PHS Studio Vocals, Studio Band Take State Championships

Princeton Studio Vocals and the Princeton Studio Band both recently won state championships from the New Jersey Association for Jazz Education. It was the seventh New Jersey State Championship for Princeton High School’s (PHS) studio band and the third N.J. State Championship for the PHS studio vocals.

In addition to placing first, Princeton Studio Vocals also won awards for best alto section, best tenor section, and best rhythm section. Samuel Lee won the outstanding instrumental soloist award, and Vivian Clayton and Syra Bhatt received outstanding vocal soloist awards. Sebastian Bongiovi was awarded a vocal soloist honorable mention.

Along with its championship honors, the Princeton Studio Band also won the Best Trumpet Section award and the Best Sight Reading award — the first band ever to achieve a perfect score in sight reading.

The Princeton Jazz Ensemble placed fourth in this year’s competition with Peter Eaton receiving an outstanding soloist award and Lucas Comesana and Andrew Wakefield both receiving honorable mention soloists’ awards.

PHS Research Team Wins Samsung National Grand Prize

Princeton High School has been chosen as one of three National Grand Prize Winners in the 14th annual Samsung Solve for Tomorrow Competition.

Selected from 10 national finalists, the 2023-24 PHS research team has brought home a prize package worth $100,000. It is the third time the PHS research team has entered the Samsung competition and the second time they have won the National Grand Prize — the only school in the country to have won this national award twice.
Representing the team in the April 29 Washington, D.C., finals, PHS students Mayda Jiguan, Sofia Son, and Hayah Mian presented their project to a panel of judges.

As a STEM solution to address a pressing local issue and create positive change within their community, the PHS team developed an AI-powered robotic stuffed animal that is learning to speak Mam, a Mayan language that is spoken in parts of western Guatemala, Mexico, and across the United States and by a small population of PHS students.

“The aim of this project is to preserve the use of indigenous languages, many of which are on the decline,” said PHS science teacher Mark Eastburn, who has been the driving force behind the project, with assistance from his colleagues Jacqueline Katz, Jennifer Smolyn, and James Smirk.

“With support from Mam speakers in Morristown, we plan to continue training the platform to understand a wider variety of speakers in a diverse set of contexts and eventually market the final product as a patient and engaging conversation partner that can also teach skills in digital literacy,” Eastburn added.

Odyssey of the Mind Champions

Two teams of Princeton Junior School (PJS) fifth graders have been crowned Odyssey of the Mind State Champions and have qualified to compete in the worldwide Odyssey of the Mind finals at Iowa State University, May 21-24.

More than 625 elementary, middle, and high school students on teams from 89 schools from across the state competed in the April 13 contest at Carteret High School. Odyssey of the Mind, which includes engineering and the arts and highlights student-led creativity, is the oldest and largest problem-solving contest in the country.

Students from 30 other New Jersey schools have qualified to compete in the worldwide finals, alongside the two PJS teams, which placed first in the Problem 1 “Drive in Movie” and Problem 2 “AI Tech-No-Art” categories at Carteret.

The PJS Problem 2 team also won the John Huster “350” Perfect Score Award for earning the top score in all three scoring categories.

“These students have dedicated countless hours of hard work in school and at home since beginning the process back in October,” said PJS math and STEM coordinator Zach Floyd. “They have taught themselves new skills and created an environment that is supportive and encourages risk-taking. Their teamwork and commitment are truly impressive.”

Local Teens Raise Money to Fight Cancer

Ninth grader Jayen Shah and 11th grader Ryaan Shah, Pennington School leaders of the Healing Hawks philanthropic team, raised close to $25,000 in seven weeks for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS).

Competing as Student Visionaries of the Year, seeking to make an impact in the fight against cancer, the team of friends from the Princeton Charter School, the Peddie School, and Pennington also included Elliot Sciaraffo, Sawyer Cohen, Milan Shah, Leo Momo, and Shaan Rath.

The students’ fundraising initiatives included email and social media appeals, community outreach, and “Dine-and-Donates” at Teresa’s Cafe and Nomad Pizza in Princeton, which donated a percentage of proceeds to the campaign. The Nomad event included musical performances by students and their music teacher Dan Johnson.

Various teams from across the South Jersey region raised a total of $658,982 for LLS, whose mission is to cure blood and bone marrow malignancies, including leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, and myeloma, while improving the quality of life of patients and their families.

Pennington Students Rank Nationally in Le Grand Concours

Several Pennington School students have received high rankings in the 89th annual Le Grand Concours, a national competition sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of French.

Eleventh grader Layten Hoffman won a gold medal, scoring in the 95th percentile and ranking sixth in the nation for the Level 1 contest. Eighth grader Alejandro Luna (Level 1) and 10th grader Cecelia Embleton (Level 4) received silver medals for finishing in the 85-94th percentiles; and 11th grader Axel Sandin Orea (Level 4) and eleventh grader Liam Baigun (Level 5) received bronze medals for finishing in the 75-84th percentiles.

Earning honorable mentions for their scores in the 50th through 74th percentiles were Phineas Choe, Isabella Jiang, Vivaan Ravindran, Neve Sirois, Katie Dwyer, Angelyn Li, Maria Garcia Rodriguez, Alexandra Rogankov, Xiaona “Jenny” Zhu, Moynag “Eliza” Zou, Shreya Mookherjee, Mykaela Sanders, and Sophia Murphy.

Nearly 45,000 students competed in the 2024 Le Grand Concours event.

Riverside Student Wins Poetry Award

Naina Connors, a fifth grader at Riverside Elementary School, recently won second prize in the Cricket Magazine writing competition.

Each entrant was asked to submit an original poem about friends, with the best entries being published in the magazine’s May/June 2024 issue and on the Cricket Magazine website at cricketmagkids.com/contests.

Cricket, which, according to an April 25 press release, “features the best short stories, poems, and articles by the world’s finest children’s authors and is illustrated by the best artists from here and abroad,” sponsors a different writing or art competition in each issue, with entries coming in from all over the world.