High Tech Students Garner Numerous Awards in the Regional Scholastic Art & Writing Competition

Earlier today the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards were announced.  This year HTHS has twenty finalists. Below is a list of this years winners.

Taylor Bak Writing Gold Key Poetry 

Michaela Boneva Writing Silver Key Poetry 

Michaela Boneva Writing Silver Key Flash Fiction 

Michaela Boneva Writing Honorable Mention Poetry

Eileen Huang Writing (2) Gold Keys For Poetry

Eileen Huang Writing Silver Key Science Fiction/Fantasy

Samuel Kao Writing Gold Key Short Story 

Samuel Kao Writing Silver Key Poetry

Alice Lai Writing Honorable Mention Poetry 

Alice Lai Writing Silver Key Poetry 

Alice Lai Writing Honorable Mention Poetry

Kevin Lu Writing Silver Key Poetry

Swathi Pavuluri Writing (2) Silver Keys For Poetry

Vivian Qiang Writing Honorable Mention Personal Essay/Memoir

Ivy Wang Writing Silver Key Poetry

Yihan Wu Writing Gold Key Critical Essay 

Yihan Wu Writing Honorable Mention Short Story

Yihan Wu Art Gold Key for Self Portrait

Kevin Yan Writing Honorable Mention Short Story 

Anita Zhang Art (2) Gold Keys for Painting

Anita Zhang Art Gold Key for Drawing and Illustration

All of the Gold Key winners will now compete for National Medals.  This is an unprecedented number of winners for HTHS!  High Tech might be the #1 STEM school in the country, but our students still excel in the arts and humanities. Congratulations to all the winners.

The High Tech National Honor Society and Students From OLMC Create a Mitten Fence in Asbury Park

As winter hits with full force this year, many people across Asbury Park are in need of winter wear to stay warm. And while some cannot afford to buy essentials from stores, they will still be able to weather through the cold by finding necessary clothes in an unusual place: on a fence.

In a collaboration between Our Lady of Mount Carmel School (OLMC) and the National Honor Society of High Technology High School, students from both schools are worked together to create a Mitten Fence. They reached out across their school communities to collect donations of gloves, hats, mittens, scarves, and other winter accessories.

Recently, the students will came together for a “Warming it Forward" event, where they attached all the donated accessories to a fence surrounding OLMC and celebrated with hot chocolate. These accessories will stay up throughout the winter and will be free for the needy in Asbury Park. Below are pictures from the event.

The High Tech Robotic Team Excels at VEX Competition

On Saturday, January 30th, at the South Brunswick Vex competition, the Robotics team from High Tech placed first in a number of categories. They won the Excellence Award for overall best performance, 1st place in Robot Skills (highest score in NJ, top 80 in the world), 1st place in programming skills (2nd in NJ), and were tournament finalists. This is one of the largest tournaments in New Jersey with over 50 teams participating. Click here to see all the awards.

The Vex Robotics Team members from left to right are: Ray Tsa, Anjali Nambrath, Emily Liu, Arvind Yalavarti, Alex Yao, and Matt Ramina.

For the Second Year in a Row the High Tech Team Wins "Best of State" & "Best in Region" in the Verizon Innovative APP Challenge

For the second year in a row the High Tech Verizon Innovative App Challenge Team, was chosen as "Best in State" and "Best in Region". TEAMQ5 is now eligible for the "Best in Nation" award. By winning "Best in State", the team earned a $5000 stipend for the school and each student won a mobile Verizon tablet. 

The team is in the running for the App Challenge Fan Favorite award. To win, the team needs to get the most votes. You can help them win by texting TEAMQ52 to 22333 by January 31. Please forward this information to all your friends so you can HELP OUR TEAM WIN!

The members of TEAMQ5 are pictured below. 

TEAMQ5 members from left to right are: Darren Schachter, David Winograd, Wendy Wu, Sraya Das, Eric Jiang, Valerie Yip, and Kaylee Wang

The Chess Team Wins The NJ Grade School Chess Championship For 9th & 11th Grades

Congratulations to Christopher Wu, Philip Meltzer, Larry Langman and Jared Braycewski for earning the title of 11th Grade State Champions as a result of their team win in the 11th-grade bracket of the NJ GRADE SCHOOL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS held at Brookdale on Sunday, November 22nd.  Christopher won all 5 of his games.  Philip had 4 wins.  Larry had 2 wins and 2 draws and Jared had 2 wins and 1 draw.

Additionally, HTHS had a group of three 9th graders that also performed extremely well to claim the title of 9th Grade State Champions.  The 9th grade participants were Eric Chai, Nelson Lin and Andrew Mascillaro.  Eric and Andrew both had a record of 3 wins and 2 draws while Nelson earned 2 wins.

Allen Zhang also participated as a 10th grade individual and he earned 3 wins on the day.

Several players earned individual awards also.  In the 9th grade bracket, Andrew earned the 5th place trophy and Eric earned the 4th place trophy.  In the 11th grade bracket, Jared won 10th place, Larry won 7th place, Philip won 3rd place and Chris Wu is the 11th grade State Champion!!

Congratulations to all the participants.

11th Grade State Champions: Philip Meltzer, Jared Braycewski, Christopher Wu, Larry Langman

9th Grade State Champions: Andrew Mascillaro, Eric Chai, Nelson Lin (missing)

HTHS Academic Team Wins Big At Princeton Event

Triple Win at Princeton University

On November 21, the Academic Team competed at the Central Jersey History Bee & Bowl at Princeton University, in a series of exciting Championship matches. The team ‘Bowl’ History Championship match paired up two undefeated teams with 7 & 0 records, High Tech vs. East Brunswick. The moderator stated these two same teams were in the finals in the last 4 years. It started as an even match: after the first quarter, the score was tied, 50 to 50; after the second quarter and a late score by High Tech, High Tech trailed 120 to 110. But in the third quarter, High Tech jumped ahead 210 to 180, and finished the final quarter in the lead by a score of 340 to 230, to capture the Varsity Bowl Championship Plaque.

In the individual Varsity ‘Bee’ competition, Samuel Kao and Andrew Huang tied for the most points in the qualifying rounds and both advanced to the Championship round where the top 3 compete to achieve 6 points first. Samuel Kao took first place and the ‘Gold Medal.’ Andrew initially tied for second place but lost on the sudden death tiebreaker to take the ‘Bronze Medal.’

In the individual Junior Varsity ‘Bee’ competition for freshman and sophomores, Eric Zheng, Nelson Lin and Douglas Simons advanced to the Semi-finals. However, only Douglas Simons advanced to the Championship round where he had to compete against the 2015 National JV Bee Champion [April 2015 in Washington DC], Alex Schmidt of Lehigh Valley Academy in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The first player to reached 6 points wins. Douglas trailed badly at the start, 1 to 4. However, Douglas then rapidly scored 3 consecutive points. Alex must have been a bit unnerved, since he got up from his chair and shook Douglas’ hand in defeat. But the audience shouted the scored was only tied 4 to 4 and Alex returned to his seat. Alex took the next point, now leading Douglas 5 to 4. However, Douglas scored the next point to tying it, 5 to 5. We all held our breath for the deciding question. Douglas scored the final point and won the ‘Gold Medal’!  This match is most probably a preview of the 2016 National JV Bee Championship Finals in Washington, DC in April.

In the team JV ‘Bowl’ competition, the High Tech freshman team advanced to the semi-finals to faced Alex Schmidt, who played single-handedly against a team of 4 students. Unfortunately, the High Tech JV team played without Douglas who was placed on the Varsity Team. Alex was undefeated to eventually take the JV Bowl Championship plaque. Our High Tech JV team showed great promise.

 Below is a photo of the High Tech Varsity Bowl Team [taken by Austin Huang] with the Championship plaque and their Gold and Bronze medals. 

A Team
Andrew Huang
Ray Zeng
Samuel Kao
Douglas Simons

B Team
Nikhil Lakhil
Sean Kearns
Gaurav Sharma
Adrian Thamburaj
 

C Team: 
Matthew Hawkins
Karl Roush
Yihan [Wendy] Wu
Kevin Lu                     

 
D Team (JV team):
Eric Zheng
Nelson Lin
Daniel Du
Michael Li  

Niche.com Ranks High Tech as the #2 Best Public High School in America

Niche.com came out today with new rankings. High Tech was listed in a number of different rankings. Below is a list with a link to the individual rankings.

#2 Best Public High School in America

#2 Best Academics in America

#3 Best High School for College Readiness

#4 High Schools With The Best Teachers in America

Congratulations to the staff, students, and parents who work hard everyday to be successful.

The Academic Team Places 1st At The Kellenberg Tournament

The Academic Team came in 2nd place at Princeton University, Sept 26; 3rd place at Columbia University, Oct 17; and 1st place at The Kellenberg Memorial Fall Tournament in Union, Long Island, Nov 14.

The A team won the Kellenberg tournament, going 11-0, beating Great Neck South A in the finals. Below is the team picture with the Trophy. The B team went 6-4 to get 7th (out of 36 teams). Anjali also got a book prize for being one of the top preliminary scorers.

Rosters:
A Team
Kathryn Jiang
Andrew Huang
Samuel Kao
Douglas Simons

B Team
Anjali Nambrath
David Shlivko
Karl Roush
Nelson Lin
Eric Zheng
Steven Liu

Academic "A" Team Members: Kathryn Jiang, Samuel Kao, Douglas Simons, and Andrew Huang

Congratulations to Kunal Singh on Being Named A Regional Finalist in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science, & Technology

WASHINGTON, Oct 19, 2015 -- The Siemens Foundation today announced the 2015 class of regional finalistsfor the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, the nation's premier research competition for high school students.

Ninety-seven regional finalists have been invited to advance to the next round of the competition, where they will vie for one of the most prestigious science honors awarded to high school students in the country today. These regional finalists were picked from an exceptional group of 466 semi-finalists that were announced on October 16. These semi-finalists presented projects that were considered outstanding and notable from a pool of nearly 1800 projects submitted this year.

"Today's regional finalists represents an outstanding group of students whose remarkable projects not only demonstrate a very advanced aptitude in STEM research but represent ideas that address some of today's most challenging issues," said David Etzwiler, CEO of the Siemens Foundation. "We congratulate the regional finalists on their accomplishments and wish them luck in the next phase of the competition."

The Siemens Competition, administered by Discovery Education, awards a $1000 scholarship to each regional finalist, in addition to one $3,000 prize to an individual winner and a$6,000 prize to a team winner at each regional competition.

Winners of the regional events will then advance to the National Finals at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., December 6-8, 2015, where $500,000 in scholarships will be awarded, including two top prizes of $100,000.

A complete list of finalists and their projects is available at www.siemens-foundation.org preceding each regional event.

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Three High Tech Students Chosen as Semi-Finalists for the 2015 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology!

Congratulations to the three High Technology High School seniors were named as semi-finalists of the 2015 Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology!

The three students are:  
Thomas Li
William Lin
Kunal Singh

 There were a total of 466 semifinalists selected from over 1700 student submissions. The three students will be recognized for their research in a STEM related field. Click here to see the full list.

High Tech Sophomore Eileen Huang Reading Her Poem at the White House for the National Poets Program

Eileen Huang, a sophomore at High Technology High school, was recognized today (10/8/15) at the White House as one of five students chosen as a 2015 National Poet to represent the Northeast region of the United States. The ceremony was hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama.

The President's Committee on Arts and Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services partner with the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers to present the National Student Poets Program (NSPP). The program is the country's highest honor for youth poets presenting original work.

We are proud of Eileen and wish her well as she works as an ambassador for poetry throughout the Northeast region this coming year. Click here to watch the video replay.