News in Brief: catch up on school and local news

The Kansas City Plaza held its annual art fair from Sept. 19 – 21, showcasing local paintings, sculptures, drawings, clay and more.

The event has become a top-ranked national art event  with around 250,000 attendees featuring over 240 artists each year, according to PlazaArtFair.com.

The Plaza Art Fair attracts many SM East students, many coming with friends or family.

Sophomore Ashley St. Denis has been going to the event since she was ten years old.

“It’s one of my favorite traditions to do,” St. Denis said. “I always look forward to it each year, and I love watching the bands play.”

The fair covers the streets of the Plaza with numerous restaurant booths – Cooper's Hawk, Jack Stack Barbeque, Fogo de Chao and more. Live music and bands filling all nine blocks of the Plaza.

Sophomore Holland Baldassaro visited for the first time this year.

“The [Plaza] art isn’t really affordable for the average human,” Baldassaro said “But it is super cool to walk through and see different art values.”

Baldassaro encountered artists and restaurants she’d never heard before, opening her eyes to new genres of music and underground restaurants.

“I discovered [local singer] Greg Jacobson and have been listening to him ever since.” Baldassaro said. “I also tried a new restaurant called Heritage, and I will be going again to eat there.”

Scholarship Shawnee Mission is a guide to help juniors and seniors attending a Shawnee Mission high school earn scholarships. They come every fall and connect with college and university partners to plan for the students' future; raising over $5.7 billion in the district this year.

When the student applies for a scholarship on March 1 as a Junior and is offered a scholarship in the fall semester, they’re encouraged to research the institutions if they’re interested and later apply when they’re seniors.

The goal every year is to connect students to universities that will offer scholarships, according to Jason Peres.

Principal Jason Peres, a facilitator for Scholarship Shawnee Mission, helped with scholarship day on Sept. 16 run smoothly. 

“I help facilitate the delivery of their letters that students receive and help set up the day they come, when they let us know when they’re coming, and what they need,” Peres said. “I also set up how many spaces they need in our lot to park for colleges and what the space needs to look like.”

The foundation’s impact is rewarding— changing students' lives each year by breaking the financial barriers that prevent them from reaching their academic goals, according to Peres.

“Their role in our school district is to open doors for students to opportunities that they didn’t even know about,” Peres said. “It lets students know about scholarship opportunities, impacting many students each year.”