Fulton Science Academy Wins 2015 Dupont Team Enterprise Award

It was a night for the history books as the Fulton Science Academy Private School Science Olympiad Team shattered previous team records at the 31st Annual Science Olympiad Tournament held at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The team had its highest national ranking in team history by placing 20th among the 60 teams competing. The team won the prestigious DuPont Team Enterprise Award for “the best overall performance by a team that had not attended the previous year’s National Tournament.” To quote from the Science Olympiad President Gerard Putz, “The Award recognizes a breakthrough performance by a Science Olympiad team exhibiting the hard work required to not only make it to the national competition, but to succeed at a high level.”

Araneesh Pratap led the team with a school record three National medals. He and Brian Shoffeitt placed 4th in Bio Process Lab and 6th in Simple Machines. His third medal was earned with partner Faith Lucas with a 5th place finish in Fossils. FSA Fossils coach and former FSA parent Ellen Beres has now coached three Fossils teams to National medals. Seventh graders Sophie Richardson and Andre Hamelberg were awarded third place medals for Bottle Rockets, marking a milestone for FSA Building Events coach Mr. Seker, who also coached the Bottle Rockets team to a third place medal in the 2012 National Tournament. Other top 10 finishes included 7th place in Dynamic Planet by Mira Mutnick and Sophie Richardson, 9th place in Crime Busters by Hasan Unal and Sarah Lucas, and 10th place in Science Bowl by Sanjeev Uppaluri.

This was the fifth National Tournament that Fulton Science Academy students attended, but the first since the school turned private in 2012. “We’re thrilled, but not surprised, by our team’s performance,” said head coach Pam Walsh. “Our students put forth tremendous effort to prepare for this tournament. Last year, we narrowly missed qualifying and this year we were more determined than ever. That the DuPont award recognizes this effort makes the experience all the more memorable.”

“Our students get a lot of support from teachers, parents, and community members who serve as event coaches, but in the end, it’s the students who are taking the tests and demonstrating their depth of knowledge,” said Head Coach Gloria Stathos. Students on the 2015 National Team included Araneesh Pratap, Brian Shoffeitt, Faith Lucas, Simon Wang, Hasan Unal, Sarah Lucas, Mira Mutnick, Soleil Moffitt, Elaine Wen, Ananya Terala, Karuna Kumar, Andre Hamelberg, Christina Wang, Sophie Richardson, Akash Bhatt, Avinash Pratap, and Sanjeev Uppaluri.