Thomas Jefferson High School
for Science and Technology
ACADEMIC BOOSTERS, INC.
AWARDS RECEPTION
Thursday, June 10, 2013
6:00 ~ 8:30 p.m.
Thomas Jefferson High School
Academic Boosters, Inc.
Academic Boosters supports our outstanding academic teams in their various pursuits.
Some 20 academic teams compete in local, state, national, and sometimes even
international events. Because financial resources are not available from FCPS, the
Academic Boosters asks families to join the organization at various financial levels,
which are also tax-deductible. This enables Academic Boosters to pay teacher travel
expenses and help with student registration fees when possible. We also purchase
textbooks and other supplies needed by academic teams. Even with Academic Boosters’
support, academic team members pay for their own travel, room, meals, and other related
expenses.
TJ academic teams include: Biology Olympiad, Botball (Robotics team), Certamen,
Chemistry Team, Chess Team, Computer Team, Cyber Security, Forensics, Future
Problem Solvers, Japan Bowl, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Math Team, Model United
Nations, Odyssey of the Mind, Physics Team, Policy Debate, Public Forum Debate, Quiz
Bowl (“It’s Academic”), Rocketry Club, Rubik’s Cube Team, Science Bowl, and Science
Olympiad. Information about each of the teams is provided on the Academic Boosters
website, http://academics.tjhsst.edu/aboosters.
Academic Boosters promotes team achievements on the booster web site, gathers
information about team accomplishments for the PTSA newsletter, maintains a bulletin
board with information about academic teams, recognizes family memberships, promotes
academic teams at orientations and open houses, and organizes a year-end awards
ceremony.
TJ academic teams’ achievements have always been a source of pride for the entire
TJHSST community, and are a cornerstone of our national reputation for academic
excellence. Everyone is welcome (and encouraged!) to join TJ Academic Boosters by
making a donation, either by check or online by credit card. Funding comes primarily
from family memberships; it is supplemented with food and merchandise sales. 100% of
the money raised is used to support TJ’s academic teams. Recommended donation levels
start at $50 per year. Thank YOU for all of your support this school year!
http://academics.tjhsst.edu/aboosters
Biology Olympiad
Congratulations to Janice Ong and William Long! Janice and
William are headed to Purdue University for the USA Biology
Olympiad National Finals in June. Students having the top 20 scores on
the semifinal exam were selected for this terrific honor.
TJ semifinalists included: Sahitya Allam, Naveen Ambati, Lucy Chu,
Grace Chuang, Jennifer Du, Owen Gray, Lauren Huang, Kevin
Huo, Andrew Jiang, Min Cheol Kim, Peter Kim, Chelsea Li,
Victoria Li, Jeffrey Liu, William Liu, William Long, Janice Ong,
Allen Pang, Jennifer Peng, Nipun Singh, Robert Wang, William Woodruff, Wendy
Wu, Stella Yang, and Tiger Zhang.
More than 7,000 students took the 2013 USA Biology Olympiad Open Exam, so these
students should all take great pride in their accomplishments.
Thanks to Biology teacher sponsor, Ms. Laura Locklear.
Botball
Co-Presidents: Cyrus Malekpour and Anurag Goel
Botball is a robotics competition in which teams design, build,
and program a pair of camera-equipped autonomous robots.
Two TJ Botball Robotics Teams competed in the Greater DC/Virginia Botball
Tournament (www.botball.org) on Saturday, April 20. The Senior Team won a Judge’s
Award for Mechanical Design. The Sophomore/Junior Team won a trophy for 2nd Place
in the “Alliance Challenge” Rounds.
Senior Team: Andrew Kim, Ethan Voytko, Peter Price, Cyrus Malekpour (cocaptain), Anurag Goel (co-captain), Sangburm Lee, Sam Hoffman, and Neeraj
Gandhi
Sophomore/Junior Team: Rohan Banerjee, Archis Bhandarkar, Tiger Burney (cocaptain), Diana Chang, Helen Chen (co-captain), Akshith Doddi, Risheel
Gabbireddy, Harshal Jariwala, Arun Kannan, Josh Kweon, Vivan Le, Kalyan
Madanapalli, Risheek Reddy, Christian Tae, Vaughn Varma, and Katherine Yang
The Botball robots are equipped with cameras and sensors by which to steer themselves
around the game board. The game board is different each year. This year, robots
scored points by collecting and depositing pom-poms, nerf balls, cubes, and Botguy.
Cylinders could be picked up and stacked on a pole for additional points. Final scores
are determined by points awarded from all four parts of the competition:
Project documentation
Oral presentation about the teams’ robots and strategy
Average score on the seeding rounds
Final position in the double elimination tournament
Special thanks to team coach and sponsor, Mr. Billington.
Certamen (Latin)
TJ Latin prepared for and competed at the National Junior
Classical League Convention held at Wake Forest University in
July 2012. While all TJ participants at the convention performed
well on tests, creative arts, and graphic arts, special recognition is
given to Owen Hoffman who participated in the National
Certamen on Virginia’s Intermediate team, which placed 3rd in
the nation against daunting and fierce competition.
TJ sent 99 students to the Virginia Junior Classical League (VJCL) Convention in
Richmond, VA. At the convention, the TJ delegation conducted a successful campaign
to elect our very own Anwar Omeish as VJCL President! Anwar will lead the Virginia
delegation at the National Junior Classical League convention at the University of
Nevada, Las Vegas this summer and will preside over the two-day state convention next
year. Participants at the state convention competed in academic, graphic and creative
arts contests. TJ students won numerous awards in all categories. In addition, TJ took 2nd
place in the overall Spirit contest!
Students who earned the most points for performing well in a variety of categories
(academics, graphic arts, and creative arts) received Sweepstakes recognition and are as
follows:
• 9th grade: Daniel Chae, Alison Hau
• 10th grade: Adam Goldstein, Janice Ong, Bobbie Sheng, Noah Shin
• 11th grade: Andrew Coffee, Anwar Omeish
• 12th grade: Hillary Liu, Michael Nguyen, Hyae In Seo, Robert Wharton
Other Convention Highlights:
• Janice Ong (10) – 1st place – Inked, Mixed, Sculpture
• Anthony Carrington (11) – 1st place – Mythology (Best in Show)
• Andrew Coffee (11) – 1st place – Reading Comprehension Poetry (Best in Show),
Grammar (Best in Show), Mottoes
• Amy Chen – 1st place – Derivatives (Best in Show)
• Michael Nguyen (12) – Art (Best in Show), 1st place – Charcoal, Ink, Oil, Pastel
• Hyae In Seo (12) – 1st place – History, Latin Oratory (Best in Show)
• Robert Wharton (12) – 1st place – Dramatic Interpretation (Best in Show),
Derivatives
TJ Certamen achieved incredible success this year in the Virginia circuit with many
1st place finishes across the board at the Kickoff, Classical Cottage, Riverbend, Flint
Hill, Woodson, and Classics Day at UVA Certamina. In addition to competing, TJ
also hosted an extremely successful Certamen event with the assistance of invaluable
parent volunteers and student question writers. The teams distinguished themselves
with their dedication, skill, and honor throughout the year.
The following results of the State Final Certamen represent a sampling of some of
the most dedicated players and persevering teams:
• The Latin I team of Daniel Chae, Andrew Huang, and Hyung Ju Moon
earned 2nd place, with the reassurance that they will remain a force to
contend with for years to come.
• The Latin II A team of Aneesh Susarla, Bill Tang, Junyoung Hwang, and
Min Jae Kwon, played very well and earned 4th place in the final round. The
other Latin II team of Ryan Golant, Ross Dempsey, and Jagan Doodala
earned 3rd place. Congratulations to all players who showed all of Virginia their
true potential!
• The Latin III A team of John Wilkes, Jeffrey Horowitz, June Ge, and
Adam Goldstein placed 4th in finals. The other Latin III team of Nolan
Kataoka, Bobbie Sheng, Renee Wah, and Reem Mohomed placed a
respectable 5th.
The VJCL Certamen Finals was a sad event for many teachers who had upper-level
teams because it was the last time the seniors would play as a team. Hyae In Seo and
Molly Hemenway, seniors dedicated to TJ Certamen above all other things, played their
final competition together with Robert Wharton (first debut!) and Anwar Omeish
against their common foes. The other upper team, consisting of Andrew Coffee,
Anthony Carrington, Owen Hoffman, and Lauren Mostrum, placed 3rd in the final
round! They will surely become the pillar of TJ Certamen next year.
Our final event of the year will be the NJCL Convention held this summer (July 22 – 27)
in Las Vegas, Nevada. More than 20 TJ students will attend the convention with Ms.
Conklin. Many TJ Certamen players will seek to compete for Virginia at this convention
at a tryout on June 9th. We hope to be able to help Virginia bring home the gold this year!
The team would like to thank our teacher sponsors, Ms. Christine Conklin and
Mrs. Patricia Lister, who dedicate so much time and effort to help us compete in all
these competitions. Certamen was able to be as successful and wonderful this year due
to the student leadership of Andrew Coffee and Anthony Carrington, the Certamen
coordinators. In addition, our success would not be possible without the assistance of
our many parent supporters!
Congratulations to all of TJ Certamen for such a successful year!
Chemistry Olympiad
Eighty-five TJHSST students took the first round exam for the
Chemistry Olympiad on January 11. The top sixty took a second
round exam on February 15. Janice Ong, Emily Schneider,
Raynor Kuang, Winston Ou, Aditya Chaudhry, Andrew Tao,
Dillan Chang, Lucas Lin, Jeremy Nathan, Wendy Sun, Arun
Kannan, Andrea Li, Luca Jelenak, and Matthew Babano,
TJHSST’s top 14 semi-finalists took the “Local” exam March 1 to compete for two seats
at the national exam in April.
Congratulations to Janice Ong, Emily Schneider, and Kalki Seksaria, our national
finalists who took the National Chemistry Olympiad exam at Catholic University on
April 11th.
Congratulations to Kalki Seksaria, who was named as one of 20 national finalists. Kalki
will be attending the Chemistry Olympiad Study Camp at the US Air Force Academy in
Colorado where he will be competing for one of four slots on the USA team competing at
the 45th International Chemistry Olympiad in Moscow, Russia this summer.
Thank you to Chemistry teacher sponsor, Mr. Hadan Kauffman.
Chess Team
Chess Captains: Jeevan Karamsetty and Kun Liu
The TJ Chess Team competed in the Virginia State Chess Championship and
the Virginia State Blitz Chess Championship held at Longwood University in
Farmville, VA from March 8-10. Congratulations also to our team sponsor, Dr. Peter
Gabor, who received the 2013 Virginia Coach of the Year Award, and special thanks to
Chess parents Yuyan Zhou and Wei Feng who were instrumental in coordinating
everyone from TJ at both this tournament and Supernationals.
The TJ Blitz Team became the Virginia State Champions with a score far larger than
their competitors. Jeevan Karamsetty won 1st place in individual awards after going
undefeated with an astonishing 10/10 points. The Blitz Team included Jeevan
Karamsetty, Andrew Freix, Richard Li, Aditya Ponukumati, Kartik Gupta, Kalyan
Madanapalli, Arun Kannan, Nandan Srinivasa, Andrew Jiao, Brian Li, Perry Feng,
Kun Liu, Ashley Xue, Shicheng Zhao, and Gavin Moore.
The Main Event lasted two days with four matches on Saturday and two on Sunday.
Players competed in games of chess that could last up to three hours. Even though
Farmville is several hours away from northern Virginia, TJ brought as many students to
the competition this year as last year. Twenty-five TJ students played in the main event:
Andrew Freix, Jeevan Karamsetty, Brian Li, Gavin Moore, Arun Kannan, Kun Liu,
Aditya Ponukumati, Roshan Sajjad, Andrew Jiao, Ashley Xue, Katherine Wu, Joie
Wang, Kartik Gupta, Saroja Erabelli, Perry Feng, Richard Li, Kalyan
Madanapalli, Nihar Gudiseva, Shicheng Zhao, Daniel Fontenot, Meredith Lee,
Vivek Gorijala, Nikhil Ramachandran, Nandan Srinivasa, and Arvind Chava. The
tournament ended with TJ students taking 15 out of the top 25 places! The team won the
competition with a score of 18.5, beating out the next highest team by 6 points, and
making it TJ’s 12th state championship title in a row!
The TJ Chess Team also competed in the K-12 Super National Chess Championship and
the K-12 Super National Blitz Chess Championship held in Nashville, Tennessee from
April 4-7. At the Blitz Tournament, the TJ Blitz Team won 7th place. The Blitz team
consisted of Jeevan Karamsetty, Nandan Srinivasa, Meredith Lee, Arun Kannan,
and Kalyan Madanapalli. The TJ team for the championship section of the main event
included Andrew Freix, Brian Li, Jeevan Karamsetty, Shicheng Zhao, Kartik
Gupta, Perry Feng, and Arvind Chava. The team won 9th place and was even fighting
for the top positions the entire tournament. In the Under 1600 section we had Kalyan
Madanapalli, Arun Kannan, Nandan Srinivasa, Meredith Lee, and Nihar Gudiseva.
TJ won 11th place in this event.
Computer Team
In the Innovative Defense Technologies (IDT) High School
Programming Contest, the Senior Computer Team of William
Moses, Abi Gopal, and Matthew Kramer placed 2nd and the Senior Computer Team of
Ronnie Ghose placed 3rd.
At the Virginia Commonwealth University High School Programming Contest, the Frosh
‘Puter Team of Allen Cheng, Samuel Hsiang, Rajat Khanna, and Samuel Kim placed
2nd; the Intermediate Computer Team of Ildoo Kim, Andrew Yang, Derek Zhou, and
Kyle Zhou placed 5th, and the Senior Computer Team of Nand Kishore, Hariank
Muthakana, Matthew Savage, and Sai Puneeth Uttla placed 7th.
At the University of Virginia High School Programming Contest, the Intermediate
Computer Team of Doo Woo Kang, Yongkoo Kang, Ryan Jian, and Victoria Xia
placed 1st; the Senior Computer Team of Muthuraman Chidambaram, Alexander
Grieser, Nand Kishore, and William Moses placed 3rd; and the Frosh ‘Puter Team of
Milan Bharadwaj, Ashley Kim, Gabriel Margolis, and Animesh Tripathy placed 16th.
The Senior Computer Team earned 2nd place in the University of Maryland High School
Programming Contest.
The Second TJIOI (Thomas Jefferson Invitational Open in Informatics), a secondaryschool-level computer science competition, was held with eight Teams from Virginia and
Maryland participating. Senior Computer Team officers prepared and ran the event.
In the Stanford Proco High School Programming Contest, the Senior Computer Team of
William Moses, Sreenath Are, and Corwin de Boor placed 4th.
TJ’s Intermediate ‘Puter Team of Ryan Jian, Abraham Yongkoo Kang, Doo Won
Kang, Victoria Xia, and David Zhao placed 4th in the Senior-5 Division and the Frosh
‘Puter Team of Annie Abraham, Samuel Hsiang, Rajat Khanna, Samuel Kim, and
Animesh Tripathy placed 1st in the Junior-5 Division at the American Computer Science
League All-Star Competition held at Enloe High School in Raleigh, NC.
Ross Dempsey, Kalki Seksaria, and Videh Seksaria have been selected for the USA
Computing Olympiad invitational camp! A four-person team will be selected from the
twenty-four students at the camp to represent the U.S. in international competition.
Special thanks to team sponsors, Ms. Nicole Kim, Ms. Amy Marsh, and Mr. Stephen
Rose. Cyber Security & Cyber Defense Club
President: Cyrus Malekpour
Treasurer: Jay Hebert
Secretary: Arlan Jaska
Other Founding Members: Collin Berman & Austin Ralls
The TJHSST Computer Security Club launched last year as a club dedicated to the
understanding and advancement of knowledge in the areas of computer and information
security. Despite the incredible importance of this field to the lives and safety of many
people, there are not enough skilled individuals to meet the global demand for innovation
in industry. We aim to explore this area and improve our own skills in a collaborative and
ethical manner.
Daily club activities often consist of lectures given by club members who have
researched a specific topic, time to discuss contest solutions, in addition to professional
guest presentations. The club is also very active outside of school hours; we encourage all
members to participate and compete in contests and competitions.
Recently, a club team including Cyrus Malekpour, Collin Berman, Austin Ralls, and
Arlan Jaska took 2nd place in the national picoCTF 2013 contest run by Carnegie Mellon
University, receiving monetary and educational prizes for both themselves and the
school. The club also had seven finalists in the Virginia Governor's Cup Cyber
Challenge where Arlan Jaska placed 1st and Collin Berman placed 3rd in the state, and
both were featured in an article in The New York Times.
Forensics Team
Co-Captains: Kyle Angelotti and Hillary Lui
Recruitment Officer: Varun Jain
Treasurer: Adam Friedman
Publicity Coordinator: Nita Takanti
This season’s Washington-Arlington Catholic Forensics
League (WACFL) tournaments ran monthly from October to
March, with students receiving: Kyle Angelotti, 6th place in
Extemporaneous Speaking, 2nd place in Original Oratory; Adam Friedman, 2nd place in
Dramatic Performance; and Matthew Sun 4th place in Original Oratory
TJ had qualified 15 entries to the WACFL Metrofinal Tournament: Kyle Angelotti,
Extemporaneous Speaking and Original Oratory; Katie Earl, Dramatic Performance and
Oral Interpretation of Literature; Adam Friedman, Dramatic Performance; Varun Jain,
Extemporaneous Speaking; Vishal Talasani, Extemporaneous Speaking; Vivek Batheja,
Extemporaneous Speaking and Impromptu Speaking; Julie Lee, Oral Interpretation of
Literature; Shivani Dimri, Oral Interpretation of Literature; and Matthew Sun, Original
Oratory.
The students qualifying to the NCFL Grand National Tournament for the Arlington
Diocese of WACFL are: Matthew Sun, 3rd in Original Oratory; Kyle Angelotti; 4th in
Original Oratory; and Kyle Angelotti 4th in Extemporaneous Speaking. Matthew Sun
also placed 3rd in the combined Washington/Arlington Diocese round.
WACFL awarded TJ the 1st place trophy in the metro area for combined speech and
debate points over the course of the 2012-13 season. In addition, TJ won the 1st
place Masterson Award, recognizing the team with the most accumulated points in both
speech and debate over the course of several years.
The Forensics Speech Team at VHSL:
TJ took 16 students to VHSL districts. The TJ Team placed 2nd in the District.
Congratulations to Kyle Angelotti, 1st in Impromptu; Katie Earl, 1st in Serious Dramatic
Interp; Shivani Dimri, 2nd in Prose; Miranda Callahan, 3rd in Poetry; Matthew Sun, 1st
in Original Oratory; Vishal Talasani, 1st in Extemp; Varun Jain, 3rd in Extemp; and
Cheryl Mensah, 3rd in Humorous Dramatic Interp. These students competed at the
VHSL Regional Tournament in February, with Kyle Angelotti, 1st in Impromptu; Katie
Earl, 2nd in Dramatic Interp; and Miranda Callahan, 3rd in Poetry.
At the State VHSL Tournament, Kyle Angelotti, placed 1st in Impromptu Speaking;
Miranda Callahan, placed 6th in Poetry; and Katie Earl placed 1st in Dramatic
Interpretation leading TJ to 3rd place in the state of Virginia for AAA Forensics
Competitors!
The Forensics Speech Team at Invitational Tournaments:
TJ students competed at the Wake Forest University Invitational in September 2012, with
Kyle Angelotti and Varun Jain advancing to the Semi-Final round in Extemp.
TJ took 20 competitors to the George Mason University Patriot Games Invitational on
December 1-2, 2012. Special recognition goes to Kyle Angelotti who broke to the
quarterfinals in Extemporaneous Speaking!
Broad Run Invitational Tournament, January, 2013: Congratulations to Miranda
Callahan who placed 3rd in Poetry Interpretation; Katie Earl who placed 4th in Dramatic
Interpretation; and Vivek Batheja who placed 3rd in Extemporaneous Speaking.
Columbia University Invitational Tournament, January 2013: Congratulations to Katie
Earl, Dramatic Performance and Miranda Callahan, Oral Interpretation of Literature,
both breaking to the quarterfinal rounds. Thank you to TJ alum Omeed Maghzian who
provided a tour of the Columbia campus.
Liberty Bell Classic Tournament at U-Penn, February 2013: Congratulations to students
Kyle Angelotti, placing 3rd in the Tournament in Extemporaneous Speaking and
Matthew Sun, who broke to semifinals in Original Oratory.
National Forensics League:
Miranda Callahan broke to the semifinal round at the Virginia District NFL
Tournament in humorous interpretation of literature; Vishal Talasani was selected as an
alternate in Student Congress. We also recognize our student members of the National
Forensics League who reached the following degrees of distinction: Degree of Honor:
Miranda Callahan, Adam Friedman, and Nidhi Gandhi; Degree of Excellence:
Vishal Talasani; Degree of Distinction: Varun Jain; Degree of Special Distinction:
Kyle Angelotti.
In other news, April saw our first annual SpeechFest, and it was a wonderful success with
over 160 students in attendance to hear our team members demonstrate their speaking
skills, and to learn more about the Forensics Speech Team.
Special thanks to our team coaches/sponsors, Mrs. Marie Bakke and Mrs. Terry
Angelotti!
Future Problem Solvers
President: Arisa Smith
Vice President: Rebecca Poch
Secretary: Paris Mitzelfeld
Treasurer: Aaron Zhao
Publicist: Melissa Wu
Future Problem Solving challenges individuals and teams to develop solutions to a
scenario containing complex societal issues by coming up with research-based solutions
that might include technological, scientific, governmental, and business action. This year,
TJ’s Future Problem Solvers have continued their record of remarkable success at the
Virginia State Bowl Competition, winning many awards.
In Global Issues Problem Solving, TJ had great success at the State Bowl in the team
competition. The team of Arisa Smith, Christine Xu, Ian Lin and Aaron Zhao won 1st
place; the team of Kat Lee, Lauren Huang, Jesse Wang, and Andrew Li won 2nd place;
and the team of Parth Chopra, Andreas Butler, Pegah Moradi and Melissa Wu earned
Honorable Mention.
In a side competition known as “Presentation of the Action Plan,” in which students
make entertaining, impromptu performances based on a detailed plan, the team of Parth
Chopra, Andreas Butler, Pegah Moradi and Melissa Wu took 1st place and the team of
Arisa Smith, Christine Xu, Ian Lin and Aaron Zhao earned 2nd place.
Thanks to the generous sponsorship of Academic Boosters, the first and second place
team winners will be attending the international competition at Indiana University this
June.
We would like to acknowledge and thank Mrs. Margaret Carpenter, our club sponsor,
for all of her support both behind the scenes and at club meetings and competitions.
Japan Bowl
The Japan Bowl is a national academic competition sponsored each spring by the JapanAmerica Society. It tests the achievements of high school students throughout the U.S.
who are studying the Japanese language, including their knowledge of traditional and
modern Japan culture, history, geography and current events.
The Japan Bowl teams competed at the 21st National Japan Bowl in mid-April at the
National 4H Center. All of the teams did very well again this year among 250
participating schools from around the country (including Guam!).
The Level 3 team won the national champion title for the second year and the Level 4
team won 2nd place with a very narrow margin. They showed good teamwork throughout
the year preparing for the event.
This year’s team members were:
Level 2: An Zeal, Allison Ko, Thai Le
Level 3: Elizabeth Chang, Emily Zhou, Christine Tsou
Level 4: Ian Lin, Justin Lee, Colton Sears
Congratulations on another excellent set of performances, Japan Bowl!!
Thank you to our team sponsor, Mr. Otani, for all of your help and support!
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Captains: Nancy Ding and Kunal Khurana
Teaching Coordinators: Robert Wang and James Wang
Treasurer: Dhruv Bansal
Lincoln-Douglas began the season with early successes: James Eagle made it to
Octafinals at the Wake Forest Debate Competition, Varsity Division and Siddarth
Anand made it to Octafinals at the Yale Debate Tournament, JV Division.
Lincoln-Douglas’ first Washington-Arlington Catholic Forensic League (WACFL)
debate tournament of the season was held at Dominion High School. Several TJ LincolnDouglas debaters won awards at the tournament. Sraavya Poonuganti took 2nd place in
the varsity division, Chris Yeung took 5th place speaker in the JV division, and Ganesh
Arvapalli took 9th place speaker in the JV division.
At WACFL 2, Tae Hee Lee took home 5th place in the JV division, qualifying him for
the Metro Finals tournament in March. In novice, Raksha Pothapragada was the thirdplace speaker and Nikki Kothari was the fifth-place speaker.
Varsity Lincoln-Douglas debaters were extremely successful at WACFL 3, with several
debaters among the top six in the competition. Kunal Khurana took 3rd place in Varsity.
In JV, Aneesh Reddy took the 7th place slot. In addition, Robert Wang fully qualified
for Metro Finals in Varsity Division.
At the WACFL 4 tournament in January, Lincoln-Douglas took a number of awards. In
JV, Andrea Li took 2nd place, Jessica Guo took 3rd place, and Nathan Dass took 6th
place and the 1st place speaker award. Siddarth Anand fully qualified for Metro Finals
in the Varsity division, and Keaton Lee took 3rd place in the novice division. In JV,
Rohan Pandit fully qualified for Metro Finals.
At WACFL 5, TJ claimed most of the top awards with Rohan Pandit with 2nd place,
Sraavya Poonuganti in 5th place and Andrea Li in 6th place in Varsity. In JV, Azman
Gancha took 1st, Chris Yeung took 2nd, Virginia Sun took 3rd, Kevin Livingstone took
4th and Shreyas Garg took 5th place. In addition, Sarah Kim, Pranay Singh, Kunal
Shroff, and Lavanya Shukla all fully qualified for JV Metro Finals.
At the WACFL Metro Finals tournament, Ruhee Shah took 3rd place in varsity, and
Virginia Sun made it to the Semifinal Round in JV.
Thank you to our teacher sponsor, Mr. Sherwood Williams.
Math Team
Captain: Victoria Xia
Co-Captains: Joseph Park and Ivy Ren
Statisticians: David Zhao and Archis Bhandarkar
Finance Officers: Julie Kim, Sarthak Sahu, and Katie Ho
Historians: Wendy Sun and Jennifer Yin
TJ was extremely well represented at this year’s Math Prize for
Girls competition, held on September 22 at MIT. 12 TJ students qualified for the annual
event! Victoria Xia (2014) finished 1st among the 263 contestants, receiving a $25,000
prize and qualifying for the Math Prize for Girls Olympiad. Ivy Ren (2014), Jung Yoon
(Sara) Kim (2015), and Saroja Erabelli (2015) all received Honorable Mentions. Eight
other TJ students also participated in this prestigious competition: Julie Kim (2014),
Veronica Lee (2014), Wendy Sun (2014), Haarika Chalasani (2016), Sreya Atluri
(2015), Kritika Singh (2016), Ashley Kim (2016), and Nalini Singh (2013).
On Saturday November 3, the Varsity Math Team hosted over 200 middle school
students for the TJ Intermediate Math Open. TJ students wrote all of the problems and
coached teams of six or seven students. This was our largest tournament ever and was
very successful. We are grateful to Raytheon for the $3,000 donation that helped make
this event possible.
At the Duke University Math Meet, Victoria Xia placed 4th in the individual rankings,
and all five TJ teams were quite successful. The A team was 3rd, the B team was 8th, the
D team was 15th, and the C team was 19th. The students who participated were: A team:
Ildoo Kim, Remy Lee, Joseph Park, Ivy Ren, Victoria Xia, Veronica Lee; B team:
Brian Shi, Owen Gray, Tim Zhong, Archis Bhandarkar, Doo Won Kang, Wendy
Sun; C team: Katie Ho, Winston Ou, Ritwik Anand, Kyu Kim, Julie Kim, Rohan
Banerjee; D team: Pooja Chandrashekar, Sushrutha Reddy, David Zhao, Joon Suh
Kwun, Brandon Pang, Sreenath Are; and E Team: Daniel Carris, Byum Ho Jang,
Jason Lee, Ankit Goyal, Daniel Ju, Andrew Yang. Thanks to the team member parents
and faculty sponsors, Mrs. Margaret Coffey & Mrs. Amy Nicholson for accompanying
the team.
On November 17, 16 team members headed to Princeton for the 7th Annual Princeton
University Math Competition. This is an extremely challenging contest, which draws
students from all over the east coast as well as teams from China, Bulgaria, and Croatia.
The students who participated were: A team: Victoria Xia, Ildoo Kim, Joseph Park,
Veronica Lee, Remy Lee, Parker Won, Ivy Ren, and Matthew Park; B team: Andrew
Tao, Sara Kim, Kevin Au, Abraham (Yongkoo) Kang, Thomas Lee, Alex Dalzell,
Hariank Muthakana, and Tim Cha. Thanks to our volunteers Mr. Park & Mrs.
Chalasani for driving, and to faculty sponsors Mrs. Hana Rhee & Mrs. Amy Nicholson
for driving and accompanying the team.
In February, 24 students traveled to the Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament and
another 24 students traveled to the Johns Hopkins Math Tournament. In April, 36
students came in on a Saturday to compete in the ARML Local Competition.
A team of TJ students competed in the Moody’s Mega Math Challenge in March. The
contest is sponsored by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. It challenges
teams of five students to use mathematical models to solve real world problems. It
requires students to use knowledge from math, computer science, science, and technology
courses as well as to apply their skills in research and writing. The TJ team was among
175 selected as semifinalists from 1054 submitted projects. Congratulations go to the
team of: Sreenath Are (2014), Julie Kim (2014), Archis Bhandarkar (2014), Rohan
Bannerjee (2014), and Nalini Singh (2013). The team received an Honorable Mention
award and won $1,000!!
Thirteen students qualified for the USA Math Olympiad. This is a nine-hour, proof-based
test given over two days. Senior Sohail Farhangi, juniors Victoria Xia and Lucas
Kang, sophomore Ildoo Kim, and freshman Robin Park took the USAMO test.
Sophomores Saroja Erabelli, Sara Kim, Matthew Park and Sushrutha Reddy and
freshmen Allen Cheng, Samuel Hsiang, Samuel Kim, and Kevin Lin took the USA
Junior Math Olympiad. Special congratulations to Sohail Farhangi and Samuel Hsiang
who were both runner-ups on their respective tests, placing them in the top twenty-or-so
in the nation! As a result of the USA(J)MO, Victoria Xia and Robin Park have been
invited to attend the Math Olympiad Summer Program this June.
Our final contest is the American Regions Mathematics League, an international
competition on June 1. TJ was represented at Penn State by 3 teams of 15 students. We
did not have the results as of the publication of this program.
Special thanks to our team sponsors Ms. Allard, Ms. Coffey, Ms. Nicholson and Ms.
Rhee.
Model United Nations
Secretary-General: Zach Hosseinipour
Undersecretary-Generals: Kyle Angelotti and Saniya Suri
Senator: Dhruv Bansal
Arbitrator: Varun Jain
Academic Boosters Coordinator: Kevin Cao
Activities Coordinators: Connor Hennessey-Niland, Ashrit Bagali, Michelle Wang,
and Pritty Dwivedy
Crisis Czars: Romita Mandal and Parth Chopra
Fundraising Coordinators: Jay Hebert, Vikram Sardana, and Kartik Gupta
General Meetings Coordinator: Jason Huang
Historians: Rachel Merriman-Goldring and Sreya Atluri
Secretary: Aidan Hennessey-Niland
Treasurers: Yena Seo and Namita Kansal
Webmasters: Garrett Shapiro and Jay Devanathan
This year, TJ’s Model United Nations Club attended two national conferences, William
& Mary High School Model United Nations (WMHSMUN) and the Ivy League Model
United Nations Conference (ILMUNC), hosted by the University of Pennsylvania.
Students also attended three local conferences, Prince William Model United Nations
(PWMUN), Chantilly High School Model United Nations (CHMUN), and Osbourn Park
Model United Nations Conference (OPMUNC).
Note: The highest award for an individual is a gavel, followed by outstanding, honorable,
and verbal awards. Verbal awards are not provided here, but you can find them in the
monthly Techcetera publication. When two students’ names are listed together, it
indicates that they were part of a two-person delegation.
WMHSMUN AWARDS:
TJ students performed well at WMHSMUN, a prestigious conference with extremely
competitive committees, earning TJ the award for Outstanding Large Delegation.
• Gavel: Andrew Howard & Will Frank, Romita Mandal, Saniya Suri, Naveed
Mostaghimi, Yena Seo, Rachel Merriman-Goldring
• Outstanding: Frank Sammartino & Stav Nachum, Azeez Abdikarim & Dennis
Kim, Carrie Murton, Aidan Hennesey-Niland, Varun Jain, Kevin Cao
• Honorable: Sreya Atluri & Sage Teasely, Ashrit Bagali & Kartik Gupta, Zach
Hosseinipour, Connor Hennesey-Niland, Jason Huang
PWMUN AWARDS:
• Gavel: Geetika Lal & Omar Saravic, Garrett Shapiro & Betsy Goodwin,
Shreya Bhatia & Virginia Sun, Sreya Atluri & Anant Das, Naveed
Mostaghimi, Parth Chopra.
• Outstanding: Harleen Bal & Deepa Issar, Avinash Ramesh & David Gao,
Spencer Weiss & Patrick Ryan, Yena Seo & Jay Hebert, Sage Teasley, Stav
Nachum & Aishwarya Nugooru, Sarthak Sahu & Kevin Zhang, Jason Huang,
Kyle Angelotti, Varun Jain, Rachel Merriman-Goldring.
• Honorable: Prajeeth Koyada & Charith Ratnayake, Peter Rohrer & Frank
Sammartino, Carrie Murton & Nisha Swarup, Julia Casazza & Brandon Kim,
William Woodruff & Justin Yum, Andrew Kim & Zach Moser, Conrad
Gehrki & Solomon Shewit, Rishabh Mazmudar & Saad Guliwal, Connor
Hennesey-Niland.
TJMUN GLOBAL [Inaugural TJMUN Global event welcomes younger students]:
Our Model UN club hosted the first annual TJMUN Global, an event aimed at elementary
and middle school students interested in politics and foreign affairs. We had three
excellent guest speakers: Peter Mollema (the Deputy Head of Mission from the
Netherlands), Greg Scarlatoiu (Director of the Committee for Human Rights in North
Korea), and Erin Renner (Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for Public
Affairs.) This event included booths and performances by the following clubs: Slava
(Russian), Vietnamese Students Association, Japanese Culture Club, Korean Culture
Club, German Honor Society, Amnesty International, Muslim Students Association,
GIVE, Namaste, Hispanic Alliance, Chinese Honor Society, What’s Up Education, Relay
for Life, Spanish Honor Society, French Honor Society, TJ Choir, and TJ Drama.
CHMUN AWARDS:
• School Award: Undersecretary General’s Award for Best Large School
• Gavel: Kyle Angelotti & Somya Shankar, Saniya Suri & Kevin Cao, Rishabh
Mazmudar & Saad Guliwala
• Outstanding: Nathaniel Taylor & Vikram Sardana, Keven Zheng & Sarthak
Sahu, Prajeet Koyada, Ashwin Basana & Arjun Iyer, Justin Yum, Ashley
Hwang, Varun Jain, Parth Chopra, Andrew Howard, Rachel MerrimanGoldring
• Honorable: Zach Moser & Carrie Murton, Jason Huang, Frank Sammartino
& Peter Rohrer, Shohini Gupta & Jeewoo Kim, Ani Surumpudi & Vamsi
Budur, Noah Shin & Mehmet Aslan, Shreya Bhatia & Virginia Sun, Anant
Das
ILMUNC AWARDS:
TJ's Model UN club attended the 29th annual Ivy League Model United Nations
Conference (ILMUNC) at the University of Pennsylvania from January 24 to January 27.
All TJMUN members performed well at this prestigious conference, with extremely
competitive committees.
• Gavel: Zach Hosseinipour, Rachel Merriman-Goldring
• Outstanding: Virginia Sun & Shreya Bhatia, Sreya Atluri & Stav Nachum,
Kyle Angelotti, Romita Mandal
• Honorable: Will Frank & Andrew Howard, Matt Alexander & Noah Shin,
Connor Hennessey-Niland, Saniya Suri, Keven Zhang & Sarthak Sahu
TECHMUN:
TJMUN hosted its annual conference on March 1st and 2nd. It was a resounding success
with several hundred delegates attending, and more than 100 TJ students staffing the
conference.
OPMUNC AWARDS:
• Gavel: Varun Jain & Aidan Hennessey-Niland, Jason Huang & Keshav Rao,
Stav Nachum & Aishwarya Nugooru, Sudamsh Tippireddy & Mathew
Alexander
• Outstanding: Becca Merriman-Goldring & Rachel Merriman-Goldring,
Sarthak Sahu & Keven Zhang, Shohini Gupta, Naveed Mostaghimi
• Honorable: Julia Cassaza & Kritika Singh, Prajeeth Koyada & Charith
Ratnayake, Yuvraj Puri & Puneeth Uttla, Rhamy Belayachi & Omar
Saracevic
THANK YOUs:
We would like to thank our fabulous faculty sponsor, Senora Pou. We couldn’t ask for a
better sponsor; she’s enthusiastic, incredibly hardworking, and of course, hilarious. And
from all of the graduating seniors “We’ll miss you Senora Pou!!!”
In addition, thank you to our parent volunteers who have worked so diligently helping
make our local conferences, national conferences, and events a success. Special thanks go
out to Ginger Reich and Kirsten Hildenbrant for their aid at TechMUN and their huge
help at local conferences.
Odyssey of the Mind
TJ’s Odyssey of the Mind (OM) team has been very busy this year participating in and
hosting competitions. Three teams competed at the regional tournament and qualified for
the Virginia State Tournament. We are very excited to announce that two teams qualified
for the OM World Finals at Michigan State University (May 22nd through 25th, 2013).
The team members attending Worlds are Sravani Korupolu, Samiksha Kosaraju,
Surya Gourneni, and Naveen Ambati in the Pet Project problem and Kaushik
Venkatesh, Tarun Vippa, Shrey Gupta, Shubham Gupta, and Jay Gupta in the
Tumble-Wood problem. Best of luck to both teams!
The OM officers, Bobby Huddleston, Shahida Mizan, Megha Vipani, Keshav Rao,
Jason Huang, and Yana Kaplun, had great success in organizing and hosting the annual
OM Spontaneous Invitational at TJ on February 9th. Over 130 elementary and middle
school teams from the DC area attended this tournament, which gave them a chance to
practice their teamwork and creative problem solving in a competitive setting before
competing in the Regional OM Tournament. The officer board, volunteers, and sponsor,
Ms. Zupancic, worked tirelessly to make sure the tournament went off without a hitch.
Many thanks to the dedicated (and patient!) TJ volunteers who helped make this year’s
Spontaneous Invitational the most successful one yet.
TJ Odyssey would like to thank our incredible sponsor, Ms. Zupancic, for all her time
and dedication to the TJ OM program this season. Without her enthusiasm and support,
TJ’s participation in World Finals and the TJ Spontaneous Invitational would have been
impossible. We could not have been luckier with our new faculty sponsor, and look
forward to working with her again next year.
We would also like to give a final farewell to our officers Bobby Huddleston
(President), Shahida Mizan (Volunteer Coordinator), and Megha Vipani (Webmaster),
who will be graduating this year. Their work the past four years to keep the TJ OM
program alive has been inspiring, and although we will miss them terribly, we wish them
all the best and know that they will do amazing things in college.
Physics Team
This year, Physics Team met every Monday 8th Period to practice for
the USA Physics Olympiad (USAPHO).
TJ did very well on the USAPHO exams this year!
In February, about 80 members of TJ’s Physics Team took the USA
Physics Olympiad’s F=ma exam. Nationwide, approximately 3,200
students took this first-round exam. The top-scoring students advanced to the Semifinal
round of competition, of which TJ had eight this year. Congratulations to Sreenath Are,
Alexander Atanasov, Shankar Balasubramaniam, Owen Gray, Videh Seksaria,
Kalki Seksaria, Parker Won, and Victoria Xia.
Based on the semifinal results, Owen Gray was invited to be one of 20 students
nationwide to attend the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) Camp. He has accepted
that invitation, and will be competing to be one of the five of those 20 to be placed on the
U.S. Physics Olympiad team.
Additionally, 40 of the Physics Team members took the Physics Bowl Exam this year. TJ
did extremely well and was the highest scoring Division 1 school outside the top 2 of
our region. For more information, see:
http://www3.delta.edu/michaelfaleski/physicsbowl/PhysicsBowl_2013_Results.pdf
Special thanks to our team sponsors, Mr. Forbes and Dr. Dell!
Policy Debate Team
It was a banner year for the TJ Policy Debate Team. TJ Policy
Debate Team is the 2013 Virginia High School League (VHSL)
Co-State Champions; winner of the VA State National Forensics
League (NFL) Tournament with top two teams; Washington Area
Catholic Forensics League (WACFL) #1 Qualifier at MetroFinals with two teams qualifying for the national competition; and competing this spring
and summer in the National Catholic League Championships and the National Forensics
League Championship. This success is due in a large part to all six of the varsity
members: Nick Kim, Rishi Khanna, Richard Wang, Yana Kaplun, Jamie Kim, and
Lucas Lin and their coach Shree Answare.
VHSL Co-State Policy Debate Champions
Team: Richard Wang & Lucas Lin (Co-Regional Champ, Co-District Champ)
Team: Nick Kim & Yana Kaplun (w/ Rishi Khanna – Co-Regional Champ, Co-District
Champ)
Winner of Overall VHSL State Forensics Championship
VA NFL Qualifier Co-Champs (Qualifiers for NFL National Championships)
Team: Yana Kaplun & Jamie Kim
Team: Richard Wang & Lucas Lin
WACFL Metro Finals Top 6 (Qualifers for NCFL Championship)
Team: Richard Wang & Lucas Lin
Team: Nick Kim & Rishi Khanna
Quarterfinalist at National Tournament Pensbury
Team: Richard Wang & Lucas Lin
Semi-Finalist at JMU Invitational
Team: Richard Wang & Lucas Lin
Policy Debate JV & Novice
Jessica Covan and Sravani Korupolu made it to the semifinals of the JV WACFL
Metro Finals Tournament. At the JMU Tournament Jessica and Sravani also advanced to
the semifinals. Also at the JMU Invitational Tournament Sami Kosaraju and Gwen
Blasco made it to the Novice semi-finals and Andrew Choi and Katherine Yan made it
to the finals in their first tournament.
It was the best season TJ Policy Debate Team has ever had and with a lot of young talent
we look forward to an exciting 2013-2014 season. Thank you to our teacher sponsor,
Mr. Scott Campbell.
Public Forum Debate Team
The Public Forum team was successful at the WACFL 1 tournament.
In the Varsity division, the team of Varun Jain & Zartosht Ahlers
placed 3rd with a 3-1 record, and the team of Chandan Singh &
Vishal Talasani placed 5th with a 3-1 record. In the Junior Varsity
division, Varun Arkalgud & Pranav Gulati placed 1st with a 4-0
record. Additionally, the team of Danny Wang & Jeffrey Xia placed 6th with a 3-1
record. The teams of Valerie Chen & Kevin Xu as well as Dhruv Gupta & Srijith
Poduval both earned the first half of their qualification to JV Metrofinals.
Public Forum competed at WACFL 2 in mid-November. In JV, four of the top six teams
came from TJ, and all qualified for Metrofinals as a result of these finishes:
Kiran Girish & Sahana Ramani placed 3rd, Hannah Wied & Pegah Moradi placed 4th,
Dhruv Gupta & Srijith Poduval placed 5th, Valerie Chen & Kevin Xu placed 6th. In
addition, Sudhamsh Tippireddy & Deepanshu Singh placed 7th in the competition.
At WACFL 4, the Public Forum team took four of the top 10 spots in Junior Varsity. The
team of Rohan Saini & Ani Chandra took 1st place, the team of Sudhamsh Tippireddy
& Deepanshu Singh took 3rd place, the team of Tai Kao-Sowa & Chantal Iosso took 8th
place, and the team of Hasan Ahmad & Nathan Chuwait took 9th place.
The Public Forum Debate team competed at the George Mason University Patriot Games
Classic in early December. Three out of the eight teams that competed for TJ broke to the
double-octofinals, which consisted of 16 matchups, with two teams per matchup. Nicolas
Kim & Carrie Sun had a perfect record (5-0) in the preliminary round; their team was
the 3rd seed going into the elimination round. Ji Hun Kim & Sharon Zhao were also 5-0
in the preliminary round, and were the 4th seed going into the elimination round. Aileen
Huang & Anthony Uitz went 3-2 in the preliminary round, and were the 32nd seed going
into the elimination round.
Thanks to our teacher sponsor, Mr. Pollet.
Quizbowl
Co-Captains: Sarah Eltinge and Raynor Kuang
Tournament Directors: Nadege Aoki and Sarah Eltinge
Treasurer: Ranjani Parthasarathy
Webmaster: Sid Verma
Secretary: Kunal Debroy
Personnel Officer: Zach Moser
TJ Quizbowl has had a victorious year, thanks to the generous
support of Academic Boosters and our two coaches, Ms. Jennifer Seavey and Mr. John
Laffey.
An undefeated team of juniors Nadege Aoki and Sid Verma and seniors Sarah Eltinge
and Raynor Kuang brought the Virginia High School League Scholastic Bowl state
trophy to TJ for the 11th time this February. In order to make it to the state tournament,
the team first played in the Liberty District and Northern Region competitions, at which
they were also undefeated.
Our It’s Academic TV show team has also had unprecedented success this year. A team
of Sarah Eltinge, Raynor Kuang, and Sid Verma won third place in the final round
against teams from Blake and Churchill High Schools, an achievement never before
reached by a TJ team. In order to progress to this round, the team had to defeat opponents
from Blair and Langley High Schools in the semifinal round and Georgetown Day School
and Bullis High School in the playoff rounds. In the first round, a team of Raynor
Kuang, Sid Verma, and senior Betsy Goodwin beat teams from Gaithersburg and
National Cathedral School. The semifinal round will air on NBC4 at 10:30 AM on June
22, and the final round will air at 10:30 AM on June 29.
In addition to these achievements, we have had great success in our regular season
tournaments. Four teams of freshmen and sophomores attended a fall novice tournament
hosted by Richard Montgomery High School on October 6. The undefeated TJ A,
consisting of freshmen Ryan Golant, Junyoung Hwang, Michael Tang, and Tiger
Zhang, won first place in a field of 30 teams. TJ B, consisting of freshmen Emma Fan,
Joanna Gerr, Jonathan Gannon, Lavanya Shukla, and Rohan Yaradi, won fourth
place. In addition, Ranjani Parthasarthy of TJ C was the fourth-highest individual
scorer at the tournament. The fall novice tournament is an annual event and a wonderful
opportunity for freshmen to get involved in Quizbowl. We were thrilled to have such a
great turnout this year!
On December 15, we hosted the annual Thomas Jefferson Invitational Academic
Tournament, or TJIAT. Twenty-seven teams were in attendance, and the tournament was
certified platinum by the Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence (PACE),
meaning it was very well-run and the question set used was of exceptional quality. Many
club members volunteered to help staff the tournament, which was run by students,
Nadege Aoki and Sarah Eltinge, and coach, Jennifer Seavey.
We have also attended many other tournaments this school year, the full results of which
are not listed here in the interest of space. TJ A placed in the top five teams at every
tournament, with senior superstars Raynor Kuang and Luke Waddell frequently
topping the lists of individual scorers.
Due to these successes, TJ Quizbowl qualified two teams for each of two different
national tournaments. The High School National Championship Tournament (HSCNT),
which is run by National Academic Quiz Tournaments, was held in Atlanta, GA on May
24-26. The National Scholastic Championship (NSC), which is run by the Partnership for
Academic Competition Excellence (PACE) was held at the University of Maryland,
College Park on June 8-9.
Rocketry Club
The TJ SLI rocketry team started the year by refurbishing and
flying last year’s SLI rocket as a training flight. The team reports
that the “complicated dual-dual-deployment flight was a complete
success”!
For the non-rocket scientist readers, “dual deployment” means that
a small drogue parachute is deployed at apogee (the highest point in the rocket’s flight) to
slow it down some. Then, at a much lower altitude – as measured and controlled by an
altimeter – a large main ‘chute is deployed. If this is not done, the rocket can end up
miles away (literally!) and will probably be lost.
Two more complications: the deployments are accomplished by pyrotechnic charges
(black powder) controlled and fired by electronics. Also, NASA requires a redundant
system; meaning two altimeters each controlling separate pyrotechnic charges to deploy
the parachutes. It’s remarkable that it all works as planned – and sometimes it doesn’t.
A team of TJ students competed in NASA’s Student Launch Project Challenge. They’re
among just 20 high school teams in the United States that qualified for the competition.
The challenge includes building their own rockets with working, retrievable payloads,
and ensuring that they can reach a target altitude of one mile.
Two of TJ’s rocketry teams qualified for the Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC)
National Competition. In the TARC, teams fly their rockets, aiming for an altitude of 750
feet and a total flight time of 48–50 seconds. The rockets carried a raw egg that has to
survive unbroken. Points are assessed for missing both altitude and time -- the lower the
score, the better. From 44 states, 725 teams registered for the challenge. The top 100
teams were invited to the national TARC competition. TJ had two of the five teams from
the Commonwealth of Virginia to make it to nationals. One of the two TJ rocketry teams
that made it to the Nationals finished in 2nd place!
Once all 100 teams had flown, the lowest 24 scoring teams flew again. The final results
were based on the sum of the two scores. Not only did the TJ team score 2nd, but they had
– by far – the best (lowest) 2nd flight score of any team. They missed 1st place by less than
three points. Team members are Ai Mochida, Sonia Thakur, David Guo, Takeshi
Mochida, Sweta Karlekar, Matthew Hwang, and Changen Pan.
Special thanks to team coach and sponsor, Mr. Duncan Forbes!
Rubik’s Cube
The Rubik’s Cube Club returned for its third year, with its
success at two consecutive “You Can Do the Cube”
competitions at the USA Science and Engineering
Festivals the past two years leading to renewed interest this
year. The Rubik’s Cube Club was able to purchase several
new types of puzzles, as well as publicize our success and
encourage the growth of the club.
In December several members of the club attended a WCA
tournament at Carnegie Mellon University. President,
Chris Mercado and Sponsor, Ms. Conklin brought several new team members to the
event: David Zhao (9), Rushi Shah (9), Shirley Wang (9), Devin Kim (9), Eli Lifland,
and Alex Wendt (10). Eli Lifland won a top award for solving the 3x3 in 12.4 seconds!
The Rubik’s Cube Club sponsor, Ms. Conklin, and returning members Asa Kaplan (11),
Chris Mercado (12), Alex Wundt (10), Albert Chuang (10), and Peter Gunnarson
(10) worked together to grow and maintain the club. Several eager students attended each
Friday’s B block meeting to learn how to solve Rubik’s Cube-type puzzles from the more
experienced members or to just solve cubes with friends. During the month of March,
select members began to practice for the third annual “You Can Do the Rubik’s Cube”
competition. Returning members teamed up with freshmen Eli Lifland (9), David Zhao
(9), and Devin Kim (9). They practiced over six hours per week as a team and countless
hours at home to prepare for the event. Chris Mercado, team captain, did an excellent
job leading the team during practices and at the competition.
The “You Can Do the Rubik’s Cube” competition was held on April 6. The Thomas
Jefferson Rubik’s Cube Team emerged victorious and set a world record for the event.
Every finalist team was there to compete, and three teams posted times under two
minutes (for comparison, no teams at the prior competition achieved this, including TJ).
With the top three teams posting times of 1:39.2, 1:50.7, and 1:53.2, we can see that
every team has improved dramatically, and next year we surely shall see a time that will
surpass TJ’s record, and the current world record, of 1:39.2.
Ms. Conklin, Asa Kaplan, Peter Gunnarson, and Eli Lifland will attend the World
Cubing Association World Championship this summer in Las Vegas, Nevada!
Science Bowl
TJHSST placed 9th in the National Science Bowl Finals, winning
$1,000 for the high school’s science department.
The TJHSST team included seniors Kalki Seksaria and Alec
Brenner; junior Owen Gray; sophomore Janice Ong; and freshman
Ross Dempsey. The team is coached by Mary Ann Donohue, who
teaches math at TJHSST.
In the ninth round of the national tournament, TJHSST defeated the
eventual tournament champion Mira Loma High School (California),
but later lost to Mira Loma in the elimination finals.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Science Bowl is a nationwide
academic competition that tests students' knowledge in all areas of science. Teams of four
students, plus one alternate, are quizzed on biology, chemistry, physics, earth and space
science, energy, and math in a question-and-answer format similar to Jeopardy.
This year, more than 9,000 high school students on nearly 1,900 teams competed in the
National Science Bowl, which is one of the nation’s largest science competitions. More
than 225,000 students have participated in the National Science Bowl throughout its 22year history.
For more information: http://science.energy.gov/wdts/nsb/
DOE News Release: http://energy.gov/articles/students-california-and-indiana-win-doe-s23rd-national-science-bowl.
Science Olympiad
Captain: Katie Hsia
Vice Captain: Hillary Liu
Secretary and Historian: Emma Puranen
Treasurer: Jonathan Lee
Webmaster: Austin Ralls
Science Olympiad is an 8th period club where students compete in a variety of scientific
disciplines. Four years ago, this club started out as not much more than an advertisement
flyer and a team of bright, diligent students. But their accomplishments this year, 1st and
6th at Regionals, 1st at States, and 25th out of 60 teams at Nationals (the highest in a
decade for Div C in VA), demonstrate how far this club has come.
At the state tournament, TJ took home eight 1st, two 2nd, and four 3rd place finishes.
Our 1st place winners:
• Austin Ralls and Emma Puranen in Astronomy
• Amy Chen and Christine Nguyen in Designer Genes
• Billie Males and Emma Puranen in Dynamic Planet
• Avand Lakmazaheri and Katie Hsia in Forensics
• Jake Cui and Andy Zhao in Gravity Vehicle
• Brother/sister team Ava and Avand Lakmazaheri in Robot Arm
• Ryan Gottwald and Jake Cui in Roller Coaster
• Jonathan Lee and Sparsh Gupta in Thermodynamics
Our 2nd place winners:
• Amy Chen and Katie Hsia in Disease Detectives
• Austin Ralls and Sunlee Stechuk in Rocks and Minerals
Our 3rd place winners:
• Avand Lakmazaheri and Sashank Thupukari in Circuit Lab
• Sashank Thupukari and Sunlee Stechuk in Forestry
• Amy Chen and Katie Hsia in Material Science
• Abha Agrawal and Gerry Wan in Green Generation
We were thrilled to achieve our goal of going to Nationals this year. A HUGE congrats
to Austin Ralls and Sparsh Gupta for placing 2nd in Technical Problem Solving at
Nationals! Next year we hope to once again go to Nationals and improve our state’s
overall standing. We also hope to be competing in Roller Coaster…a Virginia event that
is under consideration for National adoption.
Special thanks to team coach and sponsor, Mrs. Holman!
Academic Boosters Donors, 2012–2013
Platinum ($500 - $999)
Tushar Govil (2014)
David (2014) and Christina (2015) Zhao
Kyle (2015) and Derek (2015) Zhou
Gold ($250 - $499)
Kira Becker (2015)
Arvind Chava (2016)
Alexander Dalzell (2013)
Ross Dempsey (2016)
Joanna Gerr (2016)
Nidhi (2014) and Neeraj (2013) Gandhi
Owen Gray (2014)
Aidan (2015) and Connor (2014)
Hennessey-Niland
Katherine Ho (2013)
Zacharia Hosseinipour (2013)
Satvika Kumar (2016)
Avand (2014) and Ava (2016) Lakmazaheri
Gabriel Margolis (2016)
Rachel (2013) and Rebecca (2015)
Merriman-Goldring
Nadia Mushtaq (2016)
Hariank Muthakana (2015)
Janice Ong (2015)
Seung Young (Joseph) Park (2013)
Sahana Ramani (2016)
CheyAnne Rivera (2014)
Arthur Tisseront (2016)
Sidharth Verma (2014)
Ethan Voytko (2013)
Christina Wei (2016)
Victoria Xia (2014)
Silver ($100 - $249)
Sreya Atluri (2015)
Ashrit Bagali (2013)
Shankar Balasubramanian (2015)
Rohan Banerjee (2014)
Collin Berman (2013)
Archis Bhandarkar (2014)
Shreya Bhatia (2016)
William Bradbury (2014)
Alec Brenner (2013)
Steven Bunting (2014)
Shirley Burt (2015)
Miranda Callahan (2014)
Anthony Carrington (2014)
Julia Casazza (2015)
Amy Chen (2013)
Calvin Chen (2016)
Allen Cheng (2016)
Lucy Chu (2014)
Andrew Coffee (2014)
Patrick Do (2015)
Louise Epstein (PTSA President Emeritus)
Saroja Erabelli (2015)
Remy Freire (2015)
Adam Friedman (2014)
Giancarlo Frix (2016)
Jordan Ganley (2016)
David Gao (2013)
June Ge (2015)
Anthara Gnanakumar (2016)
Anurag Goel (2013)
Suhas Gondi (2013)
Elizabeth (Betsy) Goodwin (2013)
Ryan Gottwald (2016)
Sonia Gupta (2016)
Nicholas Haliday (2013)
Emma Hastings (2014)
Andrew Haymaker (2015)
Samuel Hsiang (2016)
Jason Hu (2015)
Lauren Huang (2013)
Robert Huddleston (2013)
Kevin (2013) and Matthew (2016) Huo
Junyoung Hwang (2016)
Sriram Iyer (2015)
Rishub Jain (2015)
Krishnaprasad Jayaraj (2014)
Doo Won Kang (2014)
Arun Kannan (2015)
Kunal Khurana (2014)
Hyo Won Kim (2016)
Jung Yoon Kim (2015)
Matthew Kramer (2015)
Raynor Kuang (2013)
Josh Kweon (2014)
Thai-An Le (2015)
Jason Lee (2013)
Meredith Lee (2016)
Remy Lee (2013)
Seon-Yong Lee (2013)
Diana Li (2013)
Brian Li (2015)
Richard Li (2015)
Kun Liu (2013)
Ray Liu (2016)
Thomas Lunn (2014)
Rahul Majumdar (2014)
Cyrus Malekpour (2013)
Shreya Mandava (2016)
Shuvam Mishra (2015)
Olivia Moffett (2015)
John (Jack) Morris (2015)
Christopher Morris (2016)
Priyanka Nair (2014)
Julian Nguyen (2014)
Richard Oh (2015)
Winston Ou (2015)
Brandon Pang (2013)
Yoobin Park (2016)
Matthew Park (2015)
Jennifer Peng (2013)
Hrishikesh Pramod (2016)
Austin Ralls (2013)
Kavya Ravikanti (2016)
Sushrutha Reddy (2015)
Ivy Ren (2014)
Bronze ($50 - $99)
Azzez (2015) and Iman (2013) Abdikarim
Sreya Addanki (2015)
Zartosht Ahlers (2014)
Shadin Ahmed (2015)
Mathew Alexander (2015)
Kyle Angelotti (2013)
Nadege Aoki (2014)
Mustafa Bal (2015)
Swathi Balakrishnan (2015)
Anusha (2016) and Ashwin (2014) Basana
Gwendolyn Blasco (2015)
Kevin Cao (2013)
Daniel Carris (2014)
Tianrui Ren (2016)
Aidan San (2016)
Jay Sebastian (2013)
Neilayan Sen (2008)
Bobbie Sheng (2015)
Noah Shin (2015)
Kritika Singh (2016)
Arisa Smith (2013)
Hari Sridhar (2014)
Daniel Suzuki (2014)
Nita Takanti (2014)
Vishal Talasani (2014)
Nimish Todi (2013)
Benjamin Trans (2015)
Christine Tsou (2014)
Ellis Tsung (2015)
Sai Puneeth Uttla (2015)
Vamsi Veeramasu (2014)
Tarun Vippa (2016)
Zachary Wade (2015)
John Wilkes (2014)
Katherine Wu (2013)
Ashley Xue (2014)
Jennifer Yin (2014)
Shirley Zhan (2016)
Tiger Zhang (2016)
William Zhang (2016)
Reed Zhang (2016)
Aaron (2014) and Andrew (2016) Zhao
Tim Zhong (2014)
Emily Zhou (2014)
Timothy Cha (2015)
Abhijith Reddy Chaganti (2015)
Priya Chandrasekaran (2015)
Arianna Chen (2015)
Valerie Chen (2016)
Yike Chen (2015)
Andrew Corzo (2014)
Jessica Covan (2015)
Shritika Dahal (2016)
Anmol Das (2015)
James Day (2014)
Natalie Diaz (2015)
Nancy Ding (2013)
Jagan Doodala (2016)
Emma Fan (2016)
Jennifer Fang (2015)
Perry Feng (2016)
Daniel Fontenot (2014)
Donald Frank (2016)
Andrew Freix (2013)
Shreyas Garg (2015)
Ryan Golant (2016)
Abinand Gopal (2014)
Revathy Gopalakrishna (2016)
Vivek Gorijala (2013)
Angela Goyal (2016)
Ankit Goyal (2014)
Monica Grover (2014)
Deepika Gudavalli (2016)
Nihar Gudiseva (2015)
Pranav Gulati (2016)
Kartik Gupta (2013)
Shohini Gupta (2016)
Shubham Gupta (2016)
Katherine Hao (2014)
Owen Hoffman (2014)
Katherine Hough (2014)
Andrew Howard (2016)
Katie Hsia (2013)
Olivia Hsu (2015)
David Hu (2015)
Aileen Huang (2013)
Gabriela Huckabee (2016)
Matthew Hwang (2016)
Catherine Im (2016)
Isaac Iyengar (2016)
Rishub Jain (2015)
Ryan Jian (2014)
Andrew Jiao (2016)
Connor Jones (2016)
Joslyn Jung (2016)
Saehee Jung (2014)
Amrutha Kadali (2016)
Tarun Kamath (2016)
Abraham Kang (2014)
Lucas Kang (2014)
Nolan Kataoka (2015)
Prerana Katiyar (2016)
Rishi Khanna (2013)
Christopher Kim (2014)
Julie Kim (2014)
Ki Wan Kim (2015)
Peter Kim (2015)
Samuel Kim (2016)
Stella Kim (2009)
Anna Klaussen (2016)
Niharika Kokkirala (2016)
Likhitha Kolla (2014)
Nikki Kothari (2016)
Prajeeth Kumar Koyada (2014)
Rohan Krishnan (2013)
Jason Lam (2016)
Linda Lay (2014)
Vivian Le (2014)
Jonathan Lee (2014)
Sebastian Lerner (2013)
Alexander Li (2013)
Andrew Li (2016)
Hans Li (2016)
Eli Lifland (2016)
Kevin Lin (2016)
Brandon Liu (2015)
Jeffrey Liu (2016)
Sienna Lotenberg (2014)
Michael Mace (2016)
Kalyan Madanapalli (2015)
Ghnana Madineni (2016)
Billie Males (2015)
Anudeep Mangu (2014)
Yash Maniar (2013)
Olivia Marcantonio (2016)
Eric McCord-Snook (2015)
Cheryl Mensah (2016)
Madeline Meyers (2015)
Austin Mills (2016)
Paris Mitzelfeld (2015)
Soobin Moon (2015)
Gavin Moore (2015)
Caroline Murton (2014)
Newton Nagirimadugu (2015)
Thuy-Vi Nguyen (2016)
Tram-Anh Nguyen (2013)
Vinh Nguyen (2015)
Aishwarya Nugooru (2015)
Nathan Ouyang (2014)
John Park (2015)
Revathy Pillai (2016)
Rebecca Poch (2013)
Srijith Poduval (2016)
Sri Raksha Pothapragada (2016)
Peter Price (2013)
Shreya Punya (2015)
Vooha Putalapattu (2016)
Priya (2014) and Priyanka (2014) Raju
Nikhil Ramachandran (2016)
Avinash Ramesh (2013)
Raghav (2016) and Rahul (2014) Ramraj
Charith Ratnayake (2014)
Sumved Ravi (2015)
Peter (2016) and Sam (2014) Rohrer
Zane Rossi (2015)
Charles (2016) and Timothy (2014) Ruiter
Patrick Ryan (2016)
Will (2016) and Seok (2016) Ryu
Rashi Sahai (2013)
Frank Sammartino (2016)
Vikram Sardana (2015)
Matthew Savage (2015)
Clarissa Scoggins (2016)
Hyae In Seo (2013)
Yena Seo (2014)
Garrett Shapiro (2013)
Rhea Sharma (2015)
Oliver Shi (2015)
Parag Shukla (2014)
Pranay Singh (2016)
Andrew Snyder (2014)
Siva Somayyajula (2015)
Miryeng Song (2016)
Anirudh Sridhar (2015)
Mira Sridharan (2016)
Nandan Srinivasa (2015)
Daniel Stiffler (2014)
Matthew Sun (2016)
Justin Sun (2015)
Saniya (2013) and Ananya (2016) Suri
Nisha Swarup (2014)
Sonia Thakur (2014)
Sudhamsh Tippireddy (2015)
Aleesha Toteja (2015)
Jonathan Towne (2014)
Lalit Sairam Varada (2015)
Abhilaash Velamati (2016)
Kaushik Venkatesh (2016)
Henry Wang (2016)
Joie Wang (2016)
Spencer Weiss (2016)
Alexander Wendt (2015)
Alana Whitman (2013)
Phoebe Whitmore (2016)
Brian Womeldurf (2014)
William Woodruff (2014)
Melissa Wu (2015)
Jeffrey Xia (2016)
Haitian Xie (2014)
Kevin Xu (2016)
Hitesh Yalamanchili (2016)
Stella Yang (2016)
Gang Yang (2014)
Rohan Yaradi (2016)
Christopher Yeung (2015)
Richard Young (2013)
Michael Yue (2016)
Justin Yum (2015)
Shirley Zhan (2016)
Olivia Zhang (2016)
Shicheng Zhao (2015)
Others
Angelica Klosky (2013)
Rohan Punnoose (2014)
Emma Puranen (2014)
Rushi Shah (2016)
Katie Shen (2016)
James Simon (2014)
Faculty & Staff
Stephen Rose
Peter Gabor
Nurture the MIND–TJHSST Academic Boosters
MEMBERSHIP FORM: 2013-2014
Membership
category
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Platinum
Diamond
Donation
$50
$100
$250
$500
$1000 & up
TJ students of donors will be recognized on the Academic
Booster website, on our display board in the main lobby, and in
Academic Booster annual banquet booklets for the school year in
which the donation is received. (For example, Gold: Family of
Mary Smith, 2012.) Teachers, non-parents, and corporate
donors will be recognized using their own names. All
contributions over $250 will be acknowledged with a letter, as
required by the IRS.
Your entire donation is TAX DEDUCTIBLE.
Student Name(s) _______________________________________Grade(s) ___________________________
Student Academic Team(s)___________________________________________________________________
Father/Guardian_________________________ Mother/Guardian___________________________________
Address________________________________ Address__________________________________________
Phone ________________________________ Phone __________________________________________
(Please indicate day, evening, and/or cell phone number)
E-mail ________________________________ E-mail __________________________________________
Payment Check
MC
Visa
AmEx
Name on Card _____________________________________
Card No ___________________________________Expiration Date ____________3-digit Security Code_______
If your company has a matching gifts program, please ask your employer for the appropriate forms and
guidelines. Make your contribution to TJHSST Academic Boosters go twice as far and be recognized accordingly.
Academic Boosters depends on parents to help in our fund raising efforts and other activities. Please let us
know if you can help with any of the following:
__ I am interested in learning more about Board Membership (requires about 1 hour per month).
__ I am willing to provide refreshments for an Academic Boosters event.
__ Please contact me when help is needed.
Academic Boosters Board
2012-2013
Officers
President
Vice President
Webmaster
Communication
Secretary
Treasurer
Chairs
Membership
Merchandise
Bulletin Board
Faculty Liaisons
Alumni Reps
At Large
Shalini Bhatia
Jean Lee
Natalie Goldring
Sara Qian
John Wilkes
Angela Wilkes
Satthiya Jayaraj
Vandana Sharma
Nawal Todi
Susan Snyder
Ashok Goyal
Beth Liebman
Astrid Tisseront
Christine Conklin
Louise Epstein
Lynne Hamrick
Christine Hood
Alan Krishnan
Mark Mildorf
John Repetski
Raji Bala
Missy Le