Middlesex County College, Edison, announced the following local students named to the dean’s list for the fall semester:
Marianne Cissokho of South Brunswick;
Raheel Ahmad, Ilana Atwater, Carissa Berardi, Jose Camacho, Andrew Dahl, Christopher Demarco, Andrew Dobromilsky, Adam Fendler, Michelle Fendler, David Goncalves, Brandon Hair, Nicole Iacopino, Swaroopa Kodiganti, Craig Maltese, Rabia Mazharuddin, Brian Quindlen, Heather Smith, Umut Turkdogan, Yasmin Ulloa, and Luis Vieira Jr. of the Dayton section of South Brunswick;
Alexander Asinobi, Shikha Beena Pradeep, Sarah Beier, Jessica Belsky, Brittany Beris, Suparna Bhat, Nengwu Chen, Ian Diatlo, Gurmeen Fouda, Evan Foxman, Erica Frenkel, Douglas Heimlich, Michael Herman, Stephen Kang, Jocelyne Karam, Jing Liu, Wei Liu, Amie Monk, Daniel Murphy, Jodi Nickel, Michelle O’Brien, Alay Patel, Jaikumar Patel, Stephanie Rodriguez, Thomas Romano, Pavel Saviankou, Daniel Siha, Michael Ward, Chandra Vemulapalli, and Tom Zientek, of the Monmouth Junction section of South Brunswick.
Sapna Rajani of North Brunswick was named to the honor list for the fall term at Oxford College, the two-year arts division of Emory University, Georgia. Students must have a cumulative grade-point average of 3.5 or higher to be named to the honor list.
Kristen Axelsen, North Brunswick, has been named to the dean’s list for the fall semester at Ithaca Colleges’ School of Humanities and Sciences, with a grade-point average of 3.7. The dean’s list recognizes students who achieve a grade point average of 3.5 or higher during a minimum of 15 credit hours of which at least 12 are graded.
Matt Juro, a student of the Alpha Unit at Crossroads South Middle School, and
Siddharth Kurella, a student of the Polaris Unit at Crossroads North, won school-level competitions of the National Geographic Bee and a chance at a $25,000 college scholarship. This is the second year Juro won the school bee at Crossroads South. The school-level bees, at which students answered oral questions on geography, were the first rounds in the 22nd annual National Geographic Bee. This year’s bee is sponsored by Google.
The kickoff for this year’s bee was the week of Nov. 9, with thousands of schools around the United States and in the five U.S. territories participating. The school winners, including Juro and Kurella, will now take a written test; up to 100 of the top scorers in each state will be eligible to compete in their state bee on April 9.
The National Geographic Society will provide an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., for state champions and teacher-escorts to participate in the National Geographic Bee national championship on May 25 and 26. The first-place national winner will receive a $25,000 college scholarship, lifetime membership in the society, and an all-expenses paid trip to the Galápagos Islands courtesy of Lindblad Expeditions and National Geographic.
“Jeopardy” host Alex Trebek will moderate the national finals on May 26. The program will air on television. Check local listings for dates and times.
Anyone can brush up on geography with the new GeoBee Challenge, an online geography quiz at www.nationalgeographic. com/geobee, which poses 10 new questions a day.
For more information, visit nationalgeographic. com.
Aditya Sanyal, of Kendall Park, was named to the fall 2009 dean’s list at Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass. Students must earn a grade point average of 3.5 or above.
Rider University, Lawrenceville, announced that the following local students were named to the dean’s list for the fall semester:
Kenneth McGrory of North Brunswick, a senior, business administration major;
Meredith Jacob of Dayton, senior, elementary education major;
James Bliziotis of North Brunswick, sophomore, liberal studies major;
David Thomas of Dayton, senior, communication major;
Eric Wilkinson of North Brunswick, junior, business economics major;
Chelsea Smith of Dayton, junior, American Studies major;
Suzanne Kross of North Brunswick, junior, elementary education major;
Jason Slape of North Brunswick, sophomore, computer information systems major;
Afaf Badawy of North Brunswick, sophomore, computer information systems major;
Deepika Rana of Dayton, junior, accounting major;
Kristin Lopez of North Brunswick, freshman, general liberal arts major;
Justine Lostocco of North Brunswick, freshman, psychology major;
Jill Templeton of North Brunswick, freshman, elementary education major; and
Matthew Lichtiger of North Brunswick, junior, finance major.
Erin Jackson, of Kendall Park, has been named to the dean’s list in the School of Education at The College of New Jersey, Ewing, for the fall 2009 semester. She is a junior majoring in elementary education.
Meghan Jackson, of Kendall Park, was named to the College of Business Administration’s dean’s list at Rider University, Lawrenceville, for the fall 2009 semester. Jackson, a sophomore majoring in computer information systems, is a member of the Baccalaureate Honors Program and the College of Business Administration Honors Program.
Kendra Robinson of North Brunswick has been awarded an Associate of Applied Science degree in paralegal studies from Kaplan University. Robinson‘s accomplishment was celebrated during a live graduation ceremony Jan. 30 in Miami, Fla. Gen. Colin L. Powell, the 65th secretary of state and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, served as the commencement speaker.
The Kaplan University winter 2010 class of more than 3,300 students earned their associate, bachelor’s and master’s degrees as well as professional certificates, completely online. Many of them traveled from around the country and the world to attend the ceremony, meeting face to face for the first time.
Dina Sharon, of Kendall Park, is a candidate in the 2010 Presidential Scholars Program. The 3,000 candidates were selected from nearly 3.2 million students expected to graduate from high school in 2010. Scholars are selected on the basis of superior academic and artistic achievements, leadership qualities, strong character, and involvement in community and school activities. Sharon is a senior at Princeton Day School. She is also an Edward J. Bloustein Distinguished Scholar and a National Merit Finalist.