Academic Boosters Board 2011-2012

President Linda Loffredo (Jeremy ’12 and Nicholas ’08) Vice President Jean Lee (Jason ’13 and Joy ’09) Vice President John Pang (Brandon ’13 and Brian ’09) Webmaster Sara Qian (Brian Shi ’13) Secretary Satthiya Jayaraj (Krishna ’14) Secretary Jamie Korelitz (Jared ’12) Treasurer Nawal Todi (Nimish ’13 and Niket ’07) Treasurer Treasurer Treasurer Communication Communication

Gefei Qian (William ’12) Susan Snyder (Andrew ’14) Poonam Nangalia (Aakansha ’12) Natalie Goldring (Rachel ’13 and Becca ’15) Angela Wilkes (John ’14)

Merchandise Member-at-Large Member-at-Large Member-at-Large Member-at-Large Member-at-Large

Brenda Simon (Elliot ’12 and Alex ’09) Mani Rajamarthandan (Vaijyanthi ’15) Beth Liebmann (Rebecca Friedman ’10 and Adam Friedman ’14) Rupen Shah (Asmita ’15 and Sneha ’09) Missy Le (Vivian’14) Raji Bala (Chinmayee ’12)

Teacher Liaisons Ms. Pat Gabriel Ms. Christine Conklin

Alumni Reps Louise Epstein ’07, ’11, ’11 Lynne Hamrick ’07, ’10 Christine Hood ’08, ’11 Alan Krishnan ’05 Mark Mildorf ’05 John Repetski ’09, ’04

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology

ACADEMIC BOOSTERS, INC. AWARDS RECEPTION

Thursday, May 24, 2012 6:00 ~ 8:30 p.m.

Thomas Jefferson High School Academic Boosters, Inc.

Academic Boosters supports our outstanding academic teams towards their various pursuits. Some 20 academic teams compete in local, state, national, and sometimes 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 student registrations as well as teacher travel expenses to chaperone at events. We also purchase textbooks and other supplies needed by academic teams. Even with Academic Boosters support, academic team members pay their own way for 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 achievements 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 the 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 primarily comes 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 your support this school year!

http://academics.tjhsst.edu/aboosters

Haitian (Eric) Xie (2014) Alison Yu (2014) Justin Yum (2015)

Brandon Zhang (2013) Keven Zhang (2013) Rachel Zoll (2014)

Others

Michaela Brown (2013) Andrew Choi (2015) Arusha Reghu (2014)

Ruhee Shah (2015) Jane Werntz (2014) Wendy Wu (2014)

Faculty & Staff

Mr. Stephen Rose Alumni

Byron & Adam Hood (2008 & 2011) Matching Companies

BAE Fannie Mae

Freddie Mac Northrop Grumman

Jeevan Karamsetty (2015) Tiffney Kathir (2014) Amy Kim (2014) Brendan Kim (2012) Chris Kim (2014) Jenny Kim (2015) Ki Wan (Dennis) Kim (2015) Leon Kim (2015) Soo Jin & Peter Kim (2012 & 2015) Steven Kool (2013) Samuel (Reed) Koser (2015) Priya Krishnan (2012) Raynor Kuang (2013) Vansh Kumar (2012) Sahil Laheri (2015) Vivian Le (2014) Ed Lee (2013) Jonathan Lee (2014) Katherine Lee (2013) Sang Burm Lee (2013) Seong-Min Lee (2013) Veronica Lee (2014) Matt Levonian (2014) Alexander Li (2014) Darwin Li (2012) David Liu (2014) Heather Lukas (2015) Tommy Lunn (2014) Angela Ma (2015) Rahul Majumdar (2014) Billie Males (2015) Romita Mandal (2013) Philip & Madeline Meyers (2012 & 2015) Cyrus Malekpour (2013) Amelia Malone (2015) Anudeep Mangu (2014) Govind Mattay (2012) Eric McCord-Snook (2015) Daniel McKinney (2015) Anugya Mittal (2015) Paris Mitzelfeld (2015) Sarah Mohideen (2014) Kaushik Murali (2015) Priyanka Nair (2014) Julian Nguyen (2014) Quynh-Van Nguyen (2015)

Richard Oh (2015) Winston Ou (2015) Nathan Ouyang (2014) Angela Quynh Mai Pham (2014) Anand Prasanna (2013) Peter Price (2013) Rohan Punnoose (2014) Shreya Punya (2015) Rafa Rahman (2012) Avinash Ramesh (2013) Vaiju Rajamarthandan (2015) Austin Ralls (2013) Avinash Ramesh (2013) Sushrutha Reddy (2015) Ivy Ren (2014) Misha Rowe (2015) Michael Ryjik (2015) Abraham Sachs (2012) Matthew Savage (2015) Stephen & Andrew Seliskar (2012 & 2015) Yehyun Seo (2014) Daniel Shanker (2012) Ollie Shi (2015) Noah Shin (2015) Frederick Short (2012) Chandan Singh (2014) Arisa & Kai Smith (2013 & 2015) Flint & Erik Song (2012 & 2015) Andrew Snyder (2014) Carrie Sun (2013) Eric Sun (2015) Saniya Suri (2013) Nisha Swarup (2014) Vishal Talasani (2014) Nathaniel Taylor (2015) Sage Teasley (2015) Peter Town (2012) Jonathan Towne (2014) Lalit Varada (2015) Vamsi Sai Veeramasu (2014) Michael & Matthew Wattendorf (2012 &

2014) Alana Whitman (2013) John Wilkes (2014) Jesse Witkowski (2012) Brian Womeldurf (2014)

Biology Olympiad

Co-Captains: Yuqing Zhang and George Liang Co-Lecturers: Nipun Singh and Kevin Huo Treasurer: David Gao Biology Olympiad had a very successful and inspirational year. On February 17, 2012, eighty-two students from Thomas Jefferson took the Biology Olympiad Open exam and scored higher than any other school nationwide. Of these 82 students, twenty-seven TJ students’ scores were high enough to gain an invitation to take the Semi-final exam, which was

administered on March 30, 2012. Of these 27 TJ students, four were chosen as National Finalists. Two of these four TJ students have been National Finalists before: Yuqing Zhang in 2010 and Min Cheol Kim in 2011. The two students who became National Finalists for the first time in 2012 are Andrew Jiang and Owen Gray. According to the director of the Center for Excellence in Education, this is the first time that Biology Olympiad has had four National Finalists from the same school in any given year. Thus, Thomas Jefferson Biology Olympiad students made history this year! On April 26, 2012, fifty-eight Biology Olympiad students took the University of Toronto National Biology exam. We are still waiting for the results. Last year the TJ students scored the highest among all the participating schools, both nationally and internationally. We are confident that they did just as well this year. The students worked diligently and stayed focused. They were determined to get as many National Finalists as possible. They stayed after school every Friday until 6:00 p.m. honing their test-taking skills and enhancing their knowledge and comprehension of as many biological concepts as they could muster. Their hard work really paid big dividends. They have made us proud. All the participants are to be commended! Special thanks to team coach and sponsor, Ithalda Uston, Ph.D.

Botball Co-Presidents: Helen Lai and Megan Clark Botball is a robotics competition in which teams design, build, and program a pair of camera-equipped, autonomous robots.

Three TJ Botball Robotics Teams competed in the DC Regional Botball Tournament on Saturday, April 21. The Senior Team won two awards for 2nd Place in the Seeding Round and being one of the eight finalists. The Sophomore Team won a Judge’s Choice for Most Promising Design and a trophy for 2nd Place in the “Alliance” Rounds. Senior Team: Fareez Choudhury, Megan Clark, Albert Gural, Helen Lai, Zeming Lin, Jonathan Lykins, Minh Nguyen, Sam Prestwood, Flint Song, Arjun Srinivasan, Eric Tobin, Anish Tondwalkar, Kyle Withers, Paul Wolfteich, and Lianna Yang Junior Team: Neeraj Gandhi, Shomiron Ghose, Anurag Goel, Sam Hoffman, Andrew Kim, Peter Price, Cyrus Malekpour, Sangburm Lee, and Ethan Voytko Sophomore/Junior Team: Arjun Balaji, Tytanan Burney, Daniel Carris, Helen Chen, Akshith Doddi, Anna Hwang, Krishna Jayaraj, Josh Kweon, Vivian Le, and Vaughn Varma This year, each team’s pair of robots competed to score points by collecting and depositing several different types of objects. Cubes could be stacked for more points. The robots are equipped with cameras and sensors that allow them to steer themselves around the game board. Final scores are determined by points awarded from three phases of the competition:

- An oral presentation about the teams’ robots and strategy - Seeding rounds - Double elimination tournament

Special thanks to team coach and sponsor, Mr. Billington.

Mikaela Ruiz-Ramon (2015) Anusha Saga (2015) Sarthak Sahu (2013) Kate Salamido (2015) Jay Sebastian (2013) Hyae-In & Jeong In Seo (2013 & 2015) Asmita Shah (2015) Joanna Shaju (2015) Anirudh Sharma (2015) David Shin (2013) Matthew Spahr (2015) Wendy Sun (2014) Christian Tae (2015) Angela Tang (2014) Sonia Thakur (2014) Nimish Todi (2013)

Christine Tsou (2014) Ellis Tsung (2015) Meghana Valluri (2014) Sidharth Verma (2014) Richard Wang (2014) Parker Won (2013) William Woodruff (2014) Ashley Xue (2014) Timothy Yeh (2012) Jennifer Yin (2014) Yuqing Zhang (2012) Aaron Zhao (2014) Tim Zhong (2014) Kyle & Derek Zhou (2015 & 2015) Cindy Zou (2012)

Bronze ($50 - $99)

Daniel Abraham (2014) Shiva Ambardar (2013) Steven Androphy (2015) Sharan Arkalgud (2015) Narotham Badrish (2012) Arjun Balaji (2014) Shankar Balasubramanian (2015) Orchi Banerjee (2015) Roshni Bhasin (2014) Yash Bhatnagar (2013) Lian Bloch (2012) Mona Bugaighis (2015) Matthew Bujor (2012) Kevin Cao (2013) David Carris (2014) Abhishek Cauligi (2012) Shani Cave (2015) Timothy Cha (2015) Lakshmi Chandran (2014) Stephannie Chen (2015) Jiwon (Joyce) Choi (2015) Robert & Scott Clark (2012 & 2015) Anant Das (2015) James Day (2014) Romain Debroux (2014) Shivani Dimri (2015) Emmett Dorlester (2015) Austin Dunn (2012)

Jack Fang (2015) Amani Farooque (2013) Matt Ferrell (2012) Andrew Freix (2013) Shreyas Garg (2015) Alexis Gillmore (2015) Jared Golant (2012) Joe Gonzales (2015) Elizabeth Goodwin (2013) Abi Gopal (2014) Shantanu Gore (2015) Tushar Govil (2014) David Guo (2013) Christine Harris (2012) Katherine Hao (2014) Nicholas (Nick) Hayes (2013) Doug Hearney (2012) Jay Hebert (2014) Owen Hoffman (2014) Katherine Hough (2014) Rishub Jain (2015) Varun Jain (2014) Byum Ho (James) Jang (2013) Yon (Daniel) Jang (2012) Kush Kakkad (2014) Tushar Kamath (2012) Jooyoung (Joo) Kang (2015) Yana Kaplun (2014)

Bobbie Sheng (2015) Allen Shi (2012) Benjamin & Cody Silverman (2012 & 2013) Katherine Sizov (2015) Nita Takanti (2014) Eric Tao (2013)

Ethan Voytko (2013) Zachary (Zach) Wade (2015) Lianna Yang (2012) Kunyao Yu (2012) Mariam Zaidi (2015) Zhereng & Ben Zhang (2012 & 2015)

Silver ($100 - $249)

Zartosht Ahlers (2014) Kyle Angelotti (2013) Nadege Aoki (2014) Sreya Atluri (2015) Rohan Banerjee (2014) Matthew Barbano (2015) Collin Berman (2013) James & William Bradbury (2012 & 2014) Alec Brenner (2013) Morgan Cheatham (2013) Alex & Jenny Chen (2012 & 2013) Amy Chen (2013) Christopher Chen (2014) Alex & Jenny Chen (2012 & 2013) Jessica Choi (2014) Lucy Chu (2014) Kiffa Conroy (2013) Yang Dai (2012) Nancy Ding (2013) Katharine Earl (2013) Hope Flaxman (2013) Adam Friedman (2014) June Ge (2015) Shohini Ghosh (2013) Aileen Huang (2013) Ronnie Ghose (2013) Shohini Ghosh (2013) Suhas Gondi (2013) Lily Gu (2014) Nicholas Haliday (2013) Kimberly & Connor Hann (2010 & 2012) Helen & Emma Hastings (2012 & 2014) Margaret Hu (2012) Kevin Huo (2013) Krishnaprasad Jayaraj (2014) Collin Jones (2012) Doowon Kang (2014) Yana Kaplun (2014)

Jason & Brian Kim (2014 & 2015) Kyu Hyeon Kim (2014) Min Cheol (Michael) Kim (2013) Jung Yoon (Sara) Kim (2015) Nick Kousen (2012) Matthew Kramer (2015) Josh Kweon (2014) Daniel Kwun (2014) Helen Lai (2012) Thai-An Le (2015) Vivian Ledynh (2015) Jason Lee (2013) Justin Lee (2013) Karin Lehnigk (2012) Zikuan (Daniel) & Richard Li (2012 & 2015) Kun Liu (2013) Jeremy & Nicholas Loffredo (2012 & 2008) Sienna Lotenberg (2014) Sam Luo (2012) Kalyan Madanapalli (2015) Rahul Majumdar (2014) Sayed Malawi (2014) Quentin & Gavin Moore (2012 & 2015) John Morris (2015) Billy Moses (2014) Carrie Murton (2014) Jordan Myers (2012) Shreya Nandi (2015) Daniel Ni (2013) Sam Nicoll (2012) Janice Ong (2015) Andrew Pan (2014) Jennifer Peng (2013) William Qian (2012) Billy Rieger (2012) CheyAnne Rivera (2014) Ben Roodberg (2013)

Certamen (Latin) TJ Certamen prepared for and competed at the National Junior Classical League Convention held at Eastern Kentucky University in July 2011. While all TJ participants at the convention performed well on tests, creative arts, and graphic arts, special recognition is due to the individuals who participated in the National Certamen. Hyae-In Seo, Molly Hemenway, and Andrew Coffee served on Virginia’s Intermediate team, which placed 2nd in the nation against daunting competition. TJ sent 105 students to the Virginia Junior Classical League (VJCL) Convention in Richmond, VA. During the convention, the TJ delegation conducted a successful campaign to elect our very own Morgan Cheatham as VJCL parliamentarian! Morgan will help lead the Virginia delegation at the National Junior Classical League convention at Wake Forest University and will preside over elections at next year’s state convention. Participants at convention competed in academic, graphic and creative arts contests. TJ students won numerous awards in all categories. In addition, TJ took 1st 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; they are:

• 9th grade: Bobbie Sheng, June Ge, Natalie Diaz, Adam Goldstein, Nolan Kataoka

• 10th grade: Anwar Omeish, Andrew Coffee, Katie Hough, Hannah Pho, Sienna Lotenberg

• 11th grade: Semele Liu, Raynor Kuang, Robert Wharton, Amy Chen • 12th grade: Daphne Fong, Rachel Goldstein, Ricky Short, Alex Chen, John

Chae, Austin Dunn Other Convention Highlights:

• Bobbie Sheng (9) – 1st place – Mottoes, Derivatives, Reading Comprehension • Andrew Coffee (10) – 1st place – Reading Comprehension, Vocabulary, Grammar

(Best in Show), Derivatives, Mottoes • Semele Liu (11) – 1st place – Watercolor, Mixed Media, Illustrated Quotation • Daphne Fong (12) – 1st place – Charcoal, Greeting Card, Small Model • Rachel Goldstein (12) – 1st place – Photography, Mythology, Mottoes, Reading

Comprehension

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 of its own 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 A team of Peter Kim, Sylvia Greer, Bobbie Sheng (captain), and Noah Shin 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 June Ge (captain), Adam Goldstein, Owen Hoffman, and John Wilkes played extremely well and earned 1st place in the final round, showing all of Virginia their true potential. The other Latin II team of Jeff Horowitz (captain), Nolan Kataoka, Daniel Kwun and Jonathan Towne earned 4th place in the preliminary rounds due to the members’ excellent play.

• The Latin III A team of Sienna Lotenberg, Anwar Omiesh, Anthony Carrington and Lauren Nostrum placed 1st in finals, showcasing their signature dominant style of game play. TJ is thrilled by their success. The other Latin III team of Kenneth Hau, Daphne Fong, and Varun Kripanandan placed 7th.

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. Ricky Short and Rachel Goldstein, seniors dedicated to TJ Certamen above all other things, played their final competition together with Andrew Coffee and Hyae-In Seo against their common foes. The team, in possibly the most climactic round of the season, pulled out a come-from-behind victory in the last five questions. Two other seniors, Mike Bunting and Sam Sohn simultaneously made their Certamen debuts and farewells. Junior Kevin Zeng placed a respectable 5th. Our final event of the year will be the NJCL Convention held this summer (July 26 –July 31) in Winston-Salem, Kentucky. 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 6th. We hope to be able to help Virginia bring home the gold again 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. The student leadership of Ricky Short, Molly Hemenway, and Hyae-In Seo would also like to recognize Rachel Goldstein for her personal assistance in practices throughout the year. 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!

Academic Boosters Donors, 2011–2012

Membership Summary We collected close to $40K in donations from 325 families, teachers, relatives and corporations, and distributed almost $45K, dipping into our cash reserve and filling over 72% of the requests from 18 teams. Fourteen teams were 100% funded by Academic Boosters, while 2 teams had majority of their funding from Academic Boosters.

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Diamond ($1000 & Up)

Darren Bolduc (2013) Varun Jain (2014)

Tessa Muss (2014) Victoria Xia (2014)

Platinum ($500 - $999)

Amanda Chao (2015) Maggie Engler (2013) Mayank Jain (2012)

Rachel & Becca Merriman-Goldring (2013 & 2015)

Brandon Pang (2013) Gold ($250 - $499)

Kian Alikhani (2015) Neway Araya (2015) Kevin & Katherine Au (2013 & 2014) Sammy Bennett (2015) Archis Bhandarkar (2014) Michael & Steven Bunting (2012 & 2014) Andrew Coffee (2014) Alex Dalzell (2013) Robert Dioso (2013) Rachel Dyment (2013) Sarah Eltinge (2013) Akhil Gangu (2014) Emma Gee (2014)

Owen Gray (2014) Connor & Aidan Hennessey-Niland (2014 &

2015) Katherine Ho (2013) Zacharia Hosseinipour (2013) Kristina & Jason Hu (2013 & 2015) Lauren Huang (2013) Robert Huddleston (2013) Jennifer Hwang (2012) Young-Hun Lee (2015) William Lucht (2013) Ellen Mule (2014) Joseph Park (2013)

Science Olympiad Captain: Daniel Jang Vice Captain: Hope Flaxman Secretary and Historian: Hillary Liu Treasurer: Margaret Hu Webmaster: Austin Ralls Science Olympiad is an 8th period club where students compete in a variety of scientific disciplines. Three 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 at Regionals and 3rd at States, demonstrate how far this club has come. At the state tournament, TJ took home six 1st-place finishes and seven 2nd-place finishes, more than any other team in the tournament. Additionally, our alternates received top scores of 1st and 3rd place. Our 1st place winners:

• Peter Ahn and Hope Flaxman in Chem Lab • Hope Flaxman and Janice Ong in Disease Detectives • Alec Brenner and Katie Hsia in Forestry • Billie Males and Daniel Jang in Helicopter • Alec Brenner and Austin Ralls in Rocks and Minerals • Avand Lakmazaheri and Cyrus Tabrizi in Towers

Our 2nd place winners:

• Emma Puranen and Austin Ralls in Astronomy • Daniel Jang, Peter Ahn, and John Chae in Experimental Design • Avand Lakmazaheri and Katie Hsia in Forensics • Cyrus Tabrizi and Billie Males in Gravity Vehicle • Janice Ong and John Chae in Microbe Mission • Austin Ralls and Avand Lakmazaheri in Robot Arm • Daniel Jang and Alec Brenner in Water Quality

Thank you all for your continued support! Every year we keep improving and getting closer to our goal of competing at the National tournament. Special thanks to team coach and sponsor, Mr. Hannum!

Chemistry Team and Chemistry Olympiad Captains: James Bradbury and Wooram (Chris) Seok Teaching Coordinators: Victor Shao and Raynor Kuang Activity Managers: Stefanie van Rafelghem Webmaster: Zeming Lin TJ Chemistry Team is a student club started in fall 2010 with the purpose of preparing students for the annual Chemistry Olympiad exam as well as other Chemistry-based competitions. Student officers prepare lectures for the other club members following the general AP Chemistry curriculum, with more detail or emphasis given on particular topics at the end of the year. University of Maryland College Park’s 28th Annual Chemathon Level II Chemistry Division Participants: Chris Seok, Victor Shao, Raynor Kuang, Thuc Tran, Thai Co Nguyen, Jay Devanathan Awards: Grand Prize – 10th Place; Chemical Jeopardy – 1st Place Event Award; LeChatelier’s Lunacy – 3rd Place Event Award; Balancing Act – 4th Place Event Award University of Waterloo Chemistry 13 News Exam and Avogadro Exam Chemistry Team participated in the University of Waterloo’s Chemistry 13 News Exam on May 8. This exam is reserved for students who are in or have taken AP Chemistry. This year 30 students participated in the exam. Twenty-one students also participated in the University of Waterloo’s Avogadro Exam on May 16. Results for both exams will be announced in June. This is Chemistry Team’s second year participating in the exams. Chemistry Olympiad TJ’s top 12 semi-finalists for the Local Chemistry Olympiad are: Kalki Seksaria, Victoria Xia, Chris Seok, Raynor Kuang, Yongkoo Kang, Suhas Gondi, Andrew Tao, Nick Haliday, Thuc Tran, Zhereng Zhang, Hope Flaxman, and Andrea Li. The semi-finalists took the “Local” exam on March 14th to compete for two seats at the national exam in April. Congratulations to Victoria Xia and Kalki Seksaria, TJ’s Chemistry Olympians who advanced to the nationals! The National Exam was held at Catholic University in April. Based on the National Exam results, Kalki Seksaria has qualified to compete for one of four spots on the U.S. team bound for the 44th annual International Chemistry Olympiad. He is one of only 20 students nation-wide invited to a two-week intensive study camp at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. Special thanks to team coach and sponsor, Mr. Hannum and Chemistry Olympiad sponsor, Mr. Kauffman.

Chess Team Chess Captains: Quentin Moore and Kun Liu The TJ Chess Team competed in the Virginia State Chess Championship and the Virginia State Blitz Chess Championship held in the Tysons Corner area March 16-18. Special thanks and congratulations to our team sponsor, Dr. Peter Gabor, who received the 2012 Virginia Coach of the Year Award! The TJ Blitz Team became the Virginia State Champions with a score of 35.5. Aravind Ponukumati won 1st place in individual awards after going undefeated with an astonishing 10/10 points. The Blitz Team included Aravind Ponukumati, Yang Dai, Darwin Li, Richard Li, Quentin Moore, Brian Li, Ashley Xue, Jeevan Karamsetty, Arman Khojandi, Aditya Ponukumati, Zikuan Li, Kalyan Madanapalli, and Arun Kannan. 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. TJ brought one of the strongest teams the state tournament has ever seen, bringing five experts to the competition. Twenty-five TJ students played in the main event: Andrew Freix, Quentin Moore, Aravind Ponukumati, Jeevan Karamsetty, Yang Dai, Kun Liu, Katherine Wu, Richard Li, Ashley Xue, Aditya Ponukumati, Arman Khojandi, Shicheng Zhao, Roshan Sajjad, Arun Kannan, Daniel Fontenot, Kiffa Conroy, Gavin Moore, Eric Bo, Kalyan Madanapalli, Winston Ou, Jeremy Loffredo, Vivek Gorijala, Zikuan Li, Edi Danalache, and Nihar Gudiseva. TJ dominated this event, taking 10 of the top 15 places! The tournament ended with a four-way tie for 1st place, with each co-champion earning 5.5/6 points. Three of these co-champions were from TJ: Andrew Freix, Quentin Moore, and Aravind Ponukumati. Yang Dai received the top-scoring female award with 5/6 points. The team won the competition with a score of 21.5, making it TJ’s 11th

state championship title in a row! The TJ Chess Team also competed in the K-12 National Chess Championship and the K!12 National Blitz Chess Championship held in Minneapolis, MN April 12-15. At the Blitz Tournament, the TJ Blitz Team won 8th place with a score of 32.0. The Blitz team consisted of Yang Dai, Quentin Moore, Jeevan Karamsetty, and Kalyan Mandanapalli.The TJ team for this event included Yang Dai, Quentin Moore, Andrew Freix, Kalyan Mandanapalli, and Jeremy Loffredo. TJ won 3rd place in this event, and was even fighting for the 1st-place spot down to the last round.

Science Bowl Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Science Bowl tests students’ knowledge of biology, chemistry, physics, earth science, energy, astronomy, and math. Science Bowl is a fast-paced buzzer competition, with individual toss-up questions followed by team bonus questions. Congratulations to the TJ Science Bowl team of Yuqing Zhang, Zeming Lin, Alec Brenner, Kalki Seksarin, and Owen Gray. This team won the Virginia Regional Science Bowl championship and advanced to the National finals. At the National Science Bowl, the TJ

team competed against 68 other regional championship teams from across the U.S. TJ finished with 6 wins and 2 losses (losing only to the national 1st and 2nd-place teams), and narrowly missed advancing to the final rounds. We will miss the contributions and leadership of our seniors Yuqing Zhang and Zeming Lin and we look forward to an even more successful season next year. Thanks to Sharon Webb for sponsoring the Science Bowl Team.

Rubik’s Cube The Rubik’s Cube Club returned for its second year, despite losing over half of its previous membership. The club’s success at the “You Can Do the Cube” competition at the first USA Science and Engineering Festival last year led to renewed interest this year. The Rubik’s Cube Club was able to purchase several new cubes, publicize our success, and encourage the growth of the club. With only three returning members from last year, the Rubik’s Cube Club and its sponsor, Ms. Conklin, spent

much of the summer and fall recruiting new members to the club. Several eager students attend each Friday’s B block practice so that they may be instructed by ‘masters’ or just to solve cubes with friends. During the month of February, select members began to practice for the second annual “You Can Do the Rubik’s Cube” competition. Returning members: Asa Kaplan (10), Chris Mercado (11), and David Weisiger (10) teamed up with new members: Alex Wundt (9), Albert Chuong (9), Peter Gunnarson (9), Changen Pan (11), and Quark Wei (11). 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 competition was held on April 28 at the Second Annual USA Science and Engineering Festival. The Thomas Jefferson Rubik’s Cube Team emerged victorious by the narrowest of margins. Every finalist team was there to compete, and all six teams posted times under three minutes (for comparison, only two teams at the prior competition achieved this, one of which was TJ). With the top three teams posting times of 2:02.00, 2:01.61, and 2:00.86 (TJ winning time!!), we can see that every team has improved dramatically, and next year we surely shall see a time that will surpass TJ’s record of 1:47.77 last year. Thanks again, Dr. Glazer, for coming to watch us compete!

Computer Team In the Innovative Defense Technologies (IDT) High School Programming Contest on January 7, the Senior Computer Team of Kalki Seksaria, Albert Gural, and Videh Seksaria earned 1st place. They are now participating in the Collegiate Programming Contest. At the Virginia Commonwealth University High School Programming Contest on March 9, the Senior Computer Team of Albert Gural, Sreenath Are, Luo (William) Qian, and Ye (Eric) Tao earned 1st place. The Intermediate team of Julie Kim, Tushar Maharishi, Cody Silverman, and David Zhao earned 2nd place. The Frosh team of Corwin de Boor, Matthew Kramer, Dilip Thiagarajan, and Kyle Zhou earned 4th place. The team continued its winning ways at the University of Virginia High School Programming Contest on March 17. The Senior Computer Team of Alex Chen, Ryan Jian, Muthuraman Chidambaram, and Jay Sebastian earned 1st place. The Intermediate team of Alec Grieser, Abraham Kang, Doo Wong Kang, and Victoria Xia earned 2nd place. The Frosh team of Sheyas Garg, Anirudh Ryali, Puneeth Uttla, and Derek Zhou earned 6th place. The Senior Computer Team of Nick Haliday, Sakethnath Are, Kalki Seksaria, and Innokentiy (Kesh) Shvets earned 2nd place in the University of Maryland High School Programming Contest on April 24. James Bradbury, Alex Chen, Jared Golant, and Arjun Srinivasan earned qualification into the second round of the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad. James Bradbury is now competing for a spot on the International Olympiad team. TJ’s Intermediate and Frosh Computer teams have been invited to the American Computer Science League All-Star Competition to be held 26 May 2012 at West Chester East High School in West Chester, PA. Alex Chen, Kalki Seksaria, and Videh Seksaria have been selected for the USA Computing Olympiad invitational camp! A four-person team will be selected from the sixteen individuals selected for the invitational camp. That team will represent the United States in international competition. Special thanks to team sponsors Mr. Stephen Rose, Ms. Nicole Kim, and Ms. Amy Luxenberg!

Cyber Security & Cyber Defense Club President: Hassan Almas Technology Officer: Mossab Alsadig Secretary: Daphne Fong Treasurer: Jay Hebert The TJHSST Cyber Security and Cyber Defense club launched its first year as a club dedicated to the understanding and advancement of knowledge in the area of cyber security. Cyber security is important for daily internet users, companies big and small, and of course, national security. Despite the importance of this field to the lives and safety of so many people, there are not enough skilled individuals to meet the demand in this area. As such, this club hopes to not only help educate a new generation of specialists, but also to engender interest and excitement in this field among other TJHSST students. The club gets to hear numerous speakers of national renown talk about cyber security issues. The club also participates in the Cyberpatriot competitions and is currently working on launching its own cyber security games. Many thanks to our sponsor Ms. Marjee Chmiel!

Rocketry Club President: Jonathan Lykins Secretary: Karin Lehnigk Treasurer: Naomi Naik Co-Webmasters: Fareez Chowdhury and Takeshi Mochida Historian: Karina Hemmendinger

This year, TJ’s rocketry club had all five registered teams build rockets and make qualifying flights for the Team America Rocketry Challenge (TARC). One of these TARC teams competed at the National Competition on May 12th at Great Meadow Field Events Center. The members of that team were: Christine Tsou, Allison Ko, Tim Lu, Vivian Le, Priya Shankar, Peter Mahoney, David Harris, Christian Tae, Reed Moser, and Nick Mariam. The Rocketry Club also fielded a Student Launch Initiative [SLI] team. The team successfully designed, tested, built, and launched a high-power rocket carrying a scientific payload to an altitude of over a mile. This was done under a NASA contract, with rigorous oversight and reporting to NASA engineers, with additional (and invaluable) oversight and guidance by the club’s mentor, Joseph Woodford. The launch took place April 22 outside of Huntsville, AL. The rocket was recovered and is on display in room 126. The members of the SLI team are: Robert Campion, Genevieve Gural, Kartik Gupta, Narotham Badrish, Karin Lehnigk, Jonathan Lykins, Flint Song, Fareez Chowdhury, Eve Chase, Eric Tobin, and Bobby Huddleston. Special thanks to team coach and sponsor, Mr. Duncan Forbes!

On January 21, James Bradbury, Raynor Kuang, Hope Flaxman, and Sid Verma (sophomore) went undefeated in the District and Regional VHSL competitions. On February 25, the TJ Quizbowl team won the State III Scholastic Bowl championship, the 10th state championship for TJ's Quizbowl Team! They didn’t lose a single match, and beat Maggie Walker handily in the playoffs. The team consisted of senior captain James Bradbury, plus juniors Sarah Eltinge, Raynor Kuang, and Hope Flaxman. On Saturday March 3, a team consisting of Sarah Eltinge, Raynor Kuang, Hope Flaxman, and Sid Verma traveled to New York and competed at the Prison Bowl V tournament and placed 2nd out of 24 teams. A B team of Janice Ong, Billie Males, and Bobbie Sheng placed 15th. On April 21, TJ Quizbowl attended Caesar Rodney's Rider Bowl III tournament in Delaware and placed 1st out of 12 teams. The team consisted of James Bradbury, Raynor Kuang, Kate Salamido, and Janice Ong. TJ's It's Academic team of Varun Kumar, James Bradbury, and Avi Sachs has advanced to the playoffs of NBC's television quiz show It's Academic. The first playoff match aired on Saturday, April 28. TJ Quizbowl would like to thank the team parents for their support, Ms. Agee for sponsoring all of the tournaments at TJ, Dr. Jones for hosting many after school practices, and above all, our wonderful sponsor Ms. Gecan for all the time, effort, and support she has provided us over the years.

Forensics and Debate Award Special recognition was awarded to TJHSST, receiving the Washington-Arlington Catholic Forensic League's First Place Judy L. Seward Sweepstakes Award recognizing achievement across all categories of league events during the 2011-2012 competition year. This award recognizes the achievements of TJ students from Forensics, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Policy Debate, and Public Forum Debate. Congratulations, TJ!

Forensics Team

Co-Captains: Leif Bakke and Kyle Angelotti Recruitment Officer: Malaika Murphy Treasurer: Emily Ji Publicity Coordinator: Noah Yoo This season’s WACFL (Washington Arlington Catholic Forensics League) tournaments ran monthly from October to March, with students receiving: Kyle Angelotti, 2nd place in Extemporaneous Speaking, WACFL 1 & 2; and 2nd place in Impromptu Speaking at WACFL 2 Leif Bakke, 1st in Impromptu Speaking, WACFL 3 Also competing at WACFLs were TJ competitors Varun Jain, Declamation and Extemp; Romita Mandal, Extemp; Nidhi Gandhi & Nita Takanti, Duo Interpretation; Nidhi Gandhi, Impromptu; Anand Prasanna, Extemp and Impromptu; Leif Bakke, Original Oratory; Lucas Lin, Original Oratory; Katharine Earl & Lucia Lee, Duo Interp; Adam Friedman, Dramatic Performance, Shivani Dimri, Oral Interp; Sanjoli Agarwal, Oral Interp; Anwar Omeish, Oral Interp; Leif Bakke & Malaika Murphy, Duo; and Sarah Mohideen, Impromptu. At WACFL Metro Finals, team members Nidhi Gandhi & Nita Takanti, Duo Dramatic Interpretation, and Leif Bakke, Original Oratory and Impromptu Speaking competed. Leif Bakke placed 1st in Impromptu. On December 14, the NoVAFL Speech and Debate competition held at Hayfield Secondary School, Leif Bakke placed 1st in Original Oratory and 1st in Impromptu Speaking; Lucas Lin placed 3rd in Original Oratory and 4th in Impromptu Speaking; and Hillary Liu placing 3rd in Poetry and 5th in Prose.

The Forensics Speech Team competed at Invitational Tournaments: George Mason University Invitational Tournament in December, 2011, with Adam Friedman, Dramatic Interp; Lucas Lin, Original Oratory; Shivani Dimri, Prose & Poetry; Sanjoli Agarwal, Poetry; and Anand Prasanna in Extemp. Columbia University Invitational Tournament, January 21-22, 2012. Congratulations to the Duo Interp Team of Malaika Murphy & Leif Bakke, which advanced to the Semi-Finals at Columbia University! TJ also had strong representation by team members Kyle Angelotti, Extemp, Katie Earl, Dramatic Interp, Katie Earl & Lucia Lee, Duo Interp, Leif Bakke, Original Oratory. Thank you also to TJ alum Sam Schipani, who gave team members a tour of the Columbia campus. On February 17, 2012, Forensics Team members Leif Bakke and Kyle Angelotti traveled to Cambridge to compete at the Harvard University Invitational competition, one of the largest and most competitive in the nation. At VHSL Districts Kyle Angelotti, took 1st place in Extemp, Romita Mandal, 3rd place in Extemp, Leif Bakke, 1st place in Original Oratory, Varun Jain, 3rd place in Humorous Dramatic Interp, Karina Charipova, 1st place in Storytelling, and Shivani Dimri, 2nd place in Storytelling. At the VHSL Regionals Kyle Angelotti received 3rd place in extemporaneous speaking, and Karina Charipova received 3rd place in storytelling, both advancing to states. Kyle Angelotti placed 3rd at the VHSL state competition. National Forensics League: On January 10, the National Forensic League (NFL) announced that TJ senior Leif Bakke received a First Degree Student Service Citation from the league in recognition of outstanding service to speech and debate education. At the Virginia NFL District Competition on February 4, Kyle Angelotti placed 4th in International Extemporaneous Speaking and qualified to compete at the NFL National Tournament in Indianapolis, June 10-15, 2012. On February 4, 2012, TJ received the Leading Chapter Award for Virginia for its participation in the NFL from 1988-2010! Special thanks to our team sponsors, Mrs. Marie Bakke and Mrs. Terry Angelotti!

Quizbowl

Co-Captains: James Bradbury and Raynor Kuang Personnel Officer: Varun Kumar Treasurer: Ananth Sridhar Secretary: Nadège Aoki Webmaster: James Bradbury Tournament Directors: Peter Town and Sarah Eltinge

At the annual Fall Novice tournament, TJ’s freshman team of Sid Verma, Janice Ong, Kate Salamido, and Bobbie Sheng went undefeated and placed 1st out of 28 teams, a victory that hinted at a bright future for TJ Quizbowl in the next few years. On Saturday, October 8, TJ Quizbowl hosted its first tournament of the year, OLEFIN (Outstanding Like Excellent Fantastic Invitational). TJ Quizbowl members wrote all the questions used at this tournament. TJ class of 2011 alums returned to help with the competition, including Daniel Hothem, Diana Gerr, Olivia Murton, Stephen Eltinge, Thalia Aoki, and Siddharth Hariharan. Twenty-one teams from seventeen different schools attended OLEFIN and the question set has been widely praised within the quizbowl community. The Partnership for Academic Competition Excellence (PACE) certified OLEFIN as a 'platinum' tournament, meaning that the caliber of questions and management at the tournament were deemed excellent. OLEFIN was entirely student-run, under the guidance of our excellent tournament directors, Peter Town and Sarah Eltinge. TJ competed at the Harvard Fall Tournament, a high-level high school tournament held on the Harvard campus, on November 12 and came in 4th out of 34 teams. TJ qualified for PACE National Scholastic Championships from that tournament with a team of Sarah Eltinge, James Bradbury, Raynor Kuang, and Jonathan Leidenheimer. The PACE National Scholastics Championship will be held in June in St. Louis, Missouri. At the GSAC XIX tournament held on December 3, a team consisting of James Bradbury, Raynor Kuang, Jonathan Leidenheimer, and Sarah Eltinge placed 3rd out of 27 teams. On December 10, at the VCU Winter tournament TJ A again placed 3rd, this time out of 22 teams, with a team consisting of James Bradbury, Raynor Kuang, and Hope Flaxman. TJ B, consisting of Nadège Aoki, Varun Kumar, and Justin Yum placed 7th.

Public Forum Debate Team Captains: Daniel Jang and Darwin Li Teaching Coordinators: Aileen Huang and Kevin Cao Research Coordinators: Mashal Wakilpoor and Eashan Kaw Treasurer: Carrie Sun Publicist: Guanmei Liang

The Public Forum team competed at WACFL 1 at Battlefield High School. At this competition, the team of Mencheol Jeong & Anthony Uitz qualified for the regional tournament in March. Public Forum had a strong showing at their WACFL 2 competition, which was held in mid-November at Potomac Falls. Two teams placed among the top scorers. Usnish Majumdar & Vansh Kumar placed 3rd in JV Public Forum, qualifying them for the Metro Finals regional tournament in March. In varsity, the team of Keven Zhang & Lauren Huang placed 3rd, and also qualified for the Metro Finals. In November, George Mason University held a national debate invitational where six varsity TJ Public Forum teams competed. Darwin Li & Eashawn Kaw advanced to double-octafinals. In January, TJ Public Forum sent four teams to New York to compete in the Columbia Invitational, a national tournament, where the team of Aileen Huang & Anthony Uitz advanced to double-octafinals. Both tournaments had stiff competition with over 100 teams competing. Public Forum sent a record number of 30 teams to WACFL 3, with 10 teams featuring novice debaters. In Varsity, Carrie Sun & Saloni Chaswal placed 4th. In Junior Varsity, the team of Eric Xie & Ellen Kim placed 5th. At Metro Finals, Anthony Uitz & Kevin Jeong placed 2nd in the Varsity division of the Arlington Diocese, allowing them to compete in the varsity semifinals. In the JV division, Kyle Angelotti & Karen Clark were quarterfinalists, and Vansh Kumar & Usnish Majumdar were semifinalists. With their performance at Metro Finals, the Public Forum team of Men Cheol (Kevin) Jeong & Anthony Uitz are ranked as one of the top six varsity teams in our diocese. This qualifies them for the NCFL Grand Nationals tournament, which will take place in Baltimore May 26-27. Qualifying teams from all across the nation compete in this tournament. Many thanks to our parent volunteers and teacher sponsor, Mr. Michael Miller!

Future Problem Solvers President: Rafa Rahman Vice President: Darwin Li Secretary: Cynthia Li Treasurer: Patricia Li Publicist: Niki Hua 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 swept the top three honors in the team competition. The team of Niki Hua, Cynthia Li, Patricia Li, and Rafa Rahman won 1st place; the team of Anna Hwang, Diana Li, Jenny Peng, and Rebecca Poch won 2nd place; and the team of Saehee Jung, Paris Mitzelfeld, Pegah Moradi, and Melissa Wu won 3rd. 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 Sahitya Allam, Ronnie Ghose, Jordan Myers, and Aaron Zhao took 1st place and the team of Michelle Cheng, Ian Lin, Arisa Smith, and Christine Xu earned Honorable Mention. Thanks to the generous sponsorship of Academic Boosters, the team of Anna Hwang, Diana Li, Jenny Peng, and Rebecca Poch; and the team of Saehee Jung, Paris Mitzelfeld, Pegah Moradi, and Melissa Wu 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 her support both behind the scenes and at club meetings and competitions. This club and its successes would not be possible without her hard work and encouragement.

Japan Bowl The Japan Bowl is a national academic competition sponsored each spring by the Japan-America 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. Japan Bowl team captains: Danbi Kim (Level 2), Ian Lin (Level 3), and Elizabeth Nguyen (Level 4). This spring’s competition marked the 20th year of the Japan Bowl, as well as the centennial of the gift of cherry trees to Washington DC. TJ has participated in the Japan Bowl competition since it began in 1993. All three TJ Japan Bowl teams placed in the National Japan Bowl tournament held in April!! The Level 2 Team of Emily Zhou, Elizabeth Chang, and Danbi Kim and the Level 3 Team of Colton Sears, Justin Lee, and Ian Lin are National Champions!! The Level 3 team was awarded a 12-day tour to Japan. They will take their trip in late June!! The Level 4 Team of Lizzi Nguyen, Dave Wyman, and Lily Gu placed 4th in the national competition!! Thanks to Otani Sensei for coaching the teams!

Sizov in 1st, Ben Hsu in 2nd and Daniel Wang in 3rd. Lucas Lin came in 1st for Top Novice Speaker. At WACFL 4, in Junior Varsity, Joyce Choi & Jessica Kim placed 5th and Sravani Korupolu & Jessica Covan placed 6th. Jessica Kim also placed 3rd for Top JV Speakers. In the Novice division, Will Bradbury and Abi Gopal placed 3rd, Joo Kang and Sami Kosaraju placed 4th, and Azman Garcha and William Liu placed 6th. Will Bradbury placed 3rd for Top Novice Speaker. At the highly competitive Harvard invitational, the policy team of David Gao & Richard Wang made it to the JV break rounds (double-octas). TJ Policy Debate also did quite well at the VHSL district, regional, and state tournaments. At the district tournament, the team of Nick Kim & Rishi Khanna took 1st place, and the team of John Chae & Sam Luo came in 2nd place, both advancing to Regionals, which TJ also swept. At Regionals, John Chae & Sam Luo and Nick Kim & Rishi Khanna placed 1st and 2nd, respectively. John Chae and Nick Kim tied for 1st place speakers. Both teams again qualified for the state tournament where we dropped at semifinals. Individually, Nick Kim placed 2nd and John Chae placed 3rd for top speakers. Our Junior Varsity teams performed exceptionally well at the Metro Finals. After the six preliminary rounds, the teams of Jamie Kim & Yana Kaplun and Abi Gopal & Will Bradbury advanced to eliminations. Abi Gopal & Will Bradbury made it to semifinals, whereas Jamie Kim & Yana Kaplun advanced all the way to the final round. We would like to thank Mr. Scott Campbell for sponsoring us this year and leading our team in a new direction. We would also like to thank the parents who made our participation in debate tournaments possible by judging and chaperoning students. Lastly, we would like to thank Academic Boosters for supporting us and making all of our success possible.

Policy Debate Team

Co-Captains: John Chae and George Liang Teaching Coordinators: Nick Kim and Rishi Khanna Treasurer: Yana Kaplun Webmaster: Jake Shields Publicist: Kat Lee Research Director: Peter Ahnn Sponsor: Mr. Scott Campbell

Thomas Jefferson Policy Debate performed spectacularly this season! In perhaps the most academically intensive form of debate offered at the high school level, policy debaters compete in teams of two against peers from local, state, and national circuits over a year-long topic, or resolution. This year, TJ Policy Debate had an extremely successful start at the James Madison University tournament. In the Varsity division, three of our four teams were in the top nine of 22 Varsity teams competing: after the six preliminary rounds, Richard Wang & David Gao, Nick Kim & Rishi Khanna, and Sam Luo & Peter Ahnn were 4-2, 4-2, and 5-1, respectively. The latter two teams advanced to quarterfinals, where Sam Luo & Peter Ahnn won, earning a top 4 finish. In the Novice division, Kendra Song earned 1st place and Joyce Choi earned 2nd place in the individual speaker scores. Furthermore, all of the TJ novice teams (Jessica Kim & Jeong-In Seo, Jessica Hu & Kendra Song, and Joyce Choi & Jessica Covan) made it into the semifinals (top 4) out of 25 total teams. Joyce Choi & Jessica Covan competed in the championship round! At Washington-Arlington Catholic Forensic League (WACFL) 1, the Varsity team of Nick Kim & Rishi Khanna placed 5th and Richard Wang & Avinash Ramesh placed 6th, both qualifying for the Metro Finals. At WACFL 2, in Junior Varsity, Richard Wang & Peyton Randolph finished 1st and Jamie Kim & Yana Kaplun placed 4th. Richard Wang also came in 1st for Top JV Speaker. In the Novice division, Kendra Song & Joyce Choi placed 6th. At WACFL 3, the Varsity team of John Chae & Nick Kim placed 4th and David Gao & Richard Wang placed 7th. In Junior Varsity, Ben Hsu & Daniel Wang placed 4th and Sravani Korupolu & Katherine Sizov placed 2nd. Top JV Speakers were Katherine

Lincoln-Douglas Debate Captains: Tushar Kamath and Omeed Maghzian Teaching Coordinators: Nancy Ding and Kunal Khurana Treasurer: Dhruv Bansal Lincoln-Douglas’ first Washington-Arlington Catholic

Forensic League (WACFL) debate tournament of the season was held at Battlefield High School. Three TJ Lincoln-Douglas debaters won awards at the tournament. Kunal Khurana took 5th place in the varsity division, Parth Chopra took 5th place in the JV division (and Parth was the 1st-place JV speaker), and Sarah Mohideen took 1st place in the novice division. With these excellent performances, all three debaters qualified for the Metro Finals regional tournament in March. The Metro Finals competition is the gateway to the national tournament in May. Varsity Lincoln-Douglas debaters were extremely successful at WACFL 3, with three debaters among the top six in the competition. Nancy Ding took 2nd place, Kunal Khurana took 3rd, and Tushar Kamath finished 4th. In JV, Vashali Jain took the 6th place slot. This was quite an achievement, since the JV field was unusually crowded, with 99 competitors! In novice, with another crowded field, Jessica Guo took 6th place. All of these competitors have now qualified for the regional Metro Finals tournament in March. In addition, James Wang and Neeraj Gandhi qualified for Metro Finals based on their cumulative win-loss records at this tournament and a previous tournament. At the Columbia University Invitational in January, Tushar Kamath made it to the elimination rounds in a competitive pool of nationally ranked debaters. At the WACFL 4 tournament in January, Lincoln-Douglas brought 40 competitors -- its largest turnout ever! Robert Wang took 1st place in JV Lincoln-Douglas, and qualified for the Metro Finals in March. Andrew Haymaker and Sraayva Poonuganti also qualified for Metro Finals. At WACFL 5, two more TJ Lincoln Douglas competitors qualified for the Metro Finals tournament: James Eagle and Justin Yum. All of the competitors mentioned had qualified for the regional Metro Finals tournament in March. In addition, James Wang and Neeraj Gandhi qualified for Metro Finals based on their cumulative win-loss records at this tournament and a previous tournament. At the WACFL Metro Finals tournament, Nancy Ding took 4th place in varsity, and Kunal Khurana took 6th, so they'll both be competing at the NCFL national tournament

in May. At the JV level (JV competitors don't go on to Nationals, no matter how well they do), TJ had three debaters in the elimination rounds: Sraavya Poonuganti, Neeraj Gandhi, and Robert Wang. Robert Wang ultimately took 2nd place at the tournament. At the VHSL District tournament on Saturday, February 25, Tushar Kamath placed 3rd, qualifying him for the regional tournament. At regionals, Tushar Kamath earned an alternate slot for the state tournament in April. The team remains deeply grateful to Mr. Sherwood Williams for all the time and energy he has put into sponsoring the team this year. We could not have achieved anything without his unwavering support and encouragement. Thank you, Mr. Williams, for another great year!

Physics Team This year, Physics Team met every Friday 8th Period during A Block 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 20 this year. Nineteen students took the semifinal exam. Congratulations to Archis Bhandarkar, Darren Bolduc, James Bradbury, Robert Campion, Kiffa Conroy, Alexander Dalzell, Owen Gray, Albert Gural, Zeming Lin, Samuel Nicoll, Seung Young Park, Ivy Ren, William Rieger (team captain), Kalki Seksaria, Andrew Tao, Anish Tondwalkar (team captain), Peter Town, Parker Won, and Brandon Zhang. Based on the semifinal results, Samuel Nicoll was invited to be one of 20 students nationwide to attend the International Physics Olympiad (IPhO) Camp. He has accepted that invitation, and has a good chance of being one of the five of those 20 to be placed on the U.S. Physics Olympiad team. Additionally, 34 of the Physics Team members took the Physics Bowl Exam. TJ received the highest Division 2 school score in our region. TJ also had the highest scoring Division 1 student in our region (Archis Bhandarkar) and the highest scoring Division 2 student in our region (Kalki Seksaria). TJ was the 3rd- ranked Division 1 school in any region. Quite a good showing! Special thanks to our team sponsor, Mr. Forbes!

At the Chantilly Model United Nations conference, TJ won the Secretary General’s Award for Best Large High School again. Top individual awards went to the following students:

• Gavel – Parth Chopra, Jason Huang, Jay Hebert, Yena Seo, Brendan Kim, Zach Hosseinipour, Varun Kumar

• Outstanding – Wills Johnston, Nishant Garg, Nathaniel Taylor, Vikram Sardana, Aishwarya Nugooru, Sreya Atluri, Lian Bloch, Saritha Attanagoda, Carson Hotard, Rachel Merriman-Goldring, Daniel Shanker

The Model United Nations team faced tough competition at the University of Pennsylvania’s Ivy League Model United Nations conference (ILMUNC). Despite the presence of more than three thousand delegates, TJ delegates brought home more than 20 awards. The following students earned top awards at the conference:

• Gavel – Carson Hotard • Outstanding – Rachel Merriman-Goldring, Zach Hosseinipour, Brendan Kim,

Pranava Raparla March 16-17, Thomas Jefferson's Model United Nations Club hosted its annual conference, TechMUN. Over 800 delegates attended, from as far away as Richmond. The conference was led by Secretary-General Collin Jones, Undersecretary-General Varun Kumar, and Chief of Staff Rachel Merriman-Goldring. Over 100 TJ Model UN members volunteered at the conference, helping make it a tremendous success. To finish off the year, TJ’s Model UN team attended Osbourn Park’s Model United Nations conference. TJ once again received the Secretary General’s award for best large delegation, in addition to the following individual awards:

• Gavel – Vishal Talasani, Rahul Majumdar, Jason Huang, Keshav Rao, Ashley Hwang

• Outstanding – Sarthak Sahu, Keven Zhang, Carolyn Ours, Kate Hao, Jay Hebert, Rachel Merriman-Goldring, Romita Mandal, Naveed Mostaghimi

Lastly, many thanks to our fantastic teacher sponsor, Senora Pou! Without her help this year, we would not have been able to attend so many conferences or to host TechMUN. Her enthusiasm, dedication, and organization are a key part of our club’s success. Senora Pou, we truly appreciate all of your help this year!

Math Team Captain: Kristina Hu Co-Captains: Billy Reiger and Victoria Xia Statisticians: William Qian and Kiffa Conroy Finance Officers: Margaret Hu, Sarthak Sahu, and Katie Ho TJ was extremely well represented at this year’s Math Prize for Girls competition, held on September 17 at MIT. Ten TJ students qualified for the annual event! Victoria Xia (2014) finished 1st among the 276 contestants, receiving a $25,000 prize. JungYoon (Sara) Kim (2015) placed 4th, winning $2,000. With these impressive results, both students qualified for the Math Prize for Girls Olympiad. Seven other TJ students also participated in this prestigious competition: Pooja Chandrashekar (2015), Jennifer (Jenny) Fang (2015), Kristina Hu (2012), Julie Kim (2014), Nalini Singh (2013), Jessica Wu (2015), and Katherine Wu (2013). In addition, Veronica Lee (2014) qualified but was unable to attend this year. On Saturday November 5, the Varsity Math Team hosted over 225 middle school students for the TJ Intermediate Math Open. TJ students wrote all the problems and coached teams of 6 or 7 students. This was our largest tournament ever and was very successful. We are grateful to Raytheon for the $3,000 donation that helped make it possible. At the Duke University Math Meet. SeungIn Sohn placed 1st in the individual rankings, and all four TJ teams were quite successful. The A team was 4th (only 1.5 points behind the 1st-place team), the B team was 6th and the C team was 9th. The students who participated were: A team: SeungIn Sohn, Billy Rieger, Parker Won, Joseph Park, Victoria Xia, and Remy Lee; B team: Veronica Lee, Andrew Tao, Kiffa Conroy, Kristina Hu, Kevin Au, and Allen Shi; C team: Ritwik Anand, Sarthak Sahu, Rohan Banerjee, Richard Wan, Kun Liu, and Jennifer Yin; and D team: Kathy Wu, Lauren Huang, Nalini Singh, Wendy Sun, David Zhao, and Tim Zhong. Thanks to Mr. Xia, Mr. Sahu, Ms. Weiss, Mr. Hu, and Mr. Zhao for driving, and to faculty sponsor Ms. Pat Gabriel for accompanying the team. On November 19, 24 team members headed to Princeton for the 6th Annual Princeton University Math Competition. This is an extremely challenging contest, which drew students from all over the east coast as well as teams from China, Bulgaria, and Croatia. While we did not experience the same level of team success as at Duke, several students were recognized for their individual performances. In the A division, SeungIn Sohn placed 4th in Algebra and 4th in Number Theory, while Victoria Xia placed 3rd in Algebra. In the B division, Thomas Lee placed 3rd in Geometry and Kevin Ko was 5th in

Combinatorics. The students who participated were: A team: SeungIn Sohn, Billy Rieger, Parker Won, Joseph Park, Victoria Xia, Yuqing Zhang, Veronica Lee and Remy Lee; B team: Andrew Tao, Kiffa Conroy, Kristina Hu, Kevin Au, Albert Gural, Saketh Are, Alex Dalzell, and William Qian; and C team: Brian Shi, Thomas Lee, Kevin Ko, Ivy Ren, Archis Bhandarkar, Abraham (Yonkoo) Kang, Sreenath Are, and Owen Gray. Thanks to Mr. Bhandarkar, Mr. Gural, Mr. Conroy, and Mr. and Mrs. Ren for driving, and to faculty sponsor Ms. Allard for accompanying the team. Two teams 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 two TJ teams were among 134 selected as semifinalists from over 950 submitted projects. Congratulations go to these team members: Team 1 (all seniors): Tushar Kamath, Alex Chen, Saketh Are, Billy Rieger, Kristina Hu; Team 2: Kiffa Conroy (11), Yuqing Zhang (12), Nalini Singh (11), Nipun Singh (11),William Qian (12). Both teams received Honorable Mention awards, and each team won $1,000!! Ten students have qualified for the USA Math Olympiad program. This is a nine-hour, proof-based test given over two days. Senior Billy Rieger, juniors Alex Dalzell, Sohail Farhangi, Joseph Park, and Parker Won, and sophomore Victoria Xia will take the USAMO test. Sophomores Yongkoo Kang and Ivy Ren and freshmen Sara Kim and Matthew Park will take the USA Junior Math Olympiad. Saketh Are represented TJ in the “Who Wants to Be a Mathematician” competition at the USA Science and Engineering Festival on April 28 at the DC Convention Center. He was one of just eight contestants from the metropolitan Washington area. The competition is a quiz bowl-style contest about math topics. Special thanks to our team sponsors, Ms. Gabriel, Ms. Coffey, and Ms. Allard.

Model United Nations Secretary-General: Collin Jones Undersecretary-General: Varun Kumar Senator: Saniya Suri Arbitrator: Zach Hosseinipour Academic Boosters Coordinator: Kevin Cao Activities Coordinators: Suhas Gondi and Connor Hennessey-Niland Crisis Czars: Carson Hotard and Daniel Shanker Fundraising Coordinators: Namita Kansal, Yena Seo, and Varun Jain General Meetings Coordinator: Kyle Angelotti Historians: Rachel Merriman-Goldring and Iman Abdikarim Secretary: Romita Mandal Treasurers: Allen Shi and Dhruv Bansal Webmaster: Garrett Shapiro To start the year, one hundred members of TJ’s Model United Nations Club attended the William and Mary High School Model United Nations (WMHSMUN) conference in Williamsburg from November 18-20. The team made a great showing, winning the following top awards:

• School Award – Outstanding Large Delegation • Gavel – Paris Mitzelfeld, Vikram Sardana, Rachel Merriman-Goldring,

Garrett Shapiro, Avi Sachs, Carson Hotard, Kyle Angelotti • Outstanding – Nisha Swarup, Carrie Murton, Ashrit Bagali, Kartik Gupta,

Saniya Suri, Chris Groskaufmanis, Hari Sridhar, Brian Womeldurf, Chantelle Ekanem, Chinmayee Bala, Aishwarya Nugooru, Sreya Atluri, Nishant Garg, Wills Johnston, Collin Jones, Romita Mandal, Daniel Shanker

At the Prince William Model United Nations conference, TJ’s team continued its impressive success, bringing back numerous awards from the conference. TJ won the Secretary General’s award for teams representing large schools. This is the highest award a school may earn. In addition, numerous delegations also won awards:

• Gavel – Aidan Hennessey-Niland, Azeez Abdikarim, Saniya Suri, Kevin Cao, Chris Groskaufmanis, Michelle Wang, Allen Shi, Sarah Rachal, Daniel Shanker, Naveed Mostaghimi, Collin Jones

• Outstanding – Iman Abdikarim, Arusha Reghu, Sreya Atluri, Paris Mitzelfeld, Jason Kim, Saad Guliwala, Nishant Garg, Wills Johnston, Parth Chopra, Rishabh Masmudar, Connor Hennessey-Niland, Varun Jain, Ashley Hwang, Jihun Kim, Carson Hotard