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Hall of Fame


2003-2004     2004-2005     2005-2006     2006-2007     2007-2008     2008-2009     2009-2010    2010-2011

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2011 - Hall Of Fame - 2012
MAY
Freshman Victoria Bian and junior Adele Padgett are among 17 high school students named 2012 Illinois Chess Association Warren Junior Chess Scholars. Warren Scholars are selected based on attaining minimum United States Chess Federation ratings and national rankings, as well as a commitment to improving their games through play in open tournaments against adults. Padgett is a member of the SHS chess team, which finished second at the Illinois High School Association state tournament in February.

Scholastic Bowl is sending two teams to two different national tournaments.  This is the first time that Scholastic Bowl has qualified two teams for these tournaments!!  The first tournament will be the NAQT Nationals in Atlanta held at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia.  The "A" team will consist of Jonathan Kersky (captain), Eugene Bulkin (statistician), Michael Hu, David Jin and Niranjan Jayanth.  The "B" team will consist of Ben Sigal (captain), Sam Levin, Chandru Rasendran, Jee Ho Lee, Justin Millman and Jason Asher.  The second tournament will be the PACE Nationals in St. Louis, Mossuri.
 
Eleven Science Club members qualified to present their original experiments at the Illinois Junior Academy of Science State Science Fair in Champaign. More than 1,000 experiments were presented from around the state. Anvesh Jalasutram, Linsey Nowack, Bhooma Shivakumar, Larissa Kennerly, Theodore Chou, Kyle Gordon, Kevin Cheng, HanSong Huang, Pranjali Rathi and Daniel Kofman won Gold Awards for their projects. Jack Hirsch won a Silver Award. In addition, Jalasutram won an award for the best paper at the fair, and Shivakumar won an award for the best project in the mathematics category. 

Stevenson Math Team finished third at the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics’ Class 4AA state finals at the University of Illinois. SHS scored 932 points, behind the Illinois Math and Science Academy (989) and Whitney Young (967). Stevenson has placed third at the ICTM state finals for three consecutive years, and nine times in the last 13 years. The school also finished third in 2008, 2007, 2004, 2002, 2001 and 2000. Three entries earned state championships at the 2012 finals: Eugene Bulkin won the oral competition with a perfect score of 50. Richard Zhu was his assistant, and Paul Kim was the event coach. Bulkin also took fourth place individually in the Pre-Calculus competition, and was part of two teams that finished in the top six - Pre-Calculus and the Junior-Senior Two-Person Relay. The Algebra 2 team comprising juniors Matt Yang, Justin Doong, Brandon Axe, Aaron Zalewski, Mark Zhang and Kevin Doherty won its division. Yang placed third individually, while Doong finished seventh. The event coach was Kathy Rauch-Morse. The Calculator team captured top honors behind Doong, seniors John Park, Vincent Fiorentini and Chris Rho, and freshman Alex Hong. Their coach was Joe Bettina.

APRIL
Stevenson Debate Team had 5 students attend the Tournament of Champions debate competition at the University of Kentucky. Dominic Belmonte was presiding officer in the Championship round of Congressional Debate. The Championship round consisted of the top 120 debaters from across the nation (30 states). Eric Ramoutar and Abhi Sanka qualified to the semi-final round (top 24 debaters). Dan Klebanov and Vickram Pradhan also competed in the competition. To compete in the Tournament of Champions students must first qualify through other state and national tournaments to even be considered for TOC. Congressional Debate at TOC consisted of 84 students and the TOC competition gathered the top 484 debaters in 5 different events.

For the third consecutive year, Stevenson has a national champion business student. Brian Dubinsky was first place in Fundamental Accounting at the Business Professionals of America’s 46th annual National Leadership Conference in Chicago April 25-29. Dubinsky, a junior, is the third consecutive SHS student to win the national Fundamental Accounting title, following Kevin Doherty last year and Steven Kislenko in 2010. Four other students had top-eight finishes, led by sophomore Vivian Wan, who was second in Fundamental Accounting and fourth in Financial Math and Analysis. Senior Jaren Zacher placed third in Advanced Accounting and added a seventh-place showing in Management/Marketing/Human Resources. David Chen, a sophomore, was sixth in Financial Math and Analysis, and junior Lisa Boris took eighth in Payroll Accounting. Zacher was second in Advanced Accounting last year and was runner-up in Fundamental Accounting in 2010. Boris placed third in Fundamental Accounting last year. Approximately 5,500 students, advisors and guests participated in the conference. The Stevenson students were led by their sponsors Nick Valenziano and Greg Augsburg.

Six FCCLA students, who developed a business plan for a gourmet catering company, were named state champions at the Illinois Family, Career and Community Leaders of America’s annual State Leadership Conference in Springfield. Kari Antman, Kelsey Banas, Dylan Golden, Brooke Gregorcy, Michelle Pappageorge and Zack Petricca developed their plan in the Hospitality STAR (Students Taking Action with Recognition) event. By winning the state title, they qualified to compete at the FCCLA national convention in Orlando, Florida this summer. Several other students won awards at the conference. Josh Heiger was a gold medalist in the relish tray culinary event. Heather Berardi and Rebecca Schodin were awarded a silver medal in the Interior Design STAR event. Ashley D’Amico was awarded a bronze medal in the Interior Design STAR event. Berardi also won third place in Interior Design STAR. Scholarships were awarded to Banas, Golden and Pappageorge from Kendall College, and to Berardi from Chief Architect. The Stevenson contingent also contributed more than 150 children’s books to the Illinois FCCLA community service project. The books were collected during a school-wide earlier this month. Overall, the state FCCLA donated nearly 3,000 children’s books to the United Way.

Six students qualified for the Illinois History Fair, which takes n Springfield. They reached the state finals based on their performance in the Chicago Metro History Fair. Sophomore Akanksha Shah, who qualified for the 2011 National History Day, earned honors for her live-performance portrayal of the life of Chicago jazz great Mary Lou Williams. Freshmen James Daigler, Yancheng Du, Riley Shore, Henry Sise and Kevin Wadowski received recognition for their exhibit, "U.S.S. Chicago: The Ship that Won the War." Also competing at the Chicago Metro History Fair were junior Pallavi Gowravajhala, who produced a 10-minute documentary of the famous "Visit of the Swami." Sarah Terwilliger, also a junior, entered an exhibit on "The Electrical Revolution." 

Science Olympiad
team competed at the State Finals on Saturday, April 14, 2012. The team finished second in the state of Illinois behind perennial first place finishers, New Trier, Winnetka. One bright spot to this finish is the fact that Stevenson was only 13 points behind New Trier, setting a new, team, best-ever finish in a state competition. As a result, the Stevenson Science Olympiad team earned its fourth consecutive bid to the National Finals on March 18-19, 2012 at the University of Central Florida in Orlando. It was the overall consistency of the Stevenson team’s individual results that brought the team to second place overall. Along the way there were also five first-place, state champion finishes.  Placing First - Experimental Design: Vivian Wan, Jessie Wang & David Zhang, Protein Modeling: Ray Liu, Justin, Doong & Akila Khan, Sounds of Music: Ritvik Sarkar & Jessie Wang, Towers: Michael Fatina & David Zhang, and Write It Do It: Ritvik Sarkar & Michael Fatina.  Placing Second - Astronomy: David Chen & Mike Kim, Dynamic Planet: David Chen & David Whisler, Forestry: Emma Buckardt & Borchueh Wu, Gravity Vehicle: Michael Fatina & Edward Wu, and Water Quality: Justin Doong & Jessie Wang. Placing Third - Rocks & Minerals: Emma Buckardt & Borchueh Wu, Elastic Launch Glider: Ayana Dambaeva & Michelle Hu, Geocaching: Ayana Dambaeva & Jocelyn Lai. Placing Fourth - Remote Sensing: David Chen & Mike Kim.  Placing Fifth - Optics: Ray Liu & David Whisler, Robot Arm: Michael Fatina & Ritvik Sarkar, Thermodynamics: Edward Wu & John Park.

MARCH
Future Business Leaders of America club had a very successful showing at the annual Illinois State Leadership Conference in Decatur. Nine students won first-place honors, 18 qualified for the national FBLA leadership conference, and 31 students placed in the top seven in their events. More than 1,300 students from around Illinois took part in the conference, making it the largest in its history. Earning first place and qualifying for the national conference were:  Lisa Boris and Akshay Ramachandran (Banking and Financial Systems); Becky Cacioppo (Introduction to Business); Sai Duggirala and Nikita Patel (Website Design); Chandru Rasendran (Business Calculations); Jordan Silverman (Sports Management); and Alex Sheck and Zach Sheck (Business Financial Plan). Placing second and also earning national conference bids were: Matthew Brown and Devin Stalker (Entrepreneurship); Michael Kaushansky (Business Math); Brandon Levinson and Ethan Siegel (Emerging Business Issues); Gerv Pandey (Economics); and Dhruv Patel (Accounting 1). Two third-place winners, David Doner (Business Procedures) and Elizabeth Shancer (Hospitality Management) also qualified for the national conference. The national FBLA conference will be held June 29-July 2 in San Antonio.
 
All 14 Science Club members who presented projects at the Illinois Junior Academy of Science Region 6 Science Fair at Niles North High School won awards. Eleven students will advance to the IJAS State Science Fair at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May.  Han Song Huang, Anvesh Jalasutrum, Kevin Cheng, Daniel Kofman, Pranjali Rathi, Kyle Gordon, Theodore Chou, Jack Hirsch, Linsey Nowak and Bhooma Shivakumar won Gold Awards. Larissa Kennerly and Iryna Protasova won Silver Awards, and Raymon Cao and Alex Ho won Bronze Awards. Shivakumar won the Best in Category award for Computer Science. Protasova was awarded the Office of Naval Research Naval Science Award for outstanding science; and Linsey Nowak received the United States Army Certificate of Achievement for an outstanding science project. The Science Fair featured independent research projects comprised an experiment, scientific paper, poster and presentation.

10 members of the Debate Team were selected to attend the IHSA State Debate tournament held at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, IL.  Eight members of the team made it to the semi-final round: Dominic Belmonte, Vickram Pradhan, Abhi Sanka, Sydney Bauer, Gina Li, Valerie Gutmann, Mike Bruk, and Jimmy Chang. Two debaters, Belmonte and Pradhan competed in the final round of debate. Belmonte was announced as the Captain of the IHSA All- State Team with a high point total of 35.5 points.

Science Olympiad
had its best ever Regional Competition at the College of Lake County. Both Varsity and JV teams finished first in their respective categories with each team earning a new all-time best score. The Stevenson JV team finished their season at the regional competition with an amazing overall team score of 48. The varsity finished with an incredible 38 points! In the end every team member from both the Varsity and JV teams went home with at least one medal from the day’s competition. 

Scholastic Bowl
won the Illinois High School Association Class AA Stevenson Regional championship. SHS advances to the North Chicago Sectional Championship. The five starters were captain Jonathan Kersky, David Jin, Michael Hu, Eugene Bulkin and Max Weiss. The rest of the team included Sam Levin, Ben Sigal, Chandru Rasendran, Matt Yang and Niranjan Jayanth.
 
Two members of the Debate Team qualified for the National Forensics League national tournament this summer based on a qualifying at Glenbrook South High School. Abhi Sanka (Senate) and Eric Ramoutar (House of Representatives) will compete in Congressional Debate at the NFL national tournament in Indianapolis June 10-15. Dominic Belmonte and Vickram Pradhan are first alternates for their chambers. Ramoutar and Belmonte also earned Best Legislation for their resolution to strengthen ties with the Muslim Brotherhood. Their resolution will be submitted by the Northern Illinois district as its choice of legislation for the national tournament.

The Color Guard placed FIRST IN STATE at the Team Dance Illinois state competition in Peoria, Illinois.  This is the fifth consecutively year that the Color Guard captured the state title in Short Flag. The team also placed second in Lyrical Flag. 

FEBRUARY
The Math Team won the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics Class 4AA regional competition at Stevenson High School, and posted the third-highest score in the state among competitors at 20 regional sites. Stevenson automatically qualified for the ICTM state finals on May 5 by winning the regional title. The Math Team also finished third at the North Suburban Math League conference meet at Evanston Township High School. With the third-place showing at the fifth of five league events, SHS placed second overall in the NSML.

Two students won State Championships at the annual Business Professionals of America Leadership Conference held in Oakbrook Illinois. Vivian Wan captured the Fundamental Accounting State Champion crown, while Brad Dembo claimed the Database Applications State Champion title.  Other Top 10 Finishes included: Nikitha Duggirala - Presentation Management (2nd), James Lichtenstein - Computerized Accounting (2nd), Sruthi Merneedi - Presentation Management (2nd), Lisa Boris - Payroll Accounting (3rd), Tyler Stock, Grayson Stout, Jay Jani, Alex Brard - Video Production (3rd), Brian Dubinsky - Fundamental Accounting (4th), Jaren Zacher - Advanced Accounting (4th), Dhruv Patel - Fundamental Accounting (7th), David Chen - Financial Math (Top 10), Brad Dembo - Financial Math (Top 10), Alyssa Gorenberg - Payroll Accounting (Top 10), Arnie Nadel - Payroll Accounting (Top 10), Arnie Nadel - Financial Math (Top 10), Alyssa Sexner - Legal Office Prodcedures (Top 10), Ethan Siegal - Payroll Accounting (Top 10), John Rath - Financial Math (Top 10), Ryan Villanueva - Financial Math (Top 10).

The Varsity Scholastic Bowl team captured its second major tournament in five days. Stevenson won the North Suburban Conference tournament at Vernon Hills High School, after claiming first place at the Illinois Masonic Academic Bowl Class AA Sectional at New Trier.  At Vernon Hills, David Jin and Eugene Bulkin were named to the all-conference team. The reminder of the conference champion roster included captain Jonathan Kersky, Niranjan Jayanth, Ben Siegel, Chandru Rasendran, Matt Yang and Sam Levin.  At New Trier, the team took home a $400 prize and will advance to the Illinois Masonic Academic Bowl Class AA state finals in Springfield on Saturday, March 3. The roster at New Trier was captained by Kersky and Bulkin, and included Jayanth, Rasendran, Yang, Siegel, Max Weiss and Michael Hu.
 
Ten students earned honors at the recent FCCLA (Family Career and Community Leaders of America) Sectional, and qualified for the state competition April 19-21 in Springfield. Kari Antman, Brooke Gregorcy, Michelle Pappageorge, Zack Petrica, Dylan Golden and Kelsey Banas of the Hospitality Team won the Most Outstanding Award for its catering business plan and website design. Rebecca Schodin earned the Most Outstanding Award for her Interior Design project. Josh Heiger (Relish Tray), Heather Berandi (Interior Design) and Ashley DíAmico (Interior Design) also qualified for the state competition.

The Stevenson Debate Team showed their leadership skills at Havard National Congress. While the team came in second for overall points in Congress, they proved themselves to be leaders within the chambers. Seven students advanced to the semi-final round of congress, Abhi Sanka, Dominic Belmonte, Vickram Pradhan, Nikhita Luthra, Gina Li, Eric Ramoutar, and Michelle Kelrikh. Four of these students received Leadership Bowl awards for their performance in the preliminary sessions (11 hours of debate), Sanka, Ramoutar, Pradhan, and Belmonte. Students who advanced to the semi-finals debated for an additional 3.5 hours. Eric Ramoutar and Dominic Belmonte advanced to the final round of debate (5 hours), discussing various aspects of cyber terrorism and cyber attacks. Ramoutar was awarded a Leadership Bowl for his performance in the semi-final round and was awarded the Harvard National Congress Leadership Bowl Tournament winner. The Harvard National Congress for 2012 had 380 students from 99 schools. Other members of the team were: Tyler Thut, Sydney Bauer, Amy Orlov, Noella James, Dhruv Luthra, Mike Bruk, Matthew Rice, and Tina Moazezi. While awards are a wonderful show of achievement, some of the best recognition of Stevenson students came from the adults who judged them. Several judges commented how it was a pleasure to have Stevenson debaters in their chambers and that they are thrilled when Stevenson students win because of their sense of fairness and composure during the competition. Stevenson Debate is coached by Erik Joerns, Bill Fritz, and Doug Koski.

At the 2012 IHSA State Chess Team Tournament held at the Peoria Civic Center the Stevenson Chess Team finished in Second Place. The Stevenson team scored 6 victories and one close loss (the loss being in the 6th round-- to Niles North).  There were 125 teams competing at what was proclaimed as the largest state chess team tournament in the US. The Stevenson team received the 2012 IHSA State Runners Up trophy and individual second place medals at the Saturday night awards ceremony.  Stevenson winners of additional medals were Josh Dubin (2nd place on Board 2),  Matt Yang (2nd place  on Board 3), Phillip Engstrom (3rd place on Board 5),  Cheryl Liu (8th place on Board 6), Eric Monatelli (6th place on Board 7), and Liam Holzer (6th place on Board 8).  Additional team members were Kent Cen,  Adele Padgett, and Vishesh Verma.  The team was accompanied by sponsor Scott Oliver and chess coach Rob Krause.  

For the first time in its nine-year history, the Stevenson Science Olympiad Team finished in First Place at the Loyola meet. In all, Stevenson students medalled in 18 of the 23 events and dominated the engineering venues, taking first place in all engineering events. Team members placing in their events include:  Fifth Place~ Dynamic Planet- Emma Buckardt & Borchueh Wu.  Fourth Place~ Microbe Mission - Akila Khan & David Zhang.  Third Place~ Anatomy - Akila Khan & Vivian Wan, Remote Sensing - David Chen & Brian Zhou, Rocks and Minerals - Emma Buckardt & Borchueh Wu, and Write It Do It - Michael Fatina & Ritvik Sarkar.  Second Place~ Astronomy - David Chen & Brian Zhou, Forensics - Akila Khan & Justin Doong, Forestry- Emma Buckardt & Borchueh Wu, Thermodynamics -  Edward Wu & John Park, and Water Quality - Justin Doong & Jessie Wang.  First Place~ Disease Detectives - Akila Khan & David Zhang, Gravity Vehicle - Mike Fatina & Edward Wu, Helicopters - Edward Wu & Ritvik Sarkar, Protein Modeling - Ray Liu, Justin Doong & David Whisler, Robot Arm - Mike Fatina & Ritvik Sarkar, Sounds of Music - Ritvik Sarkar & Jessie Wang, and Towers - Mike Fatina & David Zhang.

Stevenson Debate Team swept the Illinois Congressional Debate Association (ICDA) State Tournament held in De Kalb, Illinois. Stevenson took 1st place in both divisions, championship and invitational. Based on current website records, no team has swept both awards for at least the past 8 years. No data was available before that time. Members of the championship team were Dominic Belmonte, Michelle Kelrikh, Vickram Pradhan, and Eric Ramoutar. Scoring is based on the cumulative score of all four members. Stevenson won with a score of 79.83, beating Wheeling High School by 1/3 of a point. Wheeling has taken 1st place in the championship level for the past 5 years and has won 10 times since 1987.  The Invitational team consisted of Sydney Bauer, Jamie Di Tomasso, Valerie Gutmann, Daniel Klebanov, Michelle Layvant, Anna Leng, Tyler Thut, Vivian Wang, Jenny Zhang, And Richard Zhu. Scoring is base on the cumulative of the top 5 scores, with Stevenson scoring 235.4 points.  The ICDA All-State team consists of the top 10 performers throughout the regular season tournaments. Dominic Belmonte, Vikram Pradhan, and Abhi Sanka earned this award through consistently being nominated by the judges and achieving high speech scores.  Other individual awards are:  Critics Choice: Vivian Wang, Jamie Di Tomasso, Tyler Thut, Valerie Gutmann, Vickram Pradan, and Dominic Belmonte.  1st Place Speaker: Anna Leng.  2nd Place Speaker: Sydney Bauer and Eric Ramoutar.  Stevenson also earned a 2nd Place for Best Legistlation with " A Resolution to Usurp the Euro".  This is the first time Stevenson has won the Championship (Uppers), glad to have Stevenson engraved on the traveling cup. Cup starts at 1987. Coaches Joerns, Koski, and Fritz are proud of the dedication and depth of talent of all of the members of the debate team.

The Daily Herald unveiled its 10th annual Leadership Teams, and two Stevenson seniors were among the students honored. Sonia Doshi and Abhi Sanka were part of the Lake County Leadership Team. Doshi was honored for her work as president of the National Honor Society, which is the driving force behind Spirit Fest and Give-A-Thon, along with other activities inside and outside of school. Sanka serves as the Student Leadership Advisory Council liaison to the SHS administration, and also is part of the Jefferson Award Student Leaders Committee, which recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exemplary community service and volunteerism.

SHS Math Team won its North Suburban Math League meet at Libertyville High School, and stands in second place overall in the 55-school league. Fifteen students wrote perfect papers during the competition, including eight sophomores. The sophomore group leads all schools after four rounds, and has only missed two questions all season.

The SHS Table Tennis team fell to Loyola Academy 8-7.  However, winners for Stevenson were senior Michael Li Peng, junior Vishesh Verma, sophomores Miles Cushing and David Manion, and freshmen Michael Dickens, Chris Song and Vivek Vermani

Stevenson Chess Team captured third place at the North Suburban Chess League Championships at Glenbrook South High School. Stevenson is seeded No. 7 out of 125 teams and is traveling to Peoria for the Illinois High School Association State Finals. SHS has finished in the top six at state in each of the last eight years, including winning the state championship in 2008 and finishing second in 2010.
 
At the IHSA Regional Speech & Drama Tournament, Stevenson team captain Claire Berman qualified for two Sectional Tournament events by taking Second Place in Impromptu Speaking and Third Place in Prose Reading.

JANUARY
Scholastic Bowl sophomores took first place at the Wheaton North JV Scholastic Bowl Tournament. The Stevenson "A" team of sophomores Justin Millman, Jason Asher, Jee Ho Lee, Gabriel Antoniak and Akanksha Shah went 10-o during the tournament. The Stevenson "B" team of freshmen Johnathan Mishory and Zachary Pease went 8-2 for the day. Mishory, Pease, Millman and Lee were recognized for the number of "toss-up" questions they answered. 

Stevenson Debaters competed in the CDA 5 Tournament Of Champions held at Schaumburg High School. In the Tournament of Champions Qualifier, 14 students were chosen to participate in the qualifier chambers. Five students proceeded to the final round: Eric Ramoutar, Vickram Pradhan, Dan Klebanov,  Dominic Belmonte, and Tyler Thut. The top six finalists earn a bid for the Tournament of Champions  (TOC) competition in Lexington, Ky , held at the end of April. TOC brings the best debaters from across the U.S. to U. of Kentucky for 3 full days of debate.  Stevenson debaters took 4 out of 6 slots in the top six: Eric Ramoutar - 1st, Dominic Belmonte - 2nd, Vickram Pradhan -3rd, and Tyler Thut - 6th. Eric Ramoutar is the unconfirmed "Best Quality Speaker" of the tournament with a speaking average of 5.7 out of 6. The Invitational tournament individual winners also represented Stevenson well:  Critics Choice - Jimmy Chang, Sydney Bauer, and Richard Zhu, Best Presiding Officer - Sydney Bauer, Noella James, and 2nd place Speaker - Yanfei Gao.  Amy Orlov and Richard Zhu earned 2nd Place Best Legislation for their bill on taxing Internet purchases.

Forty-three members of the Future Business Leaders of America club placed in the top seven of their respective events at the FBLA Northern Area Competition at Warren Township High School.  Nine students earned first-place honors: Kevin Doherty, Gerv Pandey and Akshay Ramachandran (Banking and Financial Systems); Alex Sheck and Zach Sheck (Business Financial Plan); Yamini Chandra (Economics); Becky Cacioppo (Introduction to Business); Lizzy Goldberg (Public Speaking 2); and Jordan Silverman (Sports Management). Thirteen club members finished second: Chandru Rasendran (Business Calculations); Ellen Kaushansky, Sasha Kupershmidt and Alice Smelyansky (Business Ethics); Jessica Frayman (Business Law); Nikitha Duggirala, Jackie James and Sruthi Merneedi (E-Business); Rahul Kosgi and John Tolbert (Management Decision Making);  Shareen Showdhury (Public Speaking 1); and Sai Duggirala and Nikita Patel (Website Design).

The Varsity and Freshman-Sophomore Scholastic Bowl teams competed at the Fremd High School Tournament. The varsity won third place out of 48 teams. Eugene Bulkin was named the team's most valuable player. He also won a trophy for most toss-up questions answered during the morning rounds.  The other team members were captain Jonathan Kersky, Michael Hu, Sam Levin and Ben Sigal. The frosh-soph A team won first place out of 48 teams, despite having only four players, while the frosh-soph B squad captured third with only three players. Jee Ho Lee was the MVP for the A team, and Eric Chang earned the same honor for the B squad. Both players won awards for most toss-up questions answered in the morning rounds. Joining Lee on the A team were Justin Millman, Jason Asher and Gabriel Antoniak. Changís younger brother, Jonathan, and Zachary Pease comprised the B team.

The 2011 edition of The WIT, Stevenson's student literary magazine, was awarded a rank of Superior-Nominated for Highest Award in the National Council of Teachers of English Program to Recognize Excellence in Student Literary Magazines. The WIT was honored for its writing, art and production quality. Three hundred and ninety-one schools entered their magazines in the contest, and 96 were considered for the highest award. Thirty-eight received the Highest Award, while 52 others joined Stevenson in the Superior-Nominated for Highest Award ranking. The 2011 edition of The Wit  magazine was run by Editor-in-Chief Ariel Rosen and Senior Editor Danielle Levsky, both 2011 graduates. The rest of the staff included Emily Davis, Ariel Blackman, Kimmie Levey, Luke Stroth, Rachel Affenit, Shayna Korol, Joanne Jun and Diana Lu. The sponors of The WIT are Jim Barnabee and Chris Heckel-Oliver.
 
The Color Guard won first place in the Short Flag and Lyrical Flag divisions at the TEAM Dance Illinois regional competition held at Palatine High School, qualifying for the TDI state championship in both events. The TDI state finals will be held March 4 in Peoria. The Color Guard is undefeated in Short Flag competition since 2008. The Color Guard roster includes captain Olivia Niepsuj, Ivana Ciapurko, Victoria Landau, Sammie Magid, Anna Veselova, Anastasiya Vorkun and Megan Weaver. The Color Guard is coached by Sarah Schrader and Marne Gehring.

The Science Olympiad Team competed in the Crystal Lake Central High School. This was the largest invitational that will take place in the north suburban area. The competition was extremely tough but incredibly, the two SHS teams combined for an impressive 8 first-place finishes. Overall, Stevenson’s teams finished first or second in 11 of the 23 total events. Individual accomplishments were Fourth Place - Anatomy & Physiology: Akila Khan & Mike Kim, Forestry: David Cao & Jessie Wang, Helicopters: Edward Wu & Ritvik Sarkar, Optics: Ray Liu & Michelle Hu, Remote Sensing: David Chen & Brian Zhou, and Thermodynamics: John Park & Matthew Zhang. Third Place - Disease Detectives: Vivian Wan & David Whisler and Technical Problem Solving: David Chen & Vivian Wan. Second Place - Astronomy: Brian Zhou & David Chen, Sounds of Music: Jessie Wang & Matthew Zhang, and Towers: Kathryn Fatina & Shravya Gogula.  First Place - Disease Detectives: Akila Khan & David Zhang, Dynamic Planet: Anna Kong & David Chen, Forestry: Emma Buckardt & Borchueh Wu, Gravity Vehicle: Mike Fatina & Edward Wu, Protein Modeling: Ray Liu, Justin Doong & Jocelyn Lai, Robot Arm: Mike Fatina & Revanth Matha, Towers: Mike Fatina & David Zhang, and Water Quality: Justin Doong & Jocelyn Lai.


The Speech and Drama Team came away with a number of honors from The Lake Forest High School tournament Saturday. Team captain Claire Berman earned a First Place tie in impromptu speaking and Second Place in prose reading.  Bryan Nolte earned a First Place tie in Shakespeare monologues, Rachel Landsman tied for Second Place in oratorical declamation, and Amanda Friedlander took Second Place in impromptu speaking. 

The Stevenson Science Olympiad Team began its season at the Belvidere High School Invitational competition. The two SHS teams combined for an astonishing 15 first-place finishes out of the 23 total events with every individual on both teams earning a medal in at least one event.  Fifth Place: Anatomy & Physiology: Akila Khan and Mike Kim, Fourth Place: Sounds of Music: Michelle Hu and Sophia Liu, Third Place: Astronomy: Brian Zhou & David Chen, Chemistry Lab: Revanth Matha & Jocelyn Lai, Experimental Design: Sophia Liu, Michelle Hu & David Zhang, Helicopters: Edward Wu & Ritvik Sarkar, Optics: Ray Liu & Michelle Hu and Alex Hong & Matthew Zhang (both teams placed third), Protein Modeling: Ray Liu, Justin Doong & Edward Wu, Rocks and Minerals: Emma Buckardt (working without a partner).  Second Place: Disease Detectives: Vivian Wan & Li Chen, Dynamic Planet: Eric Huang & Borchueh Wu, Fermi Questions: Jessie Wang & Alex Hong, Forensics: Kathryn Fatina & Shravya Gogula, Forestry: Emma Buckardt & Borchueh Wu, Helicopters: David Chen & Vivian Wan, Protein Modeling: John Park, Li Chen & Ayana Dambaeva, Remote Sensing: Mike Kim & Eric Huang and Austin Hua & Matthew Zhang (both teams placed second), Robot Arm: Austin Hua & Matthew Zhang, Write It Do It: Kathryn Fatina & David Cao.  First Place: Anatomy & Physiology: Ayana Dambaeva & Vivian Wan, Disease Detectives: Akila Khan & David Zhang, Dynamic Planet: Anna Kong & David Chen, Experimental Design: Vivian Wan, Anna Kong & Alex Hong, Fermi Questions: Mike Fatina & Ritvik Sarkar, Forestry: David Cao & Jessie Wang, Gravity Vehicle: Mike Fatina & Edward Wu, Microbe Mission: Li Chen & Shravya Gogula, Robot Arm: Mike Fatina & Ritvik Sarkar, Rocks and Minerals: Tom Shaw & Kathryn Fatina, Sounds of Music: Jessie Wang & Mathew Zhang, Technical Problem Solving: Ray Liu & Jocelyn Lai, Thermodynamics: Revanth Matha & Edward Wu and John Park & Matthew Zhang (both teams first), Towers: Mike Fatina & David Zhang and Kathryn Fatina & Shravya Gogula (both teams placed first), Water Quality: Emma Buckardt & Justin Doong and Anna Kong & Austin Hua (both teams placed first).

 

 
Junior Varsity Scholastic Bowl team competed in the 13th Annual Rockford Auburn Knights Tournament. The Stevenson "A" team of Justin Millman, Jason Ashor, Jeeho Lee and Jonathan Mishory took first place and went 11-0 for the tournament. The "B" team of Nick Bersin and Zachary Pease finished in sixth place. Lee, Bersin and Pease were selected to the all-tournament team.

 

DECEMBER
SHS Math Team took over first place in the North Suburban Math League after its performance at the league's third meet at Vernon Hills High School. Stevenson posted the highest score among all 55 schools in the league for the meet, 318 out of a possible 350 points, and edged ahead of the Illinois Math and Science Academy and Chicago's Whitney Young in the overall standings with two meets remaining. SHS has an overall score of 939 after three meets.SHS tied for first in two divisions, posting perfect scores in each: the Senior Division, with seven other schools, and the Orals Division, with six others. Stevenson also posted the best score in the Sophomore Division, took third in the Junior Division, and tied for eighth in the Freshman Division. At the Vernon Hills site, which included Deerfield, Libertyville, Vernon Hills and Wheeling high schools, Stevenson had the top overall score and won all but the Freshman Division. In the Senior Division, all five students whose scores counted in the team standings wrote perfect papers, as did one alternate. The perfect scores came from Vincent Fiorentini, Michael Hu, Rui Liu, John Park, Anjali Pasupathy and alternate Brandon Axe. Eugene Bulkin earned a perfect score of 50 in the Orals Division. In the Sophomore Division, the roster included perfect scorer Sam Lim along with Raymon Cao, David Chen, Chris Rho and Richard Zhu. In the Junior Division, the point scorers were Axe, Justin Doong, Tianlu Wang, Matthew Yang and Aaron Zalewski. Cao wrote a perfect paper as an alternate. In the Freshman Division, two students whose scores counted in the team standings and three who were alternates wrote perfect papers. Alex Hong and Timothy Klem answered all five questions correctly, as did alternates David Cao, Thomas Ouyang and Rahul Pillai. The other freshmen whose scores counted were Jaymo Kang, Max Kontorovich and Diana Kowalski.

Political Action Club members Claire Berman, Molly Brandt, Rachel Landsman, Cheryl Liu and Amanda Spencer traveled with 50 other students to Iowa to watch the Republican Party presidential debate in Des Moines. PAC teamed up with the Mikva Challenge to partner students with Republican presidential campaigns. The Stevenson students, all seniors, worked the phones for Mitt Romney and helped prepare for a "Romney Rally" prior to the debate. The Mikva Challenge has worked for more than a decade to expand civic education opportunities for Chicago Public Schools students. Stevenson is one of the first suburban schools to partner with the Mikva Challenge in its new goal of expanding its efforts outside of CPS.

The Speech and Drama Team, competing in the Glenbard East "Comfy Classic" Tournament earned the following awards:  a 2nd place tie in Poetry Reading for Amanda Friedlander and a 5th place tie in Oratorical Declamation for Ghazal Baniasad. Great work, even in "comfy" clothes! 

The Debate Team brought home another first place at ICDA 4 held at Rolling Meadows High School. The team took 1st place in the large school division due to a strong team effort that showed through the number of individual awards. Stevenson earned awards in 14 of the 18 chambers. Dominic Belmonte earned the highest individual award, 1st place quality speaker, with an average of 5.87 out of 6 points as well as a critics choice award and best presiding officer in his chamber.  Other award winners included Critics choice: Tina Moazezi, Noella James, Abhi Sanka, Eric Ramoutar. 1st place speaker: Michelle Layvant, Vickram Pradhan, Vivian Wang, Mike Bruk, Tyler Thut. 2nd place speaker: Nikhita Luthra, Gina Li. Best presiding officer: Tina Moazezi, Sydney Bauer, Eric Ramoutar.

The Speech and Drama team competed in a two-day tournament at Bradley University against teams from seven states, including California. Senior Ghazal Baniasad captured fourth place in Novice Declamation, sophomore Aaron Chai took sixth in Informative Speaking, the Duet Acting team of senior Rachel Landsman and junior Marni Levin earned a berth in the semifinal round, and Marni Levin also made it to the semifinals in Radio Speaking.


NOVEMBER
The Statesman, Stevenson High School's student newspaper, earned one of the elite honors in high school journalism announced Saturday at the 90th annual Journalism Education Association/National Student Press Association fall convention in Minneapolis.  The 2010-11 Statesman was selected to receive a Pacemaker Award as one of the top 10 newspapers in the country among high school papers of its size (9-16 pages per edition). Judges selected Pacemakers based on the following: coverage and content, quality of writing and reporting, leadership on the opinion page, evidence of in-depth reporting, design, photography, art and graphics. The editor-in-chief of the Statesman in 2010-11 was Kelly Bauer. The Statesman adviser is Andrew Bouque.  This is the third time the Statesman has received a Pacemaker award. The newspaper also earned Pacemakers in 2005 and 2007 under former adviser Barb Thill.

Two Stevenson Debate Team members, Eric Ramoutar and Michelle Kelrikh, participated in the Final Round of "Glenbrooks" Congressional Debate. The highly competitive nature of the event required not only a wide and deep knowledge of 30 different bill topics, but also the stamina to finish strong after competing for 16 hours of debate over two days. Stevenson was represented by 14 varsity and novice debaters: Sarah Bak, Dominic Belmonte, Mike Bruk, Valerie Gutmann, Daniel Klebanov, Anna Leng, Dhruv Luthra, Nikhita Luthra, Katherine Merkoulov, Amy Orlov, Vickram Pradhan, and Abhi Sanka. The preliminary round totaled 9 hours of debate where nine to twelve bills were debated. Sanka, Klebanov, Ramoutar, and Bruk, all earned a Best Presiding Officer in their prelim chambers.  The team showed their depth of talent with 50 percent of the team continuing on to the semi-final round. Stevenson had 1 member advance to the semi-finals from every chamber that had a Stevenson delagate in (Sanka, Klebanov, Kelrikh, Belmonte, Ramoutar, Bruk, Pradhan). All 14 members represented Stevenson well and many of the judges from around the nation commented on the skills and knowledge of all.

The Debate Team finished second to Deerfield in the large school division at the Illinois Congressional Debate Association tournament at St. Charles North. Fourteen students won awards, led by Critic's Choice recipients Michelle Kelrikh, Vickram Pradhan and Abhi Sanka. Second Place Speaker honors went to Vivian Wang, Mike Bruk and Nikhita Luthra. Best Presiding Officer awards were given to Bruk, Luthra, Sydney Bauer, Valerie Gutmann, Jenny Zhang, Anna Leng, Noella James, Dominic Belmonte and Eric Ramoutar. Tyler Thut was awarded the third-highest speaker award.
 
Three members of the Speech and Drama team won awards at the Viking Invitational at Fremd High School. Rachel Landsman was tournament champion in Oratorical Declamation, Claire Berman finished third in Prose Reading, and Amanda Friedlander was fifth in Impromptu Speaking.

The Speech and Drama team brought home 11 awards from the Huntley Fall Fest. The following students placed in their events: Faith Teodoro-4th place novice dramatic interpretation, Kyle Rockoff-4th place novice extemporaneous speaking, Sam Levin-3rd place novice extemporaneous speaking and 6th place novice impromptu speaking, Claire Berman-3rd place varsity impromptu speaking and 4th place varsity prose reading, Aaron Chai-3rd place novice informational speaking, Rachel Landsman-2nd place varsity oratorical declamation, Adrienne Yang-4th place novice prose reading, Jane Wang-1st place novice prose reading, Victoria Intelegator-1st place novice special occasion speaking.

 

OCTOBER
Math Team
finished in third place at the North Suburban Math League tournament. Stevenson finished with 328 points, one ahead of New Trier, which it joined for league competition at Deerfield High School along with the hosts, Evanston Township High School and Walter Payton Prep from Chicago.  SHS tied for the highest score in three of five competition areas: freshmen, sophomores and orals. In all three areas, the school had a perfect score.

Speech and Drama brought home three awards from the Novice/JV Speech and Drama Tournament hosted by Streamwood High School: Rachel Landsman - 1st place oratorical declamation, Ghazal Baniasad - 6th place oratorical declamation, Rachel Landsman and Marni Levin - 3rd place dramatic duet acting.

The Stevenson Debate Team brought  home a First Place Win as well as 17 individual awards in the Large School Division ICDA (Illinois Congressional Debate Assoc.) held this past weekend at Dundee-Crown High School. Five members of the team earned Critic's Choice awards for earning the highest point total in their chamber: Mike Bruk, Vickram Pradhan, Abhi Sanka, Dominic Belmonte, and Nikhita Luthra. The cumulative top 8 scores from each team makes up the team score. Earning Critic's Choice in five out of twenty chambers helped to secure the win for Stevenson. Dominic Belmonte also brought home one of the highest individual awards after 7.5 hours of debate. Belmonte earned the 2nd Place Quality Speaker award with a speech average of 5.375. Six is the maximum speech score possible and judges are not quick to give them out. The Quality Speaker award is based on a minimum of 4 speeches.

 

Stevenson's Math Team opened its North Suburban Math League season with a second-place tie at Naperville North. SHS scored 293 points, behind the host school's 300 and tied with the Illinois Math and Science Academy. Naperville Central was fourth (290) and Whitney Young fifth (281). In the 55-school league, Stevenson is tied for second with IMSA and New Trier. The league has five meets between October and the end of February.

Several members of Model UN earned special recognition for their diplomatic skills at the Carl Sandburg Model United Nations Conference. Andelyn Russell was named the Outstanding Delegate in the Security Council. Sid Dash earned Best Delegate honors in the Security Council, while David Kang and Jessica Ma received Best Delegate in the Arab League and Future Security Council 2018, respectively. Pulkit Kashyap was named Outstanding Delegate in the United Nations Environmental Program, with Will Chen getting Honorable Mention in the same area. 

 

SEPTEMBER
The Wit earned 930 out of 1,000 possible points in ASPA judging. The magazine garnered the maximum 400 points in the area of content coverage, which is a reflection of the quality of writing and art. In addition, the new layout, with full-color spreads throughout the magazine, earned 180 out of 180 points.  The editor-in-chief of the 2011 Wit was Ariel Rosen, the senior editor was Danielle Levsky, and Darcy Rozen was in charge of digital imagery. All were members of the Class of 2011. The rest of the student staff included 2011 graduate Emily Davis; seniors Ariel Blackman, Kimberly Levy and Luke Stroth; juniors Rachel Affenit and Shayna Korol; and sophomores Joanne Jun and Diana Lu. The sponsors of The Wit are Jim Barnabee and Chris Heckel-Oliver. 

Debate Team earned significant recognition by the National Forensics League (NFL). The Stevenson chapter achieved 100 degrees or more last year, placing it in the top 10% of NFL chapters nationwide and earned membership in the NFL's prestigious "100 Club". Such a milestone is remarkable because it demonstrates outstanding commitment to teaching students essential life skills - including communication, research, listening, writing, and organization. Stevenson Debate is coached by Erik Joerns, Doug Koski, and Bill Fritz. 

The Stevenson Debate Team brought home the First Place Prize from the Illinois Congressional Debate Association (ICDA) tournament held  at Elk Grove High School. It has been several years since Stevenson Debate has been able to knock Deerfield or Highland Park from the top of the podium. Stevenson showed the depth of their team with awards for varsity and novice team members alike. Critic's Choice awards were presented to Dominic Belmonte and Vickram Pradhan and Anna Leng. 1st place speaker awards went to Anna Leng and Eric Ramoutar. Novice competitors, Sarah Bak, Jake Glaser, Kathy Merkoulov, and Faith Teodordo also brought home the 1st place speaker awards. 2nd place speaker awards were presented to Dhruv Luthra, Michelle Kelrikh, Tyler Thut, Dan Klebanov, Mike Bruk, and novices Jake Glaser, and Matthew Rice. Best Presiding Officer gavels were presented to Sydney Bauer, Anna Leng, and Amy Orlov. Due to the combination of the ICDA 1 tournament and the Novice tournament, Stevenson was well represented by 57 students where some of the fiercest, yet cooperative, competition was between teammates.

Spirit Fest Raises $20,000, Sets World Record
An estimated 1,300 people attended the 2011 Spirit Fest, and raised at least $20,000 for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Lake County. In addition, 826 people holding glow sticks spelled "CASA," easily breaking the Guinness World Record for largest glow stick design. The previous record of 308 people was set in Canada earlier this year.  The exciting night was capped off by an amazing Firework display.  Congrats to the Stevenson community and for the National Honor Society Spirit Walk Committee for such a successful event.


AUGUST
The 2011 edition of The Wit, Stevenson's literary and art magazine for students, has received a First Class rating from the National Scholastic Press Association, with three marks of distinction.  The marks of distinction are awarded for sections or areas of the magazine that stood out as exceptional during NSPA judging. The three marks of distinction were awarded in content; in writing and editing; and in photography, art, graphics and typography.  The editor-in-chief of the 2011 Wit was Ariel Rosen, the senior editor was Danielle Levsky, and Darcy Rozen was in charge of digital imagery. All were members of the Class of 2011. The rest of the student staff included 2011 graduate Emily Davis; seniors Ariel Blackman, Kimberly Levy and Luke Stroth; juniors Rachel Affenit and Shayna Korol; and sophomores Joanne Jun and Diana Lu.  The sponsors of The Wit are Jim Barnabee and Chris Heckel-Oliver.  The Wit is one of the oldest co-curricular programs at Stevenson. The 2011 Wit was the 44th volume of the magazine.

 

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