• The following local students have been inducted into chapters of the Omicron Delta Kappa national leadership honor society:
Annelyse Woods of McLean (Florida State University); Hanna Chaikin of Vienna (Hollins University); Peter Rizzo of McLean (College of William and Mary); Aaraj Vij of Great Falls (College of William and Mary); Daniel Kalish of Great Falls (College of William and Mary); and Mallika Charagundia of Vienna (College of William and Mary).
• Eight Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) students have been awarded 2023 corporate-sponsored scholarships from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.
The students are part of a group of more than 840 National Merit finalists chosen to receive scholarships financed by corporations, company foundations and other business organizations.
From the GazetteLeader coverage area, recipients included:
– Vishal Reddy Kotha of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology (computer science), National Merit Leidos, Inc. Scholarship.
– Clara Kim of Thomas Jefferson (bioengineering), National Merit Northrop Grumman Scholarship.
– Lynn Rose Tao of Thomas Jefferson (biomedicine), National Merit Northrop Grumman Scholarship.
– Vivian Feng of Thomas Jefferson (computer science), National Merit Senator Charles S. Robb Scholarship.
– Cindy Yang of Thomas Jefferson (computer science), National Merit CACI Scholarship.
– Megan Zhang of Thomas Jefferson (computer science), National Merit Leidos, Inc. Scholarship.
Corporate-sponsored merit scholarship awards are renewable for up to four years of college undergraduate study and range from $1,000 to $10,000 per year. Others provide a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000.
• Two Fairfax County Public Schools entries received Grand Prize awards at the Virginia Science and Engineering Fair, and will move on to international competition:
– Frank Chang, Stephen Tsai and Jason Yoo of Chantilly High School for the project “ARM: Streamlining Recyclable Waste Identification with Highly Scalable Deep Learning Algorithms.”
– Shinyoung Jeon of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology for the project “MoodBox: Vocal Screening for Depression and Gamified Relief.”
The projects qualified for inclusion in the International Science and Engineering Festival to be held in Dallas in May.
Other students from the GazetteLeader’s coverage area who received first-through third-place awards at the state level include Samvrit Rao from Thomas Jefferson (“In-vitro Aided Computational Approach to Identify Preclinical Drug Targets to Treat Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM)”; Omkar Kovvali and Sritan Motati of Thomas Jefferson (“OtoScan: A Novel, Inexpensive System for Comprehensive Diagnosis of Middle Ear Infections with an Intelligent Mobile Otoscope”); Kyan Yang and Sara Becker of James Madison High School (“Predicting Monkeypox Via Deep Learning-Driven Primary Morphology Analysis”); Mihika Dusad and Aryaman Khanna from Thomas Jefferson (“HypeFL: A Novel Blockchain-Based Architecture for a Fully-Connected Autonomous Vehicle System using Federated Learning and Cooperative Perception”); William Zhang from Thomas Jefferson (“A Polarization-Based Approach to Reduce Glare of Vehicles at Night”); Anirudh Mantha from Thomas Jefferson (“Tracking Microplastics via Remote Sensing and Mathematical Analysis”); Seoyoung Jun from Thomas Jefferson (“Solar Tree: Bioinspired Solar Panel Design and Performance Review”).
Also, Ashrita Gandhari from Thomas Jefferson (“LetoHealth: A Second Opinion for Embryologists to Aid the Evaluation of the Health of Fertilized Embryos”); Ayse Yener from George C. Marshall High School (“The Effect of Hydrochloric Acid Molarity on Bacterial Viability Using a Hemocytometer”); Kent Fructman from Oakton High School (“The Effect of Reduced Friction on Vehicle Speed”); Sophia Cloutier from Marshall (“Lighting the Way: Emulating Fiber Optics with Acrylic Rods”); Ronit Kapur from Thomas Jefferson (“Gravity-Darkened Atmospheric Models of Exoplanets: Insights from KELT-9b”); Shinyoung Jeon from Thomas Jefferson (“MoodBox: Vocal Screening for Depression and Gamified Relief”); Dhruv Anurag, Steven Lu and Sathvik Redrouthu from Thomas Jefferson (“A Photonic Hardware Accelerator for Ultrafast Tensor Algebra Computations and Neural Network Inference”).
For a complete list of awards received by Fairfax County Public Schools students, see the Website at https://bit.ly/3n7mzr4.
• One hundred seventy-six students representing all Fairfax County high schools have been named to the 2023 All-Virginia Band, Chorus, and Orchestra.
The students will rehearse and perform with other premier musicians from across the state beginning Thursday, April 27, through Saturday, April 29.
The performances are free and open to the public.
Students from the GazetteLeader’s coverage area selected for inclusion include:
– Band: Sarah Bigley, Oakton; Catherine Dunn, Langley; Jacqui Go, Langley; Ryan Healy, Langley; Calvin Hodor, Thomas Jefferson; Zelmay Jan, Langley; Anmol Karan, Thomas Jefferson; Hudson Keeler, Thomas Jefferson; Catherine Kim, McLean; Henry Lin, Langley; Edward Norton, Madison; Kevin Pierson, Thomas Jefferson; Anna Raymond, McLean; Mateo Stine, Marshall; Myah Tokajer, Langley; Emma Yang, McLean.
– Chorus: Akhil Bhatt, Marshall; Lia Davila, Marshall; Sarah Driessen, Oakton; Andrew Evans, McLean; Elena Fischinger, Marshall; Gianna Gecan, Madison; Advai Govind, Madison; Adi Gupta, Langley; Maria Jackle, Marshall; Cleia Jones, Langley; Jacob Lee, Marshall; Luke Mudrick, Madison; Sara Porjosh, Marshall; Maggie Ricciardiello, Madison; Millicent Vanstory, Marshall; Elizabeth Windt, Marshall.
– Orchestra: Varsha Athreya, Thomas Jefferson; Kaiwan Bilal, Thomas Jefferson; Birka Chen, McLean; Kian Choi, McLean; Ryan Chun, McLean; Isaiah Garrett, Oakton; Sophia Go, Thomas Jefferson; Audrey Goodner, Langley; Angelee Kang, Thomas Jefferson; Mira Kim, Thomas Jefferson; Eujin Lee, Marshall; Jayden Lee, Langley; Eleanor Liang, Marshall; Yuna Lim, Madison; Elina Liu, Thomas Jefferson; Ryan Liu, Thomas Jefferson; Jack Papandon, Madison; Christopher Qian, Thomas Jefferson; Michelle Qiu, Oakton; Serenna Semonsen, Thomas Jefferson; Justin Smith, Madison; Valerie Su, Oakton; Joshua Thrush, Madison; Luke Viskupic, Marshall; Kai Wang, Thomas Jefferson; Spencer Wang, Thomas Jefferson;
Students throughout Virginia went through a rigorous audition process to audition on their instrument for a position within the ensemble. Participants will rehearse with nationally recognized conductors and collaborate with fellow musicians during the event.
