Blair's 2005 Awards Night honors over 100 students

One-hundred-fifty Blair students were presented 36 different awards during the annual Blair Awards Night on Wednesday, May 25 at 7 p.m. Presenters said this year's awards ceremony is "a particularly difficult one" because of the recent death of senior Andrew Helgeson, who was to receive the Terry Hicks scholarship.

Students filed onto the auditorium stage to the national anthem, performed on the piano by junior Dena Tran, who received the Fine Arts department's Outstanding Piano Student award. Master of Ceremony, vice principal Linda Wanner, introduced 13 award presenters, among whom were Blair teachers, representatives from the U.S. Marine Corps and Charles Hatcher, a speaker from the Silver Spring chapter of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity.

After Wanner described the Terry Hicks All-Around Student award, a scholarship started by Blair alumni in 1984, French teacher Arlette Loomis made a speech on behalf of Helgeson's family. Loomis, who taught Helgeson and his sister, praised the Terry Hicks award recipient as a "genuinely good person." She believes that he was "lucky" that he knew he got the award before passing away. Everyone in the auditorium observed a moment of silence in memory of Helgeson, and administrators passed boxes of tissues around both on and offstage to those who were crying after the speech.

The 2005 Awards Night, organized by Social Studies teacher Patricia Anderson, honored the academic, artistic, scientific and athletic achievements of the following students:

Award Name	Recipient	Presenter
COMMUNITY AWARDS
Silver Spring Alumni Chapter Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity African American Book Award	John Orr	Charles Hatcher
Terry Hicks All-Around Student Award	Andrew Helgeson	Ted Parker Bob Jarboe
Marian Greenblatt Scholarship	Kiran Belani	Joann Malone
U.S. Marine Corps Scholastic Excellence Award	Gaston Jeanty
W.E.B. Dubois Society Essay Contest Winners	1st place—Agia Alston 2nd place—Armin Rosen 3rd place—Sahil Shah	Jeanette Simmons Sharon Williams
W.E.B. Dubois Society Outstanding Service	Rodney Derose Danielle Foster Christina LaFontant Sheri Lawal Adedeji Ogunfolu	Jeanette Simmons Sharon Williams
ATHLETIC AWARDS
Outstanding Athlete	Victoria Dean Patrick Detzner	John MacDonald
Outstanding Sportsmanship	Brittany Higgins Kenan Myers	John MacDonald
Scholar Athlete	Ari Halper-Stromberg Kristina Yang	John MacDonald
U.S. Marine Distinguished Athlete	Alexa Gabriel Justin Roman	John MacDonald
DEPARTMENTAL AWARDS: CAP
Communication Arts Program 10th Anniversary Scholarship	Feza Kikaya Allison Elvove	Delores D'Angelo
Outstanding in Media	Morgan Luker Chris Nguyen-Gia John Visclosky	Delores D'Angelo
Wellesley Book Award	Monica Huang	Delores D'Angelo
DEPARTMENTAL AWARDS: ENGLISH
Cornell Book Award	Pearl Horng	Vickie Adamson
Dartmouth Book Award	Chelsea Zhang	Vickie Adamson
Columbia Gold Circle	1st—John Visclosky 2nd—Sheila Rajagopal 2nd—Melanie Thompson	Vickie Adamson
MSPA	1st in Front Page Design—Jeffrey Dunn 1st in News Writing—Cori Cohen, Adedeji Ogunfolu 1st in Sports Writing—Ellie Blalock 2nd in News Writing—Anthony Glynn 2nd in Sports Writing—Ellie Blalock 3rd in News Writing—Katherine Zhang 3rd in Sports Writing—Kristina Yang	Vickie Adamson
NSPA Best Feature	Sherri Geng	Vickie Adamson
Pacemaker	1st Editorial—Lauren Finkel 1st Info Graphic—Fidan Karimova 1st Newspaper Profiles—Sherri Geng 1st Newspaper Review—Eric Glover 1st Sports, Game Coverage—Lauren Finkel 2nd Features—Renee Park 2nd In-Depth News—Sherri Geng 2nd Magazine Prose—Eric Glover 3rd Editorial—Nora Onley 3rd Info Graphic—Sheila Rajapogal	Vickie Adamson
Scholastic Feature Story	Sherri Geng Julyssa Lopez	Vickie Adamson
Scholastic Golden Key	June Hu	Vickie Adamson
Scholastic Sports Story	Kristina Yang	Vickie Adamson
Outstanding Seniors in English	Wilma Bainbridge Maria Coleman Greg Cox Hannah Fegley Alexander Foreman Abigail Fraeman Sherri Geng Roxana Hadadi Erica Hartmann Mary Kate Johnston Sheri Lawal Kendra Leigh Sheila Rajagopal Bonan Ren Amelia Sagoff Adam Schuyler Joanna Skeath Jacqueline Villadsen Min Wu	Vickie Adamson
DEPARTMENTAL AWARDS: MAGNET
Caltech Signature Award	Chelsea Zhang	Eileen Steinkraus
Simmons College Kimmerling Book Award for Women in the Sciences and Technology	Kiran Belani	Eileen Steinkraus
Intel Science Talent Search Finalists and Semi-Finalists	Ameer Abutaleb Peter Bullen Patrick Detzner Jeffery Dunn Michael Forbes Abigail Fraeman Sherri Geng Justin Kovac Tencia Lee Renee Park Prasanna Vasudevan Samuel Wight Kenhui Yin	Eileen Steinkraus
DEPARTMENTAL AWARDS: SCIENCE
Bausch & Lomb Honorary Science Award	Sally Lanar	Jennifer Kempf
George Washington University School of Engineering and Applied Science Medal	Hieu Nguyen	Jennifer Kempf
Worcester Polytechnic Institute Award for Leadership and Innovation in Math and Science	Kelsey Dean	Jennifer Kempf
Xerox Award for Innovation and Information Technology	Kamilia Butler-Peres	Jennifer Kempf
Science Department Senior Student of the Year	Trang Nguyen	Jennifer Kempf
DEPARTMENTAL AWARDS: SOCIAL STUDIES
Outstanding Social Studies Student	Douglas Adams Daniel Aisen Julianna Allen Nneoma Amai-Obi Nathan Barrymore Lydia Beasley Natalie Berger Olivia Bevacqua Ellie Blalock Rachel Bowles Atsede Bullo Daniel Cate Spencer Chang Martino Choi Brian Crawford Christina Do William Dreher Nicholas Falgout Hannah Fegley Ilya Ganelin Bradford Gee Alexander Gersh Martin Gilbert Daniel Greene Vaibhav Gupta Roxana Hadadi Ari Halper-Stromberg Neil Hofman Lisa Howe Christina Ji Ashley Jurinka Saul Kinter Sheri Lawal Amanda Lee Angela Lee Daniel Lee Kevin Lin William McManigle Thomas Meyer Ryan O'Connor Gabriel Osborne Julia Penn Joanna Pinto-Coelho Ely Portillo Lillian Rosen Bezawit Sabeteshi Julia Simon-Mishel Denis Sosnovtseve Karima Tawfik Melanie Thompson Nancy Tran Nicholas Tucker Christopher Wilhelm Kendra Williams Janelle Winters Paul Wong Eric Wu Phyllis Xu	Joann Malone
DEPARTMENTAL AWARDS: FINE ARTS
Outstanding Piano Student	Dena Tran	Sara Josey