“It’s a dream come true.” That was the recurring phrase issued by students and mentors on January 26, when two of the school’s Intel Science Talent Search semifinalists emerged among 40 national finalists.

After Science Department Chair Anita Chetty’s initial speech, spokesman Mark Pettinger and Regional Program Manager Julie Dunkle of Intel appeared at Wednesday’s surprise assembly and confirmed the audience’s suspicions.

Drawing out the announcement, they provided students and faculty with some key statistics: for the first time, New York did not produce the top number of Finalists. In fact, California is the home of eleven finalists, compared to New York’s seven, and a staggering ten percent of our state’s applicants made it to the final round. This year, the Upper School is the only one in the nation with two finalists.

“To have two [finalists] from a school our size is unheard of,” Chetty said.

Following many suspenseful drum rolls by the student body, seniors Nikhil Parthasarathy and Rohan Mahajan found themselves at the front of the gym. They clutched large facsimiles of airplane boarding passes for their all-expense paid trips to Washington, D.C. to compete in the final round.

When they arrive at the capital in March, they will be awarded $5,000 for attending and will compete for a first place prize of $100,000.

“I’m going to go in like, ‘if I try my best, I’m going to win the thing,’” Rohan said. “That’s my mentality. Always try to win and just celebrate with what you get.”

In his project, Rohan worked with solar cells that produced hydrogen, combining two existing technologies and improving efficiency by a factor of six. He is drawn to solar energy because he enjoys both chemistry and physics, and he has experienced the application of alternative energies in India, a place with frequent power shortages. Rohan’s father actually attended the assembly after abruptly returning from a business trip when he heard the news.

“If you don’t apply [science] and explore it, it’s meaningless. Trying to do your own thing and make your own mark on the world – it’s just really cool, instead of reading it out in a textbook,” Rohan said.
Rohan was mentored by Dr. Yat Li from University of California at Santa Cruz as well as chemistry teacher Mala Raghavan.

“He wrote his own proposal, actually. That’s great – I encourage my students to try something new and not follow the old projects,” Dr. Li said.

Nikhil studied the structure of distant galaxies to understand how they formed billions of years ago in comparison to how they form now. His mentors were also from UC Santa Cruz: Dr. Kamson Lai and Dr. Sandra Faber.

“I’ve always been interested in science. I just wanted to explore more areas than what I got in school,” Nikhil said.

“[Nikhil has] taught me tools that he’s used that I don’t know about. I think, as a mentor, I could not give him a better compliment than the fact that he actually taught me something,” Dr. Lai said.

Chetty expressed much gratitude to the whole research community including each faculty department and parents who have generously contributed to the science program. She also commended the students’ attitude of celebrating for the collective victory, even though they were competing against each other.

Of course, the finalists themselves expressed a great amount of enthusiasm and gratitude for the honor awarded to them.

“I’m really excited […] I can’t even explain how much fun it’s going to be to go talk to all of these amazing kids,” Nikhil said.

Rohan expressed similar sentiments: “I feel really blessed – it’s amazing. I feel like Superman!”