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Forensics (1/17/2013)
The Oakton Forensics (Speech) Team represented our school in the VHSL district tournament yesterday evening at Westfield. Several of the students placed in the top three for their events, earning them spots at the regional tournament in February. Madeline Wiltse (3rd place, Storytelling) Seyoung (Lesha) Heo (3rd place, Original Oratory) Heidi Tubbs (2nd place, Humorous Interpretation of Literature) Angela Chen & Molly Walker (2nd place, Duo Humorous Interpretation of Literature). While they did not place in the top three for their respective events, both Baldeep Kaur Mann (Impromptu Speaking) and Annika Lee (Poetry) gave their competitors a run for their money! A majority of this year's team are first-time competitors.

Debate Team (1/8/2013)
Out of the top ten speakers ranked at the tournament, Oakton had a number of placements:
JV Policy- 8th Austin Bae
4th Eileen Chen
1st Mahathi Tadikonda
Eileen and Mahathi went on all the way to the semi finals and took 3rd place.
Anee Nguyen and Amitav Kamani also made it to the semi finals. 
Varsity Policy-  10th Evelyn Wang
2nd- Monica Hanratty
Monica and Evelyn also made it to the semi finals and took 3rd place in the Varsity division.

Latin 1/7/2013
The Latin I team and a Latin II team went to Certamen @ Flint Hill on Saturday. (A certamen is the Latin equivalent to It’s Academic.) Latin I competed against 27 other teams and came in 4th  (missing Final Round by one question); Latin II came in 7th: both teams won trophies.
Latin I team members were: Sammy Ortiz, Sean Xie, Allie Welham and Emily Ashe.
Latin II team members were Bronson Hall, MaryAnn Rigo, Lauren Preaskorn, Alexa Villaflor, and Bennett Fagan.

Debate Team (12/17/2012)
The Debate team completed this weekend in their 3rd WACFL tournament of the year. This is the first WACFL tournament where one of our Public Forum teams participated.  Out of the 60 novice PF teams competing, the team of Greg Lee and William Li took first place.  That is quite an accomplishment.  In the Novice LD division, Catherine Sun took 5th place. In Policy, Allen Lee and Jack Lloyd took 5th place in JV and Aline Dolinh and Annie Pan took 4th place in Novice. 
Our newly awarded Varsity teams of Mahathi Tadikonda & Eileen Chen and Amitav Kamani & Anee Nguyen placed in the top 11 teams.  This is quite an accomplishment for these sophomores who are competing with senior debaters.  Aline and Annie also took top speakers for the Novice division.  Aline won 1st place and Annie won 3rd.

Debate Team (12/12/2012)
The debate team traveled to JMU this weekend and the team was very successful. 
Monica Hanratty and Evelyn Wang took 2nd place in the Varsity Policy division.
Amitav Kamani and Anee Nguyen took 2nd place in the JV Policy division.
Giovanni D'Ambrosio and Amrita Singh took 3rd place in the Novice Policy division.
Top Speakers of the tournament:
Aline Dolinh- 1st place novice Policy.
Annie Pan- 7th place novice Policy
Eric Lim- 1st place JV Policy.
Anee Nguyen- 3rd place JV policy
Amitav Kamani- 4th place JV policy.
Monica Hanratty- 4th place Varsity policy Evelyn Wang- 9th place Varsity policy.
Shinar Jain- 5th place Varsity LD
Breana Tate- 10th place JV LD.
Catherine Sun- 5th place Novice LD  (Catherine made it all the way through the Semi-finals and took 4th place in the novice division of LD.)

Debate Team (11/12/2012)
Please congratulate the debate team on their hard work and success this weekend at the WACFL II tournament.
 4th Place Varsity Policy: Evelyn Wang and Monica Hanratty
 2nd Place JV Policy: Amitav Kamani and Anee Nguyen
6th Place JV Policy: Allen Tiberius Lee and Jack Lloyd
7th Place JV Policy, and most likely an AQ: Liz McTaggart and Mounika Nauduri
2nd Place JV Speaker: Anee Nguyen
3rd Place JV Speaker: Amitav Kamani
 1st Place Novice Policy: Austin Bae and Michael Qu
3rd Place Novice Policy: Vivian Wang and Vivien Ho
5th Place Novice Policy: Sragdara Khakurel and Dana Bachman
6th Place Novice Policy: Omar Abderhmen and Jack Tracey
2nd Place Novice Speaker: Austin Bae
3rd Place Novice Speaker: Vivien Ho

Marching and Symphonic Bands (10/31/2012)
Congratulations to the Oakton High School Cougar Marching Band for earning a "superior" rating at the state marching assessment on Saturday!  The students made steady improvement throughout the season and then really stepped up at Saturday's performance.  A superior rating at states is one half of earning the Virginia Honor Band designation.  The other half consists of the Symphonic Band earning a "superior" rating at the district concert band assessment in March.  Oakton HS is a 19-time Virginia Honor Band.

Debate Team (10/22/2012)
Congratulations to the Debate team on their hard work this weekend at their first tournament.  Novice teams- Amrita Singh and Giovanni D’Ambrosio took 5th place and Chris Collins and Collin Hansen took 6th place in their division.  JV Teams- Oakton won the top three spots for the JV division. 

  1. Amitav Kamani& Anee Ngyuyen
  2. Eileen Chen  & Mahathi Tadikonda
  3. Eric Lim & Taseen Haque

Top Speakers JV- Oakton won the top five positions out of the top ten. 

  1. Mahathi Tadikonda
  2. Amitav Kamani
  3. Anee Ngyuyen
  4. Eric Lim
  5. Eileen Chen 

Yearbook and Magazine (10/2/2012)
Congratulation to the Oakton students who created the 2012 Paragon yearbook and last year’s editions of the Outlook newsmagazine. At the annual State Championship yesterday in Fredericksburg, Oakton’s 2012 yearbook received the highest distinction in the state with the award of Trophy class and the Outlook was awarded a First Place distinction.

National Achievement Scholarship (10/1/2012)
Misa Mori was one of twenty-eight students from Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) named 2013 National Achievement Scholarship program semifinalists in an academic competition for Black American high school students conducted by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC).

Opus (9/11/2012)
Several local high schools picked up awards in the 2012 National Scholastic Press Association Newspaper Pacemaker competition.
Marina Fondin, a graphic designer and cartoonist for Opus, the Oakton High School literary magazine, received an honorable-mention award in the comic panel/strip category. Susan Sullivan is the adviser of the literary magazine.

Math (8/15/2012)
Each year the AP Stats students participate in a national project competition sponsored by the American Statistical Association (ASA). I have just recieved notice that two of our Oakton teams won national awards in the grade 10-12 category !
There is only one 1st, 2nd and 3rd place award (each) for the entire nationwide high school division.The judges were practicing statisticians from industry and academia.
Julin Justin, Brenda Oh, Jane Park, Marilyn Yang won first place for their project "Is Musical Involvement Indicative of Higher GPAs?"
Rhea Singh, Emory Lee, Emily Krisanda won third place for their project "Study of the Relationship between Student's Participation in Sports and Their Level of Academic Effort"
These are comprehensive projects that are intended to demonstrate that the students can apply concepts from the AP Statistics curriculum to a real-world setting. The students form a research question, design a data collection plan, collect the data, analyze the data graphically and statistically, and perform inference procedures to test a hypothesis or estimate a population parameter. Finally, students reflect on the process and what they have learned from the experience.
It is an impressive accomplishment that these students' projects placed 1st and 3rd nationally among all high school projects submitted. They will be awarded calculators (donated by TI) and cash prizes, and there is a plaque for the school.

 

English (5/18/2012)
The following AP Language students have been selected to publish their editorials in the HuffPost High School section of the Huffington Post. The students wrote the editorials this past February in response to the over-arching 11th grade thematic question, “What is the American Experience?” Their editorials will be published in June and July and read by Huffington Post readers around the globe!
Giuliana Macaluso, Imren Johar, Jeremy Byrne, Marcela Hawkins, Meagan McRoberts, Han Bin Lee. Karli Gillespie, Misa Mori, Sarah Snyder, Sepher Zomorodi, Emma Olson, Mi Ran Youn, Will Savino, Hu Min Yook, Shannon Carney, Calvin Thrall, Emily Yaremchuk, Erin Desbiens, Madlin Mekelburg, Stephanie Grasso, Drew Sandler, Joanna Ro, Brian Oliver, Marylin Yang, Brooks Henne, Melina Smith, Kyra Nyman, Sofia Crutchfield, Nicasio Reid, Lorelei Christie, Stephen Bushey, Nathan Chen, Erica Bossert, Katherine Crump, and Rayna Rossini

Drama (5/16/2012)
Last night the CAPPIES nominations came out for this season.   If you have a chance please congratulate Aidan Smith who is nominated for Lead Actor in a musical and Sarah Smith who is nominated for her choreography in FOOTLOOSE.   Our CAPPIES critic  team was also nominated for the 3rd year in a row.  Shannon Holcombe, Caroline Werenskjold, Mary Kate Mehegan, Olivia Meyer, Adrienne Picciotto, Maddy DeFreece, Emilia Brennan, Rebecca Henenlotter, Henry Ragan and Sarah Smith make up this fabulous team. The Awards will be held at the Kennedy Center on June 10th

TSA Competition (5/10/2012)
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) middle and high school students won first place awards in 19 categories at the 2012 Virginia Technology Student Association (TSA) State Leadership Conference, held last week in Richmond. The three days of competitive events and displays of student work culminated in FCPS winning the Lynn P. Barrier Outstanding School Division Award for middle schools for the third consecutive year. Winners will advance to the National TSA Conference, scheduled for June 21-25 in Nashville. Representing Oakton is Angela Roller (Desktop Publishing) and Elizabeth Roller (Photographic Technology).

Performing Art (5/7/2012)
Congratulation to the performing arts department and to their students for earning the Virginia Music Educators Association award - The Blue Ribbon School Award 2012-2012.  The purpose of this award is to recognize schools throughout the Commonwealth who have superior performing ensembles.  Superior performance as evidenced by the district Performance Assessment rating from each of the top performing groups of each ensemble course taught at the school (band, choir, and orchestra).

National Merit Scholorship Winner (5/3/2012)
National Merit Scholarship Corporation has named Gabrielle Tate (electrical engineering). winner of $2,500 National Merit Scholarship. The student are part of a group of approximately 2,500 National Merit finalists chosen to receive scholarships.

Band (5/3/2012)
The three concert bands each won first place in their respective divisions and the two jazz bands also each won first place in their divisions.  Oakton won best overall concert band and best overall jazz band awards.  The Symphonic Band was presented the William D. Revelli award for being the outstanding Symphonic Band.  Congratulations to all of the students who performed and thank you for supporting them in this endeavor.

SCHOOL COUNSELING (4/30/2012)
OHS School Counseling was just awarded the RAMP certification from their national organization, The American School Counselor Association. This application, which took over a year to complete, was recently approved to make Oakton one of only 400 schools nationally with this distinction. This demonstrates that OHS Counseling is part of a national movement to ensure that our students are getting the best services we can provide for our ever-changing student population. New initiatives this year included: a change to the Freshman Transition Program lessons, additional individual college/future planning sessions with seniors, and support for seniors that will attend community college or enter right into the workforce. We are very proud of this honor!

Chorus and Orchestra (4/26/2012)
Congratulations to the Orchestra, directed by Deb Myers, and Chorus, directed by Tiffany Powell, for their outstanding showing at Festival Disney in Orlando this past weekend! Over 15 high schools had choral and orchestra groups competing for a total of nearly 40 groups. Expert adjudicators evaluated all of the ensembles to yield the following results:
Symphonic Orchestra – Superior rating
Chamber Orchestra – Superior rating + “Best in Class AAAA” and Gold Award in Orchestra Division
Madrigals – Superior rating + Bronze Award in Specialty Choir Division
Men’s Choir – Superior rating + “Best in Class” in Men’s Choir Category
Select Women – Superior rating
Chamber Choir – Excellent rating
John Ferri – Outstanding Student Vocal Soloist
Nina Stabile – Outstanding Student Accompanist

Business (4/25/2012)
The following Oakton students placed in the top 20% of the nation on the National Financial Capability Challenge Test that was administered in my Economics/Personal Finance class the first week in April.  Over 800,000 students participated in taking the voluntary test. 
Francis Donnelly (scored perfect score of 100%)
Darling Guerrero
Evan Heitman
Justin Hugel
Isaac Mills
Tommaso Prezioso
Sonaj Williams-Senior

Literary Magazine (4/23/2012)
Oakton's Literary Magazine won the First Place Award in the Best of Show at the Virginia Journalism Day Conference held in Harrisonburg on April 20-21. Congrats to all members of the literary magazine staff on this important recognition, as well as OHS artists and writers who submit to the literary magazine!

FBLA (4/16/2012)
Congratulations to the following students on their outstanding representation at this weekend’s FBLA State Competition in Reston…
1st Place Economics – Tian Hou
2nd Place Business Communications – Imren Johar
3rd Place Accounting II – Amanda Labb
Imren & Tian will be traveling to San Antonio, Texas this summer to compete at the FBLA National Competition.

Latin (4/11/2012)
The NLE is given to Latin students around the world, so it should really be called the International Latin Exam. OHSLatin Students from all levels took the exam on March 15th in the auditorium, with Kristi Layman proctoring it (the Latin teacher is not allowed to see it until after it’s taken.) The test is different for each level and consists of 40 questions, based on reading Latin and translating skills, Roman history and culture, Latin to English derivatives and classical mythology. Gold medals are the highest, then Silver, then Magna Cum Laude, then Cum Laude. We are very pleased with the results – they reflect all the hard work and studying that these wonderful students have been doing all year.
Latin V Advanced Poetry -
Connor Turley – Magna cum Laude
Latin IV Advanced Poetry   
GOLD MEDAL, Summa cum Laude: Elizabeth Betsy Villaflor
SILVER MEDAL, Maxima cum Laude: Elizabeth Himes
Magna Cum Laude Viraj Munshi
Cum Laude: Mike Becker
Latin III Advanced Prose     
GOLD MEDAL: Tony Lee
SILVER MEDALS: Acadia Gribble, Brooks Henne, Ankit Jain, Mike Raiti, Katie Veltman
Magna Cum Laude: Christina Back, Alan Womble
Cum Laude: Julian Easley
Latin II      
GOLD MEDALS: Patrick Holcomb, Gabe Habulan, Kirsten Hemrich, Jane Nguyen Magna Cum Laude: Allen Lee, Natalia Buenaventura, Thomas Nguyen, Jenna Bayer Cum Laude: Brian Mays
Latin I       
GOLD MEDAL, Perfect Score: Alexa Villaflor
GOLD MEDAL: Bronson Hall, Lauren Preaskorn, Eileen Chen, Angelica Habulan, Jack Lloyd
SILVER MEDALS:  Ashley Thai, Maryann Rigo, John Oh
Magna Cum Laude: Mahea Kaloi, Eric Lim, Christa Langley, Joe Harrell, Abby Mills, Emma Olson, Becky Fulop, Juan Rosas, Charley Klein
Cum Laude:  Mike Adams, Leah Millard.
Missed an Award by one point
LIV: M. Boothe, Julia Tung, Luke Wratschko; LIII: Henry Yen; LII: Alan Davis;
LI: Christian Butters, Tejas Patel, Kylie Cropper  
Total Gold Medals:                12
Total Silver Medals:                 9
Total Magna cum Laude:      16
Total Cum Laude:                   5

Fashion (3/31/2012)
Through the "Be a Star: Make Your Way to the Runway" contest of Sweety High, an online social platform for girls to showcase their talents, Morgan Doss has won the opportunity to be a guest designer for BeBop Clothing. She tied for this prize with 18-year-old Caitlin Ellsworth from Minnesota by submitting a video of herself showing a sketch of a dress she designed.

Forensics (3/26/2012)
On Saturday Marina Fondin attended the VHSL State Forensics competition in Harrisonburg. After a long day of performing her high-energy piece before multiple judges, Marina was finally ranked 8th in the state for her category, Humorous Interpretation of Literature.

Literature (3/22/2012)
Congratulations to Nathan Ammons on his selection as a National Gold Medal Award winner in the 2012 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards! This is the second year Nathan has been recognized as a Gold Key Regional  Winner in the Metropolitan Washington Area Competition (Maryland, Virginia, and the District), but his first time as a Gold Medal national-level winner.Nathan, who is Submissions Editor for Opus 2012 Literary Magazine, plans to travel with his family to Carnegie Hall in New York City in June for the National Awards Ceremony.

OMG (3/19/2012)
Allie Berube, OHS yearbook co-editor-in-chief and co-sports section editor of the newspaper, was awarded second place in the entire state competition for journalist of the year.

Science (3/19/2012)
The 2012 Regional Science fair took place at Robinson SS this past weekend.  Oakton won many Cateory and Organizational Awards.  The following students: Daniel Monaco, Andrew Kubiak/Joseph LeBerre, Brenna DeBellas and Ajay Mehta have also qualified for States. Please congratulate ALL the students for a job well done!
Student, Category Awards, Title, Teacher
Andrew Kubiak, First Place-Environmental Analysis, The Correlation Between Muons and Thunderstorms, Starr
Joseph LeBerre, First Place-Environmental Analysis, The Correlation Between Muons and Thunderstorms, Starr
Ajay Mehta, First Place-Environmental Management, The Effect of Natural Sorbents on Oil Sorption, Bingham
Daniel Monaco, First Place-Microbiology, Does Manure Slurry Protect Bacteria from UV Rays? , Starr
Brenna DeBellas, First Place-Botany, The Effect of Nicotine on the Hypoestes Plant, Wang
Caitlyn Hann, Second Place-Behavioral & Social Sciences, The Effect of Music Genre on Key Signature, Murphy
Phillip Hu, Second Place-Behavioral & Social Sciences, What Makes People Click Now?, Starr
Ryan Moore, Second Place-Behavioral & Social Sciences, What Makes People Click Now?, Starr
Joseph Turner, Second Place-Chemistry, The Effect of NaCl on Electrolysis Reactions, Mikula
Olilvia Peterkin, Second Place-Energy and Transportation, Solar Energy Meets Greywater, Bingham
Kiren Ajrawat, Second Place-Environmental Analysis, Effect of Biodiversity on Water Phytoremediation, Plecity
Katie Brodie, Second Place-Environmental Analysis, Water Well Done, Starr
Mahathi Tadikonda, Second Place-Medicine and Health, Tennis Ball Zone's Impact on Tennis Elbow, Wang
Ava Shafiei, Third Place-Animal Sciences, The Effect of Noise Exposure on Earthworms, Wang
Ben Braudaway, Third Place-Energy and Transportation, Cars Running on Green Speed, Starr
Amitav Kamani, Third Place-Environmental Analysis, Overpopulation on Marine Model Ecosystems, Murphy
Annie Wandishin, Third Place-Medicine and Health, Cricket Brains-a New Form of Antibiotic? , Starr
Siwani Regmi, Honorable Mention-Environmental Analysis, Storm Water Pollutant Removal by Wet and Dry Ponds, Wang
Dennis Cooney, Honorable Mention-Physics and Astronomy, Measuring the New Impact Force for Safety Balls, Starr
Nicholas Bergh, Honorable Mention-Physics and Astronomy, The Effect of Solar Cosmic Rays on Muon Flux, Starr
Katie Croote, Honorable Mention - Botany,Juglone’s Affect on Clover Growth and Germination
Organizational Awards, Organizational Group, Award,
Kubiak/LeBerre, American Meterological Society, 1st-Banquet and Certificate of Merit, Starr
Daniel Monaco, American Society for Microbiology, 2nd-$50 and Certificate of Merit, Starr
Mahathi Tadikonda, US Public Health Services, Honorable Mention and Certificate of Merit, Wang
Katie Brodie, Federal Water Quality Association, 3rd, Certficate of Merit, Ribbon and T-shirt, Starr
Siwani Regmi, Federal Water Quality Association, Honorable Mention, Certificate of Merit, and  T-shirt, Wang
Olivia Peterkin, Office of Naval Research, $50 Gift Certificate and Medal, Bingham
Olivia Peterkin , Society of Manufacturing Engineers, $50 Check and Book Award, Bingham
Caitlyn Hann, Patent and Trademark Office, 1st-Certificate of Merit, Murphy
Annie Wandishin, Patent and Trademark Office, 1st-Certificate of Merit, Starr
Nicholas Bergh, Washington Statistical Society, Honorable Mention-Certificate of Merit, Starr

Jazz Band (3/19/2012
Congratulations to the members of our jazz band for receiving a superior rating at the Chantilly Jazz Festival on Saturday.  The students put in many hours of practice in preparation for this performance and represented Oakton very well.

DECA 3/12/2012
This weekend 42 Oakton Marketing  Students attend the Virginia State Leadership Conference in Norfolk, VA.  Through their hard work and long hours I am pleased to announce that we earned 19 Top 10 Medals and earned 10 spots to the International Career Development Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah!  The following students were recognized on stage in front of 3,000 students and advisors:

  • Andrew Seastream placed Top 10!
  • Quinton Taylor won 2nd in the State and qualified for Nationals!
  • Nick Strauss and Kevin Bezick placed 8th in the State and qualified for Nationals!
  • Vicent Tsai placed Top 10!
  • Lyba Khan won 5th in the State and qualified for Nationals!
  • Brianna Rock placed Top 10!
  • Ben Suh placed Top 10!
  • Imren Johar won 3rd in the State and qualified for Nationals!
  • Nick Despins won 5th in the State and qualified for Nationals!
  • Tristan Thomas won 8th in the State and qualified for Nationals!
  • Harshit Bagla won 5th in the State and qualified for Nationals!
  • Jimmy Douglas won 4th in the State and qualified for Nationals!
  • Emily Richey, Colleen Gleason, and Allie Delgade won 1st in the State and qualified for Nationals!

Band 3/12/2012
Oakton High School was designated a Commonwealth of Virginia Honor Band for the 19th time this past weekend.  Our Symphonic Band and both Concert Bands performed at the assessment at Madison High School and all three bands received superior ratings.  Oakton was the only school to take 3 bands and the only school to receive 3 superior ratings.  The designation of Honor Band includes superior performances at two assessments – the state marching assessment in October and the concert assessment in March.  Oakton received a superior rating at the marching assessment and, due to the superior rating achieved by our Symphonic Band on Saturday, the Honor Band designation was achieved for the 19th time.  The students began work for this on August 1 and have spent many hours preparing and rehearsing for these two assessments.  They are to be congratulated for their hard work and dedication.  Congratulations and thanks also to Katie Hovanec, our guard/visual director, for her commitment to the guard and band programs.

FBLA (3/8/2012)
The following business  students did an outstanding job at the NOVA FBLA District Competition.  Several have qualified and will be representing Oakton at the State FBLA Competition in April:
Amanda Labb – 1st place Accounting 2
Imren Johar – 1st place Business Communications
Jared Schulman – 3rd place Business Procedures
Kevin Bailey, Sonny Chen, Thomas Tsang – 2nd place Digital Design & Promotion
Tian Hou -1st place Economics
Hannah Park – 1st place Impromptu Speaking
Ethan Jones, Shawn Mufti, Tommaso Prezioso, Brandon Chandler – 2nd place Parliamentary Procedures

Debate Team (3/7/2012)
OHS debate team on winning the Concorde District last night. In addition to the overall team win, our Policy team placed 1st (Gabby Tate & Tim Collins) and 2nd (Evelyn Wang and Monica Hanratty)
and our LD Teams placed 2nd (Diana Yen) and 3rd (Shinar Jain) in the District for their respective divisions. While these teams will go on to compete in the regionals on March 17, the entire debate team has contributed to their success over the year.

Debate Team (3/5/2012)
The Oakton Debate Team has worked incredibly hard this year.  The team participates in a monthly tournament (which lasts all day) and involves quite a bit of preparation.  This past weekend the team participated in the Metro finals for the league against some of the best debaters in the area (this is a Washington Area league, so includes, Loudon, DC, Fairfax etc.)  This particular tournament requires that the debaters qualify during the regular season.Our entire policy team won 2nd Place for the year in the Team Sweepstakes category.  Meaning our team had the 2nd most wins for the year.
Monica Hanratty and Evelyn Wang won 1st place in the Policy JV Division.  (From observers, they CRUSHED the competition.)
Eric Lim won 3rd Speaker and Liz McTaggart won 4th speaker in the JV Division.
Gabbey Tate, Tim Collins, Liz McTaggart and Mounika Nauduri won the service award for attending all five WACFLs and the Metrofinals.
During Monica and Evelyn's Semifinals, the entire team stayed to cheer for them. 
Our team has grown tremendously over the past few years and, although these results are only for the policy division, we have begun competing in the Lincoln/Douglass and Public Forum style debates as well. 

Model UN (2/28/2012
Students attended the Boston University Model UN Conference (BOSMUN) this past weekend. This is the most awards OHS has received at a single conference; our students were actively engaged in collaboration, speaking, and writing their way to resolving pressing global issues (past & present). 
-Irene Arora won Verbal Commendation for her role as Thailand on the UN Development Programme committee.
-Taseen Haque won Verbal Commendation for his role as Hans-Peter Kaul of Germany on the International Criminal Court.
-Evelyn Wang won Verbal Commendation representing Legacy International in the NGO Forum.
-Lorelei Christie earned an award for Honorable Delegate as Ecuador on the Commission on the Status of Women.
-Jake Wagner was awarded the top honor of Best Delegate for his role as Shirley Siegel of the International Monetary Fund. 
-Angela Roller was awarded the top honor of Best Delegate for her role as Chief of Staff John Sununu on the US National Security Council.
The following students won Best Position Paper awards for their thorough analyses and calls for action in their writing. 
-Ajay Mehta:  Minister of Culture/Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation on the Indian Cabinet Secretariat.
-Eunice Kim:  Thailand on the UN Peace Building Commission

Orchestra (2/27/2012)
Congratulations to the following exceptional musicians who garnered a seat in the Virginia All-State Orchestra through a competitive audition this past Saturday. They will represent Oakton at the All-State event April 12-14, 2012 in Richmond.  Additionally, Stacy Ham placed 1st in the state out of a field of 115 violinists!
Violin: Stacy Ham, Irene Lee, Alice Xiang, Rachel Kim
Viola: Mikey Lankenau

Fine Arts (2/21/2012)
Gold Key recipients are Mitchell Dollard, Tulsi Ratnam, DylanKalina Staniszewski.  Silver Key winners were Mimi Dabestani, Marina Fondin, Joel & Thomas Hierholzer, and Julia Tung.  In addition, Nishaad Lorengo, DylanKalina Staniszewski and Lars Yates were awarded Certificate of Merit for their artwork.  These students were selected for recognition for their talents in Computer Graphics, Photography, Painting, Drawing and Sculpture, from a pool of more than 1500 entrants!  The Gold and Silver Key recipients were honored last night with an exhibition of their artwork at the Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale Campus.  At last night’s ceremony, Tulsi Ratnam received the Cluster VIII Assistant Superintendent’s Award from Dr. Zuluaga for her outstanding photography portfolio.

Science (2/21/2012)
Over the weekend, a number of Oakton students took part in the Regional Science Olympiad at Kilmer Middle School.  As a primer for the State Competition in April, the students competed against 25 other teams and tried their hands at multiple building challenges and scientific events.  Oakton faired rather well and if you see any of these students below, please congratulate them!

3rd Place – Thermodynamics:  Bridget Bauman / Prathibha Chintagunta / Brad Ambrose
6th Place – Microbe Mission:  Stewart Silver / Ksenia Sokolova
7th Place – Fermi Questions:  Stewart Silver / Han Bin Lee
7th Place – Optics:  Raju Nadimpalli / Stewart Silver
7th Place – Chemistry Lab:  Bridget Bauman / Prathibha Chintagunta
10th Place – Towers:  Nick Newberry / Han Bin Lee
11th Place – Forensics:  Stewart Silver / Raju Nadimpalli

Forensics (2/16/2012)
Congratulatons to the three students who participated in the regional forensics tournament last night. Competition was really stiff, since these were the best students from all over northern Virginia, but we  were all able to watch some really amazing performances. Both Heidi Tubbs and Maddie Wiltse gave great performances themselves, and I’m sure they will be strong contenders again next year.
Those who saw Marina Fondin’s 10-minute rendition of A Series of Unfortunate Events know how amazing her performance was, and the judges last night thought so, too. Marina won 1st place in her event (Humorous Dramatic Interpretation) for the entire Northern region, and will be competing again at the VHSL state tournament late next month. If you see any of these students over the next couple days, please congratulate them on a job well done!

Model UN (2/14/2012)
Angela Roller – ILMUNC 2012 in Philadelphia (1/26-29) run by U Penn – awarded an Honorable Mention as the delegate for Greece in the European Commission.  Yes, she was pretty much put through the ringer as in real life but held strong.
Stephen Banghart – JHUMUNC 2012 in Baltimore (2/9-12) run by Johns Hopkins U. – awarded an Honorable Mention as the delegate for Botswana in the World Health Organization.  This was his first time competing so well done on his part.

Chorus (2/13/2012)
Please congratulate the following chorus students for being selected to represent District XII at the All-Virginia Chorus event! These students participated in District Chorus this past weekend where they auditioned Thursday evening to earn their placement. Only 4 girls from every voice part advance to the state level, so this is a great accomplishment! The girls will travel to Lynchburg, VA to participate in the state choral event April 26th - 28th.

Sarah Smith (senior), Alto 1 – 1st chair
Madeline Paul (senior), Alto II – 2nd chair
Lauren Goetz (junior), Soprano I – 4th chair

2012 Results for The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards (2/9/2012)
Ammons, Nathan, 12, Walking in Water, Dramatic Script, Gold Key
Ammons, Nathan, 12, When We Meet Again, Poetry, Silver Key
Bachelet, Esteban, 12, Collected Works, Portfolio, Honorable Mention
Bui, Kevin, 11, Ink Liquor; Indescribable; Joy; A Curious Gardener, Poetry, Honorable Mention
Hoang, Elysee, 11, Polygon, Science Fiction/Fant, Honorable Mention
Jordan, Anna, 10, I Believe, Personal Essay/Me, Honorable Mention
Jordan, Anna, 10, Window Seat, Poetry, Silver Key
Kitchen, Emma, 12, The House, Short Story, Honorable Mention
Lin, Maggie, 12, Goddess of Ice, Grey Men, Lost, Uncharted Treasure, Change of Mind, Poetry, Honorable Mention
Lin, Maggie, 12, Hands, Countryside, Brocade, Resilience, The Phoenix, Poetry, Honorable Mention
Lin, Maggie, 12, Collected Works, Portfolio, Honorable Mention
Mekelburg , Madlin, 11, "An Elegy of Life", "Their Names", "Lost in Translation", Poetry, Honorable Mention
Moens, Lily, 10, The DMV, Poetry, Silver Key
Wiltse, Madeline, 10, Always Remember, Never Forget, Short Story, Honorable Mention
Yaremchuk, Emily, 11, Elegy, I Hate Your Eyes, On the Heart of Suburbia, Over the City, The Pleasure Boat, Poetry, Honorable Mention

Mitchell Dollard 12 Gold Key  Digital Art Penance
Tulsi Ratnam 12 GK Photo Portfolio Envy
DylanKalina Staniszewski 11 GK Photography Time Warp
DylanKalina Staniszewski 11 GK Photography Biting Time
mimi dabestani 12 SK Photo Portfolio In Cupid's Cloud
Marina Fondin 12 SK Art Portfolio Sketchbook Hatchl
Joel Thomas Hierholzer 10 SK Sculpture Old Man Whistle
Julia Tung 12 SK Art Portfolio This Is Not The Sea
Nishaad Lorengo 9 CM Painting Lunacy
DylanKalina Staniszewski 11 CM Digital Art Cyborg
Lars Yates 11 CM Digital Art S.f. Design

Debate (1/11/2012)
On Friday and Saturday, the Oakton High School debate team competed at the George Mason University Invitational tournament. In Lincoln Douglass Debate, Diana Yen (sophomore) earned third place, after debating for nine rounds. Mahathi Tadikonda (freshman) earned seventh place speaker in Junior Varsity Policy Debate.

Latin(1/9/2012)
Congratulations for a successful participation in the Flint Hill Latin Certamen last Saturday. The Latin I team placed 3rd among 22 schools attending. On the team were Angelica Habulan, Maryann Rigo, Bronson Hall and Michael Adams.

Model UN (12/12/2011)
Please congratulate the following students for their outstanding performance at this year’s William and Mary Model UN Conference(OHS first time at this conference):
Verbal Commendations – Ankit Gulati and Alice Xiang representing North Korea on the UN Development Programme committee.  It ain’t easy being the DPRK!  No one wants to work with you (except China and Iran) but you do get to walk out mid-session in a dramatic manner!
Honorable Delegate – Ambareesh Gorle representing Chen Cheng, Vice President of Republic of China, Triple Joint Crisis Committee:  Nationalists.
Outstanding Delegate – Jake Wagner representing Lee Todd Jr. of the University of Kentucky on the NCAA Board of Directors.

Debate Team (12/5/2011)
Our Oakton teams did really great this weekend at JMU’s tournament. Two of our Novice Policy teams made it into the quarter finals: Jack Lloyd and Xander Fulton; Anee Nguyen and Amitav Kamani
Anee and Amitav also won 3rd and 4th place in Novice Policy Speaker Points for the entire tournament.  Shinar Jain won 3rd place in the Junior Varsity division of Lincoln- Douglass debate.
Breana Tate took 2nd place in the Novice LD division.
Both girls made it to the Semi finals.  

Orchestra (11/21/2011)
Congratulate to the following musicians who garnered a seat in District XII Orchestra through competitive auditions last Monday:
Violin - Chris Suh, Edward Kao, Li-Chian Wang, Casey MacLean
Viola - Ana Polkovnichenko, Jeffrey Shih, Amanda Cerva, Ian Johnson
These outstanding musicians will represent Oakton at the District event in January at Herndon High School!

OMG (11/21/2011)
OMG students received awards at the Journalism Education Association conference in Minneapolis over the weekend. The following students received individual awards from the Write Off competitions. These students should especially be commended because over 600 students from across the country participated.
Shannon Ragan  – Newswriting - Superior                                                 
Allie Berube  – Yearbook Layout: Inside Pages - Superior                                     
Emily Norris  - YEARBOOK Copy/Caption: Student Life - Honorable Mention
Caitlin O'Brien  - Literary Magazine Layout - Honorable Mention                  
Gianna Sheffield  - Yearbook Student Life Photography - Honorable Mention         
Emma Mankin  - Review Writing - Honorable Mention
Madlin Mekelburg  - Feature Writing - Honorable Mention    

Marching Band (10/31/2011)
Congratulations to the members of the Cougar Marching Band and Guard for a superior performance at the State Marching Assessment on Saturday.  The students have been working toward this performance since August 1 and they performed at the superior level on Saturday, receiving straight superior ratings from all 7 judges.  Special thanks and congratulations to Drum Majors Bobby Fuchs, Tom Braudaway and Alex Tyskowski and also to our soloists Nicole Abdullah – trumpet, Carl Condas – mellophone and the euphonium duet – Dominick Barbaris and Ethan Wescoat

Orchestra (10/26/2011)
Oakton Students Excel at Senior Regional Orchestra Auditions. Go to http://oakton.patch.com/articles/oakton-students-excel-at-senior-regional-orchestra-auditions

Marching Band (10/26/2011)
Congratulations to the members of the marching band and guard for winning 5th place at the JMU Parade of Champions this past weekend. 

Orchestra (10/6/2011)
The following musicians garnered a seat in the Northern Virginia Regional Orchestra through competitive auditions Monday evening:
Violin- Stacy Ham, Irene Lee, Alice Xiang, Rachel Kim, Hannah Kang
Viola - Mikey Lankenau – placed 1st in the Region
Cello - Mike Dettmar, Gary Yeh, Emily Wang
Horn - Carl Condas
These outstanding musicians will represent Oakton at the Regional event in November at South Lakes!

Chorus (10/6/2011)
Three senior members of Cougar Chorus auditioned for the VMEA Senior Honors Choir last weekend. Although Saturday was incredibly busy with both SAT testing and Homecoming, these dedicated singers traveled all the way to Longwood University in Farmville, VA to compete with other seniors from across the entire Commonwealth of Virginia in an attempt to earn a spot in the prestigious Senior Honors Choir event.
Shannon Mason placed 33rd out of 131 singers in the Soprano 2 voicing .
Hannah Berlin placed 24th out of 92 singers in the Alto 2 voicing.
Madleine Paul placed 14th out of 92 singers in the Alto 2 voicing.
This was a very competitive audition consisting of performance of a classical solo repertoire selection and demonstration of sight reading skill. These results are a testament to their talent and diligent preparation.
As a result of her placement, Madeline Paulwas selected to participate in the event and will be representing Oakton High School at the VMEA Senior Honors Choir event to be held at Conference in Norfolk November 17-19.

OMG(10/5/2011)
Opus Literary Magazine won a Virginia High School League 2011 Trophy Class Award;the top overall award for State Publications and also Five FIRST PLACE individual competition awards in this year. VHSL Publications Championships in Fredericksburg, Va. Oakton's Yearbook was also awarded Trophy Class and the Outlook News Magazine was awarded second place.

Marching Band (9/26/2011)
Congratulations to the members of the marching band and guard on a great performance last weekend at the Millbrook Showcase in Winchester.  Oakton won 1st place Music, 1st place Marching, 1st place General Effect, 1st place Drum majors (Bobby Fuchs, Tom Braudaway, Alex Tyskowski), 1st place in class 4A and the Grand Championship.  This past weekend in Harrisonburg, Oakton won 2nd place in class 5A and 2nd place overall out of 16 bands and received a superior rating.  Congratulations to all of these students.

Literary Magazine (9/26/2011)
OHS senior and literary magazine class student, Angelica Habulan, was selected as a first place winner for writing the winning essay question for Mount Holyoke College's essay question contest.  She received a $250 prize.

Publications (9/26/2011)
The finalists for the VHSL 2011 Publications Awards for 2011 include numerous nominations for Oakton's Opus literary magazine. Winners will be announced Oct. 3 at the VHSL Championship in Fredericksburg. Oakton's finalists, which include recent graduates and current students, ranked in the following categories:
Concept Package (entire class)
Cover (design and art) by Emily Bagdasarian, Grace Newman & Jih Yung Yoon
Table of Contents by Lisa Baumgartner  
Photograph by Nikki Clemons
Drawing by Jungmin Sim
Painting by Julia Santoli
3-D Art by Jih Yung Yoon
Art Gallery Spread
Poetry Spread by Elizabeth Brobeck, Emily Bagdasarian, Lisa Baumgartner
Editorial Cartooning by Saeed Speede and Nikki Clemons

 

 

Last update: January 17, 2013
Curator: Cris Bradshaw
Banner Design By: Hallie Eilerts '08