Honors

A 23-year-old Cal State Fullerton student, baritone Aram Barsamian of Pasadena, took top honors Saturday in the Orange County district Metropolitan Opera auditions. Finishing just behind Barsamian were soprano Jennifer Smith, 28, of Tustin, and soprano Megan Weston, 27, of Buena Park, who came in second and third respectively among the eight participants in the competition held at Chapman University. Each of the three winners will compete in regional finals Nov. 13 at USC.

Three Garden Grove Unified School District teachers will be honored Wednesday for 40 years of service in the district. Donald Fraser of Marshall Elementary School, Norman Scott of Murdy Elementary School and Brenda Lynch of Patton Elementary School will receive service pins during the annual Employee Recognition Program. The teachers are among an elite group of only seven to have served the district for so many years.

Beverly Hills High School English teacher Marilyn Wulliger received one of two 1993 Bravo Awards from the Music Center on Monday. The awards honor elementary and high school teachers in Southern California for their achievements in arts education. Wulliger, a Pacific Palisades resident, received the award at a dinner at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

Susan Sinclair has been awarded the UCI Extension Distinguished Instructor Award. She received the award, for outstanding academic performance and teaching excellence, during a ceremony last month in the Social Science Auditorium at UC Irvine. Officials noted that Sinclair conceived and designed a certificate program for technical professionals, focusing on marketing. The result is UCI Extension's Marketing of Technical Products and Services program.

An American woman was awarded one of South Africa's highest state honors for forgiving the men who stoned her daughter to death in the waning days of apartheid. Linda Biehl was named to the Order of Companions of OR Tambo by President Thabo Mbeki at a ceremony in Pretoria, the office of the presidency said on its website. Biehl and her husband, Peter, captured the hearts of South Africans in 1993 when they publicly forgave the killers of their daughter Amy, a Fulbright scholar who was working with poor communities in the country.

Poland's Senate unanimously passed a resolution honoring Irena Sendler, who saved nearly 2,500 Jewish children from the Nazis by organizing a ring of 20 people to smuggle them out of the Warsaw Ghetto in baskets and ambulances. The resolution also honors the Council for Assisting Jews, of which her ring of mostly Roman Catholic members was a part.

Public television station KOCE and Toshiba America Electronics honored Orange County's 1999 teachers of the year Thursday in a ceremony at Golden West College in Huntington Beach. Jack Hawkins of Sonora High School in La Habra was named "California Teacher of the Year" from among the county's educators.

Costa Mesa's Learning for Life foundation will honor nine Orange County Women of Excellence Nov. 7 at the Sutton Place Hotel in Newport Beach. The foundation is an educational arm of the Boy Scouts of America, Orange County Council, that teaches values and ethics to schoolchildren. Every year, the organization recognizes women accomplished in law, business, education, the arts, health and social services.

Tony Melendez, the armless man who was embraced by Pope John Paul II after playing the guitar with his toes at the Universal Amphitheater during last month's papal visit, was honored for his courage Tuesday by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. "I say to everyone, you can do just as much, if not more, than I can," said the 25-year-old singer-guitarist when he received his scroll. "I believe from my heart we can all do as much as we want to do."

The Voice, Irvine Valley College's student newspaper, won third place for general excellence this week at the National College Media Convention in Orlando, Fla. The newspaper, established four years ago, received the award from Associated College Press in the tabloid category for two-year colleges. The national award is the first for the Voice. "What makes this exciting is that it confirms we're doing all the right things," said Olga Briseno, the director of the college's journalism program.