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 NameCategory
Gwen HarrisonArt Portfolio 
Hyekyo KooDrawing & Illustration
Hyekyo KooArt Portfolio 
Lois ParkPainting
Lena SongPainting
Alyssa ZhangDigital Art (5 separate submissions) 
Alyssa ZhangArt Portfolio

 

Silver Key
Student Name Category 
Emujin DasherPainting 
Kara FischerDigital Art 
Bumkyu KangPainting 
Hyekyo Koo Drawing & Illustration (2 submissions) 
Hyekyo Koo Digital Art
Hyekyo Koo Art Portfolio 
Chloe LeeSilver Key 
Lois Park Painting 
Lois ParkArt Portfolio 
Lena SongDrawing & Illustration
Allan WangDrawing & Illustration
Kyle WhitlockPainting 
Naomi YoonArt Portfolio
Alyssa ZhangDigital Art
Maggie ZhangDesign
Kelly ZouDigital Art 

 

Honorable Mention
Student Name Category 
Lyla ChenDigital Art
Bumkyu KangPainting (2 submissions) 
Hyekyo KooPainting (2 submissions) 
Hyekyo KooSculpture
Lois ParkPainting
Allan WangDrawing & 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 BandDistrict ChorusDistrict 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

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 FinishGold 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!  

Accolades for March 2023

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.  

EventPlaceStudent Winner(s)
Apparel & Accessories Marketing Series4Isabel Wang
Automotive Services Marketing Series3Vinh Tran
Business Growth Plan1Yige Xu
Business Law and Ethics Team Decision Making4Aditi Burra, Ashley Gim 
Business Services Marketing8Iman Chaudhry
Business Solutions Project4Owen Martin, Brooke O’Neil, Noah Toole 
Buying and Merchandising Operations Research Event2Shradha Gandotra, Zyna Merchant, Vaishnavi Peketi
Buying and Merchandising Operations Research Event3Camryn Dileonardo, Ashley Odeh, Stephanie Vinh 
Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making4Bianka Korzun, Dylan Vu-Gia
Entrepreneurship Series4Amber Zhang
Financial Consulting Event4Ziad Bushnaq
Financial Consulting Event7Tina Gao
Financial Services Team Decision Making1Savit Nair, Andrew Taylor 
Franchise Business Plan7Basil Chase, Surya Dineshkumar, Mahir Duneja
Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research Event1John Park, Natalie Truong
Hospitality Services Team Decision Making2Aarav Mohanty, Kavin Trivedi
Hospitality Services Team Decision Making3Sophia Ainsworth, Julia Chen 
Hotel and Lodging Management Series5Elsa Li
Human Resource Management2Rachel Liang
Human Resource Management5Samhita (Samie) Adapa
Independent Business Plan2Abhi Danget, Thomas Hunter, Anushka Sarafi
Independent Business Plan3Michael Flood
Innovation Plan3Seongjae Weon
Integrated Marketing Campaign - Event5Richa Mistry, Haley Tintle 
Integrated Marketing Campaign - Product2Brandon Leong, Patrick McEvoy, John Poplawski
Integrated Marketing Campaign - Product3Emma AlMukhtar, Noah AlMukhtar 
Integrated Marketing Campaign - Service4Caralie Basuel, Catherine Yurko 
International Business Plan3Joanne Jung, Zachary Park, Rebecca Zhang
International Business Plan4Saanvi Siddhi, Mason Szczesniak 
Marketing Management Team Decision Making4Maya Agarwal, Leena Knepper 
Personal Financial Literacy Event1Ken Zhou
Personal Financial Literacy Event5Kelsey Martin
Principles of Marketing5Angela Wadden
Professional Selling Event2Nicole Nguyen
Professional Selling Event6Nithya Rajesh
Quick Service Restaurant Management4Siri Lalukota
Restaurant and Food Service Management3Hailey Khetan
Restaurant and Food Service Management5Misha Lal
Retail Merchandising3Michelle Kwak
Sales Project4Ethan Piccolo, Natalie Tufts 
Social Media - VA Only2Isabelle Whang
Start-Up Business Plan3Daniel Chong
Travel & Tourism Marketing Team Decision Making6Aditi Yadav, Kenny Yu
Virtual Business Fashion1Suhith Kanneganti, Ihan Do 
Virtual Business Fashion2Tina Gao
Virtual Business Retail1Basil Chase, Ken Zhou, Jack Hansen 

School-Based Enterprise Gold Certification

EventRecognitionWinner
School-Based Enterprise - RetailGold CertificationMichael Kenny, Tejas Charaipotra, Jerry Levine
School-Based Enterprise - FoodGold CertificationBahadir Turhan, Aman Patel, Andrew Rizzi

Mini Award Recipients

EventPlaceWinner
Apparel & Accessories Marketing SeriesRole Play 2Isabel Wang
Apparel & Accessories Marketing SeriesExamLilly Rizzi
Apparel & Accessories Marketing SeriesRole PlayLilly Rizzi
Automotive Services Marketing SeriesExamVinh Tran
Automotive Services Marketing SeriesRole PlayVinh Tran
Automotive Services Marketing SeriesRole Play 2Vinh Tran
Business Finance SeriesExamTeresa Huang
Business Finance SeriesRole Play 2Teresa Huang
Business Finance SeriesRole Play 2Xindi Tang
Business Law and Ethics Team Decision MakingExam IndividualAditi Burra
Business Law and Ethics Team Decision MakingRole PlayAditi Burra, Ashley Gim 
Business Services MarketingExamAvery Yang
Business Services MarketingRole PlayIman Chaudhry
Business Services MarketingRole Play 2Sneha Adhikari
Buying and Merchandising Team Decision MakingRole PlayBianka Korzun, Dylan Vu-Gia 
Buying and Merchandising Team Decision MakingExam IndividualDylan Vu-gia
Entrepreneurship SeriesExamAmber Zhang
Entrepreneurship SeriesRole PlayWilliam McNulty
Financial Consulting EventExamTina Gao
Financial Consulting EventExamZiad Bushnaq
Financial Services Team Decision MakingExam IndividualAndrew Taylor
Financial Services Team Decision MakingExam IndividualSavit Nair
Financial Services Team Decision MakingRole PlaySavit Nair, Andrew Taylor 
Food Marketing SeriesExamGrace Hansen
Food Marketing SeriesRole PlayGrace Hansen
Hospitality Services Team Decision MakingRole PlayAarav Mohanty, Kevin Trivedi 
Hospitality Services Team Decision MakingExam IndividualKavin Trivedi
Hospitality Services Team Decision MakingRole PlaySophia Ainsworth, Julia Chen 
Hotel and Lodging Management SeriesExamElsa Li
Hotel and Lodging Management SeriesRole PlayElsa Li
Hotel and Lodging Management SeriesRole Play 2Elsa Li
Hotel and Lodging Management SeriesRole PlayRava Knight
Hotel and Lodging Management SeriesRole Play 2Rava Knight
Hotel and Lodging Management SeriesRole Play 2Taryn Knepper
Human Resource ManagementExamRachel Liang
Human Resource ManagementRole PlayRachel Liang
Human Resource ManagementRole Play 2Rachel Liang
Integrated Marketing Campaign - ProductExam IndividualEmma Al Mukhtar
Integrated Marketing Campaign - ProductExam IndividualNoah Al Mukhtar
Marketing Communications SeriesExamDeven Patel
Marketing Communications SeriesRole Play 2Deven Patel
Marketing Management Team Decision MakingExam IndividualLeena Knepper
Personal Financial Literacy EventExamBradford Woodhouse
Personal Financial Literacy EventRole PlayKelsey Martin
Personal Financial Literacy EventExamKen Zhou
Principles of Business Management and AdministrationRole PlayRebecca Sandrugu
Principles of FinanceExamBrennan Bierhanzl
Principles of FinanceRole PlayBrennan Bierhanzl
Principles of FinanceExamRowan Hou
Principles of MarketingExamAngela Wadden
Principles of MarketingRole PlayMaaz Nadeem
Professional Selling EventExamNithya Rajesh
Quick Service Restaurant ManagementRole Play 2Emily Ivancich
Quick Service Restaurant ManagementRole PlayLilya Zouaoui
Quick Service Restaurant ManagementExamSiri Lalukota
Quick Service Restaurant ManagementRole PlaySiri Lalukota
Quick Service Restaurant ManagementRole Play 2Siri Lalukota
Restaurant and Food Service ManagementExamHailey Khetan
Restaurant and Food Service ManagementRole PlayHailey Khetan
Restaurant and Food Service ManagementRole Play 2Misha Lal
Retail MerchandisingExamKristen Shojinaga
Retail MerchandisingExamMichelle Kwak
Retail MerchandisingRole PlayMichelle Kwak
Retail MerchandisingRole Play 2Michelle Kwak
Social Media - VA OnlyRole PlayIsabelle Whang
Sports & Entertainment Marketing Team Decision MaExam IndividualConor Hayden
Sports & Entertainment Marketing Team Decision MaExam IndividualTyler Aukema
Sports & Entertainment Marketing Team Decision MaRole PlayTyler Aukema, Conor Hayden 
Sports and Entertainment Marketing SeriesExamRyan 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)/GradeScience Fair ProjectRecognition 
Ashley Chen (9th) & Michelle Zuo (9th) The Effect of Granular Material on Heat Storage1st Place; AIAA - 1st Place ($25); AFCEA - 3rd Place ($275)
Kent Fruchtman (9th)The Effect of Reduced Friction on Vehicle Speed1st Place; SAE International DC - Honorable Mention 
Kelly Zou (11th)The Effect of Artificial Sweeteners on Lemna minor1st Place; Ricoh Sustainable Development - 3rd Place 
Kunal Anuje (10th) & Bumkyu Kang (10th)Radiation’s Effect on Daphnia’s Biological Processes2nd Place
Julie Xu (9th)The Effect of Ink Amount on Readability of Printed Documents2nd Place
Raymond Xu (10th)The Effect of Colloidal Silver on Daphnia magna2nd Place 
Alanoud Alshirhri (10th) The Effect Of Electrochemical Cells On Sodium Sulfate Solutions3rd Place 
Rishi Anangi (9th)The Application of Natural Organic Sorbents for Oil Spill Cleanup3rd Place 
Aashee Balani (9th) & Wren Colaco (9th) The Effect of Green Structures on Building Temperatures3rd Place; Armed Forces NOVA - Honorable Mention 
Satya Gandla (10th) The Effect of a Plane's Wing Area on its Flight Patterns3rd Place 
Kaitlyn Hoang (10th)The Effect of Agar Percentage on the Rate of Agarose Gel Electrophoresis Migration3rd Place; AACC American Association for Clinical Chemistry - 1st Place 
Brinda PatelThe Effect of Different Cow Manure Products on the Production of Biogas3rd 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 CerevisiaeHonorable Mention 
Arjun Gowder (10th) & Shreeya Suresh (10th) Dietary Influence of Macronutrients on Life Expectancy of Drosophila MelanogasterHonorable Mention 
Benjamin Habyarimana (10th)The Effect of Various Inexpensive Water Filtration Methods on Chemical Contamination and Water QualityHonorable 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)EventRecognition 
Linus Kopcke & Eshter YooRocks & Minerals1st Place
Amy Peng & Chunmin HuangForestry2nd Place
Artin Saadat & Grace ParkScrambler2nd Place
Kenta Yoshizaki & Seungwoo YoonFlight2nd Place
Cindy Li, Grace Park, & Kelly ZhouEnvironmental Design3rd Place
Cindy Li & Kenta YoshizakiTrajectory4th Place
Artin Saddat & Alden LoseeBridge4th Place
Linus Kopcke & Amy PengDynamic Planet5th Place
Isaiah Garrett & Seungwoo YoonIt’s About Time5th 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/GradeWork Type and TitleNational Award
Madeline Sullo (9th)Writing - The Trinity of a RequiemGold Medal
Alyssa Zhang (12th)Art - Eye of the HurricaneSilver Medal 

Accolades for April 2023

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.  

Rocketry Team MembersRocketry Team Staff Sponsors
  • Colin Dixon
  • Kai Hartmann
  • Milo Hartmann
  • Evan Ho
  • Paris Phan
  • Ryan Shields
  • Kenneth Yon
  • Ms. Shella Condino
  • Mr. Mohammad Nouristani 

 

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 2nd overall for Class 6. For Policy debate, Aditi Bhattacharjya & Chole Kim won 1st place! Aditi was also awarded top speaker for Policy. For the Lincoln Douglas debate, Shanthi Ashok won 2nd place!

Accolades for May/June 2023

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 1st 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!  

CollaboratorCommunicatorCreative & Critical ThinkerEthical & Global CitizenGoal Directed & Resilient 

Daud Abdi Hassan

Elkhadir Ahmed

Alexander Arjona

James Burke

Zoe Ethington

Marco Gori

Alison Kowalski

Sibel Mehmed

Kamran Omoumi

Adah Polhemus

Peyton Reynolds

Sam Ross

Aubrey Swanson

Lanaia Wallace

Ethan Woodhead

Amir Azzat

Mason Baldwin

Kelsey Clarke

Clover Cunha

Xander Emmerich

Sana Galaria

Erin Greene

Elkhadir Ahmed

Aditi Bhattacharjya

Maya Checco

Erkol Delfin

Ash Dougherty

Ryan Dowling

Silvia Gusmati

Emma Gustafson 

Cameron Hilleary

Sahaj Kasturi

Samantha Kennedy

Reyan Malik 

Pallavi Mamillapalli

Kenton Miller

Eva Miranda-Montoya

Ty Ordonez

Daniela Renderos Hernandez

Preston Schwartz

Arnav Sharma

Ryan Shields

Jocelyn Shortle

Christopher Staub

Esther Yoo

Michale Zhou

Kelly Zou 

Flor Bonilla

Bryson Coon

William Crockett

Dillon Cunha 

Zachary Hewitt

Victoria Huckabee

Vivien Leithead

Gabriella Ludwig

Emmanuel Mazariegos-Ascencio

Shan Nayar

Julia Sylvester

Daniela Aguilar Aguilar

Elkhadir Ahmed

Caitlin Anderson

Allen Arjona

Annie Bai 

Ybrahim Barbella Leon

Ethan Berman

Aditi Bhattacharjya

Norell Boomer

Chloe Brake

Diego Carrion

Diego Chaponan Vidal

Joyel Cho

Elizabeth Chuang

Ben Closter

Harry Cote

Sindy Cruz Fajardo

Amanda Dang

Brendan Doe

Sarah Downey

Ethan Drey

Michael Fritsch

Parham Ganjizadeh

Andrea Gatu

Deny Omar Hernandez Campos

Katie Hinojosa

Daksh Jain

John Johansen

Hyoeun (Sally) Kim

Baesung Kim

Chloe Kim

Genevieve Lacey

Nikita Lebedev

Lauren Llames

Finn MacStravic

Lucian Maxwell

Erin Min

Sarah Moore

Carla Morales

Marinela Muzanda Pires Delgado

Meher Nalwala

Minwoo Nam

Gweth Okelo

Michael Pannutti

Chase Radomski

Brayan Ramos Rivas

Annika Rieger

Arialys Rivera Garcia

David Ross

Ashton Small

Dylan Smith

Kaleb Steele

Samantha Thrash

Fareedha White

Esther Yoo

Andres Zegada Osinaga

Sherry Zhang 

 

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

Accolades for September/October 2023

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 6th 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 CapstoneTM 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 - 2nd place, Drawing category
  • Alyssa Zhang, 2nd place, Digital Art category
  • Lauren Bigley, 2nd place Prose Spread category
  • Diana Zhang , 2nd place, Poetry category
  • Alexa Gay, 1st & 2nd place, Poetry Spread category
  • Alyssa Zhang, 1st place, Mixed Media category
  • Lena Song, 3rd 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! 

Accolades for November/December 2023

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

  • 1st Place - Jack Martin

  • 2nd Place - Grace Dowling

  • 3rd Place - Aiden MacGarvey

  • 4th Place - Ayush Ranjan

Social Media

  • 1st Place - Alicia Yangas

  • 2nd Place - Saniya Thaker

  • 3rd Place - Anya Jain

  • 4th Place - Sahana Komanduri

Principles of Business Management

  • 1st Place - Rishab Nanduri

  • 2nd Place - Sophia Luo

  • 3rd Place - Katelyn Hubbard

Principles of Finance

  • 1st Place - Gavin Hawk

  • 3rd Place - Nadeem Callas

  • 4th Place - Ethan Jung

Principles of Hospitality & Tourism

  • 2nd Place - Maya Solomon

  • 3rd Place - Divyasimha Talreja

  • 4th Place - Suraj Vemuru

Principles of Marketing

  • 1st Place - Kayla Knight

  • 3rd Place - Ella Kang

Personal Financial Literacy

  • 1st Place - Mahir Duneja

  • 2nd Place - Ashlee Nguyen

  • 3rd Place - Ayan Sudhir

  • 4th Place - Yusuf Saeed

Apparel & Accessories Marketing

  • 1st Place - Isabel Wang

  • 2nd Place - Addison Hawk

  • 3rd Place - Madeline Yangas

Automotive Services Marketing

  • 1st Place - Joshua Wang

  • 2nd Place - Vinh Tran

  • 3rd Place -Teodor Vretsona

  • 4th Place - Supakorn Tanathongkul

Business Financial Services

  • 1st Place - Xindi Tang

  • 2nd Place - Carson McCullough

  • 4th Place - Noah Hamid

Business Service Marketing

  • 1st Place - Nithya Rajesh

  • 2nd Place - Iman Chaudhry

  • 3rd Place - Hilde Sullenberger

  • 4th Place - Emma Brault

Entrepreneurship

  • 1st Place - Ken Zhou

  • 3rd Place - Sampriti Muthuswamy

  • 4th Place - Basil Chase

Food Service Marketing

  • 1st Place - Christopher Wang

  • 2nd Place - Danielle Kim

  • 3rd Place - Mawada Swilam

  • 4th Place - Diya Palaniappan

Hotel & Lodging Management

  • 1st Place - Anika Gandhi

  • 2nd Place - Kenny Yu

  • 3rd Place - Elizabeth Li

  • 4th Place - Tyler Francis

Human Resource Management

  • 1st Place - Rachel Liang

  • 3rd Place - Rebecca Sandrugu

Marketing Communications 

  • 1st Place - Sneha Adhikari

  • 2nd Place - Esha Lohiya

  • 3rd Place - Sreeja Gudiseva

  • 4th Place - Allie Cage

Quick Service Restaurant Management

  • 1st Place - Misha Lal

  • 2nd Place - Audrey Wandow

  • 3rd Place - Lyla Chen

  • 4th Place - Marisa Rubano

Retail Merchandising

  • 1st Place - Arhan Jain

  • 2nd Place - Alicia Yoo

  • 4th Place - Samantha Oh

Sports & Entertainment Marketing

  • 2nd Place - Gabriel Lee

  • 3rd Place - Bennett Wozny

  • 4th 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 2nd 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: 

  • 2nd place, Level 4+ advanced derivatives test

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

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

Helyna Howard:

  • 4th place, level 4+ classical art test

  • 6th place, level 4+ mythology test

  • 8th place, level 4+ advanced derivatives test

  • 2nd place, 12th grade Latin greeting cards

  • 3rd place, 12th grade story telling

  • 2nd place, talent show

Sophia Wang:

  • 7th place, Latin 3 vocabulary test

  • 8th place, Latin 3 ancient geography test

  • 10th place, Latin 3 mythology test

  • 2nd place, 9th grade charts

Aidan Tetreault:

  • 8th place, level 4+ Geography test

  • 10th place, level 4+ ancient history test

  • 3rd place, 12th grade English oratory

Christopher Campbell:

  • 8th place, Latin 3 ancient geography test

  • 9th place, Latin 3 ancient history test

Anvitha Vemuru:

  • 8th place, Latin 3 Mottoes test

Minwoo Nam:

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

  • 9th place, Latin 2 mythology test

  • 10th place, Latin 2 Mottoes test

Chloe Kim:

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

  • 1st 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!  

Collaborator

Communicator

Creative & Critical Thinker

Ethical & Global Citizen

Goal Directed & Resilient Individual 

  • Sofia Acharya
  • Aurora Ayala
  • Bronte Behrin
  • Fernanda Cobo Zevallos
  • Chelsea Connelly
  • Savannah Day
  • Londyn Drayton
  • Michael Flores Funes
  • Raina Gullo
  • Omar Hernandez Campos
  • Zachary Hewitt
  • Maiko Kreutzer
  • Nathaniel Payne
  • Justin Rankin
  • Ozzier Ruiz-Cotto
  • Joseph Scotto
  • Rishima Singh
  • Faith Sun
  • Nehir Turhan 
  • Cherry Anaya
  • Bryan Chen
  • Tatyana Clement
  • Sarah Downey
  • Michael Flores Funes
  • Chloe French
  • Benjamin Habyarimana
  • Mickey Keyes
  • Yusef Lashin
  • Phoenix McNeely
  • Milad Shahbazi
  • Anna Smith
  • Thomas Steele
  • Bailey Zimmerman
  • Asya Balci
  • Ryann Chaudhry
  • Yusef Dewan
  • Elliot Diaz-Torres
  • Isabel Emrick
  • Maya Fahnline
  • Joey Fisher
  • Jamie Howe
  • Dante Hu
  • Nobuto Koga
  • Yusuf Lashin
  • Sana Masood
  • Sienna McIntyre
  • William Mendonca
  • Demetrious Metaxotos
  • Matthew Park
  • Hayden Parker
  • Victoria Pennington
  • Aidan Pham
  • Isabel Rainey
  • Finn Sharp
  • Kaitlyn Shin
  • Emily Torres Arevalo
  • Elif Tutan
  • Nicolas Van Durick
  • Lucy Wilkerson
  • Faith Wilson
  • Kylie Xavier
  • Ivy Xu
  • Gian Luca Yousefi
  • Mutlaq Albaqami
  • Maya Apakupakul
  • Ishaan Chugh
  • Lindsey Gibson
  • Emily Klutchko
  • Rebecca Legenhausen
  • Sierra Trail

 

  • Mutlaq Albaqami
  • Leann Andrades
  • Elham Arwin
  • Summer Barber
  • Maarinn Beiriger
  • Ethan Berman
  • Isabel Cantilina
  • Daniel Chiddister
  • Christopher Cruz Castillejos
  • Amanda Dang
  • Sarah Downey
  • Anjali Fahnline
  • Sana Galaria
  • Thomas Gannon
  • Hashim Geedi
  • Estefani Guevara-Vasquez
  • Reyna Han
  • Jozy Hunter
  • Soyn Kinlaw
  • Kai Liu
  • Jason Manning
  • Jennifer Martinez Rodriquez
  • Megan McCleish
  • Rachel Mercier
  • Fabiana Miguel Alacorn
  • Auden Mink
  • Eva Miranda-Montoya
  • Maria Nakhoul
  • Benjamin O’Connor
  • Ariana Orta
  • Grace Osborne
  • Isabella Powell
  • Samantha Reiser
  • Sebastian Renaud-Villalobos
  • Luis Rivas-Urias
  • Nicholas Rossini
  • Allison Sheehan
  • Thomas Steele
  • Sydney Stroiney
  • Hailey Stuermann
  • Faith Sun
  • Juan-Esteban Vasquez Garzon
  • Nyla Williams
  • Eric Wu
  • Ivy Xu
  • Anandaprema Zerlinda 

 

Accolades for January 2024

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: 

 

Team

Speaker

Varsity 

Ashley Chen & Claire Zhang - 5th Place

Claire Zhang - 1st Place 

Junior Varsity

Cate Allred and Daria Nasypbek - 1st Place 

Arhan Jain and Nancy Le- 3rd Place

Amy Lee and Audrey Wandow - 4th Place

Aasha Balani and Suhav Gopalani - 5th Place 

Cate Allred - 1st Place

Novice 

Natalie Nguyen and Yuting Liu - 1st Place 

Ikhbayar Ulzisaikhan - 2nd Place

Natalie Nguyen - 3rd Place 

Lincoln-Douglas Debate

Junior Varsity

Ross Aronheim, 2nd Place

Janet Li, 6th Place

Novice

Hannah Dai, 2nd Place 

 

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

Accolades for February/March 2024

Read below the accolades for:

  • HackTJ 2024
  • Oakton Chorus
  • Regional Science Fair 
  • Oakton Mock Trial
  • Student of the Month
  • Virginia DECA State Leadership Conference
  • Oakton’s Policy & Debate Team
  • 2024 Regional Scholastic Art Awards

 

HackTJ 2024

Congratulations to Ray Shen and Ken Zhou who won the best lifestyle prize at HackTJ 2024. HackTJ is one of the largest high school Hackathons nationwide. HackTJ'24 is hosted by Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology from Feb. 24-25 this year.

Their project was an AI-powered document analyzer that automatically creates calendar events. After being evaluated by judges from the IT industry and sponsors, the project won the best lifestyle hack prize. Lifestyle is the biggest category for the projects submitted. 

 

 

Oakton Chorus 

District Chorus

Oakton Chorus hosted 490 students from 30 schools on February 8-10 for district Chorus. Congratulations to the Oakton Chorus Program for having the most students from any school accepted into this event!

  • Sophie Barlow

  • Kiera Bicoy

  • Jaden Boissy

  • Sophia Boyd

  • Fernanda Cobo Zevallos

  • Walker Crews

  • Surya Dineshkumar

  • Jonas Ethington

  • Autumn Frank

  • Andrea Gatu

  • John Gluck

  • Blen Haile

  • Emi Harrison

  • Zachary Heise

  • Haedyn Howard

  • Helyna Howard

  • Ashlyn Hyderkhan

  • Ana Jankovic

  • Maia Kalbag

  • Alison Kowalski

  • Katie Kritzler

  • Lizzie Kritzler

  • Genevieve Lacey

  • Raquel Lewis

  • Bethany Lindorf

  • Matthew Martinez

  • Katelyn McCarley

  • Ben Miller

  • Benjamin Mostafavi

  • Sofia Mutarelli

  • Meher Nalwala

  • Aubrey Nix

  • Taryn Parcell

  • Cea Reksulak

  • Thomas Ritchey

  • Benjamin Rogers

  • Matthew Rondina

  • Milad Shahbazi

  • Hailey Stuermann

  • Aubrey Swanson

  • Lena Tosounidis

  • Ethan Woodhead

 

All-Virginia Chorus

Congratulations to the following students for being selected to represent Oakton at All-Virginia Chorus in April:

  • Surya Dineshkumar

  • Autumn Frank

  • Helyna Howard

  • Maia Kalbag

  • Katie Kritzler

  • Matt Martinez

 

American Choral Directors Association Southern Honors Choir

Congratulations to Lena Tosounidis and Eleanor Williams for representing Oakton HS at ACDA Southern Honors Choir from February 21-24 in Louisville, KY. They were selected from thousands of students across 9 southern states!

 

Regional Science Fair 

On March 16-March 17 we had several Oakton students participate in the Regional Science Fair.  We want to congratulate all of our participants.  We would like to highlight the students below for being recognized during the fair by earning a first place, second place, third place or honorable mention award in their category.  We also would like to congratulate Kent Fruchtman and Ashwin Potluri who were Grand Prize nominees and first place in Engineering Technology and will move on to the States Competition. Viraj Kamath and Khartik Uppalapati earned first place in Biomedical Engineering and first place and will move on to States. We also had three projects earn recognition as a part of the Organizational Awards.  

Category Awards

Title

Award

Students 

Animal and Behavioral Sciences

The Effect of pH on Planaria Regeneration

Honorable Mention

Ivy Xu

Animal and Behavioral Sciences

The Effect of Increasing Salinity on Daphnia magna Viability

Second Place

Alexander Yu, Albert Zhu

Biochemistry

The Effect of Hydrogen Peroxide/Sodium Alginate Ice Balls on the Purification of Algae Water

Second Place

Jason Shin

Biomedical and Health Sciences

Evaluating AChE Inhibitor HupA on Drosophila as an Approach to Dementia Treatment

Third Place

Ella Geisler, Amelia Haid

Biomedical and Health Sciences

The Effect of Sodium Poly-mate Absorbency Rate on Affordable Diapers

Honorable Mention

Kavya Bobba, Rheechen Liu

Biomedical and Health Sciences

BSEPv2: Designing a Novel Protein Utilizing AI-Assisted Predictions of Molecular Evolution for Treatment of PFIC

First Place

Viraj Kamath, Khartik Uppalapati

Biomedical Engineering

Enhancing Mobility and Safety: Ultrasonic vs. Traditional Blind Walking Sticks

Honorable Mention

Nicholas Lee, Andreas Spoormaker

Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Impact of Diverse Leaf Litter Decay on Spirulina Absorbance

Second Place

Bhargav Borah

Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design

A Closed Loop Pumped Hydro-Power System vs. Commercial Batteries

Second Place

Thomas Sparling

Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design

The Potential of Chlorophyll as an Eco-Friendly Power Source

Third Place

Ashley Chen, Aaron Chen

Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design

The Effect of Roofing Structures on Interior Building Temperature

Honorable Mention

Aashee Balani, Anya Nehra

Engineering Technology

The Effect of Blade Angle on Energy Generated by a Wind Turbine

Third Place

Everett Ha, Jocelyn Ro

Engineering Technology

Constructing a Robot to Aid the Elderly and Mobility Impaired in Everyday Tasks

First Place

Kent Fruchtman, Ashwin Potluri

Environmental Engineering

Implementing an Obstacle Avoidance Program in an Agricultural UAV

Second Place

Chunjie Huang, Chunmin Huang

Environmental Engineering

The Effect of Vertical Revolution on Plant Root Growth

Third Place

Nancy Li, Jennifer Xu

Materials Science

The Effect of Soil Binders on Soil Properties and Liquefaction Potential

Third Place

Linus Koepcke, Brandon Lin

Microbiology

The Effect of Seafood Type on Microplastic Quantities

Honorable Mention

Yoonsub Choi

Microbiology

Pathogen Prediction: Pioneering Rapid Antibiotic Discovery Through AI

Second Place

Jaxen Bream

Organizational Awards

Thomas Sparling: Air Force Certificate, Dominion Energy $75

Kent Fruchtman and Ashwin Potluri-1st place certificate, George Mason Dept of Mechanical Engineering

Ashley Chen and Aaron Chen-1st place Clean Fairfax Council

 

Oakton Mock Trial

Congratulations to Oakton’s Mock Trial team who competed at the Virginia Law-Related Education Institute’s Mock Trial Competition  during the weekend of March 16.  The team earned their spot after competing in the Regional Mock Trial Tournament in early February.  Oakton’s team was one of the top 20 schools in Virginia and Washington, DC to compete.  The team went home with two awards: 

  • Top Witness - Mahika Aravind
  • Top Attorney - Sreeja Gudiseva

The whole team did a phenomenal job, with some taking on roles they had never studied before so there would be an even number of competitors in each round. Congratulations to the whole team!  

  • Mahika Aravind
  • Mason Baldwin
  • Zöe Bierhanzl
  • Kai Ghosh 
  • Sreeja Gudiseva
  • Emily Marsh
  • Sid Pubbaraju
  • Nithya Rajesh
  • Becky Sandrugu
  • Carter Scott
  • Audrey Wandow

 

Student of the Month

Congratulations to the following students who were recognized as our Student of the Month recipients!

  • Sophia Lattanzio - Adapted Curriculum 
  • Morgan Dreyer - English
  • Tasneem Falah - English
  • Alexis Yonkers - English
  • Jeff Lopez Cruz - Health and Physical Education 
  • Kate Coluzzi - History 
  • Patrick Jenkins - History
  • Michael Bonilla Reyes - Mathematics
  • Amadeu Gurin - Mathematics
  • Suamy P. Espino Ricinos -Multilingual Learner
  • Matthew Shelton - Science

 

Virginia DECA State Leadership Conference

On March 1-3 over 150 Oakton students traveled to Virginia Beach to compete in the Virginia DECA State Leadership Conference.  Of those students that competed we had over 70 students place and qualify to compete at the DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC) beginning April 27 in Anaheim, California. Congratulations to all of our students who competed.  Below you will find the names and events of the students who qualified for ICDC.    

Event

Name

Place

Automotive Services Marketing Series

Teodor Vretsona

1st

Career Development Project

Joy Szeto

1st

Sarah Eng

1st

International Business Plan

Riley Nguonly

1st

Seryn Batta

1st

Sophia Sentz

1st

Quick Service Restaurant Management

Siri Lalukota

1st

Restaurant and Food Service Management

Misha Lal

1st

Virtual Business Personal Finance

Abhi Gummadi

1st

Devon Grimberg

1st

Virtual Business Retail

Basil Chase

1st

Jack Hansen

1st

Ken Zhou

1st

Virtual Business Sports

Akshay Shah

1st

Arjun Sanghvi

1st

Patrick McEvoy

1st

Buying and Merchandising Operations Research

Ashley Odeh

2nd

Camryn DiLeonardo

2nd

Stephanie Vinh

2nd

Community Awareness Project (P.A.W.S. Campaign)

Chloe Kim

2nd

Seliz Aktuglu

2nd

Zachary Park

2nd

Entrepreneurship Series

Basil Chase

2nd

Food Marketing Series

Christopher Wang

2nd

Human Resource Management

Rachel Liang

2nd

Integrated Marketing Campaign–Product

Trevor Wolff

2nd

John Poplawski

2nd

Patrick McEvoy

2nd

International Business Plan

Emily Hagen

2nd

Esther Yoo

2nd

Kristen Shojinaga

2nd

School Based Enterprise-Food (Cougar Coffee Den)

Kelsey Martin

2nd

Ryan Dann

2nd

Sports & Entertainment Marketing Operations Research

Avery Yang

2nd

Jenna Lam

2nd

Business Services Operations Research

Bennett White

3rd

Gabriela Lopez-Stewart

3rd

Rayan Mathur

3rd

Career Development Project

Akshay Shah

3rd

Arjun Sanghvi

3rd

Pratyush Mishra

3rd

Hospitality and Tourism Professional Selling

Vruti Chaudhari

3rd

Hospitality Team Decision Making

Sophia Ainsworth

3rd

Julia Chen

3rd

International Business Plan

Brooke Chang

3rd

Devon Corderman

3rd

Gabriela Lewis

3rd

Sports & Entertainment Marketing Operations Research

Ethan Yoon

3rd

Krissh Raman

3rd

Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making

Aditi Yadav

4th

Leann Andrades

4th

Integrated Marketing Campaign–Service

Brendan Reilly

4th

Reagan Vaughn

4th

Grey Kakarala

4th

Principles of Business Management and Administration

Alexa Thrash

4th

Principles of Hospitality and Tourism

Suraj Vemuru

4th

Business Finance Series

Xindi Tang

5th

Franchise Business Plan

Kaylin White

5th

Riley Marshall

5th

Principles of Finance

Ethan Jung

5th

Start-up Business Plan

Anika Kashyap

5th

Apparel & Accessories Marketing Series

Isabel Wang

6th

Business Law Team Decision Making

Ashley Gim

6th

Business Law Team Decision Making

Aditi Burra

6th

Financial Consulting

Drew Levin

6th

Professional Selling

Nicole Nguyen

6th

Retail Merchandising

Samantha Oh

6th

Sales Project (Cougar Coffee Den Winter Specials)

Emily Ivancich

7th

Taryn Knepper

7th

Hospitality Team Decision Making

Aarav Mohanty

7th

Lilya Zouaoui

7th

Innovation Plan

Ashley Wang

7th

Jimmy Choi

7th

Seungwoo Yoon

7th

Personal Financial Literacy Event

Yusuf Saeed

7th

Entrepreneurship Series

Ken Zhou

8th

School Based Enterprise-Retail (Cougar Kiosk & Spirit Box)

Bianka Korzun

 

Haley Tintle

 

 

Oakton’s Policy & Debate Team

MetroFinals

 Oakton’s Policy and Debate Team competed in the Washington Arlington Catholic Forensic League (WACFL) Metropolitan Championship (MetroFinal) Tournament the weekend of March 2.  The entire team did a fantastic job, congratulations!  Here are the results for the tournament. 

MetroFinals Lincoln Douglas Debate (Team) - 2nd Place

Lincoln Douglas Debate (Team)

2nd Place Overall 

Lincoln Douglas Debate (Varsity)

Marco Gori, 1st Place 

Lincoln Douglas Debate (Junior Varsity)

Ross Aronheim, 1st Place

Hailey Deng, 5th Place 

Policy (Team) 

1st Place Overall 

Policy(Varsity)

Claire Zhang and Ashley Chen

Policy(JV)

Catherine Allred and Daria Nasybek, 2nd Place

Gaurang Jinka and Janet Li, 3rd Place 

Aashee Balani and Suhav Gopalani, 5th Place 

 

Regionals

They were back in action over the weekend of March 16 at the Regional competition.  Another great weekend for the team!

Lincoln Douglas Debate (Varsity)

Hailey Deng, 2nd Place 

Janet Li, 4th Place  

Policy(Varsity)

Anju Advani and Isabel Joseph, 1st Place

Claire Zhang and Ashley Chen , 2nd Place 

2024 Regional Scholastic Art Awards 

The 2024 Regional Scholastic Art Awards program has awarded FCPS students in grades K-12 a total of 714 awards for outstanding artwork, including 176 Gold Key awards, 172 Silver Key awards, and 366 Honorable Mention awards.  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.  

An exhibition of Gold Key and Silver Key artworks were displayed at Northern Virginia Community College’s Ernst Community Cultural Center in Annandale from February 28 to March 14 with an awards ceremony on Wednesday, March 6.  

The Scholastic Art Awards program, presented by Alliance for Young Artists and Writers, is the largest, longest running recognition program of its kind in the United States.  Established in 1923, 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.  

Below you will find all of the Oakton students who were recognized for this school year!  Congratulations to all!  

 

Student Name

Category

Work Title 

Individual Award

Yusuf Dewan

Jewelry

Crescent Moon & Star Wire Pendant

Honorable Mention

Joey Fisher

Expanded Projects

Grandma’s Porch

Silver Key

Joey Fisher

Art Portfolio

Last Days: Building an Apocalypse

Honorable Mention

Joey Fisher

Comic Art

Scooter’s Last Day

Silver Key

Joey Fisher

Expanded Projects

The Body Book

Gold Key

Zella Hoehne

Printmaking

Space-Bug

Honorable Mention

Danielle Kim

Digital Art

Never Gets Old

Honorable Mention

Chloe Lee

Art Portfolio

Art Rumbles in Isolation

Honrable Mention

Chloe Lee

Drawing & Illustration

Becoming

Silver Key

Chloe Lee

Sculpture 

Jesa

Honorable Mention

Chloe Lee

Painting 

Swept By

Silver Key

Chloe Lee

Painting

Unwelcome

Silver Key 

Janet Li

Drawing & Illustration

Fake Innocence 

Silver Key

Janet Li

Drawing & Illustration

Gray Area

Silver key 

Janet Li

Drawing & Illustration

Perfectionist 

Silver key 

Cole Moore

Comic Art

First Meeting

Honorable Mention

Camilla Muratova

Drawing & Illustration

It’s Been Too Long

Honorable Mention

Trinitiy Nickisch

Sculpture

Cardboard Octopus

Honorable Mention 

Matthew Park

Mixed Media

Self Portrait

Honorable Mention

Victoria Pennington

Digital Art

Cliffside

Honorable Mention

Victoria Pennington

Digital Art

Goodwill of Greater Washington

Gold Key

Victoria Pennington

Painting

Meadowlark

Honrable Mention

Victoria Reyes

Jewelry

A Moth to a Flame

Hnorable Mention

Jocelyn Shortle 

Expanded Projects

Simply Sauteing

Honorable Mention

Illyana Strickland

Painting

Just Me

Honorable Mention

Allan Wang

Drawing & Illustration

Den-city

Gold Key

Allan Wang

Printmaking

Dog Days

Gold Key

Kelly Zou

Digital Art

Art is Not a Piece of Cake

Silver Key

Kelly Zou

Digital Art

Luna

Honrable Mention

Kelly Zou

Digital Art

Sugarcoated

Honorable Mention

Kelly Zou

Art Portfolio

The Art of Fitting In

Honorable Mention

Kelly Zou

Digital Art

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Gold Key 

April/May/June 2024

 

Read below the accolades for:

  • Oakton Science Olympiad
  • 2024 Governor's World Language Academies
  • Model UN Conference Competition
  • National Latin Exam Achievements
  • 2024 American Rocketry Challenge Finalists
  • Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair
  • Virginia FBLA State Leadership Conference
  • Congressional Award
  • Gaithersburg Book Festival
  • Oakton Theatre Achievements
  • Oakton Swim Club

 

Oakton Science Olympiad

Congratulations to our Oakton Science Olympiad team for a great showing at States to culminate an amazing season.  The team placed 7th overall with several teams earning individual recognition.  

  • Anatomy - 2nd Place: Amy Peng, Albert Zhu
  • Astronomy - 3rd Place: Chunmin Huang, Linus Koepcke
  • Dynamic Planet - 5th Place: Linus Koepcke, Bumkyu Kang
  • Ecology - 4th Place: Bumkyu Kang, Jason Shin
  • Forestry - 3rd Place: Amy Peng, Chunmin Huang
  • Fossils - 1st Place: Chunjie Huang, Jason Shin
  • Geologic Mapping - 3rd Place: Linus Koepcke, Brandon Lin
  • Microbe Mission - 6th Place: Isaiah Garrett, Albert Zhu

 

2024 Governor’s World Language Academies

The following students have been accepted to participate in the 2024 Governor’s World Language Academies.  Each year, hundreds of students throughout Virginia apply and fewer than one third are selected. It is an honor to be accepted into the program and also to be recognized as an alternate because of one’s excellence in the target language.  The full immersion French, German, and Spanish Academies will be held June 22– July 13 at Washington and Lee University.  The Japanese and Latin Academies will be held June 23 – July 14 at Randolph-Macon College.   

  • Katherine Biedell - Japanese 
  • Ana Raquel Cabral Campos - Spanish 
  • Shreesh Padhy - French 
  • Joshua Ren, Alternate - Japanese

 

Model UN Conference Competition 

Please congratulate the students below for working hard all year and at the final Model UN Conference Competition this year hosted by Thomas Jefferson School for Science and Technology. 

What is Model UN? Model United Nations encompasses a simulation of the UN whereby students engage in political debate to tackle current global issues on the agenda. Based on their committees, students are assigned delegates tasked with preparing draft resolutions, negotiating with others, and resolving conflicts while following proper parliamentary procedures. Each conference typically has 15+ committee topics ranging from 20-50 students per committee. Our students participated in 9 different committees. 

Achievements: 

Best Delegate (1st place):  Rishab Nanduri 

Verbal Commendation (4th place): Saurish Bhati and Neel Das

Participating Students: : Haru Arai, Kishan Balaji, Ryan Behl,Saurish Bhati, Neel Das, Nick Dev, Micha Dsouza, Samantha Frerich, Ansh Gupta, Maryam Hasanov, Gaurang Jinka, Omyo Khan, Jay Kwak, Rayan Mathur, Rishab Nanduri, Nik Narendran, Rajeev Thykattil, Tijs Vanhout, Madeleine Yai, and Clara Yin. 

 

National Latin Exam Achievements

Our Latin students exceeded expectations this year with 66% of our test takers winning an award for their performance on the National Latin Exam.

Please congratulate the student below for their achievement –

Latin 1 (Beginning Latin exam):

  • Philip Tetreault: Gold summa cum laude award

  • Shaan Tufail: Silver maxima cum laude award

  • Haedyn Howard: magna cum laude award

  • Maya Apakupakul: magna cum laude award

  • Eric Jorgensen: magna cum laude award

Latin 2 (Intermediate Latin exam):

  • Dylon DeAngelis: Silver maxima cum laude award

  • Minwoo Nam: Silver maxima cum laude award

  • Vernice Qin: magna cum laude award

  • Wesley Seidner: magna cum laude award

Latin 3 (Intermediate reading comprehension exam):

  • Sophia Wang: Silver maxima cum laude award

  • Anvitha Vermuru: Silver maxima cum laude award

Dual Enrollment Latin (Latin prose exam):

  • Ozan Gunduz: Gold summa cum laude award

  • Kenneth Yon: Silver maxima cum laude award

  • Helyna Howard: magna cum laude award

 

2024 American Rocketry Challenge Finalists

Oakton High School sent two teams selected as National Finalists to participate in the 2024 American Rocketry Challenge.  The challenge was held on May 19, 2024 at Great Meadow in The Plains, Virginia.  Our students did a fantastic job representing Oakton High School and Fairfax County Public Schools.  Oakton High School was the only FCPS school that had teams selected to participate in the finals.  More information can be found here.  

 

Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair

Congratulations to Viraj Kamath and Khartik Uppalapati for earning 2nd place at the Virginia State Science & Engineering Fair in the category of Cell, Molecular and Computational Biology Biochemistry.  Their project was titled: “Designing a Novel Protein Utilizing AI-Assisted Predictions of Molecular Evolution for Treatment of PFIC.” 

 

Virginia FBLA State Leadership Conference

Congratulations to Arjun Malghan for placing 5th in the category of Business Plan at the 2024 Virginia FBLA State Leadership Conference. Two hundred students from FCPS high schools competed in 55 events ranging from 3-D Animation and Accounting to Cyber Security, Computer Problem Solving, and Public Speaking. FBLA is the largest career and technical student organization in the world. Each year, the organization helps over 200,000 members prepare for careers in business. More information about FBLA is available online.

 

Congressional Award

Congratulations to Anshul Sreenivas for receiving the Congressional Gold Medal through the Congressional Award program.  The United States Congress established The Congressional Award in 1979 to recognize initiative, service, and achievement in young people. The program is open to all youth in the US between the ages of 14 and 24 regardless of ability, circumstance, or socioeconomic status.  Participants earn Bronze, Silver and Gold certificates and Bronze, Silver and Gold Medals.  EAch level involves setting goals in four program areas: Voluntary Public Service, Personal Development, Physical Fitness, and Expedition/Exploration.  More information can be found here.  

 

Gaithersburg Book  Festival

Congratulations to Isabel Revis for receiving second prize in the Gaithersburg Book Festival annual poetry contest. Isabel was recognized for her poem, “The Bloody Lane”. The annual contest recognizes high school students for poetry accomplishments and this year’s prompt was “Envision a Better Future”.

 

Oakton Theatre Achievements

Brandon Victor Dixon Awards

Oakton’s performance of “Pippin” was recognized by the Brandon Victor Dixon Awards, which celebrates the best in DC-area high school musical theatre. The cast, crew, and orchestra of Pippin were recognized with the following nominees, finalists, and winners:

  • “Pippin” - Best Musical Winner
  • Meera Ayyar - Best Actress Winner
  • Colt Cradduck - Best Actor Finalist
  • Ana Jankovic – Best Actress Nominee
  • Rigley Mostafavi – Best Actor Nominee

Meera was recognized further as a nominee for the Jimmy Awards, the National High School Musical Theatre Awards (NHSMTA). Congratulations to all who contributed to our outstanding performance!

Cappies Awards

Our fall production of “The Doctor in Wonderland” was recognized by the Cappies of the National Capital Area Awards this year as well! Congratulations to Colt Craddock who won as Featured Actor in a Male Role in a Play.

Other Oakton nominees for the Cappies were:

  • Clare Shacochis as the Maryland Theatre Guide Returning Critic nominee
  • Ana Jankovic as Comic Actor in a Female Role in a Play for “The Doctor in Wonderland”

 

Oakton Swim Club 

The Oakton Swim Club wrapped up the season with the Summer Games in Richmond, VA.  We are so proud of the OHS students who represented our club and our region (Area 26 - North Potomac Region). 

Congratulations to our swimmers: Ritan Chowdhury, Sophia Lattanzio, Reyan Malik, Zayd Malik, and Pranav Raghavan. 

Congratulations to our coaches: Everett Ha, Scarlett Killian, Dani Kim and Charlotte Lim.