Four seniors in the School for Science and Math at Vanderbilt (SSMV) have been recognized as semifinalists in the national Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology.
They are Zachary Anderson, Abhinay Goyal and Jacob Seloff, who attend Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet High School, and Busra Gungor, who attends Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School.
SSMV was established in 2007 as a joint venture of Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. It is a program of the Vanderbilt Center for Science Outreach.
Students receive accelerated science instruction and research experience at Vanderbilt University Medical Center one day a week. The rest of the week they attend their regular high schools. Seniors also complete a summer research project at Vanderbilt.
This is the fifth year that SSMV seniors have been recognized for their research in the Siemens (formerly Westinghouse) competition.
For the past two years, SSMV seniors have been named semifinalists in another prestigious pre-college science competition, the Intel Science Talent Search. This year’s semifinalists were Emily Alzentzer, Jiahe “Ben” Gu and Jasmine Kelly. They won $1,000 prizes for their research, and matching awards were sent to their high schools.
According to an analysis by SSMV officials, SSMV ranked 17th among approximately 560 high schools nationwide in the number of its students who achieved semifinalist or finalist ranking in the Siemens and Intel competitions during the past three years (2010-2012), with 17 semifinalists in both competitions.
The other Tennessee high school on the list, Oak Ridge High School, ranked seventh, with 26 semifinalists.
The SSMV is supported by a National Institutes of Health NCRR Science Education Partnership Award, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, Vanderbilt University Medical Center and other generous donors.
