News

YHS Senior Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Wins Microbiology Prize at Intel International Science and Engineering Fair

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a senior at Yorktown High School, returned to Yorktown last week after placing second in the world for microbiology in a major science exposition/competition. The event, the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (“ISEF”), took place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and drew 1,512 finalists from 50 different countries.

Alexandria (“Sandy” as her friends call her) is one of four students from Yorktown High School who took part in ISEF after winning awards in regional science competitions.

In her research, Sandy identified three chemical antioxidants that doubled lifespan in the C.elegans roundworm. The research was conducted at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in Manhattan, under the mentorship of Dr. Charles V. Mobbs. Her placement at Mt. Sinai was one of many such research opportunities provided for advanced students through the YHS Science Research Program run by teacher Michael Blueglass.

Sandy’s work in microbiology, and that of others in this cutting-edge field, holds the promise of one day helping health-care professionals to prevent degenerative disease, and enhance both human lifespan and quality of life. She is looking forward to continuing her scientific research next year, as a student at Boston University.

Sandy was interviewed about her work by correspondent Rehema Ellis on the NBC Nightly News in a segment that aired nationwide, last Wednesday evening. She is the second YHS student whose work has drawn attention from network television news this year. Rebecca Glass, another participant in the Mr. Blueglass’s program, was interviewed for a segment on ABC Primetime this past winter, with reference to research on stuttering.

The Science Research Program at Yorktown High School is designed to provide students with a chance to pursue scientific research at a college level for three years. Students who take part in the program focus on topics of special interest, master the use of bibliographic resources and scientific databases, formulate research questions, and proceed to conduct in-depth scientific research under the mentorship of leading experts in their fields of interest. This is an intensive program, generally involving two summers of work in addition to class work at the high school, research in specialized settings, the completion of a final research paper, and participation in a wide variety of science competitions (such as the Westchester Science and Engineering Fair, Intel Science Talent Search, Siemens/Westinghouse Science Competition, Junior Science & Humanities Symposium, Tri-County Science Fair, and the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair).

The program is an elective course taken in addition to the traditional science courses, but earns the student three additional Regents credits for each year successfully completed. In addition, SUNY Albany has granted up to twelve college credits to students who have successfully completed three school years and two summers of research as prescribed in the course curriculum.

Most of the upperclassmen in the program have won multiple awards*too many to enumerate here*in various science competitions. All of the students have demonstrated a remarkable commitment to science, and will be recognized at the Sixth Annual Science Research Symposium to be held at Yorktown High School on June 4, 2007.

What follows is a list of student participants in the program, organized by grade level.

Seniors:

Dennis Chang, Joseph Galella, Rebecca Glass, George Guo, Megan Keane, Pranav Kumar, Thomas H. Lipscomb, Martin Mata, Alyssa McCarthy, Bartholomew Moore, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Nikolai Rakhilin, Matthew Silverstein, Melissa Vergo, Luccie Wo, and Wudan Yan

Juniors:

James Buckley, Brianna Buonagurio, Kelly Burke, Caitlin Cohn, Colleen Costello, Jessica DeMicco, Eva Franzova, Jordan Fuentes, Lacey Gleason, Stephanie Iasiello, Alexa Kauffman, Leah Roldan, and Andrew Wu

Sophomores:

Stephanie Capogna, Katherine Caswell, Caitlin Curnyn, Alex Cutrone, Kavya Devarakonda, Katie Donatelli, Rebecca Eidelman, Josh Elkind, Andrew Garcia, Karen Lin, J.J. Luceno, Kyle McCann, Vivek Patel, Svenja Schneider, Jordan Strober, and Mohit Tiwari.

Freshmen who will be entering the program next year:

Julia An, Mary Buckley, Emily Carroll, Chris Chang, Kimberly Chen, Chris Chung, Liz Davidson, Daniel Fernandez, Elbert Heng, Brady Jacobs, Rina Joshi, Manu Kumar, Tyler Lipperman, Allen Mata, Shauna Purpura, Lalya Rajan, Joseph Sloan, Dan Tapia, David Tsai, and Erica Wenzel

In a recent interview, Yorktown Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ralph Napolitano said: “While Sandy Ocasio’s award at ITEF is a great achievement, the Yorktown school community takes pride in all of the students in our Research Program. Their commitment to science and to hard work is truly exemplary. They are indeed tomorrow’s leaders.”