News from Fox Chapel Area schools

Hartwood Elementary School fourth-grader Charlene “Cici” Xu was recently won the Allegheny County Sumdog contest, which is an online math quiz students take on their own time. Cici took the online test in November and answered 991 out of 1,000 questions correctly, more than any other participating student in the county.

In September 2022, Cici finished 32nd, which was in the top 1% of all 26,524 students who competed in the national Sumdog September Slam Math Contest.

Sumdog is a free online math contest offered throughout the year and students compete against other classes and schools, locally or nationally. Students’ individual scores are based on the number of questions they answer correctly.

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Six Fox Chapel Area High School students were selected by audition to perform with the 2022 Pennsylvania Music Educators Association District 1 Honors Band concert on Nov. 9. The students are seniors Elijah Conklin, French horn; Lawrence Liu, flute, and Ethan Tan, clarinet; juniors Elijah Herzer, bass clarinet and Chloe Kim, clarinet; and sophomore Marina Dunham, bassoon.

The band consisted of 120 of the best student-musicians from Allegheny, Fayette, Greene, Washington, and Westmoreland counties. The concert was held at North Hills Middle School.

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Four Fox Chapel Area High School sophomores won second-place Nov. 9 in the high school division of the Powering Pittsburgh competition.

As part of the contest, the students were asked to reimagine how the City of Pittsburgh and Acrisure Stadium are powered. The FCAHS team, consisting of Etash Jhanji, Arnim Kuchhal, Varad Sant, and Rohit Velankar, developed a unique, environmentally friendly and renewable way to power the city and make the stadium more energy efficient. This is the second consecutive year the team, dubbed “The Mean Greenes” after Pittsburgh Steeler “Mean” Joe Greene, won an award in the competition.

The team received a $2,000 donation to further science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education at Fox Chapel Area High School. The team’s sponsor was Fox Chapel Area High School gifted support teacher Lisa Gibson.