Staff Reports

Corona – Congratulations to all the CNUSD students who won various awards in April.  Students from different schools in the Corona-Norco Unified School District were honored at several recent events. 

Five Centennial High School (CeHS) students placed 2^nd and 3^rd at the 2019 Inaugural Riverside County Programming Competition.  This competition introduced students to the world of coding and featured 129 students from nine Riverside County school districts. Participants had the opportunity to compete individually or as a team of two to four students. 

The second place winners for the Team Competition included the following: Anthony Villegas, Dararith Sao, William Chen, and Vincent Alexander.  The third place winner for the Individual Competition was Noe Martinez. 

Other CeHS students received the Aspirations in Computing Award from the National Center for Women and Information Technology (NCWIT).  The NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award applicants represent “young women highly qualified to enter the computing and information technology workforce,” according to a CNUSD news release.

The winners included the following: Chloe Santos, 2019 California Inland Empire Affiliate Honorable Mention; Jasmine Bae, 2019 California Inland Empire Affiliate Honorable Mention; Madison Hill, 2019 California Inland Empire Affiliate Winner; and Monica Sanchez, 2019 California Inland Empire Affiliate Rising Star.

CeHS Teacher, Brian Kenney, commented on how important these awards are.  “The mission is to increase diversity in Computer Science and Gaming by encouraging young women into these high demand job fields.  These young ladies and NCWIT Aspirations in Computing Award winners are part of that diversity change,” said Kenney.  “With all of this talent, it is also the intent of Centennial High School to keep highly qualified students in Corona by producing career-ready individuals, and to bring more of these jobs to our area,” added Kenney.

Lastly, from April 2-3, twenty-four CNUSD students earned gold medals at the Riverside County Science and Engineering Fair.  “Nineteen Junior & Senior division students advanced to the California State Science Fair and a 9th-grade student is headed to the Intel International Science Fair,” according to CNUSD.

Nearly 500 students from 36 affiliate fairs competed at the Riverside Convention Center.  Among the awards were community organization awards, in addition to Gold and Silver medals.  “Gold medal winners from the Junior and Senior divisions will advance to the California State Science and Engineering Fair on April 29-30 at the California Science Center in Los Angeles,” stated CNUSD.  Congratulations to the sixty-nine CNUSD students who participated and brought home 24 Gold medals, 42 Silver medals, and 13 community and regional awards.  The winners are listed below.

Among the winners was Amanda Mata, of Orange Elementary School, who won the Elementary Sweepstakes Award – Best Overall Project in Grades 4-5.  The Project she created was a Rigatoni Pasta Rocket Engine.  Another winner was Dimple Garuadapuri, of eSTEM Academy at Roosevelt High School.  Dimple earned one of three spots in the county to compete at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF).  The Project that was created was a Na/Ca/K Pollution Scrub: A Domestic Approach to Chemical Carbon Capture.

Community and Regional Awards include the following:

American Meteorological Society: Dimple Garuadapuri, Eastvale STEM Academy at ERHS

American Psychological Association: Sandra Rodriguez, Centennial High School

California Society for Biomedical Research: Kenny Nguyen, of Eastvale STEM Academy at ERHS, received a plaque and $250 monetary award

Chemistry and Air Pollution Research Center at University of California Riverside: Kayla Cunningham, of Eastvale STEM Academy of ERHS, received a trophy and a $50 gift card

HDR, Inc.: Gavin Joyce, of Corona High School, received a certificate and a book

Inland Empire Professional Engineers in California Government: Gavin Joyce, of Corona High School, won $1,000

Intel Excellence in Computer Science: Jiahan (Peter) Cheng, Thomas Rife, and August Wetterau, Eastvale STEM Academy of ERHS

Mojave Environmental Education Consortium: Dimple Garuadapuri, of Eastvale STEM Academy of ERHS, won a $50 gift card, and received a certificate and ribbon

Mu Alpha Theta: Malika Nindra and Avantika Rozario, Centennial High School

NASA Earth System Science Award: Dimple Garuadapuri, Eastvale STEM Academy of ERHS

Naval Science Award: Andre Huerto, Eastvale STEM Academy of ERHS

Science and Technology Education Partnership (STEP): Amanda Mata, of Orange Elementary School, won $50

Stockholm Jr Water Prize: Nicolas Almeida, Alexander Nguyen, and Nicholas Tan, Eastvale STEM Academy of ERHS

GOLD MEDAL WINNERS (all Gold medal students in grades 6-12 advance to State):

Clara Barton Elementary: Anneliese Brasher, James Glenny, and Zachary Brasher

Home Gardens Academy: Hope Howard

Eastvale Elementary: Thomas Sherrill

Orange Elementary: Amanda Mata

Temescal Valley Elementary: Carter Gilliatt and Nicholas Gomez

Auburndale Intermediate: Aisha Randhawa, Nala Stewart, Sarah Stutsman

Raney Intermediate: David Ouk and Suraj Jayaraman

Norco High: Spencer Krock

ESTEM at Roosevelt High: August Wetterau, Dimple Garuadapuri, Jiahan Cheng, Kenney Nguyen, Thomas Rife, Faith Inverary, Kayla Cunningham, Lana Lim, Wenxuan Tang, and Jillian Labador

SILVER MEDAL WINNERS:

Clara Barton Elementary: Aiden Stinson and Andrew Glenny

Corona Ranch Elementary: Gavin Cypher

Eastvale Elementary: Joel Licera

Garretson Elementary: Jake Felton

Orange Elementary: Hailey Hild

Prado View Elementary: Jackson Rhodes, Kyla Ishii, and Spencer Tran

Corona Fundamental Intermediate: Ethan Alferez, Sophia Pham, Aidan Bunch, Anisha Prasad, Derek Hsieh, Lucas Dyal, and Ryan Friedman

River Heights Intermediate: Alexander Stewart

Centennial High: Briana Meza, Ellorie Mariano, Jahnavi Issar, Sandra Rodriguez, Brendan Morgan, and Jasmine Bae

Corona High: Gavin Joyce

ESTEM at Roosevelt High: Jeewan Kaur, Kristine Caneda, Paige Prescott, Samuel Alston, Serena Patel, Alexander Nguyen, Andre Huerto, Harshikasai Kellampalli, Jamal Karim, Natalie Hobson, Nicholas Tan, Nicolas Almeida, Noel Simon, Raam Naveen, Sanskriti Balaji, Brian Chen, Hailee Hammond, and Joever Orillosa