Young Achiever
Dan Fine of West Windsor was among the 25 young achievers selected from across the globe for the Tomorrow25 award sponsored by Bentley College and TIME magazine. Launched in 2005, the honor is bestowed upon 25 high school juniors who exhibit exemplary leadership skills, technological savvy, and a commitment to helping others.
The Tomorrow25 program has brought accomplished young men and women from around the U.S., Mexico, Nicaragua, Turkey, Colombia, Ghana, Egypt, Singapore, Canada and the Czech Republic to Bentley each spring as honored guests at the Bentley Leadership Forum.
Fine, a junior at Peddie School, will travel to Bentley in Massachusetts for a Thursday, April 22, luncheon reception and will have an opportunity to interact with several high-profile executives participating in the forum. The theme of this year’s conference is “The Business of Healing Our World: Accountable Leadership in Action.” Tomorrow 25 students also appear in an ad in TIME magazine as part of Bentley’s national campaign.
A volunteer for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Fine is the organizer for Team Brotherly Love, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of Type 2 diabetes and its effects on families as well as raising funds for research for a cure. Through the group’s efforts, they support the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International (JDRF) and also the Life for a Child program through the International Diabetes Research Foundation. In addition, Fine is currently working on a new software program for insulin pumps and is a co-founder of the LEAGUE National Youth Commission, which emphasizes service, philanthropy, and the spirit of community.
In addition, Fine took top honors for central New Jersey at the 2010 N.J. Business Idea Competition coordinated by the Rothman Institute of Entrepreneurial Studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University. One of three regional winners among 400 entries, Fine accepted his award on March 26 in the university’s Lenfell Hall.
Fine’s winning business models were called DigiText and DiabetesMenu. DigiText is a multi-platform digital textbook device. It consists of two 8 1/2 by 11 inch OLED multi-touch displays arranged like a text book. The innovative concept encompasses both this hardware model as well as the software for the device, which includes automated textbook software, enabling step-by-step instruction, page-shifting, and other features. It also works as a full computer.
“DiabetesMenu is a software idea with built-in GPS,” Fine says. “The GPS senses your location and locates the nearest restaurant. When going to eat, the user selects the restaurant, its menu appears, and the user simply selects the items that they are going to eat.
“What makes this unique is that the menu includes specific details about each food including digestion times and carbohydrates, which enable the device to provide the user with the correct amount of insulin for each item by simply clicking on the food items and selecting, ‘dose.’”
At the awards ceremony, Fine received two plaques, cash, scholarship gifts, and a prize package from the New York Jets football organization. The winners were selected based on the overall feasibility and persuasiveness of the idea, its potential marketability, and impact of social values. The mission of the Rothman Institute competition is to help students develop an ability to think in a creative way and support the spirit of entrepreneurship needed to attract new business ideas.
Girl Scouts
Thinking Day
Girls Scouts from West Windsor and Plainsboro celebrated its annual international festival at High School South. Each troop organized activities, food, and costumes to represent the people of a country with Girl Scouts organizations within its borders. More than 1,470 people attended the event, open only to Girl Scouts and their families.
The event kicked off with a parade of countries and flags and for the first time, the music for the parade was provided by a Girl Scout Fife and Drum Corps. “It is just terrific to have Girl Scouts able to provide the music for the parade,” says Louisa Ho, co-service unit manager for West Windsor-Plainsboro Girl Scouts. “Thanks to Mr. Fultz at Grover, the West Windsor-Plainsboro Education Foundation, which funded the creation of the Grover fife and drum corps, and the High School South band program.”
As part of the event, the troops collectively raised more than $620 for the Juliette Low World Friendship Fund, to support girls’ international travel as well as to help sustain efforts to encourage the development of Girl Scouting in new countries.
Members of the Thinking Day Committee included Evelyn Turney, Caryn Osborn, Amy Gardner, Pam Singer, Latha Chintalapati, Holly Goldberg, and Pat Helck. For information about joining Girl Scouts in West Windsor-Plainsboro, as a girl or an adult volunteer, send an E-mail to girlscoutswwp@verizon.net.
Science Olympiad
High School South Science Olympiad Team placed first in its division at the regional tournament and High School North placed third in its division. The High School South advisors are Meenakshi Bhattacharya and Brendan Field. The High School North advisors are James Looney and Rich Therkorn, assisted by parent, Anand Gnanadesikan.
HS South Individual Medals include: First Place awards include “Astronomy” by Mark Benjamin and Aniruddh Shivram; “Chemistry Lab” by Ronak Gandhi and Naveen Galla; “Environmental Chemistry” by Naveen Galla and Ankita Gore; “EpiChallenge” by John Kwon, Praneeth Sadda, Udit Gupta, and Avinash Salgam; “Forensics” by Ronak Gandhi and Ashwin Amurthur; “Ornithology” by Stephanie Ku and Becky Shi; “Physical Science Lab” by Ante Qu and Mark Benjamin.
Second Place awards include “Ecology” by Ming-Ming Tran and Becky Shi; “Write It Do It” by Stephanie Ku and Peter Ku; “Disease Detectives” by Satyajeet Pal and Ashwin Amurthur; “Mousetrap Vehicle” by Harrison Liew and Kushal Gandhi; and “Protein Modeling” by Nikita Singh and Ankita Gore.
Third Place awards include “Elevated Bridge” by Sarath Jaladi and Harrison Liew; “Experimental Design” by Peter Ku, Ronak Gandhi, and Harrison Liew; “Fossils” by Stephanie Ku and Peter Ku.
Fourth Place awards include “Picture This by Stephanie Ku, Mark Benjamin, and Satyajeet Pal.
Fifth Place awards include “Dynamic Planet” by Harrison Liew and Aniruddh Sivram; “Anatomy and Physiology” by Satyajeet Pal and Ming-Ming Tran; “Mission Possible” by Ante Qu, Ashwin Amurthur and Aniruddh Shivram; “Technical Problem Solving” by Mark Benjamin and Ante Qu; “Physics Lab” by Mark Benjamin and Ante Qu; and “Helicoptors” by John Kwon and Harrison Liew.
Sixth Place awards include “Trajectory” by Kushal Gandhi and Sarath Jaladi.
HS North Individual Medals include: First Place awards include “Anatomy” by Lahari Vudayagiri and Payal Marathe; “Disease Detective by Lahari Vudayagiri and Payal Marathe; “Dynamic Planet” by Rohit Reddy and Alex Ameri; “Egg-O-Naut” by Claire Su and Sanjana Manikandan; “Elevated Bridge” by Jennifer Ibanez and Varnika Atmakuri; “Fossils” by Renuka Reddy and Alex Ameri; “Picture This” by Gitanjali Gnanadesikan, Mrinalini Basu, and Renuka Reddy; and “Protein Modelling” by Prathima Radhakrishnan and Damini Saxena
Second Place awards include “Forensics” by Eugene Tang and Payal Marathe; “Remote Sensing” by Rohit Reddy and Peter Chi; and “Trajectory” by Sanjana Manikandan and Jennifer Ibanez.
Third Place awards include “Environmental Chemistry” by Louisa Ying and Peter Chin.
Fourth Place awards include “Mission Possible” by Gitanjali Gnanadesikan, Sanjana Manikandan, and Claire Su.
Fifth Place awards include “Ornithology” by Spencer Palombit and Eugene Tang; “Astronomy” by Rohit Reddy and Peter Chi; and “Experimental Design” by Louisa Ying, Felix Xiao, and Varnika Atmakuri.
Sixth Place awards include “Mousetrap Vehicle” by Sanjana Manikandan and Jennifer Ibanez.
Dance Scholarship
It isn’t every day that a 14-year-old gets to dance at City Center in New York. But Drew Nelson of Plainsboro, who has been training this school year at the Orlando Ballet School in Florida, placed in the top 10 in the junior division of the Youth America Grand Prix, a prestigious international competition that took place in New York last week. He danced at City Center for the finals on Thursday, March 25. He was awarded a full tuition scholarship for summer school at the Royal Ballet School at Covent Garden, London, the equivalent of Harvard in the ballet world. He also received a scholarship for the school year to Houston Ballet School.
His coaches are Peter Stark, director of Orlando Ballet School, and Olivier Munoz. He has been homeschooled through Laurel Springs College Prep and is close to finishing eighth grade.
His sister, Alex, is a freshman at Emporia State University in Kansas, majoring in instrumental music education. His sister, Mackenzie, a junior at High School North, received the Congress-Bundestage Scholarship to live and study in Germany this school year. “She has had a very exciting year, and returns in July,” says their mother, Suzanne. His father, Kevin, works for Bristol Myers Squibb and recently accepted a position with BM-S in Kansas City, so the family will be relocating.
State Science Olympiad
Community Middle School and High School South took first Place in their respective divisions. Both teams now will compete in the national competition in May.
The Community Middle School Science Olympiad Team captured first-place trophies at State competitions for the past nine years. This year’s CMS Science Olympiad Team will now be representing New Jersey at the National Science Olympiad Tournament, to be held at the University of Illinois in May.
At the State competition, CMS Science Olympians went up against 27 other top middle school teams, and competed in 24 individual and team events such as ecology, fossils, science crime busters, dynamic planet, trajectory, and more. CMS came away from the day-long event with a total of 17 medals: seven gold medals, eight silver medals, and two bronze medals.
Gold medal honors were awarded as follows: Lyric Gupta and Bolong Xu for Disease Detectives; Daniel Liu and Freddie Huang for Compute This; Rohan Agrawal and Matt Zang for Meteorology; Felix Su, Shannon Sheu, Bolong Xu, and Raghav Kalra for Pentathlon; Durgesh Prusty and Bharath Kannan for Road Scholar; Aditya Badeti and Vincent Wu for Ornithology; and Avinash Subramanian and Rohan Agrawal for Solar System.
Silver medal honors were awarded as follows: Lyric Gupta and Bolong Xu for Anatomy; Aditya Badeti and Vincent Wu for Bio Process Lab; Daniel Liu and Raghav Kalra for Dynamic Planet; Jasmine Tsai and Maunika Atmakuri for Elevated Bridge; Freddie Huang and Jasmine Tsai for Junkyard Challenge; Kathryn Khaw and Aana Bansal for Rock My World; Avinash Subramanian and Felix Su for Shock Value; and Felix Su and Durgesh Prusty for Wright Stuff.
Bronze medal honors were awarded as follows: Aditya Badeti and Sai Meruga for Fossils; and Freddie Huang and Aditya Badeti for Ecology.
In the Schools
Karen Shannon, a teacher at High School South, was named the 2010 Outstanding High School Chemistry Teacher by the Princeton and Trenton American Chemical Society.
MathCounts team from Community Middle School took first place, and Grover Middle School took second in the State MathCounts Competition. Alyce Doehner is the coach of both teams and will be the coach of the New Jersey State team.
Community Middle School team members include Ernest Chiu, Brice Huang, Andrew Ding, and Aaron Berger. In addition, Chiu, who placed fourth as an individual, earned a spot on the State MathCounts team.
Grover Middle School team members include Aleck Zhao, Sally Jiao, Jeffrey Kuan, and Charlie Gu.
High School South students Mark Benjamin, Mark Kogan, and Gagan Tunuguntla won the 2010 NJIT High School Programming Contest. The team coach is teacher Brandon Horn.
David Yin, an eighth grade student at Grover Middle School, was named a semifinalist in the New Jersey Geographic Bee and will complete next month.
Young Researchers
Jeffrey Kuan of West Windsor recently presented a talk to teachers at the recent New Jersey Association of Gifted Students state conference held at Mercer County Conference Center. His talk, “Work with the Brain for Effective Learning,” was based on a research project he presented last year at an exposition for ROGATE (Resources Offered in Gifted and Talent Education), a program offered by the National Talent Network for gifted and talented students.
“My research revealed that constructive criticism better supports learning than unwarranted and excessive praise,” he says. An eighth grade student at Thomas Grover Middle School, he participates in various math and science activities and plays the violin. He has lived in West Windsor for nine years.
Karan Joshi, an eighth grade student at Grover Middle School, spent over a year researching the causes and possible treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Joshi found that exercise promotes overall good health and can counteract the ill effects of some brain diseases and shared this research at Montclair University during a ROGATE Exposition (Resources Offered in Gifted and Talented Education). Recently, Karan visited Buckingham Place, a senior care facility with an Alzheimer’s care center, to share his findings with staff and patients.
National
History Day
Regional National History Day winners from WW-P will go on to compete in the state competition at William Paterson University in May.
Community Middle School winners in the junior division include: Individual Performance: Sundar Solai, grade 7; Individual Exhibit: Varun Subbiah, grade 6; Group Exhibit: Shruti Marathe, grade 7, and Alisha Kanitkar, grade 7; Group Performance: Shreya Marathe, grade 7, Samantha Sun, grade 7, and Prachi Mahableshwarkar, grade 7; Individual Documentary: Liam Knox, grade 7; Individual Documentary: Mathangi Ganesh, grade 7; Individual Documentary: Alex Taylor, grade 6; Individual Documentary: Ruchi Patel, grade 8; Individual Website: Vishnu Kaimal, grade 8; and Group Website: Alice Li, grade 8, and Mahima Srivastava, grade 8.
Grover Middle School winners in the junior division include: Paper: Abhimanyu Muchhal, grade 8, and Aditya Mudigonda grade 8; Individual Junior Performance: Aji Sjamsu, grade 7, and Sophie Thompson, grade 8; Group Performance: Hannah Widmayer, grade 7, and Cathy Chi, grade 7; Individual Documentary: George Li, grade 8; and Sally Jiao, grade 8; and Individual Exhibit: Yinan Zheng, grade 7, and Nishad Maskara, grade 7.
High School North winners in the senior division include Paper: Anne Corbett, grade 10; Paper: Sushruth Kamath, grade 10; Paper: Emma McGregor, grade 10; Individual Exhibit: Olivia Hu, grade 11; Group Exhibit: Kimberly Shiao, grade 10; and Meea Yim, grade 10; Individual Performance: Shivani Badgi, grade 9; Individual Performance: Lavanya Ganesh, grade 11; Group Performance: Payal Marathe, grade 10, Varnika Atmakuri, grade 11, Sanjana Manikandan, grade 11, Eugene Tang, grade 10, and Vikram Kesavabhotla, grade 10; Group Performance: Adam Niemann, grade 11, Siddhi Sundar, grade 11, and Aneesha Raghunathan, grade 11; Individual Documentary: Carolyn Lipka, grade 12; Individual Documentary: Matt Greenberg, grade 9; Group Documentary: Mohit Hajarnis, grade 10, Mohit Dandekar, grade 10, and Giri Sharma, grade 10; Group Documentary: Thea Ma, grade 9, and Ingrid Ma, grade 11.
African-American History
Students at Millstone River Elementary School created a play that they have taken on tour to the district’s six elementary schools. It enhances the students’ understanding of African-American history, and it increases their skills in public speaking, movement, rhythm, and music making. The project’s three key parts — research, rehearsal, and performance will be featured on Classroom Close-up, NJ, on Monday, April 12; Saturday, April 17; Monday, May 10; and Saturday, May 15. Visit www.classroomcloseup.org for more information.
Video Release
Jonathan Elliott, a graduate of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School, Class of 2000, recently directed his first music video. Alternative rock band The Medium premiered their first full-length music video for their hit single “Prime” on Wednesday, March 31. Visit www.themediummusic.com.
“We came into this project looking to create something entertaining for our fans, but this video took on a life of its own,” says Jason Milstein, producer and band member. “It succeeds in accomplishing visually what we always strive to accomplish musically, and we’re thrilled that we get to debut it in full 1080p after some technological breakthroughs in Internet streaming.”
Awards
Bill and Marge Bupp, owners of BounceU of West Windsor, were recognized at an award ceremony in Scottsdale, Arizona. The Gold Circle award recognized the couple for making $500k or more in sales during the last year. The Ambassador award recognizes the Bupps for making themselves available to talk with prospective owners about their business and their experience.
“Receiving the Gold Circle and BounceU Ambassador awards is a great honor,” says Marge Bupp. “It’s truly amazing that our hardworking staff is being recognized with the Gold Circle and BounceU Ambassador awards for all that they have done to make our West Windsor BounceU successful.”
Dr. Jerry Bagel, a West Windsor resident and a dermatologist with an expertise in the treatment of psoriasis for 25 years, has received the top referrer award from the National Psoriasis Foundation as the nation’s number one recruiter of patients with psoriasis. He was recognized on Saturday, March 6, at the 68th Annual American Academy of Dermatology annual meeting in Miami Beach, Florida. He also presented research at the meeting on topical solutions for psoriasis that may enhance the clinical benefit of cortisone in the treatment of moderate to severe psoriasis
“As a medical dermatologist for 25 years, it means a lot to me to be recognized for bringing new solutions to my patients,” he says. “I’m truly honored and will continue to do my best to make sure patients are informed about different options for treatment of psoriasis and other conditions.”
Since 2001, Bagel has served as advisor to NPF by providing medical guidance and editorial review of publications, speaking at professional meetings, and working to identify issues and opportunities of critical importance to the group. Bagel, who founded NPF’s executive committee of the President’s Council, has raised more than $750,000 in the past five years for psoriasis care and research.
Bagel is a member of Windsor Dermatology, a practice composed of board certified medical dermatologists focused on helping adults and children achieve and maintain healthy skin. Visit www.windsordermatology.com.
