Exceptional students honored at CSF banquet

Eleven juniors received awards at the CSF Award Ceremony held on May 18. Parents and students were invited to the cafeteria at 7:30 a.m., where students were recognized for their exceptional conduct and academic excellence by various teachers, guidance counselors and administrators.

The California Scholarship Federation (CSF) is a statewide community service organization that hosts the CSF Awards Banquet each year. Awards are given for outstanding performance in areas such as science, math, English, history and leadership. Students who receive CSF awards are eligible to win scholarships.

Junior Meghana Rao was presented the Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony Award in Humanities and Social Sciences after being nominated by her AP US History teacher, Kim Anzalone.

“Winning this award raised my self-confidence and boosted my ego, not that I really needed that,” Rao said. “But, more importantly, I was touched that Mrs. Anzalone thought so highly of me. It means so much more when a teacher makes that extra effort to show their appreciation.”

Math teacher Audrey Warmuth presented junior Evan Ye with the California Mathematics Council Certificate.

“Not only does he have extraordinary skills, but he’s a wonderful personality to have in the classroom,” she said.

Ye felt very proud to receive the award “among such a strong and talented math class.”

After receiving the George Eastman Young Leaders award from assistant principal Karen Hyde, junior Anshu Siripurapu felt honored to be distinguished from the other notable leaders on campus.

“I was also humbled to be in the company of the other award winners because they are all extremely talented. Any of them could have received all of the awards,” he said.

“Many teachers, including myself, feel bad that there aren’t more awards that can be given out because there are many worthy students at Saratoga High,” Warmuth added.

Award (Nominator) – Recipient

Bausch and Lob Honorary Science Award (Kucer) – Myron Zhang

California Mathematics Council Certificate (Warmuth) – Evan Ye

Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony Award in Humanities and Social Sciences (Anzalone) – Meghana Rao

George Eastman Leadership Award (Hyde) – Anshu Siripurapu

Harvard Book Award (Ritchie) – Michael Chang

MIT Leadership Award (Nakamatsu) – Alissa Zhang

Mount Holyoke College Book Award (Mohnike) – Penny Burgess

Rensselaer Medal Winner (Drennan) – Chris Jones

Wellesley Book Award (Mohnike) – Megan Yen

Williams Book Award (Anzalone) – Antara Rao

Xerox Award for Innovation and Information Technology (Troxell) – Elaine Chou