District Honors Elementary and Middle School Academic Teams

Last month, the South Brunswick School District honored a number of students for distinguishing themselves either for an honor they received, a selection that has been made or some performance that they gave. The Board of Education recognized them for their achievements, as well as the staff who assisted and supported these students. 

Elementary Geography Bee Winners: Bryan Alfaro; Ritik Amin; Rithvik Chekuri; Varun Rajesh; Varun Rajesh; Girish Sankrithi; Saadhana Sridharan; and Vanessa Wish;

Bonnie Capes, Supervisor of  the Elementary Gifted & Talented Program.  G&T teachers: Laura Cervino, Jill Czyzyk, Ailish McGrath.

Middle School National Geography Bee Winners: Each year thousands of schools in the United States participate in the National Geographic Bee using materials prepared by the National Geographic Society. The contest is designed to encourage teachers to include geography in their classrooms, spark student interest in the subject, and increase public awareness about geography. Schools with students in grades four through eight are eligible for this entertaining and challenging test of geographic knowledge.

Crossroads South Winner: grade 7 Delta student Joey Campisano; Crossroads North Winner: grade 8 Zeta student Siddharth Kurella (qualified for state championship; won state championship and represented New Jersey in the national championship in Washington, DC in May).

Jan Gleim M.S. Supervisor; Crossroads South Teacher Coordinator: Kelly Buskey; Crossroads North Teacher Coordinators: Willa Laskowitz, Jack Medina

Middle School National Spelling Bee Representatives 

As the nation's largest and longest-running educational promotion, administered on a not-for-profit basis by The E.W. Scripps Company, the Spelling Bee helps students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies, learn concepts, and develop correct English usage that will help them all their lives. The champion of each local spelling bee sponsor's program qualifies for participation in the Scripps National Spelling Bee near Washington, D.C.

Crossroads North Winner: grade 7 Kappa student Iman Salyani; Crossroads South Winner: grade 7 Beta student Aditya Seshadri (finished in second place at the Tri-County Spelling Bee in March at Middlesex County College).

Jan Gleim M.S. Supervisor; Crossroads North Teacher Coordinator: Mark Riccardi; Crossroads South Teacher Coordinator:  Melyssa Quintana.

The Promising Young Writers program represents NCTE's commitment to early and continuing work in the development of writing.  The school-based writing program was established in 1985 to stimulate and recognize student's writing talents and to emphasize the importance of writing skills among eighth-grade students.  Students currently in the eighth-grade who are nominated by their schools may participate in the program. Each student submitted two pieces of writing, which were read by two judges.

Papers were judged on content, purpose, audience, tone, word choice, organization, development, and style.  Nationwide, only 85 students received certificates of recognition; of the three recognized students from New Jersey, two were from Crossroads North.

Students receiving Certificates of Recognition: grade 8 Crossroads North Zeta students Ananya Nethikunta and Nikita Chaubalan. 

Jan Gleim M.S. Supervisor; Crossroads North Teachers Sara Boscaino, Jennifer Fava.

Middle School Math Counts Team 

This is a national math club that promotes mathematics achievement. Early in September, many Crossroads North and South 6-8 grade students tried out for the club and thirty were selected. The students took part in the nationwide Ultimate Math Challenge and every member of the team scored 90% or higher.  This placed them in a gold-level status. Only five other schools in New Jersey have this same title! This is also a competitive program. At the regional competition in February, our Crossroads competitive team members placed eighth out of 32 schools that competed from Monmouth, Union and Middlesex counties.

Students: Neel Ajjarapu, Michael Bi, Anish Brahmarouthu, Swathi Chandrika, Rayvanth Chappidi, Harrison Chiu, Richa Gidh, Rebecca Golm, Kunal Gupta, Sara Irfan, Julia John, Abhishek Kalita, Shailesh Murali, Uma Narayanan, Sthitadheesh Nelapatla, Ankit Patel, Vraj Patel, Riju Patra, Neehar Peri, Varun Radhakrishnan, Rahul Ramaswamy, Sreyas Ravi, Dhruthi Reddy, Arka Roy, Paulo Serodio, Saket Shah, Shruthi Sureshkrishnan, Ananya Swaminathan, Benjamin Wang, Brian Wang

Jen Diszler M.S. Supervisor; Math Counts Coach Robert Masterton

Middle School Young Einstein Club Team 

Because of the enthusiasm of students and families to compete in the Science Olympiad, this club was established. Over 70 seventh and eighth grade students applied. Through a written science test and lab, the group was narrowed down to 22 – the limit to participate in this competition. The Science Olympiad is an international non-profit organization devoted to improving the quality of science education, increasing student interest in science and providing recognition for outstanding achievement in science education by both students and teachers.

The Olympiad had many different activities. The students made it through regional and onto state level competition where they had to prepare for competition in 25 different events and garnered fifth place in the entire state of New Jersey.

Students: Neel Ajjarapu, Nidhi Desai, Abhishek Kalita, Kapil Kanwar, Purva Khanapure, Dan Kim, Sid Kurella, Lisa Lo, Nazreen Mansoor, Aslesha Parchure, Nikita Patel, Alina Peng, Saagar Shah, Rosa Shi, Atul Srivastava,, Shruthi Sureshkrishnan, Ananya Swaminathan, Rohith Varanasi,  Aditya Venkatesh, Michael Wu, and Suhaas Yerapathi.

Jen Diszler M.S. Supervisor; Club Facilitator Kyle Niemis

Cambridge School Stock Market Team 

Two hundred and twenty five schools from across the state competed. (Elementary, middle school and high school all competing at the same level.) The Cambridge School Stock Market Club, all fourth grade students, garnered first place, second place, fourth place and fifteenth place! While this may sound like a “game,” it promotes economic understanding, financial literacy, and it reinforces mathematically thinking. 

Students: Briana Armenti, Valerie Arsenev, Pattison Boyle, Naman Chauhan, Marco DeSiano, Louis DeToro, Nadia Elieff, Andrew Fan, Gabriella Iordache, Dhivya Iyer, Amanda Kausch, Nivedita Krishnakumar. Ashley Macaluso, Jenna Macksoud,  Sai Maduri, Erin McCoy, Ria Naidu, Christopher Oakes, Cory Petersen, Shreya  Polkampally, Chautham Sambabu, Javier Santiago, Raul Shah, Sanjana Suresh, Sagar Vellalath, Paolo Virtudazo, and Kabir Zama.

Principal Glenn Famous; Club Advisor Mr. Mike Touhey, fourth grade teacher.  

Monmouth Junction Tech Team 

For the last two years, this group of fifth grade students have kept Monmouth Junction technology working extremely well. They assisted in many ways including turning on and preparing equipment before school and filming school events such as talent shows and musicals.  They were also responsible for mentoring the new group of fourth grade students in preparation for taking over as next year’s leaders. Team students: Craig Bruder, Anthony Fama,  Mitchell Fisher, Jessica Gear,y Gracie Grmek, Clayton Romanok, amd Rahul Shah.

Principal Maribeth Edmunds, Ed. D.; Advisor Peter Rattien

The faculty advisors noted their great pleasure working with these talented students and thanked the students for their hard work.

Students were called to the podium and presented with a certificate of recognition from the Board of Education.

Mrs. Deborah Taylor congratulated the students on their recognition and commended them for going above and beyond what they are asked to do.

Dr. McCartney remarked the recognition brings great distinction to this talented group of students and the Board shares in the pride that the student honorees should have for being recognized for doing an outstanding job.  He encouraged the students to continue to work hard to use what they learn in ways to pave success.  Dr. McCartney thanked the amazing staff for their guidance and the very supportive parents, all of whom have helped contribute to the success of South Brunswick students.

--South Brunswick School District