Laudable Lawrentians: April 2024

Welcome to our first monthly digest of some of the exciting accomplishments of Lawrenceville’s outstanding students. Please email future suggestions to lgillard@lawrenceville.org. 

 Lawrentian Sports Podcast Host Pens New Book

Lawrentian Aarav Parekh ’25 and his brother, Arsh, a sophomore at The Hun School have gained recognition as co-hosts of the podcast, “Two Brothers and their Sports.” Now the siblings have a new book to add to their resumes.

“A blueprint to winning: Advice from the pros on how to overcome adversity” compiles life-changing advice from the podcasters’ favorite interviews over the course of the past four years. The guide features hard-earned wisdom from an array of professional athletes, coaches and personalities interviewed on the podcast. Whether you're a sports enthusiast or seeking a story of perseverance and dreams realized, this book is a must-have keepsake that transcends the world of sports.

The Parekh brothers will be at the Princeton Library on April 27 for Local Author Day, signing and selling copies of their new book.

Lawrentian Publishes Paper in The Concord Review

 Fifth Former Remko Wang Kuijs ‘24 had his paper “New Netherland” published in the Spring 2024 issue of The Concord Review, a quarterly journal that publishes academic papers of secondary students.

Kuijs originally wrote the paper as a final term submission for his class “History of American Democracy in Cases” with History educator Laura Noboa-Berman.

“I'm super proud about getting the paper published,” Kuijs said. “It was rewarding to see my work acknowledged in a journal that I had been looking up to for a while now. It was a great experience to get a good sense of the process it takes to publish academic work in the field of history.”

Lawrentian Receives High Honors in Economics Essay Competition

Fourth Former Rian Julka was recently recognized by the Harvard Undergraduate Economics Association [HUEA) as Highly Commended in the Harvard International Economics Essay Competition (HIEEC) 2023-2024.

The annual competition attracts top talent from around the globe, fostering a platform for students to showcase their expertise and insights on international economics.

The committee noted that Julka “demonstrated exceptional dedication and skill through their essay, earning the distinction of Highly Commended.” In 2022, Julka was recognized by  Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine for Julka’s efforts to connect New Yorkers during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Second Former Wins Grand Prix Prize in Piano Competition

Second Form student Abhinav Sukla recently won the Grand Prix prize in Music-Fest's International Rising Talents Piano Competition. As a result, Abhinav was invited to play at Carnegie Hall on March 9 - it was his fourth performance at the renowned musical performance venue.

For the initial competition, Sukla played Etude No.1 "Prelude" Op. 40 by composer Nikolai Kapustin. Sukla has been playing piano for eight years and currently plays for Lawrenceville’s 8 O'Clock Jazz Combo. He also plays the French Horn for the Lawrenceville Philharmonic Orchestra.

Lawrentian Awarded in Local Science and Engineering Fair

Third Form student Annabelle Yao recently received overall Second Runner-Up award in the Senior Division category at the Mercer Science & Engineering Fair for her project, "A Novel Interpretative Deep Neural Network with Grad-CAM's Heatmap for the Early Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease." Additionally, the project was honored with three special awards: First Place in the Biochemistry, Biology and Medical category, the Biomedical Science Award, and the Air Force Research Laboratory Award.

She plans to continue her research and work to increase its positive contribution to the scientific and medical community and is determined to compete in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair on behalf of Lawrenceville in the future.

Lawrentian Presents at Latin Conference

Earlier this year, Kingsley Du ‘26 presented at Paideia's Living Latin in New York City (LLiNYC). He was the first high school speaker ever to address the conference.The two-day Classical Studies conference is run by the Paideia Institute, a non-profit organization whose mission is to promote the study and appreciation of Classical Studies. This year’s theme was "Technology in Antiquity" and Du presented on “Greek Fire,” a deadly weapon employed in antiquity that played a key role in the longevity of the Byzantine Empire.

Fourth Former’s Research Published in BioMedInformatics

Taksh Gupta ’25 was the lead author on a scientific research paper published in the peer-reviewed journal BioMedInformatics in November 2023.

The paper, “Predictions of Programmed Cell Death Ligand 1 Blockade Therapy Success in Patients with Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer,” was co-authored by Tamara Qawasmeh and Serena McCalla.

“I use machine learning to predict the treatment success of a lung cancer treatment on a variety of patients,” said Gupta, who worked with Tamara Qawasmeh and Serena McCalla.

BioMedInformatics is published by MDPI, a pioneer in scholarly, open access publishing that has supported academic communities since 1996. Based in Basel, Switzerland, MDPI has the mission to foster open scientific exchange in all forms, across all disciplines.

For additional information, contact Lisa M. Gillard H'17, director of public relations, at lgillard@lawrenceville.org.

 

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