Ossining Students Shine in Regional Science Competition

Twelve Ossining High School students who participated in the Westchester Rockland Subregional Junior Science and Humanities Symposium Feb. 8 will advance to the state competition next month.

This will be the 18th consecutive year that Ossining will have the most finalists at the Upstate New York State Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. The state competition takes place March 25-26 in Albany.

More than 500 students from the region presented original scientific research papers at the symposium, which took place at John Jay High School in Cross River.

Six OHS students are state speaker finalists. They are Hammad Hassad, Alex Hoffman, Michelle Lin, Raymond Liu, Caroline Reid and Pujita Sunder. Hammad, Michelle, Caroline and Pujita were first-place winners. Raymond and Alex earned second-place awards.

The finalists are competing for spots in the 58th National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in April. The U.S. Army, Navy and Air Force sponsor the JSHS to encourage original research and experimentation in science, technology, engineering and math at the high school level. The regional and national competitions reach more than 8,000 high school students and teachers.

Six other students who received third-place awards in the Westchester Rockland Symposium will compete in the poster category in Albany. They are Colleen Schmid, Nikita Subramanian, Vikesh Subramanian, Justine Valentino, Tej Verma and Fanny Zhang.

“Congratulations to all the Ossining High School Science Research Program students,” said Angelo Piccirillo, who co-teaches the program with Valerie Holmes.

The teachers also thanked all the Ossining faculty, staff and administration members for supporting the outstanding students.