Academic Excellence

2007-08 Accomplishments

2008 STAR Student Named

The Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE) recently named senior Jennifer Morgan as Woodward Academy’s 2008 STAR student. The STAR (Student Teacher Achievement Recognition) program honors the senior in each school who has the highest score in one sitting on the three-part SAT taken through the December test date of their senior year. Jennifer chose Mrs. Elaine O’Neill as her STAR teacher.

Independent Scientific Research News

ISR Students Place in the Georgia Junior Science and Humanities Symposium

In Georgia, the top 50 research papers submitted to the Georgia Junior Science and Humanities Symposium competition are selected and the students are invited to present at the GJSHS in Athens. Along with the presenters, 50 runners-up are selected to observe at the symposium and create a poster illustrating their research. This year, four of our Independent Student Research participants, Josh Cohen, Omar Haque, Jason Dunn, and Ravi Patel were chosen to present and Vishnu Koganti was chosen to display a poster.

This past weekend the competition took place in Athens, Georgia. Only one award is given for the poster division of this competition and Vishnu Koganti won that award. In the competition involving the 50 students who were chosen to present, Jason Dunn took 6th place, Omar Haque took third place, and Josh Cohen came in first place. Omar won a $1,000 scholarship for winning third place and Josh won a $2,000 scholarship for winning first place and both of them will be attending the National competition: Omar will present a poster and Josh will present in competition for the national award.

The national Junior Science and Humanities Symposium is a highly recognized national competition for high school students, encouraging them to conduct original research in areas of science, mathematics, and engineering. Participants are selected from across the United States, so this competition is also a great opportunity to meet other students who share an interest in science and research. Each year, over 12,000 young researchers participate in JSHS, of whom 240 students advance to the national level to compete for significant military-sponsored scholarships and awards.

Congratulations to all of the participants for a very successful weekend at this renowned state competition and good luck to Omar and Josh at the national competition.

Senior Named Semifinalist in Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS) 2008

Congratulations to Josh Cohen '08 for being selected as an Intel Science Talent Search semifinalist for 2008. He receives a $1,000 prize and will move on to compete as one of the 300 national semi-finalists for recognition as one of the 40 finalists. Josh will be competing for significant college scholarship opportunities. This is the third consecutive year that a Woodward Upper School science student has been given this honor. Dr. Rounds and Ms. Gibson of the Upper School direct the Independent Scientific Research Program.

Math Success

In November, the first round of the Kennesaw State University Mathematics competition was taken by 2369 students from 113 schools across the state. Students scoring at or above the 92nd percentile on this test have been invited to participate in the second round in February 2008. This year, Woodward had three students qualify for the second round: freshman, Eric Summins, at 92nd percentile; senior, CJ Jensen, at 98th percentile; and junior, Eric Morphis, whose first round score was the highest in the entire state. More about the US Math Team...

Class of 2008 National Merit Semi-Finalists

Joshua Cohen
Christopher Fernald
Michael Mandl
Kanya Manoj
Andrew Max
Jennifer Morgan
Jacob Robertson
Lindsey Shapiro
Valerie Shuping
John Wheeler
Jessica Wise

Class of 2008 National Merit Commended

Siranoush Agasarkisian
Farhan Daredia
Whitney Davis
Amelia Donlan
Madeleine Evans
Stephanie Fernald
Matthew Gilpatrick
Lauren Gordon
Jenna Greenberg
Harrison Gross
David Hackner
C.J. Jensen
Lillian Kline
Garrett Mann
Catherine Muller
Shayna Pollock
Kristin Rieck
Jonathan Sansom
Frances Sawyer
Hank Schwartz
Haley Snyder
Monica Springer
Elizabeth Vassey

Class of 2008 National Achievement Program, Referred to Colleges

Emanuel Jones
Winston Lord

Recognitions with the National Council of Teachers of English Achievement Awards in Writing Contest

Chris Fernald
Kanya Manoj

Governor's Honors Program

Congratulations to Roshani Chokshi (Communicative Arts), Joshua Cohen (Math), and Jennifer Morgan (Spanish) who attended the Governor's Honors Program at Valdosta State University in June and July. Sean Murphy was also accepted into the 2007 program.

The Governor's Honors Program is a six-week summer instructional program designed to provide intellectually gifted and artistically talented high school students challenging and enriching educational opportunities not usually available during the regular school year. Activities are designed to provide each participant with opportunities to acquire the skills, knowledge and attitudes to become independent, life-long learners.

2006-07 Accomplishments

Congratulations to the Woodward Academy Class of 2007!

As 100 percent embark upon your college careers, we salute you them for their outstanding academic, artistic and athletic accomplishments during your senior year at the Academy, including: $9.1 million in scholarship awards; 48 students recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation; Morehead-Cain Scholarship winner; Presidential Scholars Program semifinalist; Robertson Scholarship winner; winners of one state championship and five regional championships in sports; more than $20,000 raised for charity and more than 7,000 hours contributed to community service projects; top three honors in 16th Annual Pace Photography Competition; Scholastic Art Awards national and regional award winners; 2nd and 3rd in show and best school at Atlanta Celebrates Photography.

David Baron was named a Morehead Scholar. The Morehead-Cain Scholarship is a four-year undergraduate scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that includes tuition, books, room and board, a laptop and a stipend for spending money each semester. This prestigious award challenges young leaders to make a difference in the world.

Harris Eppsteiner was named a semifinalist in the 2007 Presidential Scholars Program. He was among 550 students selected nationwide from more than 2,700 candidates on the basis of superior achievements, leadership qualities, personal character and his involvement in community and school activities. The Presidential Scholars Program was established in 1964 to recognize distinguished graduating seniors. Each year, up to 141 students are named as Presidential Scholars. It is one of the highest honors for high school students. Harris also has been named the Georgia Regional STAR Student and a winner of the National Merit scholarship. He graduated from Woodward Academy as valedictorian of his class.

Bobo Bose Kolanu won the Robertson Scholarship. The Robertson program awards four-year scholarships to Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to 36 students each year. It also offers summer community-building and enrichment components.

Alex Roman is the 2007 winner of the Princeton Prize on Race Relations. This award, created by Princeton University alumni volunteers and sponsored by their Alumni Association, recognizes high school students who are doing exceptional work in their schools or communities to advance the cause of race relations. Alex’s work to launch the Five Points club and bring Ambassador Young to address the entire Upper School earned her first-place honors in Atlanta.

Robert Nalls Rosenbleeth (Bobby) was named a Foundation Fellowship Scholar and a Bernard Ramsey Honors Scholar at the University of Georgia. Georgia stated that this selection was “the most competitive ever with nearly 900 applications for the Foundations Fellowship and the Ramsey Scholarship.” The UGA Foundation Fellowship is the University’s premier scholarship, focusing on developing entering first-year students into outstanding leaders and scholars.

Four Students Attend Service Academies

Four seniors will attend service academies in the fall:

Timothy Jefferson Jr. will attend the United States Air Force Academy Prep School,
Samuel Quince Long and John Perry Murphy will attend the United States Naval Academy, and
Wyatt Tyler Cramblett will attend the United States Military Academy (West Point).

Silent Voices 2006 has won three recognitions for its literary and artistic merits:

The EXCELLENT rating from the National Council of Teachers of English; the ALL-AMERICAN rating from National Scholastic Press Association; and the GOLD MEDAL from Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

Congratulations to Jackie Bangma and Macy Moore, student editors, and to Mrs. Haldeman and Mrs. Slider, advisors.

Senior Named Semifinalist in Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS) 2007

Christopher Simmons, a Woodward Academy senior, was named a semifinalist in this prestigious science competition, often called the “Junior Nobel Prize.” Christopher is one of 300 chosen from 1,705 entrants and one of only two Georgia students to reach the semifinals.

Each of the 300 Intel STS semifinalists receives $1,000, with an additional $1,000 going to their respective schools, resulting in $600,000 in total awards. On January 31, 40 of the 300 semifinalists will be named as finalists. On March 8 these finalists will travel to Washington for a weeklong event. 10 students will be awarded scholarships totaling $500,000 with the top winner receiving a $100,000 scholarship.

Silent Voices

For information about the Silent Voices awards, please go to the their Web page.

AP Standings

For information about the Academy's AP scores, please go to our Academic Profile.

Middle School

District-level Speller

Eighth graders Shraya Sharma and Courtney Bergman will represent Woodward in the GISA District Spelling Bee on February 8, 2007. Seventh grader Griffin Katz will serve as an alternate.

Lower School

Odyssey of the Mind Finals / Team Going To World Competition in 2007

Congratulations to all three of Lower School Odyssey of the Mind teams. They had an extraordinary first year. All three teams competed really well in the regional tournament in Lilburn.

The Tag’em team, (Rithin Manchireddy, Nolan Stubbs, Joe Chapman, Evan Duffy, David Cornwell, and Coach Robert Wilsey) received great feedback from the judges, but after competing in a tough division, missed the opportunity to advance to State by just a little.
The Out Of The Box Balsa team (Louisa Boswell, Caroline Bakke, Caroline Arnold, Sarah Anderson, Priya Patel, Katherine Hueber and Coached by Tom Hueber and Terry Anderson) won the highest award in the entire tournament for creativity and automatically advanced to the State Tournament.
The Eight Minutes Around the World team (including Austin Lourie, Sarah Diekroeger, Harini Indrakrishnan, Allison Gordon, Rihka Manchireddy, Tori Lindelow and Cai Glencross) took first place in their division and also advanced to State.

At the State Tournament, the Balsa Wood team competed mightily but lost out to a couple of other more experienced groups. The Eight Minutes team took second place in their division and is one of only a few select teams representing Georgia in the World Finals! This year the World Finals are being held at Michigan State University in East Lansing in May.

Woodward North

Odyssey of the Mind Competitors to World Finals in 2007

In May. Two of Woodward North's teams went to East Lansing, Michigan for the World Finals. The teams are:

Tag'em Team A, Division II (Spencer Clapes, Bobby Newman, Bahar Amalfard, Katie Goldstein, Mary Alex Romero, Sydney Morton and Max Lefar)
Tag'em, Team A (Zachary Temin, Chirag Manyapu, Jack Stoffer, Chip Cary, Jason Seeb, Toby Duncan and Robert Pinataro)

Page updated: 2/27/08