Student news: Cum Laude awards, technology honors, essay winners and more

Shady Side Academy Cum Laude Awards

Twenty-three Shady Side Academy seniors were recognized for academic excellence by being inducted into the SSA Chapter of the Cum Laude Society on May 3.

They are Ishika Arora, Gabriella Bernier, Luke Brennan, Joshua Castro, Caesar Curran-Blakely, Annabel Everett, Caroline Green, Tyler Hart, Gabriela Jegasothy, Will Karet, Andrew Liu, Zhuoxin Ma, Eve Mango, Bennett Marsh, Charlotte McDaniel, Bridget Onest, Julia Roupe, Paige Shea, Jack Thornton, Jason Vasko, Xinran Wang, Zewei Wu and Raymond Zheng.

The ceremony was in the Richard E. Rauh Theater of the Hillman Center for Performing Arts.

The objective of the Cum Laude Society is to recognize student academic excellence.

Essay contest winner

Shady Side Academy junior Anker Zhao is a winner of the 2021 National Society of The Colonial Dames of America’s (NSCDA) Congressional essay contest.

The essay topic for 2021 asked applicants to either support retaining the U.S. Electoral College or promote and support another system to operate in its place.

Zhao’s winning essay promoted the use of ranked-choice voting in presidential elections and the abandonment of the Electoral College.

Zhao and the other essay contest winners will receive scholarships to attend The Washington Workshops Congressional Seminar, a week of citizenship education about the national government in Washington D.C. The week is spent attending lectures by members of Congress and other high-ranking government officials, as well as touring sites in our nation’s capital. Due to covid-19 restrictions, Zhao will attend the seminar in the summer of 2022.

Leadership conference award winners

Three Fox Chapel Area High School seniors won awards at the Pennsylvania Technology Student Association (TSA) State Leadership Conference which was held virtually in April.

The district’s first-place winner was Michael VanDemark in the coding category. Victor Yang won third place in the IT fundamentals category. The pair have qualified for the virtual 2021 National TSA Conference that will be held in June. Evan Butler placed fifth in the state in the PA logo design category.

The TSA is a national organization of students engaged in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). The group supports STEM-education goals through high school and middle school competitions, leadership and teamwork activities for students. The district’s TSA advisors are teachers Joseph Gass, Mitch Palucis and Justin Papariello.

Culinary award won at leadership conference

Fox Chapel Area High School senior Ashton Monroe was named a winner at the 2021 Pennsylvania Family Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) State Leadership Conference. Monroe, a culinary arts student A.W. Beattie Career Center, was awarded a first place and a silver medal in the PA Table Service category.

She was also awarded a $12,000 scholarship to Sullivan University in Kentucky which is ranked as one of the best culinary schools in the nation. The FCCLA State Leadership Conference was held virtually March 23-25.

Forensic tournament success

Five Fox Chapel Area High School students placed at the virtual Commonwealth Championship Invitational Forensic Tournament. The team of senior Jackson Romero and junior Ian Mackey-Piccolo won second place in Policy Debate; the team of seniors Suparna Agrawal and Hannah Jahnke won sixth place in Duo Interpretation; and freshman Isabella White was a quarterfinalist finishing in the top eight in Lincoln-Douglas Debate.

The tournament was April 30 and May 1, and was sponsored by Pennsbury High School. A total of 158 students from 25 public and private high schools from across Pennsylvania participated.