12 juniors awarded at annual CSF ceremony

Twelve juniors were recognized for their academic and leadership achievements on May 21 at a breakfast in the cafeteria organized by the guidance department and the school’s CSF (California Scholarship Federation) club.  

These students were nominated by their teachers, who presented the awards during teacher collaboration.

Five awards were given for math and science, six were given in the humanities, and one was given for leadership.  Many of the awards were sponsored by various universities.

“I looked around and any of the students that received awards there could've gotten awards in multiple disciplines,” English teacher Suzanne Herzman said. “I think that at the end of such a taxing year, it's a good feeling to look around and see that you're not alone, there are other people who are trying to keep that fire going.”

Students were notified about the award ceremony in mid-April, but did not know what type of award they would be receiving or which teacher had nominated them.  Junior Calvin Shih, who received the Bausch and Lomb Honorary Science Award from AP Biology teacher Cheryl Lenz, said he didn’t know what to expect when he entered the cafeteria on Wednesday morning.

“I was the first person to receive an award, and  Ms. Lenz called me up and  I stepped in front of the crowd, I didn’t know what I was doing,” Shih said. “But it was very nice to hear what Ms. Lenz said about me.”

Junior Linus Lu, who received the Williams College Book Award, said he too was pleasantly surprised with the recognition.

        “In an environment that's dominated by numbers, grades and scores,  its nice to see recognition based on a holistic evaluation of a person from a teacher's standpoint and to know that as a person you stand out,” Lu said.  “That’s better than any possible grade or score.”

 

The following juniors received awards:

Bausch and Lomb Honorary Science Award: Calvin Shih (Presented by Cheryl Lenz)

Brown Book Award: Deepti Kannan (Presented by Natasha Ritchie)

California Mathematics Council Certificate: Kevin Chiang (Presented by PJ Yim)

Fredrick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony Award in Humanities and Social Sciences: Ethan Ngai (Presented by Matt Torrens, Jerry Sheehy and Kim Anzalone)

George Eastman Leadership Award: Jennifer Miller (Presented by Matt Torrens)

Harvard Book Award: Max Chang (Presented by Amy Keys)

MIT Leadership Award: Boyu Pang (Presented by Kirk Davis)

Mount Holyoke College Book Award: Anna Sabel (Presented by Natasha Ritchie)

Rensselaer Medal Winner: Mounika Narayaran (Presented by Audrey Warmuth and PJ Yim)

Wellesley Book Award: Sabrina Chen (Presented by Suzanne Herzman)

Williams College Book Award: Linus Lu (Presented by Ken Nguyen)

Xerox Award for Innovation and Information Technology: Aditya Aagrawal (Presented by Debbie Troxell)