IN South Fayette Fall 2025 | Page 35

EXPLORATION, ENGINEERING, AND EXCITEMENT
STUDENT LEADERS EARN NATIONAL RECOGNITION

After tremendous success at the state conferences for Penn HOSA( Health Occupations Students of America), Future Business Leaders of America( FBLA), and Technology Student Association( TSA) this past spring, several South Fayette students were able to travel to compete at the national-level conferences for their organizations.

Congratulations to freshman Ananya Soundararajan for earning second place in the Researched Writing and Persuasive Speaking event at the HOSA International Leadership Conference. She researched, wrote, and argued her case regarding the ethical issues surrounding deregulation of specific medications. Additionally, after earning first place in the state at the PA FBLA Conference in the Interview
category, she became a national finalist in the same category. Given her early success, she’ s definitely a Lion Learner to watch as she continues through high school.
Fifteen students were able to attend the TSA National Conference and 13 finished as national finalists placing them in the top one-thousandth percent of students participating in TSA. The team of Rushil Bajaj, Avanish Manthena, Arnav Mehta, Arya Pamecha, and Ansh Ukani followed up their first place state victory with a first place national championship
in their event! Zayan Karim also worked on the project but was unable to attend the event. These young men scripted, recorded, and produced a three-minute dystopian short film hinting at the potential dangers of an AI-powered future. Additionally, the student teams dedicated to the categories of Board Game Design( Ishi Gupta, Rishi Kakadiya, Shrita Machineni, Pearl Sahu, Anagha Sreejith, and Sruthi Sundaram) and Technology Bowl( Alex Lou, Hannah Luo, and Dan Mano) finished seventh and eighth in the nation, respectively.

outh Fayette SOUTH FAYETTE TOWNSHIP SCHOOL DISTRICT NEWS
EXPLORATION, ENGINEERING, AND EXCITEMENT

Ninety students from both the Elementary and Intermediate grades gathered in the classrooms and halls of South Fayette Elementary School in July for the four-day Summer STEAM Camp. Plenty of hands-on science, technology, engineering, art, and math activities resulted in an unforgettable adventure.

Mornings at the Intermediate camp, students learned about aerodynamics by launching paper airplanes, dropping paper helicopters, and designing parachutes to hopefully land candy safely on the floor. They hiked through the wetlands on campus to collect water samples and used microscopes to examine what they found, filling their nature walk journals with careful observations and sketches. They also studied buoyancy by building boats from recycled materials and testing how much weight they could carry.
In the afternoons, Elementary campers celebrated Earth Day with sustainability and imagination by creating everything from recycled snakes and bracelets to ocean glass, driftwood art, and cardboard creatures. They also applied their creativity to designing an inventive mini golf course and used iPads to code Sphero Bolt robots to move in every direction.
Using both body and mind, the 2025 South Fayette Summer STEAM Camps were full of laughter, learning, and lots of STEAMpowered fun!
SOUTH FAYETTE ❘ FALL 2025 33