PRESS
RELEASE
and Carey Upton @ 818.472.6668 06 MAY
2008
SAMOHI Science Bowl & SAGE Students Receive Top Honors – Celebration
May 7th at 1:00pm
Santa
Monica High School has two new reasons to be extremely proud of its
students. The school’s science team won
the National Science Bowl and the SAGE team won the state title.
A
four-student team from SAMOHI recently surpassed sixty-six other teams to win
the Department of Energy National Science Bowl. The team members included Dimitry Petrenko, 18; Alexandre Boulgakov, 16; Marino Di Franco, 16;
Ian Fels Scheffler, 17; and their coach, Ingo Gaida. The accomplishments of the team will be recognized at a
celebration at Barnum Hall on the SAMOHI campus on May 7th at
1:00pm.
(Please contact Carey Upton, Theatre Operator, for further information.)
The team won a trip to the International Youth Science Forum in London in addition to $1,000 for their school's science department. SAMOHI clinched the title by answering a mathematics question.
More than
3,000 students competed in the National Science Bowl this year. Second place was won by Mira Loma High
School from Sacramento, CA; third place was awarded to Thomas Jefferson High
School for Science & Technology from Alexandria, VA.
According
to its website, The National Science Bowl is a highly
visible educational event and academic competition among teams of high school
students who attend science seminars and compete in a verbal forum to solve
technical problems and answer questions in all branches of science and math.
The regional and national events encourage student involvement in math and
science activities, improve awareness of career options in science and
technology, and provide an avenue of enrichment and reward for academic science
achievement.
The SAMOHI SAGE
team, represented by students Alberto DePablo, Jessie Chan, Tenzin Chodak, Sonam Chodak, Jasmine
McClain, Monica Choo, and Jane Beck, recently won
the state title for 2008. The win
represents the third consecutive year that the school has taken this
title. These
students worked all year on their projects.
During
the competition, the student team had fifteen minutes to present a multimedia
presentation and five minutes of Q&A to convince the seventy judges that
Santa Monica met the ten criteria better than any of the other 15 schools
present. The projects were extensive,
collaborative, and included:
1.
Work with teacher Ben Kay and his Team
Marine for the environmental project, ensuring a city ban on single use plastic
bags and educating students on how they can help.
2.
The creation of a new social
venture: Tote-a-lly Awesome, a tote bag company that aims to help the
environment, donates to 3 social causes and promotes both school and city
spirit.
3.
The Vikes Inn & Cafe, SAMOHI’s
venture continuing business, which is a model practice, promotes school
loyalty, scholarships, and healthy habits.
4.
SAMOHI’s Global Projects, which include
the 2nd Annual International Day, educating 400 students on the global economy
and the continuing Soiree Locations, the Virtual Enterprise business, which
reacts to the fluctuating global monetary valuations.
5.
Extensive use of the local Business
Community, such as the Chamber of Commerce, the SBDC, several local hotels and
non profits, and Santa Monica Video.
6.
Extensive use of College Advisers,
including seven UCLA School of Anderson graduate students and several SAGE
alumni.
7.
Civic Engagement projects, which included
partnering with ASB and the League of Women Voters to educate and create a
mock election. Students also lobbied state legislators on behalf of ROP in
Sacramento and for environmental and business concerns.
8.
Reaching out to over 3,000,000 potential
readers and viewers with our media coverage, including Internet, TV, and
newspapers.
9.
Extensive financial documents maintained
for all three business ventures and projects.
10. New businesses include SAMOHI’s social venture and an outside venture
that two Santa Monica students wrote a business plan for and will start this
June.
According
to its website, Students for the Advancement of Global Entrepreneurship (SAGE)
is an international non-profit organization that links secondary school student
organizations to mentors from local universities and businesses. Its purpose is
to advance youth business and social entrepreneurship in an ethical and
socially responsible manner. Youth use their experience as a SAGE member to
become self-reliant, create wealth, and help others. SAGE provides a new avenue
for youth working individually, or in cooperative teams, as if they were
business partners, and contributing to their communities.
####
SANTA
MONICA-MALIBU UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
1651 16TH
Street, Santa Monica, CA 90404
ph: 310.450.8338;
fax: 310.581.1138
www.smmusd.org