Science Winners
Both High School Science Olympiad Teams came up winners at the New Jersey Central Regional Science Olympiad Tournament held at Raritan Valley College on Saturday, January 17. Competing against 19 other central New Jersey high schools,
High School South took second place, and High School North placed third. They both earned spots at the New Jersey State Science Olympiad Competition, which will take place at Middlesex County College on Tuesday, March 16. The Central Region is comprised of eight out of the top ten teams at the state level last year.
High School South students garnered medals or ribbons in all but one of the 12 scheduled events. All competing students won at least one award. The coaches include Karen Galley, Larry Swesey, and Menakshi Bhattacharya. Pirate team members include Sumona Bhattacharya, Anshuman Bhairavbhat, Jeffrey Chang, Jerrald Chen, Jerry Chen, Abhinav Jha, David Koppstein, Eugene Kwag, Richard Li, Sean Li, David Liu, Xin Luo, Kyle Viswanathan, Fred Wu, and James Yan. Sofia Izmailov and Michael Weintraub were alternates.
Medal and ribbon winners for North include seniors Kartik Kesavabhotla, 7th Physics Lab; Amanda Lee, 7th Physics Lab, 4th Astronomy; and SiYi Wang, 1st Practical Data Gathering, 5th Forestry.
Junior winners include Apurva Dabholkar, 1st Practical Data Gathering, 5th Polymer Detectives; Nidha Karingula, 2nd Cell Biology; and Preetika Rao, 2nd Cell Biology.
Sophomore winners include Anna Choe, 2nd Dynamic Planet; Janice Chou, 5th Polymer Detectives; Shirley Liang, 1st Bottle Rocket, 2nd Dynamic Planet, 4th Wright Stuff; Yanping Ren, 5th Forestry; Yanqing Ren, 4th Astronomy; and Long-Long Tian, 1st Bottle Rocket, 4th Wright Stuff.
Pirate Players
High School South’s Pirate Players have produced William Mastrosimone’s play, “Bang Bang You’re Dead,” about violence in schools. It is being performed for middle school classes in the district, as well as at Columbia Middle School in Berkeley Heights, Montgomery Middle School and High School 10th grade American literature classes.
The cast includes Mitchell Akselrad, Samara Berger, Laura Coleman, Drew Dampier, Bryan Garcia, Ashley Hencken, Adam Lewis, Brian Morgan, Eric Pachner, Dan Pfau, Liz Portnoy, Chris Reil, Annie Sandford, Meggie Schmidt, Dan Schwartz, and Caitlyn Stuart. Bryan Garcia and Dan Pfau are the directors.
This is the fifth year and the fifth production of “Bang Bang” the Pirate Players have mounted, says Don Gilpin, the Pirates’ director. The first WW-P performance was in November of 1999. Past directors include Elizabeth Parker, Annie Lewis, Satomi Yamauchi, and Cara Akselrad (for two years).
Visitor from the Sky
Jessica Stearns, a former Plainsboro resident, aviatrix, and photographer, visited students in the Exceptionality Initiative program at Village School. Flying her Piper Cub, Stearns has captured the entire town of Plainsboro through her camera lens. She spoke to students about how she turned her desire to become both a pilot and a photographer into a livelihood. Stearns’ photos are on loan from the Plainsboro Public Library.
More than 30 photographs on display at the school serve as the catalyst for student projects to research local history. Each student was given a Kodak Advantix camera to take a photo of their subject from ground level. Stearns gave them tips about creating a scene with the camera.
Students and their parents also spent an evening with Jinny Baeckler, director of the Plainsboro Public Library, learning how to use the archives and community resources. The students will present their research and photographs at the library in June.
Students involved include Neil Bedi, Peter Hopper, Jennifer Ibanez, Samantha Jeng, Jihoon Lee, Truman Levine, Harrison Liew, Brian Litchfield, David Meni, Vijay Narayan, Daniel Ng, Joshua Rose, Ming-Ming Tran, Nomin Uyiyediin, Deepti Venkatraman, and Benjamin Zhu.
The program is facilitated by Frances McDonough, the Language Arts specialist at Village School, and Jennifer Stahl, a district G&T specialist.
Speech Winners
Two West Windsor students at Stuart Country Day School were winners in the 2004 Princeton University Martin Luther King Day Poster and Speech Contest. Ariana Vera, an eighth grader, won first place for the speech she submitted in the grades 7 and 8 category. Laura Brienza, a tenth grader, won first prize in the grades 9 to 10 category. Close to 500 students from 16 area schools submitted speeches this year.
College News
Bucknell University: Merisa R. Levine, West Windsor, dean’s list.
Johnson & Wales University: Area students on the dean’s list include Anthony Smart, Plainsboro; Maiya Lonesome, John Mundell, and Kristina Daniels, all from West Windsor.
Syracuse University: Mahua Baral, dean’s list at the College of Human Services and Health Professionals.
Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University: Plainsboro residents, Reuben N. Subramaniam and Cristin D. Subramaniam, dean’s list.
Westminster Choir College: Carly Rapaport-Stein, dean’s list. She is a freshman majoring in voice performance.
