THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT ? SD THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEY DID WHAT?THEY DID WHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDID DID WH AT? YOU KNOW? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEY DID WHAT?THEY DID WHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEY THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDID WHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDDID WHAT? WHAT THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDID WHAT? ?HAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDW THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? THEYDIDWHAT?THEYDIDWHAT? Amin Named Semifinalist USCHS senior Amna Amin was named a 2017 Coca-Cola Scholar semifinalist. Amna is one of 77 students in Pennsylvania and 1914 from across the country selected from nearly 86,000 applicants. The CocaCola Scholars program recognizes high school seniors who demonstrate academic and civic excellence in their schools and communities.
Chen Named AMIA High School Scholar USCHS junior Kevin Chen was recently selected as an American Medical Informatics Association 2016 High School Scholar, which earned him the opportunity to attend the AMIA 2016 Symposium this past November in Chicago. In early September, Kevin submitted his research paper, “A Comparison of Methods for Identifying Direct Casual Influences,” to the High School Scholars competition. His research evaluated Bayesian network-based causal learning algorithms on biomedical datasets. Kevin’s submission was admitted for a poster presentation at the AMIA 2016 Symposium. Each submission was reviewed by two members of the High School Scholars Program review committee on a variety of criteria, including importance to the field, scholarship, methodological contribution, and overall organization of the presentation. Kevin Chen
Amna Amin
Author Visits Via Videoconference This past fall, nearly 50 USCHS ninth graders—along with several other area high schools—recently talked with Marja Mills, author of The Mockingbird Next Door: Life with Harper Lee via video conference sponsored by the Fox Chapel Area High School library. Marja spoke with students about her experiences getting to know Harper Lee, the reclusive author of To Kill a Mockingbird. Marja was a reporter at the Chicago Times when she was sent to Monroeville, Alabama, in the hopes of landing an interview with Harper Lee. She not only interviewed Lee, but also wrote a book about her time with Lee and Lee’s sister, Alice.
Cover of the 2016 Montage
Montage Earns Eighth First Place Award USCHS’s literary arts magazine, Montage, earned a firstplace award in the 2016 Scholastic Yearbook and Magazine awards for the eighth consecutive year. The 2016 Montage was published through the work of several student leaders: Mahima Reddy, editor-in-chief 2016 and 2017; Devon Garcia, assistant editor-in-chief; Grace Eden, art editor; Alexa Rieger, literary editor; Aditi Chattopadhyay, treasurer; and Chris Abraham, public relations editor. English teacher Daniela Buccilli serves as adviser for the publication. Sponsored by the American Scholastic Press Association, the annual contest provides feedback on various publication elements. Each school yearbook and magazine is scored on a point system and is awarded a first, second, or third place in its classification.
National Merit Semifinalists and Commended Students This past fall, 12 USCHS seniors were named semifinalists in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program. Scoring in the top one percent of all juniors completing the PSAT in October 2015 were Paul Abrams, Amna Amin, Tyler Besselman, Aditi Chattopadhyay, Devon Garcia, Macey Kaplan, Arushi Kewalramani, Tanmayee Mahajan, Malcolm Miller, Murphy Miller, Vicki Wang, and Claire Zalla. In addition, 13 USCHS senior were recognized as commended students: Thomas Bednarz, Michael Besser, Amatheon Bohan, Michael Camburn, Mackenzie Damon, Raahema Durrani, Aaron Fultineer, Abigail Happ, Philip Hoffman, Shayan Jalali, Yash Lahoti, Allie Ryave, and Yang Zhang. Founded in 1955, the National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships. Students enter the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the PSAT—the National Merit Scholarship qualifying test—during the fall of their junior year.
Marja Mills presents to USCHS students.
For more information regarding the National Merit Scholarship Program, visit: www.nationalmerit.org.
USC Seniors Published in Anthology Two USCHS seniors are published authors. Mahima Reddy’s piece, “Dear Thotappa,” and Claire Zalla’s, “Polonius Laboratories,” are among the student writings published in the 2016 Ralph Munn Creative Writing Anthology, which is distributed to all Allegheny County public and school libraries, and funded by an endowment from former Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh director Ralph Munn. Mahima won second place in the short prose category. The contest includes categories for poetry, short prose, and screenwriting.
Left to right: Mahima Reddy, Claire Zalla Spring 2017
UPPER ST. CLAIR TODAY
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