
Patriot’s Pen award winners (from left) Brett Schlangen, third place; Lilly Houghton, second place; and Isabelle Schlangen, first place.
Three Sartell Middle School students won the top three honors at the Patriot’s Pen Awards. This VFW-sponsored youth essay competition gives students an opportunity to write essays expressing their views on a patriotic theme.
This year’s theme was “What Makes America Great.” Isabelle Schlangen, Lilly Houghton and Brett Schlangen were honored Nov. 20 at the Sauk Rapids VFW Women’s Auxiliary.

Joanna Richards and Brandon Nordhues
The American Choral Directors Association of Minnesota presented its Award for Creative Programming to Sartell-St. Stephen school district choir directors Joanna Richards and Brandon Nordhues on Nov. 16.
The purpose of the award is, “to uphold high standards of excellence in repertoire selection, to acknowledge and reward creativity in performing choral performance, and to affirm the importance of quality secondary and undergraduate choral training throughout the State of Minnesota.”
The Sartell High School Winter Choir Concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 16, in the Sartell High School Performing Arts Center.
Six Sartell students will graduate from Minnesota State University, Mankato on Saturday, Dec. 14. The students and their degree are as follows: Hannah Lakmann, bachelor’s; Kristen Manning, bachelor’s, cum laude; Breanna Peterson, bachelor’s; Nicole Schefers, bachelor’s, magna cum laude; Tasha Smith, bachelor’s; and Katelyn Tragiai, bachelor’s.
Two Sartell students will graduate from Minnesota State University, Moorhead on Thursday, Dec. 19. They are Olivia Garner, bachelor’s degree; and Kia Grindland, bachelor’s degree.
Three Sartell students are studying abroad during fall semester 2019 through the Center for Global Education at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University.
They are the following: Elliot Edeburn, son of AnnElise Edeburn, studying in the Chile program, and a junior political science major at SJU; Bria Ferns, daughter of Tammy and Doug Ferns, studying in the Roman-Greco program, and a junior nutrition major at CSB; and Lindsey Hoeschen, daughter of Sondra and Steve, is studying in the Greco-Roman program, and a junior mathematics and computer science double-major at CSB.