Newspapers / The stentorian. / May 1, 2004, edition 1 / Page 3
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the stentorian | ncssm Another Successful Year in Academic Competitions Aneesh Kulkarni I n 2003-04, a number of academic teams competed for the school, with many bringing back accolades. Alia Whitney-Johnson deserves special mention for winning 1st place in Life Sciences at the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. Two other especially notewor thy performances are those of Drew Foster & Ivana Vu, and the WorldQuest team. Drew and Ivana placed 3rd national ly in the prestigious Siemens Westinghouse competition, and a few months later the WorldQuest team of Aneesh Kulkarni, Phillip Golladay, Chris McLain, and Xianlin Li matched that feat, also placing 3rd in the coimtry. And more recently, Jeff Tang was one of only 261 students nationwide to qualify for the USA Mathematical Olympiad. Here is a partial breakdown of NCSSM's successes at aca demic competitions: Science Fairs: In addition to Alia, Drew and Ivana (see above), NCSSM enjoyed a number of other successes in science competitions: Leah Hawkins, Yuki Jung, Monica Shah were Siemens- Westinghouse Regional Finalists for their project on "Microwave Synthesis of Disubstituted Quinoxalines." Their project on "Investigating the Effects of Space Radiation on Digestive Enzymes" was one of six national finalists in Place), Monica Shah and Yuki NCSSM team was also 2nd in Mary Blaine AND AGata Pelka S tudent government elec tions were held on April 26th with a large turn out of juniors who spent an hour poking each other with pencils and thinking up ideas for newspaper articles. Many students entered the auditori um expecting an election simi lar to the popularity contests at their old schools but were met with more pertinent issues than school dance decorations. Both Catherine Ramos and Vanna Sombatsaphay began their speeches by asking the crucial question of "What is a Parliamentarian?" Apparently the junior class agreed with Vaima's definition which stat ed that a parliamentarian is "one who makes sure that par liamentary procedure is fol lowed at meetings." She also brought to our attention that currently "the SGA meetings don't really follow parliamen tary procedure," luckily embarrassment was spared the NASA sub-SEMS Sounding Rocket competition. They also did well at the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. Alia Whitney-Johnson, Maggie Thompson, and Emily Hon were also named Siemens-Westinghouse Regional Finalists for their project on "Responses to glob al warming in Pieris rapae (Lepidoptera): consequences of increased nocturnal tem perature on fitness compo nents." At the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium, Ishani Sud placed 1st and Alia * Whitney-Johnson placed 2nd in the paper com petition. Monica Shah, Jeff Tang, Jonathon Toledo, and Jingjing Gao placed in the poster competition. Ryan Neely, and Ishani Sud won awards at the local sci ence fair and qualified for the state science fair. Ryan Neely also was a winner in the NASA-sponsored "Watching Earth Change" competition. Aneesh Kulkarni and Sam Van Oort both won first place in their respective divisions at the NC Student Academy of Science' (Matherriatics and Chemistry) and both will pres ent their work in Washington DC at the American Association for Advancement in Sciences annual meeting. Other winners at the NC Student Academy of Science include Buro Mookerji, Jingjing Gao, & Jeff Tang (1st Jung (1st Place), Ryan Neely (1st Place), Ying Liu & Jeff Hu (2nd Place), Charles Perraut, Emily Hon, Alia Whitney- Johnson, & Maggie Thompson, and Claire Reddy & Rae Zucker (4th Place). Math Competitions: NCSSM Students partici pated in a wide variety of math "A hearty congratu lations to everyone on such a fine year!" j competitions this school year. One of the first ones was the Duke Math Meet where the team placed 6th. In February, Paul Huang was the highest scorer on the AMC-12. Jeff Tang was the highest scorer on the American Invitational Math Exam in March. And on April 29, 8 NCSSMers placed in the top 40 at the State Math Contest, qualifying them to represent North Carolina at the national ARML competition: Paul Huang won 4th place, Mark Shoun placed 9th, and Aneesh Kulkarni was 14th. Jingjing Gao, David Guild, Jeff Tang, Matt Rakow, and Patrick Wong won Honorable Mentions. Aneesh Kulkarni and Jeff Tang were winners of the NCSSM Problem of the Week competition. The the state and on the national leader-board for the Mandelbrot competition. Debate & Model UN: Jonathan Smith and Danielle Mouw won "Outstanding Delegate" t Awards at the George Washington University Model U.N. Conference in Washington. D.C. Jonathan Smith and Buro Mookerji won numerous debate awards in Student Congress, Impromptu Speaking, and Extemporaneous Speaking. Buro Mookerji was also a State Finalist in 2004. Chloe Weatherhill and Dwight Springthorpe also won awards in debate this year. Academic Team: The first tournament of the year was the Tar Heel Cup. The team of Phillip Golladay (captain), John McCoy, Chris McLain, and Scott Powell reached the quarterfinals. In the spring, the team of Phillip Golladay, John McCoy, Chris McLain, Vishwan Pamarthi, Kevin Sapp, and Karthik Sekar won the County Quiz Bowl. Phillip Golladay, John McCoy, Chris McLain, Kevin Sapp, and Aneesh Kulkarni reached the finals of the regional Quiz Bowl. The Academic team will compete at the national Panasonic Academic Challenge this year. 2004-05 SGA Elections from the current office holder because most of those gath ered had no idea who he or she was. "With Tang as your treasurer, there will be no fuzzy math. I can make these reform pro grams feasible; will make your legitimate demands heard!" The winner Jeff Tang, voiceless due to laryngitis, had his speech elo quently performed by Jeff Sibrack, the current SGA President who later endured subtle bashings from the Presidential candi dates. The winner of the Secretary position, Dana Squire, won tion, candidate Kasey Updike conveniently reiterated the night's speeches. It took some the audience's heart Heather Mohom: 2004-2005 SGA President with a poem sharing her enthusiasm for taking a while to realize that she real- notes. Somehow knowing that ly wasn't just being nice, but no one had been paying atten- was proving her note-taking abilities. Jeremy Ford, who won the Vice Presidential position, broke the button-up shirt and tie dress code by walking on stage wearing a cook ie monster t-shirt and big yellow sunglasses. Contrary to many stu dents' expectations, Jeremy had a heart warming story behind his outfit; how it con veyed his true self and helped him get through many firsts. He continued to pas sionately compare our generation to that of the more motivated Vietnam generation, promising to organize loops to rallies and protests in the city. "What do you say, Caroline Saul people? I say end the apathy. I say WAKE UP and put someone in power who puts you in power," he gloriously exclaimed as he shook his fist Science Olympiad: The Science Olympiad team placed 6th in regional compe tition. Many members, includ ing captains Vishwan Pamarthi, Ashley Cedzo, and Anya Derbakova, won medals. Sam Van Oort, Jeff Tang, Jingjing Gao, Rae Zucker, Xianlin Li, Aneesh Kulkarni, Kamil Faridi, Joshua Wetherington, Kristoph Kleiner, Joshua Phelps, Bemie Shieh, and Yan Yan also won medals. Envirothon: The Envirothon teams placed 3rd and 4th at the local competition and also did very well at the State competition. WorldQuest: In addition to the victory at nationals, the WorldQuest team of Aneesh Kulkarni, Phillip Golladay, Chris McLain, Xianlin Li, Joshua Wetherington, Jingjing Gao, Lance Harden, and Heidi Scronce won 1st place at the WorldQuest Jr. tournament in Charlotte and 2nd place a the adult WorldQuest Sr. competi tion. A hearty congratulations to everyone on such a fine year! This year will be tough to beat for the Class of 2006. I apologize for any omissions; I was only able to include in this article what people sent to me. in the air. All the Presidential candi dates claimed that they had the backbone for the position but Heather Mohom was the only one who proved that she had past experience by relating a story about leading a rebellion in her 5th grade class. Heather has promised the class of 2005 that she will "hum every stu dent's concerns into discussion and action." She promises to start fund-raising early for the senior gift, as well as finding a fabulous speaker for gradua tion. Most importantly. Heather encouraged all of the students to email her with "any ideas or concerns for next year so [she] can go ahead and plan how to meet them." During his speech. Presidential candidate Alex Aheam, cnunpled his notes and said what he thought everyone assembled thought, that what we were seeing on stage were facades. Let's hope that the new SGA representa tives prove him wrong.
May 1, 2004, edition 1
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