The Westchester County Board of Legislators held a special ceremony last week to honor the high school students from the county who were chosen as scholars in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search.
The 27 scholars from Westchester were among the 300 of nearly 2,000 applicants nationwide chosen in this year’s edition of the country’s most prestigious pre-college science and math competition. Alumni of the 78-year-old competition include Nobel Prize winners and National Medal of Science recipients.
The local students, including four finalists, represent 13 Westchester high schools. They were each awarded special certificates in a ceremony held at the board’s chambers with legislators, family members, science teachers, principals, and representatives of Tarrytown-based Regeneron, which has sponsored the competition since 2017. The event also included an appearance by County Executive George Latimer.
Board Chairman Ben Boykin said: “This is always one of the proudest events of the year at the Board of Legislators – a time when we honor some of the best and brightest young people not just in our county, but in the nation. These students are an amazing and talented group of scholars. They are our future and we know our world is in great hands.”
Potoula Gjidija, Regeneron’s director of corporate citizenship, told the gathering: “The Regeneron STS not only recognizes the merit of these students’ scientific research, but also their potential to really make a difference in the world. These are leaders in their classrooms, in the labs, and beyond.”
Legislator Margaret Cunzio, a former classroom teacher and a current college professor, whose brother was a Science Talent Search semifinalist, and who has seven scholars in her district this year, praised the students for their weeks, months and even years of dedicated research. “The skills that you have learned, both academic and life skills, that you now possess, will be with you for life, no matter what path you choose,” she said.
Westchester Regeneron scholars include: Riti Bhandarkar from Walter Panas High School; Jothi Ramaswamy from Lakeland H.S.; Heather Sherr from John Jay H.S.; Rachel Joseph from Somers H.S.; Samantha Abbruzzese, Alan Chang, Rachel Chernoff, Alessandra Colella-Albino, Ethan Jacobs, Jonah Schwam and Brent Perlman (finalist) from Byram Hills H.S.; Chirag Kumar (finalist), Aditi Singh (finalist) and Anna Zhang from Horace Greeley H.S.; Sayli Satpute, Shrila Shah and Diane Yang from Yorktown H.S.; Anna-Samsara Daefler from Briarcliff H.S.; Melissa Stok from Croton-Harmon H.S.; Emma Montgomery (finalist), Elliot Ocheltree and John Sukumar from Ossining H.S.; Caitlin Wong from Pelham Memorial H.S.; Alexandra Rivera from Ardsley H.S; Angie Jang from Edgemont H.S.; and Jacob Dunefsky and Annie Horowitz from Irvington H.S.
