Student news: Performing arts series, science league and student congress

Hillman Performing Arts Series concerts

The Hillman Performing Arts Series wraps up its 2021 season with back-to-back outdoor concerts June 26-27.

Americana duo The Honey Dewdrops perform at 3 p.m. on June 26. Latin American musician Sonia De Los Santos performs at 3 p.m. on June 27.

Both shows will be performed on the loading dock behind the Hillman Center for Performing Arts, with guests seated in the parking lot. The Hillman Center is on the Shady Side Academy Senior School campus at 423 Fox Chapel Road in Fox Chapel.

Tickets for The Honey Dewdrops are $20; for Sonia De Los Santos, adult tickets are $20 and tickets for children younger than 12 are $15.

Tickets can be purchased online at thehillman.org.

The Honey Dewdrops – Laura Wortman and Kagey Parrish – perform original songs influenced by traditional Appalachian music with a contemporary flare.

Sonia De Los Santos, a 2019 Latin Grammy nominee, will include songs from her debut album, Mi Viaje: De Nuevo León to the New York Island, which reflects her experiences growing up in Mexico.

National Science League success

Shady Side Academy Middle School students in sixth and seventh grade earned top honors in the 2020-2021 National Science League (NSL) competition.

The seventh grade team of Ethan Chen, Samraj Delfyett, Alex Mai, Annika Sandholm, Samantha Larkin, Regan Mulderig, Maya Agarwal, Sam Davidheiser, Mateo Maiz, Evan Xiang and Sophia Vrcic earned first place in the nation in the NSL Life Science Contest. Individually, Ethan Chen earned first place in the nation, and Samarj Delfvett and Alex Mai tied for third place.

The sixth grade team of Hanna Singhi, Andrew Xing, Chloe Wang, Paolo Scolieri, Ethan Jiang, Ria Sehgal, Kiran Thompson, Omar Awais, Charlie McChesney and Helena Khalil placed second in the nation in the NSL General Science Contest.

Each year, SSA Middle School students participate in the NSL contest. Sixth graders compete in the General Science Contest, seventh graders in the Life Science Contest. Each contest consists of 40-50 questions, and students have 35 minutes to complete it. The school sends scores of the top 10 students in each grade to the national competition, and their combined scores determine the overall place for each grade.

The National Science League is part of the Continental Mathematics League program, founded in 1980 for public and private schools.

Student teams are led by teachers Matt Brunner and Bonnie Maxwell.

FCA junior receives accolades

Fox Chapel Area High School 2020-2021 junior Patrick Alexander was a quarterfinalist in Student Congress at the National Catholic Forensic League Grand National Championship Tournament. This accomplishment places Patrick in the top 20-25% of the students in the nation.

The Grand National Championship Tournament was held virtually May 28-30.

A total of 2,800 students from 516 public and private high schools from 35 states across the country participated.