February 2023 celebrations

Read below for our accolades on the following:

• US Presidential Scholars Program Candidates
• The 2023 Regional Scholastic Art Awards Program
• District Band, Chorus, and Orchestra
• Science Olympiad
• 2022 Student-Athlete Achievement Awards

US Presidential Scholars Program Candidates

Congratulations to the students below for their selection as candidates for the United States Presidential Scholars Program.  Students are chosen for outstanding performance on the ACT Assessment or the College Board SAT; and/or nomination by the Chief State School Officer (CSSO) or one of the designated partner recognition organizations, including for Career and Technical Education or in the Arts.  More information can be found here.  

• Pari Agarwala
• Elise Ha

The 2023 Regional Scholastic Art Awards Program - Oakton Recognitions  

The 2023 Regional Scholastic Art Awards program has awarded Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) students in grades 7-12 a total of 533 awards for outstanding artwork, including 174 Gold Key awards, 171 Silver Key awards, and 188 Honorable Mention awards. Four works by FCPS students were nominated for the best-in-show American Visions Award. Artworks were submitted and judged in categories including drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, ceramics, sculpture, digital art, design, architecture, jewelry, fashion, film and animation, mixed media, and art portfolios.

The Gold Key and Silver Key artworks will be displayed at Northern Virginia Community College’s Ernst Community Cultural Center in Annandale from Friday, February 9, to Thursday, March 23, with an award ceremony on Wednesday, March 1.

Gold Key award-winning works will be judged at the national level against other gold key work from regions across the country. National awards include Gold and Silver medals as well as monetary awards and scholarships. National awards will be announced on March 22, and an exhibit of the national winners’ works will be on display in New York later this year.

The Scholastic Art Awards program, presented by the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, is the largest, longest-running recognition program of its kind in the United States. Established in 1923 and celebrating 100 years, the awards have recognized teens who have become some of our nation’s most celebrated artists, including Richard Avedon, Robert Indiana, Phillip Pearlstein, and Andy Warhol. 

A complete list of winners in the Fairfax Region, as well as updates and announcements about the exhibition and award ceremony, are available at https://www.artandwriting.org/regions/VA002A.

Special congratulations to all of our Oakton students who were recognized this year!  

District Band, Chorus, and Orchestra

Congratulations to our students who were selected for District Band, Chorus, and Orchestra! We are so proud of your accomplishments and the way you have represented yourself and Oakton. 

Science Olympiad Team

Congratulations to our Science Olympiad Team who performed incredibly well at the Science Olympiad Club Regionals Tournament in February!  Oakton had a Burgundy and Gold team competing. The Burgundy Team won the overall event and the Gold Team tied for 3rd Place!  Results for events are listed below!  

2022 Student-Athlete Achievement Awards

Congratulations to Alyeska Yee-Jenkins for her selection as one of sixteen finalists for the Annual Student-Athlete Achievement Awards presented by the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame Foundation!  

March 2023 celebrations

Read below for our accolades:

• Virginia DECA State Leader Conference (including International Development Conference Qualifiers and Mini Award Winners)
• Oakton Orchestra Assessment
• Oakton Chorus Assessment
• Oakton Band Assessment
• Oakton Performing Arts VMEA Blue Ribbon School!
• Regional Science Fair
• Science Olympiad State Competition
• Oakton Debate Team - Super Regionals
• ITZArt4You
• National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

Virginia DECA State Leader Conference

Oakton High School sent a large delegation to the Virginia DECA State Leadership Conference in Virginia Beach March 2-5! We are so incredibly proud of all of our students who participated and excited for those who earned special recognition.   

Below are two sets of recognitions: 1) ICDC Qualifiers and 2) Mini Award Winners

 International Development Conference Qualifiers

ICDC Qualifiers earned the opportunity to attend the conference in Orlando, FL April 22-25.  

School-Based Enterprise Gold Certification

Mini Award Recipients

Oakton Orchestra Assessment

Congratulations to the Oakton Orchestra for receiving all superior ratings at the Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors’ Association State Performance Assessment the weekend of March 3!

All three of Oakton’s orchestral ensembles: String Ensemble, JV Orchestra and Varsity Orchestra received the highest rating possible from all 4 professional judges. They played with confidence, musicality and truly worked as a team. Congratulations to all orchestra members – they have put in a tremendous amount of work and it paid off in a big way! 

Oakton Chorus Assessment

Congratulations to the Chorus Department! All 3 choirs, Treble Chorus, Mixed Chorus, and Oakton Singers received the highest possible rating of SUPERIOR from judges at our statewide assessment the weekend of March 10. Please congratulate any chorus students you may teach, as this accomplishment is no small feat. Thank you for supporting our program, and HAPPY MUSIC IN OUR SCHOOLS MONTH. 

Oakton Band Assessment

All three Oakton concert bands performed very well at District Concert Band Assessment the weekend of March 17! Concert Band 2 earned an "Excellent" and Concert Band 1 and Symphonic Band earned straight "Superior" ratings.  The Oakton High School Band program is now a 25-year Virginia Honor Band!  Half of the Honor Band award consists of the marching band earning a superior at the state marching assessment in the fall, and the other half consists of our top concert band earning a superior at Concert Band Assessment this past weekend.  Congratulations to our band students!All three Oakton concert bands performed very well at District Concert Band Assessment this past weekend! Concert Band 2 earned an "Excellent" and Concert Band 1 and Symphonic Band earned straight "Superior" ratings.  The Oakton High School Band program is now a 25-year Virginia Honor Band!  Half of the Honor Band award consists of the marching band earning a superior at the state marching assessment in the fall, and the other half consists of our top concert band earning a superior at Concert Band Assessment this past weekend.  Congratulations to our band students!

Oakton Performing Arts VMEA Blue Ribbon School!

Shout out to the music department! Earlier this month, all orchestra, band and chorus students participated in the Virginia Music Educators’ Association (VMEA) Concert Assessments and since our top performing ensembles from each discipline earned a superior rating, our school is designated as a VMEA Blue Ribbon School for having “achieved musical excellence.” This is the first time Oakton has received this honor since before the pandemic in 2019. Congratulations to our music students and their directors!  

Regional Science Fair 

Oakton students participated in the 68th Annual Fairfax County Regional Science and Engineering Fair over the weekend of March 18-19.  We are so proud of all of our students who participated and would like to highlight the students and their projects that earned recognition.

Science Olympiad State Competition

Congratulations to Oakton’s Science Olympiad Team who competed at the state level over the weekend of March 25!  The team came in 6th place overall and had many top finishers.  This is a great accomplishment and we are so proud of all who participated! 

Oakton Debate Team - Super Regionals

Congratulations to Oakton’s Debate Team for a great showing at Super Regionals over the weekend of March 25!  The team won runner-up at the Sweepstakes based on the team’s overall performance this year!  In addition we wanted to highlight the following students for their top placement performances which earned them all a spot in the upcoming State competition!  

• Policy Debate Team: Aditi Bhattacharja & Chloe Kim - 1st Place
• Lincoln-Douglas Team: Charlotte Sparling - 1st Place; Shanthi Ashok - 3rd Place 

In addition, due to points earned during the month of March, two students earned special recognition from the National Speech and Debate Association.  

• Esha Lohiya - Excellence
• Charlotte Sparling - Special Distinction

ITZArt4You

We wanted to recognize our students who have worked through the ITZArt4You organization to mentor students at Dogwood Elementary School in art and music.  This was founded by Ella Kim and her sister Emma Kim (Rachel Carson).  Their spring recital was held on March 28 and you could see the impact of this program on mentor and mentee alike.  This program has mentors from Carson MS, Chantilly HS, Flint Hill MS and Oakton HS.  The Oakton HS mentors include: Ella Kim, Everett Ha, Isaac Park, Lindsey Gibson, Matthew Park, Rachel Kim, and Rheechen Liu.  The group is expanding to serve a school in Washington, D.C. and hopefully other elementary schools in FCPS next year!  

National Scholastic Art and Writing Awards 

We are so excited to announce that two of our students received national recognition for their art and writing submissions this year.  Their pieces were selected after reviewing thousands of submissions regionally.  After that, their work was compared to the top pieces of work from each region around the country.  This is a huge accomplishment and speaks volume about their incredible work and talent!  

April 2023

Read below accolades for:

• USA Powerlifting Varsity High School National Championship
• 2023 Governor's World Language Academies
• Oakton Rocketry
• Oakton DECA International Career and Development Conference Results
• Oakton Debate

USA Powerlifting Varsity High School National Championship

Nathan Henriques, who is currently a junior at Oakton HS, recently competed in the USA Powerlifting Varsity High School National Championships on March 31st which were held in Myrtle Beach, SC.  

Nathan came in 2nd place in the nation in his weight class and earned his status as an All-American High School athlete with USA powerlifting (which is given to the top 3 athletes in the nation in their weight class).  We were very pleased and proud of his performance.  Over 700 athletes qualified and competed in the event and there were 26 athletes in his weight class.  

2023 Governor’s World Language Academies

Congratulations to the following students for their acceptance into the 2023 Governor’s World Language Academies.  This program is highly competitive and offers a unique experience for students and staff alike.  Fewer than one-third of the students who apply are selected.  We also had two students who stood out as excellent language students who were recognized as one of the limited alternates identified.  The French, German, and Spanish Academies will be held June 17-July 8 at Washington and Lee University.  The Japanese and Latin Academies will be held June 18-July 9 at Randolph-Macon College.  Congratulations to the following students: 

• Bridget Evinger (Spanish)
• Sirad Farah (French)
• Sofia Mutarelli (Spanish) 
• Thomas Scott (Latin)
• Tamar Hunsberger, Alternate (French)
• Ye-Ram Kim, Alternate (Japanese) 

Oakton Rocketry 

Oakton’s Rocketry team has been having an incredible season!  On April 16, they competed in the Battle of the Rockets, Deployable Sensor Payload Event.  This event included teams from the University and High School level.  The purpose of this challenge was to design a payload and rocket to launch at least 800 feet and no more than 1500 feet and have the payload deploy from the rocket descending under a parachute.  Oakton’s team finished in 3rd place!  More information can be found here.  

Additionally, Oakton’s Rocketry team was invited to participate in the American Rocketry Challenge in May!  Teams from 27 states qualified with the 100 finalists competing on May 20 in Great Meadow in The Plains, Virginia.  Teams will vie for $100,000 in prizes and the title of National Champion, which includes an all-expense paid trip to Paris for the International Rocketry Challenge.  The top 25-finishers at the National Finals automatically earn spots in the NASA Student Launch workshop.  More information can be found here.  

Oakton DECA International Career and Development Conference Results

Oakton High School DECA is pleased to recognize the 81 students who participated in 2023 DECA ICDC in Orlando. We especially want to acknowledge our top-finalists:

First Place

• Virtual Business: Retail – Basil Chase, Jack Hansen, and Ken Zhou

Second Place

• Virtual Business: Fashion – Suhith Kanneganti
• Business Growth Plan – Stelle Xu

Top-Ten Finalist

• Integrated Marketing Campaign: Product – Emma and Noah Al Mukhtar
• Retail Merchandising Series – Michelle Kwak

Top-Twenty Finalist

• Restaurant and Food Service Management Series – Hailey Khetan
• Professional Selling – Nicole Nguyen

Top-Ten Test

• Hotel and Lodging Management Series – Elsa Li
• Hospitality Services Team Decision Making – Kavin Trivedi

Oakton Debate

In this year’s state competition, Oakton placed 2^nd overall for Class 6. For Policy debate, Aditi Bhattacharjya & Chole Kim won 1^st place! Aditi was also awarded top speaker for Policy. For the Lincoln Douglas debate, Shanthi Ashok won 2^nd place!

Read below the accolades for:

• Shark Tank Assistive Technology Challenge
• Miss Virginia Teen USA 2023
• Oakton Theatre Recognitions
• Cougar Commendations
• New York Times 10th Annual Student Editorial Contest
• Academic & Visual Performing Arts Governor's School

Shark Tank Assistive Technology Challenge

Sampriti Muthuswamy, Karen Zhou, and Ira Gramopadhyea, three students from Oakton High School, were selected as the 1^st place team in this year’s Fairfax County 50+ “Shark Tank” Assistive Technology Challenge. They were awarded $1,000 for their project “Capture Your Memory” and celebrated at the Board of Supervisors meeting in May!  

Miss Virginia Teen USA 2023

Congratulations to Ashley Wang for her selection as the 2023 Miss Virginia Teen USA!  This was Ashley’s first pageant experience and will now go on to represent Virginia in the Miss Teen USA 2023 pageant!  We will certainly be rooting for her!  

Oakton Theatre Recognitions 

Congratulations to Oakton Theatre students on their amazing productions this school year!  We were excited to see their work be recognized on a larger scale.  Congratulations to all of our nominees!

The National Theatre’s Brandon Victor Dixon Awards Academy Nominees

Best Actor - John Poncy, Mean Girls 

Cappies Nominations

Best Play - Wendy & Peter Pan

Featured Actor in a Male Role in a Play - Alex Surakov

Comic Actor in a Female Role in a Play - Kaitlyn McCarley

Supporting Actor in a Female Role in a Play - Sarah Driessen

Ensemble in a Play - The Pirates

Special Effects And/Or Technology - Eliot Hettler & The Fly Team

Best Sound - Ash Dougherty & Grace Lionato & Sound Team 

Best Sets - Shane Roy & The Set Team 

Andy Mays Rising Critic - Clare Shacochis 

Cougar Commendations

On May 24 we were excited to recognize many of our students for their nomination for a Cougar Commendation.  Students are nominated by Oakton faculty and staff for their contributions to the Oakton community through the Portrait of a Graduate attributes: Collaborator, Communicator, Creative & Critical Thinker, Ethical & Global Citizen, and Goal-directed & Resilient.  Congratulations to all students recognized!  

New York Times 10th Annual Student Editorial Contest

Congratulations to Zaynab Hasan for her recognition as a runner-up in the 10th Annual New York Times Student Editorial Contest!  Zaynab was recognized for her article “Sportswashing in Soccer: The Beautiful Game Needs Saving.” Her article was selected as one of the top 23 articles received out of over 12,000 entries from around the world! 

Academic & Visual Performing Arts Governor’s School 

Congratulations to these outstanding students for their acceptance into the Academic and Visual Performing Arts Governor’s School programs.  This is a tremendous accomplishment as these students will participate in a summer residential program run by the Virginia Department of Education.  Students could apply for Academic Programs in: Agriculture, Humanities, Mathematics, Science & Technology, Engineering (Jefferson Lab), or Marine Science (VA Institute of Marine Science).  Students could apply for the following Visual & Performing Arts Programs: Dance, Instrumental Music, Vocal Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts.  

• Lola Farkas - Visual Performing Arts (Dance)
• Bumkyu Kang  - Math/Science/Technology
• Chloe Kim  - Agriculture
• Valerie Su - Visual Performing Arts (Instrumental)
• Rivka Vizcardo-Lichter  - Agriculture
• Ga Len Xia - Math/Science/Technology

Read below the accolades for:

• September Student of the Month Recipients
• National Merit Semi-Finalists
• National Merit Commended Scholars
• 2023 College Board National Recognition Program Awardees
• US News and World Report
• 2023 AP School Honor Roll
• AP Capstone Diploma
• Coca Cola Scholars Foundation Semi-Finalist
• Student Author - Layla Hunter
• All District Chorus
• 22-23 VHSL Competition for the Literary Magazine and Multimedia category
• Project Aviation EXPO Essay Scholarship Contest Winners

September Student of the Month Recipients

Congratulations to our September Student of the Month recipients!  Each department has the ability to nominate up to three students that they wish to recognize for their contributions to that department.  

• Jake Lashley, Adapted Curriculum 
• Linh Nguyen, Adapted Curriculum
• Charlie Deleage, Adapted Curriculum 
• Nedda Osman, Career and Technical Ed. 
• Antonio Atunes, Fine Arts
• Romain Dairay, English 
• Maria Nakhoul, English and Health and PE
• Caine Bungkrai, Social Studies
• Bruno Pineyro, Social Studies 
• Tasneem Fallah, Social Studies 
• Alifia Huq, Math
• Theo Selander, Math
• Norell Boomer, Math
• Ayan Sudhir, Science
• Zayd Malik, Science
• Reyan Malk, Science 
• Priela Thessalonika, World Languages

National Merit Semi-Finalists

We are excited to announce that 14 Oakton students have been selected as National Merit Semi-finalists! They join more 16,000 academically talented high school seniors who have the opportunity to continue in the competition for approximately 7,140 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next spring.  About 95 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and about half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title. Please join me in congratulating the following members of the Class of 2024: 

• Aditi Bhattacharjya
• Patrick Breslin
• Priya Buddhavarapu
• Nicole Deng
• Tyler Francis
• Sreeja Gudiseva
• Chloe Lee
• Esha Lohiya
• Hannah Longfellow
• Daniel Son
• Kenneth Yon
• Amber Zhang
• Elizabeth Zhukova
• Kelly Zou 

National Merit Commended Scholars

• Samhita Adapa
• Hiro Arai
• Annie Bai 
• Deniz BAlci
• Mason Baldwin
• Namith Gangireddyvari
• Brady Grimm
• Rowan Hou
• Kenneth Jiang
• Siri Lalukota
• Daniel Lee
• Drew Levin
• Rachel Liang
• Steven Liao
• Harrison Lin
• Selin Mehmed
• Benjamin Miller
• Aarav Mohanty
• Sofia Mutarelli
• Alexandra Neacsu
• Ashlee Nguyen
• Khoi Nguyen
• Ellen Noh
• Eliot Park
• Grace Park
• John Park
• Zachary Park 
• Claire Reksulak
• Annalia Rodriguez
• Artin Saadat
• Leo Savitsky
• Nicholas Sculimbrene
• Krishay Shah
• Kristen Shojinaga
• Jocelyn Shortle
• Elijah Suh
• Riya Takalkar
• Divyasimha Talreja
• Finley Tarr
• Michael Tatum
• Angela Wadden
• Allan Wang
• Daniel Wang
• Lucas Weaver 
• Ga Len Xia
• Esther Yoo 
• Weitong Yu 
• Maggie Zhang
• Richard Zhang
• Jeffrey Zheng 
• Ziqiang Zhou
• Justin Zou 

2023 College Board National Recognition Program Awardees

Congratulations to the students below who earned National Recognition from the College Board.  This academic honor was earned because of their GPA of 3.5 or higher and outstanding performance on the PSAT/NMSQT®, PSAT™ 10, and/or AP® Exams. Awardees below are accurate as of August 17, 2023.  

• Blen Haile: NAARA
• Delina Bahgi: NAARA
• Drew Lanier: NHRA, NIA
• Eli Osei-Tutu: NAARA
• Emily Hagen: NAARA
• Eve Drew-Mazariegos: NHRA
• Gabriel Mesfin-Champagne: NAARA
• Gabriella Bray: NIA
• Giselle Cordon-Rosales: NHRA
• Harold Kidemu: NAARA
• Juan Pimentel: NHRA
• Kara Bumbary: NAARA
• Lucas Weaver: NHRA
• Nicolas McDonald: NHRA
• Noah Wright: NHRA
• Rebecca Vizcardo-Lichter: NHRA
• Sasha DiSalvo: NAARA
• Trinity Nickisch: NHRA
• Ty Ordonez: NHRA
• Valentina Saer: NHRA

Award Key:

• National African American Recognition Award (NAARA)
• National Hispanic Recognition Award (NHRA)
• National Rural and Small Town Award (NRSTA)
• National Indigenous Award (NIA)

US News and World Report

Oakton HS was recognized as a top ten high school in the state of Virginia in the US News and World Report.  We are currently ranked as the 6^th best high school in the entire state of Virginia.  This year’s rankings reviewed nearly 25,000 public high schools at the national, state, and local levels, using data compiled from 2018 to 2019 and 2020 to 2021. In the highest ranked schools, students perform above expectations in math, reading, and science state assessments, earn qualifying scores in several college-level exams, and graduate in high proportions.Please see this news release for more information.  The complete U.S. News and World Report 2023 Best High Schools rankings are available online.

2023 AP School Honor Roll

Oakton High School has been named to the 2023 AP School Honor Roll! Oakton High School received platinum status recognition, the highest of four levels of distinction.   We are just one of five FCPS high schools to earn this recognition. Oakton High School had  82% of seniors who took at least one AP exam during high school, 68% of seniors scoring a three or higher on at least one AP exam, and 48% of seniors who took five or more AP exams! Learn more here. 

College Culture: Percent of students in the graduating class who took an AP exam at any point in high school, regardless of score. To avoid pressure on students to take large numbers of APs, only 1 AP exam per student contributes to this indicator.

College Credit: Percent of students in the graduating class who scored 3B on any AP Exam in high school. To avoid pressure on students to take large numbers of APs, only 1 AP exam score of 3 or higher, per student, contributes to this indicator.

College Optimization: Percent of students in the graduating class who took 5 or more AP Exams in high school, where at least 1 exam was taken in9th or 10th grade. Because research finds that 6 or more APs do not improve college graduation rates beyond the optimal total of 5 such courses in high school, no exams beyond 5 per student contribute to this indicator. The Honor Roll also recognizes schools that encourage students earlier on their AP journeys so as not to overload them with AP courses their junior and senior years.

AP Capstone Diploma

Congratulations to the following students from the Class of 2023 and Class of 2024 who earned the AP Capstone Diploma!  

• Ashok, Shanthi, AP Capstone Diploma - Class of 2023 
• Chen,  Eric, AP Capstone Diploma - Class of 2023 
• Condro, Julia, AP Capstone Diploma - Class of 2023 
• Gori, Marco, AP Capstone Diploma - Class of 2024
• Gudiseva, Sreeja, AP Capstone Diploma - Class of 2024 
• Huybrechts, Mia, AP Capstone Diploma - Class of 2023 
• Kim, Yeonsoo, AP Capstone Diploma - Class of 2023 
• Lalukota, Siri, AP Capstone Diploma - Class of 2024
• Lopez,  David, AP Capstone Diploma - Class of 2023 
• Sanghvi, Natasha, AP Capstone Diploma - Class of 2023 
• Shin,  Ashley, AP Capstone Diploma - Class of 2023 
• Suk,  Elijah, AP Capstone Diploma - Class of 2024 
• Zhang,  Ziyi, AP Capstone Diploma - Class of 2023 

To receive the AP Capstone Diploma, students must earn scores of 3 or higher in AP Seminar, AP Research, and on four additional AP^® Exams of their choice. To receive the AP Seminar and Research Certificate, students must earn scores of 3 or higher in AP Seminar and AP Research. Students are increasingly participating in the AP Capstone^TM program. The program has reached a milestone of over 100,000 students participating during the 2022-23 academic year, representing over 2,500 schools worldwide. Approximately 15,800 students earned the AP Capstone Diploma, and 9,600 students earned the AP Seminar and Research Certificate.  

Coca Cola Scholars Foundation Semi-Finalist

Congratulations to Elizabeth Zhukova who was named as one of the 2024 Coca Cola Scholar Semi-finalists!  Elizabeth was one of 1,514 students who were among the 1.45% selected from over 103,800 applicants from across the country to continue through our selection process based on their academic excellence, leadership, and service demonstrated in school and community activities. Semifinalist applications will be reviewed by the Program Reading Committee. After this review, 250 will advance as Regional Finalists, with 150 becoming Coca-Cola Scholars and receiving a $20,000 college scholarship.

Student Author - Layla Hunter

Congratulations to Layla Hunter for the publication of her book, STEM Chronicles: A Journey through STEM.  The book was published at the end of July and is being sold on Amazon.  The audience for the books is kids aged 7-13! 

All District Chorus

The All District Chorus auditions were held on Saturday, November 4, 2023.  447 students from sixteen high schools in our district auditioned.  Oakton had 56 students audition.  Of the 269 students selected, 42 were from Oakton High School.  We had 21 students earn perfect scores in sight reading!  This makes Oakton High School the school with the largest representation!  We are so proud of their hard work and diligence!  

All selected singers from high schools and middle schools will be performing at concerts held February 8-10 that will be hosted at Oakton High School!  

22-23 VHSL Competition for the Literary Magazine and Multimedia category

The results from the 22-23 VHSL Competition for the Literary Magazine and Multimedia category came in and we are so proud of our students!  Congratulations to all of the students below who earned recognition from the VHSL!  

The Oakton Literary Magazine, Opus, team from 2022-2023 consisted of: Alexa Gay, Emery Steinberg, Lauren Bigley, Sarah Jones, Meher Nalwala, Jonathan Mercier, Ah'Vaiah Goodsky, Vivien Leithead, Jaden Sestak, Natalie Lopresti, Amy Sherrill, Audrey Burns, Morgan Dreyer, Emily Marsh, Maisie Naughton, and Hazel Lindquist.

Evaluative Criteria Booklet(Individual Magazine) - Excellent

Publications Evaluation Services(Magazine Division) - First Class

Multimedia Category: 

• Kyle Whitlock - 2^nd place, Drawing category
• Alyssa Zhang, 2^nd place, Digital Art category
• Lauren Bigley, 2^nd place Prose Spread category
• Diana Zhang , 2^nd place, Poetry category
• Alexa Gay, 1^st & 2^nd place, Poetry Spread category
• Alyssa Zhang, 1^st place, Mixed Media category
• Lena Song, 3^rd place, Mixed Media category. 

Project Aviation EXPO Essay Scholarship Contest Winners

Congratulations to Leen Atari, Sebastian De La Cruz, and Ashlee Nguyen for winning a combined total of $9,000 at the Project Aviation EXPO Essay Scholarship Contest!  This annual event is hosted at the Leesburg Executive Airport and is geared towards high school and college students. The focus is to introduce young people to the vast array of career opportunities within the aviation industry. The Expo consists of industry leaders, vendors, aircraft displays, guest speakers, amazing prizes, demonstrations, and of course – scholarships! 

November / December 2023

Read below the accolades for:

• October Student of the Month Honorees
• All District Chorus
• Virginia Music Educators Association (VMEA) Honors Choir
• American Choral Directors Association Regional Honors Choir
• Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors' Association Senior Regional Orchestra
• Oakton DECA Competitive Awards
• Oakton Student Award Winners from the Virginia State Latin Convention
• Washington Area Rocketry Program
• Oakton High School Speech and Debate Club - 100 Club Recognition
• Air Force Chief of Staff Flight Academy
• November Student of the Month Honorees
• Oakton High School Outstanding Employee Awards - 2023-24 School Year
• Cougar Commendations - Fall Ceremony

October Student of the Month Honorees

Congratulations to the following students for their recognition as Student of the Month for October! Their pictures and a brief write-up are displayed in the Main Gym/Auditorium lobby for the month of November. 

• Adapted Curriculum - Christian O’Brien
• Adapted Curriculum - Paul Nguyen
• AVID - Ava Fitzpatrick
• Career & Technical Education - Collin Legenhausen
• English - Suban Hassan 
• English - Will Mitchell
• English - Sadie Newman 
• English - Brooklyn Smith 
• ESOL - Marinela Muzanda Pires Delgado
• Fine Arts - Ethan Woodhead
• Health & Physical Education  - Alex Miles
• Math - Haya Al Habri
• Science - Lauren Glaser 
• Science - Charissa Iwan
• Social Studies - Giselle Cordon-Rosales
• Social Studies - Daniel Lee
• Social Studies - Phoenix McNeely  
• World Languages - Nick Cordial 

All District Chorus

The All District Chorus auditions were held on Saturday, November 4, 2023.  447 students from sixteen high schools in our district auditioned.  Oakton had 56 students audition.  Of the 269 students selected, 42 were from Oakton High School.  We had 21 students earn perfect scores in sight reading (marked with an “*” below)!  This makes Oakton High School the school with the largest representation!  We are so proud of their hard work and diligence!  

All selected singers from high schools and middle schools will be performing at concerts held February 8-10 that will be hosted at Oakton High School!  

All District 12 Chorus Oakton Members: 

Treble Soprano 1

• Sophie Barlow
• Bethany Lindorf

Treble Alto 1

• Sophia Boyd
• Haedyn Howard
• Ashlyn Hyderkahn
• Lizzie Kritzler
• Taryn Purcell
• Hailey Stuermann *

Treble Alto 2

• Kiera Bicoy
• Aubrey Nix *
• Lena Tosounidis *

Tenor 1

• Jaden Boissy
• Walker Crews
• John Gluck
• Matthew Rondina

Tenor 2

• Surya Dineshkumar *
• Benjamin Mostafavi

Bass 1 

• Jonas Ethington
• Ben Miller
• Matthew Martinez
• Tommy Richey
• Ethan Woodhead

Bass 2

• Zach Heise 
• Ben Rogers
• Milad Shahbazi *

Mixed Soprano 1

• Autumn Frank *
• Kaitlyn McCarley *

Mixed Soprano 2

• Blen Haile
• Genevieve Lacey
• Meher Nalwala

Mixed Alto 1

• Fernanda Cobo *
• Andrea Gatu
• Helyna Howard
• Ana Jankovic
• Maia Kalbag
• Katie Kritzler *
• Aubrey Swanson *

Mixed Alto 2

• Emi Harrison *
• Alison Kowalski *
• Raquel Lewis
• Sofia Mutarelli *
• Cea Reksulak *

Virginia Music Educators Association (VMEA) Honors Choir

Congratulations to the following six Oakton students who were selected to represent Oakton High School at the VMEA Honors Choir!  

• Fernanda Cobo, Alto 2
• Autumn Frank, Soprano 1
• Katie Kritzler, Alto 1
• Sofia Mutarelli, Alto 2
• Cea Reksulak, Alto 2
• Matthew Rondina, Tenor 1

American Choral Directors Association Regional Honors Choir

Congratulations to the following students who were selected to represent Oakton HS at the American Choral Directors Association Regional Honors Choir:

• Lena Tosounidis
• Eleanor Williams

The event is scheduled for February 22-24 in Louisville, Kentucky.  

Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors’ Association Senior Regional Orchestra 

Congratulations to the following six Oakton students who were selected to perform in the Senior Regional Orchestra!  The concert was held on Saturday, November 4.  

• Isaiah Garrett, Violin
• Emma Grace Kim, Violin
• Matthew Kim, Viola
• Seungwoo Yoon, Cello
• Valerie Su, Cello
• Vincent Ji, Cello

Oakton DECA Competitive Awards

Our Oakton DECA program has been hard at work so far this year.  Congratulations to all the students below who have earned recognition so far this year!

Oakton DECA Virtual Business International Career Development Conference (Round 1) Qualifiers:

DECA Virtual Business Challenge:  RETAIL

• Ken Zhou

• Jack Hansen

• Basil Chase

 DECA Virtual Business Challenge:  Sports & Entertainment

• Patrick McEvoy

• Arjun Sanghvi

• Akshay Shah

FCPS DECA District 13 Winners/Virginia DECA State Qualifiers (March 2024 in Virginia Beach):

Selling Event

• 1^st Place - Jack Martin

• 2^nd Place - Grace Dowling

• 3^rd Place - Aiden MacGarvey

• 4^th Place - Ayush Ranjan

Social Media

• 1^st Place - Alicia Yangas

• 2^nd Place - Saniya Thaker

• 3^rd Place - Anya Jain

• 4^th Place - Sahana Komanduri

Principles of Business Management

• 1^st Place - Rishab Nanduri

• 2^nd Place - Sophia Luo

• 3^rd Place - Katelyn Hubbard

Principles of Finance

• 1^st Place - Gavin Hawk

• 3^rd Place - Nadeem Callas

• 4^th Place - Ethan Jung

Principles of Hospitality & Tourism

• 2^nd Place - Maya Solomon

• 3^rd Place - Divyasimha Talreja

• 4^th Place - Suraj Vemuru

Principles of Marketing

• 1^st Place - Kayla Knight

• 3^rd Place - Ella Kang

Personal Financial Literacy

• 1^st Place - Mahir Duneja

• 2^nd Place - Ashlee Nguyen

• 3^rd Place - Ayan Sudhir

• 4^th Place - Yusuf Saeed

Apparel & Accessories Marketing

• 1^st Place - Isabel Wang

• 2^nd Place - Addison Hawk

• 3^rd Place - Madeline Yangas

Automotive Services Marketing

• 1^st Place - Joshua Wang

• 2^nd Place - Vinh Tran

• 3^rd Place -Teodor Vretsona

• 4^th Place - Supakorn Tanathongkul

Business Financial Services

• 1^st Place - Xindi Tang

• 2^nd Place - Carson McCullough

• 4^th Place - Noah Hamid

Business Service Marketing

• 1^st Place - Nithya Rajesh

• 2^nd Place - Iman Chaudhry

• 3^rd Place - Hilde Sullenberger

• 4^th Place - Emma Brault

Entrepreneurship

• 1^st Place - Ken Zhou

• 3^rd Place - Sampriti Muthuswamy

• 4^th Place - Basil Chase

Food Service Marketing

• 1^st Place - Christopher Wang

• 2^nd Place - Danielle Kim

• 3^rd Place - Mawada Swilam

• 4^th Place - Diya Palaniappan

Hotel & Lodging Management

• 1^st Place - Anika Gandhi

• 2^nd Place - Kenny Yu

• 3^rd Place - Elizabeth Li

• 4^th Place - Tyler Francis

Human Resource Management

• 1^st Place - Rachel Liang

• 3^rd Place - Rebecca Sandrugu

Marketing Communications 

• 1^st Place - Sneha Adhikari

• 2^nd Place - Esha Lohiya

• 3^rd Place - Sreeja Gudiseva

• 4^th Place - Allie Cage

Quick Service Restaurant Management

• 1^st Place - Misha Lal

• 2^nd Place - Audrey Wandow

• 3^rd Place - Lyla Chen

• 4^th Place - Marisa Rubano

Retail Merchandising

• 1^st Place - Arhan Jain

• 2^nd Place - Alicia Yoo

• 4^th Place - Samantha Oh

Sports & Entertainment Marketing

• 2^nd Place - Gabriel Lee

• 3^rd Place - Bennett Wozny

• 4^th Place - Irene Kim

Oakton Student Award Winners from the Virginia State Latin Convention

Oakton High School sent a group of students to the Virginia State Latin Convention and earned 2^nd place in the medium delegation spirit competition. Thank you to our sponsor, Jonathan Shev.  

Please congratulate the following students who won individual awards.

Aditi Bhattacharjya: 

• 2^nd place, Level 4+ advanced derivatives test

• 10^th place, Level 4+ Roman life and culture test

• 10^th place, upper level costume contest, couples category

Helyna Howard:

• 4^th place, level 4+ classical art test

• 6^th place, level 4+ mythology test

• 8^th place, level 4+ advanced derivatives test

• 2^nd place, 12^th grade Latin greeting cards

• 3^rd place, 12^th grade story telling

• 2^nd place, talent show

Sophia Wang:

• 7^th place, Latin 3 vocabulary test

• 8^th place, Latin 3 ancient geography test

• 10^th place, Latin 3 mythology test

• 2^nd place, 9^th grade charts

Aidan Tetreault:

• 8^th place, level 4+ Geography test

• 10^th place, level 4+ ancient history test

• 3^rd place, 12^th grade English oratory

Christopher Campbell:

• 8^th place, Latin 3 ancient geography test

• 9^th place, Latin 3 ancient history test

Anvitha Vemuru:

• 8^th place, Latin 3 Mottoes test

Minwoo Nam:

• 8^th place, Latin 2 Roman life and Customs test

• 9^th place, Latin 2 mythology test

• 10^th place, Latin 2 Mottoes test

Chloe Kim:

• 10^th place, upper-level costume contest, couples category

• 1^st place, Latin 1 Latin Oratory contest

 Washington Area Rocketry Program 

Congratulations to four Oakton students who launched a high-powered rocket to 34,195 feet, higher than many airplanes!  These students formed an independent rocketry team, Washington Area Rocketry Program (WARP).  They have aspirations of creating a rocket that can go to space before graduation!  Way to go Cougars!  More information can be found reading this WTOP article.

• Benjamin Miller (Senior)
• Christopher Do (Senior)
• Gabriel Mesfin-Champagne (Senior)
• Annika Rieger (Senior)

Oakton High School Speech and Debate Club - 100 Club Recognition 

Congratulations to the Oakton High School Speech and Debate Team!  They earned significant recognition from the National Speech and Debate Association for their efforts during the 2022-2023 school year.  Students earn Honor Society points and degrees based on competition, leadership, and service activities which contribute to the school’s strength points.  Last year, Oakton’s chapter earned 109 or more strength points earning membership into the Association’s prestigious 100 Club!  

Air Force Chief of Staff Flight Academy

Congratulations to Cadet Amadeu Gurin for earning a primary seat at the Air Force Chief of Staff Flight Academy next summer!  This $25,000 scholarship is fully funded by the United States Air Force and sends select Air Force Junior ROTC Cadets to this Flight Academy to earn their Private Pilots License. This 8-week program was created to address the critical shortage of pilots in our nation and has NO military obligation!

November Student of the Month Honorees

Congratulations to the following students for their recognition as Student of the Month for October! Their pictures and a brief write-up are displayed in the Main Gym/Auditorium lobby for the month of December.

• Adapted Curriculum - Peter Lee
• English - Ansh Deol
• English - Patrick Jenkins 
• English - Naomi Weffens
• ESOL - Hasan Hasnka
• Fine Arts - Alasdair Delgado McCommons
• Math - Daniel Flores
• Math - John Park 
• Math - Sean Wagner
• Science - Dylon DeAngelis
• Science - Brendan Doe
• Social Studies - Adam Rabie

Oakton High School Outstanding Employee Awards - 2023-2024 School Year

Congratulations to our Oakton High School Outstanding Employee Award winners for the 2023-2024 school year!  Nominations were received for various staff members throughout the building from students, staff, and parents.  Award winners were selected from a committee with representatives from departments across the building.  All nominees received certificates with the wonderful write-ups received during the nomination process.  Congratulations to our award winners for this school year!

• Outstanding Leader - Larry Stroud, Assistant Principal
• Outstanding New Teacher - Maggie Larkin, Multiple Disabilities Teacher 
• Outstanding Operational Employee - Patricia Strozier-Brown, Safety and Security Assistant
• Outstanding Professional - Justin Janis, Systems of Support Advisor (SOSA)
• Outstanding Teacher - Harnam Arneja, Math Teacher 

Cougar Commendations - Fall Ceremony

On December 14 we were excited to hold our Cougar Commendations Fall Ceremony and recognize 119 students.  Nominations came in from staff across the building to recognize students in the five Portrait of a Graduate Attributes (Creative & Critical Thinker, Collaborator, Goal Directed & Resilient Individual, Ethical & Global Citizen, Communicator).  These are particularly special recognitions as they are given based on the student’s day-to-day interactions and behaviors in the classroom.  Congratulations to all the students who were recognized!  

January 2024

Read below the accolades for:

• Marching Cougars Win Metallica “For Whom the Band Tolls” Competition
• District Band
• Oakton Scholastic Bowl Team - Concorde District Champions 
• Oakton’s Debate Team
• Student of the Month - December 
• Oakton Forensics Team
• United States Presidential Scholars Program
• District Orchestra
• Oakton High School Science Fair 
• Honor Roll 
• American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) 
• Oakton’s We the People Club

Marching Cougars Win Metallica “For Whom the Band Tolls” Competition

Congratulations to our Marching Cougars for winning the inaugural Metallica “For Whom the Band Tolls” competition in the High School (small) category!  We are so happy to see their amazing show recognized at such a high level!  They were selected by the members of the band Metallica for their fantastic performance. Great job Cougars! More information on Metallica’s X account.  

District Band

District Band auditions were held on Saturday, January 13, at McLean High School.  District Band Festival is an event consisting of two auditioned honor bands, composed of some of the best band students in Arlington County and the northern half of Fairfax County.  22 band students from Oakton High School made one of the two bands or were selected as alternates.  This is the largest number of students selected from Oakton High School in one year!.  Oakton High School had the third-most number of students accepted of all participating high schools.  Congratulations to the students below.  We are so proud of you!  

• James Burke
• Aaron Chen
• Jayden Chong
• Conran Coffey
• Adeline Emmerich
• Bridget Evinger
• Aidin Hoffman
• James Hudson
• Ethan Kim
• Paul Koh
• Zac Lee
• Gabi Ludwig
• Mattew Negron
• Seth Parcell
• Kaylin Rossi
• Dominick Rudnicki
• Logan Sawyer
• Logan Sturgeon
• Jack Volcansek
• Jennifer Xu
• Alex Yu
• Albert Zhu

Oakton Scholastic Bowl Team - Concorde District Champions 

After an all-day competition on Saturday, January 13, the Oakton Scholastic Bowl team became once again the Concorde District Champions!

Please congratulate the following team members that participated:

Jennifer Chen, Aashan Dahagam, Antonio Ingle-Fernandez, Nathaniel Kim, Adrian Li, Andrew South, Rivka Vizcardo-Lichter, and Karen Zhou.

As District Champions, the Scholastic Bowl team competed in the Regional Competition on Wednesday, January 17.  These students did a wonderful job representing Oakton High School.  We are so proud of them!  

Oakton’s Debate Team

Congratulations to Oakton’s Policy Team who received 1st place speaker in all three levels at the Washington-Arlington Catholic Forensic League (WACFL4) at Fairfax High School on January 13.  We had students compete in both the Policy Debate and the LIncoln-Douglas Debate.  They represented Oakton extremely well.  Congratulations!  

Policy Debate: 

Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Student of the Month - December 

Our December Student of the Month winners were displayed throughout the month of January in our gym lobby.  Congratulations to all these wonderful students! 

• Elizabeth Mouzavires - Adapted Curriculum 
• Sungjoon Park - Adapted Curriculum 
• Dale Rumford - English 
• Abdullah Waseem - English 
• Nicholas Abadi - ESOL 
• Beheshta Sharifi - ESOL
• Ariyalis Rivera Garcia - Fine Arts 
• Matthias Lin - Health and Physical Education 
• Fro Michaels-Studds - Math 
• Jackson Bogers  - Science
• Camryn DiLeonardo - Science
• Charlotte Sparling - Science
• Oriana Chamaa - Social Studies

Oakton Forensics Team

Congratulations to the Oakton Forensics Team who competed in the Concorde District Tournament on ??.  The team did a wonderful job and we are so proud of their accomplishments!  Oakton’s team had a great showing and we are so proud of the entire team!  

• Mahika Aravind (Storytelling) - 2nd Place; SuperRegional Qualification 
• Adah Coluzzi (poetry) 
• Eve Drew-Mazariegos (dramatic interpretation) - 2nd Place; SuperRegional Qualification 
• Marco Gori (poetry) - Alternate 
• Jason Shin (humorous interpretation) -Alternate

United States Presidential Scholars Program

Congratulations to Kelly Zou, 12th Grade student, who was selected as a candidate for the US Presidential Scholars Program!  The U.S. Presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964, by executive order of the President, to recognize and honor some of our nation's most distinguished graduating high school seniors. In 1979, the program was extended to recognize students who demonstrate exceptional talent in the visual, creative and performing arts. In 2015, the program was again extended to recognize students who demonstrate ability and accomplishment in career and technical education fields. Each year, up to 161 students are named as Presidential Scholars, one of the nation's highest honors for high school students. For more information please visit this site.  

District Orchestra

Congratulations to our sixteen orchestra students who were selected to participate in the 2023-2024 All-District Orchestra!  Select students from across the county convened at Langley High School to participate in this all-district event.  Sixteen is the highest number of Oakton orchestra students who have been selected in a very long time. We are very proud of them!  

• Eliana Armentrout
• Abigail Chi 
• Yoonsub David Choi
• Lindsey Gibson
• David Ji 
• Joseph Kim
• Jorge Laboy-Bulancea
• Daniel Lee
• Rheechen Liu 
• Elliot Park
• Grace Park
• Kerala Ryan
• Jake Weiss
• Ivy Xu
• Justin Yi 
• Michael Wang 

Oakton High School Science Fair 

On January 25, the Oakton High School staff reviewed all the submitted Science Fair projects.  There were such great projects submitted this year.  From those submitted, 22 projects were selected to be considered for the Regional Science Fair which will take place the weekend of March 16-17 at Robinson Secondary School.  Congratulations to all of our winners!  

• Chunjie Huang, Chunmin Huang: Implementing and Analyzing an Obstacle Avoidance Program in an Agricultural UAV
• Ashley Chen, Aaron Chen: The Potential of Chlorophyll as an Eco-Friendly Power Source
• Nancy Li, Jennifer Xu: The Effect of Vertical Revolution on Plant Root Growth
• Brinda Patel: The Implications of Histidine, Taurine, and Branched-Chain Amino Acids on the Pathogenesis of Huntington's Disease Through C. elegans
• Amelia Haid, Ella Geisler: Evaluating AChE Inhibitor HupA on Drosophila melanogaster as an Approach to Dementia Treatment
• Ivy Xu: The Effect of pH on Planaria Regeneration
• Rheechen Liu, Kavya Bobba: The Effect of Sodium Poly-mate Absorbency Rate on Affordable Diapers
• Linus Koepcke, Brandon Lin: The Effect of Soil Stabilisers on Soil Properties and Liquefaction Potential
• Rishab Nanduri, Jerry Huang: The Image Recognition Accuracy of Novel and Current Generative and Non-Generative Deep Learning Models
• Anya Nehra, Aashee Balani: The Effect of Roofing Structures on Interior Building Temperature
• Jason Shin: The Effect of Hydrogen Peroxide/Sodium Alginate Ice Balls on the Purification of Algae Water
• Nicholas Lee, Andreas Spoormaker: Enhancing Mobility and Safety for Visually Impaired Individuals: Ultrasonic vs. Traditional Blind Walking Sticks
• Khartik Uppalapati, Viraj Kamath: BSEPv2: Designing a Novel Protein Utilizing AI-Assisted Predictions of Molecular Evolution for the Effective Treatment of Progressive Familial Intrahepatic Cholestasis (PFIC)
• Bhargav Borah: The Impact of Diverse Leaf Litter Decay on Spirulina Absorbance
• Julie Xu, Claire Zhang: Combining machine learning algorithm with structured motion data for ASL motion recognition 
• Yoonsub Choi: The Effect of the Type of Seafood on the Amount of Microplastics
• Alexander Yu, Albert Zhu: The Effect of Salinity on Daphnia magna Viability
• Paul Koh, Derek Ashcraft: The Effect of Adversarial AI Attacks on AI Producing Accurate Results
• Jaxen Bream: Pathogen Prediction: Pioneering Rapid Antibiotic Discovery Through AI
• Jocelyn Ro, Everett Ha: The Effect of Blade Angle on Energy Generated by a Wind Turbine
• Kent Fruchtman, Ashwin Potluri: Constructing a Robot to Aid the Elderly and the Mobility Impaired in Everyday Tasks
• Thomas Sparling: Bridging the Renewable Energy Gap: a Closed Loop Pumped Hydro-Power System Versus Commercial Batteries

Honor Roll 

Our 1st quarter honor roll student names were hung in the main entrance lobby this month to celebrate their achievement.  Our apologies for the delay, our large poster printer was temporarily out of service.  We have a poster recognizing our students who earned all A’s and five posters of names of students who earned all A’s and B’s!  Congratulations to all of these students.  The second quarter honor roll students will be posted when they become available.  

American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) 

Oakton High School is excited to announce that five students have qualified for and are taking the American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME). These students have demonstrated outstanding mathematical abilities by scoring in the top 5% of the AMC 10/12 competitions.

The AIME is a significant milestone for these students, as it provides them with an opportunity to further challenge themselves and showcase their problem-solving skills. The test consists of 15 questions and spans over 3 hours, with no calculators allowed. It aims to foster mathematical development and interest among high school students, offering recognition to those with exceptional abilities. Top scorers qualify for the USAMO competition.

Please join me in congratulating the following students:

• Norman Lee
• Elizabeth Li
• Arjun Malghan
• Neil Rudra
• Chuxi Sheng

Oakton’s We the People Club

On Saturday January 27th, Oakton's We The People club team finished 6th in the Virginia State Competition at Randolph Macon College; an event which included the Governor's School, magnet schools and teams that incorporate the competition into their AP US Government curriculum.  All participants improved significantly throughout the year and many parents who were in attendance were very complimentary about the team's performance.  Oakton was led by Unit 1, but all students in attendance contributed, and we are very proud of all of them.  Congratulations to all of our team members! 

Unit 1

• Chris Wang
• Joshua Wang
• Vincent Zhang
• Richard Zhang

Unit 2

• Saanvi Siddhi
• Grace Park
• Allan Wang
• Annie Bai

Unit 3

• Zain Kaul
• Ray Shen
• Pranati Kashyap
• Colin Guggenmos
• Nithya Rajesh 

Unit 4

• Philip Tetreault
• David Choi
• Carter Scott
• Adah Coluzzi
• Jafita Asirvatham

Unit 5

• Omyo Khan
• Ryan Liercke
• Sreeja Gudiseva
• Harrison Lin

Unit 6

• Thomas Scott
• Tyler Donaldson
• Aidan Tetreault
• Elijah Ikhinmwin