These Students Are Making CA Proud

CALIFORNIA — California is full of bright, driven young people making a difference in and out of the classroom. That’s why Patch and T-Mobile have teamed up to spotlight students excelling in academics, athletics and community service.

Read about five exceptional Golden State students making a significant impact. And if you know a student who deserves a shoutout — we want to hear about them. Click here to nominate them for a chance to be featured as a Star Student on Patch.

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Sarah Gao (San Diego) — A senior at Canyon Crest Academy in San Dieguito Union High School District, Gao was selected to represent California in the 63rd annual United States Senate Youth Program in December.

Sponsored by the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, the program provides selected students an opportunity to gain an in-depth view of the U.S. Senate and the federal government, as well as a deeper understanding of the interrelationship of the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

At the time, Gao was president of the School Site Council at Canyon Crest Academy, vice chair of the city of San Diego's Youth Commission, editor-in-chief of the school's magazine, and founder and executive director of Coast2Canyon, which focuses on biodiversity, environmental education and water quality. She is also the founder of the National History Day Youth Leadership Council and president of the San Diego Science Fair Student Board.

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Sofia C. (Orange County) — Socia was recognized as one of the 22 finalists of the Cox Communications nationwide phone case design competition in March. The contest encouraged teens to submit their designs for the chance to win a $25,000 scholarship.

Sofia's design highlights the interconnectivity between people, nature and the world around us.
"We are one because even though we may think that we're separated, we're all humans, living on this earth," Sofia told Patch. "Even when life may seem bleak, we're able to find comfort in the communities we're able to create with new technology."

Later this year, OtterBox, Cox Mobile’s exclusive phone case partner for this campaign, will manufacture and sell a phone case featuring the winning design. It will be available online and in Cox retail stores, with proceeds benefitting Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

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Yookta Pandit (San Ramon) — An 8th grader at the Quarry Lane School, Yookta Pandit, received numerous awards at the Alameda County Science Fair earlier in March for her project "Reading the Brain: Using MRIs for Early Detection of Dyslexia."

Pandit's project, which uses an AI model trained on MRI's to detect dyslexia, received the Middle School Engineering Grand Award, the California State and Engineering Fair Nomination Award, and the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge Nomination Award, and the Special Award from the STEM4ALL Organization. Pandit was judged to have the best engineering project in the middle school division and will present her work at the California Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles on April 12-13.

"Existing dyslexia methods wait until reading struggles appear in children, by which point self-doubt begins to set in, as children start to believe that they are less intelligent than their friends," she told Patch.

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Dougherty Valley High School Science Olympiad (San Ramon) — The olympiad is heading to the state championship after placing second overall at the Bay Area Regional Science Olympiad this month.

30 students from DVHS competed in several individual events against 23 other teams and won in recognition from the electric vehicle category to forensics.

The four top-scoring teams qualify for the Northern California Science Olympiad. This is the first time in a while that DVHS Science Olympiad team has advanced to this competition, according to team representatives Sneha Ganesh and Anushka Kabra.

"Despite being a relatively new team, we leaned on collaboration and creativity to make the most of our resources," they told Patch.

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Banning High School Broncos (Banning) — Beneath the lights of the iconic Angel Stadium, the Banning High School Broncos baseball team scored a 1-0 victory against rivals the Arroyo Valley High School Hawks this month.

The experience was made possible through fundraising by the Banning and San Bernardino County teams as well as the support of school leadership.

The game was a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity for the student players to compete on a Major League Baseball field with professional league referees.

“This was a great experience for the boys. They will remember this for the rest of their lives,” said Banning Head Coach Jake Knesel. “To be given an opportunity to play in a professional stadium is something that many will never get to experience. We would all like to thank Brandon Mason and everyone else involved who helped make this happen.”