By Brown Carpenter
Correspondent
Kempsville
Teacher Zach Neumann has a job for the summer. His plan, however, doesn't involve working at a resort or tutoring.
The Larkspur Middle School French instructor will spend almost six weeks in the West African nation of Ghana, where he will teach English.
His task abroad is affiliated with the organization Ghanaian Mothers' Hope.

By Greg Goldfarb Correspondent Terri Zenisek stood in the middle of All Things Educational, talking with family, friends and movers. They came to help her close up shop. "It's been extremely traumatic," said Zenisek, who co-owned the teachers' supply store with her husband, George. "We felt this store was important to the community."

By Staci Dennis Correspondent Bekah Mulford feels as if she achieved the impossible and made her dreams come true - just like the story of Cinderella. "If you put enough hard work in to a project, then it is bound to be a success," she said. "With faith in God, things will work out."

Media studies students at Tallwood High School hope to see their public service announcement on television soon. With the public's help, that could happen. Leslie Allman's 11th- and 12th-graders recently created a TV commercial. Titled "Cyber Nightmares," it was selected as one of three finalists in the Virginia Youth Internet Safety Contest.

High school musical? Forget Disney, Chesapeake has the goods. Classic entertainment and timeless music will be created this week by talented high schoolers and their teachers across various stages this week.

• Grassfield will debut its first musical, featuring the thugs, mugs, hoods, slickers and molls of “Guys and Dolls” Thursday through Saturday.

Kathleen Anderson had been expecting the tearful call home.
Although her then-15-year-old daughter, Elyse, was an ocean away in Paris, Anderson didn't worry.
She simply understoo d it for what it was: the crying phase.

By Frances Thrasher Norge Correspondent Today is like any other day in Keri Lambert's class - unpredictable. It's the day before the Chesapeake Citywide Benchmark Test, and students in her seventh-grade U.S. history class at Indian River Middle School are reviewing. Not that they realize this is work.

It was almost as if James Merrill, Virginia Beach school superintendent, was gazing into a mirror when he first saw his portrait. The painting, by Virginia Beach artist Mary Thumma, was unveiled at the Visual and Performing Arts Academy at Salem High School during a master class she conducted earlier this month.

Homemade campaign posters competed with character-education vocabulary words on the crowded walls of the Dreamkeepers Academy cafeteria.

Team McCain! No more drama vote 4 Obama! Your vote for Hillary could change the world!

Onstage before a sea of red-shirted students, three fifth-graders portraying the presidential candidates faced a tricky task.

By Jane Bloodworth Rowe Correspondent   Lionel Hunter dipped his sponge into the blue paint, then tentatively spread it across the canvas. His strokes grew bolder and broader until he'd filled in the background. "We're doing different stuff each day, and today was fun because we got to do outer space," Lionel, 9, said. "I'm interested in that."