Dougherty Valley Science Olympiad Team Advances To States

SAN RAMON, CA — The Dougherty Valley High School Science Olympiad will head to the state championship after placing second overall at the Bay Area Regional Science Olympiad.

30 students from DVHS competed in a number of individual events against 23 other teams, and won the following recognitions:

- Materials Science - Nicholas Wong & Nirav Naidu - 1st
- Dynamic Planet - Ayaan Patel - 1st
- Anatomy & Physiology - Sneha Ganesh & Anushka Kabra - 2nd
- Disease Detectives - Sneha Ganesh & Anushka Kabra - 2nd
- Chem Lab - Nicholas Wong & Nirav Naidu - 2nd
- Electric Vehicle - Aayush Dhaulakhandi & Saishyam Rajesh - 2nd
- Write It Do It - Sneha Ganesh & Saisha Pal - 2nd
- Astronomy - Armaann Singh & Mihir Prabhu - 3rd
- Dynamic Planet - Armaann Singh & Mihir Prabhu - 3rd
- Helicopter - Aayush Dhaulakhandi & Saishyam Rajesh - 3rd
- Microbe Mission - Sophiya Ni & Soham Chatterjee - 3rd
- Disease Detectives - Akshara Srigiriraju & Rithika Kiran Sreepriya - 3rd
- Fossils - Pranav Madaraju & Michelle Pan - 3rd
- Optics - Vikhyath Malineni & Adri - 3rd
- Air Trajectory - Armaann Singh & Mihir Prabhu - 4th
- Forensics - Sophiya Ni & Soham Chatterjee - 4th
- Tower - Aayush Dhaulakhandi & Saishyam Rajesh - 4th
- Wind Power - Ayaan Patel - 4th

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. "For build events, we experimented with different materials and designs, refining our models through trial and error. For study events, we developed effective study strategies, utilizing peer discussions, online resources, and practice tests. Ultimately, our perseverance and teamwork allowed us to perform to the best of our abilities at the competition."