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2008-2009 Academic Boosters archived

[August 4, 2009] All the news, photos, and donor recognition lists from the 2008-2009 school year have been moved to the archives pages as we prepare this website for a brand new year of excitement and success for our academic teams.

Please remember to renew your membership for 2009-2010 and support our academic teams.

2009-2010 Academic Boosters News

Japan Bowl

TJ’s 2010 National Japan Bowl Team has been selected.  They are: 
Level 2: Bobby Ends, Albert Gural, Kristy Shin

Level 3: Daniel Kang, Annie Lin, Serena Lei

Level 4: Jungeun Choi, Connie Xie, Jason Ya 
The members are meeting on Wednesday and Friday to polish the skills and gain knowledge in language and culture.  It's great to see them work together as a team.  Also upper classmen are guiding the others to achieve higher goals together.  Coach Otani is impressed by the team work spirit they are building together this year.  It is certain that they will bring back some trophies this time!

Lincoln-Douglas Debate Team News

The Lincoln-Douglas Debate team had many successes at WACFL 3, the third local tournament of the debate season.  The topic of debate was "Public health concerns justify compulsory immunizations."  Each debater had a total of four rounds during the day--two affirming the resolution and two negating the resolution.  In Varsity: Ashneil Jain was undefeated and placed fifth.  Ashneil had previously qualified for Metro Finals, the regional tournament in March that will allow winners to compete in the national tournament.  Janiel Li was an additional qualifier for Metro Finals.  In Junior Varsity, TJ held the top three places--Nancy Ding in first place (Nancy was also the first-place JV speaker), Dhruv Bansal in second place, and Zophie Quan in third place.  All three of the debaters were undefeated and qualified for Metro Finals at the Junior Varsity level. Aakansha Nangarlia also did particularly well, placing seventh.  In novice, Shohini Ghosh was undefeated and placed fourth.  Alan Wei placed fifth and was the second-place novice speaker. Kathleen Atkatsh also came in seventh place.  Congratulations to everyone!

Certamen (Latin Team) News

87 students from TJ attended the Virginia Junior Classical League Convention in Richmond, VA on Nov. 22 and 23.  TJ Senior, Christopher Kilgore, led the entire convention (over 1800 students) as the President of the VJCL.  Christopher is the first student from TJ to ever serve as President of the VJCL.  Amith Ananthram, Senior, serves as the VJCL Editor. 


Students competed in academic, graphic and creative arts contests.  TJ students won several awards in all categories.  In addition, TJ upheld its first place victory in the Spirit Contest by once again capturing the title!  Much credit goes to the cheer captains (Andrew Runge, Zach Seid, Ashwin Raja) and our t-shirt designer, senior, Priya Patel. 


Best in Show: Students who earned the highest score on exam at the convention:  

 

Sweepstakes: Students who earn the most points for performing well in a variety of categories: academics, graphic arts, and creative arts. 

 

Highlights: 

 

Public Forum Tournament News

This December, Public Forum Debate went to two tournaments-a national tournament at GMU and the local WACFL 3. At GMU (Friday, December 4 to Sunday, December 6), the varsity team of Rebecca Friedman and Emily Yu placed second in the Round Robin, and the varsity teams of Rebecca Friedman, Emily Yu and Kevin Sun, Kittie Helmick both broke to double-octofinals. At WACFL 3 (Saturday, December 12), the varsity team of Kevin Sun and Kittie Helmick placed fourth in varsity. 

Computer Team News

The Intermediate Computer Team is a new team this year with 20 members.  We have completed our first contest and scored a 47 out of possible 50.  The team is comprised of sophomores, yet is competing at the Senior Level in the ACSL (American Computer Science League) Competitions.  The students are enjoying this new level of competition to help better prepare them for the Senior Computer Team which competes in the USACO (USA Computer Olympiad). 

Science Olympiad

TJ’s Science Olympiad Team is new this year, and will be attending its first competition--Regionals--on either Feb. 27, 2009 at Fairfax High School or Mar. 13, 2009 at George Washington University Mt. Vernon. Campus. 

Policy Debate Team News

Congrats! TJ policy had a really successful WACFL III tournament - in varsity, Andre Kessler and Hannah Clark’s team placed second.   Andre and Hanna placed 2nd and 1st Speaker Awards, respectively.  Additionally, the team of Johnny Kim and Max Wang won 1st place!  
 

TJ Model UN at the William and Mary High School Model United Nations Conference

TJHSST Model UN Delegation claimed the Secretary General's Award for Best Large School Delegation at the William and Mary High School Model United Nations Conference (WMHSMUN) on November 20, 21, and 22. TJ Delegates won Best Delegate Awards in 12 out of the 20 committees they participated in! Congratulations to all the Delegates!

Math Team at the Princeton University Competition

On November 21, TJ’s Math Team competed at the Princeton University Math Competition.  Due to an error in the score room, it was announced that TJ’s A Team came in 6th at the competition.  After a review of the scores, the A team officially placed 2nd in the A Division.  Brian Hamrick won 1st place in Combinatorics and Number Theory, with perfect scores in both of these subject tests.  Brian also won 1st place overall.  The A team was: Brian Hamrick, Akshar Wunnava, Sam Rush, Renjie You, Adam Hood, Sin Kim, Seungin Sohn, and Yuqing Zhang.  The B-team of Allison Koenecke, Lawrence Diao, Grace Wang, Jenny Yung, Greyson Lewis, Divya Garg, Mitchell Lee, and Billy Rieger competed in the A Division. C

ompeting in the B Division, TJ’s C team came in 2nd place.  The C team was: Jack Chen, Aviv Cukierman, Lenny Li, Ani Mohan, Luke Cheng, Hong Zhou, Krishnan Chander, and Andre Kessler.  Several of TJ C members placed in their subject tests.  Unfortunately, the PUMAC site is down at this time and results are not currently available.  Check Academic Booster website for updates result information.   

Botball Club provides volunteers for the First Lego League (FLL) Robotics tournament

The Botball Robotics club provided a dozen volunteers, mostly as judges and set-up crew, as part of hosting a First Lego League (FLL) Robotics tournament on Sunday, November 15. FLL runs a nation-wide robotics competition for students in elementary and middle school.

TJ Quizbowl team at the VCU Fall Tournament II

At the VCU Fall Tournament II, the TJ Quizbowl team finished strong with Team A in 3rd and Team B in 4th. Individuals scored high with Stephen Eltinge in 5th and Diana Gerr in 6th.

The Japan Bowl Club to participate at the National Japan Bowl competition

The Japan Bowl Club will be participating the National Japan Bowl competition again this year (April 8-9, 2010). This year's competitors are the following students: Level 2 team: Bobby Ends, Albert Gural, Kristy Shin, Level 3 team: Daniel Kang, Annie Lin, Serena Lei,Level 4 team: Jungeun Choi, Connie Xie, Jason Ya. Good luck to all members!

Public Forum Debate Team at WACFL 2

The Public Forum Debate Team competed at WACFL 2, held at King George HS on November 14. On Junior Varsity, Seoup Youn and Tiffany Dong placed 3rd with a record of 4-0. Snigdha Kumar and Mashal Wakilpoor had a record of 3-1, making them fully qualified for Metrofinals. On Varsity, Emily Yu and Rebecca Friedman placed 6th with a record of 3-1.

Jefferson's Forensics Team at the 2nd Northern Virginia Forensics League Competition

Jefferson's Forensics Team did very well at the 2nd Northern Virginia Forensics League Competition. Rebecca Friedman placed second in Extemporaneous Speaking, Rachel Kim placed second in Prose, Emily Ji placed third in Humorous Interpretation, Laif Bakke placed third in Original Oratory, Kyle Angelotti placed fourth in Extemporaneous Speaking, and Colin Jones and Noah Yoo placed 5th in Duo Interpretation.

Lincoln Douglas Debate team at WACFL 2

On November 14, WACFL 2, our second local tournament this year, was a success for TJ’s Lincoln Douglas Debate Team! At the Varsity level, Ashneil Jain and Christine O'Donnell qualified for the Metrofinals tournament in March. At the JV level, we had three qualifiers for the Metrofinals tournament: Omeed Maghzian (2nd place, 4-0 undefeated record), Tushar Kamath (3rd place, 4-0 undefeated record), and Mark Lee (4th place). We also had a novice debater, Dhruv Bansal, who was undefeated at the novice level and placed 2nd.

TJ Model UN delegates at the Fairfax Area Invitational Model United Nations Conference (FAIMUN)

TJHSST Model UN Delegation claimed the Secretary General's Award for Best Large School Delegation at Fairfax Area Invitational Model United Nations Conference (FAIMUN) on October 30th and 31st. TJ Delegates won Best Delegate Awards in 8 out of the 9 committees they participated in! Congratulations to all the Delegates!

Best Delegate Awards presented to Andrew Barlow, Sid Bhatia, Mike Crumplar, Collin Jones, Aman Kansal, Namita Kansal, Kate Kingsbury, Swetha Pasala, Avi Sachs, Serena Saffarini, Anirudh Saraswathula, Vish Sridharan, Dennis Wang, and Shiying Yang.

Outstanding Delegates were Sanjeet Das, Ashu Goel, Suhas Gondi, Zach Hasseinipour, Salini Hota, Xiaonan Hu, Ankit Kapoor, Anna Lan, Hannah Lan, Christine Lee, Steve Qian, Kishore Rao, and Anurag Shyamala.

Honorable Delegates were Omar Ahmed, Brendan Kim, Tim Song, and Jacob Zucker.

Verbal Commendations went to Naveed Mostaghimi, Lee Sang Burm, Kevin Cao, Ashley Hwang, Richie Hernandez, Salil Gupta, Carson Hotard, Nathan LaPierre, Nathan Thillairajah, Matt Ferrell, Pranava Raparla, Nishant Garg, Varun Kumar, Nimesh Chakravarthi, Apoorva Lonkar, Divya Madhusudhan, Nand Kishore, Neeraj Gandhi, Yash Bhatnagar, Jake Skankman, Ryan Pillai, Wills Lucht, Jen Park, Bryan Cheong, Deanna Zhu, and Dan Wang.

Math Team at Duke University

The Varsity Math Team traveled to Duke University on Halloween for their annual Math Meet. Our teams were very successful, placing 2nd, 3rd, 12th, and 15th out of 49 teams! Team A (Brian Hamrick, Jimmy Clark, Akshar Wunnava, Yuqing Zhang, Adam Hood, and Renjie You) was 2nd. Team B (Sin Kim, Mitchell Lee, Allison Koenecke, Ming-Yee Tsang, Sam Rush, and Billy Rieger) was 3rd. Team D (Luke Cheng, Lenny Li, Krishnan Chander, Aviv Cukierman, and Allen Shi), competing down a member, edged out the C team, placing in a 3 way tie for 12th. And Team C (Jenny Yung, Grace Wang, Divya Garg, Andrew Cheong, Jack Chen, and Aryan Khojandi)was behind them by just half a point, placing 15th. In the Individual Competition, Mitchell Lee, Brian Hamrick and Jimmy Clark were part of a multi-way tie for 3rd place while Adam Hood, Yuqing Zhang, and Sin Kim tied for 4th place. The team travels next to Princeton University on November 20.

Policy Debate Team at WACFL 1 Tournament

On October 31st, the Policy Debate team competed at its first WACFL tournament of the year, which was held in Hayfield Secondary School. In Varsity, Hannah Clark & Andre Kessler placed 1st, Johnny Kim & Max Wang placed 2nd, and Akshay Deverakonda & Abigail Xu placed 5th. In addition, Hannah Clark won the 2nd place Speaker award. In Junior Varsity, John Chae & Jared Golant placed 3rd, and Eric Kim & Samuel Luo placed 5th.

Public Forum Debate Team at WACFL 1

At the first WACFL tournament of the school year, Public Forum Debate Team members participated in both the varsity and junior varsity divisions. In the varsity division, Emily Yu and Rebecca Friedman placed 4th with a 3-1 record. In the JV division, Alvina Jiao and Eugenie Quan placed 3rd with a 4-0 record.

Quizbowl Team at University of Mayland

The TJ Quiz Bowl team did outstandingly at the University of Maryland’s Fall Tournament on September 26, 2009 with the A team finishing third out of 24 participating teams. The A team, consisting of Stephen Eltinge (captain), Olivia Murton, Siddharth Hariharan and Diana Gerr, achieved a 10-2 record at the tournament. B team, which consisted of Peter Town (captain), James Bradbury, and Ananth Sridhar, achieved a 6-5 record. Individuals placed high are James Bradbury placing 7th, Stephen Eltinge placing 9th, and Diana Gerr placing 12th. TJ also successfully hosted its very own tournament, the Thomas Jefferson Invitational Academic Tournament on October 17, 2009.

Lincoln Douglas Debate at the Wakeforest National Earlybird Tournament

At the Wakeforest National Earlybird Tournament, all four of TJ’s competitors made it to elimination rounds--something we've never managed before. Betty Huang and Omeed Maghzian competed in the JV octafinal round; Ashneil Jain competed in the varsity double octafinals; and Akaash Gupta made it to the quarterfinals. Then at the WACFL 1 tournament, at the Varsity level, we had three qualifiers who will go on to compete in the Metrofinals tournament in March: Akaash Gupta, Betty Huang, and Daniel Sun. At the JV level, Karishma Popli was the seventh seed speaker.

Forensics Team Update

The Forensics Team competed at Battlefield High School in Haymarket on October 14th. In Extemporaneous speaking, Rebecca Friedman took third place and Kyle Angelotti took fourth place. Leif Bakke and Arvin Ahmadi tied for first place in Original Oratory. Hillary Liu took First Place in Declamation.

Model UN at George Mason High School COnference

TJHSST Model UN Delegation claimed the Secretary General's Award for Best Large School Delegation at George Mason High School (GMHSMUN 2009) Conference on October 17th.
TJ Delegates won Best Delegate Awards in 7 out of the 10 committees they participated in! Congratulations to all the Delegates! Best Delegate Awards were presented to Andrew Barlow, Mike Crumplar, Brendan Kim, Swetha Pasala, John Pulice, Serena Saffarini, Anirudh Saraswathula, Dan Wang, Deanna Zhu, and Jacob Zucker. Outstanding Delegates were Collin Jones, Miller Ke, Arda Menzilcioglu, Neal Milstein, Steve Qian, Kishore Rao, Avi Sachs, Mohima Sanyal, and Dennis Wang. Honorable Delegates were John Han, Ashneil Jain, Mayank Jain, Hannah Lan, Kevin Lim, William Lucht, Matt Lycas, Shreyas Mahapatra, Andy Mai, Jason Miller, Adam Mounts, Ryan Pillai, Pranava Raparla, Sid Sethi, Shiram Sundararamah, and Anurag Shyamala. Verbal Commendations were awarded to Chantelle Ekanem, Ashu Goel, Wills Johnston, Kamna Kathuria, Michael Nguyen, Richard Nguyen, Allen Shi, and Shiying Yang.

Quizbowl Team Qualifies for Nationals

The TJ Quizbowl team went to the "Rumble on the Pike" tournament held at Richard Montgomery High School on Saturday, September 12th. Team A, consisting of Stephen Eltinge (captain), Diana Gerr, Olivia Murton, and Seoup Youn, finished third overall in a field of sixteen teams. Team B, Greyson Lewis (captain), Siddharth Hariharan, James Bradbury, and Graham Lobel finished eighth overall. Stephen Eltinge ranked sixth overall in individual scoring out of more than sixty competitors. By finishing in the top three, the A team qualified for the High School National Championship Tournament (HSNCT) held annually in Chicago.

Public Forum, Lincoln Douglas & Policy Debate Teams “Break” at Wake Forest

At the 2009 Wake Forest National Earlybird Tournament in September, TJ sent students from its Public Forum, Lincoln Douglas and Policy Debate teams. TJ’s Public Forum team Rebecca Friedman and Emily Yu won four of six rounds, breaking to semifinals. TJ’s Lincoln Douglas team sent two students at the Varsity Level, and two at the JV level. In Varsity, Akaash Gupta broke to quarterfinals, winning five of his six rounds, and Ashneil Jain broke to double octofinals, winning three of his six rounds. In Junior Varsity, Omeed Maghzian and Betty Huang both broke to octofinals by winning three of six rounds. Policy Debate sent three teams to compete at the Varsity level, and Hannah Clark and Andre Kessler broke to double octofinals, winning four of their six rounds.

Botball Team Update

On July 4th and 5th, two TJ robotics teams competed with 61 other teams in the 2009 International Botball Tournament. One TJ team placed among the top 8 teams, with 5 wins and 2 losses. The other TJ team won 2 and lost 2. Team members included Caelen Garret, Jonathan Corzo, Lio Kang, Mark Kang, Jimmy Clark, Megan Clark, David Ensey, Joel Heck, Mac Stevens, Eric Kolker, Jeremy Vercillo, David Mazzocco, and Jake Hermle. In addition, Liam Carter-Condon, Lawrence Diao, Benjin Dubishar, Samraat Goel, Steven Howard, George Li, Chris McPherson and Ashley Miller, competed as members of the Dead Robots, a multi-school team. The Dead Robots also were finalists, and won the Judge’s Choice award for “Best Engineering.”

Certamen News

TJ Certamen spent the summer preparing for and competing at the National Junior Classical League Convention held at UC Davis in July. While all TJ participants at the convention performed well on tests, creative arts, and graphic arts, special recognition is due to the individuals who participated in the national certamen. In the Intermediate level, Daniel Kim and Frederick Short, with alternates Zachary Seid and Akhila Ananthram, placed second. In the Upper Level, Anne Marie Creighton, with alternates Christopher Kilgore and Amith Ananthram, placed third.

Math, Science, and Linguistics Olympiad News

This summer, Vivaek Shivakumar represented the United States in the 7th International Olympiad in Linguistics, and received an Honorable Mention. Brian Hamrick represented the United States in two computer science Olympiads. In the Central European Olympiad in Informatics, he placed 8th and earned a silver medal. In the 21st International Olympiad in Informatics, he placed 15th and earned a gold medal.

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