P-VILLE Is First at Regional Science Olympiad

Two Pleasantville Middle School teams entered the Lower Hudson Regional Science Olympiad competition and delivered outstanding results: a first place trophy and nineteen medals overall. In addition, for the third time in only its fourth year of existence, the school’s Science Olympiad program will send a team to the New York State Finals in Syracuse, on April 8 and 9. Named “Best New Team” at the 2012-13 Regional Competition, Pleasantville qualified for the New York State Finals in 2013-14 (“Best Small School” and 15th place) and in 2014-15 (8th place).

The students selected P-VILLE for the name on their t-shirts – Powerful Village of Intelligent Listening Learning Enthusiasts – and lived up to it with their performance at the competition, earning seven 1st place, two 2nd place, three 3rd place, three 4th place, and four 5th place medals.

Twenty-nine teams representing nineteen Lower Hudson area school districts (there are fifteen members maximum per team) competed in the regional competition held at Scarsdale Middle School on February 27. Pleasantville’s first place team outperformed teams from Scarsdale, Ardsley, Mt. Pleasant, Bronxville, Byram Hills, and other districts, medaling in thirteen of the twenty science and engineering events.

P-VILLE team members are Riik Acharya, Grant Becker, James Blasdell, Wes Coleman, Ian Cotter, Ella Furniss, Michael Gordon, Benjamin Hahn, Katerina Gusarova, Kyle Largey, Abigail Lee, Lucas Lee, Nevan Lewis, Aidan Lynch, Leif Martens-Wallace, Aiden Matano, Coby Nunberg, Georgia Peters, Ava Portmore, Peter Pueyo, Abhaya Ravikumar, Jordan Rosen, Maya Sauthoff, Ethan Spanierman, Anushka Sundar, Anu Subramanya, and Nicholas Vines.

Pleasantville Middle School’s Science Olympiad program is an activity offered by Extended Learning/Curriculum Coordinator Melissa Brown and coordinated by volunteers Drs. Martha and Chuck Matteo, who sparked the creation of the program. Volunteers from the community, who serve as coaches in their areas of expertise, are Libby Brennesholtz, Jim Coleman, Ben Cornelius, Noel Furniss, Bob Hughes, Chester Lee, Dr. James Lewis, Nancy Maika, Helen Meurer, Shideh Mofidi, Doug Portmore, Dr. Ravikumar Ramachandran, Dr. Usha Sankar, Sundar Natarajan, and Allen Wallace. Ninth-graders Akimoto Cornelius, Julia Goodman, and Chloe Peters also volunteer as coaches – having participated in the program as middle schoolers – and this school year helped create a Science Olympiad program at Pleasantville High School.

ood�w`���