COMPILED BY ROBERT A. COHN AND MIKE SHERWIN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF EMERITUS AND ASSISTANT EDITOR

Block Yeshiva Science teacher Wayne Dugge has been selected as a participant in the 2008 FDA/NSTA Food Science Professional Development Program, a partnership program of the Food and Drug Administration and the National Science Teachers Association, preparing middle and high school-level science educators to provide topically relevant lessons in food science to their students. Dugge was one of only 20 high school teachers across the country selected to participate in these workshops held during Summer 2008 in both Washington D.C and Cincinnati.

Rabbi Hershey Novack of Chabad on Campus at Washington University will be one of 120 young Jewish community innovators selected from around the world (including leaders from Europe, Asia and North and South America) to participate in the third annual ROI conference. The ROI Summit takes place over four days in mid-June in Jerusalem.

ROI is a global initiative aimed at sustaining the powerful impact of programs like Taglit-birthright israel by supporting individuals and groups that are committed to expanding the horizons of their Jewish communities. This four-day event will unite young Jewish innovators with mentors and professionals in an effort to develop and promote innovative activist initiatives. ROI is an international partnership between Taglit-birthright israel and the Center for Leadership Initiatives, a U.S. based foundation with funding from Lynn Schusterman.

Cantor Morris Chotin, of Ballwin, added to his growing list of honors with an honorary doctorate from the Hebrew Union College –Jewish Institute of Religion this May in Los Angeles. Chotin, an alumni of HUC-JIR, received the doctor of music degree. Chotin serves as a cruise chaplain for major cruise lines, and has sung in synagogues in South America, Europe and Asia, in addition to North America. He earned the “Kol Simcha” award from the American Conference of Cantors for his fifty years of service to the Jewish community. He also has an honorary Doctorate of Divinity, also from HUC.

St. Louisans Harold and Diane Sanger earned some “bragging rights” recently when their daughter Stefanie and son Bryan were featured in major write-ups in two separate publications.

Stefanie Sanger, president of the Student Doctor Council at Logan College of Chiropractic, was recently profiled in The Tower, a campus publication. Stefanie had been a recent law school graduate who had completed most of her pre-med requirements, and had benefited from chiropractic treatments for her allergies.

She later enrolled in the college and became president of the Student Doctor Council, which operates as a liaison between students and administrators and promotes campus life and involvement. Under her leadership, the Student Doctor Council has established an ongoing food drive in cooperation with a St. Louis Food Bank, sponsored an arthritis awareness walk, invited chiropractic product vendors to set up booths on campus and brought community entertainment to the Purser Center on campus. “The involvement of the council, in many ways, hinges on the ambition of its president and, as Stefanie’s jam-packed r ésum é will confirm, she’s as ambitious as they come,” the publication says.

Meanwhile, Bryan Sanger was the author of an article in the 60th anniversary edition of Together, the newsletter of the Jewish National Fund. Bryan, an attorney, contributed “A birthright experience” about his participation, at the age of 25, in a birthright israel trip to the Jewish State.

Athough he admitted that he was “a little worried” about being near the top of the allowable age bracket for the birthright israel trip, Sanger said he became fast friends with the group, and the Israeli soldiers they traveled with. “Traveling in Israel with Israeli soldiers who were eager to share their land with us was the most unexpectedly amazing part of the birthright experience. Their energy and enthusiasm was intoxicating and played a major role in the positive culture and attitude on our bus,” he wrote. “Looking back some three months now, I have been able to put my trip into perspective. For me, it wasn’t about taking my Judaism to the ‘next level.’ It was about my connection to the land, the people, the culture and the rich history that it opened up for me.”

Have a news tip you’d like to include in “Reporter’s Notebook”? Send it to Assistant Editor Mike Sherwin at [email protected] or call 314-743-3665. We’re hoping to highlight the personal milestones, much-deserved kudos and career accomplishments of people in the community.