Oakton Accolades

This page contains celebrations for some of the incredible things our Oakton students do each month. We will highlight the current month's accolades, and you can also find previous month's accolades just below.

Accolades for February 2023

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!

Gold Key
*Student Name*	*Category*
Gwen Harrison	Art Portfolio
Hyekyo Koo	Drawing & Illustration
Hyekyo Koo	Art Portfolio
Lois Park	Painting
Lena Song	Painting
Alyssa Zhang	Digital Art (5 separate submissions)
Alyssa Zhang	Art Portfolio

Silver Key
*Student Name*	*Category*
Emujin Dasher	Painting
Kara Fischer	Digital Art
Bumkyu Kang	Painting
Hyekyo Koo	Drawing & Illustration (2 submissions)
Hyekyo Koo	Digital Art
Hyekyo Koo	Art Portfolio
Chloe Lee	Silver Key
Lois Park	Painting
Lois Park	Art Portfolio
Lena Song	Drawing & Illustration
Allan Wang	Drawing & Illustration
Kyle Whitlock	Painting
Naomi Yoon	Art Portfolio
Alyssa Zhang	Digital Art
Maggie Zhang	Design
Kelly Zou	Digital Art

Honorable Mention
*Student Name*	*Category*
Lyla Chen	Digital Art
Bumkyu Kang	Painting (2 submissions)
Hyekyo Koo	Painting (2 submissions)
Hyekyo Koo	Sculpture
Lois Park	Painting
Allan Wang	Drawing & Illustration

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.

District Band

District Chorus

District Orchestra

Sarah Bigley

James Burke

Aaron Chen

Jimmy Choi

Gabriella Choi

Conran Coffey

Katherine Criswell

Bridget Evinger

Terran Henderson

Ethan Kim

Zachary Lee

Matthew Negron

Seth Parcell

Kira Patel

Logan Sawyer

Sophie Whang

Jennifer Xu

Alexander Yu

Lanah Boissy

Fernanda Cobo Zevallos

Walker Crews

Sarah Driessen

Autumn Frank

Silvia Gusmati

Blen Haile

Helyna Howard

Ana Jankovic

Maia Kalbag

Anthara Kollipara

Katie Kritzler

Kaitlyn McCarley

Erin-Grace McGuire

Will McKinstry

Sofia Mutarelli

Samantha Oh

Cea Reksulak

Matt Rondina

Shay Sanchez

AnnaClaire Sheehan

Lena Tosounidis

Eleanor Williams

Ellen Grace Burke

Daniel Lee

elizabeth Li

Rheechen Liu

Grace Park

Rishi Swaminathan

Justin Wu

Justin Yi

Seungwoo Yoon

Vincent Zhang

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!

Burgundy Team - 1st Place Finish

Gold Team - Tied 3rd Place Finish

1st Place Experimental and Data Analysis: Cindy Li, Samie Adapa, Kelly Zou

1st Place Forestry: Amy Peng & Chunmin Huang

1st Place Rocks and Minerals: Linus Kopcke & Maxine Singdahlsen

1st Place Trajectory: Cindy Li & Kenta Yoshizaki

1st Place WiFi Lab: Artin Saadat & Bumkyu Kang

2nd Place Dynamic Planet: Linus Kopcke & Amy Peng

2nd Place Scrambler: Grace Park & Artin Saadat

2nd Place Write It Do It: Grace Park & Kelly Zou

3rd Place Astronomy: Kenta Yoshizaki & Linus Kopcke

3rd Place Bridge: Bumkyu Kang & Artin Saadat

3rd Place Environmental Chemistry: Diana Zhang & Chunmin Huang

3rd Place Green Generation: Diana Zhang & Esther Yoo

4th Place Detector Building: Cindy Li & Alex Ye

5th Place It’s About Time: Annie Bai & Esther Yoo

1st Place Chemistry Lab: Alicia Yoo & Ashlee Nguyen

2nd Place Bridge: Seungwoo Yoon & Alden Losee

2nd Place Fermi Questions: Alden Losee & Namith Gangireddyuari

3rd Place It’s About Time: Isaiah Garrett & Seungwoo Yoon

3rd Place Codebusters: Isaiah Garrett, Seungwoo Yoon, Arjun Gowder

4th Place WiFi Lab: Brandon Lin & Chunjie Huang

5th Place Trajectory: Jason Shin & Ashlee Nguyen

6th Place Disease Detectives: Kaitlyn Hoang & Eve Drew-Mazariegos

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.

Event	Place	Student Winner(s)
Apparel & Accessories Marketing Series	4	Isabel Wang
Automotive Services Marketing Series	3	Vinh Tran
Business Growth Plan	1	Yige Xu
Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making	4	Aditi Burra, Ashley Gim
Business Services Marketing	8	Iman Chaudhry
Business Solutions Project	4	Owen Martin, Brooke O’Neil, Noah Toole
Buying and Merchandising Operations Research Event	2	Shradha Gandotra, Zyna Merchant, Vaishnavi Peketi
Buying and Merchandising Operations Research Event	3	Camryn Dileonardo, Ashley Odeh, Stephanie Vinh
Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making	4	Bianka Korzun, Dylan Vu-Gia
Entrepreneurship Series	4	Amber Zhang
Financial Consulting Event	4	Ziad Bushnaq
Financial Consulting Event	7	Tina Gao
Financial Services Team Decision Making	1	Savit Nair, Andrew Taylor
Franchise Business Plan	7	Basil Chase, Surya Dineshkumar, Mahir Duneja
Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research Event	1	John Park, Natalie Truong
Hospitality Services Team Decision Making	2	Aarav Mohanty, Kavin Trivedi
Hospitality Services Team Decision Making	3	Sophia Ainsworth, Julia Chen
Hotel and Lodging Management Series	5	Elsa Li
Human Resource Management	2	Rachel Liang
Human Resource Management	5	Samhita (Samie) Adapa
Independent Business Plan	2	Abhi Danget, Thomas Hunter, Anushka Sarafi
Independent Business Plan	3	Michael Flood
Innovation Plan	3	Seongjae Weon
Integrated Marketing Campaign - Event	5	Richa Mistry, Haley Tintle
Integrated Marketing Campaign - Product	2	Brandon Leong, Patrick McEvoy, John Poplawski
Integrated Marketing Campaign - Product	3	Emma AlMukhtar, Noah AlMukhtar
Integrated Marketing Campaign - Service	4	Caralie Basuel, Catherine Yurko
International Business Plan	3	Joanne Jung, Zachary Park, Rebecca Zhang
International Business Plan	4	Saanvi Siddhi, Mason Szczesniak
Marketing Management Team Decision Making	4	Maya Agarwal, Leena Knepper
Personal Financial Literacy Event	1	Ken Zhou
Personal Financial Literacy Event	5	Kelsey Martin
Principles of Marketing	5	Angela Wadden
Professional Selling Event	2	Nicole Nguyen
Professional Selling Event	6	Nithya Rajesh
Quick Service Restaurant Management	4	Siri Lalukota
Restaurant and Food Service Management	3	Hailey Khetan
Restaurant and Food Service Management	5	Misha Lal
Retail Merchandising	3	Michelle Kwak
Sales Project	4	Ethan Piccolo, Natalie Tufts
Social Media - VA Only	2	Isabelle Whang
Start-Up Business Plan	3	Daniel Chong
Travel & Tourism Marketing Team Decision Making	6	Aditi Yadav, Kenny Yu
Virtual Business Fashion	1	Suhith Kanneganti, Ihan Do
Virtual Business Fashion	2	Tina Gao
Virtual Business Retail	1	Basil Chase, Ken Zhou, Jack Hansen

School-Based Enterprise Gold Certification

Event	Recognition	Winner
School-Based Enterprise - Retail	Gold Certification	Michael Kenny, Tejas Charaipotra, Jerry Levine
School-Based Enterprise - Food	Gold Certification	Bahadir Turhan, Aman Patel, Andrew Rizzi

Mini Award Recipients

Event	Place	Winner
Apparel & Accessories Marketing Series	Role Play 2	Isabel Wang
Apparel & Accessories Marketing Series	Exam	Lilly Rizzi
Apparel & Accessories Marketing Series	Role Play	Lilly Rizzi
Automotive Services Marketing Series	Exam	Vinh Tran
Automotive Services Marketing Series	Role Play	Vinh Tran
Automotive Services Marketing Series	Role Play 2	Vinh Tran
Business Finance Series	Exam	Teresa Huang
Business Finance Series	Role Play 2	Teresa Huang
Business Finance Series	Role Play 2	Xindi Tang
Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making	Exam Individual	Aditi Burra
Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making	Role Play	Aditi Burra, Ashley Gim
Business Services Marketing	Exam	Avery Yang
Business Services Marketing	Role Play	Iman Chaudhry
Business Services Marketing	Role Play 2	Sneha Adhikari
Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making	Role Play	Bianka Korzun, Dylan Vu-Gia
Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making	Exam Individual	Dylan Vu-gia
Entrepreneurship Series	Exam	Amber Zhang
Entrepreneurship Series	Role Play	William McNulty
Financial Consulting Event	Exam	Tina Gao
Financial Consulting Event	Exam	Ziad Bushnaq
Financial Services Team Decision Making	Exam Individual	Andrew Taylor
Financial Services Team Decision Making	Exam Individual	Savit Nair
Financial Services Team Decision Making	Role Play	Savit Nair, Andrew Taylor
Food Marketing Series	Exam	Grace Hansen
Food Marketing Series	Role Play	Grace Hansen
Hospitality Services Team Decision Making	Role Play	Aarav Mohanty, Kevin Trivedi
Hospitality Services Team Decision Making	Exam Individual	Kavin Trivedi
Hospitality Services Team Decision Making	Role Play	Sophia Ainsworth, Julia Chen
Hotel and Lodging Management Series	Exam	Elsa Li
Hotel and Lodging Management Series	Role Play	Elsa Li
Hotel and Lodging Management Series	Role Play 2	Elsa Li
Hotel and Lodging Management Series	Role Play	Rava Knight
Hotel and Lodging Management Series	Role Play 2	Rava Knight
Hotel and Lodging Management Series	Role Play 2	Taryn Knepper
Human Resource Management	Exam	Rachel Liang
Human Resource Management	Role Play	Rachel Liang
Human Resource Management	Role Play 2	Rachel Liang
Integrated Marketing Campaign - Product	Exam Individual	Emma Al Mukhtar
Integrated Marketing Campaign - Product	Exam Individual	Noah Al Mukhtar
Marketing Communications Series	Exam	Deven Patel
Marketing Communications Series	Role Play 2	Deven Patel
Marketing Management Team Decision Making	Exam Individual	Leena Knepper
Personal Financial Literacy Event	Exam	Bradford Woodhouse
Personal Financial Literacy Event	Role Play	Kelsey Martin
Personal Financial Literacy Event	Exam	Ken Zhou
Principles of Business Management and Administration	Role Play	Rebecca Sandrugu
Principles of Finance	Exam	Brennan Bierhanzl
Principles of Finance	Role Play	Brennan Bierhanzl
Principles of Finance	Exam	Rowan Hou
Principles of Marketing	Exam	Angela Wadden
Principles of Marketing	Role Play	Maaz Nadeem
Professional Selling Event	Exam	Nithya Rajesh
Quick Service Restaurant Management	Role Play 2	Emily Ivancich
Quick Service Restaurant Management	Role Play	Lilya Zouaoui
Quick Service Restaurant Management	Exam	Siri Lalukota
Quick Service Restaurant Management	Role Play	Siri Lalukota
Quick Service Restaurant Management	Role Play 2	Siri Lalukota
Restaurant and Food Service Management	Exam	Hailey Khetan
Restaurant and Food Service Management	Role Play	Hailey Khetan
Restaurant and Food Service Management	Role Play 2	Misha Lal
Retail Merchandising	Exam	Kristen Shojinaga
Retail Merchandising	Exam	Michelle Kwak
Retail Merchandising	Role Play	Michelle Kwak
Retail Merchandising	Role Play 2	Michelle Kwak
Social Media - VA Only	Role Play	Isabelle Whang
Sports & Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Ma	Exam Individual	Conor Hayden
Sports & Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Ma	Exam Individual	Tyler Aukema
Sports & Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Ma	Role Play	Tyler Aukema, Conor Hayden
Sports and Entertainment Marketing Series	Exam	Ryan Dowling

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.

Student Name(s)/Grade	Science Fair Project	Recognition
Ashley Chen (9th) & Michelle Zuo (9th)	The Effect of Granular Material on Heat Storage	1st Place; AIAA - 1st Place ($25); AFCEA - 3rd Place ($275)
Kent Fruchtman (9th)	The Effect of Reduced Friction on Vehicle Speed	1st Place; SAE International DC - Honorable Mention
Kelly Zou (11th)	The Effect of Artificial Sweeteners on Lemna minor	1st Place; Ricoh Sustainable Development - 3rd Place
Kunal Anuje (10th) & Bumkyu Kang (10th)	Radiation’s Effect on Daphnia’s Biological Processes	2nd Place
Julie Xu (9th)	The Effect of Ink Amount on Readability of Printed Documents	2nd Place
Raymond Xu (10th)	The Effect of Colloidal Silver on Daphnia magna	2nd Place
Alanoud Alshirhri (10th)	The Effect Of Electrochemical Cells On Sodium Sulfate Solutions	3rd Place
Rishi Anangi (9th)	The Application of Natural Organic Sorbents for Oil Spill Cleanup	3rd Place
Aashee Balani (9th) & Wren Colaco (9th)	The Effect of Green Structures on Building Temperatures	3rd Place; Armed Forces NOVA - Honorable Mention
Satya Gandla (10th)	The Effect of a Plane's Wing Area on its Flight Patterns	3rd Place
Kaitlyn Hoang (10th)	The Effect of Agar Percentage on the Rate of Agarose Gel Electrophoresis Migration	3rd Place; AACC American Association for Clinical Chemistry - 1st Place
Brinda Patel	The Effect of Different Cow Manure Products on the Production of Biogas	3rd Place; SWE Engineering Award, $25 Amazon gift card
Ella Geisler (10th) & Amelia Haid (10th)	Investigating DNA Damage: Measuring the Alterations of Repeated Ultraviolet Radiation on Saccharomyces Cerevisiae	Honorable Mention
Arjun Gowder (10th) & Shreeya Suresh (10th)	Dietary Influence of Macronutrients on Life Expectancy of Drosophila Melanogaster	Honorable Mention
Benjamin Habyarimana (10th)	The Effect of Various Inexpensive Water Filtration Methods on Chemical Contamination and Water Quality	Honorable Mention; American Water Works Association - Honorable Mention
Isabel Joseph (9th)	The Effect of Horizontal Cultivation On The Growth of Sugar Kelp (Saccharina latissima)	Honorable Mention
Linus Koepcke (9th)	The Effect of Phytoremediation Abilities of Different Plants on Soil Zn Concentrations	Honorable Mention; NASA Earth System Science Award

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!

Student Name(s)	Event	Recognition
Linus Kopcke & Eshter Yoo	Rocks & Minerals	1st Place
Amy Peng & Chunmin Huang	Forestry	2nd Place
Artin Saadat & Grace Park	Scrambler	2nd Place
Kenta Yoshizaki & Seungwoo Yoon	Flight	2nd Place
Cindy Li, Grace Park, & Kelly Zhou	Environmental Design	3rd Place
Cindy Li & Kenta Yoshizaki	Trajectory	4th Place
Artin Saddat & Alden Losee	Bridge	4th Place
Linus Kopcke & Amy Peng	Dynamic Planet	5th Place
Isaiah Garrett & Seungwoo Yoon	It’s About Time	5th Place

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!

Student Name/Grade	Work Type and Title	National Award
Madeline Sullo (9th)	Writing - The Trinity of a Requiem	Gold Medal
Alyssa Zhang (12th)	Art - Eye of the Hurricane	Silver Medal