Austin ISD and the Board of Trustees recognize and applaud the outstanding achievements of AISD students. Tonight, student successes were recognized at a regular meeting of the Board of Trustees. These recognitions cover a wide variety of skills and awards, and showcase some of the wonderful accomplishments students in the district have made.
Do the Write Thing
The board recognized Small Middle School student Emma Cuminato and Gorzycki Middle School student James Aiken. As part of the Do the Write Thing essay competition, they were selected to represent the region at the National Stop the Violence Campaign Conference in Washington, D.C., July 11-16.
Do the Write Thing is an essay competition initiated in 1996 by the National Campaign to Stop Violence. The purpose of the competition is to give seventh and eighth grade students the opportunity to evaluate and examine the impact of youth violence in their lives or the lives of others.
2015 Middle School Black Ice Drill Team Nationals
The board recognized the Bedichek Junior Marine Corps for winning the 2015 Middle School Black Ice Drill Team Nationals. The Bedichek Junior Marines program is open to students in the sixth- through eighth-grades. Designed to develop leadership skills, build character and foster self-discipline, it is the only middle school corps program in AISD.
At the Middle School Black Ice Drill Team Nationals in Fort Worth, the Bedichek Junior Marines earned the following awards:
1st Place Armed Platoon Regulation
1st Place Armed Platoon Exhibition
1st Place Armed Color Guard Inspection
1st Place Armed Color Guard Performance
1st Place Overall Armed Drill Platoon
1st Place Armed Platoon Exhibition
1st Place Armed Color Guard Inspection
1st Place Armed Color Guard Performance
1st Place Overall Armed Drill Platoon
National High School Drill Team Championships
The National High School Drill Team Championships take place every year in Daytona Beach, Florida. This all-service competition brings together many of the nation's finest performance military drill units from throughout the U.S.
In this competition, the Bedichek Junior Marines placed in two of the six events:
2nd Place in MIXED Armed Squad Exhibition
3rd Place in MIXED Armed Platoon Exhibition
2nd Place in MIXED Armed Squad Exhibition
3rd Place in MIXED Armed Platoon Exhibition
The students areKaren Baranda, Abraham Castano, Antonio Castro, Mya Cruz, Alex Ditullio, Ryan Hernandez, Patty Hipolito, Ezekiel Martinez, Emanuel Mendez, Karina Perez, Steven Rodriguez, Elijah Vasquez, Briana De Leon, Carlos Garcia, Krishonna Jones, Lonna Payne, Nathaniel Pena and Mark Soto.
Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
AISD Board of Trustees recognized and congratulated LASA Students for their places in the Intel International Science Fair.
Each year, nearly 1,700 winners of local, regional, state and national competitions are invited to participate in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, a program of Society for Science & the Public. LASA studentsSai Sameer Pusapaty, Simantini Mitra-Behura and Lily Xu moved on to the international project for their projects.
LASA Science Olympiad
AISD Board of Trustees recognized and congratulated LASA Science Olympiad Team for their third-place finish in Lincoln, Nebraska, at the National Tournament.
Started in 1974, Science Olympiad is a team competition in which students compete in 23 events over the course of one day. Events range from anthropology to engineering. To be successful in Sci O, students must spend long hours studying their topic specialty, building their device and practicing to work as a team. This year thousands of teams across the country competed to see which would be allowed to compete at nationals. This year LASA's Sci O team was one of two selected to represent Texas. At the national tournament, the LASA A team finished third in the country, the highest of any Texas team in Sci O history.
The LASA Science Olympiad National Team wasLily Xu, Evan Tey, Neil Patil, Blake Karwoski,Akshara Anand, Rebekah Albach, Ben Zern, Dhruv Puri, Elena Arnold, Sam Gunn, Justin Kang, Nha Nguyen, Shubhanga Ballal, Varun Sudunagunta, Zennie Wey
Nathan Le, Anna Savelyeva, Isaree Pitaktong, Sam Grayson, Alec Schultz, William Liuand Shinjini Ray.
National Level Business Skills Competition
The Board of Trustees recognized Bertha Sadler Means Young Women's Leadership Academy students Sophia Vasquez, April Hernandez, Lesley Rodriguez and May Tun for competing in the National Level Business Skills Competition.
Business Professionals of America is a national organization for high school, college, and middle school students preparing for careers in business and information technology. The organization's activities and programs complement classroom instruction by giving students practical experience through application of the skills learned at school. BPA is contributing to the preparation of a world-class workforce through the advancement of leadership, citizenship, academic and technological skills.
BPA is assisted in this endeavor with financial support from corporations and companies including American Institute of CPAs, Certiport and Next Step Academy, who sponsor BPA's National Leadership Conference, and member career building programs and scholarships.
Quiz Bowl
The LASA and Kealing Quiz Bowl teams were recognized for their outstanding performance in national championships.
The LASA Quiz Bowl A team finished second at the 2015 High School National Championship Tournament. The LASA A team is comprised of Alex Denko, Forrest Hammel, Ethan Russo and Corin Wagen. Quiz Bowl is a four-person team competition where students compete head-to-head to answer questions big and small from multiple academic and cultural categories such as history, science, fine arts, literature, sports, current events and pop culture.
Kealing Middle School's A team won the middle school national championship. Daniel Chan, Evan Hochstein, Ryan Russo and Anna Tutuianu make up the team.
###