Student news: National Merit Finalists, HOBY winners, future business leaders, music honors and more

Fox Chapel Area High School librarian Laura Ward was selected as a member of the 2020-2021 Pennsylvania School Librarians Association (PSLA) Leadership Institute for School Librarians (LISL).

Ward will receive professional development, training and strategic planning guidance on the topics of equity, diversity and inclusion. The goal is to assist the PSLA in embedding these principles in school libraries throughout Pennsylvania.

Ward will serve as a mentor to other school librarians in the state who are participating in the 2021 PSLA School Librarians’ Leadership Academy, which will focus on fostering an anti-racist library culture and building diverse library collections.

Ward is one of 39 librarians from across the state to be chosen.

FCA students capture writing awards

Six Fox Chapel Area School District students won awards for their submissions in the Pittsburgh Regional Scholastic Writing Awards 2021 competition.

Junior Anna Ferris won a Gold Key for her flash fiction, “A Life in Moments.” Her entry has been sent to New York City for national judging.

Winning Silver Keys were senior Jessica Jing McCann in the poetry category, junior Lance Wilhelm in the journalism category, and Dorseyville Middle School eighth grader Moonyoung Hwang won two Silver Keys for her poetry.

Honorable Mentions went to senior Margaret Dean in the personal essay & memoir category, and to junior Shea Davison in the flash fiction category.

There were nearly 500 submissions from students from across Allegheny County.

More Fox Chapel students shine

Several Fox Chapel Area High School students placed in the 2020 Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) Virtual Regional Leadership Conference and many qualified for the virtual state competition.

First-place regional winners were seniors Melina Bradley, Erin Doherty, David Kronman and Vivian Shao; juniors Alexa Berman, Brooke Bowman, Noah Bradley, Russell Fenton, Alicia Gu, Thomas Healy, Alaina Kaslewicz, Sydney Kennedy, Alex Zatman and Ryan Zatman; and sophomores Donay Allen, Aisling Beresford, Maya Bradley, Paul Kullman, Diya Reddy and Shawn Rygelski.

Second-place regional winners were seniors Sara Friday and Isabella Liberto; juniors Margo Levenson, Carter Rowe and Finnbar Ruff; sophomores Thomas Selwood and Alexandra Solomon; and freshmen Isaac Jacobs and Jadyn Smouse. Third-place regional winners were seniors Alex Blaylock, Riley Collins and Vinisha Sant; juniors Isabella Geraci, Kaitlyn Legge and Siddharth Yende; sophomores Christopher Ernharth, Nathania Lingam, Sophie Shao and Jack Wilk; and freshmen Troy Susnak and Bridget Yun.

All of these students have qualified to participate in the 2021 FBLA Virtual State Leadership Conference in March and April.

The following seniors qualified for participate in the state conference: Katherine Caracciolo, Allison Carey, Rachel Chang, Emily Li, Kaylee Werner and Zoey Zoschg.

Other state place-winners at the conference included seniors Arda Akinci, Kaya Akinci, Elena Bradley, Nathaniel Lazzara and Matthew Zytnick; juniors Carlie Barnett, Louise Coleman, William Cooper, Grace Flanagan, Elia Gillespie, Bridget Kilmer and Delaney Miller; and freshmen Annalese Bartolacci, Lexi Biernesser, Henry Dreier, Evelyn Healy, William Kratsa, Angela Ngo and Gloria Wen.

Youth leadership recognition

Seven Fox Chapel Area High School sophomores were selected to receive the Hugh O’Brian Youth Leadership (HOBY) recognition.

Aisling Beresford, Zoe Broyles, Leah Kenyon, Mia Lynch, Lindsay Scheffler, Prajval Sreenivas and Laci Toomey were chosen to attend the virtual Pennsylvania-West HOBY Leadership Seminar on June 18-20.

Students will explore and discover their personal leadership strengths and learn how to apply them to serve their community.

Musical honors received

Three Fox Chapel Area High School seniors have been chosen to perform with the 2021 National Association for Music Education (NAfME) All-Eastern Honors Ensembles.

Nathaniel Hines was selected for the All-Eastern Honors Mixed Chorus. Jack Penland was chosen to play with the All-Eastern Honors Orchestra. Joey Wang was chosen for the All-Eastern Honors Symphonic Band.

These students were already selected to perform with the 2020 All-State ensembles.

A total of 719 students from Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont were selected for the NAfME 2021 All-Eastern Honors ensembles.

National Merit Finalists selected

Seven Fox Chapel Area High School seniors have been designated as National Merit Finalists.

They are Suparna Agrawal, Amulya Garimella, Brendan Gladwin, Ryan Kenyon, Mark Puthenpurayil, Jackson Romero and Vinisha Sant.

These students were named semifinalists in September 2020 based on on their Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) scores and other factors, such as SAT scores, a student essay and a school recommendation.

Finalists represent less than one percent of the nation’s high school seniors and compete for some 7,500 scholarships worth more than $30 million to be offered in the spring of 2021.