Receiving an $8,000 scholarship and a $100 cash award,  junior River Grace won first place in category Senior Animal Sciences at the State Science and Engineering Fair which took place on March 29 – 31. Seventh-grader Nathan Foo, in junior mathematics and computational sciences, won first place and received a $100 cash award as well. Grace and Foo were two of the 19 students who competed.

“I was super excited to win all that stuff because I totally did not expect to,” Grace said. “I knew the competition was really tough, so I was really excited when I found out I did so well. In the speech, I encouraged everyone there to take on challenges and to realize that often times, challenges in any endeavor are really the opportunities and that what makes it worth while.”

Foo took pride in placing first in his category.

“It was nice and I was surprised that I won first,” Foo said. “I was glad I won $100, but I was more happy I won first.”

The Following students awards: Lasya Damaraju, Junior Animal Sciences; third place, Srimayi Tenali, Senior Biomedical and Health Sciences ; second place, Kishen Mitra, Junior Biomedical and Health Sciences; fourth place, Margarita Cruz-Sanchez, Senior Cellular/Molecular Biology and Biochemistry; fourth place, Margarita Cruz-Sanchez, Junior Cellular/Molecular Biology and Biochemistry; fourth place, Sarah Bahsoun, Senior Chemistry- Recognition, Kiera Townsend, Senior Engineering; fourth place, Mamoon Syed, Junior Engineering; honorable mention, Kyle Johnson, Senior Environmental Engineering ; honorable mention, Mario Sultan, Senior Intelligent Machines, Robotics and Systems Software; recognition, Jeremy Gluck, Senior Mathematics and Computational Sciences; second place, Muhammad Abdulla, Junior Microbiology; third place , Taqwa Naas, Junior Physics and Astronomy; fourth place, Noah Ogburn, Senior Plant Sciences; second place, Anna Feldbush and lastly Junior Plant Sciences; fourth place, Asher Dorfman.

By Hiba Mirza