Plano East 2012 Valedictorian Captures Nation's Top High School ...

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Hundreds of Plano ISD students captured awards and honors during the 2011-12 school year. Many of
our top achieving students‛ accomplishments are featured in the next few pages of this report.
Plano East 2012 Valedictorian Captures Nation's Top High School Award
Once in a while, a student comes along who merits the nation’s most
prestigious award for high school seniors, the U.S. Presidential Scholars
award. In 2012, that student was Amy Chyao, valedictorian of Plano East
Senior High School. Amy was among 140 of her high school peers to be
named U.S. Presidential Scholars honored at an awards ceremony in
Washington, D.C. Amy’s selection was based on her academic success,
artistic excellence and evidence of community service, leadership and
demonstrated commitment to high ideals.
Students Garner Awards at International Science & Engineering Fair
Eleven Plano ISD students competed in the International Science and
Engineering Fair (ISEF) along with 1,500 of their peers representing 68
nations. Five students captured category awards, and six students earned
special awards. The students qualified to attend the international fair
following their success at the Beal Bank Dallas Regional Science and
Engineering Fair and the ExxonMobil Science and Engineering Fair. “Plano
ISD was well represented by a group of students who can give us hope for
the future,” reported Linda Flack, former secondary science coordinator.
“Not only are these students great thinkers but they are wonderful young
adults who we should all be proud of. All students attending the fair are
Plano East Valedictorian Amy Chyao is pictured at the
U.S. Presidential Scholars awards program held on June
16, 2012, in Washington, D.C., with U.S. Secretary of
Education Arne Duncan and Dr. Kenneth Balkus Jr.,
University of Texas at Dallas professor.
top students in their countries and states and have made remarkable accomplishments qualifying them to attend the
international fair.”
Category Awards
• Kevin Nguyen and Punya Chittajallu, Plano East Senior High School, Team Chemistry Project: 2nd place $1,500 Award
• Rohan Thakur, Plano East Senior High School, Earth and Space Science: 2nd Place $1,500 Award
• Lisa Michaels, Shepton High School, Medicine and Health: 2nd Place $1,500 Award
• Aneesh Mohanty, Clark High School, Medicine and Health: 4th Place $500 Award
Special Awards
• Kevin Nguyen and Punya Chittajallu, Plano East Senior High School, Sigma Xi 3rd Place $1,500 Award; American
Chemical Society 1st place $4,000
• Renee Beach and Aileen Huang, Plano Senior High School, 2nd Place Air Force Research Laboratory $2,000 Award
• Lisa Michaels, Shepton High School, Air Force Research Laboratory 2nd Place $2,000 Award
• Rohan Thakur, Plano East Senior High School, $15,000 per year to the Florida Institute of Technology
Students Excel in Science Research at All Levels
Annually, Plano ISD students excel in science competitions at the regional, state and international level. Following are the
results of further major competitions.
• Forty-three Plano ISD students were recognized for their innovation and scientific prowess at the 2012 ExxonMobil Texas
Science and Engineering Fair. Rohan Thakur, a junior at Plano East Senior High School, earned one of the top four awards
in the fair’s senior division. Plano ISD students won more fair awards than students from any other school district.
• Plano ISD students captured all of the grand prize and runner-up grand prize awards in the senior division at the 2012
Beal Bank Dallas Science & Engineering Fair held in Dallas.
• Schimelpfenig Middle School student I-Chun Lin’s science research project earned her third place honors and $5,000
in the premier competition Broadcom MASTERS, a program of the Society for Science & the Public (SSP) in which
sixth, seventh and eighth grade students demonstrate their mastery of Math, Applied Science, Technology and
Engineering as Rising Stars through science fair competition.

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• Plano ISD students swept all three grand prize awards
once again in 2012 at the Regional Elementary Science
Fair. Some 133 Plano ISD students competed with 109
projects amongst 6,415 total students from Plano, Allen,
Mesquite, McKinney, Garland, Richardson and
Carrollton-Farmers Branch. Plano students captured
59 top awards, including grand prize, 1st-3rd place and
honorable mention awards.
Rice Middle School Student Advances for Third Time to
National Spelling Bee
Chetan Reddy, Rice Middle School student, captured his
ISEF participants: Shayan Mohanty, Sagar Parikh, Aneesh Mohanty, third consecutive championship in the March, 2012, Dallas
Punya Chittajallu, Kevin Nguyen, Rohan Thakur, Lisa Michaels,
Morning News Regional Spelling Bee. After several grueling
Elisabeth Ashmore, Renee Beach, Rachel Hodge and Aileen Huang
rounds against 23 fellow contenders, Chetan won the bee by
spelling effendi. Chetan and
his final competitor spelled their way through 13 rounds before Chetan won the title. As
winner, Chetan competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in June, 2012, in
Washington, D.C.
Additional Academic & Extracurricular Awards
JROTC Triennial Inspection ~ Plano ISD’s three JROTC (Junior Reserve Office Training
Corps) units, represented by student cadets from our three senior high schools and six
high schools, retained the coveted designation as a Gold
Star “Honor Unit with Distinction,” following their triennial
Cadet Formal Inspection held in November and December,
2011. Each JROTC battalion must be perfect, earning 576
points or 96% or higher, to earn and retain a gold star
during the inspection.
Plano Senior High School
JROTC cadets Alexandra
Hunt, McKay Paxman and
Jack Stokes are shown at a
September 11, 2011, memorial
ceremony at their school.
Career & Technical Education ~ More than 300 Plano ISD
Career and Technical Education students advanced to
state level competitions in 2012 in events related to
Chetan Reddy is pictured
at the 2012 Plano ISD
Employee Convocation.
culinary arts, computer science, engineering, livestock shows, distributive education,
business education, health occupations and more. Plano East Senior High School
Culinary Arts students competed in the 2nd annual Iron Chef North Texas event at The
Art Institute of Dallas. Following the culinary showdown, the team placed third.
Writing Excellence ~ Christina Qiu, Plano Senior High School, was among 274 high school
juniors to capture a 2012 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Achievement
Award in Writing. Recipients were selected from among 1,107 students nominated in their
junior year by their teachers from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin
Islands, Canada and American schools abroad.
The Plano Senior High Planoettes brought home their fourth
consecutive national champion trophy following the American
Dance/Drill Team‛s National Championship competition in
March, 2012.
Mock trial teams from Schimelpfenig Middle School won first
and second places at the Collin County Bar Association‛s Mock
Trial Competition. Teammates from Hendrick Middle School
won third place. Teams from several Plano ISD middle schools
competed.

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Speech/Debate ~ Plano West Senior High School’s Speech and Debate Team Captain Zachary Stone was ranked 6th in the
nation in extemporaneous speaking. He was a first place award winner at several local speech and debate tournaments. As a
result of his success, Zachary was invited to the extemporaneous speaking round robin at the Southern Belle Forum held in
January in Montgomery, Alabama. Only 16 students in the nation received this honor.
WorldQuest ~ Plano Senior High School won the 10th Annual National Academic WorldQuest competition, an international
affairs trivia contest held by the World Affairs Councils of America, in Washington D.C. where they competed with nearly 200
students representing 28 states.
Student Council ~ For the second consecutive year, Hedgcoxe Elementary School Student Council captured the “Honor
Council Excellence Award” sponsored by the National Association of Elementary School Principals.
Fine Arts Awards
Plano ISD students captured numerous fine arts awards in 2011-12, including the
following:
• Seventy-six Plano ISD students hailing from all high school campuses earned
coveted positions in 2012 Texas All State Music groups, including band, choir
and orchestra.
• Cam Wenrich, Plano Senior High School Theatre student, captured a
prestigious “Dallas Column Award,” the Ben Brettell Youth Award for
outstanding young actor. Cam starred as Billy Flynn in his school’s
performance of “Chicago” during the 2011-12 season.
• Artworks by five Plano ISD students were selected by judges in the Texas
Youth Art Month competition to be exhibited in the state capitol building.
The exhibit was on display at the Texas Capitol in Austin during the month
of March.
Art by Helena Shi of Jasper High School was
among five works selected for the Texas
Youth Art Month Exhibit.
• Several Plano ISD student artists captured top “Gold Key” awards for their artwork entered in a regional contest
sponsored by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers.
• Nineteen Plano ISD student artists’ works were selected for the 2012 Young Masters Exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art.
The exhibit was on display during the spring. Jurors deliberated over 366 entries to determine the final 42 artworks for
the show.
• Fifty-nine Plano ISD students’ artwork was judged worthy of advancing to the state VASE (Visual Arts Scholastic Event) at
the Region 10 North VASE competition. There were 1,460 entries in the regional contest. With only 89 entries advancing
to state, 59 of those were created by Plano ISD students.
Athletic Achievements
Baseball Plano district champion, advanced to area; Plano East 3rd in
district, advanced to regional quarterfinals
Basketball (Girls) Plano West district champions, advanced to
regional quarterfinals; Plano East 3rd in district; Plano 4th in district;
(Boys) Plano West 2nd in district, advanced to area
Cross Country (Girls) Plano West advanced 1 athlete to regionals;
(Boys) Plano advanced 2 athletes to regionals, 1 athlete to state
Football Plano East tied for 3rd in district, advanced to bi-district
Golf (Girls) Plano West 2nd place in district, Megan Thothong tied for
15th place at state; (Boys) Plano East’s Joseph Abella district
champion, advanced to regional; Plano West 2nd place in district,
advanced to regional
Swimming Plano advanced 8 athletes to state; Plano East advanced 2
athletes to state
Tennis (Boys) Plano West’s Sanjay Goswami advanced to state
semifinal, Brian Bulger/Parker Cohen advanced to state quarterfinals
in doubles
Soccer (Girls) Plano West state champions for fifth time, Brooke
Ramsier named MVP. (Boys) Plano district champion, advanced to
regionals; Plano’s Tony Santibanez named Gatorade Texas Boys
Soccer Player of the Year
Softball Plano East & Plano district co-champions; Plano East state
semi-finalist
Track (Girls) Plano East’s Jennifer Madu state champion in long jump,
triple jump, 100M & 200M; girls team 4th at state; (Boys) Plano East
4th at state in 4x100 relay
Volleyball Plano East 4th district, advanced to bi-district
Wrestling Plano advanced 2 athletes to state; Plano East advanced
1 athlete to state