Blair Awards Night honors exemplary students

Blair students were honored at the Montgomery Blair High School Awards Night held May 31. Awards, given to over 100 students, came from the community and Blair departments to mark achievement in sports, arts and scholarship.

The first award given, just introduced this year, was the "Andrew Helgeson Heart of Gold Scholarship Athlete" award, in honor of Andrew Helgeson, a Blair student who passed away last year in May. Richard Helgeson, Andrew's father, presented the award, which includes a monetary scholarship, to senior Tyler Wilchek.

Last year, Andrew Helgeson was to receive the "Terry Hicks All-Around Student Award," an award given in honor of Terry Hicks, a Blair alumnus who was killed in the Vietnam War. This year, this award was presented to senior Thomas Dugan.

The following is a list of the awards given at Blair Awards Night. Please note that there may be some inaccuracies.

Community Awards

Andrew Helgeson Heart of Gold Scholarship Athlete
Tyler Wilchek

Terry Hicks All-Around Student Award
Thomas Dugan

Silver Spring Alumni Chapter Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity African American Book Award
Naod Yiman

W.E.B. Dubois Outstanding Service Award
Valerie Fomenga
Dena Tran

Rosa Parks Art Contest Award
Jenny Alvarez

NFTE Semi-Finalist Awards
Robert Ginsberg, Ryan Thompson, Aaron Sacks, Ryan Andrews and Thomas Dant

MCPS & MC Entrepreneurship Expo 1^st Place, Marketing
Elias Moges

MCPS & MC Entrepreneurship Expo 2^nd Place, Operations
Lindsay Alfaro
Yenny Miranda

Asian American Education Association Scholarship
Xiaowen Hu

Van Hollen Public Service Award
Jody Pollock

Mongtomery Blair High School Alumnae Association Award
Stephanie Jones

Michelle Renee Wilson Award
Valerie Formengia

2005-06 Siemens Awards for Advanced Placement
John Kim
Yueyang Li

Coca-Cola Foundation Award
Mimi Zou

Comcast Award
Segen Beshir

Presidential Freedom Scholarship
Segen Beshir
Luke McQueen

Matters of the Heart Scholarship
Segen Beshir, Sarah Wolk, Daniel Chamberlain, Wonidoh Camara, Biruktawit Dejene, Michael Amanuel, Raya Steinberg, Neway Wolde, John Orr, Tewodros Wolde, Jessica Harris and Xiaowen Hu

Athletic Awards

Outstanding Athlete
Jacob Wade
Sarah Rumbaugh

Outstanding Sportsmanship
Tyler Wilchek
Sara Pierce

Scholar Athlete
Anna Chiplis
Gregory Howard

U.S. Army Reserve Scholar Athlete
Catherine Rassman
Aaron Simon

U.S. Marine Corps Distinguished Athlete
Sophia Esparza
Samuel Morris

Departmental Awards

Communication Arts Program
Communication Arts Program 10th Anniversary Scholarship
Sebastian Johnson

Outstanding in Media
Karla Berberich
Brian Kesten
Tim Nichlas

Wellesley Book Award
Erica Irving

Magnet Program

Caltech Signature Award
Richard McCutchen

Intel Science Talent Search Finalists and Semi-Finalists
Alexander Alm, Pria Anand, Kiran Bhat, Clair Briggs, Lu Chen, Debbie Cheng, Shwetadwip Chowdury, Gregory Howard, Jun Hu, Minh Huynh-Le, Andy Jiang and Chelsea Zhang

Simmons College Kimmerling Book Award for Women in the Sciences and Technology
Natalie Salaets

Science Department
Bausch & Lomb Honorary Science Award
Wendolyn Quintanilla

George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science Medal
Anna Coughlan
Erica Irving

Science Department Senior Student of the Year
Robert Hendryx

Xerox Award for Innovation and Information Technology
Justin Vlasits

The Vault, MCT-FCU Award
Aracely Blanco, Emmy Frenz, Steven Nunez, Hector Perez, Margaret Khan, Lothar Frenz, Prescilla Elielie-Ndjana and Ashley Dusclosel

Price Waterhouse Coopers Accounting
Wilber Zavala

Counseling Department

2006 Governor's Merit Scholastic Awards
Michael Arbit, Kiran Belani, Jahnavi Bhaskar, Kiran Bhat, Nora Boedecker, Kamilia Butler-Peres, Jeffrey Cao, Lu Chen, Kelsey Dean, Madelaine Driskill, Frederick Esch, Kenneth Ettinger, Rose Feinberg, Daniel Gillen, Gregory Howard, Monica Huang, Minh Huynh-Le, John Kim, Katherine Lafen, Sally Lanar, Yueyang Li, Ryan Ly , Alexander Mazerov, Stephanie Paul, Sarah Peitzmeier, Elena Pinsky, Jody Pollock, Yang Shan, John Silberholz, Ekta Taneja, Linden Vongsathorn, Eddie Wang, David White, Yuan Zhang and Jolillian Zwerdling

All-Met Scholars
Joanne Rogers
Valerie Fomengia
Soulyana Lakew

Girl Scout Gold Award
Domonique Franson
Katherine Garfield

English Department
Emma Liebmann

Dartmouth Book Award
Merlyn Deng

Harvard Book Award
Dylan Rebois

Mount Holyoke Book Award
Rebecca Vogel

Williams College Book Award
Ethan Schaler

National Scholastic Press Association's Pacemaker Award
Christopher Consolino
Alex Mazerov
Jeremy Goodman
Grace Harter

Maryland-Delaware District of Columbia Press Association's "Journalist of the Year" Award
Jody Pollock

Scholastic Writing Awards' Gold Key Winner for Journalism
Jody Pollock

Columbia Scholastic Press Association's Gold Circle Award, 2nd Place In-Depth News/Feature Story
Sally Lanar

American Medical Association's Shedding Light on Alcohol Award - 1st Place
Alexandra Abels

Children's National Medical Center Student Journalists' Health Writing Contest - 3rd Place
Sara Pierce

Quill and Scroll "National Sweepstakes Winner, 1st Place editorial cartoon
Nathan Yaffe

Quill and Scroll High School Journalist Writing Contest Winners
Allie O' Hora (sports story)
Armin Rosen (feature)
Jason Meer (sports)
Lucia Sirota (advertisement)
Pria Anand (feature)

Outstanding Seniors in English
Elizabeth Aubert, Pria Anand, Ania Avila, Kiran Velan, Kiran Bhat, Nora Boedecker, Melissa Christian, James Gillette, Alex Gold, Chia-Pei Horng, June Hu, John Kim, Sally Lanar, Emily May, Sean O' Brien, Elizabeth Packer, Margot Pass, Samir Paul, Sarah Peitzmeier, Jody Pollock, Raya Steinberg, Ravi Umarji, Avi Wolfman-Arent, Chelsea Zhang, Yue Zhao and Jolillian Zwerdling

Social Studies Department
SMT Foreign Affairs Essay Award
Zarathustra Goertzel
Kiran Harris

Bill Lineberry Award
Stephen Demarais

Marian Greenblatt Scholarship Award
Alexander Hyder

Outstanding Social Studies Student
Jenny Alvarez, Lynn Abe, Elizabeth Albert, Jahnavi Bhaskar, Jeffrey Cao, Stephen Demarais,Rohit Dewan, Frederick Esch, Kenneth Ettinger, Katie Gagliardo, Daniel Gillen, Alexander Gold, Jonah Gold, Gregory Howard, Jelena Goldoni, Monica Huang, Rachel Hunter, Emma Hutchinson, Yueyang Li,Joseph Lorenz, Rachel Martin, Elizabeth Packer, Stephanie Paul, Jody Pollock, Armin Rosen, David White, Avi Wolfman-Arent, Jolillian Zwerdling, Sebastian Johnson, Sarah Wolk, Thomas Dugan, Ravi Joseph, Jingwei Lei, Benjamin Green, Daniel Chamberlain, Jeremy Goodman, Christine Hayek, Lynsey Hayes, Emanuel Lavina, Margot Pass, Anita Quabili, Gregory Donaldson, Stephanie Jones, Alexander Alm, Bryan Erickson, Raya Steinberg, Zachary Wuerthner, Anirudh Babu, Jeffrey Holliday and Phillip Hoyle

Math Department
Outstanding Math Students
Beserat Debebe, Ngoc-Hao Le, Wendolyn Quintanilla, Resmy John Varghese, Estefany Carrillo, Bekalu Nebebe, Kencie Antoine, Robel Alemayehu, Beki Negassa, Abubker Armel, Priscilla Njankou, Hieu Nguyen, Jody Pollock, Abby Goldman, Sally Lanar, Kelsey Dean, Alexander Gold, Rebecca Graber, Karla Berberich, Michael Novello, Avram Edelman, Erica Irving, Isaac Arnsdorf, Julia Mascioli, Nicholas Mozer, Kamilia Butler-Peres, Anna Coughlan and Adane Fassil