In the Schools
They Did It Again!
Community Middle School Science Olympiad Team came up winners in the New Jersey Regional Science Olympiad and will defend its state title in the upcoming New Jersey Science Olympiad competition Tuesday, March 16, Middlesex County College, 2600 Woodbridge Avenue, Edison.
The CMS Competition Team members include: Victoria Chang, Isaac Cheng, Moya Chin, Katherine Fu, Tiffany Jin, Jamie Joseph, Kathy Li, Peter Maa, Priya Marathe, Monika Mostowy, Lekha Racharla, Anish Sarma, Greg Solak, Tomo Tamura, Aileen Yan, Roger Zhang, and Meiyi Zheng. The coaches for the team are CMS faculty, Virginia Baner and Denise Weber.
MathCounts
Not only did two West Windsor-Plainsboro Middle Schools take the top two places in the regional Mathcounts competition, but five of the top six individuals were from the district. Grover Middle School took first place and Community took second. Daesun Yim, a sixth grade student at Community Middle School, took first place overall. Ian Frankel, second place; Weiye (William) Zhang, third place; Priya Marathe, fifth place; and Jason Steinberg, sixth place. Seventeen teams of four players competed at the event at Pond Road Middle School in Robbinsville.
Yim, Marathe, and Steinberg are students at Community Middle School. Other Community students include Richard Hsu, 12th place; and Nick Kosar, 15th place. The team members were Hsu, Peter Maa, Marathe, and Steinberg. The coach for Community School is Alyce Z. Coehner. Individual competitors include Kosar, Chirag Modi, Josh Sung, and Yim.
Frankel and Zhang are Grover students. Other Grover students include Catherine Wei, 7th place; Hugh Le, 14th place; and Jeffrey Fan, 17th place. The team members were Fan, Frankel, Le, and Wei. Grover’s coaches are Hannah Woodley and Nicole Yudin.
Grover School’s Yim, Frankel, and Zhang progress to the state competition at Verizon’s Training Center in South Plainsfield on March 6. Community team members have been invited to the state competition via a “wild card” format.
Mathcounts combines business, education, government, and the technology to promote math excellence. The 14th annual Mathcounts Golf fundraiser will be held June 22, at Cherry Valley Country Club. Call Thomas Fisher at 609-655-2126.
South’s Model UN Wins Top Awards
High School South’s Model United Nations team emerged highly decorated from two recent competitions. Model UN conferences are simulations of the real United Nations and delegates are assigned a country and asked to represent the nation’s views in his/her topics within a committee setting. The conferences featured committees such as the UN Security Council, The World Health Organization, and the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons, which tackled issues such as the Reconstruction of Iraq, Water Borne Diseases, and Chemical Weapons Manufacturing.
At the Ivy League Model United Nations Conference, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania, on January 29 to February 1, High School South represented Zimbabwe and India. For the second consecutive year, the team received the Ben Franklin Cup, awarded to the Best Small School at the entire competition.
A week later, at the North American Invitational Model United Nations, hosted by Georgetown University, the team was awarded Outstanding Delegation, the highest honor a school can achieve — also for the second consecutive year. The team, representing Zimbabwe, was among 2,”500 students from around the world.
According to Andrew Watrous, secretary of the club, “These are really big awards. There are schools from all over the world, including Indian, Europe, China, Japan, and South America.” He was representing the Organization of American States and the team was presented with more crises including Bolivia invading Peru and a war at the Border of Dominican Republic and Haiti. At one point — after meetings from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., he was awakened in the middle of the night and told to get dressed in Western business attire to meet again.
“There is a lot of research involved and colleges recognize the dedication,” he says. “Kids involved make this their whole life.” Watrous wants to be involved in international relations, a subject he has always enjoyed. Two summers ago he took a class in geopolitics at Dickinson College and last summer, he studied American Foreign Policy at Georgetown University.
Presidential Scholars
Three area students were named candidates in the 2004 Presidential Scholars Program. They are Palak P. Amin and Jeffrey Weng, from High School North; and Deanna Zhang, High School South. The 2,”600 candidates were selected from nearly 2.8 million students expected to graduate from high schools in the United States this year.
Based on SAT scores, essays, self-assessments, activities, school recommendations, and school transcripts, the commission will choose one young man and one young woman from each state. The United States Department of Education will announce the semi-finalists in April, and the scholars in May. They will be invited to Washington, D. C. in June to receive the Presidential Scholars medallion and to participate in events and activities with their elected representatives, educators, and others in public life.
Family Math
Kelly Borup, Ann Trzasko, and Ellen Wheeler coordinated the Family Math Program at Wicoff School. The program was designed to introduce parents and third-grade children to ideas to help improve their mathematical skills and gain an appreciation for mathematics. Borup is a math teacher; Trzasko is a third grade teacher; and Wheeler is a resource room teacher. The five-week long sessions encourage problem solving skills and hands-on activities in a relaxed environment.
Pennies for Patients
Nancy Dunne, a guidance counselor at Dutch Neck Elementary School, is coordinating Pennies for Patients. The month-long community service project is designed to raise funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Collection boxes throughout the school accept all coins, not just pennies.
Mock Trial
High School South students competed in the finals of the 21st Annual Mock Trial Competition by the Mercer County Bar Association and the New Jersey State Bar Association on Monday, February 16, in Trenton. Participating as attorneys, witnesses, and jurors, the team won the jury verdict, but lost the advance to the finals by Steinert High School. Students involved include Clara Bracke, Matt Lipka, and Drew Dampier. Mercer County Superior Court Judge Maryann Beilamowicz presided over the mock trial.
Reading S.E.E.D.S.
Frances McDonough and Victoria Anderson, grades 4/5 language arts resource enrichment specialists, created the Reading S.E.E.D.S. program to bring children, parents, and educators together to share various perspectives and explanations of one book. Cindy Mershon, language arts literacy supervisor, and Connie Beadle, media specialist at Millstone River, are also involved. Other facilitators include Mary Ann Isaacs, Barbara Osburn, Mickey Mears, Debbie Robl, and Denise Wilder.
Counselors
National School Counseling Week was celebrated in early February to honor professional school counselors within the school system including David Prutow, director of guidance for grades K to 12 as well as counselors including, from High School South: Leslie Fisher, Michael Allberto, Chris Tomalin, David Kamm, Joyce Ragucci, Jo-Anne Walker, Michelle Walsh, and Nancy Himsel. From High School North: Nancy Icenhower, Eric Becker, Gail Bruno, Fred Dearden, Debbie Levinson, Lee Riley, and Wendy Michalewsky.
From Community Middle School: Liza Miller, Lynn Fisher, Faith Hancock, Colleen Pedersen, and Wendy Michalewsky. From Grover Middle School: Linda D’Orlando, Frank Gallo, Dawn Gilchrist, Jenny Godnick, and Nancy Himsel. Other counselors include Nancy Dunne, Dutch Neck; Eileen O’Mahony, Maurice Hawk; Joyce Trotman, Town Center; Robin Minden, Wicoff; Tom Plebani and Lisa Valeriani, Millstone River; and Karen Duffy and Tom Plebani, Village School.
From the Colleges:
Dean’s Lists
The College of New Jersey: West Windsor residents include Andrew W. Bazergui, physics major; Christy Byrnes, elementary/early childhood education major; John L. Elliott, English major; Laurie B. Freely, economics major; Steven K. MacDougall, history major; Jessica E. Michlik, computer science major; Deepika S. Rao, biology major; Holly E. Sheffield, communication studies; and John K. Spegele, finance major.
From Plainsboro: Elizabeth B. Ewin, psychology major; Ann Koo, art major; and Kevin A. Schott, history major.
Fairfield University: Carol Gjenvick, West Windsor, political science major.
New York University: David Vecchione of West Windsor, double major in biology and economics with a minor in chemistry. A senior, he has been accepted to New York University Dental School with a merit scholarship.
Quinnipiac University: Kristin Irving, West Windsor.
Salisbury University: Heather Zurich, Plainsboro. An education major, she was recently inducted into Zeta Tau Alpha.
University of Scranton: Peter Guala, West Windsor.
Syracuse University: Stephanie Dorman and Scott Kay, Plainsboro. From West Windsor: Kyle Townsend, Mara Leibowitz, Jessica Schaeffer, Paul Walker, Emily Wasco, and Ramine Ziai.
Wake Forest University: John Engel of West Windsor, junior, majoring in history.
University of Wisconsin: Lindsay March, West Windsor; Melissa Sands, West Windsor. Sands, an intern as a special assistant to the lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, is a member of the National Society of Collegiate Scholars, and the Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society.
