Yet again, Blair at the top

Three seniors in the Science, Math and Computer Science Magnet Program were named finalists in the 2002 Intel Science Talent Search (STS) on Jan 31, giving Blair more finalists than any other high school in the nation for the second time in the past four years.

Seventeen magnet seniors, including the finalists, Jennifer Alyono, Jacob Burnim and Jean Li, were named semifinalists in the STS at a Blair assembly on Jan 16. In this competition, considered the "junior Nobel Prize," Blair had the most semifinalists of any school in the country and tied a record set by Stuyvesant High School of New York for the most semifinalists from one school in any one year.

Each of the 40 national finalists will receive $5,000 and a laptop computer from Intel, the computer-chip maker which since 1998 has sponsored the former Westinghouse STS. The finalists will stay in Washington, D.C., from Mar 8 to 11 to compete for $530,000 in scholarship money, $100,000 of which goes to the first place winner.
Semifinalists received $1,000 each. In addition, Blair received a total of $17,000 from Intel.

The applicants submitted research projects they had completed with a mentor during the past year. They were judged on three criteria: independent research ability, scientific originality and creative thinking.

Blair's previous record of 13 semifinalists was set in 2000, the last time Intel came to the school to announce the results of its competition. Of those 13 students, six went on to join a group of 40 finalists, setting a state record. Last year, ten Blair students became semifinalists, and two went on to place third and tenth nationally.

Three hundred semifinalists were chosen from 1,562 applicants in the 2002 STS. Blair had 39 applicants, who worked under the guidance of now-retired magnet research teacher Jonetta Russell).

The other Blair semifinalists are seniors Radhika Char, Steven Chemtob, Enoch Chu, Byron Drumheller, Jennifer Helgeson, Kang-Xing Jin, Jesse Jou, Nancy Ku, John Li, Edward Lin, Alexey Rostapshov, Rahul Satija, Gregory Vieira and Bingni Wen.