#b#Public Speaking#/b#
Agape Leaders Institute hosted the “Battle of Plainsboro vs. West Windsor” debate tournament. In the novice middle school policy division, the team of Crystal Tang and Michelle Leung, both students at Community Middle School, won the tournament with first place team honors and an undefeated record.
Second place team members were Olivia Lee from Grover Middle School and Grace Xiong from Community. Third place went to the team of Ayushi Palandurkar from Grover and Ronit Raisinghani from Scicore Academy.
Honorable mention goes to the fourth place team of Katherine Xiong and Eric Leung, both students at Community. Fifth place honors went to Sunny Hu and Jessie Liang, both students at Grover, and two of the only sixth graders in this competition. Chaitanya Pemmasani from Cranbury Middle School and Jeremy Shek from Grover also received awards.
The Agape Leaders Institute, which has locations throughout the tri-state area, provides instruction in debate and public speaking. Visit www.agapeleaders.com for information.
#b#National Merit#/b#
National Merit Scholarship Program’s first group of winners included 22 high school students in central New Jersey who have won corporate-sponsored awards. Corporate sponsors provide scholarships for finalists who are children of their employees, who are residents of communities the company serves, or who plan to pursue college majors or careers the sponsor wishes to encourage.
Plainsboro students include Sally Jiao, High School South, Dow Jones Scholarship; Nikhil S. Raman, Phillips Exeter Academy, Ingersoll Rand Scholarship; and David Yin, High School South, Bristol-Myers Squibb Scholarship.
West Windsor students include Nishanth Galla, High School North, Bristol-Myers Squibb Scholarship; Melanie Rachel Kiebuzinski, High School North, Bristol-Myers Squibb Scholarship; Jeffrey Kuan, High School South, Broadridge Scholarship; Jeffrey T. Register, High School South, Bristol-Myers Squibb Scholarship; and Bolong Xu, High School North, SRI International Scholarship.
#b#Private School#/b#
Fairleigh Dickinson University: Jake Fine of West Windsor is a semifinalist in Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Rothman Institute of Entrepreneurship’s 2014 New Jersey Idea Competition for a patch to help people with diabetes take insulin. He is a junior at Peddie School.
“Insta-Patch will significantly improve the lives of the millions of diabetics living worldwide,” says Fine in his description. “As the patch eliminates the necessity for the invasive injection treatment, the Insta-Patch will help sell itself. As people living with diabetes need different amounts of insulin, the Insta-Patch will come in five different varieties, each with a certain amount of insulin to be delivered throughout the day. Insta-Patch will also help those newly diagnosed patients who are having trouble adjusting to needles as it renders the needle obsolete and unnecessary.”
