up champions for per capita commitment to the one huge project of the year.

Moore-Rivers says that this accomplishment came by way of the “Relay for Life,” their big fundraiser, an overnight event that was held at Johns Creek High School’s sports field and included a walk-a-thon, food, games, a live band, “… and people just coming together to commemorate loved ones who’ve passed, and to honor the survivors,” because, “cancer never sleeps.” 

Finally, back at school on Monday morning, Moore-Rivers treated the Beta Club students to breakfast pizzas and high-fives, and a moment to look back on the grand weekend before they look ahead to the next good deed.


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