The WW-P Girl Scout FTC robotics team, called WAGS (We Are Girl Scouts), will be competing in the FIRST Championship in St. Louis from April 26 to 29.
There are 11 Girl Scouts in WAGS: Sanjna Ravichandar, Rithika Ganesh and Madeleine Zullow from High School North; Hannah Rajarao, Susan George, Himaja Vendidandi, Ankitha Jegen, Elsa Moroney, Aneesha Gopal, and Simrun Laroia from High School South, and Caroline Cardinale from The Hun School of Princeton.
The girls worked hard all season building their robot, Wagic Johnson, and programming it to shoot balls into a goal. The girls advanced to the New Jersey State Championship where they were an Alliance Captain and won the first place Motivate Award in addition to the Outstanding Team Award. Zullow won third place in the PTC Creo Challenge. At the East Super Regional competition, WAGS won the Connect Award and advanced to the World Championship.
“Seven years of building robots and competing has helped me discover that I want to be an engineer,” said Cardinale, a graduating senior and team captain. “I have learned valuable engineering, programming and leadership skills.”
“Being on this team has given me so many opportunities to experience, explore new ideas, and grow within STEM and my community,” said Ravichandar, also a team captain.
Reflecting on her experience, Coach Andrea Mandel said, “I appreciate how well the values of the FIRST program fit with the Girl Scout mission of helping girls discover themselves and developing skills that will last a lifetime.”
Meanwhile, three of the team’s coaches (Jan Cardinale, Andrea Mandel, and Helen Rancan) are being honored by Girl Scouts of Central and Southern New Jersey for their long-time commitment to coaching this WAGS team.
Cardinale is an emergency medicine physician practicing in central New Jersey and has been a Girl Scout troop leader for 10 years. Mandel is a mechanical engineer who has been actively involved in Girl Scouts for 20 years. She started as a troop leader for her daughter and continues to volunteer on the gold/silver award review committee as well as several other roles for Girl Scouts of West Windsor-Plainsboro.
Rancan is a chemical engineer working as a section chief for the Bureau of Water Resources and Geoscience for the State of New Jersey. She also was a troop leader for many years. Her daughter, Christina, was part of WAGS for six years and graduated from High School South last year.
The three women created the WW-P Girl Scout robotics program in 2010, when they launched the Green Machine FLL Lego Robotics team with Cheryl Rowe-Rendleman, who coached the team for two years.
In 2012, the three expanded the program by starting WAGS for high school Girl Scouts. Rama Ravichandar joined them as a coach this season. Cardinale, Mandel and Rancan are retiring as team coaches this summer. They are completing their seven year journey with their third trip to the FIRST World Championship.
The WW-P Girl Scouts robotics program now consists of 11 teams for girls from 1st through 12th grade. Anyone interested in joining Girl Scouts in West Windsor-Plainsboro can email girlscoutswwp@verizon.net.
History Day winners announced
A number of students in the WW-P School District participated in the recent regional National History Day Competition.
National History Day is a yearlong education program that engages students in grades 6-12 in the process of discovery and interpretation of historical topics. Students produce dramatic performances, imaginative exhibits, multimedia documentaries and research papers based on research related to an annual theme. These projects are then evaluated at local, state, and national competitions. The following students will compete in the upcoming state competition on May 6
Community Middle School: Annie Ma, paper, “Taking a Stand Against Monopolies: Theodore Roosevelt, the Fearless Leader of Antitrust”; Oliver Zhong, documentary, “Elizabeth Gurley Flynn: Taking a Stand at the Paterson Silk Strike”; and Maya Mau, exhibit, “Judith E. Heumann: Taking a Stand for the Rights of the Disabled in a Wheelchair.”
Grover Middle School: June Shao, performance, “Crosses vs. Communists: Christians Stand Up Against the Rising Chinese Government and Opposition”; Carol Sun, documentary, “Marbury v. Madison: The Case that Established John Marshall as ‘The Great Chief Justice’”; Arya Sasne, paper, “The Definition of Free: The Amistad Revolt’s Impact on Abolition and Slavery in the Years Leading Up to the Civil War”; Sandhya Ganesh, performance, “Queen Budicca: Uniting Discontented Tribes Against Rome”; Pratyoy Biswas, documentary, “Linguistic Rights; Standing Up for Your Mother Tongue”; Akash Bobba, documentary, “Documenting the Double Helix: Rosalind Franklin’s Uncredited Work in DNA Research”; Melinda Chen, documentary, “Taking the Road Less Travelled: Rachel Carson’s Stand Against DDT Sparks an Era of Environmental Consciousness”; Anika Kapoor, documentary, “I Ain’t Marching Anymore: Anti-Vietnam Music Galvanizes a Generation To Sing Out”; James Li, documentary, “The Weather Underground: Taking a Stand Against American Imperialism”; Meghna Sudhakar, documentary, “God, Man, the Universe, and the Occasional Woman: Wu Ze Tian’s Stand Against Gender Constraints in Confucian China; and Cassie Wang, documentary, “John Muir, Defender of Nature, Takes a Stand Against Industrialization.”
High School North: Alexander Li, paper, “Taking a Stand for the Union: Sarah Emma Edmonds- Female Soldier in the War of Rebellion”; Aditi Nayak, performance, “Rani Laxmi Bai: Taking a Stand Against the British Empire”; Matthew Rossi, performance, “Cocktails and Corpses: The Fatal Impact of Prohibition as Proclaimed by Dr. Charles Norris, New York City’s Chief Medical Examiner”; Sharatt Seenivasan, documentary, “Black Panther: Confronting Racism in Literature”; Saurav Sanjay, documentary, “Grace Hopper: Bringing Words To Computing”; Manasa Mula and Varsha Sriram, group documentary, “Propaganda Meets Picture: Walt Disney Productions Bridges the Gap between Government and Public during World War II”; Shreyasvi Gowda and Isha Patlola, group documentary, “The Impact of an American Initiative: Congress Takes a Stand Against Apartheid”; Meghana Srivastava, website, “A Mosaic of a Movement: Alice Paul and the Fight for Women’s Rights”; Akila Saravanan, website, “Vindication of Right over Victory of Might: JFK’s Stand During the Cuban Missile Crisis”; Aikya Varanasi and Supraja Sowmiyanarayanan, group website, “Dith Pran: Unearthing the Reality of the Cambodian Genocide”; and Bhavishya Banda, exhibit, “Temple Grandin: The World Needs All Kinds of Minds.”
High School South: Chelsea Gankhuyag, paper, “Effects of U.S. Rule on Native Hawaiian Rights”; Anika Prakash, website, “Strangers on a Bridge: James Donovan’s Stand Against Communist Hostility and for Human Life”; Anika Vincent, exhibit, “Margaret Sanger: The Battle for Women’s Health”; and Allison Chen, documentary, “You Tell Us Nothing: Margaret Sanger and the Fight to Access Contraceptive Information.”
South grad curates exhibition
Maya Kaisth, a 2013 graduate of High School South, recently curated a show, “Power and the Soul,” at the Frame Gallery in Pittsburgh. The show was focused on identity, intersectionality and diversity. Works were exhibited from over 30 artists showcasing a wide variety of perspectives on personal and political issues. Kaisth is set to graduate with a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University in May 2017. She is planning to continue working on building her portfolio and work experience in Pittsburgh, before she pursues a MFA program.
Meanwhile, her brother Marco, who graduated High School South in 2016, is currently doing a gap year. He spent four months volunteering at a research institute in Northern India teaching secular ethics to Tibetan refugee children.
He is currently in southern Jamaica, near Lioneltown, working on coastal and mangrove conservation issues. He has been admitted to the University of Chicago starting Fall 2017. His article, “Eating Stupid Pigs,” questioning if radical genetic engineering could create ethical factory farms, was published in the April/May 2017 “Philosophy Now” journal. philosophynow.org/issues/119.
In College
Clemson University: Sean William Flannery of Plainsboro was named to the president’s list for the fall 2016 semester. He is majoring in bioengineering. Samantha Blaire Phelan of West Windsor was named to the dean’s list for the fall 2016 semester. She is majoring in architecture.
Ithaca College: Juliana Isnardi of Plainsboro was named to the dean’s list for the fall 2016 semester. She is a student studying environmental studies in the college’s School of Humanities and Sciences.
Loyola University Maryland: Named to the fall 2016 dean’s list were Rae Correne Reyes, class of 2017, of Plainsboro; Samantha Servis, class of 2020, of Plainsboro; and Lindsey Hinczynski, class of 2020, of West Windsor.
Deaths
Kenneth E. Wilson, 75, of New Orleans, died on April 3. A long-time resident of Plainsboro, Wilson worked as a plumbing foreman for Princeton University. He was a volunteer firefighter in Plainsboro, and he served as fire chief and a fire commissioner for many years.
Wilson was an Air Force veteran who served in the Vietnam War, and also an employee of Clear Water Pools and Spa. He was a member of the Cleary Golden Agers and participated in the Greater New Orleans Senior Olympics every year.
Survivors include wife of 49 years, Kathleen Higgins Wilson; and daughters Jennifer Henderson and Kelly Pier. Memorial contributions may be made to the Plainsboro Fire Company, 405 Plainsboro Rd., Plainsboro, NJ 08536.
Sara Ann “Sally” Crowe of West Windsor died on April 4. Crowe lived in Woodbridge most of her life before moving to West Windsor in 1999. An employee with the Woodbridge Board of Education for more than 30 years, Crowe retired in 2000 as the executive secretary to the board secretary. She was a member of the New Jersey Education Association.
She is predeceased by her husband, Edward J. Crowe, Sr., who died in 1992. Survivors include her daughter, Madeline “Lynn” M. Crowe and wife, Nancy Chenoweth of New Hope, Pennsylvania; three sons, Edward J. Crowe, Jr. and his spouse, Kathleen Manning of Boston, Massachusetts; Patrick T. Crowe and his spouse, Barbara Crowe of Ridgewood, and John A. Crowe of Hoboken.
Memorial contributions can be made to the Center for Food Action, 192 West Demarest Ave., Englewood, N.J. 07631 or the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, 26 Broadway, 14th Floor, New York, N.Y.10004.
Joseph Collura, 75, died on April 10. Born in Jamesburg, he grew up in Hightstown and later moved to Ewing, where he resided for 46 years. Collura earned his bachelor’s and master’s Degrees from Trenton State College and worked as an elementary school teacher in the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district for 39 years.
Survivors include his son and daughter-in-law, Peter and Kimberly Collura; and his daughter and son-in-law, Allyson and Tim Vyvyan.
Regina F. Piccioni, 89, of Pottsville, died on April 1. She is survived by four sons, including Michael and his partner, Edward Getty, of Princeton Junction.
Beryl Harter, 78, of St. Augustine, Florida, died on March 26. Survivors include her son Simon Harter and his wife, Ida, of Plainsboro.
LaVerne M. Linskey, 84, of Monroe died on Tuesday, April 4. Survivors include her son, Paul Linskey and wife, Lori, of West Windsor.
William F. O’Brien, 91, of Edison, died on April 12. Survivors include his son and daughter-in-law Carl and Mariela O’Brien of West Windsor.
WAGS Robotics Team founders and coaches Jan Cardinale, Helen Rancan and Andrea Mandel are being honored for their years of service.,
West Windsor Myor Shing-Fu Hsueh on March 4, 2017 presented Boy Scouts Alexander Petri and David Churinskas with proclamations for achieving the rank of Eagle Scout. Above is Petri with his parents, Muriel and David, and Hsueh.,
