High School Students Shine
Amal Bhatnagar (center) of Northview High School, Duluth. and Kelsey Norris of Bonaire (pictured with Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps on the left) were named two of America’s top 10 youth volunteers of 2017 by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards during the program’s 22nd annual national ceremony in Washington, D.C. Each received a personal award of $5,000, engraved gold medallions, crystal trophies for their schools, and $5,000 grants for nonprofit charitable organizations of their choice.
Amal had volunteered at hospitals where he saw patients whose bruises had progressed into infected lacerations because they did not have basic first-aid supplies, so he created a student organization, now a nonprofit called “First Aid for All,” that has provided first-aid kits to people in the U.S., India, and Jamaica who lack access to basic healthcare.
For more details, see http://www.nbcrightnow.com/story/35371657/georgia-teens-amal-bhatnagar-of-duluth-and-kelsey-norris-of-bonaire-named-among-americas-top-10-youth-volunteers-of-2017
Coach Kalyani Sankaranarayanan, Abhinav Kumar, Kalen Patton, Ashwin Ramaswami, Arvind Ramaswami, and Maanas Purushothapu.
The Hooch science bowl team (from Chattahoochee HS) is new, in just their second year, but it is the second year that they have won an all-paid trip to compete at the National Science Bowl in Washington, D.C. There they beat the 2016 National Champions and placed 5th in the nation.
This year, they made playoffs for the first time and beat teams such as Oak Ridge (from TN) and 2016 National Champion Montgomery Blair High School (from MD). They were knocked out of the playoffs by losses to Lexington High School (which went on to be 2017 National Champions) and Mira Loma High School (which finished in 4th place). http://hoochquizbowl.weebly.com/
Aditi Choudhury, Kevin Huang, Saitej Guttikonda (captain), Abhinav Kumar, Ashwin Ramaswami, and Coach Mathis.
The Hooch Quiz Bowl Team had its best performance ever at the 2017 High School National Championship Tournament. They placed 5th out of 304 nationally-ranked opponents, rising from their previous placements of 8th and 7th.
Other team results included #15 Northview A (Johns Creek, Georgia) #41 Westminster (Atlanta, Georgia), Chattahoochee B (Johns Creek, Georgia), North Gwinnett (Suwanee, Georgia), Johns Creek A (Georgia), Collins Hill A (Suwanee, Georgia).
For more details, see https://www.naqt.com/stats/team-performance.jsp?team_id=108831&playoffs=true
and
http://hoochquizbowl.weebly.com/
Asian Pacific Islanders for Professional and Community Advancement (APCA), a nonprofit employee resource group of AT&T, awarded Raksha youth Arjun Ray and Neal Surani the 2017 APCA-Georgia Scholarship Award this year. Raksha Outreach and Grants Coordinator, Tasnim Mosabber, represented Raksha at the awards luncheon.
Two students from Crabapple Middle School in Roswell took first place honors at the Fulton County Science and Engineering Fair. Eighth graders (now entering high school) Anjala Sivanandan and Suhana Shirol were the winners of the chemistry category among the junior contestants. The project was titled “Got Vitamin C?” Through their research they found that vitamin C has anticancer properties. They tested four different fruits to see which one had the most vitamin C. “Out of Bosc pears, Valencia oranges, Granny Smith apples, and lemons, the Valencia oranges had the highest level of vitamin C,” said Shirol.
[The article above contains additional material not in the print and digital issues.]
Enjoyed reading Khabar magazine? Subscribe to Khabar and get a full digital copy of this Indian-American community magazine.
