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Thomas Jefferson High School
for Science & Technology
Alumni Association

School News

Several times a year TJHSST Community Liaison Pat Groves compiles highlights of student achievements over the past few months...

Coach Stephen East the TJ wrestling coach was named Concorde District wrestling coach of the year!

Allison Bailey is orchestra director will serve as the Acting Concertmaster of the Virginia Chamber Orchestra (VCO) for their next concert “A Garden of Continental Delights,” on Sunday April 10^th at 4:00 pm.

12 of Dr. Dell’s physic students have been selected as Semi-Finalist for the U.S. Physics team.

Achievement Scholarships from the National Achievement Scholarship Program (NASP) were awarded to African American High School Seniors for undergraduate study at any regionally accredited US colleges and universities. The following TJ students were awarded this scholarship; David Sneed (media-communications) $2,500, Yaw Turkson (marketing) $2,500, Yusuf Abugideiri (marketing) $2,500 scholarship sponsored by Xerox Foundation. The NASP scholarship program is a privately funded competition founded in 1964 specifically to honor outstanding African American young people and to increase their opportunities for higher education.

The following students; Alexis Cook and Nebojsa Momcilovic have been nominated to represent Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in the US National Chemistry Olympiad semi-final competition on April 14 at Catholic University.

The following students have won Region-at-Large Scholastic Writing Awards for 2005; Allison Shea (Gold Key, Personal Essay/Memoir), Janet Kim (Gold Key, The New York Times James B. Reston Portfolio), Rebecca Chung (Gold Key, Personal Essay/Memoir), David Dy Tang (Gold Key, Personal Essay/Memoir), Megan Harries (Gold Key, Personal Essay/Memoir), Kaitlin Kleiber (Gold Key, Personal Essay/Memoir), Brian Terrill (Gold Key, Humor). The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are nationally based awards administered by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, Inc. a non-profit organization dedicated to providing inspiration and validation for the next generation of artists and writers. Gold Key Winners are the highest level of achievement on the regional level and their works go onto New York to compete at the national level.

Student Eric Price is one of the nationally recognized 2005 student winners of the Siemens Award for Advanced Placement for excellence in math and science. Scholarships are given to these students who earned the highest number of AP scores in seven exams: Biology, Calculus BC, Chemistry, Computer Science AB, Environmental Science, Physics C (Physics C: Mechanics and Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism each count as ½ ) and Statistics. Each student wins $3,000 scholarship. From this group of regional winners, the top male and female students are selected as the National Winners, and each receives an additional $5,000 scholarship.

Student Daniel Wright’s play, Ulysses, is the winner of the First Light Playwriting Competition for High School Students. This is a playwriting mentorship and competition for all Fairfax County Public Schools and George Mason University Students. TFA’s (Theater of the First Amendment) at George Mason University will include staged readings of plays written by selected students in its First Light Festival which is a two-day play reading event open to the public.

The following students are selected as Semi-Finalist in the competition for placement on the 2005 U.S. Physics Team. These students are among the top 197 Semi-Finalist who scored exceptionally well on the first selection exam for the U.S. Physics Team. 24 students will make the U.S. Physics Team which is held at College Park, MD and only five will compete in the International Physics Olympiad which will be held in Salamanca, Spain. The students are: Samuel Lederer, Sarah Marzen, Justin Solomon, Menyoung Lee, Jesse Geneson, Matthew Grau, Yu Xiang, Winston Yan, Jacob Oppenheim, Peter Diao, Eric Price, and Anthony Kim.

The Regional Science and Engineering Fair culminated on Sunday April 3 honoring winners from public and private high schools throughout Fairfax County. The following students won First Place Honors in their categories: Biochemistry – Rahul Guha, Ann Kennedy, Chemistry – Jae Hammet Computer Science – Justin Solomon Earth and Space Science – Eric Price, Team: Gabrielle Miller, Andrew Rohrbach, Stephanie Trichler Engineering – Jacob Oppenheim, Robert Moffat Environmental Science – Aanchal Raj, Erica Pehrsson, Medicine and Health – George Kannarkat Physics – Alice Ohlson, William Ames Zoology – Team: Erin Hopke, John LaBarge, Andrew Scholle, Team: Ryan Conner, Doug Hastings TJ students Ann Kennedy and Justin Solomon won Grand Prize honors and will take their projects to the International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix Arizona in May. Grand Prize alternates are the team of Erin Hopke, John LaBarge, and Andrew Scholle, as well as the team of Ryan Conner and Doug Hastings. Many TJ students won prizes, certificates, savings bonds, and cash awards from the business and professional organizations that sponsor the Regional Fair. A complete list of winners can be found at www.fcps.edu/DIS/sciengfair/index.htm

The Latin Certamen Teams performed spectacularly on April 2 &3, at the Episcopal High School Certamen in Alexandria, Virginia. The Latin I team placed first, the team members: Eric Shi, John Faubell, Keith Horita, and Edward Rice. The Latin II team dominated the Certamen and brought home to TJ the First Place trophy. The team members are; Jesse Wong, Zach Mott. This is the second time this month they have brought home the gold. Competing with them were George Leef, and Rita Patel. The TJ Latin team III won 2nd place in a close contest the members; Colton O’Connor, Alexandra Perez, and Steven Oetjein. All teams will head to the State Finals on April 16th.

Lauren Hunt won in Music in the recent James C. Macdonald Arts Scholarship Competition at the Alden Theater. Lauren won $40 for placing 3rd in cello competition.

Student Ruixin Yang has the National Title as Co-Champion from the recent Chess Scholastic Championship held in Nashville, TN on 4/9, 4/10. A tremendous showing from the students Robert Brady, Nick Lofted. A total of nine TJ students competed.

11 students are qualifiers for (USA Math Olympiad), more than any other school in the country. They will be participating in the Olympiad exam on Tuesday April 19. The students; Eric Price, Jesse Geneson, Daniel Schafer, Menyoung Lee, Veronica Pillar, Thomas Mildorf, Haitao Mao, Seon-Yik Cho, Peter Diao, Jie (Mark) Hou, John (Jack) Cackler. Congratulations.

Student Alice Chung of TJ has been declared a National Winner in the American Society of Newspaper Editors/ Quill and Scroll 2005 International Writing and Photo Contest. Her wining entry in the In-Depth Individual category was titled, “Jefferson students experience Islam first hand at local mosque.” Lauren Ruth won the News Story category titled “Students Heal Following Tragic Event at Virginia Theater Competition.” Jesse Markowitz was the winner in the Review Columns category titled “Crichton’ Fails to Inspire ‘Fear’.” This competition is co-sponsored by the American Society of Newspaper Editors. As a National Winner, she is eligible to apply for one of the $500 Edward J. Nell Memorial Scholarships in Journalism.

The TJ Future Problem Solving Teams swept the 2005 Virginia FPS State Bowl this past weekend 4/16 & 4/17, they were held in Powhatan County. For the second consecutive year they swept the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in the highly competitive senior division. 1st Place Senior Division winners: Grace Meng, Crystal Zheng, Manvi Goel, Elizabeth Yang. 2nd Place Senior Division winners: Ryan Sullivan, Justin Johnson, Sarah Marzen, Claudinah Roman. 3rd Place Senior Division winners: Liza Sonneneberg, Sally Simms, Jake Letson, Mackenzie Sigalos. 2nd Place Intermediate winners: Rose Zu, Oleg Lazarev, Jesse Lin, Cassandra Xia. Senior Division Individual Competition 1st Place winner: Jack Cackler . Intermediate Individual Competition 3rd Place winner: Judith Yang. Senario Writing Senior Division 1st Place winner: Alexandra Levy. Presentation Competition: 1st Place: Liza Sonnenberg, Sally Simms, Jonathan Rajkumar. 2nd Place: Lauren Kenworthy, Charlotte Slaiman, Nicole Dinion, Jack Cackler.

Thomas Mildorf and Eric Price are two of the five members of the International Mathematics Olympiad Competition representing the United States. They went to Mexico City, Mexico the week of July 11. Results should be in the end of the month.

Eric Price is also representing the US on the International Computing Olympiad at the end of summer.

Men Young Lee is on the Physics Olympiad Team.

The Virginia High School League on 11/29/04 recognized: Trophy Class – “Threshold” Trophy Class – tjToday Individuals cited for outstanding scholastic journalism: Rebecca Elliott and Ian MacDougall 1st place Andrew Don and Brian Landry, 2nd place Sunmin Park, 2nd place Margaret Collins and Andrew Don, 1st place Liz Howard, 2nd place Aman George, 2nd place Kathryn Minshew, honorable mention Natalie Lagerfeld, 2nd place Anita Kinney, 3rd place Andrew Don and Greg Seroka, 1st place Kim Nguyen and Rachel Lazarus, honorable mention.

Physical Education Teacher and Girl’s Field Hockey Coach Teri Davis was named Concorde District Coach of the Year.

The National Junior Classical League has recognized TJHSST Chapter on achieving membership exceeding one hundred students. Latin teachers Christine Conklin and Kay Carr are responsible for the Club reaching Century status.

11/22 – At the Virginia Junior Classical League Convention Keith Horita won 1st Place and Jesse Wong 2nd in Orator. Eric Shi won 1st for Classical Photographs. Allie Perez and Jesse Wong won the highest number of points. Amy Koenig and Will Sullivan won Best in Show on the derivatives test. Jess Engebretson won 2nd for Modern Myth and 1st Place in Latin Poetry.

12/2 – Results of Freshman Class Election: President: Steven Chen Vice President: Ariel Lepon Senator: John Goodwin Secretary: Alexis Brown Treasurer: Russell Glonoso Co-Historians: Kate Cooper – Cindy Wei.

12/7 – Janet Kim was one of ten students in Virginia recognized for excellence in the 2005 Arts Recognition and Talent Search of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. Janet was named an Arts Week Finalist in the nonfiction writing category and will travel to Miami, Florida next month to participate in a week of final adjudications.

11/20 – The Academic Team placed all of our three teams in the top seven of the playoffs at the Princeton Academic Challenge. A and B Teams won first and third place, with C Team had a 9-2 record for the day.

Lauren Corry, ’07, with her ice dance partner, placed 2nd in Intermediate Dance at the 2005 South Atlantic Regional Championships in Charleston, SC last month. They were one of four teams from the region (East Coast from PA to FL) to compete this month at the US Junior Figure Skating Championships in Jamestown, NY.

11/21 - THRESHOLD Literary Magazine received a Best of Show Award and tjTODAY a Newspaper Pacemaker Winner at the 2004 Journalism Education Association/National Scholastic Press Association Fall National HS Journalism Convention in Atlanta.

The Drama Department is presenting “King Lear” on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, January 13, 14, 15, at 7:30 p.m.

VA Tech is sponsoring the 9th annual “Engineering Perspectives Conference” on Saturday, February 26th at VA Tech, open to all juniors and seniors. Apply through College Career Center by January 10, ’05.

12/12 – At the Prince William Model UN Conference Ruxin Yang, Callie Plafkin, Ben Field, Andrew Rohrbach, Gary Lawkowski, Jamin An, Blake Reed, Nihan Kaya, Deepti Garg, and Drew Fleeter all gavelled.

12/15 – Ruth Isenstadt made First Team All District, First Team All Regional, Concorde District Player of the Year, Second Team All Met and All State, and First Team All Journal in Field Hockey.

11/29 – Matthew Pearce joined the faculty in the Technology Department, coming from ten years teaching at the London Boys’ School of Latymer, England. He replaced Garret Albert who replaced Andy Tepper this year, who replaced Erick Gottschalk last year.

Visits: 11/30 – Delegate Chap Peterson and School Board Member Janet Oleszek • 12/1 – Linda Martin, Unisys Corp. and Bob Woods, Topside Consulting and IAC/ACT • 12/8 – Education Officials from Mexico, in US to present “Mexico’s 21st Century Initiatives: Using Technology to Revolutionize Education” to the US Department of Education. Dr. Diane Konz, Teacher of Spanish, attended the presentation. • 12/9 – Jay Matthews, Washington Post Education reporter and Laura Elliott, Washingtonian Magazine, speaking to the Topics in Globalization classes. • 12/10 – Producer Chris Delboni and photographers from Brazil Network TV, interviewing students for story on exceptional students. • 12/15 – Study Tour delegation of education specialists from the Russian Federation sponsored by The World Bank and arranged by American Councils for International Education. The focus was the governing and funding for the school. • 12/14 – Request for information about TJ to include in an article for the 2005 Annual Chamber of Commerce Magazine “Images of Fairfax”. • 12/20 – Karen Rowe, President, Front Rowe, Inc., studying the feasibility of adding a science and technology component to the Wakefield School in The Plains, VA. • 1/19 – Science teachers from the Seoul Metropolitan City Department of Education.

Last Updated: June 2004

The two Presidential Scholars from Virginia are Jennie Park and Jonathan Schwank. This is the most prestigious academic award in the US. The two scholars from each state are invited June 19-22 to National Recognition Week in Washington, DC. Each may invite a teacher who has most influenced them. Both our students have chosen Mr. Fred Lampazzi.

For the unprecedented third year in a row, our Science Bowl Team is the National First Place Winner of the US Department of Energy competition. Returning team members are: Kay Aull, Paul Yang and Michael Zhang; new members are Sam Lederer and Lisa Marrone. The team, coached by sponsor Ms. Sharon Baker, competed against 63 regional champions. Their prize is a two-week trip to London this summer to participate in the London International Youth Science Forum.

Divya Nettimi is one of the twenty students chosen by USAToday as their 2004 High School Academic Team. She has also received a Micron Science and Technology Scholarship for $16,500.

Kay Aull received a $10,000 National Merit Scholarship from Northrop Grumman, along with the Siemens AP Scholar Scholarship of $3,000, and also a Micron Science and Technology Scholar Award for $16,500.

Both Kay Aull and Divya Nettimi will be honored during a leadership and mentoring week at Micron Technology Foundation, Inc. Headquarters in Boise, Idaho this summer.

Drew Fleeter competed, as the Virginia State Champion, in the national finals of the AAA Travel High School Challenge in Orlando, FL. His team placed second in the nation, and he received a $10,000 scholarship.

Suzanne Westbrook received 2nd Place at the Fairfax County Band Directors’ Association Solo Contest on May 8. Accompanied by Barbara Fraize, she played Spohr’s Concerto No. 1 in C minor for clarinet.

At the 2004 Future Problem Solving (FPS) State Bowl April 30-May 1, our teams finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd. This is the first time in the history of VA FPS that one school swept all top honors. Senior Division First Place : Lauren Zarzar, Brian Morgan, Jonathan Schwank and Joyce Meng. Second Place: Grace Meng, Crystal Zheng, Manvi Goel and Elizabeth Yang. Third Place: Liza Sonnenberg, Sally Simms, Jake Letson and MacKenzie Sigalos. First and Second Place teams will compete in the FPS International Bowl on the campuss of the University of Kentucky June 3-6. Jack Cackler placed 2nd in Individual Competition and Alexandra Levy placed 3rd in Senario Writing, Senior Division.

Of 33 National Merit Scholarship early May winners in FCPS, 28 are from TJHSST: Neil Arora, Jackie Bello, Jonathan Carrier, Stuart Carter, Elaine Chang, Alicia Dai, Elizabeth Eames, Antardeb Guharay, Michael Honigberg, Sonia Hsieh, Michael Jacokes, Daniel Kuebrich, Joyce Meng, Kathryn Minshew, Divya Nettimi, Jennie Park, David Price, Andrew Ramish, Ashwin Rastogi, Juliana Schroeder, Ada Shulman, Courtney Soderberg, Pam Sud, Vladimir Tenev, Katherine Vajs, Sarah Wansley, Paul Yang and Michael Zhang. Late May Merit Scholarships announced: Meghan Coffee, Rosalie Kendall, Sean Mackesey, Corey Sullivan, and Ian Taylor.

At Intel International Science and Engineering Fair May 8-15 in Portland, Oregon, Divya Nettimi received a $3300 bond from US Army, all-expense trip to Tokyo, and a gold medallion. Nimish Shulka won 3rd place award of $1000 in microbiology.

Teacher of Mathematics Sharon Baker has been identified by the NASA Educator Astronaut Review Team as an outstanding educator and invited to participate in NASA’s NEAT (Network of Educator Astronaut Teachers). She will attend a workshop at Johnson Space Center June 15-18.

Five of our six crew teams came in First at the 2004 Virginia Scholastic Rowing Championships May 15: Men’s Senior Eight Mike Dietz, Matt Lucas, Nolan Maher, Erik Anderson, Alex Sieka, Joel Peterson, Rhett Summers, Zander Slaski, and Greg Haugh (the first area team to win since 1969). Women’s Senior Eight Annaliese Herring, Jen Micker, Caitlin Reynolds, Nicole Dinion, Vanessa Furman, Alice Ainsworth, Veronika Bath, Grace Reilly and Erica Pehrsson. Men’s Second Eight Scott Hyndman, Bryan Fleming, David Lampen, Joey Kapurch, David Bates, Erik Douglass, Casey Barrett, Jeff Autsen and Eric Bagden. Women’s Second Eight Rachel Miller, Melissa Velarde, Jessy Randall, Ildiko Toth, Marisa Paska, Emily Trentacoste, Lauren Caldwell, Kathryn Barbante, Michelle Park and Lauren Krachenfels. Women’s Freshman Eight Alieza Durana, Julie O’Brien, Jen Lampen, Heather Burrell, Kirsten Siebach, Olivia Walch, Alexandra Simone, Caroline Bogden and Angela Zhang. The Men’s Freshman 8 “caught a crab”.

At the National Capital Area Scholastic Rowing Association Regatta May 22 the Men’s Senior Eight again captured the Gold Medal, and, instead of catching a crab, the Men’s Freshman Eight caught a Gold Medal.

The Virginia Debate Tournament of Champions was swept by TJ Debate—Joyce Meng, CC Wang and Crystal Zhang.

Cheli Bleda, 10th grade, was named to 1st Team All District, Girl’s Varsity Lacrosse Team. Honorable Mentions were Laura Adams, Laura Gates, Lauren Erickson and Rachael Mongold.

Boy’s Tennis reached the State Team Championships with members Peden Nichols, Will Pelak, Mahesh Karra, Jason Liu, Brendan McCord, Dan Shin, Alex Annear, Andrew Yang, Matt Christian, and Sushi Shanker.

Thomas Hay was selected to attend the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) World Leadership Congress at GWU in Washington, DC this summer as an Ambassador of Virginia. There will be 424 Ambassadors from around the world.

Last Updated: May 2004

The “Its Academic” Team won the State Tournament 2/28. Team members are: Sam Lederer, Steven Young, Alex Levy, Mike Sollosi, Dan Wright, Mike Wright (brothers), Nick Stroup, and Jacob Oppenheim. Coach is Nancy Kreloff. The Team was honored by the VA Legislature at the Capitol in Richmond on Tuesday, March 9, where they also met with Governor Warner.

The TJ Blue Crabs won the Regional competition of the National Ocean Science Bowl at ODU 2/28. Team members are Kay Aull, Amy Freitag, Cory Pender, Katie Mercer, Lisa Marone, Liz Cranmer and Wil Kilpatrick. They will attend Nationals in Charleston, SC in April.

The Washington, DC and Maryland Metropolitan Area Regional Brain Bee February 25 was won by Cory Pender and Elise Bui, who will attend the National Competition March 18-19. This is sponsored by the Society for Neuroscience, in conjunction with Brain Awareness Week.

Out of 400 semifinalists nationwide in the Biology Olympiad, 39 are from TJHSST.

In the Second Regional Japan Bowl at GMU 2/21, the Level 3 team of Captain Benjamin O’Neill, Tina Chen, and Tim Smith finished First and will compete in the 12th National Japan Bowl in Washington, DC on April 4.

At the Harvard-MIT Mathematics Tournament in Boston 2/25, the Jefferson A Team took first in the Sweepstakes, out of more than 60 teams. Members are: Ricky Biggs, Evan Danaher, Jesse Geneson, Brian Jacokes, Men Young Lee, Thomas Mildorf, Carolyn Offutt, and Eric Price. Individual awards went to Eric Price, Ricky Biggs, and Rocco Repetski.

The Literary Magazine THRESHOLD received the Highest Honors recognition by the National Council of Teachers of English, one of only 41 schools in the nation to receive this award, also the Gold Medalist by Columbia Scholastic Press Association, and the All-American recognition by the National Scholastic Press Association, for 2002-2003.

Kathryn Minshew and Jennie Park are Finalists in the Coca-Cola Scholars Program and will attend Scholars Weekend in Atlanta, GA April 15-18.

Evan Danaher, Brian Jacokes, Anthony Kim, and Eric Price won 1st Place in the 14th Annual Programming Contest, 2004, at the University of MD.

At AAA State Indoor Track and Field Championships 3/7 Christo Landry placed 2nd and Chris Mocko 6th in the 3,200 run and Aparve Hirve placed 7th in the Triple Jump.

Galen Mandes won a Scholastic Writing Awards Gold Key for his personal memoir “Rite of Passage."

Alex Hoeft won the Young Naturalist Essay Contest. Her science essay on the divergence of marine iguanas in the Galapagos Islands was one of two 10th grade winners nationally.

There are 141 students moving on to the next round of the American Invitational Math Competitions (AIME), which took place March 23. Four of these had perfect scores: Ricky Biggs, Thomas Mildorf, Eric Price, and Michael Zhang.

In the 2004 Presidential Scholars Program we have 24 candidates. Most of the following had perfect SAT scores: Kay Aull, Edward Baker, Jonathan Carrier, Elaine Chang, Evan Danaher, Trevor Dobson, Elizabeth Eames, Marisa Flavin, Antardeb Guharay, Patrick Ho, Daniel Kuebrich, Marita Lawler, Bingjie Ling, Jared Milton, Emily Osborn, Jennie Park, David Price, Dennis Qin, Anna Reinert, Christian Repetski, Jonathan Schwank, Christopher Stone, Sajal Tanna, and Katherine Vajs.

The Chess Team won the Metro Area Chess League Competiton. Team members are: Alex Main, Ruixin Yang, Brendan Conway, Robert Brady and David Banh.

The First Ethics Forum was held at GMU on March 16. The entire sophomore class, along with about 70 seniors, participated in debates in the areas of biotechnology, cybertechnology, the media, and corporate and governmental ethics.

At the Regional Competition for Odyssey of the Mind March 6, two teams, one from TJHSST (Ankur Desai, Peter Gudmundsen, Richard Kim, Vinay Rathi, Kevin Pujanauski, Peter Kole, and Kevin Brown),and one with TJ members (Josh Mullins, Colton O'Connor, Robert Pasacki, and Alfie Parthum) came in 1st place and will advance to State finals on April 24. Two other TJ-member teams came in 2nd and 3rd (2nd, Thomas Hay, Philip Gastrell, Rachel Miller, Gregg Tabot, Seyi Ayorinde, Greg Osborn, and Ryan Baetsen), (3rd, Abbie Desrosiers, Annie Agnone, Eric Martin, and Laura Fletcher).

Model UN won their 6th Conference at Yorktown High School March 6. Best delegation awards went to: Ryan Anderson, Brian Young, Andrew Rohrbach, Drew Fleeter, Trevor Dobson, Raphael Mun, Andrew Scheineson, Raamin Mostaghimi and Aman George.

The Destination Imagination Team of Pamela Bui, Ellie Hwang, Grace Meng, Joyce Meng, Thushara Gunda, Lauren Zarzar, and Crystal Zheng placed 1st at Regionals March 13, and will be competing at States in April.

Sarah Randle was featured “In the Spotlight”, in The Washington Post 2/26 as Virginia AAA Concorde District all-around champion in Gymnastics.

Gareth Guvanasen, was member of a team sponsored by ENRON to participate at the California Speedway, in a 200-mile robotic ground vehicle road race, in Fontana, CA March 13.

Approximately 200 students in the US take the 2nd round test toward the Physics Olympiad. Eight are from TJHSST: Mats Ahlgren, evan Danaher, Men Young Lee, Eric Price, Thomas Mildorf, Jonathan Carrier, Sam Lederer, and Michael Zhang.

Jason Popps is one of four finalists in the National Kids Philosophy Slam. He will compete in Minnesota on April 24 in a debate on the topic, “Is world peace possible, or does human nature make war inevitable?” to become “The Most Philosophical Student in America.”

Stephanie Volftsun, 9th grade, has received a Certificate of Excellence signed by Bill Gates, and is verified as a Certified Microsoft Professional.

Aerojet has contributed $250 to sponsoring teacher Mr. Randall and his students toward the Team America Rocketry Challenge, with more to come as the team progresses.

David Price was awarded the Olin Teague Memorial Scholarship March 19 at the annual Goddard Memorial Dinner of the National Space Club. This recognized his scientific discovery as an intern at U.S. Naval Observatory. His work showed how recently-observed variations in the rotation of the earth are caused by large movements of groundwater that alter the gravitational shape of the earth. He has made presentations at NASA Goddard Spaceflight Center and National Science Foundation.

Divya Nettimi and Lance Murashige successfully argued at a mock trail before seven judges of the Virginia State Supreme Court in Richmond Thursday, March 25. Fourteen schools were represented throughout Virginia. This was the first year TJHSST has participated, with Dr. Torrence as teacher, and Ms. Lodal supporting our students.

Visits: March 18 – GMU/FCPS Steering Committee • March 19 – Representative Tom Davis, speaking to Senior Seminar • March 19 – Georgetown Day School science and mathematics teachers • March 26 – Planning Committee for St. Mary’s County Public Schools, MD • March 31 – Osbourne High School, Prince William Co. Block Scheduling Committee • April 13 – 17 Principals from areas formerly Soviet Union, through American Council for International Education • April 14 – NOAA National Geodetic Survey Newsletter writer/director
Last Updated: March 2004

Brian Jacokes and Divya Nettimi have been identified as semifinalist winners in the Intel Science Search, among the top 300 science and technology students in the nation.

Divya Nettimi was chosen one of 40 finalists, to compete in D.C. from March 11-16. Her project, out of Mr. Robert Latham’s laboratory, is Connecting the Macro-Scale to the Nano-Scale: New Insights into the Kinetics of the Myosin-Actin Molecualr Biomotor System.

Mr. Jeff Leaf has been appointed to the Triangle Coalition for Science and Technology Education Board of Directors.

The National Merit Scholarship Program announced 160 Finalists from TJHSST, out of 170 Semifinalists. There were 189 students commended.

The following won Keys in the 2004 Regional Scholastic Art Awards competition: Gold – Blake Bredehoft, Seon Moon, and Stephanie Lee. Silver – Mei-jean Hsu, Jung-mi Han, Alexander Tao, and Forrest Waller.

Both boys and girls Swim and Dive Teams won the Concorde District Championships. 2/7 – The girls team won their 3^rd straight Region Title at GMU. The boys won 3^rd Place. 2/16 - The Girls Swim and Dive Team captured the State Championship for the third time in a row Feb. 14-15. Emily Verdin set two new state records in 100 back and 200 IM.

The Academic Team won Districts and Regionals, and will compete in the State Tournament on 2/28.

Alex Hoeft and Nathalie Lagerfeld are Finalists in the Young Naturist Essay Contest and will compete for National Winners. Ross Coe, Annie Burnette, and Alice Gissinger are semifinalists.

The Science Bowl Team of Kay Aull, Paul Yang, Michael Zhang, Sam Lederer, and Lisa Marrone won the Virginia Regional Championship and will compete at Nationals in May.

Juniors Kimberly Everett and Matt Isakowitz were selected as 2004 National Institutes of Health Summer Scholars. The program only selects 20 students.

Jack Cackler and Eric Bagden have advanced to Regional Wrestling tournament.

Visitors have included: Peggy Fox, Channel 9 News; Korean TV Station MBC; Jim Woolsey, former CIA Director, speaking to Globalization classes; Priests from St. Paul’s Chung Catholic Church, Fairfax, and South Korea Diocese; Students from Gyeongnam Science High School, South Korea; Philip Couzens, Oundle School, England (a video-link school for globalization classes); Students in the Industrial College of the Armed Forces Annual National Defense University Course (the tenth year in a row we have been a part of the curriculum); Raffles Family of Schools Team of Teachers, Singapore, Students from Gizan Senior High School, Gifu, Japan.

Kay Aull, ’04, one of four members on the first U.S. team to participate in the International Biology Olympiad, won a silver medal in Minsk, Belarus. Awards were for individual merit, not team effort.

The National Science Bowl winning team of My-Linh Nguyen, Sumanth Ravipati, Paul Yang, and Michael Zhang (Kay Aull was in Belarus) was awarded a trip to Australia July 5-19, along with Ms. Sharon Baker, sponsor.

Nick Abbate, ’03, won the Whitney Houston Essay Writing Contest, $1,000, and $500 for school. She will mention our school at her next concert, and is publishing parts of his essay. Nick’s teacher was Bettie Stegall.

The Annual Children’s Medical Center Essay on Teen Health Awards for published articles were: Ashley Merrill, 1^st, Margaret Collins and Andrew Don, 2^nd, and Ben Arendt and Aman George, Honorable Mention. Jennifer Seavey was their teacher.

George Harris, ’05, participated in the National Youth Leadership Forum on Technology in San Jose, CA July 27-Aug. 5.

A silver medal was awarded to Immanuel Buder at the 34^th International Physics Olympiad held in Taipei, Taiwan August 2-11 ’ 03. There were 238 competitors, five from USA. Philip Wallin nominated him to take the AAPT exams.

Robyn Lady, Guidance Counselor, won the 74^th Annual Women’s District of Columbia Golf Association Championship August 15, ’03.

Sharon Baker is one of 197 candidates still under consideration for the NASA Educator Astronaut Program. Sixteen hundred teachers applied last April for this program which will choose 3-6 teachers to become astronaut mission specialists.

The US 6-member 2003 International Olympiad Team came in 3^rd place in the world in Tokyo, Japan this summer. Yan Zhang, team member, won an individual silver medal.

International Olympiad of Informatics (IOI) was held in Wisconsin. Tim Abbott, team member.

Visits from three graduate students from Yonsei University, South Korea researching for LG Global Challenger; Kenichi Otsuka, chief instructor, Tokyo Metropolitan Government; Sixty-two students, the principal, and five teachers from Jang Young Sil Science High School, Busan, South Korea; Superintendent and five administrators from St. Mary’s County, MD Public Schools; Bruce Ritchie, Principal, Massey High School, Auckland, New Zealand; The Jefferson Overseas Technology Institute, a week-long training and conferencing for around 100 technology teachers with Department of States schools around the world.

At the State Science and Engineering Fair, Grand Prize was won by Ben Munyan, who represented VA at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Cleveland, Ohio May 12-17, where his project, “A Theory for Electric Field Control of Epileptic Seizure Propagation” placed 3rd in the world in Medicine and Health. Kenneth Ott’ project, “PBMCs as an Invitro Model for the Immune Response” was 4th in the world in Biochemistry, and Jonathan Mizrahi’s project “Modeling Physical Systems Using Flux Corrected Transport on a Fully-threaded Tree” was 4th in the world in Biochemistry.

Jeff Arnold, ’03, was awarded a Lucent Technologies Scholarship, one of 23 awarded nationally.

National Merit Scholarships won by 29 TJHSST students of 31 in FCPS:

Catherine Lee, Elizabeth White, Yan Zhang, Turan Kayagil, Geng Chen, So Kim, Qiuyuan Li, Christing Tran, Immanuel Buder, John Diamond, Timothy Reichart, Christina Son, Elizabeth Son, Joseph Cackler, Emily Timberlake, Jeffrey Arnold, Austin Rachlin, Ian Shea, Timothy Abbott, Gaurav Gupta, Neal Gupta, Thomas Holman, Steven Howard, Samarth Keshava, Julia Lubsen, Edouard Coakley, Natalie Gwilliam, Alejandra McCord, and Laura Tallent.

Charlotte Seid, ’06, won second place in the Virginia PTA Citizenship Essay Project, high school level.

Boy’s varsity soccer team on May 1 was rated No.2 in Washington Post.

The Concert and Symphonic Orchestras took top prizes at Disney World MusicFest Competition April 26.

Jeremy Root and Danny Pang placed third in the Video Fairfax 2003 Competition with the video documentary “Pressure, Prose and Pride: A Look Behind TJ Today”.

The Science Bowl Team of Kay Aull, Sumanth Ravipati, Linh Nguyen, Paul Yang, and Michael Zhang won the Department of Energy sponsored National Competition May 3-4 at UMD. They, along with sponsor Sharon Baker, won a two-week trip to Australia and $1,000 for the school. On May 13 the Virginia Attorney General, Mr. Jerry Kilgore, visited to honor the team and tour the school.

Debate Team won district championship.

Boy’s Tennis team has won the Regional Championship.

Puneet Gambir, ’05, collaborated on a book by the September 11 Generation, FREEDOM’S ANSWER, Too young to vote but old enough to lead, sponsored by the Freedom’s Answer Foundation and Youth e-Vote, Inc.

Of 20 Biology Olympiad Finalists across the US, three are from TJHSST: Kay Aull, Robert Moffatt, and Corinne Pender. Also, Ashley Kang was named as an alternate. They will attend a ten-day intensive study and training program at GMU.

Elisabeth Gorey’s portfolio was judged best in the nation in the National Scholastic Writing Competition. She earned a Gold Key and $5,000. In addition, My-Linh Nguyen, Josephine Fu, Yun Heh, James Montana, April Reeves, Laura Strickman, Lucy Terrell, and Elisabeth also won Gold Keys for additional writings. Six students won silver keys.

Arena Stage selected ten plays out of 345 to be performed. Four of the ten are students from Ms. Stegall’s Writing Seminar: Megan Spooner, Austin Lu, David FitzSimons, and Rick Green. The Arena Stage presented an award to Ms. Stegall for artistry and excellence in playwriting instruction. She was also selected as one of four educators in the Washington Metropolitan area to sit on the Arena Board.

Geng Chen was chosen one of two finalists from Virginia in the 2003 Presidential Scholars Program. She is honoring teacher of English Ms. Lebryk-Chao.

Josh Mullins and Colton O’Connor, with a teammates from Robinson Secondary, won First Place at State Odyssey of the Mind Competition. The Team of Annie Agnone, Abbie Desrosiers, Laura Fletcher, Carter Koppelman, Eric Martin, and David Phillips came in Second Place. Both teams will compete at the OM World finals in Ames, Iowa in May.

John Diamond and Evan Herbst have been Gold Medal Winners in the National Latin Exam for the past four consecutive years.The Latin I Team of Colton O’Connor, Alexendra Perez, Abi Sawant, and Sabir Sultan won 1st Place at the state finals. The Latin III Team of Arvind Ravichandran, Peter Ouzonov, and Jack Bird placed 3rd in the State.

Alumni Alexis Clements and Hillary Kolos, ’98, are producing a Documentary based on life of Richard Feynman, and featuring teacher of Mathematics Michael Stueben.

In March at the National Capital Area Championships the girl’s 3rd and 2nd 8s won and the Varsity 8 placed 2nd. The men’s Varsity 8 placed 1st and received the Eric Rothstein Memorial Trophy. Both the Men’s and Women’s Crew Teams won State Championship in April and advance to the Metropolitan Championship in May. The boy’s Varsity 8 received 2nd Place, the Silver Medal, at the Stotesbury Cup Regatta in New Jersey, Jefferson’s best performance ever, having never finishing higher than 5th. The team members are: Pierce Umberger, Mike Hull, Zander Slaski, David Lampen, Alex Sieki, Erik Anderson, John Cancian, Matt Lucas and coxswain Matt Dietz. The Girls’ Second Team received a Gold, and Freshman Girls won Third Place. At the Scholastic National Championship May 24 the Freshman Girls won Silver. They are: Chiffon Chen, Elizabeth Heartney, Melissa Velarde, Carisa Clinton, Nicole Gates, Marisa Paska, Lauren Caldwell, Sarah Davis and cox Maria Busuiceanu. Boy’s Varsity 8 captured Silver, .6 seconds behind.

On the Washington Post 2003 ALL-MET Soccer Team is Brennan Wergley; Crissy Papageorge received Honorable Mention for Girl’s Soccer; Crew Team are Carla Bezold, Julia Lubsen, Mike Hull, Matt Lucas and Alex Seike. Honorable Mentions are John Cancian and Hannah Bae, Cox. The Girls’ Crew Coach of the Year is Jefferson’s Matt Shoop. In Boy’s Lacrosse, Eric You received Honorable Mention, as did Sarah Randle in Gymnastics and Keith Bechtol, Christo Landry and Shauneen Garrahan in Track and Field.

Lauren Duffy, ’06, won her third state gymnastics title on the balance beam this May.

The Boy’s Tennis Team has advanced to State Semi-Finals. Coach Ray Bowers was named All-Met Boy’s Tennis Coach.

The Academic Programs at this summer’s Governor’s Schools will include: Kyle basques, Christine Okano, Soo Jeong Kim, Hyun-Sung Shin, Elisabeth Horner, and Frank Ichel. Visual and Performing Arts Programs will include: Caitlin Marshall, Graham Halstead, Elizabeth McDonald, with alternates Rosemary Hunter-Kilmer and Meredith McCord. World Language Programs will include: French-Grace Eginton, German-Meredith Shaw and Rosie Kendall, Russian-Timothy Lee, Spanish-Page Sigman and Eunice Lee, and Latin-Faheem Ahmed and Will Sullivan.

Tim Abbott and Immanuel Buder will be two of the five students representing the US at the Physics Olympiad this summer in Taiwan.

Only 247 students nationwide were selected to participate in the USA Mathematics Olympiad exams, 14 are from TJHSST: Tim Abbott, Ricky Biggs, Jack Cackler, Evan Danaher, Brian Jacokes, Menyoung Lee, Jimmy Li, Thomas Mildorf, Veronica Pillar, Eric Price, Rocco Repetski, Michael Zhang, Yan Zhang, and Yoyo Zhou. Of these, five of 24 students in the country have been invited to the three-week Math Olympiad Training Camp this summer: Tim Abbot, Ricky Biggs, Eric Price, Rocco Repetski, and Yan Zhang.

Steve Young, ‘04, won $25,000 in AAA’s Travel High School Challenge at the National Contest in Orlando, FL May18.

Jackie Bello, ’04, was Grand Prize winner ($10,000) in the Adidas Moves Essay contest titled, “How Sports Have Impacted My Life.”

Thirty seven students from Ms. Stegall’s Creative Writing Class spent May 24 at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum assisting at the Sunflower Fest. Administrators at the Museum attributed the success of the Fest largely to our students.

Teacher Jeff Leaf and his Engineering classes visited the Young Scholars Program at Fort Belvoir Elementary School, introducing them to the World of Engineering and solving every-day mathematics problems. The joint project aired on FCPS Channel 21 and received recognition from the School Board.

The top qualifiers from Virginia to attend Future Problem Solvers International Bowl in June at UCONN are: Joyce Meng, Chris Poch, Brian Morgan, Jonathan Schwank, Lauren Zarzar, Liza Sonnenberg, Zach Yang, Sally Simms, and Eleni Orphanides.

Steven Young, ’04, won $25,000 in AAA’s Travel High School Challenge at the National Contest in Orlando, FL.

The family of Catelyn Thurman, ’06, has been chosen to participate for two weeks in a National Geographic “Worlds Apart” exchange with a family in Africa.

The College Career Center (CCC) has started a Guest Lecturers Program, inviting alumni to speak about their work experiences. The first took place April 23.

Guidance invited students in military programs to speak on May 29 in the CCC.

Jefferson Partnership Fund hosted a Reception June 5 to distribute the 2003 TEKNOS and thank Ratheon for supporting its publication for the past two years.

Visits have come from Oundle School, Cambridge, UK, science project winning students from Pusan and Seoul, Korea, Montgomery Bell Academy, Nashville, TN, Director of Philippine Science School, Max Smith, University of Richmond Admissions research student working with Dr. Leslie Keiler, Broughal Middle School, Bethlehem, PA, Korean teachers through VA Governor’s Schools, Gerry Kilgore, Attorney General for VA, Sandia National Laboratory representatives, through DOE and Lockheed, former Minister of Education, Belarus, Einstein Fellows, NSA, Korean Group through Indiana Academy, Principals from Ukraine and Russia through Partners in Education, Zuell Bailey, brother of Allison Bailey, Orchestra Director and professional violinist, teachers from Bosnia, and a Minister from Rowanda, Africa. The Journalism Class of Kathy Colglazier again visited via our distance learning equipment with Dr. Frank Close, Physicist and Writer, Oxford, UK. A British television firm, Diverse TV, included our school and students early June in their upcoming documentary series, “Status Anxiety”. The session being filmed here concerns the life and work of Thomas Jefferson and how he helped to create the modern American classless meritocracy, an ‘aristocracy of talent’.