Student Spotlight

Student Achievements

Pennington students achieved goals beyond the classroom despite COVID-19. Though they had to remain physically distant from one another, students made the most of their time outside of classes.

Here are some highlights of Pennington student achievements this spring.

Fox wins New York Times essay contest

Madeline Fox ’21 was selected as one of only nine winners out of 2,300 entries in The New York Times “Fifth Annual Student Review Contest for High Schoolers.” Fox's review, “‘The Great British Baking Show’ May Ruin Your Taste for Reality Television” highlights the “good-natured humor” and “celebration of people and food” in the BBC’s program The Great British Baking Show. She contrasted the series to what many viewers are used to seeing on reality television: “petty and often cruel conflict interactions” between contestants, judges, and hosts.

In addition to the nine winners, the judges also chose eight runners-up and eighteen honorable mentions. Of those eighteen honorable mentions, two other Pennington School juniors were also selected for their creative pieces. Safa Morrison ’21 wrote a review on the live-action version of The Lion King, “Live-Action Lion King: 1 Hakuna out of 5 Matatas," and Anjollie Ramakrishna ’21 wrote about the musician Kanye West with her piece titled, “Is Kanye West Being Born Again?”

According to The New York Times, students 13–19 were asked to "play critic and write an original review" for the contest. The writers had the ability to write about anything that fits into the category of creative expression that The New York Times reviews. Students worked on the reviews in Stephanie Cohen's AP English: Language and Composition class. Congratulations to all on their achievements!

Computer Science team repeats as international champions!

After completing all of the four contests of the American Computer Science League (ACSL), The Pennington School’s Computer Science Contest team is now ranked at the top of the international leaderboard with a perfect score of 120. Our team was one of only three schools out of the 96 teams to attain a perfect score through each of the four subcontests, marking the second time we have earned a perfect yearlong score and a spot as a cochampion.

Highlights from this year include:

• We had twenty students (a Pennington record) who consistently participated in the team throughout the year.

• Not only did we persevere through the COVID-19 situation, but we also thrived. Students started meeting virtually even during Spring Break, and our prep sessions (with optional times for students in China and for the USA) and hackathons continued with heightened enthusiasm. • We had one student, Charlie Chen ’22, who finished tied for an individual top international score. Twelve of our students had perfect scores during at least one of the four monthly subcontests.

• Six of the seven seniors on the team are planning on majoring in computer science or data sciences as they prepare for college next year. That number includes three who made that decision in their senior year after their first exposure to the field here at Pennington.

The twenty students who participated on the team this year are: Akshay Arun ’22, James Cai ’22, Charlie Chen ’22, Alexander Huang-Menders ’21, Ben Jiang ’22, Masha Khartchenko ’20, Tarun Kumar ’21, Taylor Li ’20, Sam Lovvoll ’21, Jennifer Lu ’20, Caroline Muscara ’21, Deep Patel ’20, Rohit Pothacamury ’21, Ben Robertson ’21, Sydney Shah ’20, Jack Wang ’21, Anita Yang ’20, Anna Zhang ’22, David Zhang ’22, and Yiren Zhou ’20.

This year the ACSL held its first-ever online post-season All-Star contest for individual students throughout the world. Thirteen members of Pennington’s team, an extraordinary number, qualified for invitations to a demanding one-day contest of coding and computer science knowledge on May 23. Two of Pennington’s representatives were awarded prizes: Deep Patel earned a silver level, and Alexander Huang-Menders earned a bronze level.

Wang receives award

Pennington School junior Haichuan “Jack” Wang was awarded First Place honors in the General Engineering section, Senior Division, at the 2020 Mercer Science and Engineering Fair. His winning entry was a design for an original detector of foreign object debris, a hazard for aircraft on runways. Wang was also selected for the Air Force Research Laboratory Award.

After the coronavirus pandemic forced cancellation of the face-to-face competition, usually held at Rider University, Wang had to submit online a poster with details of his invention; he was then interviewed by eight professors about his invention. His first-place award would have qualified him to advance to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in May, but that event was also canceled.

Wang’s project is a track-based detector that can identify and categorize foreign object debris (FOD) on airport runways from different angles automatically. It consists of a base unit, including a movable track; a LIDAR sensor, providing redundancy; and a rotating camera. It is intended to minimize possible FOD incidents, reduce operational costs, and increase operational efficiency.

Wang, who is enrolled in the Applied Science Certificate Program, undertook this independent project in part because of his personal interest in aviation. Susan Wirsig, director of the Applied Science program, helped support Wang’s efforts with use of the makerspace and equipment, and she also helped connect him with industry and academic experts.

Wang earned his pilot license last year and also started the School’s aviation club. Applied Science students make PPE for local hospitals

A team of 35 students first met on April 16 to go over the project plan to create face shields for local medical facilities facing shortages. The interest from the students was incredible! They formed three teams, with team captains for each. Each team determined clear mandates and deadlines. The face shields had two parts: a 3D-printed frame and a clear cellulose acetate shield that attaches to the frame.

Our 3D designers used CAD software to create the frame for the shield. Design considerations included keeping the shield off the face to reduce fogging; providing enough support in the right places to give structure; minimizing material use to reduce print time and cost; and reducing supports needed, which will lower cost and also shorten manufacturing time.

A second team located the material needed for the shield. They had to ensure that the material was safe to use in the School’s laser cutter, that the material could be shipped to them in a reasonable amount of time, and that the cost of the material was budget-friendly.

A manufacturing team system was set up to cut the shields on the laser cutter, and more help was offered from the Pennington community; students used their home 3D printers to make frames. Students coordinated all of this work and then set up a drop-off location on the Pennington campus to collect the completed frames. Phase two of the project involved assembly and delivery of the frames to medical facilities, which included Mercerville Center in Hamilton, NJ.

Lacrosse teams raise funds for HEADstrong Foundation

Thirty-six members of the Pennington School girls’ and boys’ lacrosse teams, plus five coaches, participated in a virtual 5K run on Monday, April 27, to raise money for the HEADstrong Foundation, whose mission is to improve the quality of life for people with cancer. The combined team raised $1,428 and came in nineteenth among the participating teams.

After online meetings with the participating players to discuss logistics, Pennington coaches Wendy Morris and Jason Carter sent the runners off on their individual 5K (3.1-mile) runs. Some students ran on treadmills, but most took outdoor runs, varying from country roads to town and city streets. Some local students ran on the Hopewell Lawrence Trails. All of the runners recorded their mileage with an app on their phones or other tracking device.

It was an opportunity for these lacrosse teams, whose seasons were canceled this year, to end the spring on a positive note. This particular HEADstrong campaign had more than 2,700 participants nationwide, uniting 191 high school and college lacrosse teams in a common cause.