Westchester High School junior Jabari Magnus has...

Westchester High School junior Jabari Magnus has been selected as a national winner in the “McDonald’s Black History Makers of Tomorrow” contest. An outstanding honors student with a 4.0 grade point average, Magnus also plays football, runs on the varsity track team and has volunteered for the Beta Phi Sorority and the AIDS walk-a-thon. For the past two years, he has earned top honors in UCLA’s Minority Engineering Program and studied algebra, trigonometry and math analysis. He received the top student award in the Hughes Corp.’s Biotech Engineering program last summer. He was selected based on his leadership, scholarship and character. He also submitted an original 1,000-word essay focusing on how black history can affect the future.

South Bay police officers and their canine partners took seven awards at the Redondo Beach police fifth annual Police Canine Competition on Saturday. They were among 35 dog/handler teams representing police departments from all over Southern California.

Overall champions are Redondo Beach Police Officer Ken Greenleaf and his canine partner Boris. First-place winners in the open division are Manhattan Beach Police Officer Mike Navarette, and his police dog, Alk. Greenleaf and Boris also took overall team honors, along with Redondo Beach Officer Paul Burch and his partner Bear. Other local winners were Palos Verdes Estates Police Officer Joe Hall and his police dog Bandit, first-place agility competition; Redondo Beach Officer Paul Hellinga and Bronco, second-place narcotics competition. Burch and Bear also took first place in “manwork” competition.

The competition included obedience, agility, box searches and manwork. Three types of dogs competed: German shepherd, Belgian and Rottweiler. All dogs on winning South Bay teams are German shepherds.

Verna Brennan, retired educator and Hermosa Beach resident for 45 years, is serving as president of the South Bay Hospital Auxiliary. She succeeds Patti Hallendorff of Redondo Beach. In November Brennan will lead more than 170 people on the South Bay Auxiliary Cruise to the Western Caribbean from New Orleans. This annual fund-raiser made it possible for the auxiliary to build a nondenominational chapel at the hospital.

Matt Young, a senior at Rolling Hills Preparatory School, has been named a National Merit Scholarship Finalist, an honor accorded to only about one-half of 1% of all high school juniors and seniors in the country. As part of his award, the San Pedro resident will receive a scholarship toward his college education.

Julie Wai Yee Kwan of Gardena High School was awarded honorable mention at the 500th annual Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Poster Contest finalists reception. Kwan was one of 36 students from junior and senior high schools throughout the Los Angeles area honored May 13 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The event was sponsored by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the County Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Committee.