Webelos Advance
Cub Scout Pack 48 of West Windsor, a fifth grade Webelos group, advanced members to Boy Scouts. Scouts earning the Arrow of Light, the highest award in the Cub Scout program, include AJ Austin, AJ Cariaga, Joseph Durie, Prahlad Iyengar, Matthew Jacobson, Matthew Morante, Liam Ryan, Vishesh Shah, Harsh Sharma, Matthew Whitney, and Herman Zullow. Scouts completed a minimum of eight areas of achievement including citizenship, physical fitness, craftsman, outdoorsman, and emergency response.
The scouts then bridged to local troops to become Boy Scouts. AJ Austin, AJ Cariaga, Joseph Durie, Matthew Morante, Vishesh Shah, Harsh Sharma, and Matthew Whitney joined Troop 40 of West Windsor. Matthew Jacobson, Liam Ryan, and Herman Zullow joined Troop 66 of West Windsor.
Science for Girl Scouts
A science and technology fun fair was held at High School North on Friday, March 11. More than 250 girls ages 8 to 18 participated with close to 100 guest exhibitors and spectators in an evening of hands-on science, technology, engineering, and math-related workshops that featured science experiments, robotics, programming, problem solving workshops, and academic guidance. Activities included building and racing miniature cars; playing with autonomous and programmable robots; building a futuristic village out of Legos; experiments in biology, chemistry, and physics; and science displays on communications and engineering. The event was run by Girl Scout leaders Cheryl Rowe-Rendleman, Andrea Mandel, Helen Rancan, and Jen Cardinale.
Krishna Trivedi, a senior Girl Scout, completed the take action portion of her Gold Award project during the fair by engaging teams of students and teachers from the area to compete in a friendly FIRST Lego League robotics scrimmage. The WW-P Girl Scout team, “The Green Machine,” hosted the event. Trivedi is a member of the High School North and South team. “I wanted to help more girls feel comfortable taking leadership roles in science,” says Trivedi.
Louisa Ho and Wendy Kramer co-manage the West Windsor-Plainsboro service unit. For information on joining Girl Scouts as a girl or as an adult volunteer send an E-mail to girlsscoutswwp@verizon.net.
German Honor Society
High School South students inducted into the German Honor Society Delta Epsilon Phi include Allison Altiero, Jennifer Antane, Jeanine Asay, Danielle Balzano, Robert Baxter, Abhishektha Boppana, Aidan Callahan, Christopher Campbell, Victoria Campbell, Mayank Chowla, Nicolas Cuitino, Catherine Ding, Frank Anthony DeMilt, Kathleen Donnelly, Martin Flatley, Emily Ferguson, Ruth Hochberg, Pavel Ilyukhin, Naveen Kotecha, Keri Ketchmark, Sahil Kulgod, Alex Maeda, Emma McElligott, Nora Owens, Benjamin Ruta, Nikki Senopoulos, Vinitha Simhadri, Daniel Smith, Amelia Spina, Hayley Stocker, James Vancheri, Kathryn Wembacher, and Jeffrey Yu.
Delta Epsilon Phi is for students who have excelled in the study of the German language for the last three years. Membership requires that they uphold the ideals of the Honor Society, broaden their knowledge of German life and culture, and work for peace and understanding among all people. Albert Einstein, the famous German physicist, wrote: “It is not enough that man is taught a specific subject. He must be able to choose the worthwhile for which he will strive.”
The induction was conducted by High School South AP German class and teacher of German, Frau Ute Dine, on March 24.
Mayors for Meals
American Red Cross of Central New Jersey’s Home Delivered Meals Program delivers daily nutritious meals to those who are homebound and those unable to prepare meals for themselves in the Mercer County area. As a show of support for the community’s seniors, Mayor Peter Cantu, pictured above, of Plainsboro and Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh of West Windsor participated in national mayors for meals day and joined Red Cross volunteers to deliver meals on Wednesday, March 23.
Literature Winners
New Jersey Center for the Book/Library of Congress Letters about Literature National Competition awarded honors to 12 students in the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district. Students wrote essays responding to the questions: “How has an author’s work — novel, nonfiction, or poetry — changed your view of the world or yourself?” and “What did you learn about yourself that you didn’t realize before reading the author’s work?”
From Community Middle School: Sagar Doshi was selected as the second place winner in the grades 4 to 6 level. Gauray Sethi, Lei Wu, Yiwen Shen, and Shaun Robinson received honorable mentions in the same category. In the grades 7 to 8 level, Rutvi Ravani and Alan Gan received honorable mentions.
From Grover Middle School: Hannah Widmayer’s entry was chosen as the second place winner in the grades 7 to 8 level, and Brian Qiu and Michelle Luo received honorable mentions in the same category. In the grades 4 to 6 level, Millie Chen and Joshua Forrest received honorable mentions.
A statewide reception for the winners will be held this spring at Princeton University.
Reflections Winners
Nine West Windsor-Plainsboro students were winners in the New Jersey PTA’s annual Reflections program. This year’s theme was “Together We Can.” Students submitted works of art in literature, dance choreography, film/video production, musical composition, photography, and the visual arts.
Awards of Excellence were received by Shreya Mogulothu, Maurice Hawk Elementary School, Literature Award; Karen Zhang, Community Middle School, Literature Award; Gabriel Yoder-Shenk, Community Middle School, Musical Composition Award; Myghreya Vangapandu, Town Center Elementary School, Visual Arts Award; and Celia Kaye, Grover Middle School, Visual Arts Award.
Awards of Merit were received by Adeline Lee, High School South, Literature Award; Trisha Saldanha, Dutch Neck Elementary School, Film Production Award; Ysabel Alfonso, Town Center Elementary School, Visual Arts Award; and Jordan Hu, High School South, Visual Arts Award.
First Place
Business Idea
Daniel Fine, a senior at Peddie School and a resident of West Windsor, earned the first place award at the eighth annual New Jersey Business Idea Competition coordinated by the Rothman Institute of Entrepreneurial Studies at Fairleigh Dickinson University. His winning in invention is a potentially life-saving device for heart attack victims. Fine, one of three regional winners among the 650 entrants, is the first entrepreneur to win the top prize two years in a row.
Fine’s idea is called LifeWatch, a wearable, portable heart rate measuring device designed to notify emergency medical personnel in the event of a life-threatening situation. Unlike other products on the market, Fine’s invention does not require the wearer to push a button to request help.
“When LifeWatch senses any irregularities of the heart, it automatically sets off an alarm and communications,” said Fine. “There’s no question that with better technology and faster emergency responses, thousands of lives could be saved.” According to the National Institutes of Health, about 1.1 million people in the United States have a heart attack each year and nearly half of them die.
According to Fine, the alarm notifies the device wearer and the people around him or her of an issue, while communications are also sent to emergency medical personnel. “With LifeWatch, emergency response time can be cut by minutes and even hours, enabling immediate attention and potentially resulting in the saving of millions of lives,” Fine said.
At the awards ceremony, Fine received two plaques, cash and scholarship gifts, and a prize package from the New York Jets. Fine will attend the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in September.
WW-P Alumni
Alexa Greenstein, a Plainsboro resident and graduate of High School North, Class of 2008, took the top honor for nursing students in the state of Virginia. She received the Student Nurse of the Year award at the Virginia Student Nurses Association Convention. A junior at James Madison University, she was selected from a group of 450 nursing students representing 75 nursing education programs throughout the state. She volunteers at Rockingham Memorial Hospital and University Medical Center at Princeton, and has worked with Special Olympics, soup kitchens, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Autism Foundation, and the Extended School Year summer program in the WW-P district. Her long-term goal is to become a nurse practitioner.
Kali McMillan, a High School South graduate, Class of 2006, has an art show opening at Colgate University, in Hamilton, New York, on Thursday, April 7. “Ordinary Beauty of Africa” includes photographs taken by McMillan during her travels to Africa. The exhibit continues to June 3. This is McMillan’s first solo show.
Elon University: Cassandra McClellan of West Windsor is on the president’s list for the fall semester. The list comprises students who had no grade below an A minus in a minimum of 12 semester hours.
New Jersey Institute of Technology: John J. Hanington of West Windsor is on the dean’s list.
Gifted & Talented
Shrivathsav (Steve) Seshan of Plainsboro created and presented “American military aircraft, between 1940 and the present, have been built using other countries’ ideas” discussing breakthrough aviation technologies that may or may not have been already tested by other countries. An eighth grader at Grover Middle School, his presentation regarding American aircraft manufacturing was held at the Trenton Mercer Airport for the Twin Pine Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol on Wednesday, March 23.
“I chose airplane manufacturing as the subject for my presentation because I have been interested in planes and aeronautics since I was a child,” he says. “Before I starting my research in seventh grade, I became interested in my topic from a television program addressing conspiracy theories about the real origins of American planes.”
Seshan categorized the aviation milestones of post-World War II airplanes and researched an American military aircraft and a corresponding foreign aircraft best fitting each category. He then compared and contrasted the dates of development and manufacturing to conclude whether the American planes were actually native to America or not. He discovered that most, but not all of these planes, were based upon foreign countries’ concepts and designs.
Seshan researched stealth, flying wing designs, and jet engine usage. American planes from all three of these categories, such as the F-117 Nighthawk, the B-2 bomber, and the Conair XP-59, were based on foreign research in these fields. “One of the reasons America is on top today is because of its implementation of other countries’ plans,” says Seshan. “Although this method of becoming successful is not commended, it certainly works and we are all living proof of it.”
In his research, Seshan found one discrepancy to his hypothesis. This was the American F-100 Super Sabre fighter interceptor, which was the first plane to break the sound barrier. While other countries eventually developed similar technologies, they did so after the United States introduced the F-100.
Seshan developed this presentation in conjunction with Grover Middle School’s PRISM program for gifted and talented students, as a part of R.O.G.A.T.E., a National Talent Network program. Through the program, he has applied advanced researching techniques, such as how to analyze sources and determine their relevance and usefulness to a topic. The presentation was a continuation of his R.O.G.A.T.E “Towards Satori” research project.
“My audience consisted of cadets and senior members of the Civil Air Patrol, and I chose this group because I felt aviation enthusiasts of all ages should be able to listen to this talk,” says Seshan.
My Favorite Teacher Contest
Isabel Drumwright, a fifth grade student at Millstone River School, is the winner of Barnes & Noble’s “My Favorite Teacher” essay contest. She nominated her fifth grade teacher, Sven Strnad. They will each be presented with certificates and prizes on Thursday, April 14, at 6 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, MarketFair, West Windsor.
For the Troops
Love Moved: Support Our Troops Night,” a project to send care packages to troops, took place at Princeton Presbyterian Church in West Windsor in late February. “Many in the West Windsor community helped fill boxes that were donated by Home Depot,” says Audrey Mostrowski. “It was an amazing sight to see so many volunteers working towards this effort.”
Jack and Betty Gallant, West Windsor residents who volunteer with American Recreational Military Services, guided volunteers in packing up supplies and sending them off. Each box contained a mix of food and toiletry items, as well as other odds and ends to brighten the day of troops from New Jersey.
Community Service
More than 50 Lightning Lacrosse members recently traveled to five different group homes to clear brush and beautify the exteriors to assist Enable. According to Douglas Donaldson, one of the head coaches, this is the group’s second year with the clean-up program.
West Windsor participants include Luke Balistrieri, Sam Williams, David Pe, Kyle Seigler, Liam Havlicek, Harry Dunham, Michael Greenberger, Luke Merrill, Brian Zohn, Nick Maher, David Egan, and Sam Merkovitz. Plainsboro participants included Yanni Stasinos, Jack Donaldson, and Matt Fischer.
“We think it’s an incredibly important team building exercise and a valuable way to kick off our season in the best way possible,” says Donaldson. “Besides lacrosse, our goal is to teach the boys to be respectful citizens — whether on the lacrosse field or in life. Last year, the boys groaned a bit in the morning but returned with a better sense of what it means to give back.”
Dean’s List
The Pennington School recently recognized upper school and middle school students for being included on the dean’s list. West Windsor students include Benjamin J. Kramer, ninth grade; Kenneth J. Pepper, seventh grade; Wallace M. Kyle Jr., twelfth grade; and Maren A. Ogg, high honors, sixth grade.
