#b#Science Rules!#/b#
WW-P middle and high schools racked up a number of impressive performances at the New Jersey Science Olympiad last month. High School North, and for the 15th consecutive year Community Middle School, were state champions, while High School South and Grover Middle School each finished second. North and Community will advance to the national championships in May in Wisconsin.
Individual award winners from High School North include:
Air Trajectory, first place: Jeremy Zhang and Chris Bao
Anatomy and Physiology, first place: Jason Yang and Ronald Wang
Astronomy, first place: Jason Yang and Zewei Liang
Bio Sphere, third place: Raymond Zhang and Nick Leung
Bridge Building, fourth place: Andrew Hong and Chris Bao
Cell Biology, first place: Roger Jin and Jason Yang
Chemistry Lab, third place: Jasen Zhang and Jonathan Wang
Disease Detective, second place: Ronald Wang and Charles Dai
Dynamic Planet, second place: Varun Subbiah and Katherine Zhang
Electric Vehicle, fourth place: Andrew Hong and Matthew Pan
Experimental Design, first place: Roger Jin, Kriti Devasenapathy and Jonathan Wang
Forensics, second place: Jasen Zhang and Uday Shankar
Fossils, second place: Varun Subbiah and Katherine Zhang
Game On, third place: Uday Shankar and Ziwei Liang
Geologic Mapping, first place: Varun Subbiah and Revanth Gumpu
Green Generation, fourth place: Ronald Wang and Charles Dai
Hydrogeology, fifth place: Chris Xue and Divya Unnam
Invasive Species, first place: Kriti Devasenapathy and Revanth Gumpu
It’s About Time, second place: Jeremy Zhang and Chris Xue
Protein Modeling, first place: Jasen Zhang, Roger Jin and Jason Yang
Robot Arm, fourth place: Matthew Pan and Chris Bao
We Got Your Number, first place: Alex Xue and Kimberly Ding
Wind Power, second place: Jeremy Zhang and Zewei Liang
Write It Do It, fifth place: Jeremy Zhang and Kriti Devasenapathy
North’s team advisors are James Looney, Regin Celin, Holly Crochetiere, and Kerry Pross.
Under advisor Sunila Sharma students at High School South also took home a number of individual honors.
First place finishes included Abraham Park and William Jiao, Chemistry Lab; Sourabh Chakraborty and Eric Liu, disease detective; Angela You and Eric Mischell, Bio-Sphere; Dhruva Byrapatna and Kai Zheng, Dynamic Planet; Tanishq Aggarwal and William Jaio, It’s About Time; Michael Wu and Isaac Park, Wright Stuff; and Bharath Jaladi and Ashray Chaudhry, Robot Arm.
Second place winners were Eric Liu and David Lang, Anatomy and Physiology; Dhruva Byrapatna and Lewis Wang, Astronomy; Amelia Adcrot and Varnita Prakash, Green Generation; Lewis Wang and William Jhiao, Hydrogeology; and Abraham Park, Souabh Chakraborty, and Sruti Katakam, Protein Modeling.
Third place honors went to Aditya Iyer and Bharath Jaladi, Air Trajectory; David Xiong and Byron Chin, We’ve Got Your Number; Michael Mu and Salil Desai, Invasive Species; Abraham Park and William Jaio, Forensics; and Isaac Park and Abraham Park, Bridge Building.
In fourth place were Tanishq Aggarwal and Michael Mu, Game On; and Salil Desai and Dhruva Byrapatna, Geologic Mapping.
Fifth place awards went to Salil Desai, Sruti Katakam, and Varnita Prakash, Experimental Design; and Aditya Iyer and Amelia Adcrot, Wind Power.
Community Middle School, led by head coaches Lisa Sacca and Kevin Mackenzie and assistant coaches Arthur Downs and Morty Levine, had a number of individual winners in addition to its team win. They include:
Air Trajectory, first place: Devanei Solai and Shivani Prusty
Anatomy and Physiology, first place: Vainavi Mukkamala and Sehej Bindra
Bio Process Lab, sixth place: Akhilesh (Aki) Gurram and Vivek Vajipey
Biology Blitz, first place: Joyce Gan and Omisha Sharma
Bottle Rocket, sixth place: Shivani Prusty and Arsh Rupani
Crave the Wave, fifth place: Ketan Sengupta and Parth Shastri
Bridge Building, third place: Akila Saravanan and Oliver Zhong
Disease Detectives, first place: Parth Shastri and Arnav Rastogi
Dynamic Planet, first place: Vijay Josephs and Arnav Rastogi
Green Generation, first place: Vainavi Mukkamala and Tim Dai
Invasive Species, second place: Jessica Zeng and Shreya Mogulothu
Elastic Launched Glider, first place: Arsh Rupani and Devanei Solai
Meteorology, first place: Leo Yao and Sehej Bindra
Mission Possible, first place: Arsh Rupani and Akila Saravanan
Picture This, sixth place: Jessica Zeng and Tim Dai
Reach for the Stars, fourth place: Tim Dai and Vivek Vajipey
Road Scholar, first place: Akhilesh (Aki) Gurram and Leo Yao
Scrambler, first place: Devanei Solai and Shivani Prusty
Write It – Do It, first place: Devanei Solai and Tim Dai
Wind Power, first place: Leo Yao and Shivani Prusty
From Grover Middle School, under advisor Chris Castner, individual winners included:
First place: Jacob and Joseph Park, Bridge Building; and Omkar Mahashabde and Yasavi Tallapaneni, Reach for the Stars.
Second place: Emily Huang and Aarthi Katakam, Anatomy and Physiology; Daniel Yuan and David Mothy, Wind Power; Drishti Devnani and Emily Huang, Road Scholar; Arya Sasne and Daphne Hao, Green Generation; and Aarthi Katakam, Arya Sasne, and Daphne Hao, Experimental Design.
Third place: Drishti Devnani and Ronit Arora, Road Scholar; and Suraj Daru and Sriram Nakka, Elastic Launched Gliders.
#b#Robotics#/b#
Sanjna Ravichandar, right, a sophomore at High School North, has been named a New Jersey Finalist for the FIRST robotics program’s Dean’s List Award, which recognizes passion and effectiveness in achieving the mission of FIRST robotics. She was nominated for the award by her coaches and teammates.
Ravichandar is a lead programmer on the We Are Girl Scouts (WAGS) team representing scouts from West Windsor and Plainsboro and has also mentored several First Lego League teams and created and coached Girl Scout Junior First Lego League teams. She will be honored at the FIRST World Championship in St. Louis.
#b#‘Oppudents’ Connects Students and Employers#/b#
When he was a freshman at High School South Nishant Iyengar had a bright idea. After two years of hard work, including planning and computer programming, Iyengar launched his website, www.oppudents.com, in January of this year. “Oppudents,” short for opportunities for students, is meant to assist students with finding volunteer opportunities and paid jobs in the area as well as provide a resource for companies to fulfill their staffing needs.
“As a student myself, I understand the struggle of finding the right opportunity that is fun and exciting, and also looks good on my resume,” Iyengar says. “However, when I saw a bunch of ‘Help Needed’ ads around the area, I realized that I have to help both facets of our community, not just the students’ side.” To spread the word about Oppudents Iyengar participated in job and volunteer fairs at High Schools North and South last month and registered nearly 300 students.
Area organizations, including the West Windsor Community Farmers’ Market, Plainsboro Township, Princeton Learning Co-Operative, and Princeton Tennis Program, have already posted job listings to Oppudents.
Iyengar received help with Oppudents from South principal Dennis Lepold and guidance counselor Antonella Facchini, who offered advice on how to expand within the WW-P schools; and South PTSA member Ketki Modi and North PTSA member Fong Shu, who offered support during the job fairs. His parents are Narayan, who works in R&D IT at Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Priya, who works in information systems at Integra Life Sciences.
Outside of Oppudents Iyengar plays on South’s varsity tennis team and performs on the Mridangam and Ghatam (ancient Indian classical instruments). He also volunteers through the Princeton Tennis Program to teach tennis to kids with autism and related disabilities and at the Merwick Rehabilitation Center. He is an officer in South’s Quiz Bowl and CS Hacks clubs.
#b#Art Awards#/b#
Two seniors from High School North were named national winners of the 2016 Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, an award and recognition program for creative teens in grades 7 to 12 that has previously honored such luminaries as Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, and Stephen King. 2,200 award winners were selected from among 320,000 submissions nationwide. WW-P’s winners were Tammy Wei, who received gold and silver medals, and Lisa Park, who received a silver medal. Gold award winners will be invited to a ceremony at Carnegie Hall in June.
Arya Sasne, a seventh grade student at Grover Middle School, was named the Mercer County winner for grades 7 to 9 in the NJ Conservation Poster Contest. Entrants created posters using the theme “All We Need Is Trees” that were judged based on their conservation message, visual effectiveness, originality, and overall appeal. Sasne’s entry will now be entered in the state-wide contest.
Sasne also recently took second place in the New Jersey Association for Gifted Children’s video contest with the theme “Power Up! Learning All Day, Every Day.” Her video will be shown at an award ceremony Saturday, April 16, at Hotel Somerset-Bridgewater in Somerset. Visit www.njagc.org for information.
A design created by 13-year-old Lea Dempsey of West Windsor is now available on T-shirts for sale through the Parkinson Disease Foundation. The Community Middle School student’s image of a yellow rose with its vine wrapped around two hands with the text “Join the team Ending Parkinson’s” was selected as the winner of the seventh annual Parkinson’s Awareness T-Shirt Contest, open to students age 5 to 15 from across the country. The selection committee comprised artists living with Parkinson’s disease.
Dempsey was inspired by her late grandfather, a painter who suffered from Parkinson’s disease for 10 years. Her parents are Kathleen Pagnutti and Robert Dempsey.
In a statement, the Parkinson Foundation’s president, Robin Anthony Elliott, said that every one at the foundation is devoted to ending Parkinson’s disease. “Through her design, Ms. Dempsey illustrates the commitment beautifully, reminding us that children and young adults are very important members of this team.”
April is Parkinson’s disease awareness month and all proceeds from sales of Dempsey’s T-shirt will fund research on the disease. To order a shirt visit www.pdf.org/awareness15.
#b#Choir Honors#/b#
Seven Community Middle School students have been accepted into the New Jersey honor choir. Disha Bhowmick, Kirthi Chigurupati, Eliana Edelman, Akshay Ghandikota, Ameya Natarajan, Anisa Patel, and Nikita Sharma will sing under the direction of Deborah Mello of Montclair State University at a May concert.
#b#Wedding #/b#
Anna Stesovskaya and John Wesley Hamilton were married March 26 in Carmel Valley, CA. The wedding was featured in the Sunday Styles section of the New York Times on March 27.
Stetsovskaya, 30, is a graduate of High School North and a former intern for the WW-P News. Her parents are Diana and Vladimir Stetsovsky of Plainsboro. She attended the University of Pennsylvania and earned an MBA from Harvard. She works at Alphabet as a product marketing manager for Google Fiber.
Hamilton, 31, is an Air Force veteran currently studying for his MBA at Stanford, where he also received his undergraduate degree.
The couple met in September, 2012, at a party hosted by mutual friends in San Francisco. They got engaged on Valentine’s Day, 2015, on the same beach where they had their first date.
#b#In College#/b#
Widener University: Brae McQuade of West Windsor was recently inducted into Phi Kappa Phi, the nation’s oldest and most selective collegiate honor society.
University of Rochester: Chaitanya Narayanan Natarajan, a sophomore majoring in mathematics and applied music, was named to the fall, 2015, dean’s list. He is a resident of Plainsboro and graduate of High School North.
