Scholarships and awards worth up to $5,000 a year were presented to New York City Science and Engineering Fair (NYCSEF) finalists on March 27 at Hunter College, mere days after the NYCSEF finals round on March 25 at the American Museum of Natural History.
At the finals round, the long tables stretched across the hall in rows with projects on top. A enormous blue whale hung from the ceiling, and students waited patiently for the judges to walk around. A total of 100 projects were presented at the NYCSEF finals round from students all over New York City. 13 of those participants were Midwood students.
"Part of the fun of NYCSEF is to learn from other people’s projects, not just your own," said Raquel Hosein ’14.
The following seniors were awarded at the finals. Raquel Hosein and Allen Barbarovich won first place and second place was awarded to M. Tasnin Kabir. Third place was awarded to Yasmine Brown-Williams, Varvara Budetti and Alisha Bunting, Amy Cao and Ying Tong Guo, Stefanie Henry, Xin Yi Chen, Shadika Jahan and Kiara Nunez, and Tiffany Mai. These awards were given to projects that were outstanding.
"It’s a small reward for all the work we put in," said Allen Barbarovich.
Additional awards were also given out. Jelissa Castro ’14 and Samuel Genchikmakher ’14 received the Sarah and Morris Wiesenthal Award, which includes a $100 honorarium. The award is given to projects that bring awareness to the man-made and natural environment. Budetti and Bunting also received the Stockholm Junior Water Prize for their water related projects and were identified as NY State Semifinalists. Chen received the Association for Women Geoscientists Award and the Jenny Hunter Scholarship Award. She will receive a $1000 scholarship to Hunter College, renewable for 4 years. Hosein received the Frank W. and Jane J. Stahl Memorial Award for Technical Excellence, this award includes a $200 reward.
"The last three years have been really outstanding for us," said Glenn Elert, Science Research Coordinator.
Hosein and Barbarovich were chosen to be Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) alternates. 15 projects were selected from this year’s competition to continue on to ISEF in Los Angeles, from May 11-16.
According to Mr. Elert, there are still many more competitions left to compete in this year, including the New York City Academic, Cultural, Technological & Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO), Google Science Fair, and Brooklyn College Science Day.
Saba Sakhi & Jacquelyne Gilman
This article originally appeared in the April 2014 edition of Argus.