• Twenty-two Muirlands Middle School eighth-graders were recognized for earning a 4.0 grade point average for five consecutive semesters in a ceremony this month. Academic distinction was granted to Jane Andrews, Sonia Blue, Rachel Carroll, Danielle Collins, Allison Dowd, Hanna El-Jof, Clare Farley, Lauren Frager, Jane Han, Adam Hersko-Ronatas, Anna Law, Marisa Liang, Noah Luther, Amanda Menas, Trevor Menders, Sydney Moses, Zachary Perelman, Jonna Schreibman, Brian Thai, Zachary Wallace, Gracie Young and Lynn Zhou. • Cathedral Catholic High School student William Main Jr., a La Jolla resident, was among 2,250 students selected from a pool of 17,000 applicants to attend the U.S. Naval Academy’s prestigious Summer Seminar program in June. The six-day seminar teaches prospective USNA applicants about life at the academy through academic and leadership workshops, seamanship and navigation classes and daily physical training. • Five local scientists were recently awarded a total of nearly $6 million in funding for several projects designed to overcome immune rejection of transplanted stem cells. Martin Marsala and Yang Xu of UCSD; Anjana Rao of La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology; and Nicholas Gascoigne and Jeanne Loring of the Scripps Institute received the money from the governing board of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the state stem cell agency created by proposition 71. • La Jolla artist Katherine Shyu Keeling took home a first place award from the San Diego County Fair fine art competition for her painting “Home Stretch,” which depicts a colorful horse race. “The work is sort of abstract expression, but captured the excitement of the rhythm (you can almost hear the hoofs pounding …) and movement towards finish line,” Keeling said in an e-mail. • Seven local doctors who form the surgical team for the non-profit organization Doctors Offering Charitable Services (DOCS) were featured on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” May 6 as part of a segment on Ana Rodarte, a young woman who had facial deformities as a result of neurofibromatosis 1. Over the past five years, the team, in conjunction with Scripps La Jolla, has performed seven surgeries on Rodarte to change her appearance and help her see, hear and eat better. DOCS was founded in 2002 by board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeons Munish Batra, M.D., F.A.C.S. and Michael Halls, M.D., F.A.C.S. The rest of the multi-specialty team is comprised of Alfonso Camberos, M.D., F.A.C.S.; Andrew Chang, M.D. D.D.S.; Lokesh Tantuwaya, M.D.; Don Kikkawa, M.D.; and James Tasto, D.D.S. • University City High School student Or S. Weizman received a Kyoto Scholarship Book Award in the “Advanced Technology.” Kyoto Symposium chairman Robert B. Horsman presented Weizman with an autographed copy of “A Passion for Success” by Kyoto Prize founder Kazuo Inamori and a $1,000 cash prize. • San Diego Jewish Academy eighth-grader Sara Frank won first place at the California State Science Fair for her human biology project, “Do you see what I see?” Frank used an LED light box to prove her hypothesis that individuals see colors differently based on their age and gender. She earned multiple other awards for her project prior to entering the state competition.