Students in the News

* Sophomore Pritikaa Biswas (A) received the 2023 Asian American Youth Leadership Award educational excellence and civic leadership at Asian Fest on Saturday, May 20. In addition, Pritikaa was recently interviewed by WISH-TV for her involvement with Nrityangan Kathak Academy; dancers from the Academy performed at Asian Fest.

* Junior Alex Lu (B) and sophomore Evan Li (C) participated in the U.S. National Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO) Exam on April 22. Alex Lu has won the 2023 High Honors Award of the USNCO, which is awarded to the top 50 out of 16,0000 students in the nation.

* Junior Isha Shankar (D) won first place in the 2023 HOSA Future Health Professionals Indiana Biology Competition. She also placed Top 10 in the state for her research poster presentation at the event. Isha will be attending HOSA’s International Leadership Conference in Dallas, TX, in June.

* Seventh-graders Morgan Reed and Neema Chege and eighthgrader Reese Rayford (E) participated in a Sim4STEM event along with SHEroes Indianapolis. Developed by Formula Female, Sim4STEM workshops are designed to introduce young women to sim racing and STEM through motorsports. The girls participated in activities including the Pitstop challenge and building miniature data loggers and wire temperature sensors to connect to laptops for live info reading from the sensors. Click here to enjoy a video about the day.

* Sophomore Daniel Liu (F) has been awarded the American Voices Medal by the Scholastic Writing contest, recognizing him as the top writer in the region for having an original, authentic voice. Daniel is one of only five students in the country to receive this award, which is the top award from this prestigious national writing contest.

* Juniors Sahas Mallela, Ibrahim Mohsin, Sreesragvee Atluri, and Jathan Pai (G) placed third and won cash prizes in the Indiana State Economic Competition sponsored by the

Purdue University Center For Economic Education. Their team qualified for the live quiz bowl by placing third out of 20 teams by taking multiple choice exams in the highest division of the competition. They then placed third out of the top five remaining teams in the Jeopardy-style quiz bowl.

* Senior Donovan Pitts (H) was honored during the Horatio Alger National Scholars Conference March 29 - April 2 in Washington, DC. He was one of 105 students selected as National Scholars in spring 2022 out of 30,000 applicants from North America. During the conference, he met many distinguished leaders in government, business, law, medicine, and the arts. They shared their personal journeys, success philosophies, and thoughts on his years ahead. Donovan also participated in a breakfast at the US Supreme Court with Justice Thomas; an Inaugural Dinner at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery where Bill Gates was presented with the Inaugural Visionary Philanthropy Award; a Meet the National Scholars Breakfast at the Ritz-Carlton where he was able to connect with Horatio Association Members like Michele Kang, Stedman Graham, Herschel Walker, Mario Gabelli, David Hoffman, Byron Pitts, and others; and the black-tie 76th Annual Horatio Alger Induction Ceremony where 13 leaders recognized and inducted as 2023 members.

* Senior Aidan Klineman (I) won the state-level Good Citizen DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) Writing Contest. The question Aidan grappled with in his essay was “How will the essential actions of a good citizen (dependability, service, leadership, and patriotism) meet the challenges that America faces in this decade?”

* On Wednesday, April 26, the Park Tudor Middle School Library hosted Sycamore School for “Battle of the Books.” Teams read books from the Young Hoosier Book Award nominees list, then competed in a Jeopardy-style game to test their knowledge. The team of Ava Button, Riley Dusko, and Ellie Laufer (J) represented PTMS well; Mrs. Rogers is already planning next year’s Battle!