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Published on 06/26/1995 All articles from this issue

Area students excel in chemistry competitions

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Chemistry advanced placement students from Homestead High School have performed well in a series of competitions at the end of the school year.

Seven out of 10 students taking the test placed in the top 5 percent out of more than 4,400 students from Canada, the United States and Great Britain who wrote the Chem 13 News Exam, out of the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Led by juniors Spencer Peng and Clifford Chen, who both scored at the 99 percentile, Homestead High School tied for first place among 401 participating schools with an average score of 77.3.

Peng also distinguished himself by winning the Santa Clara Valley Section of the American Chemical Society Bay Area Chemistry Competition, Level II, for students having two years of high school chemistry. In doing so, Peng became the third consecutive Homestead student to win the competition. He also managed to defeat Gunn High School junior Gary Michael Sawka, who was one of 20 qualifiers for the United States National Chemistry Olympiad Team. Juniors Nick Vossbrink and Chen placed fourth and fifth in the same competition, which featured 22 of the best Advanced Placement Chemistry students in the Bay Area.

Sawka is presently undergoing intensive training the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. At the conclusion of the study camp, four students will be named to the team that will represent the U.S. at the 27th International Chemistry Olympiad in July 10-21 Beijing, China. The selection of Sawka as a finalist resulted from his score on a prestigious and difficult exam taken by approximately 1,000 high school students across the nation.

Homestead and Gunn High School students also performed well in the third annual Bay Area Math and Science Alliance competition series (multiple choice, justified multiple choice, oral presentation, team problem-solving, individual lab practical, and open-ended essays). Homestead seniors Su-Shien Pang, Leland Chang and Robert Armitage finished second, seventh, and eighth in the senior division, respectively. Gunn's Henry Hsieh won the junior division and Sawka took third. Homestead's Peng finished fourth and Chen finished sixth in the overall competition, which involved prizes amounting to more than $22,000 in calculators and cash.

Homestead and Gunn also fielded teams that distinguished themselves in the annual JETS (Junior Engineering Technical Society) competition. The teams tied for first place in California and fourth place in the nation in Division 7. Two-hundred eighty schools around the nation competed in Division 7, meant for schools with enrollments of 1,170 students or more. Las year, Homestead finished first in California and fifth in the nation.