Hall of Fame

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

MAY
Science Olympiad finished Ninth in Nation at the 29th annual Science Olympiad National Tournament Saturday, its first top-10 finish in the program’s 10-year history. The tournament was held at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. Only 60 of the 7,000 high schools that participate in the Science Olympiad program are invited to the national competition. Stevenson was the highest-ranking Illinois school. SHS finished in the top 10 in six of 23 events, and earned one event medal for a top-six finish: Sophomore Borchueh Wu and freshman Rebecca Nelson finished fifth in Forestry, which tested students’ knowledge of North American trees.

Stevenson’s Latino Culture Club finished Second at the varsity level at the Latino College Bowl Competition held at Highland Park High School. In addition to the team accomplishment, one of the club members, Alondra Hernandez Lepe, received a $250 college scholarship at the event as a result of her high score on the scholarship test taken by students prior to the competition. She was a member of the varsity team along with Paola Guerrero-Toledo, Jeff Marek and Melissa Banuelos. Also attending the competition were club members Jacob Goodman, Emely DeLeon, Jeison DeLeon, Adriana Aguirre, Ana Karen Rodriguez, Nicole Montoya, Aribelle Marban and Barbara Celis.

Stevenson’s Business Professionals of America had its most successful venture at the National Leadership Conference in the program’s eight-year history in Orlando, Florida. Ten students had top-10 finishes, competing against 5,000 students from 20 states. Vivian Wan had three top-10 showings; Second in Payroll Accounting, Fourth in Financial Math and Analysis, and Ninth in Advanced Accounting. Last year, she placed second in Fundamental Accounting and fourth in Financial Math and Analysis.  Senior Brian Dubinsky, the 2012 national champion in Fundamental Accounting, earned two more medals in his final BPA event. He was Second in Administrative Support Concepts, and joined with Lisa Boris, Kevin Doherty and Akshay Ramachandran to claim Third place in the Financial Analyst Team competition. Doherty, a senior who was the national champion in Fundamental Accounting in 2011, also placed Third in Financial Math and Analysis. Boris was the other multi-place winner, finishing Ninth in Management, Marketing and Human Resources. She finishes her high school career with four national BPA medals, having placed Third in Fundamental Accounting in 2011 and eighth in Payroll Accounting last year. Another Third-place finish came from sophomore Sergey Papushin in Fundamental Accounting, his first national BPA award. The remaining top-10 finishers included senior Lev Tyomkin, who was Sixth in Project Management; junior David Chen, Eighth in Payroll Accounting; sophomore Lee Cohen, Eighth in Fundamental Spreadsheet Applications; and Senior Dhruv Patel, 10th in Business Meeting Management. Chen was Sixth in Financial Math and Analysis last year.

Science Club members captured two Best in Category project awards, plus top honors for best high school division paper, at the Illinois Junior Academy of Science State Science Fair held  at the University of Illinois. The Best in Category winners were senior Shivani Thakker in Zoology and sophomore Kevin Cheng in Botany. More than 1,000 projects were entered in 14 categories. In the high school paper competition, sophomore Anvesh Jalasutram was selected as best from nearly 200 entries. In total, 10 Science Club members qualified for the state fair based on their results in regional competition. Eight students earned Gold awards at the project session: Thakker, Cheng and Jalasutram, plus junior Jack Hirsch, sophomores Han Song Huang, Larissa Kennerly and Monica Muthaiya, and freshman Ajay Varahdan. Junior Alex Knapton and senior Carolyn Fan earned Silver awards. Jalasutram, Cheng, Huang and Fan all presented at the paper session and earned Gold awards.

Stevenson Math Team finished Second in State at the ICTM State Math Contest. The multiple winners include:  Algebra 1-Junghyun Hwang (2nd individually). Algebra 1 team 1st (Team members: Junghyun Hwang, Emery Liu, Michael Zhang, Allen Cao, Teresa Mao, Kevin Cho), Geometry-Tim Klem (5th), Jaymo Kang (7th), Alex Hong (9th).  Geometry Team  1st (Team Members: Tim Klem, Jaymo Kang, Alex Hong, Brian Zhou, Barton Huang, Phillip Kwon), Algebra 2-Vivian Wan (6th), David Chen (7th)  Algebra 2 team 2nd (Team Members: Vivian Wan, David Chen, Raymon Cao, Cheryl Xiang, Sam Lim, Richard Zhu), Pre-Calculus-Brandon Axe (5th)  Pre-Calculus Team 4th  (Team Members: Brandon Axe, Matt Yang, Aaron Zalewski, Vishesh Verma, Adele Padgett, Justin Doong), Frosh/Soph 8 person 4th (Team Members: Emery Liu, Junghyun Hwang, Sarah Hou, Shu Zhang, Tim Klem, Sergey Papushin, Brian Zhou, Cindy Luan), Junior/Senior 8 Person 2nd  (Team Members: David Chen, Eric Chang, Akanksha Shah, Sam Lim, Mark Zhang, Brandon Axe, David Wang, Aaron Zalewski), Calculator 4th (Team Members: Justin Doong, Raymon Cao, Chris Rho, Alex Hong, Jennifer Zhang), FroshSoph 2 Person 2nd (Team Members: Junghyun Hwang, Jaymo Kang), Junior/Senior 2 Person 6th (Team Members:  Brandon Axe, Matt Yang), Frosh/Soph Relay Team 1 2nd  Team Members:  Emery Liu, Kevin Cho, Tim Klem, Brian Zhou), Team 2 8th (Team Members:  Michael Zhang, Allen Cao, Sergey Papushin, Barton Huang), Junior Senior Relay Team 1 9th (Team Members: Sam Lim, Akanksha Shah, Cheryl Xiang, Vishesh Verma), Oral Presentation: 9th (Team Members: Richard Zhu, Vivian Wan).

APRIL

Stevenson's Chess Team finished sixth in the K-12 Under 1,600 division at the United States Chess Foundation SuperNationals V in Nashville, Tennessee. Sophomore Philip Engstrom was fifth individually in the same division. He was undefeated in seven rounds, with five wins and two draws. Engstrom was joined by senior Adele Padgett, junior Eric Monatelli and sophomore Liam Holzer. A fifth SHS chess player, senior Matt Yang, played in the K-12 Championship (all ratings) division.

Model UN had a very successful conference at the University of IL Champaign. Approximately 400 students attended the three-day conference. SHS students garnered the following awards:  Best or Outstanding recognition for Joint Crisis committees - Rome and Sparta went to Alex Nye and Stuart Polen, National Governors Association went to Sam Cohen in the role of Governor Cuomo, Middle East Crisis in the role of Egyptian President Morsi went to Juliana Snarski, U.N. Security Council representing Morocco went to Nuha Hamid and Peter Hwang.  Outstanding in the International Press Delegation went to Helen Hwang. Aileen Acuna was awarded an Honorable Mention in International Criminal Court.

MARCH

The Science Olympiad team dominated the regional competition at the College of Lake County. SHS won the Class AA Varsity and Junior Varsity divisions, and every individual on the Varsity and Junior Varsity teams earned at least one medal. In addition, the Varsity earned an automatic berth in the Illinois Science Olympiad state finals with its regional title. The state finals will be held April 20 at the University of Illinois. The top two teams at state will qualify for the national finals at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio on May 18. The Varsity earned medals in all but one event, recording 15 first-place finishes, six seconds and one third. Within the engineering events, SHS had one win, two runner-up showings, one third and one sixth. The JV team turned in its best performance of the year, crushing the competition by taking first place in 19 events and second place in the remaining four events.

The Scholastic Bowl team finished second at the Illinois High School Association Class AA North Chicago Sectional on Saturday. Stevenson beat Lake Zurich (530-200) and Buffalo Grove (650-110) before falling to sectional champion Fremd (360-300), which advances to the state finals this weekend. 

Three members of the Stevenson Debate team will represent the Northern Illinois district at the NFL Nationals held in Birmingham, AL, June 16-22.  At the NFL Qualifier, Senior Michelle Kelrikh was ranked first in her Congressional Debate House chamber. In addition, Kelrikh had the best ranking of all competitors during the entire competition. Peter Hwang (junior)  finished 2nd in the Senate chamber, qualifying him to advance to Nationals. Eric Ramoutar auto-qualified to attend Nationals based on his performance at Nationals last year.  Due to amount of debate activity in the Northern District, they have been able to qualify five students to the National tournament. Students that are auto-quals do not count towards the five slots. Stevenson was able to send 10 students to compete at the qualifier, held at Niles North HS. All of the students performed well and achieved the best cumulative ranking for any school in attendance. Senior Jimmy Chang is the 1st alternate in the Senate chamber and would attend if Hwang or the 1st ranked student was unable to compete. The other members of the squad are: Dhruv Luthra, Jenny Zhang, Jacob Glaser, Valerie Gutmann, Tyler Kim, Tyler Katz, and Pat Demichele. Stevenson was awarded the District Sweepstakes Award for Congressional Debate.


FEBRUARY
The Varsity Scholastic Bowl team won the North Suburban Conference championship at Warren High School, defeating Mundelein, Grant, Warren and Lake Zurich. Representing Stevenson were Niranjan Jayanth, Sam Levin, Chandru Rasendran, Jason Asher and Jeeho Lee. The team will compete in the National Academic Quiz Tournament Illinois State Championship in Bloomington.

The Varsity Scholastic Bowl team took second place in the Masonic Regional competition held at Loyola Academy, winning $300 for its efforts. The team members were Jason Asher, Niranjan Jayanth, Matt Yang, Sam Levin, Jeeho Lee, Chandru Rasendran and Justin Millman.

Twenty-four SHS students attended the 50th anniversary North American International Model United Nations at Georgetown University. The event welcomed about 3,000 student delegates from more than 100 high schools around the world. The Stevenson contingent participated in Model UN conference committee sessions during their four-day stay. They also visited Capitol Hill — where the group was able to witness the cloture vote in the U.S. Senate over former Sen. Chuck Hagel’s nomination as secretary of defense — as well as the Supreme Court. The group also witnessed the Keystone pipeline protest at the National Mall.  Half of the students earned awards for their work in Model UN conference committees, the highest percentage of any SHS delegation that has attended the competitive event. The award recipients were:  Peter Hwang and Alex Nye received Best Delegate honor. Hwang was chosen for simulating former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the European Commission, while Nye was selected for his portrayal of Zakaria Mohieddin, as interior minister in the Egyptian cabinet during the Suez Canal crisis of 1956.  Juliana Snarski earned an Outstanding rating as director of the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) in the Pakistan Security Council. Justin Doong received an Honorable Mention award for his work in the African Union. Eight students received Verbal Commendations: Karen Whisler and Renee Jhu (UN Social and Humanitarian committee); Hannah Kim and Pulkit Kashyap (UN Special Political/Decolonization Committee); Elan Modilevsky and Pat DeMichele (UN Legal Committee); and Yamini Chandra and Annie Lee (Islamic Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization).

The Debate Team competed in the Harvard Congressional Debate tournament.  427 contestants from 111 schools over 26 states participated in the competition. All students competed in 9 hours of debate during the preliminary sessions.  Stevenson Sophomore Michelle Hu moved on to Quarterfinals. Senior Michelle Kelrikh advanced to Semifinals. Both students earned a bid to attend the Tournament of Champions in Kentucky.

Stevenson’s Model UN attended a conference hosted by St. Ignatius and Lyons Township high schools. Seven students won awards. Yamini Chandra received an Outstanding award for her representation of Togo on the Security Council. Six others received Honorable Mention honors: Sriya Potham and Shu Zhang (representing Slovenia in the General Assembly); Sam Cohen (representing Lithuania in NATO); Stuart Polen (serving as Supreme NATO Commander during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979); and Alex Nye and Annie Lee (representing the Scottish Parliament).


JANUARY

Avi Samuels earned a second-place tie in Oratorical Declamation and Marni Levin tied for third in Radio Speaking for the SHS Speech and Drama Team at the Lake Forest Festival.


DECEMBER

The Science Olympiad Team competed at the Madison West High School Invitational. Athough no team standings were generated from this particular competition, every individual in the 25 member squad medalled in at least one of their respective events; leaving only one event out of the 23 total in which they did not finish in the top five positions.  First Place: Anatomy and Physiology – Kevin Cao & Shravya Gogula, Astronomy – Austin Hua & Andy Xu, Circuit Lab – Alex Hong & Michael Fatina, Designer Genes – David Whisler & Ayana Dambaeva, Dynamic Planet – David Chen & Andy Xu, Experimental Design – Jessie Wang, Shu Zhang & Alex Hong, Forensics – Kathryn Fatina & Austin Hua, Forestry – Becca Nelson & Jessie Wang, Materials Science – Justin Doong & David Whisler, Technical Problem Solving – David Whisler & Brian Zhou, Thermodynamics – Richard Zhu & William Chang, Water Quality – Jessie Wang & Becca Nelson, Boomilever – Shu Zhang & Jaymo Kang, Elastic Launch Glider – David Chen & Sophia Liu, Gravity Vehicle – Michael Fatina & Sophia Liu, Magnet Levitation Vehicle – Kathryn Fatina & Austin Hua, Robot Arm – Michael Fatina & Kathryn Fatina. Second Place: Anatomy and Physiology – Akila Khan & Ayana Dambaeva, Designer Genes – Justin Doong (solo), Disease Detectives – Akila Khan & Shravya Gogula, Dynamic Planet – William Chang & Kevin Cao, Fermi Questions – Richard Zhu & William Chang, Forestry – Emma Buckardt & Sophia Liu, Remote Sensing – Alex Hong & David Chen, Rocks and Minerals – Emma Buckardt (solo), Technical Problem Solving – Justin Doong & Ayana Dambaeva, Thermodynamics – Edward Wu & Matthew Zhang, Water Quality – Borchueh Wu & Austin Hua, Write It Do It – Shu Zhang & Borchueh Wu, Boomilever – Kevin Cao & David Zhang, Elastic Launch Glider – Edward Wu & Ayana Dambaeva, Gravity Vehicle – Edward Wu & Jessie Wang, Magnet Levitation Vehicle – Jessie Wang & Edward Wu. Third Place: Circuit Lab – Richard Zhu & Matthew Zhang, Disease Detectives – David Zhang & Kevin Cao, Forensics – Shravya Gogula & Jaymo Kang, Materials Science - Shravya Gogula & Jaymo Kang, Rocks and Minerals – Becca Nelson & Borchueh Wu.  Fourth Place: Astronomy – Brian Zhou & Matthew Zhang. Fifth Place: Geocaching – Emma Buckardt & Sophia Liu, Robot Arm – Matthew Zhang (solo).

The Relay for Life Club from Stevenson and Buffalo Grove High Schools recently received the American Cancer Society’s Relay All Star Award for achieving significant fundraising and participation levels. This year’s Relay for Life, held at Stevenson, raised more than $86,000, with 502 people taking part. 

The Science Olympiad Team competed at the Hinsdale South High School Invitational.  Many of the squad members medalled in their respective events leaving only five events in which they did not finish in the top three positions.  Third Place finishers were:  Magnetic Levitation Vehicle – Kathryn Fatina & Jessie Wang, and Robot Arm – Kathryn Fatina & Michael Fatina.  Second Place finishers were:  Boomilever – Kevin Cao & Allen Guo, Astronomy – David Chen & Austin Hua, Circuit Lab – Michael Fatina & Alex Hong, Designer Genes – Akila Khan & David Whisler, Elastic Launch Glider – Edward Wu & Jessie Wang, and Technical Problem Solving – David Whisler & Vivian Wan.  First Place finishers:  Anatomy & Physiology – Akila Khan & Kevin Cao, Disease Detectives – Akila Khan & Vivian Wan, Dynamic Planet – Andy Xu & Emma Buckardt, Experimental Design – Vivian Wan, Allen Guo & Jessie Wang, Forensics – Kathryn Fatina & Austin Hua, Forestry – Becca Nelson & Emma Buckardt, Gravity Vehicle – Edward Wu & Jessie Wang, Remote Sensing – David Chen & Austin Hua, Rocks & Minerals – Emma Buckardt & Becca Nelson,  and Write It Do It – Michael Fatina & Kathryn Fatina.

Two members of the Speech and Drama team earned awards at the Bradley University Speech Tournament, an event featuring a multi-state field with teams from as far away as California. Kayla Guo finished second in Informative Speaking and Josie Hannon-Geller was seventh in Prose Reading.


NOVEMBER
The 2011-12 edition of the WIT, Stevenson’s student literary arts magazine, has won its second award of the year: a First Class honor with two marks of distinction from the National Scholastic Press Association. The marks of distinction denote areas of exceptional quality. The WIT won marks in content, the thematic and diverse progression of the magazine; and in writing and editing, as well as recognition of the quality of writing throughout the magazine’s pages. The contest judge who reviewed the WIT wrote: "First off, let me say that you have stellar content. I mean, 110 pages of really good stuff ... and you don’t just have an excellent variety of content. It’s also quality content." The judge also said the quality of student poetry in the WIT "is far above that of other high school (literary magazine) publications." Last year’s editor-in-chief was Luke Stroth, and his senior assistant editor was Ariel Blackman. Other editors included Alex Loutris, Corissa Goodrich, Jessica Koh, Shayna Korol, Rahael Affenit, Joanne Jun, Anna Kong and Jennifer Kong. Jim Barnabee and Chris Heckel-Oliver are the WIT sponsors.

The Math Team stands in third place in the North Suburban Math League following the second round of competition held at Naperville Central. SHS had a team score of 323, the fifth-highest overall among 55 schools in the league. The seniors and sophomores won their matches, while the freshmen were second and juniors third. Richard Zhu was runner-up in the orals competition. The following students had perfect scores: seniors Brandon Axe, Justin Doong, Matthew Yang, Christine Zhao, Adele Padgett and Vishesh Verma; juniors David Chen, Akanksha Shah, Sunny Yun and Lily Zhang; and sophomores Alex Hong, Jaymo Kang, Timothy Klem, Sergey Papushin, Brian Zhou, Diana Kowalski and Alvin Sheng.

 

The varsity Scholastic Bowl team fielded two squads at the Kickoff Tournament at Wheaton North High School, with each winning a division title. Stevenson won the "Upper" and "Standard" divisions. The "Upper" team’s 8-0 finish earned an automatic qualification for the NAQT and PACE national competitions in May and June, respectively. Niranjan Jayanth earned a sixth-place award in the Upper Division for most points per game. Joining him on the team were captain Jason Asher, Jeeho Lee, Matt Yang and Chandru Rasendran. The "Standard" team had a 7-1 record, with co-captain Justin Millman earning seventh place for most points per game. The rest of the team included co-captain Sam Levin, Zachary Pease and Jonathan Mishory.

 

The Science Olympiad teams finished first in both the Varsity and Junior Varsity categories at the Palatine High School Invitational. The two teams combined earned medals in 42 of 46 events, with every team member earning at least one medal. The majority of team members medalled in multiple events.

 

Debate Team’s Eric Ramoutar and Michelle Kelrikh reached the final round of 20 in the Congressional Debate competition at the prestigious Glenbrooks Speech and Debate Tournament. This was the second straight year the pair advanced to the final round. Ramoutar finished fifth in Congressional Debate, while Kelrikh won Best Legislation for her bill to grant school vouchers for parents and students. Valerie Gutmann and Yanfei Gao also advanced to the semifinal round.

 

The SHS Table Tennis team won First Place in the 10-school Shorewood High School tournament held in Milwaukee. Members of the team included Wataru Hashimoto, Minori Ishii, Jordan Roseman, Alex Smith, Dhruv Patel, Parth Patel and Eddie Gonzalez.

 

Stevenson Debate brought home Third Place at the 3rd ICDA tournament. Besides the team award, several students added some hardware to their personal collection.  Critic's Choice: Nikhita Luthra, Jimmy Chang, Peter Hwang, Eric Ramoutar.  1st Place Speaker: Dhruv Luthra.  2nd Place Speaker: Talia Grossman.  Presiding Officer: Nikhita Luthra, Jimmy Chang, Eric Ramoutar. The Stevenson Debate Team is coached by Erik Joerns, Dan Demarco, and Bill Fritz.

Two members of the Speech and Drama team won awards at the Streamwood High School tournament. Amanda Ehrmann won second place in Original Comedy and Avi Samuels tied for fourth place in Oratorical Declamation.

Stevenson Debate earned a 2nd place in the Illinois Congressional Debate Association (ICDA) Large School Division hosted at Stevenson High School. The team lost by a close 3 point difference to Highland Park. Stevenson attended with a full roster of 45 students, plus other students who volunteered to keep the tournament running smoothly for all 415 contestants. Michelle Kelrikh earned the 1st place Quality Speaker award with an average score of 5.88 out of 6 for the competition. Other award winners included Critic's Choice - Amy Orlov, Eric Ramoutar, Noella James, Peter Hwang, 1st Place Speaker- Nikhita Luthra, Jimmy Chang, Valerie Gutman, Tina Moazezi, 2nd Place Speaker- Michelle Kelrikh, and Best Presiding Officer- Noella James, Tina Moazezi.

The Stevenson Math Team won its first North Suburban Math League match of the 2012-13 school year, and holds the overall lead in the 55-school league after the first of its five rounds.  Stevenson won all four grade-level categories and finished second in the oral competition. The seniors, juniors and freshmen groups all registered perfect scores in their five-question competitions. In each grade-level competition, the top three scores from five designated contestants are used in the team scoring. Stevenson had several students — contestants and alternates — who answered all questions correctly, earning 25 points.  In the senior group, perfect scores of 25 came from Brandon Axe, Raymon Cao, Justin Doong, Nick VanLieshout, Tianlu Wang, Matthew Yang, Aaron Zalewski and Christine Zhao. Seven students wrote perfect papers in the junior division: Raymon Cao, David Chen, Sam Lim, Akanksha Shah, Vivian Wan, Cheryl Xiang and Sunny Yun. Eight freshmen were perfect: William Chang, Sarah Hou, Junghyun Hwang, Emery Liu, Teresa Mao, William Tu, Jennifer Zhang and Shu Zhang.  The sophomores won their division, in which no team had all top three of its scorers with five right answers. Stevenson’s top scorers were Jaymo Kang, Sergey Papushin and Brian Zhou, each with 19 points. Phillip Kwon, an alternate, also had a 19. Richard Zhu finished second in the oral competition with a score of 46 out of 50.