School news from the Fox Chapel area

Four Fox Chapel Area High School seniors, Aiden Dorneich, Arjun Golla, Arvind Seshan, and Ethan Tan, have been named candidates in the 2023 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. Approximately 5,000 of nearly 3.6 million high school seniors graduating this year from across the U.S. have been named candidates in this year’s program, and 198 are from Pennsylvania.

Students are first selected based on their superior academic achievements. They are further evaluated on their academic achievements, personal characteristics, leadership and service activities, and the quality and content of a submitted essay.

Approximately 600 students will be selected as semifinalists. Up to 161 students will be chosen as Presidential Scholars this spring.

• • • • •

Fox Chapel Area High School senior Arvind Seshan was recently selected as a regional finalist for the 35th class of the Coca-Cola Scholars Program. He is one of 250 students nationwide and one of only 10 from Pennsylvania, to be selected as a regional finalist.

Regional finalists now undergo a 20-minute interview with a committee consisting of a Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation staff member and previous Coca-Cola Scholars Program scholarship recipients. In March, 150 Coca‑Cola Scholars will be named and each will receive a $20,000 college scholarship.

The Coca-Cola Scholars Program is the largest corporate-sponsored, achievement-based scholarship program in the United States.

• • • • •

Eleven Fox Chapel Area High School and Dorseyville Middle School students recently won awards as part of the 89th Annual Region 7 Meeting of the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science. Seven students qualified for the state competition.

Fox Chapel Area first-place winners were seniors: Lawrence Liu and Arvind Seshan; juniors Lakshanya Rajaganapathi and Adhitya Thirumala; sophomores Etash Jhanji and Rohit Velankar; and eighth-grader Param Thawani.

The first-place winners qualified for the state PJAS competition May 15-27 at Penn State University, Main Campus.

Second-place awards went to junior Gabriella Urso, sophomore Varnujah Rengaramanujam Kanagaraj, eighth-grader Rachel Kim, and seventh-grader Divya Thirumala.

Seshan won a Perseverance Award for his years of participation in the contest, and Divya won a special award from the Society of Women Engineers.

As part of the competition, each student made a presentation before a panel of judges. The regional competition was held Feb. 4 at Baldwin High School.

• • • • •

Several Fox Chapel Area High School students placed in the 2022 Future Business Leaders of America Virtual Regional Leadership Conference and many qualified for the state competition.

Fox Chapel Area first-place regional winners were: seniors Helia Hamidi and Jack Wilk; juniors Jacob Anthikad, Maria Costantino, Evelyn Healy, Madelyn Jones, Whitney Jones, Harry Littwin, and Angela Ngo; sophomores David Black, Jackson Hagler, and David Sorisio; and freshmen Marin Airik, Prachi Behal, Maeve Beresford, Michael Costello, Aavree Hill, and Rodrigo Silva.

Second-place regional winners were: senior Paul Kullmann; juniors Joseph Berger, Micah Cagley, Isaac Jacobs, and Dylan Work; sophomores Charles Larsen, Anna Mohn, and Kennedy Murton; and freshmen Joshua Shah and Nicolas Squeglia.

Third-place regional winners were: 2023 early graduate Zachary Sullivan; juniors Iris Doty, Jenna Lazaro, Tess Petrucelli, and Heidi Tong; sophomores Matthew Begg, Kai Edwards, Gabriella Hample, and Keegan Scanlon; and freshman Avery Jones.

Fourth-place finishers were: senior Diya Reddy; juniors Julia Hernaez and Jadyn Smouse; and sophomores Rayna Huang, Jonah Kline, and Asher White.

Fifth-place regional winners were: sophomore Rachel Pegher and freshmen Mira Owens and Emma Srodes.

Other winners included: juniors Ava McCaffrey and Gloria Wen; and sophomores Brennan Bielawski, Selin Geylani, Swati Mylarappa, and Holden Starz.

All of these students have qualified to participate in the 2023 FBLA State Leadership Conference that will be held virtually and in person in Hershey, April 17-19.

Other third-place regional winners at the conference included: sophomores Baustin Bitar, Ridglee Boychuk, and Molly Delaney; and freshmen Samantha Dinh and Mikayla Feder.

An additional fifth place regional winner was freshman William Apitsch.

Sixth- through 10th-place winners included: seniors Donay Allen, Aisling Beresford, Anna Li, and Mia Nury; juniors Annalese Bartolacci, Lexi Biernesser, Leanora Carson, William Kratsa, Safiyyah Muhina, Laney Porterfield, and Troy Susnak; sophomores Kellen Bleier, Milo Chiu, Christian Dantey, Megan Delaney, Reed Echnat, Mason Friday, Salome Navas Grijalva, Anna Kintner, Lily Massaro, Natalie Patel, Nicholas Patel, Ava Persichetti, Sienna Siegel, Hannah Smith, Henry Stallings, Gianna Tavolario, and Luke Tsai; and freshmen Naudia Boyle, Vesta Homayoun, Charlotte Rattner and Emilia Sutkowski.

The FBLA Virtual Regional Leadership Conference was held in December 2022 and January 2023. Approximately 600 students from 11 school districts participated.