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.