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SYCAMORE NEWS
Sycamore Students Raise Money for Students in Uganda
Sycamore 7th graders Connor Kacena-Merrell, Julius Payner, Adam Wilkerson, Justin Puno, and Alex Cheng raised money to help support education in Uganda and help them to build schools in remote communities. The students are working with Building Tomorrow, a nonprofit organization located in Indianapolis. They are working toward a goal of $50,000, which is enough to create one school and to fund a fellow who teaches future teachers. They also held a fundraiser at Amore Pizzeria and Ristorante.
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Pennies For Pets Program Raises Money for IndyHumane
Sycamore 2nd Grade students took action and raised money to help IndyHumane care for the animals. Sycamore students collected pennies (and other coins and bills) within the school community at each of the three entrances for a week in April. The students became aware that, because of the pandemic, IndyHumane’s normal fundraising events changed, and many pet owners lost their jobs and were finding it difficult to afford the pet food they need. Pet surrenders had been on the rise, requiring the need for more supplies to support foster families. Sycamore raised nearly $900 for the organization, presenting it to them in early May.
Kindergarten Book Drive
Sycamore Kindergarten hosted a book drive, collecting books to be given to several organizations that provide services to families in need. They collected gently used and new picture books as well as easier chapter books. Last year, the class collected close to 2,000 books and exceeded that goal this year.
Third Grader a Guest Speaker at Butler
Violet Pangan, a Sycamore 3rd Grade student, was a guest speaker in a Butler University class, “Sustainable and Healthy Nutrition” for health care professionals. She shared her experience being a patient at Riley Hospital dealing with Celiac Disease and also gave the undergraduates advice for working with children in their future careers.
WISH-TV Showcases Sycamore’s Leni Lee
Sycamore 4th grader, Leni Lee, is the founder of Band Together, a small business making beaded face bands to help keep face masks from falling off. The young entrepreneur was working to help solve a pandemic problem while proving that someone small can make a big difference. “I thought of the idea while I was in ice skating. My mask would always fall off and onto the ground, and I would have to get a new one,” said Lee who noticed friends of hers were having similar problems in their activities and in school. She was interviewed on WISH-TV about her project.
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2021 MATHCOUNTS competitors
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Five Sycamore Students Qualify for State MATHCOUNTS
Justin Puno led Sycamore with a 4th place finish at the Chapter MATHCOUNTS Invitational, earning one of the five guaranteed spots in the State MATHCOUNTS competition. Kaitlyn Park, David Jiang, Daniel Liu, and Sophie Liang each secured one of the 10 wildcard spots from across the state. All 10 Sycamore students finished in the top 24. Their places were: Justin Puno, 4th Place Kaitlyn Park, 8th Place David Jiang, 10th Place Daniel Liu, 14th Place Sophie Liang, 15th Place Katie Sanft, 16th Place Insia Zaidi, 19th Place Nate Liang, 20th Place Xindi Liu, 21st Place Avi Maun, 24th Place
Musicians Earn ISSMA Solo & Ensemble Accolades
Of the 24 bandmembers that Sycamore sent to the ISSMA Solo & Ensemble competition, 17 received a Gold rating and seven received a Silver rating. Over the past few months our band students have been preparing for the virtual ISSMA. Sycamore had many students participate in multiple events, performing on piano as well as playing their band instrument. GOLD RATING SILVER RATING
Julius Payner Shivani Desai Daniel Peyton Laila Ghoneim Daniel Sajdak Asha Gussick Alessandro Salerno Sonali Guttikonda Emma Shi Henry Martinson Owen Zhang Lily Grace Martinson Shayen Maun
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8th graders Lukas Fiur, Jake Lee, and Avi Maun earned the overall top award, the Excellence Award at the Indiana VEX Robotics Remote Skills Championship.
Sycamore Students Earn Spot at National Geography Bee, Academic Bee, and Science Bee.
Nate Liang (8th) competed in the Science Bee finishing 2nd overall. Nate finished 3rd overall in the Geography Bee, qualifying for Nationals in both contests. He competed in the History Bee finishing 2nd overall. Nate finished 2nd overall in the Academic Bee, qualifying for Nationals in both contests. Insia Zaidi (8th) made the finals for the History Bee and Academic Bee, qualifying for Nationals in both contests. Nick Kahi (7th) made the finals of the Geography Bee and History Bee and qualified for Nationals in both. Kavya Devarapalli (7th) competed in the Geography Bee and qualified for Nationals. Sophie Liang (7th) qualified for Nationals in the Science Bee and, competed in the History Bee and qualified for Nationals. Sameer Zaidi (6th) made finals in the History Bee and qualified for Nationals. In addition, Sameer is the champion in the Academic Bee and qualified for Nationals. Evan Glushik (6th) competed in the Geography Bee and qualified for Nationals. He also competed in the History Bee and qualified for Nationals. Sophie Seifert (6th) made the finals in the Science Bee and competed in the Geography Bee, and History Bee and qualified for Nationals in all three. Alessandro Salerno (6th) competed in the History Bee and qualified for Nationals. He also competed in the Geography Bee and qualified for Nationals. Evan Ting (5th) made finals in the History Bee and Academic Bee, qualifying for Nationals in both contests. He finished 3rd overall in the Science Bee and competed in the Geography Bee, qualifying for Nationals in both events. Grant Porter (5th) competed in the History Bee and qualified for Nationals. Gavin Sigua (5th) competed in the History Bee and Science Bee and qualified for Nationals in both.
MS Students Take Spanish Exam
This spring, 14 Sycamore 8th Graders took Level 2 of the National Spanish Exam (equivalent of Year 2 HS Spanish) and two 8th Graders took Level 3 of the National Spanish Exam (equivalent of Year 3 of HS Spanish). In addition, 17 Sycamore 7th Graders took Level 1 of the National Spanish Exam (equivalent of Year 1 HS Spanish).
8TH GRADE
Sam Rudavsky scored 200/200 (100%) on the Proficiency (Reading/Listening) section of the NSE. Alex Lipkovich scored 196/200 (98%) on the Achievement (Vocabulary/ Grammar) section of the Level 3 NSE. Larissa Lo and Rudavsky both scored 90%+ on their Level 2 NSE raw scores (360+/400).
7TH GRADE
Liam Hendry, Oscar Hyatt, Shivani Desai, and Riti Tandra all scored 200/200 (100%) on the Proficiency (Reading/Listening) section of the NSE. Audrey Alberts, Evelyn Cunningham, Kaia Starnino, Justin Puno, Liam Hendry, Oscar Hyatt, and Shivani Desai all scored 90%+ on their Level 1 NSE raw scores (360+/400). Of the 33 Sycamore MS participants, a total of 27 placed nationally in the 50th percentile of participants or higher.
Academic Bowl Team 4th in the Nation
Congratulations to the Sycamore Academic Bowl team who, after two days of rigorous competition, finished 4th overall in the US Academic Bowl competition. Sycamore was defeated in the finals against Team History Scholars. The students had won the tiebreaker to win 450-440 to make the finals.
Lo Earns Art Award for Spanish Poster
Congratulations to Sycamore’s Larissa Lo for placing third nationally in the Grades 6-8 category of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) Spanish Poster contest.
Tandra 2nd in State Spelling Bee
On the campus of IUPUI, 7th grader Riti Tandra was presented with a trophy and a scholarship of $7,500 to IUPUI for her second place finish in Indiana in the 2021 Scripps Spelling Bee. She also was interviewed by Channel 6 and appeared on Good Morning Indiana. She had earned a spot in the Central Indiana Regional Scripps Spelling Bee by competing in the online local district competition. Tandra scored a perfect 50/50 to earn the title of Sycamore Middle School’s champion of the Scripps Spelling Bee.
Science Bowl Team 10th in the Nation; Two Teams in Top 6 at Regionals
Sycamore’s 2021 Science Bowl Team finished 10th in the nation Having earned first place at the Regional Science Bowl Competition on February 20, the team from Sycamore School represented both Sycamore and the region at the National Science Bowl Competition, earning 10th place in the nation. This is only the third time a team from Sycamore has been able to crack the top 10. The finish was impressive, as they were competing against larger schools on the national level. In all, there were 108 teams (64 high school and 44 middle school) who had advanced to the 2021 National Science Bowl Finals. In the Regional competition, a qualifier tournament for the National Science Bowl Competition, Sycamore Team 1 earned 1st place overall for the regional competition. Sycamore Team 2 cleanly made it through the three preliminary rounds, and finished in 6th place. Team 1 members who advanced to the national competition were Kavya Chheda (8), Lukas Fiur (8), Akhil Jois (6), Nate Liang (8), and Insia Zaidi (8), Team 2 members were Alex Cheng (7), Connor Kacena-Merrell (7), Sophie Liang (7), Riti Tandra (7), and Owen Zhang (7). The coach was David Schuth, Middle School Science teacher.
Sycamore student writers have earned four Regional Scholastic Arts and Writing awards, including one piece advancing to the national competition. Students competed against almost 340,000 entries written by Indiana students through the twelfth grade. GOLD KEY Elizabeth Schuth: “The Girl Called Raven” (short story) SILVER KEYS Kelly Fulk: “Dandelion Tears” (poem) Insia Zaidi: “Universe” (poem) HONORABLE MENTION Kelly Fulk: “A Rotten Fish” (short story) Since 1923, the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards have recognized the vision, ingenuity, and talent of our nation’s youth and provided opportunities for creative teens to be celebrated.
VEX Teams Compete at Worlds
Sycamore’s VEX team competed virtually at 2021 Worlds Nine VEX Robotics teams from Sycamore qualified for the VEX Worlds in May for a competition that is the culmination of a season that started in September. For 2021, the Worlds were held as a virtual event, with fans of robotics able to watch all the matches via Zoom and the competition was capped by a three-hour Finals show, with hosts and commentary, streamed live.
SYCAMORE TEAMS THAT QUALIFIED:
10775C Rishi Nagireddy and Garrett Hur 10775E Sarah Hinchman and Sophie Liang 10775F Lukas Fiur, Jake Lee, and Avi Maun 10775J Hasini Ambaty, Vidhatri Iyer, and Riti Tandra 10775N Owen Zhang, Arnay Garhyan, and Ben Wei 10775R John Coutant, Derek Ai, and AJ Rhea 10775V Gavin Sigua, Rose Hinchman, and Chloe Sigua 10775Y Koharu Hato, Laila Ghoneim, and Riya Chandra 10775Z Rachel Cudworth, Conner Laystrom, and Shayen Maun
FINAL RESULTS:
MIDDLE SCHOOL TEAMS Mercury Division 25th Place: 10775F 277 points (season high driving score) 47th Place: 10775C 146 points Mars Division 14th Place: 10775J 142 points (season high driving score) 16th Place: 10775R 140 points Venus Division 34th Place: 10775E 141 points 46th Place: 10775N 111 points
GRADE 5 TEAMS
Mars Division 8th Place: 10775Y 107 points (season high driving score) Mercury Division 43rd Place: 10775V 116 points 47th Place: 10775Z 111 points
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Katie Sanft, Nate Liang, Neela Gussick, and Kelly Fulk ready for wall climbing during 8th Grade Skip Day.
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