Fox Chapel area student achievements for the week of Sept. 16, 2025

Fox Chapel Area High School ninth-grader Rishabh Krishnamurthy has been named one of the Top 300 Junior Innovators in the 2025 Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge for the third consecutive year. Thermo Fisher JIC is the nation’s premier science, technology, engineering and math competition for middle school students and the Top 300 represent the best and brightest middle school STEM talent in the United States and its territories.

Rishabh was chosen based on his project “Robots: Filling the Human Void,” for which he was awarded first place in the Pittsburgh Regional Science and Engineering Fair in April 2025 when he was an eighth-grader at Dorseyville Middle School.

A total of 30 Thermo Fisher JIC finalists, selected from among the top 300 by a nationwide panel of scientists, engineers, and educators, will be announced on Sept. 17 and will compete for $65,000 in awards and prizes.

A total of 206 current Fox Chapel Area High School students and 2025 graduates were named Advanced Placement Scholars by the College Board for demonstrating college-level achievement on the AP examinations taken in May 2025. The College Board recognizes three levels of achievement based on the number of courses and exams.

The following graduates/students qualified for the AP Scholar with Distinction award by earning an average score of 3.5 on all AP exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams: 2025 graduates Omar Al-bataineh, Ainsley Anderson, Murugan Ayyanar, Mikhail Bagrov, Katherine Banyas, David Black, Adelyn Bursick, Rebecca Chang, Isabella Cheatham, Milo Chiu, Malik Choset, Nicholas Clump, Ava Condron, Anna Delale O’Connor, Noelle Dick, Maya DiPasquale, Olivia Dugan, Reed Echnat, Claire Feczko, Brooke Fenton, Benjamin Fiedler, Gabrielle Generett, Tyler Goldstein, Gabriella Hample, Chase Hendren, Alaina Hershey, Owen Howell, Rayna Huang, Moonyoung Hwang, Etash Jhanji, Patton Johnson, Madeleine Jones, Nicole Kang, Alex Kim, Anna Kitner, Jonah Kline, Grace Kovach, Arnim Kuchhal, Joseph Kuhns, Charles Larsen, Weidi Li, Nathan Mackey, Devon McDonald, Noah Miller, Wyatt Muller, Zhana Neumann, Kyle Ong, Aidan Ortz, Pierce Osterholm, Sangyon Park, Hannah Parker, Rachel Pegher, Ava Persichetti, Francesco Pistella, Varnujah Rengaramanujam Kanagaraj, Josiah Rivera, Hyunoh Ro, Addison Rossi, Margaret Rusche, Varad Sant, Keegan Scanlon, Ezra Shensa, Caroline Slember, Paige Solomon, Sophie Thorne, Samuel Ummer, Rohit Velankar, Colette Walter, Mya Wilson, Caterina Wu, Timothy Ye, Owen Zaremby, Luca Zgurzynski, JinLiang Zhang, and Yuqi Zhou; and 2025-2026 seniors Maya Agarwal, Marin Airik, Arman Alborzi, Prachi Behal, Karsten Buchert, Xing Carlough, Catherine Conway, Michael Costello, Atia DiGioia, Laila Golla, Charles Hahl, Priscila Hayetian, Riley Hemingray, Aavree Hill, Vesta Homayoun, Zinta Jacob, Alan Jiang, Eloise Johnson, Ulyana Kubini, Joanna Li, Steven Li, Korra Littwin, Max Melocchi, Zehra Ozkaya, Joshua Shah, Mason Shelkey-Bray, Joseph Shin, Rodrigo Silva, Lorenzo Smiraglio, Theodore Tedesco, Nikolaj Vavpetic, Ryan Wang, Ian Wellman, Michael Winter and Helen Xu.

The following graduates/students qualified for the AP Scholar with Honor award by earning an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP exams taken, and scores of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams: 2025 graduates Milan Golla, Lindsay Gould, Madeline Grimsley, Natalie Hanlon, Francesca Iasella, Nathaniel Klamut, Blake Kuhn, Joshua Lowe, Sarah Michalak, Alina Minturn, Aniket Mohnot, Vanessa Perez Milano, Rebecca Poole, Alyssa Quackenbush, Caleb Shirk, Jane Stone, Gianna Tavolario, Luke Tsai, Asher White and Altai Yumak; 2025-2026 seniors Alana Calig, Molly Classen, Greta Erdner, Mikayla Feder, Ori Goldin, Eduardo Guirola Diaz, Zelia Herald, Nora Kelley, Gavin Lynch, James Manges, Sabina Mantella, Eugenia Mettenburg, August Mierwald, Allison Milgrub, Dayna Mullan, Faye Muller, Sophia Nguansiri, Gabriel Nosik, Mira Owens, Sarah Rached, Zachary Rubin, Aspen Smouse, Emma Srodes, Emilia Sutkowski, Yash Tahiliani, Umayma Trebak, Joseph Weber and Ava Weiner; and 2025-2026 juniors Nadre Digbohou and Leonidas Vandapel.

The following graduates/students qualified for the AP Scholar award by receiving scores of 3 or higher on three or more AP exams: 2025 graduates Claire Auffenberg, Matthew Begg, Emilia Boleng, Zoean Chittur, Everett Clanton, Alison Clark, Christian Dantey, Marina Dunham, Kennedy Murton, Melisa Pietz, Finnigan Saunders, Avery Schapira, Joseph Seifried, Aidan Stein, Maria Stiger and Andrea Wang; 2025-2026 seniors Maeve Beresford, Maxwell Bruno, Victor Burkhardt, Anya Butler, Lily Cannon, Rocco Didomenico, Samantha Dinh, Elisabeth Hamilla, Keitaro Inada, Sophia Jacobs, Avery Jones, Warren Kerstetter, Daniel Kidane, Bailey Mack, Gavin Nguyen, Marilyn Pekarcik, Charlotte Rattner, Benjamin Sun, Robert Svenson, Elizabeth Thomas, Samuel Troutman, Anais Wang and Elliott Willison; and 2025-2026 juniors Grant Fenton, Zhanyu Jiang, Rachel Kim, Oussama Lahham, Ayush Patel, Rayyan Saidi and Param Thawani.

Fox Chapel Area High School seniors Raina Guzman and Claire Conti qualified for the national Junk Kouture competition and were then named among the 10 United States finalists chosen to represent the country at the Junk Kouture World Final 2025. As part of the competition, they used crocheted plastic bags, Styrofoam egg cartons and repurposed jewelry to create a dress titled “Ostara.” The 10 entries chosen for the World Final stood out for their ingenuity, storytelling, and commitment to sustainability. The national competition, based out of New York, was held online in May.

Raina and Claire now move on to the World Final event that will be held in early 2026. At worlds, Raina and Claire will compete alongside finalists from Milan, Paris, London, Dubai, Dublin and the United States. The location for the World Final has not yet been announced.

Additionally, last school year’s World Final qualifiers, seniors Lily McLaughlin and Ayla Ojanen, helped this year by senior Katie Siddons, also made it to the 2025 online national contest as part of the Junk Kouture competition.

Nate Duffy, a senior mechanical engineering major at Grove City College, has been named to the dean’s list with distinction for the spring 2025 semester.

Carolyn Caracciolo was among the 2,737 students named to the dean’s list at SUNY Cortland for the spring 2025 semester. Caracciolo’s major is adolescence education: mathematics.

Lucy Markovitz graduated with a Bachelor of Science in environmental engineering with highest honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta in May.

Sophia Oehrle graduated from Miami University in May with a Bachelor of Arts in emerging tech: business and design.