Thirteen announce candidacy for student school board member position
Thirteen high school students had announced their candidacy for the lone student position on the county school board when the application period closed Thursday.
A nominating convention is scheduled for Feb. 20 at Gaithersburg’s Watkins Mill High School, where delegates from each county middle and high school will convene and select two finalists. All 85,000 middle and high school students are eligible to vote in a general election in late April to decide the 42nd student member.
Richard Montgomery High School senior Ananya Tadikonda was sworn in as the 41st student board member last summer and her term will expire in July.
Student board members are elected to serve as a voice for the 163,000 students in county schools. They must be rising juniors or seniors and receive a $5,000 scholarship and have full voting rights on the board.
Students running are:
• Zoe Tishaev, junior, Clarksburg High School
• Brandon Alexander, sophomore, Quince Orchard High School
• Nate Tinbite, junior, John F. Kennedy High School
• Ethan Groboski, junior, Poolesville High School
• Adiba Chowdhury, junior, Montgomery Blair High School
• Ethan Schwager, junior, Walter Johnson High School
• Lillian Carr, junior, Clarksburg High School
• Anirvan Ayyagari, sophomore, Thomas S. Wootton High School
• Aidan Douglas, sophomore, Seneca Valley High School
• Tyler Sylvester, sophomore, Gaithersburg High School
• Valerie Graham, sophomore, Paint Branch High School
• Maria Surova, sophomore, Thomas S. Wootton High School
• Shiteng Wang, junior, Thomas S. Wootton High School
Three Montgomery Blair High School students finalists in national science competition
Three students will receive $25,000 for being named finalists in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, called one of the most prestigious high school science competitions in the nation by local school officials.
The 40 nationwide finalists will compete in March in Washington, D.C., for more than $1 million in prizes.
The finalists, all from Montgomery Blair High School, are: Grace Cai, Kevin Qian and Daniel Schaffer.
Montgomery Blair, with a 3,000-student population, has a Science, Mathematics and Computer Science magnet program and is known regionally for its success in related subjects.
Richard Montgomery students stay alive in international debate competition
Debate-team members from Richard Montgomery High School have advanced in an international competition challenging hundreds of students from around the world to participate in written and oral debate on issues of public policy.
Sponsored by the Brewer Foundation and New York University, the competition began in 2018 when “hundreds” of teams submitted qualifying round essays, and the top 64 teams were selected in November.
Each team was given a position on an issue and debated with a team via email. Richard Montgomery competed in the round of 64 against a Cambodian school and advanced to the round of 32. In this round, local students will compete against a Texas team.
If the Richard Montgomery team – the last Maryland team remaining – advances to the final round of eight teams, they will travel in April to New York City to compete for a $10,000 grand prize.
