Upper School News

Anirudh received a $10,000 college scholarship and an all-expense paid trip to Stockholm, Sweden, in September to represent the United States and compete with students from around the globe for the international Junior Stockholm Water Prize.

He was selected for the prize based on his science project “Sulfidation as a Novel Method for Reducing Toxicity of Silver Nanoparticle Pollution.”

The Stockholm Junior Water Prize is the world's most prestigious youth award for a water-related science project. The prize taps into the potential of today's high school students as they seek to address current and future water challenges. 

» Link to Wall Street Journal article about Anirudh

Valerie Ding is among the 90 regional finalists for the 2013 Google Science Fair for her project Rapid Quantum Dot Solar Cell Optimization: Integrating Quantum Mechanical Modeling and Novel Solar Absorption Algorithm. As a finalist, she is also in the running for the Scientific American Science in Action Award, which honors a student whose project makes a practical difference in the world by addressing an environmental, health, or resources problem.

Google will announce the 15 global winners and Science in Action award winner later this month. 

Valerie wrote, "This is a huge honor for me, and I really want to thank the entire Catlin community for its constant support and incredibly nurturing and encouraging environment. Genuine interest from faculty members and fellow students has not only bolstered confidence in my own work, but also has reminded me of how instrumental Catlin, its science, math, and computer science departments, and especially its science research program have been these last two years. I’m really looking forward to another two."

We left Catlin at 8:02 (pretty much on schedule) under gray skies; 14 students and 3 adults ready to take on this 3000 foot climb.  Intermittent sprinkles prompted use of the windshield wipers on the bus as we drove through Portland.  The farther east we traveled, though, the drier it got, and there was no rain at all during any of the hike.  The large Dog Mountain parking lot was already three quarters full when we arrived, with a volunteer directing parking for the forest service.  We parked at the far end of the lot from the trail, then gathered at the trailhead for a pre-ascent discussion.

As usual, the eager ascenders charged up the trail at high speed, leaving the so-called leader to toil upwards in the rear.  Discipline reigned, however, and all paused as planned and instructed at the first junction for a breather and initial check in.  As all was progressing as expected, we set out as a rolling line for the next section; hiking in smaller groups, with each group pausing at every junction until the next group arrived, to ensure that all went the same way.  That was the theory, anyway.  Such was the energy level that the rear leader only saw the group ahead of him once during the ascent.

With the early warm weather this year (and the lateness of this hike in the calendar), the open fields at the summit were more flower strewn than they have been for the past few years for this particular conditioning hike.  In fact the yellow balsamroot, though plentiful, were past their prime and starting to wilt.  The Indian paintbrush and lupine were lush and quite beautiful.  Although some of the earlier crowds, already descending, had said it was cold on the summit, by the time we arrived it was quite pleasant.  Mt St Helens was visible to the north, although its flat top was hidden in cloud.  Mt Hood was hidden in clouds across the Gorge on the Oregon side.  The view west over Wind Mountain towards Portland was clear and verdantly green.  As we headed down, into thickening crowds of hikers still wending their way towards the summit, the sun came out brightly and the air warmed considerably.  It was a relief to plunge into the cool, shadowy woods, and to be on the descent.

After a discussion and reminder at the summit of the practice and necessity of waiting and checking in at junctions, this technique was much better adhered to on the descent (practice making progress in this situation).  Even though (by design,) we followed different routes on the way down, each important waypoint had the requisite stop and check in by each subgroup before continuing the descent.

The parking lot was full when we arrived at the trailhead, and it took some adroit maneuvering to extract the bus.  The return trip was in full sunlight, and the intrepid climbers dozed quietly in the back of the bus.  We returned to Catlin a few minutes ahead of schedule, with visions already of even grander ascents to come, for which initial conditioning is now started.

From the Oregonian: "With the past three girls singles champions from the Class 4A/3A/2A/1A tennis state tournament in this year’s field, it could have been a daunting situation for a freshman.

"But Catlin Gabel freshman Lara Rakocevic showed uncommon cool for someone of her age, easily winning the girls singles title Saturday with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Valley Catholic’s Kaitlyn Lomartire at the University of Oregon.

"Rakocevic didn’t lose a set in four matches during a tournament that included two-time defending champion Rachael Nedrow of Oregon Episcopal and Lomartire, the 2010 winner."

» Link to the Oregonian's full coverage of the tournament
 

Eighth grader Andrew Park made the four-member Oregon MathCounts team after his excellent finish at the state competition. The Oregon team came in 4th out of 56 teams competing at the national contest in Washington, D.C. Andrew was the third highest Oregon finisher at the national competition.

In addition to Andrew, the Catlin Gabel team members included 7th grader Sarah Daniels, and 6th graders Avi Gupta and Alexander Yu. They were coached by sophomore Valerie Ding, and juniors Joseph Hungate and Lawrence Sun. Math teachers Lauren Shareshian, Carol Ponganis, and Lynda Douglas served as faculty managers.