Students Place at Regional PJAS Competition

Eleven Fox Chapel Area High School and Dorseyville Middle School students recently won awards as part of the 89th Annual Region 7 Meeting of the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS). A total of seven of those students qualified for the state competition.

Fox Chapel Area first-place winners were seniors Lawrence Liu and Arvind Seshan; juniors Lakshanya Rajaganapathi and Adhitya Thirumala; sophomores Etash Jhanji and Rohit Velankar; and eighth-grader Param Thawani. The first-place winners qualified for the state PJAS competition which will be held May 15-27 at Penn State University, Main Campus. Second-place awards went to junior Gabriella Urso, sophomore Varnujah

Rengaramanujam Kanagaraj, eighth-grader Rachel Kim, and seventh-grader Divya Thirumala. Additionally, Arvind Seshan won a Perseverance Award for his years of participation in the contest, and Divya won a special award from the Society of Women Engineers. The participating students (from several schools from Allegheny and Westmoreland counties) researched their science projects for several months. During the competition, each of the students was required to make a presentation in front of a panel of judges. The regional competition was held February 4, 2023, at Baldwin High School.