April 2014 - Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
Tech cetera
http://www.tjhsst.edu/supportingtj/ptsa/newsletter.htm
Hot links to the information for which you are looking…
Principal’s Letter
President’s Letter
Letter from Student Services
I nfo from Other TJ Offices
R enovation I nform ation
PTSA Update
Serving the TJ Com m unity
Academ ic New s
Class New s
New s R ound-up and Aw ards
Cam paign for TJ
TJ Boosters
Useful Link s
Notew orthy Dates
April
2014
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Principal’s Letter
Dear parents/guardians, teachers, and
students,
Welcome to Spring! I am glad our
wintry weather is behind us, allowing us
opportunities to keep school open five
days a week to advance student
learning. Due to the snow day
cancellations, April 7 is now a make-up
school day and will run as a telelearn
anchor schedule where students obtain
learning experiences remotely through
Blackboard.
Earlier this semester, our school
underwent Mental Wellness Week,
coordinated by our school psychologist,
social worker, and Active Minds student
club. Students participated in daily
activities to reflect on their wellness,
including healthy lifestyle choices
related to diet, sleep, exercise, and acts
of kindness. In addition, we also took
approaches to inform students that it is
common to experience some symptoms
of depression in one’s life. We’d rather
students seek help by talking with caring
friends and adults about depression
rather than bottle it up. Ideally, every
student would have at least one trusted
adult in their life that they could turn to
TJHSST Techcetera
for help. One in four adults experience
depression, and according to school
survey data, 20% of TJHSST students
report feelings of prolonged sadness
over the past year (30% in FCPS). The
data results have been consistent over
the past three years. Students seem
comfortable to express their thoughts
about stress; however we need them
also to open up about depression since
mental wellness impacts many facets of
their lives. You can help us in our
efforts by sharing your experiences with
depression so students realize it’s not a
stigma and can be addressed and
resolved like other illnesses.
Each year, we have invited speakers to
share their experience related to suicide
(attempted or loss of a family member),
since some students contemplate and
attempt it. The speakers often reflect on
the impact on the family and friends, the
responsibility to respond to critical signs,
and the resources available to help
students in need. This winter, there
were several untimely student deaths in
FCPS, so we are even more mindful
about how important it is to report any
concerning signs to our school
counselors. Our student services
department conducts annual depression
screenings to educate students and
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evaluate student wellness so they can
provide further support where it is
needed. It is very important that parents
are aware of the names of close friends
and adults their child trusts, as well as
having an awareness of their social
media outlets. Those are the individuals
who are likely to hear someone talking
or writing about death, threatening to
hurt themselves, and/or looking for ways
to access pills, weapons, or other lethal
means. A student facing a life
threatening situation may wish to
confide critical information to a close
friend/adult, and the response should
not be to keep it a secret, but instead
seek immediate help by telling a trusted
adult, alerting a medical/mental health
practitioner, calling 911 if needed, and
alerting school counseling staff so they
can assist in an emergency. Families
and students can also call Crisis Link
(703-527-4077) 24 hours a day for
confidential advice.
I have had many conversations with
students, staff, and parents about
mental wellness at TJ. Some people
believe the intense academic
environment may be an incubator to
depression. The data do not show a
correlation, however we cannot dismiss
that depression is a common experience
April 2014
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among high school students that needs
to be addressed. We have made some
efforts to educate our student body
about depression and suicide, and I am
open to additional strategies you have
found useful at home or in the
community. Don’t hesitate to contact
me at Evan.Glazer at fcps.edu to share
additional ideas for the benefit of helping
our students and families.
Useful Links
TJHSST Home Page:
http://www.tjhsst.edu
TJ PTSA website:
www.tjhsst.edu/supportingtj/ptsa
TJ Booster Organizations:
Academic Boosters:
http://academics.tjhsst.edu/aboosters/
Athletic Boosters:
Sincerely,
Evan Glazer
Principal, TJHSST
www.colonialathletics.org
Band Boosters:
www.tjbands.org
Choral Boosters:
http://www.tjhsst.edu/curriculum/fa/choir
Crew Boosters:
www.tjcrew.org/
Orchestra Boosters:
Did you get your FREE TJ
Directory?
http://arts.tjhsst.edu/orchestra/
Theatre Boosters:
This year a Student Directory is free with the
purchase of a $25 PTSA membership! If you
have not received your directory yet, please
have your student pick it up from the Front
Office in the Aud Lob. Not sure if you have
joined the PTSA? Contact Membership
Chair Paula Matthews. It is never to late to
join! Show your support for This Week at TJ
by JOINING NOW.
http://www.tjhsst.edu/parentscommunity/boosters/theatreboosters/
TJ Partnership Fund:
http://www.tjpartnershipfund.org
TJ Alumni Association:
http://www.tjhsstalumni.org
Other:
FCPS Blackboard:
http://fcps.blackboard.com
FCPS Keep in Touch (KIT):
http://www.fcps.edu/kit
FCPS School Board:
www.fcps.edu/schlbd
Fairfax County Supervisors:
www.fairfaxcounty.gov/government/board
TJHSST Techcetera
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April 2014
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President’s Letter
Dear Parents, Teachers and Students,
Looks like spring has sprung at long
last. Notwithstanding the snow and
delays, the PTSA Hospitality Committee
put together a splendid teacher
appreciation lunch that included Peking
duck, bulgogi, samosas, Mexican
lasagna, fried tofu, fried chicken, pork
tenderloin, sandwiches, salads, sushi
and homemade desserts. What a
multicultural feast! I was particularly
touched that parents with limited English
were willing to share their native food to
express their appreciation to our
teachers in such an effective way.
Thank you so much to all our
volunteers! If anyone is interested in
chairing this committee next year,
please contact the PTSA volunteer
chairs.
Pi night at the Mosaic was a huge
success. The PTSA raised $500 and TJ
students raised hundreds of dollars for
charity. Performers included Namaste,
TJ Show Choir, TJ Guitar Club and a
beautiful duet by Fox Wilson and Anya
Owsenek on the outdoor piano and
TJHSST Techcetera
violin.
Congratulations if you have a younger
child who was admitted to TJ. Please
remember that you must register your
younger child in the PTSA database or
he/she will not be included in the TJ
directory. Last fall, we were missing
over 100 freshmen and we are
determined not to miss anyone this
year.
In addition, we have several parents
who have paid for a TJ directory but
have not yet picked it up. If you want
yours, please ask your child to pick one
up at the front desk in the aud lob. We
have a list of purchasers there. Any
directories not picked up by April 9 will
be sold to incoming freshmen.
Do you enjoy the Tech cetera? Now that
the PTSA sends weekly This Week at
TJ emails, does the community still want
or need a monthly newsletter as well?
Please complete this short survey to
give us some feedback.
Next year, it looks like FCPS will again
face some tight economic times. This
may result in AP test fees next year. In
addition, if FCPS increases class size,
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TJ may have some additional multi-level
classes and/or might lose a few
teachers. If you are interested in
learning more about the budget, here’s
the FCPS presentation
on the advertised budget. The highlights
can be found here. In addition, Fairfax
County has published a citizen’s guide,
which can be found here.
As we look into next year, the PTSA is
facing a tremendous challenge. Due to
unforeseen circumstances, our 1st Vice
President is not able to be PTSA
President next year. The PTSA
nominating committee is actively looking
for a new President, Vice President and
Secretary. These leadership positions
are a fabulous way to stay informed and
help contribute to school programs and
policies. It has been a tremendously
gratifying and enjoyable experience. I
am happy to talk to anyone who is
interested. You can contact me at
ptsa.president at tjhsst.edu.
Regards,
Grace Becker
PTSA President, 2013-14
April 2014
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Letter from Student
Services
Dear TJ Families,
The Department of Student Services is
getting ready to greet a new class of
incoming freshmen. If you have a
student in the Class of 2018, note that
there will be significant changes to the
math curriculum for incoming freshmen.
These changes will not affect any
current TJ students. Here is a
summary of the new curriculum and
here are some FAQs.
In March, I met with sophomore parents
for our annual DSS coffee. Every year,
with the help of a PTSA parent
volunteer, I hold one coffee for each
class. We try to keep the group
relatively small (about 15 parents) so
that we can have a meaningful
exchange of questions and answers. I
have found these events to be helpful in
learning about class concerns and
hopefully I am able to provide some
answers for parents. The freshman
parent coffee was rescheduled to April
25 from 9-10:30am. The coffee is full
and we already have a waiting list. I
know that some parents may be
disappointed that we don't have more
room, but I hope that we will have other
TJHSST Techcetera
opportunities to speak informally.
Members of our office and I have been
to several PTSA meetings this year and
I look forward to attending more in the
future. Thank you, Teresa Li, for
organizing the coffees and providing
refreshments.
We are continuing the 2014-2015
Course Selection Season. Students
should have submitted a draft schedule
and reviewed them with their
counselors. The very last day to change
courses for next year is April 11,
2014. After that date, electronic
verifications will be sent out to parents
to approve their son/daughter’s course
selections. After that time, there will be
no changes to schedules until August
2014, and even then only on a space
available basis.
to explore the website as it includes lots
of helpful information.
As always, please feel free to contact
your counselor or me if you have any
questions that we can answer for you.
Brandon Kosatka
Director of Student Services
bpkosatka at fcps.edu
Upcoming 2013-2014 PTSA Meetings
Wednesday April 2 – 7:30-9pm
Wednesday May 7 – 7:30-9pm
Monday June 9 – 7:30-9pm
Before I close, I would like to take a
minute to highlight a few items on the
DSS website that you might not be
aware of. In addition to the TJ course
selection guide and curriculum planning
documents, the website also has a page
of FAQ’s on a wide variety of topics as
well as a You Tube Video Library on
topics include course selection,
counselor help, and college placement.
Navigating a large public school is
always a challenge, but please feel free
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April 2014
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Items from other TJ Offices
Tedx Conference
Parents:
This year, TJ will be holding our second
TEDx conference during the school day
on April 25. Students, teachers, alumni,
and parents will give TED talks
responding to the theme “Overachieve:
How do we surpass mediocrity in
pursuing our passions?”
Here is the website for this year’s event:
http://www.ted.com/tedx/events/11478
If you have a unique idea you would like
to share at the conference, please
consider filling out this application
available at :
http://tinyurl.com/tedxtjhsst14
The topics last year ranged from particle
accelerators to exercise, so feel free to
talk about anything you’re passionate
about that relates to the theme. Please
encourage your sons and daughters
who have unique ideas to apply as well.
If you have any questions, please email
tedxtjhsst14 at gmail.com or contact
TJHSST Techcetera
sponsor Scott Campbell at
smcampbell1 at fcps.edu.
Thank you!
TEDxTJHSST is an officially licensed event of
TED.com. All talks will be recorded and posted
on the TEDx website.
Partners for Safe Teen Driving
The final Partners for Safe Teen Driving
assembly will be held on Friday, May 9
at 6:30pm in the Auditorium. No preregistration is required for sophomores.
Juniors and seniors need to pre-register
and pay the current fee. Further
information and the registration form can
be found here.
Renovation Information
Construction activity will increase
around the school as the construction
crew makes up for slowdowns due to
the abundant snowfall this winter.
Restroom installation in the learning
cottage area behind Weyanoke should
be soon completed.
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Additionally, new signage has been
placed around the school in order to
make parking and moving around
campus easier. Please obey these new
signs as it makes everyone’s trip to
campus smoother and allows
construction and bus traffic to move in a
safe and orderly manner.
Additional movement from second floor
classrooms to the Weyanoke learning
cottages will occur during spring break
in order to allow for the construction of a
new hallway from the new research
wing to the existing building.
Lastly, as spring arrives, more students
will be spending time outside during
lunch and free times. If anyone has
patio furniture they would like to donate
to the school, it will be greatly
appreciated as this furniture will be
placed outside the learning cottages for
outdoor lunch and classroom activities.
Please send any questions about the
renovation to Brandon Kosatka.
Note: During the PTSA Meeting in
March, there was a question regarding
asbestos removal procedures. The
FCPS Asbestos Abatement Standard
Operating Procedures can be found
here.
April 2014
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PTSA Update
Nominating Committee
It’s that time of year again when the
Nominating Committee seeks
nominations for elected positions on the
TJ PTSA Executive Committee for the
2014-2015 school year. Do you want to
get involved and make a difference at
TJ? Do you want to keep up to date
with what’s going on and network with
other parents, students, and teachers?
Then we have the job for you! Please
step forward and volunteer to serve as
an officer on the PTSA Executive
Committee. The positions are:
President, First Vice President, Second
Vice President, Recording Secretary,
Corresponding Secretary, and
Treasurer. In order to provide continuity
and experience, we anticipate that
perhaps 3 to 4 of the current officers will
serve another year in some capacity.
Any PTSA member with the willingness
and ability to serve and provide
leadership is welcome to apply. (Note:
PTSA by-laws require that a person may
be nominated for president only if
he/she has served on the executive
board* for at least one term.) PTSA
members who want to nominate
TJHSST Techcetera
someone else for an office may do so,
with the nominee’s permission. The
deadline for nominations is April 4,
2014.
The nomination form can be found here.
Please send any questions or
completed forms to the Nominating
Committee at laks_bala at yahoo.com.
The Nominating Committee members
are Lakshmi Bala, Denise Bunting, Jane
Hsu, Hilde Kahn, and Barb Malès.
*The Executive Board consists of the
officers of the association and the
chairmen of standing committees.
Hospitality
Dear parents,
First, thank you for your support in
helping out with the teachers'
appreciation lunch on March 18th. After
the 11th snow day, we were very
pleased that we were able to host
hospitality for our teachers once they
returned to school. A wide variety of
items came in and many people helped.
Thank you all for being able to keep
your promises and doing what you
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signed up for; a group of Chinese
parents contributed a treat of 15 Peking
ducks, the PTSA executive officers
brought in their favorite dishes, and
many people signed up to contribute
many different items. Because of all of
you, the lunch went very well.
This is the last PTSA scheduled lunch to
serve our teachers. I'm thankful for all of
your help with our hospitality through the
year. Many of you were always there for
me, and we also received tons of
support from the kitchen and building
workers. Thank you again because
without you all these jobs wouldn’t have
bee completed. It was my pleasure to
work with you this year.
Best regards,
Jane Hsu
PTSA Hospitality Chair
Volunteering
AP Exam Parent Proctors Needed Approximately 94 to be exact!
May 5-16 is AP Exam Time for many of
our students, and the PTSA is asked to
support this effort by providing
volunteers to assist our students during
the administration of the exams. No
April 2014
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experience is needed! You will not be in
charge; a guidance counselor will be
responsible. You will be handing out and
collecting material, passing out tissues,
and walking around and monitoring
students, so wear comfortable shoes.
You are encouraged to sign up for as
many slots as your schedule permits.
This is approximately a four hour time
commitment each for the morning and
afternoon exams. Click here to see the
exam schedule and select a time to
volunteer. Signup genius allows you to
sign up and register as a guest, if you
do not have log-in information. Contact
Robin Hatanpää for more information
or if you want to volunteer without using
the signup genius!
Serving the TJ Community
Free Money
Please remember to do all
of your Amazon.com
shopping through the
PTSA's link –
http://amazon.com/?tag=
tjhsst-20 – to earn free money for TJ!
This link can also be found on the
Support the PTSA web page.
Bookmark it now and use it every time
TJHSST Techcetera
you shop. Questions? Email
helenia.pan at gmail.com.
Earn free and much needed money for
TJ !
A little time now will help TJ earn $$$
ALL YEAR LONG !
Each year TJ earns additional funds to
purchase equipment from all the
Free Money programs!
Grocery stores donate a portion of your
sales to your designated school, but
your grocery shopping cards need to be
re-registered every year – all stores are
allowing registration NOW.
Use the following codes to register your
cards:
Giant Food A+ Bonus Card: TJ code
02307
Harris Teeter Together in Education
Vic Card: TJ code 5534
Safeway Club Card for Education
(thru e-Scrip): TJ code 154534149
And if you shop at Target, you can apply
for the Target REDCard VISA – not only
does it save you 5% off your Target
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purchases but an additional ½ - 1% of
all your purchases are donated to your
designated school (TJ Code: 119746).
If you prefer, you can email your Giant,
Safeway, and Harris Teeter card
numbers, along with your name, to Sara
Mukherjee at saramukh at gmail.com
and she will see that your cards get
registered.
ANGP
The Class of 2014 will have one last
chance to celebrate with their
classmates the night of graduation Saturday, June 21 - at the Audrey
Moore Recreation Center. The All-Night
Grad Party, planned and carried out by
parent volunteers, provides our kids with
a safe, fun environment to celebrate
with their friends.
ANGP is an annual party organized for
the graduating seniors by their parents.
To organize this party, and to do it well,
is a big deal. It is entirely organized and
run by parents.
So, we need volunteers - lots of
them. And, because the party starts
right after the graduation ceremony, we
need lots of freshman, sophomore and
junior parents to help set up, since
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senior parents will be at the Patriot
Center events with their graduates.
Please volunteer. If this ANGP seems a
little early to you, please note that time
does fly and, before you know it, it will
be your turn to throw the ANGP. Please
use this year’s experience as training for
your own party, and come have fun with
us on June 21 this year.
If interested, please visit our SignUp
Genius and sign up for one or more
shifts. Again, we particularly need help
with the earlier shifts.
Thanks for your help! It'll be here before
you know it.
Academic News
how they plan to contribute to the
society. The annual induction ceremony
requires much time and preparation in
order to ensure that all prospective
members are properly inducted into the
Spanish Honor Society.
While the officers were busy dealing
with applications and the details of the
ceremony, the members of the Honor
Society wrote several letters to various
orphanages in Nicaragua. The letters
ranged from Valentine’s Day cards to
get well letters to encouragement or
motivational letters. Toward the end of
March, the Spanish Honor Society
collaborated with other TJ language
clubs to organize the annual World
Languages Volleyball Olympiad. It truly
was a success and we had great
support from all the students involved.
Spanish News
German News
The Spanish Honor Society spent the
month of March reading applications to
join the society and preparing for the
induction ceremony that was held on
March 26, 2014. Applicants had to fulfill
various academic and service
requirements, as well as answer two
questions regarding issues in the
Hispanic world today and possible
solutions to them, as well as enumerate
There’s an exciting spring ahead for the
students in the German Program! In
April, we are hosting a group of 16
German exchange students from our
new partner school in Munich, Germany.
This will be a wonderful experience for
our students to practice their German
hands-on for two weeks and share their
own culture with German teenagers. Of
course, the real reward for hosting a
TJHSST Techcetera
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student is a trip to Germany. In June,
sixteen students will enjoy a two-week
trip to Munich to reconnect with their
exchange partners, chaperoned by Frau
Oszko (German teacher) and Mr.
Williams (English teacher). This will be a
full immersion trip for the TJ students:
While staying with their host family, they
will be visiting classes at our partner
school, Heinrich Heine Gymnasium,
attending cultural events, and touring
the beautiful cities and attractions of
Bavaria.
The German exchange program is
sponsored by the German American
Partnership Program (GAPP) in
collaboration with the Goethe-Institut
and the US State Department. All
students in the German Program have
the opportunity to participate in the
GAPP Exchange at least once during
their German studies at TJ.
Families who would like to be involved
should contact Frau Oszko at soszko at
fcps.edu.
April 2014
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Class News
2014 - Seniors
Happy Spring!
As a reminder, here are a few dates for
senior events to keep in mind.
May 31: Prom
June 1: Last day to buy ANGP tickets
June 19: Graduation rehearsal
June 20: Senior picnic
June 21: Graduation
June 21: ANGP (Tickets will not be sold
at the door)
Senior Class Liaisons
Anita Rezazad
(arezazad at orchidtech.net)
Vicki Ruiter
(theruiters at verizon.net)
2015 – Juniors
The Class of 2015 thanks everyone for
a very successful Pi-Miler! Over the next
few weeks we are planning for the class
events to take place in the next year and
a half including Junior Camp-out, Prom,
and Graduation. If you have any ideas
or suggestions or are interested in
planning these events or other events,
TJHSST Techcetera
please email tjhsst.2015 at gmail.com.
Thanks!
2016 – Sophomores
The sophomore class is still collecting
dues! If you haven’t sent yours in,
please do so! It is NEVER too late. With
no dues collected last year, this year’s
collection is critical to get us on target
with our fundraising needs. We are
looking for 100% participation. Let’s
grow a healthy class fund! Please feel
free to round up or even double your
dues – any and all donations are
welcome. Send your check, made
payable to “TJHSST Class of 2016”, to
room 125 (Attn: Jennifer Rosenblum). If
it is difficult for your child to drop it off
during the school day, just mail it to the
school to the attention of Jennifer
Rosenblum/Class of 2016.
Thank you all for your help with the
incredibly successful 4th Annual TJ PiMiler!
Jamie Korelitz
JamiekorelitzTJ2016 at gmail.com
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2017 – Freshmen
Happy spring! With any luck, we are
finished with snow for at least seven
months. This snowy March was
reminiscent of March 1999 when our
freshmen were babies or soon to be
born. How time flies!
Thank you to all who contributed to and
helped at the March freshmen bake
sale. It was a huge success. Thank you
also to those who contributed to and
helped at the Teacher Appreciation
Lunch. The teachers were very grateful
for all that went into it.
Fairfax online summer school forms will
be available on May 5.
Most freshmen met individually with
their counselors during March to discuss
course selection for the upcoming
school year. If your student did not, he
or she should look for his or her
counselor at lunch or during break to set
up a meeting. Schedules for next year
need to be selected on the Online
Scheduler by April 11, and changes can
be made until then. Counselors advise
striving for balance and looking to knock
out graduation requirements.
As always, we are grateful for the
parental enthusiasm and support of the
class of 2017!
April 2014
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National Silver - journalism
Ann Carr and Lan Fan
2017 Parent Liaisons
mandacarr at msn.com
fanlan at hotmail.com
News Round-up and Awards
Five TJ Students named 2014 Intel
Science Talent Search Semifinalists
Five TJ Students were named Intel
Semifinalists. The students, with their
project names in italics are:
Archis Bhandarkar - On the Unique
Roles of Neurocomputational States in
Neocortical Circuits.
Tina Ju - Discovery and Engineering of
Exceptionally Potent Biological Inhibitors
of Infections Caused by MERS-CoV and
Influenza H7N9.
Lucas Kang - Investigation of Rule 73
as a Case Study of Class 4 LongDistance Cellular Automata.
Scholastic Writing Award Winners
Honored
On March 11, Scholastic Writing Awards
regional winners were honored at the
Spectrum Theatre in Arlington. Jefferson
was recognized for having the most
winners in the region with 57, and
English teacher Jennifer Seavey was
recognized for being the “winningest”
public school teacher with 24 students
who placed in this year’s competition.
Gold Key winner senior Emma’s
Hastings’s American Voices nominee in
the fiction category entitled, “Westward
Leading, Still Proceeding” was chosen
as an excerpted oral reading, and an
excerpt from sophomore Debi Das’s
silver key-winning personal essay, “49
Minutes”, was printed in the event
program. Goooooooooooooo Colonials!
Two TJ students awarded National
Scholastic Writing Awards
Kunal Khurana - Investigating the
Cellular Roles of the RanBP2 Protein.
The following two students placed at the
national level of the Scholastic Writing
Awards. Emma Hastings will receive
$10,000 in additional to recognition at
the highest level.
William Moses - Online Adaptive
Frequency Hopping.
Warrington, Sara Grade 10
“Overcoming Intolerance”
TJHSST Techcetera
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Hastings, Emma Grade 12
“Sight Without Vision, Vision Without
Sight”
National Gold - short story
Hastings, Emma Grade 12
“St. Jude's Center For Ticking Time
Bombs”
National Gold Portfolio
Two TJHSST teams are chosen as
National Finalists in 2014 Spirit of
Innovation Challenge competition
Two TJHSST teams have been chosen
as National Finalists to compete in the
2014 Spirit of Innovation Challenge
competition. The Conrad Foundation
announced the names of 20 high school
and middle school teams from the USA,
China, India, Israel and Sri Lanka to
compete in the final round of the 20132014 Spirit of Innovation Challenge
competition.
These young entrepreneurs (selected
from 133 innovative semi-finalist teams
from around the world) will attend the
2014 Innovation Summit in Houston and
compete for $45,000 in prizes. There
were a total of 385 team entries from
around the world.
April 2014
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Presented by Lockheed Martin, the
competition challenges teams of
students (ages 13 to 18) to combine
innovation and entrepreneurship, along
with STEM (science, technology,
engineering and math), to create
commercially-viable products to benefit
humanity and support global
sustainability. Finalist teams will present
their product concepts April 7-8 before a
panel of industry experts, leading
entrepreneurs, government officials and
world-renowned scientists at NASA
Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Products will be evaluated for technical
content and marketplace viability.
Presentations will be available for public
viewing via live stream.
Cybertechnology & Security
category:
TJ Sophomores: Matthew Sun, Valerie
Chen, Jasper Treakle, Raghav Ramraj
(Project: TXT U L8R – AutoSense)
The 2013-2014 Spirit of Innovation
Challenge is made possible
by Lockheed Martin, PepsiCo,
Battelle, Air Liquide, Mondelēz
International and other supporting
sponsors.
National medalists will be celebrated at
an award ceremony at Carnegie Hall in
New York in May.
Health & Nutrition category:
TJ Juniors: Ramya Radhakrishnan,
Heather Lukas, Pooja Chandrashekar
(Project: Sensitive Solutions –
OMNISENSE)
TJHSST Techcetera
Congratulations & best wishes to the TJ
team members!
Choi and Hwang win National
Scholastic Art Awards
Ji Whae Choi and Junyoung Hwang
were each awarded a silver medal in the
National Scholastic Art Awards program
sponsored by the Alliance for Young
Artists and Writers.
Chopra and Bandarkar win top
honors at Fairfax County Regional
Science and Engineering Fair
Parth Chopra and Archis Bandarkar
each earned an individual Grand Prize
at the 59th annual Fairfax County
Science and Engineering Fair held
March 14-16 at Robinson Secondary
School. Many other TJ students were
Page 12
also recognized for their projects. A full
list of winners can be found here.
Campaign for TJ
CAMPAIGN FOR TJ // LEADING THE
FUTURE
HOW TO HELP YOUR STUDENT
CALLING ALL JUNIOR PARENTS . . .
There is something you can do to help
your overworked juniors: Support the
Campaign for TJ’s Junior Lab Appeal.
TJ’s brand new Research Labs will be
completed next fall, and your student will
be among the first to use them! During
the Campaign’s Junior Lab Appeal, your
gift goes straight to your junior’s chosen
Research Lab for use in next year’s
projects.
WANT TO KNOW WHAT OUR LABS
NEED? Here’s a list of featured items.
DONATING IS EASY: Just go to our
online giving page, select “Campaign
Junior Lab Appeal” and choose your
student’s Lab from the drop-down list. If
you prefer to write a check, just
designate your student’s Lab on the JLA
Campaign Pledge Form and send the
form with your check to the Partnership
April 2014
Click Here to Return to Index
Fund Office. The deadline for your taxdeductible Junior Lab Appeal donations
is April 30th.
MAKE ME A MATCH: Your employer is
welcome to contribute matching funds
to your student’s Lab during the Junior
Lab Appeal. If you have any questions
about the necessary paperwork, please
contact Samantha Courtney at
scourtney at fcps.edu.
Read about TJ’s amazing alumni like the one whose
work is featured in Science (and keep up with TJ
students, faculty, parents, and community) in our first
online edition of Newsworthy.
Thank you, parents, for all you do to
support TJ.
– The Partnership Fund, TJ’s non-profit
foundation
TJHSST Techcetera
TJ Boosters
Academic Boosters
contact Shalini Bhatia, Academic
Boosters president, at shaloo.bhatia at
gmail.com
Certamen
If you haven’t yet joined for this year,
please join Academic Boosters now
at this link:
http://academics.tjhsst.edu/aboosters
/membership.htm
Your contribution may be tax deductible,
and may also be doubled by your
employer.
February 22, 2014, marked another
successful day for TJ Certamen.
Although February is usually the month
in which TJ hosts a Certamen, an event
that was unable to occur due to the
renovation, Virginia’s players were not
without their monthly Certamen fix. The
Riverbend Certamen, originally
scheduled for December but cancelled
due to inclement weather, took place
this month—much to the joy of Latin
scholars across the state. Unlike the
other certamina of the season,
Riverbend uses ranked pitting, placing
each team against those with similar
skill levels. As one might expect, the
competition is tough! TJ, however, came
out of the certamen yet again with top
scores in each level, and each team
scored in at least the top five places of
its level.
We also need parents to volunteer to
be on the Academic Boosters board.
Many of our most active parents have
children who are seniors, so we need
parents of freshmen, sophomores, and
juniors to help fill the gaps they’re
leaving! For more information, please
The Level I players continued their
amazing first season with the A team of
Rebecca Mays, Joseph Park, Arjun
Guidroz, and Milana Wolff placing first
and the B team of Joseph Chong,
Jonathan Ko, and sisters Ramya and
Sneha Ravi placing fifth. The Level 2
http://academics.tjhsst.edu/aboosters/
Thank you to the families who have
already contributed as part of the
annual Academic Boosters phone-athon! As we hope you know by now,
Academic Boosters supports TJ’s nearly
two dozen academic teams – and we
need your support! Several of the teams
are preparing for national competitions,
and we want to be able to support them.
Page 13
April 2014
Click Here to Return to Index
team of Hector Moon, Anshu Sharma,
Andrew Huang, and Kristin Myers
also earned an incredible victory with
third place. The Level 3 team of Minjae
Kwon, Ranjani Parthasarathy,
Junyoung Hwang, Michael
Rodriguez, and Bill Tang scored a
close second. Finally, the Upper Team
of veteran players continued their
illustrious careers, with the A team of
Andrew Coffee, Lauren Mostrom,
John Wilkes, and Owen Hoffman yet
again placing first with an astounding
score of 600 points, and the B team of
Jeff Horowitz, Alex Atanasov, Jay
Devanathan, and June Ge earning fifth
place.
crowns, a modern twist on a very old
Roman tradition. In addition to playing
their hearts out and going home with
fantastic accomplishments, team
members had a fun time catching up
with old friends, making new ones from
across the state of Virginia, and carrying
on the spirit of the Junior Classical
League. We’ll see you all next month!
Chemistry Olympiad
The members of the A teams on Level 1
and Upper, in festive (as of December
2013) commemoration of their first place
standings, each received golden garland
TJHSST Techcetera
Congratulations to Janice Ong, Ross
Dempsey, Wendy Sun, Matthew
Barbano, Samuel Hsiang, Tiger
Zhang, Michael Yue, Winston Ou,
David Liu, Michael You, Aaron Ho,
Kaushik Murali, Jessica Wu, and
William Zhang, TJ’s semi-finalists for
the Chemistry Olympiad. They will
compete on the Local Chemistry
Olympiad Exam on March 14 for slots to
take the National Exam in April.
Page 14
Chess Team
The TJHSST team had an amazing
performance at the state chess
championships! On March 14, the team
participated in the Virginia Scholastic
Chess Blitz Tournament in Roanoke.
Jeevan Karamsetty received first place
in this event with a perfect 10/10 score
(ten wins; no draws or losses).
Freshman Isuru Attanagoda, placed
4th, with a score of 7.5/10. As a whole,
the team had an astonishing team score
of 31.5 which gave us first place by a
large margin (the second place team
had a team score of just 23.5).
A separate event, the Virginia Scholastic
and Collegiate Championship, occupied
the remainder of the weekend. The TJ
team took first place in this as well, with
five TJ players finishing in the top 10 in
the state. This is the 16th year in a row
that TJ has one this event!
Congratulations to Isuru Attanagoda,
Brian Li, Jeevan Karamsetty, Ashley
Xue, and Perry Feng for this terrific
performance!
There were a total of 6 games with four
played on Saturday and two being
played on Sunday. Our team score
(calculated the exact same way as
mentioned previously) was 19. The
April 2014
Click Here to Return to Index
second place school had only 14.5
cumulative points. Another great statistic
is that all 20 TJ kids finished in the top
45 in the competition!
Dr. Gabor, who is the team coach, was
very happy with the team in Roanoke,
especially because of the cohesion that
was seen among team members. In
particular, after every match several
team members would help analyze each
person's game as they looked it
over. This team had a lot of support for
each other. Many parents came down
and helped what they can, especially
the Perry Feng’s family, who took care
of so much of the organizing and
logistics of the event.
The team will go to the National event
next week in San Diego. We wish them
all the best!! Go TJ!
TJHSST Techcetera
Future Problem Solvers
Thanks to the continuing support of
Academic Boosters, TJ Future Problem
Solving had 19 teams and one individual
compete in the qualifying round in late
January, for a total of 77 students.
Under the instruction of President
Aaron Zhao and Secretary Anudeep
Mangu, two students, Anusha
Holavanahali (9) and Melanie Piller
(11), submitted written scenarios for the
FPS Scenario Writing competition. This
past week, Virginia FPS announced the
results; Holavanahali placed 1st in the
state for the middle division and Piller
placed 2nd in the state for the senior
division!
Through our outreach efforts, we were
also able to train and support three
teams from Kilmer Middle School to
enter the FPS competition. In the future,
we will reach out to other middle schools
where parents can make a long term
commitment to FPS and we will work
hard to provide teams the necessary
training.
As this issue was going to press, we
learned that five senior division teams
and two middle division teams are state
finalists for Global Issues Problem
Solving!
Page 15
Congratulations to these students
whose teams will go to the State Bowl in
Norfolk on April 4:
Sania Ali, Sahitya Allam, Victoria
Bevard, Yike Chen, Pooja
Chandrashekar, Saroj Chintakrindi,
Joyce Duan, Alexander Geyer,
Christopher Hoang, Isaac Iyengar,
MinJoo Kang, Jessica Kim, Andrew
Li, James Ma, Anudeep Mangu,
Rayan Matin, Ramya Radhakrishnan,
Raquel Sequeira, Snigdha Srivastava,
Nayana Suvarna, Julian Vallyeason,
Jessica Wang, Jay Warrior, Olivia
Zhang, Aaron Zhao, Christina Zhao,
and Jenny Zhu.
Japan Bowl
The Japan Bowl team is working hard in
preparation for the national competition,
which will be held April 10-11 at the
National 4-H Center in Chevy Chase,
Maryland. The team members this year
are:
Level 2: Brian Bae, Ashwin
Srinivasan, Austin Riopelle
Level 3: Allison Ko, Zeal An, Katie
Shen
Level 4: Emily Zhou, Elizabeth Chang,
Christine Tsou.
April 2014
Click Here to Return to Index
The organizers have increased the
number of prizes that will be awarded
this year! The top five teams at each
level of the competition will win a twoweek long study trip to Japan. Because
our school often places within the top
five places, we have a good chance of
all nine students going to Japan this
year!
Many of the team members will also be
performing calligraphy at the Cherry
Blossom Festival on April 12, the day
after the Japan Bowl.
Odyssey of the Mind
On Saturday, March 8, two TJ teams
competed in the Odyssey of the Mind
regional competition in Oakton, VA.
Both teams earned first place honors,
qualifying them for the state competition
on April 26 in Rocky Mount, VA.
Congratulations and best of luck at
states to Team 1: An Smith, Pranay
Singh, Rahul Sundaramam, Rushi
Patel, Annie Abraham, Johnson Song
and Neil Chiruvella and Team 2:
Kaushik Venkatesh, Shubham Gupta,
Saaketh Anjutgi, Shrey Gupta,
Anuraag Yachamaneni, Aneesh
Susarla and Harsha Jonnavithula.
TJHSST Techcetera
Odyssey of the Mind is a student-led
activity in which teams compete to
produce the most creative responses to
particular challenges. The competition
includes strict limits on the cost of the
materials that teams use – this year the
limit was $145 per team per problem.
Team 1 is doing “Driver’s Test”, which
includes building a vehicle driven by a
student with a talking GPS system.
Team 2 is doing “The Stackable
Structure”, in which they create a
representation of Earth out of balsa
wood and glue, and then stack the
components to support weight. The
entire structure must not weigh more
than 18 grams (just over half an ounce)!
Policy Debate
TJ had a very strong showing in both JV
and Varsity WACFL metrofinals. Overall,
the team finished in 3rd place for the
year!
In JV, every contestant placed in the top
half of the field -- which is an
accomplishment given how many teams
TJ sent! Rishab Negi and Jay Pan
placed 4th with a 4-2 record,
Stella Yang and Jeffery Liu placed 6th
with a 4-2 record, and Christine Li and
Alison Li placed 8th with another 4-2
record!
Page 16
Two varsity teams qualified for NCFL
nationals in Chicago! Yana Kaplun and
Richard Wang were the champions of
the tournament and were undefeated in
the prelims! Yana was also 3rd speaker
and Richard was 1st speaker! Jessica
Covan and Grant Guan placed 6th and
also qualified for the National Catholic
Forensics League Grand Nationals!
In the Harvard Debate Tournament,
Yana Kaplun and Richard Wang were
Octafinalists and qualified to the
Tournament of Champions, the first
Virginia team in over a decade to do so
At the VHSL conference, Jessica
Covan and Grant Guan were 1st, Linda
Lay and Lucas Lin were 2nd. Both
teams qualified to the VHSL Regional
Tournament and TJ won the
Sweepstakes Award for the best overall
finish in the conference.
Public Forum
Congratulations to juniors Pegah
Moradi and Sudhamsh Tippireddy (1st
place) and sophomores Srijith
Poduval and Dhruv Gupta (4th place)
for qualifying for NCFL Nationals based
on their stellar performance in WACFL
Public Forum Metrofinals at Broad Run
High School in March.
April 2014
Click Here to Return to Index
Freshman Victoria Bevard qualified for
Nationals in Student Congress.
Quizbowl
In the second round of the 2013-2014
“It’s Academic” tournament, Jefferson
topped the highly competitive teams
from Gonzaga and South Lakes high
schools to advance to the semi-final
round on April 26. Lead by Captain Sid
Verma and ably supported by senior
Nadège Aoki and sophomore Ryan
Golant, the game was determined in the
last 30 seconds. Sponsors John Laffey
and Jennifer Seavey could count the
number of new gray hairs on their heads
when it was over. Mascot Tommy J was
on hand to liven up the round intervals
with his dance moves.
Band Boosters
On Saturday, March 15, the TJ Drum
Line won First Place in its class at the
Regional WGI Drum Line show in
Powhatan, Virginia. This is the first time
the Drum Line has placed first in a
Regional show. The Drum Line
competed against over 25 other teams
on March 22 in Unionville, Pennsylvania
and again on March 29 at Freedom High
School in Loudon.
Alpha order (not seat order) of the AllVirginia Band:
Oboe: Elise Favia, Christopher Liu,
Ethan Lowman
Clarinet: Arthur He, Bobbie Sheng
The Winter Guard is having a great
season as well. They received first
place in their division at Winter
Showcase in February, and competed
on March 22 in Richmond and also
March 29 at the AIA Championships in
Woodbridge.
Bassoon: Kyu Kim
Contra Clarinet: Josh Chung
Trombone: Aaron Geldert,
Brian Junttila
The season caps off for both the Drum
Line and Winter Guard with a trip to
Dayton, Ohio in April for the WGI 2014
World Championships.
Euphonium: Brian Clark
Congratulations to the 22 TJ Music
students selected to perform as
members of the All-Virginia Band,
Orchestra, and Choir. These students
had to first qualify for their audition spot
by making All-District or All-Regional
groups, and then competed against the
best in Virginia to earn their spots for
Violins: Samantha Chu, Irene Hwang,
Jillian Khoo, Adam Kim,
Anna Tsutsui
www.tjbands.org
TJHSST Techcetera
All-State. TJHSST once again had the
most All-State musicians in Virginia: 13
students and 1 alternate.
Percussion: Kaylyn Buford, Bryan
Higgins, Jasper Treakle
Viola: Charlene Franke, Jennifer
Steele
Cello: Andrew Jiao
Soprano 2: Hannah Pho
Page 17
April 2014
Click Here to Return to Index
Colonial Athletic Boosters (CAB)
www.colonialathletics.org
JV Baseball: The JV Baseball Team is
excited for the 2014 season with a team
led by one junior, six sophomores and
eight freshmen. Head Coach Nick
Richards and Assistant Coach Dave
Schenaker are pleased that everyone
got some playing time in the pre-season
scrimmage against Annandale in March
and look forward to the start of the
regular season in our new division. A
special thanks to all of our fans and
parents for your support this year. Go
Colonials!
Roster: Saaketh Anjutgi (So), Sam
Case (Fr), Nakul Dar (Fr), Quinn
Dawkins (Fr), Hayden Hollenbeck
(So), Ankush Joshi (Fr), Jake Karton
(Fr), James Katz (So), Akshat Kumar
(So), Chris Liu (Fr), Kareem
Mohiyuddin (So), Alex Prosak (Fr),
Frank Sammartino (So), Dylan Seng
(Fr), Carson Wishard (Jr)
Varsity Baseball: Despite lingering
patches of snow on the ground, spring
must be here because the baseball
season has started. The Colonial
baseball schedule reflects a transitional
year during which some games will be
played against former Liberty District
foes, while others will feature matchups
TJHSST Techcetera
against schools that make up newlyformed Conference 13. Returning Head
Coach Craig Lewis, and Assistant
Coaches Eric Williams, Greg Myers,
and Sean Hershey ran winter practices
before and after school, almost all held
indoors in the school gyms, and
preparations for the season culminated
in scrimmages at Annandale and Lee
high schools. Twelve players graduated
last year, and only five varsity sluggers
have returned, so this year's squad has
many new faces.
The pitching staff is anchored by seniors
Tim Zhong and Andy Holsten, as well
as juniors Jack Maillett and Peter
Suzuki, sophomore Amir McGettrick,
and freshman Hayden Dux. Sophomore
Patrick Beck and sophomore Alex
Cintron are sharing duties behind the
plate. The infielders include first
basemen Bobby Kelly (senior) and
Nikhil Srinivasan (junior), as well as
Daniel Suzuki (senior), Tim Zhong,
Jack Maillett, Peter Suzuki, and
Hayden Dux. The outfield will be
patrolled primarily by a corps of juniors:
Coby Benheim, Kent Bommer, Sahil
Laheri, Christian Tae, and Sam
Veroneau.
Best wishes for the Colonials as they
begin the regular season campaign
against opponents old and new.
Page 18
TJ's Varsity and JV baseball players, parents, and
coaches prepared TJ's field after a long winter
JV Boys Lacrosse: The JV program is
in the very capable hands of a veteran
who played for TJ Lacrosse until his
graduation in 2012, Coach Gabe
Boning. Coach Boning has players who
vary in years of experience, but the
entire team has been working hard and
is very excited to kick off the regular
season with its first home game on
Monday, March 24. Congratulations to
the following players who will represent
TJ on the JV team: Jack Boyle, Fr.,
Midfield; Chad Constantine, Fr., Attack;
Sam Desmarais, Soph, Defense;
Brendan Divney, Fr, Defense; Fudong
Fan, Soph, Midfield; Will Frank, Soph,
Defense; Jake Gonzalez, Soph,
Defense; Matthew Heninger, Fr,
Midfield; Varun Iyengar, Fr, Defense;
Ilwoo (Peter) Kim, Fr, Attack; Srikar
Kosuri, Soph, Midfield; Nicholas Lee,
Fr, Midfield; John Nguyen, Soph,
Midfield; Tristan Oaks, Soph, Midfield;
Nikhil Patla, Soph, Attack; Steven
April 2014
Click Here to Return to Index
Rehard, Fr, Midfield; Peter Rohrer,
Soph, Goalie; Arnav Simha, Soph,
Attack; Wills Song, Soph, Midfield;
David Sun, Fr, Midfield; Varun Talwar,
Fr, Midfield; Alex Wang, Fr, Midfield;
Devon Wood-Thomas, Fr, Attack; and
Brian Yu, Fr, Attack.
The guys will play Falls Church at home
and then will travel to three consecutive
away games at Stone Bridge,
Washington and Lee, and McLean.
They will return home on April 11 to take
on Lee HS. Following Spring Break, the
Colonials will host South Lakes on
Friday, April 25. Their games are at
5:30pm. Come out and support the
Boys JV Lacrosse team!
Varsity Boys Lacrosse: Despite
challenging field conditions and
availability, the Boys Varsity Lacrosse
team is looking forward to the spring
2014 season. Under the leadership of
returning Head Coach Rob Duca, the
team has played scrimmages against
Hayfield and Mt. Vernon. The Colonials
took the field in their home opener on
March 24 against Falls Church HS. The
coaching staff is rounded out by
returning defensive coordinator and
Assistant Coach, Jackson Kibler; and
the team is excited to have the addition
of Assistant Coach, Joseph Wells.
TJHSST Techcetera
On the field, the team is lead by
returning Captain Miles Oakley, Sr.,
Defense; Captain Brian Welch, Sr.,
Defense; and Captain Alex WoodThomas, Sr., Defense. The roster
includes: Wyatt Bahm, Jr., Defense;
Eddie Chung, Sr., Midfield; Matt
Conway, Soph, Attack; Josh Fang, Sr.,
Defense; Matt Gibbs, Jr. Attack;
Salman Guliwala, Jr., Attack; Dean
Gumas, Soph, Midfield; Connor
Hennessey-Niland, Sr., Midfield; Jim
Henris, Jr., Midfield; Andrew Howard,
Soph, Defense; Jafr Kazmi, Jr., Goalie;
Daven Kim, Sr., Midfield; Jason Kim,
Sr., Defense; Kyu Kim, Sr., Midfield;
Nathan Kim, Sr. Midfield; Nathan Kim,
Freshman, Goalie; Daniel Noh, Sr.,
Attack; Dennis Park, Jr., Midfield;
Tommy Rogers, Jr., Defense; Sam
Rohrer, Sr., Attack; Julian Villacorta,
Jr., Defense; Alex Wendt, Jr., Midfield;
and Parsa Zand, Jr., Defense.
Following the season opener at home
vs. Falls Church, the Colonials will play
three straight away games at Stone
Bridge, Washington and Lee, and
McLean, respectively. They will return
to their home field on April 11 to host
Lee High School and will then host
South Lakes after Spring Break on
Friday, April 25, which will be the team’s
Senior night. Come out and cheer the
team on!
Page 19
Colonials and Coach Duca strategize during
scrimmage against Hawks.
JV Girls Lacrosse: There are 23 girls
on this year's JV Lacrosse team under
Coach Turner. There are five returning
players from last year. The roster:
Cheryl Mensah (10) - Goal Keeper.
Defense: Jia Kim (10), Kana Griffin (9),
Sneha Ravi (9), Sarah Koo (9), Katie
Pruitt (10), Jessie Shen (9), Jana ElSayed (9), Suzie Bae (9). Midfield:
Christina Wei (10), Cece Xiao (10),
Shreya Mandava (10), Vicky Li (9),
Lucia Gomez (9). Attack: Tishan Patel
(9), Anusha Balani (9), Caelan
Barranta (9), Vivian Dong (9),
Caroline Nguyen (9), Katie Tam (9),
Tara Prakash (10), Ramya Ravi (9),
Alyssa Lee (9). With the wintry weather,
JV Lacrosse got in only one scrimmage
in the preseason. It was a strong start
with an 8-1 score at Mt. Vernon.
April 2014
Click Here to Return to Index
Varsity Girls Lacrosse: Girls’ Varsity
Lacrosse kicked off its’ season with a
15-3 win over Mt. Vernon H.S. in a
scrimmage March 13. The Lady
Colonials played their first game against
Falls Church H.S. on March 24. The
team is led this year by senior captains
Hunter Clark and Tessa Muss and
junior captain Sage Teasley. Other
seniors on the team include Care
Shoaibi, Florencia Son, Sarah Shan,
Lizzy Woods and Quinlan Sweeney. In
addition to Sage, Anna Weidman,
Alexis Jenkins and Helen Zhang will
round out the junior portion of the
squad. Tenth graders Ella Deeken,
Stella Sotos, Juliana Bain and
freshmen, Bayliss Wagner, Kate
Eisert, Sofia Kruszka and Stephanie
Zablocki make up the rest of the team.
Head Coach Vivian Kem and
Assistant/Goalie Coach Sammi
Rittenberg are returning this year after
guiding the girls to the best season in
six years last year.
Boys Soccer: The team started spring
2014 season with a new coach
Nicholas Babyak. He is a graduate of
TJ Class of 2011 and is currently a
junior at Georgetown. The team had a
scrimmage against WT Woodson High
School. The team looks good and will
continue to get better. Although the
TJHSST Techcetera
team has been dealing with the cold
weather and practicing at odd times, the
team spirit is ready to go. The first
regular game of the season was
cancelled due to weather conditions but
hopefully the next game against
Herndon HS will be played. The team
looks good and plays well together. The
goalies are protecting the goal and the
players are possessing the ball. We
wish them luck in their coming games.
Go Colonials!!
Girls JV Soccer: The Junior Varsity
Soccer team began the season late as a
result of repeated winter storms. With
delayed try-outs and sporadic practices,
the team is more than managing to pull
it together. It helps that there are many
returning seasoned players. Thus far
they have had only one outdoor practice
and the first game was cancelled. After
practice the other night, returning
Sophomore midfielder, Anya Owsenek
exclaimed, "I really enjoy soccer at TJ.
We have a lot of fun and I can just see
the improvements we have made these
past few weeks. I know we're all really
excited for the upcoming games and I'm
sure we will do very well." Girls Junior
Varsity Soccer coaches are Head
Soccer Coach Luis Gendive and JV
Coach John Ciampa. The 2013 roster
includes: Juniors: Midfielder Maria
Bobbett #3, Defender/ Goal Keeper
Page 20
Marissa Einhorn #9; Sophomores:
Defender and Team Captain Rebecca
Linick #13, Forward Reema Patel #15,
Defender Jordan Ganley #20,
Midfielder Anya Owsenek #21,
Midfielder Sayona Satwah #22,
Freshman: Goal Keeper Raquel
Sequeria #1, Defender Elise Conforti
#5, Midfielder Gabriela Gresenz #7,
Midfielder Joe Lee #8, Forward
Amritha Justin #10, Midfielder Kristen
Halper #11, Defender Richa Gupta
#14, Defender Hamsa Mani #16,
Midfielder Molly Smullen #19.
Girls Varsity Soccer: Girls Varsity
Soccer is led by Coach Luis Gendive
and Coach Othmane Benkhnallouk.
The team captain is Katie Valery. The
current 2014 roster includes: seniors
Katie Valery, Meena Rezazad,
Miranda Callahan, Mary Forburger,
Gloria Cho, Carolyn Ours and Sarah
Quettawala; junior- Katherine Yan;
sophomores Priya Gupta, Meredith
Lee, Chelsea Li, Kaila Stein, Maaike
Blindenbach, Katie Zechman and
Sonia Gupta; freshmen Nikita Sawant,
Jodie Beaumont, Nicole Carrillo,
Eleni Georgiou, Maya Khanna and
Rachel Martinka. The managers this
year are Joey Valery, Adam Sulucz
and Daniel Fontenot. In addition to
their managerial bagel duties, they will
also enthusiastically announce all home
April 2014
Click Here to Return to Index
games. With the early season weather
difficulties, Varsity Girls Soccer has not
completed the season’s roster at press
time. Additional players and captains
will be selected after we get some
outdoor playing time. During the regular
season you will only have three more
chances to see the girls play at home:
South Lakes (4/1/14), Stone Bridge
(4/9/14), and senior night against Fairfax
(5/1/14). We also have two double
headers scheduled with Varsity Boys
Soccer at Chantilly (4/24/14) and at
Mount Vernon (4/29/14). For maximum
efficiency, come out and cheer on both
TJ Varsity Soccer teams in one night.
We love our fans!
JV Softball: The TJ Junior Varsity
Softball team has been working with the
varsity in the early practices this season.
The JV includes juniors Marie
Anderson, Sami Kosaraju, and Ruhee
Shah; sophomores Kiran Girish, Kathy
Jiang, Christine Li, Ghnana Madineni,
and Surbhi Patel, and freshmen
Tamara Drpic and Lisa Qian. The JV
Lady Colonials opened their season
against Fairfax High School on March
21 at Fairfax. If you are interested in
joining the softball team, there are
positions available so please come out
to join this fun group of girls and play the
fast-paced game of softball.
TJHSST Techcetera
Varsity Softball: TJ Varsity Softball
(TJSB) returns 6 players from the 2013
season including seniors Ellen Mulé
and Clara Pitts; juniors Kayleigh
Vance, Jessie Heise, and Jessica
Guo; and sophomore An Smith. Around
this core of seasoned players the team
has added senior Amelia Griese;
juniors Samantha Cadd and Pooja
Rathnashyam; sophomores Angela
Wang and Helen Ngov; and freshmen
Jenna Greenwalt, Sarah Crossen, and
Diana Zavela. Head Coach Mike
Hrabak and Assistant Coach Antonio
Bravo have been working with the Lady
Colonials on conditioning and
fundamentals in preparation for the
season opener against Fairfax High
School which was on March 21 at the TJ
Softball Complex. While the weather
has not been favorable for much
outdoor practice so far this season, the
team is faster than last year featuring
more diversity at the plate with more
left-handed batting options. The last half
of the season will be new conference
play opening a new era for TJSB.
TJ 2014 Varsity Softball
Swim Dive: TJ Swim/Dive (TJSD) went
to the Virginia 5A State Swim/Dive
Championship Meet in Richmond on
February 21 to finish an outstanding
season. The boys and girls teams took
the second place trophies in this meet.
The meet started with the dive team
success on the boards including
Valentina Lohr who took second place,
Callan Monette fourth place, and
Gloria Chen sixth place for the girls,
and CJ Wilson who took fifth for the
boys.
TJ Boys 2014 State Swim Dive Runners-Up
Page 21
April 2014
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For the swim team, individual state
champions included Carrie Heilbrun in
the 100 Backstroke and Andrew
Seliskar in the 200 Freestyle and the
100 Breaststroke. Seliskar set a
National High School record in the 100
Breaststroke with a time of 53.24
seconds. Other individual medals were
awarded to Emilio Sison (200 IM 7th
place), Miles Oakley (50 Freestyle 2nd
place and 100 Butterfly 2nd place),
Carrie Heilbrun (100 Butterfly 2nd
place), Luke Thorsell (100 Freestyle
2nd place and 100 Backstroke 3rd place),
Jared Nirenberg (500 Freestyle 8th
place), and Sophie Bennett (500
Freestyle 8th place). In the relays, the
boys 200 Freestyle relay team of
Andrew Seliskar, Alex Li, Emilio
Sison, and Miles Oakley were the state
champions. Other relay teams receiving
medals included the boys 200 Medley
Relay 2nd place (Luke Thorsell, Joe
Duran, Andrew Seliskar, Miles
Oakley), girls 200 Medley Relay 6th
place (Taylor Quinn, Sophie Bennett,
Sophia Moses, Charlie
Lertlumprasert), girls 200 Freestyle
Relay 3rd place (Carrie Heilbrun, Grace
Liu, Sophie Bennett, Charlie
Lertlumprasert), boys 400 Freestyle
Relay 2nd place (Emilio Sison, Gerry
Wan, Alex Li, Luke Thorsell), and girls
400 Freestyle Relay 3rd place (Grace
TJHSST Techcetera
Liu, Charlie Lertlumprasert, Sophie
Bennett, Carrie Heilbrun).
TJ Dive Team State Medalists
week with scrimmages against Langley
and Oakton. The Langley rivalry
remains strong and, despite the stormy
afternoon, the team was able to get
some good matches in. Oakton played
hard and was a worthy opponent, but
the TJ boys dominated and won the
match. Sadly, the official season
opener scheduled for March 17 against
Fairfax High School was cancelled due
to snow.
TJ Girls 2014 State Swim Dive Runners-Up
Boys Tennis: Coach John Myers
finalized the boys’ 2013-2014 tennis
team roster earlier this month. The 23member team consists of 19 players
returning from last year and 4 new
freshman players. The team will be led
by three Team Captains: Jason Huang
(12), Julian Nguyen (12) and Brad
Rosenblum (12). Following a Virginia
AAA Boys’ Tennis state championship
title in 2013, expectations for the team
are high. Match play commenced last
Page 22
Boys Tennis Pre-Langley Match Preparations
Girls Tennis: The Thomas Jefferson
Girl's Tennis team, 21 strong and again
under the direction of Coach Simon
Harrington, finally got the chance to
show what they are made of. The
squad of 12 veterans, and 9
newcomers, led by senior co-captains
Rena Liu and Victoria Xia had their first
scrimmage of the year, where they
faced the formidable Oakton
Cougars. The Cougars, like TJ were
April 2014
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state semi-finalists last year. TJ could
not overcome the Lady Cougars last
year and this first scrimmage,
unfortunately, fell the same way.
However, last year's defeats were quite
sound, whereas this years was a nail
biter 5-4 going against TJ. In the #1
position was senior, Rena Liu who
matched up against the 2013 State
Champion. #2 Anna Venetianer, a
junior, got off to a slow start and by the
time she got going it was a bit too late
and Oakton won the court. # 3 saw
returning sophomore Ankitha
Yanamandra, play a highly contested
match that she eventually won. Senior
Victoria Xia and sophomore Kritika
Singh battled in position #4 and #5
respectively. Playing in the the sixth
position and winning in convincing
fashion was newcomer, freshman
Julena Liu. TJ prevailed in the
doubles matches, but the two doubles
courts TJ won were not quite enough to
take the day. The fact that the TJ ladies
played Oakton that closely despite
losing the back of their lineup to
graduation, shows great promise for the
season. Next the ladies will face South
Lakes in their first official match of the
season.
Track and Field: After a great Indoor
Track season Spring Track and Field
practices are in full swing. The team,
TJHSST Techcetera
led by Head Coach Jeff James, and
Assistants Gary Grimsley, Tom
Norton and Todd Withington, is
expecting a strong season with a
number of key returners from prior
years. On the Boys side hopes are
high for strong performances from
Raeford Penny, Jamie Simon,
Zartosht Ahlers and Muthu
Chidambaram, among others. For the
Girls, Grace Zeng, Haley Stumvoll,
Kate Salamido and Katrina Junta will
lead the distance runners, while Sydney
Miller, Carolina Hatanpää, Monique
Mehzer and Claire Dong are some of
the strong performers for the sprints and
field events. Once the weather
improves and the snow melts the team
is looking forward to a great season.
Crew Boosters
www.tjcrew.org
Spring rowing season is in full swing our athletes are traveling daily after
school, as well as Saturdays mornings,
to Sandy Run Regional Park to practice
on the Occoquan River. TJ boats started
Page 23
competing in the first regattas of the
season: March 22 Polar Bear Regatta
and March 29 Regional Park Regatta at
Sandy Run. Stay tuned for details and
pictures from regattas, which will be
provided in next month’s Tech cetera.
The full regatta schedule, directions to
racing venues, maps, and parking
information are posted on the TJ Crew
website at http://www.tjcrew.org/regattainfo. At the grandstands, TJ families and
friends generally sit in the upper left
section, facing the grandstands. We
hope to see you all there! Parents, don’t
forget to volunteer at least once at an
Occoquan regatta at
http://www.tjcrew.org – “SignUp
Genius” now for best volunteer slots.
Parents, mark your calendars for the
away regattas this spring! The first away
regatta is St. Andrews on Saturday,
April 19, 2014. This is a day event,
without overnight travel. It is a beautiful
course and a highlight of the season.
Please mark your calendars and plan to
attend!
The first two-day regatta of the season
is the Stotesbury Cup Regatta (Stotes)
on May 16 & 17, 2014 in Philadelphia,
PA. For Stotes, the coaches plan to take
the first, second and third eights (boats)
on both the boys’ and girls’ teams, as
April 2014
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well as the boys’ and girls’ freshman
eight. Coaches will also take a few
alternates in case of illness, injury, etc.
For freshman and novice parents, your
child’s coach will be able to predict
whether your child’s boat will be
competing in this race around the time
of spring break, two-a-day practices.
The travel arrangements for the
students are made by the travel
coordinator, Lisa Layfield. Parents, if
you can safely guess that you will need
a room in Philadelphia, please check
our website at:
http://www.tjcrew.org/regattainfo/regatta-directions-volunteeringand-food/stotesbury-pa/travel and
start making travel arrangements. The
reservation cutoff date is April 15, 2014.
The second two-day regatta is the
Scholastic Rowing Association of
America (SRAA) National Regatta on
May 23 & 24, 2014 at Mercer Lake in
West Windsor, NJ. This is a new
location for the race. The competitors for
this race are determined by the results
of the state finals on May 3 for the lower
boats (Ted Phoenix Regatta) and May
10 for the upper boats (VASRA
Championships). The arrangements for
the qualifying rowers, coxswains, and
alternates will be made by the travel
coordinator. Just like Stotes, parents
should start making travel arrangements
TJHSST Techcetera
following directions posted on the TJ
website. The cutoff date for reservations
is May 1, 2014. For more information
about away regattas visit TJ Crew
website at
http://www.tjcrew.org/regatta-info.
Lastly, parents can learn about the TJ
Crew and the many ways the TJ Crew
Boosters support the team at the
monthly board meetings, which are held
at TJ on the second Wednesday of each
month. The next Board meeting will be
held on April 9 at 7pm in Trailer #10.
Orchestra Boosters
http://arts.tjhsst.edu/orchestra/
The All-State Orchestra will perform at
Virginia Tech on Saturday, April
5. Eight TJ orchestra members (listed in
last month’s Tech cetera) will be a part
of the performing group.
Both of TJ’s orchestras received
unanimous Superior ratings at the
District Orchestra Assessment last
Page 24
month. Congratulations to Maestro
Allison Bailey and the students for their
hard work- even the judges were in awe
(one joined in the standing ovation for
the Symphonic Orchestra’s performance
of two movements from Tchaikovsky’s
exciting and challenging Souvenir de
Florence)!
Many members of the TJ Orchestras will
be traveling to Nashville with the rest of
TJ’s Music Department at the end of
May. The Orchestras will participate in
musical performance clinics and
workshops.
The last performance for the Orchestras
will be Friday, June 13, 7pm at the TJ
Auditorium. Senior recognitions take
place that night, and in past years there
has been an artful and insightful slide
show of highlights from the year. This
will be a great time to hear these
wonderful musicians, and to see the
seniors take their final bows.
Orchestra Boosters will meet on April 3
in the conference room at the George
Mason Regional Library, at 7001 Little
River Turnpike in Annandale. Meeting
time is 7-8pm. All Orchestra parents are
welcome to attend, but it would be
helpful if you let us know you’ll be
coming so that we can be sure we have
sufficient seating. If you are not on the
April 2014
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parent email list, would like a specific
issue to be addressed, or would like a
seat at the next boosters meeting,
contact tjorchboosters at gmail.com.
Adam Friedman and the stage
manager is Jocelyn Huang.
Community Service Trip to the
Dominican Republic after school ends
and before summer school begins.
For more information, or to join the TJ
Orchestra Boosters, see the web page
at http://www.tjhsst.edu/researchacademics/finearts/orchestra/orchestraboosters.html.
Theatre Boosters
http://www.tjhsst.edu/parentscommunity/boosters/theatreboosters/
TJ's next production features a
combination of students with music,
dance and drama in the musical
Urinetown, a satirical comedy. The
musical satirizes the legal system,
capitalism, social irresponsibility,
populism, bureaucracy, corporate
mismanagement, and municipal politics.
The show also parodies the musical Les
Misérables and the Broadway musical
itself as an art form.
The production features musical and
choreographic direction by TJ teachers
Molly Khatcherresian and Jill
Burdick-Zupancic, respectively. The
production's director is Matt Lucas.
Student directors are Nadege Aoki and
TJHSST Techcetera
Featured TJ actors/musicians are listed
in alphabetical order: Ben André,
Nadege Aoki, Will Ashe, Michelle
Cao, Josh Cummings, Debi Das ,
Chris Doan, Adam Friedman, Jordan
Goodson, Juliana Gruver, Arjun
Guidroz, Elise Holford, Liesl Jaeger,
Alexander LeFloch, Laura Manno,
Gavin Moore, Meena Nayagam,
Valerie Nguyen, Abby Peterson,
Hannah Pho, Hridhay Rangaraju,
Mikaela Ruiz-Ramon, Misha Ryjik,
Daniel Sainati, Nila Selvaraj, Yena
Seo, Natasha Shukla, Jessica Wang,
Nova Zhang.
The musical will be performed in the TJ
Auditorium on Friday, May 2 and
Saturday, May 3 at 7pm. General
admission is $10.
Page 25
Want a tremendous opportunity to engage
in a meaningful service-learning activity
with a unique cultural experience? Want to
walk down the streets where Spanish
Conquerors walked? Then join Sra. Pou
from June 21 through July 4 on a
community service/history trip to the
Dominican Republic. This year we are not
only teaching Spanish, English, and
Literacy, we are also conducting a sports
camp and a teacher-training workshop.
Come join the hard work and the fun! For
more information contact Sra. Pou at:
alexandra.pou at fcps.edu.
April 2014
Click Here to Return to Index
PI Day at Mosaic Shopping Center
Anant Das on the big screen talking about Pi-miler.
Adam Kemp, Energy Systems Research Lab Director,
on the big screen talking about the satellite launch.
Fox Wilson (piano) and Anya Owsenek (violin).
Namaste Perfomance
Nothing But Nets
TJHSST Techcetera
Page 26
April 2014
Click Here to Return to Index
Noteworthy Dates
April 2014
2
3
5
7
9
14 - 18
21
22
23
25
PTSA Meeting, 7pm in T1
Orchestra Booster Meeting, 7pm at George
Mason Regional Library (7001 Little River
Turnpike)
Techstravaganza, 10am-3pm in Gym 1
Makeup Day – Telelearn Day
Crew Boosters Board Meeting, 7pm in T10
Student Holiday – No School
Athletic Boosters Meeting, 7pm in T26
ANGP Meeting, 7pm in T1&2
Diversity Committee Meeting, 7pm in Conf. Rm. 2
DSS Freshman Parent Coffee, 9-10:30am
TJHSST Techcetera
May 2014
2
3
5 - 16
7
9
14
19 - 30
19
28
28
31
Page 27
Urinetown, 7pm in Auditorium
Urinetown, 7pm in Auditorium
AP Exams
PTSA Meeting, 7pm in T1
Partners for Safe Driving, 6:30pm in Auditorium
Crew Boosters Board Meeting, 7pm in T10
SOL Exams
Athletic Boosters Meeting, 7pm in T26
tjStar
Diversity Committee Meeting, 7pm in T1&2
Prom, 8pm at The Sunset Room by Wolfgang
Puck at National Harbor
April 2014