Fifteen students from Holmdel High School were recognized for participating in the 2019 Open Exam of the Chemistry Olympiad on March 13.
The event was held at Brookdale Community Collegei n Lincroft.
Holmdel High School AP Chemistry teacher Josephine Blaha said the the Chemistry Olympiad is a National chemistry academic contest designed to pick the four students who will represent the United States in the International Chemistry Olympiad, which will be held in Paris in July.
The students who represented Holmdel High School in this year’s competition are Anas Ani, Tarek Ani, Derek Chan, Aidan Choo, Natalie Grana, Andrew Guaragno, Alice Huang, Hannah Lin, Nicole Sportelli, Alexis Stewart, Alexander Tsai, Paige Tulenko, Jonathan Wang, Claudia Zhang and Jason Zheng.
Jason Zheng won second place, and Alice Huang won third place in the Monmouth County competitions. Zheng’s scores were high enough to qualify him for the National Exam to be held this year at Fairleigh Dickinson University on April 27.
The US Chemistry Olympiad is sponsored by the American Chemical Society. It all starts at the local level, and this first exam is called the local exam. The tests are held regionally all across the state and winners get a chance to compete in the ‘national’ exam, from which the top 20 students are chosen to attend a one week training camp. At the end of this week four students are chosen to represent the US in the International Chemistry Olympiad.