2016-2017
A School Year of Achievements & Success
A look at some of the highlights from the 2016-2017 school year
that make our schools a great place to learn, work, and connect
with the diverse community we share in Beaverton.
Throughout the year there have been many examples of students excelling in both academic and extracurricular activities. The following report is an example of some of the awards, scholarships, and accomplishments of students and staff in the Beaverton School District.
Anushka Naiknaware, an 8th grader at Stoller Middle School was awarded the Lego Education Builder Award at the 2016 Google Science Fair. Anushka received a $15,000 scholarship, a free trip to the Lego world headquarters in Denmark and a year’s worth of entrepreneurship mentoring from a Lego executive.
Owen DuFrene, an 8th grader at Stoller Middle School was one of four finalists in the Future Engineers Think Outside the Box Challenge. The challenge asks students, 12 and younger to design a useful item for the International Space Station that can be generated using a 3D printer.
Kyla Zaworski, a special education teacher at Mountain View Middle School was awarded an Earthwatch Teacher Fellowship and participated in a nine-day expedition with Earthwatch to study Costa Rican Sea Turtles, and bring the experience back to her classroom.
Westview High School was awarded a $100 Blick Art certificate for art supplies for having the most participating artists in the 14th Annual Beaverton City Library Teen Art Show with 29 students displaying art in this year’s show. Art teacher, Kim Short coordinated the Westview High School submissions. Conestoga Middle School won for the middle school level with 21 entries. Art teacher, Sara Graves coordinated the Conestoga submissions.
Four Health Careers students, and members of Rebels for a Cause, three from Beaverton High School and one from Westview High School, applied and were accepted into the Truth Initiative’s Youth Summit on Youth Activism in Orlando, Florida this past July. Health Career teacher, Paula Jacobs, joined them as an advisor with other tobacco educators across the nation.
Two Westview High School seniors, Ajitha Mallidi and Bryan Lee, were named semifinalists (top 300 in the United States) in the 2017 Regeneron Science Talent Search. Oregon had a total of 5 semifinalists. Westview was the only school in the state with more than one semifinalist.
The Beaverton School District was awarded a $57,646 incentive from the Energy Trust of Oregon’s New Buildings Program for the New Middle School at Timberland project.
Jeff Crapper, Science/Biomedical teacher at Health & Science School (HS2) was selected as the recipient of the 2016 Oregon Science Teachers Association (OSTA) Outstanding High School Classroom Teacher Award.
Stoller Middle School 8th grader, Wenjun Hou was one of two gold medal winners in the grade 7 division of the 2016 Math League International Summer Tournament at The College of New Jersey in Ewing Township last July.
Westview High School senior, Sneha Malineni, won the Congressional App Challenge for Oregon’s First Congressional District.
Beaverton School District Future Ready libraries featured in Slate and The Hechinger Report articles - Come for the Computers, Stay for the Books: Libraries are rebooting to become tech hubs for schools.
Library Instructional Technology Teachers (LITTs) Wayne Grimm and Steve Lent contribute.
The Westview High School Speech and Debate program has again received national recognition from the National Speech & Debate Association for achieving more than 400 degrees last year and ranking among the top 2% of schools nationwide and earned membership in the prestigious Societe de 400.
International School of Beaverton (ISB) math teacher, Tarryn Hickswas nominated as a 2016-17 LifeChanger of the Year.
Westview High School Team 1 won first place in the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) Regional Science Bowl on Saturday, February 11, 2017 at the University of Portland. For the fourth year in a row, and competed in the Department of Energy National Science Bowl on April 27, 2017 in Washington D.C.
The Oregon Department of Education nominated the Health & Science School’s Health Science CTE (Career Technical Education) program for the national Advance 2017 CTE Excellence in Action Award. Although HS2 did not receive the award, they were selected as the national runner-up. The team is made up of Jessica Lewis, Internship Coordinator, Jeff Crapper, Biology, Health, and Career Technical Education Teacher, Emily Penland, Physical Education and AVID Teacher, Doug Smith, Physics and Human Body Systems Teacher, and Carlie Harris, Chemical and Medical Interventions Teacher.
Students in Stacy Mix’s Personal Finance class at Aloha High School won first place in the Jr. Achievement Stock Market Challenge.
The Beaverton School District was awarded a $669,484 Carol M. White Physical Education Program (PEP) Grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant was written by Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA), Cheryl Wardell.
The Stoller Middle School Chess team who won first place at the Oregon Chess for Success Tournament.
As part of National Public Health Week (April 3-9, 2017), Washington County Department of Health and Human Services honored significant contributions to public health in Washington County with the 15th Annual Public Health Recognition Awards. The award was presented to the Sexton Mountain Elementary School Walking School Bus Program for engaging in a healthy and active lifestyle by walking at least one mile to school, practicing safe pedestrian skills, and arriving at school energized and ready to learn.
District Librarian, Jenny Takeda has been selected as one of 22 2017-2018 Lilead Fellows.
The Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) has awarded the Beaverton School District's Business Office team its Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting Award for the comprehensive annual financial report (CAFR) for the fiscal year ended 2016.
Westview High School senior, Bryan Lee was accepted to Harvard...and Yale, and Princeton, and Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania, and Brown, and Cornell. Not Dartmouth you ask? Bryan wasn’t accepted because he chose not to apply!
The 15 member 2017 Science Olympiad State Championship winning team is Stoller Middle School’s Stoller Grey Matter. The Stoller Grey Matter team participated in 23 events against the top 15 middle school teams in Oregon winning 11 gold, 3 silver and 5 bronze medals. The team represented the state of Oregon and competed at the 2017 Wright State Science Olympiad National Tournament in May.
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have grown during the last 90 years to become the longest-running, most prestigious recognition program for creative teens in the U.S., and the nation’s largest source of scholarships for creative young artists and writers.
Below are the Beaverton School District students honored in this year's competition:
Aloha High School:
- Sarah MacIntyre, Silver Medal - Mixed Media - Spunk
Arts & Communication Magnet Academy (ACMA):
- Isabel Kristensen, Silver Medal - Photography - Casa Amarilla
- Natalie Luquin, Silver Medal - Art Portfolio - Jolie Laide
- Akio Sato, Silver Medal - Painting - Waver
- Lauren Vennes, Gold Medal - Photography - Tangle Teaser
International School of Beaverton (ISB):
- Ashley Kim, Silver Medal - Drawing & Illustration - Warm sunshine
- Nina Spellman, Silver Medal - Painting - Routine (brush, floss, wash)
Beaverton High School:
- Skyler Moore, Silver Medal - Drawing & Illustration - Blue Flowers
Southridge High School:
- Kaycie Bauer, Silver Medal - Digital Art - Self Portrait
- Kylie Fernandez, Silver Medal - Drawing & Illustration - Nina (#2), Gold Medal - Drawing & Illustration - Nina (#3)
- Cameron Kays, Gold Medal - Drawing & Illustration - Amalfi Coast
- Kris Murray, Gold Medal - Painting - Uprooted
- Cory Nguyen, Silver Medal - Dramatic Script - Blessed are those who Mourn
- Nicholas Rex, Gold Medal - Photography - Lonely Boy, Silver Medal - Photography - Gotham
- Angie Woolery, Gold Medal - Ceramics & Glass - gauteovan, Silver Medal - Painting - carne
Stoller Middle School:
- Hannah Kim, Silver Medal - Drawing and Illustration - Bedroom
Sunset High School:
- Labiba Amyeen, Silver Medal - Design - Drag Me Down
- Lucy Gordon, Silver Medal - Poetry - Aesop’s Macbeth
- Tessa Plumb, Silver Medal - Art Portfolio - We Connect, Silver Medal - Design - “A Cut Above Chocolate” Packaging
- Kaden Profit, Silver Medal - Art Portfolio - Hidden Forms
- Marissa Willke, Silver Medal - Photography - Delicate
Westview High School:
- Maya Hooper, Silver Medal - Drawing & Illustration - Mask
- Iremayowa Olopade, Silver Medal - Painting - Self Posterization
Julane Stites, Artistic Director of Dance West and Director of Dance at the Arts & Communication Magnet Academy was honored with The Schnitzer Wonder Award at the Oregon Symphony's 2017 Gala Community Concert in April.
Pete Lukich, Athletic Director at Sunset High School, has been awarded the Jim Rotramel Lifetime Service Award by the Oregon Athletic Directors Association (OADA). This award is given to an Athletic Director who exemplifies the profession with a life long commitment to serving today’s youth.
Eight Beaverton School District seniors were chosen from a talent pool of more than 15,000 outstanding Finalists in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program.
- Kaitlyn Stoehr, Southridge High School
Markab Han, Sunset High School
Bryan Lee, Westview High School
Mara Pearson, Sunset High School
Anshuman Radhakrishnan, Westview High School
Priyansh Sharma, Westview High School
Rohan Varma, Sunset High School
Lucia Zheng, International School of Beaverton (ISB)
Two Beaverton School District seniors were named Corporate-Sponsored Merit Scholarship Winners.
- Jennie Yan-Ren Wang at Westview High School was awarded the National Merit Brocade Scholarship. Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. sponsors this scholarship as part of its philanthropic support of higher education.
- Joshua R. Howell at Sunset High School was awarded the National Merit Liberty Mutual Scholarship. Founded in 1912 in Massachusetts to coincide with the enactment of the workers’ compensation law, Liberty Mutual is now the largest underwriter of that type of insurance in addition to insuring all other forms of coverage, including life insurance, international insurance, and financial services.
Sixteen Beaverton School District students were named National Merit College-Sponsored Merit Scholarship winners:
- Dante DeSimone, Southridge HS: Arizona State University Scholarship
- Arthur York, Westview HS: Oregon State University Scholarship
- Benjamin Bricken, Westview HS: Arizona State University Scholarship
- Sohui Cheon, Sunset HS: Northeastern University Scholarship
- Shail Rutvij Sesai, Sunset HS: University of Utah Scholarship
- Nikita Farhaj, Westview HS: Baylor University Scholarship
- Kathy Guo, Westview HS: Arizona State University Scholarship
- Cassandra Larimer, Westview HS: Brigham Young University Scholarship
- Grace Potter, Beaverton HS: Oregon State University Scholarship
- Sneha Shah, Westview HS: Oregon State University Scholarship
- Yijun Shao, Westview HS: University of Southern California Scholarship
- Louise Smith, Sunset HS: Harvey Mudd College Scholarship
- Jason Tai, Westview HS: Oregon State University Scholarship
- Ina Wang, Sunset HS: University of Southern California Scholarship
- Allen Yan, Westview HS: Baylor University Scholarship
- Alexander Yao, Westview HS: University of Southern California Scholarship
Officials of each sponsor college selected their scholarship winners from among the finalists in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Program who plan to attend their institution. These awards provide between $500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship.
Seven Beaverton School District seniors were awarded $500 scholarships in the 29th annual Herzog-Meier Senior Art Scholarship contest.
Scholarship winners included:
- Pheodor Beliaev, Aloha High School
- Natalie Luquin, Arts & Communication Magnet Academy (ACMA)
- Autumn Sevy, Beaverton High School
- Brian Troung, International School of Beaverton (ISB)
- Kylie Fernandez, Southridge High School
- Kaden Profit, Sunset High School
- Kathy Guo, Westview High School
Six Beaverton School District students competed at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Los Angeles, California last month. BSD sent more students representing our District than any other district or private school in Oregon.
The students representing the Beaverton School District were:
Aditya Sivakumar, 17, in grade 11, Beaverton High School with a project titled, "A Geometrical Analysis of Harmony and Counterpoint in Music Using Quotient Orbifolds".
Arjun Somayazulu, 17, grade 11, Westview High School with a project titled, "Influence of Sub-Cellular Protein Localization on Cellular Growth Rate".
Stuti Garg, 17, grade 11, Westview High School with a project titled, "Rescue of Nucleotide DNA Repair Deficiencies to UVB and Solar-simulated Irradiation by Pyrimidine Dimer Glycosylases and UV Endonucleases".
*Stuti was awarded the $1,500 Second Award in the Microbiology category.
Rohan Wagh, 14, grade 9, Sunset High School with a project titled, "A More Durable and Portable Microbial Fuel Cell that Utilizes Native Plant Based Activated Carbon Electrode and Carbon-Platinum Catalyst".
Divya Amirtharaj, 15, grade 10, Westview High School with a project titled, "Mobile Real-Time OCR for Visually Impaired Individuals".
*Divya was awarded the $500 Fourth Award in the Systems Software category.
Aditya Jain, 16, grade 12, Westview High School with a project titled, "A Novel Pan-Cancer Approach to Quantify Tumor Mutational Burden and Clinical Data Predictors for Immunotherapy Response towards Personalized Medicine".
* Aditya was awarded the $1,000 Third Award in the Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
The Stoller Middle School MATHCOUNTS team, coached by math teacher Manny Norse won both the Regional and State MATHCOUNTS competitions for the 6th year in a row! The top four finalists from the State Competition advance to the National Tournament to represent the state of Oregon. Three of the four team members were from the Beaverton School District - two from Stoller Middle School, one from Meadow Park Middle School and one homeschooled student from Beaverton.
A tenth-grader at Westview High School, Elena Hessinger has been awarded top honors for her color design which depicts a group of diverse teens reading and constructing a new city in their minds. Her design expertly captures this year’s Teen Summer Reading theme: Build a Better World: Read!
The Sunset High School Jazz Band received 1st place at the Inaugural OMEA State Jazz Championships.
The Southridge High School Wind Ensemble received 3rd place at the OSAA 6A State Band Championships.
The Meadow Park Middle School Marching Band earned a 1st place rating for the 5th year in a row at the St. John's Parade. Highland Park Middle School also won 1st place. Whitford Middle School and Mountain View Middle School earned 2nd place ratings.
The Meadow Park Middle School Marching Band won first place in the Open Class (100 of more) category of the 2017 Fred Meyer Junior Parade.
Sunset High School Marching Band won 1st place in the In-State Open (100 or more) category at the Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade. Aloha High School won 2nd place in the In-State Division A (99 members or less) category.
Beaverton students were recognized at the May 2, 2017 Beaverton City Council Meeting as winners of the 13th Annual Human Rights Creative Expression Contest winners. This year's winners include:
Elementary School:
First place: “Poem for the Dreamers,” Lucy Genck, Chehalem Elementary, 4th grade
Middle School:
First Place: “Being Black,” Celia Castillo-Torres, Arts and Communication Magnet Academy (ACMA), 7th grade
Kiara Rivas Vazquez, a 7th grader at Whitford Middle School, won 1st place. Kiara will travel to San Antonio, Texas in July to compete in the National Spanish Spelling Bee. Last year, Kiara placed 2nd at the National competition. The Oregon Association of Latino Administrators (OALA) donated $1,500 to assist Kiara in funding her trip to San Antonio.
Fernanda Guzman, an 8th grader at Whitford Middle School, placed third and will also compete in the National competition. The Oregon Alliance for Multilingual Multicultural Education (OAMME) donated $500 to assist Fernanda in funding her trip to San Antoni
2017 WE Celebration & Recognition Awards
At the awards, one exemplar of each of the four Pillars of Learning were recognized; WE Collaborate, WE Expect Excellence, WE Embrace Equity and WE Innovate. Three community partnerships at the elementary level, one at the middle school, high school and option levels, one District department and a District Faith Partner, a District Partner, and a District Business Partner were also honored and celebrated.
2017 Winners include:
WE Pillar of Learning Awards:
- WE Collaborate - High School Transition Program
- WE Expect Excellence - Elementary Reading Program
- WE Embrace Equity - Latino Parent Tech Nights at SHS
- WE Innovate - BSD Future Bus
Community Partnership Awards:
Elementary School:
- Aloha-Huber Park K-8 Student Athlete Program
- Ridgewood ES/THPRD Ridgewood VIew Park
- Sexton Mountain ES Planting Seeds
Middle School:
- Mountain View MS M.A.P.S. Program
High School:
- Westview HS Community Partnerships
Options Program:
- HS2 TVF&R Career Exploration Program & Vive Northwest
District Department Award:
- Nutrition Services Summer Meals Program & Farm-to-School Grant
District Partner Award:
- PCC Rock Creek
District Faith Partner:
- Holy Trinity Catholic Church
District Business Partner Award:
- Tektronix