Laudable Lawrentians: April-June 2026

Students across Lawrenceville continue to earn recognition in competitions, scholarship programs, and academic research. Here are some recent accomplishments:

Dancing Environmental Scientists

Isha Poluru ’27 and Diya Poluru ’29 won first prize at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) EcoVenture Challenge 2026, a premier global competition for climate entrepreneurship that challenges students to develop innovative, market-ready solutions to pressing environmental problems.

The sisters founded StreamSenze, an AI-powered watershed intelligence platform that uses a network of low-cost, solar-powered sensor nodes to continuously monitor water quality and alert authorities to pollution events before environmental damage occurs. Their pitch was evaluated by a panel of University of Pennsylvania professors and investors with backgrounds in business, academia, and the environmental industry and  across various judging criteria including problem articulation and research, solution design, and business strategy.

In addition to their scientific research, the Poluru siblings are also passionate about dance. In January, they performed at Stern Auditorium/Perelman stage at New York City's Carnegie Hall. They also performed at the “Diwali at Times Square” event on November 9.

Lawrentians Ace National Latin Exam

Fifteen Lawrenceville students earned Gold Summa Cum Laude honors on this spring's National Latin Exam, sponsored by the National Junior Classical League and the American Classical League.

On the introductory-level exam, Gold Summa Cum Laude scores were earned by Han-Song Ara ’28, Liv Friedberg ’29, David Jiang ’29, and Gordon Zhang ’29.

On the beginning Latin exam, Gold Summa Cum Laude honors went to Shreshta Agrawal ’28, Doria Chen ’29, Benjamin Choi ’28, Leila Khabbaz ’28, Jacob Moon ’28, Elias Nicozisis ’28, Paul Turchetta ’28, Aarav Shah ’28, and William Su ’28.

Rising Fifth Formers Alice Kim and Audrey Shueh earned Gold Summa Cum Laude honors on the intermediate Latin exam.

Jiang and Shueh both had perfect scores on their exams.

National Merit Scholar Candidates Selected

These rising Fifth Formers have been recognized, on the basis of their PSAT scores,  in the 2027 National Merit Scholarship Program. They are now eligible for consideration as Semi-Finalists , Finalists, or National Merit Scholars, announced in September, February, and May, respectively. Congratulations to: Sophia Abi-Atme, Austin Amissah, Anvi Anand, Anna Bao, Blair Bartlett, Rachel Blecher, Vivian Blessing, Eric Chen, Ziru Chen, Ananya Chopra, Haldora Churchill, Emily Connolly, Duru Develioglu, Irene Fu, Sarah Jang, Heemin Kim, Vivek Kumar, Melina Kyriakopoulos, Seunghyun Lee, Alexander De Leon, Oceana Li, Samantha Li, Zonghan Li, Jason Lu, Nicholas Ma, Rohan Madhok, Kelsey Mathu, Nathanael Mayer, Noah Mondello, Isaac Moon, Shivam Nemade, Isha Poluru, Pacey Qi, Daniel Rashidi, Arunav Sarkar, Yashesh Shah, Yifan Shang, Jason Shi, Audrey Shueh, Abhinav Sukla, Celestine Sutter, Manuel Tellez, John Thomas, Talia Thomas, Marcus Tsai, Richard Vieser, Ainsley Walters, Christian Lopez Watt, Selena Yu, Emily Zhang, Michael Zhao, and Yuhan Zhu.

U.S. Presidential Scholars Semifinalists Named

Rising Fifth Formers Annabelle Yao and Shuya Wang are among 600 semifinalists for the U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. The names of the finalists will be announced in the coming months by U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon.

U.S. Presidential Scholars are evaluated on a broad range of achievements and accomplishments, including academic record, essays, recommendations, leadership, service, and extracurricular activities.  The Commission on U.S. Presidential Scholars recommends students to the U.S. Secretary of Education, who selects up to 161 Scholars each year.

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