Fox Chapel area student news for the week of June

A team of Dorseyville Middle School seventh-graders recently ranked first out of 30 teams in Pennsylvania in the Purple Comet Math Meet. The team members were Moxley Chiu, Samuel Ettinger, Shengfeng Fei, Akhil Muvvala, Louis Vandapel and Brian Xu. In addition to being the first-place team in the state, the group ranked 16th out of 298 teams in the United States, and also received an honorable mention designation for being given an overall international rank of 38th out of 1,047 teams.

The Purple Comet Math Meet is an international team mathematics competition designed for middle and high school students that has been conducted annually since 2003. For the 2025 contest, there were 4,613 registered teams from 80 countries.

Joseph Kushon was among the 360 students named to the dean’s list for the fall 2024 semester at Thiel College. He was recognized at the Academic Honors Convocation in March.

Fox Chapel Area High School junior Charles Hahl won the junior division of the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh’s Youth Concerto Competition and performed the Cello Concerto No. 1 (1st mvt.) by Camille Saint-Saëns with the orchestra on April 5 at Rodef Shalom.

Hahl, 16, is also a rower for the high school’s crew team, and the second of six children. Taught by his mother to play the piano from a young age, he decided to switch to the cello when he was 8, which proved to be a great match.He also plays in the Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestra and his school orchestra, and he has played in several PMEA orchestras.

Twelve cadets from Slippery Rock University’s U.S. Army ROTC program were recognized for their commissioning as officers with the rank of second lieutenant. They were officially commissioned and took their oaths at a private ceremony on campus on May 9, before a public oath reading at SRU’s commencement ceremonies on May 10, when they graduated and received their bachelor’s degrees. Among them was Bank Thomas, an accounting major who will serve as an Air Defense officer on active duty.

Emily Torbert, a member of the Fox Chapel Area High School class of 2024, received the First Year General Physics Award at Connecticut College.

The following students made the dean’s list at Pennsylvania West University for the spring 2025 semester:

California campus: Eve-Lyn Nicklas, Lilly Iadicicco, Molly McNaughton, Jessica McCann

Clarion campus: Jacob Patterson, Carly Gornick, Aniya Peterson

Edinboro campus: Allie Watters, Sofia Catanzaro, Jake Stahl

Online campus: Angelique Lynch

Sean Ward, Marija Hamzic and David Drum made the president’s list at Southern New Hampshire University for the spring 2025 semester.

Claire Kinst, Gabrielle Kline and Ellie Nawrocki were named to the dean’s list at Belmont University for the spring 2025 semester.

Eight Fox Chapel Area School District students won awards at the 2025 State Meeting of the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science. Fox Chapel Area first-place state winners were seniors Omar Al-Bataineh, Anna Delale-O’Connor and Etash Jhanji; sophomores Heidi Stiger and Param Thawani; and eighth-grader Rishabh Krishnamurthy. The second-place state winners were senior Rohit Velankar and sophomore Rachel Kim. Additionally, Rishabh received a Perfect Score Award and a special award for Junior High Excellence in Earth/Space Science Research presented by the Pennsylvania Earth Science Teachers Association.

The participating Fox Chapel Area High School and Dorseyville Middle School students were among approximately 2,000 students in grades 7-12 from across Pennsylvania who qualified to participate in the state PJAS competition. The students researched their science projects for several months and were required to give an oral presentation in front of a panel of judges.

The state competition was held at Penn State University, Main Campus, May 18-20. All of the Fox Chapel Area students participating at the state level were named first-place winners at the annual Region 7 Meeting of the PJAS in February.

David Jameson Rhoades, a freshman majoring in chemical engineering, was named to the dean’s list for the spring 2025 semester at Clarkson University.

Chloe Yofan graduated with a master of music degree and Zoe Boychuk graduated with a bachelor of science in petroleum engineering from the University of Texas at Austin on May 10.