Student news: Fox Chapel Area School District students recognized for achievements

Two Fox Chapel Area High School seniors were named national winners in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards of 2020. Amara Ostroff received a Silver Medal for her mosaic art titled “Lost in the Mass.” Annabella Zgurzynski won a Silver Medal for her enameling project titled “Overgrown Cottage.”

Hundreds of thousands of works of art and writing were submitted by students in grades 7 through 12 through regional contests. Only the top one percent was recognized at the national level.

Prior to being named national winners, Zgurzynski and Ostroff were named Gold Key winners in the Pittsburgh Region of the Scholastic Art Awards of 2020. They were under the instruction of district art teacher Sarah Stewart.

Gold Key works were then judged at the national level by a panel of creative-industry experts. Some were selected as the most talented young artists and writers in the nation by receiving national Gold and/or Silver medals.

All national medalists had their work published on the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards online galleries.

AP Scholar Awards

A total of 25 current students and recent graduates of Shady Side Academy Senior School earned 2020 AP Scholar Awards in recognition of their exceptional achievement on AP Exams in May.

Nine students earned the AP Scholar With Distinction Award, including graduate Qilin Ye; seniors Andrew Liu, Jason Vasko, Xinran Wang, Zewei Wu, Nicholas Zana and Qingqing Zhao; and juniors Steven Liu and Anker Zhao.

Six students earned the AP Scholar With Honor Award, including graduates Cameron Casey, Vishnu Gosai and Ahmer Shaikh; and seniors Caroline Green, Renee Long and Xinru Yang.

Ten students earned the AP Scholar Award, including graduates Andrew Fergus, Albert Hoe, Trent Lane, Alison Linares, Arjun Patel and Askwin Shankar; seniors Abhishek Agrahara, Ishika Arora and Zhuoxin Ma; and junior Prayag Vemulapalli.

Science winner

Shady Side Academy senior Ishika Arora was awarded first place among all participants in the state for the American Computer Science League (ACSL) 2019-20 Classroom Division competition.

The competition consists of an online short answer test.

Now in its 43rd year, the American Computer Science League organizes computer science and programming contests for K-12 students worldwide.