Story by V. Michelle Bernard / Photos courtesy Mark Bowen/Scripps National Spelling Bee

JJ Chen, a 10-year-old boy who attends Chesapeake Conference’s Spencerville church in Silver Spring, Md., recently advanced to the Scripps National Spelling Bee finals in Oxon Hill, Md. He tied for 22nd place at the event.

Chen was the only student from the Washington, D.C., area to make it to the finals, and received a lot of local media attention for his accomplishment. He says he had fun and was “exited about talking with media. They are nice.”

Story by Heidi Shoemaker

This May more than 500 people in South Africa learned about Jesus at a Rev It Up! Revival evangelistic meeting led by Tom Hughes, a pastor in the Ohio Conference.

Story by Washington Adventist University Staff

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), DC Chapter recently presented awards to a professor and student from Washington Adventist University (WAU) in Takoma Park, Md. The NASW is the largest professional association of social workers in the world, and the only organization dedicated to advocating for the entire profession of social work and the populations they serve.

Student Cindy Ascencio (pictured left) received the "Social Work Student of the Year" award for her leadership in the field of social work. She is president of WAU's social work club, is a member of the Pi Alpha National Honor Society for Social Work, and is active with the WAU Student Association.

Stoy by V. Michelle Bernard / Photos courtesy Shenandoah Valley Academy & Lincoln Tyler Fields

Last weekend six academies from around the Columbia Union Conference celebrated graduations: Blue Mountain, Highland View, Pine Forge (pictured left), Shenandoah Valley, Spencerville and Spring Valley. Richmond and Takoma academies will hold graduations next weekend.

Academy leaders report the following graduation totals:

Story by Lisa Krueger and Jerry Woods / Photos by Vanessa Marie Studios

A record 2,000-plus people attended WGTS 91.9 FM’s sixth annual Night of Hope, one of the station’s key evangelistic pushes. Immanuel’s Church in Silver Spring, Md., hosted. This year the event started on Friday with a special broadcast dubbed the Day of Hope.

“Day of Hope was created specifically to allow listeners (not able to attend Night of Hope) the opportunity to be part of the celebration,” says Brennan Wimbish, WGTS program director. “We pre-recorded and took listener stories of how they'd seen hope in their lives.”