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Fort Bend Independent
School District News

Fort Bend ISD Gifted and Talented Students Earn Summer Scholarships

Several Fort Bend ISD students received summer scholarships presented by the Texas Association of the Gifted and Talented (TAGT). The scholarships are designed for Gifted and Talented students who wish to attend academic or artistic programs during the summer. Scholarships range in the amounts of $100 to $300 and are available for students in grades K-12.

Earning TAGT scholarships were:

■ David Brhlik, 4th grade, Sugar Mill Elementary School (science adventure program)
■ Evan Czaplicki, 8th grade, Fort Settlement Middle School (Duke University TIP)
■ Cooper Dawson, 7th grade, Sartartia Middle School (Duke University TIP)
■ Geoffrey Dawson, 7th grade, Sartartia Middle School (Duke University TIP)
■ Amy Ma, 11th grade, Clements High School (2004 Junior Statesman Symposia on Leadership and Politics)
■ Tiffany Pham, 8th grade, First Colony Middle School (Glassell Junior School)
■ Aditya Seivatsan, 4th grade, Brazos Bend Elementary School (Summer Creative Writing Workshop)
≡ Tiffany Zhang, 2nd grade, Lexington Creek Elementary School (J & L School of Dance)

Vicki Wang, a fifth-grader at Commonwealth Elementary School, received the Nicholas Green Distinguished Student Award, which recognizes excellence among children in grades 3 and 6. The award, which includes a $500 U.S. Savings Bond and a certificate of achievement, is presented to one student per state who has distinguished him- or herself in academics, leadership or the arts.

Fort Settlement Wins First Place in Mars Rover Competition

Students at Fort Settlement Middle School recently participated in the second annual Mars Rover Competition, hosted by the University of Houston at the College of Architecture Atrium Building. Six elementary schools and seven middle schools entered the contest, which offered two categories of competition for middle-school entrants-free form and solar powered. Fort Settlement took five teams to the solar powered rover competition and earned first place. Teams were judged on creativity, knowledge of the planet, specific mission, and teamwork. Team members were likewise judged on workmanship of the rover, each member's knowledge of the rover's capabilities, and the actual performance of the rover. Each Fort Settlement team entered a rover that moves in natural sunlight or under a 500-watt flood lamp. Fort Settlement teams and members included:

	Team Amerus 5167 (members Justin Banerdt and Vanya Davydychev), 1st place with a perfect score of 100 from each judge
	Team 2x3 (Nick Rizopoulos)
	Team Olmsberg II (members Richie Gill and Allen Lee)
	Team Solar Racer DX (Jeffrey Pacht), 5th place
	Team S3 (Shree Pandya)

Hightower Student Named Finalist in Intel Science Talent Search

Hightower High School Medical Science Academy senior Sean Raj is one of 40 finalists named in the 2004 Intel Science Talent Search, America's oldest and most prestigious pre-college science competition-often considered the junior Nobel Prize-that provides an incentive for students to develop their scientific interests at an early age. He was among 300 semifinalists (from 36 states and Washington, D.C.) named from a record 1,652 young scientists who entered the competition this year. The top 300 entrants and their schools each received $1,000. Entrants were judged on their individual research ability, scientific originality and creative thinking. The research projects entered in the competition cover biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, physics, social science, and other sciences. Sean's entry, titled "Repairing Damaged Heart by Cell Fusion and Transdifferentiation of Peripheral Blood Stem Cells," involves blood stem cell therapy and its potential as a treatment for heart failure. He developed the project last year while in FBISD's Gifted and Talented Mentorship program. The project demonstrates that newly-generated blood stem cells are created both by fusion (70%), where stem cells combine with existing heart cells, and by transdifferentiation (30%), where stem cells become heart cells via their unique ability to generate cardiac muscle cells. With promise of being a more accessible alternative to heart transplantation, stem cell therapy could possibly treat many of the 5 million Americans afflicted annually. Sean carried out the research under the mentorship and guidance of Dr. Edward Yeh, Chairman of Department of Cardiology and Dr. Sui Zhang at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. As a finalist in the Intel STS, he will take an all-expense paid trip to Washington, D.C to attend the Science Talent Institute where he will participate in final judging and compete for college scholarships totaling more than $500,000. The winners will be selected based on rigorous judging sessions and announced at a black-tie banquet on Marsh 16.

Other Fort Bend ISD students named semifinalists in the competition were from Clements High School. They are: Cynthia Ann Chi (whose project was titled, "Feasibility Study of Colloidal Quasicrystals"); and Madelyn Meng-Ling Ho (whose project deals with "Actin Organization Response to Micro- and Nano-Scale Topography").

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FBISD Band Director Earns UIL Excellence Award

Dulles High School Band Director Bill Duggan has been chosen as one of the 15 recipients for the 2003 UIL Sponsor Excellence Award. The award is created to identify and recognize outstanding sponsors who assist students in developing and refining their extra-curricular talents to the highest degree possible within the educational system, while helping them to keep their personal worth separate from their success or failure in competition. The nominees' peers and members of the community make nominations based on one of three categories: academic/one-act play contest sponsors, athletic coaches, and music directors. Since Bill became Head Band Director at DHS, the marching band and the concert band has each earned 18 first divisions; the band has consistently earned superior ratings at UIL contests; 49 students have been named to the All-State Band; fifty-percent of band students participate in UIL Solo and Ensemble Contests with many qualifying to state contests. Bill has been president of the Texas Music Educators Association's Music Region 17 for 10 years; has served as the Fine Arts Department Head for 20 years; has served on the UIL Music Advisory Committee for 8 years; and played a key role in developing the orchestra programs in FBISD. As a UIL Sponsor Excellence Award honoree, he received a $1,000 cash award, a trophy, and local recognition.