Infinitec Award
Emrys Turner, a Fox student, will receive an Outstanding Student Technology Award from the Infinitec North Assistive Technology Coalition on April 23. In his nomination, D54 assistive technology facilitator Carolyn Gruszeczki describes how he uses his Augmentative and Alternative Communication device (AAC) to do his schoolwork, advocate for himself and engage with his teachers and peers, telling stories and jokes. He is thought of as the tech expert in his class, often supporting other students with their AAC devices and Google extensions.
First LEGO League
The following District 54 students and their team, Winning Wizards, won first place in Illinois the FIRST LEGO League State Championship, competing against 490 teams.
- Diya Kolasani – 8th Grade, Keller Junior High School
- Hirdey Deepak – 8th Grade, Frost Junior High School
- Aarush Dheepak – 5th Grade, Dirksen Elementary School
At the State Championship, they achieved an exceptional Robot Game score of 540 out of 545, one of the highest scores in the country this season. They were also recognized with the Robot Design Award for excellence in engineering, innovation and programming. The team has now been invited to represent Illinois at the FIRST Championship in Houston from April 29 to May 2, where top teams from each state and 66 countries will compete on a global stage.
Geography Bee
The following students earned the top three spots in the District 54 Geography Bee on March 12. The top four students from each junior high school geography bee qualified to compete at the district bee.
- 1st Place – Malhar Patil from Addams
- 2nd Place – Ryan Villamar from Addams
- 3rd Place – Billy Calderon from Lincoln Prairie
National History Day
Several Mead Junior High School students qualified for the Illinois History Day competition, which will take place on May 4 in Springfield. Each year more than half a million students participate in this nationwide contest. Students choose a historical topic related to the theme. This year’s theme is Revolution, Reaction and Reform. Students can present their work as a research paper, an exhibit, a performance, a documentary or a website.
These are the students that are moving onto the state competition.
- Gabe Dybczak, Rishaan Lillaney & Faiz Haq for their documentary – The Mexican Revolution: From Dictatorship to Democracy
- Shahan Mohamed, Ocean Chen & Hanzhi Jing for their documentary – Brown v. Board of Education: The Turning Point of American Civil Rights
- Kavel Gupta, Aaron Witkowski & Kahen Mussie for their exhibit – The Banana Strikes and Banana Massacre of 1928: A Fight for Labor Rights and Freedom in Latin America
- Florence Xu & Coco Chen for their exhibit – Mind-Blown: The Story of Project MK-Ultra
- Hamsa Gupta & Prisha Vajpayee for their exhibit – From Garden to Graveyard: Jallianwala Bagh and the Trigger that Turned Revolution Finto Reform
- Siv Patel, Viraat Gecka & Zeus Blumberg for their exhibit – From Fertilizer to Gas Warfare: A Discovery that Sustained Life and the Man Who Weaponized it
- Penny Randolph & Lynne Whiteid for their exhibit – Anti-Japanese Hysteria: Executive Order 9066
- Arjun Padmanabham & Mori Fujimoto for their website – Horace Mann and the Reform of Public Schooling in America
- Aditya Sriram & Yousha Khan for their website – The Bangladesh Liberation War
- Chloe Kim & Ishikha Praveen for their website – The Nerves of Modern Technology: The Transistor Circuit of 1947
- Uma Kumar & Ashwina Ahuja for their performance – 1946 Royal Indian Naval Mutiny: A Revolution For Independence
- Ovee Salavi, Avani Koyilada & Isabelle McBurrows for their performance – The Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps: How the Women of America Paved a Path for a Brighter Future
- Shreya Hingmire for her paper – A Cycle of Revolution, Reaction, and Reform: The Privacy Act of 1974 and the Evolution of Data Privacy
- Moksh Ashwin for his paper – Rivalling Human Intelligence: Revolution, Reaction, and Reform in the Perceptron Controversy
Chain Reaction
The following teams won the 2026 Chain Reaction Competition. Students were challenged to design a device that will perform a simple task in an indirect and incredibly overly complicated way. This year’s task was opening a box. Students were asked to have at least 10 steps before the box was opened. Teams were judged on things like design, teamwork, alignment to theme, and successful attempts.
Elementary Division
3rd Place from Campanelli
- Kaycee Neal
- Nalicia DeFilippis
- Vihaan Donagala
- Brielle Palmer
- Medha Kumar
- Ola Kuklo
- Samihan Patil
- Aadi Shah
- Het Thakkar
2nd Place from Hoover
- Atharv Kumar
- Aryav Mahajan
- Rio Coker
- Reva Deshpande
- Victoria Romero
- Yuan Vela
- Quinn Saternus
- Aadya Shirol
- Evie Murashko
1st Place from Lincoln Prairie
- Athena Sassaris
- Rikitha Mattam
- Kaavya Patel
- Veda Modhipall
- Hridhaan Shah
- Hailey Delorto
- Dylan Hanson
- Gabriel Manahan
- Anay Patadiya
Chain Reaction – Junior High Division
3rd Place from Addams
- Olaf Iwanciow
- Saira Flores
- Dhiksha Ravindran
- Hamza Pathan
- Ryan Caldwell
- Adam Puccini
- Kevin Sabau
- Willow Smith
- Jaslyn Mendez
- Leon DeGuzman
- Rohan Sharan
- Mukta Patel
- Eeshen Patel
- Spencer Gunsteen
- Anshuman Kerhalkar
- Daniel George
2nd Place from Frost
- Esha Acharya
- Habib Ahmad
- Miguel Aristizabal
- Anish Chandar
- Gargi Dagde
- Rayyan Durrani
- Soverna Jegan
- Liam Kovaka
- Jovana Milinkovic
- Toyeebat Owolab
- Josh Salvatore
- Stefan Stoyanov
- Arjun Thakore
- Will Torpe
- Alex Waidanz
- Jase Zydlo
1st Place from Mead
- Dominik Dmowski
- Annabel Joseph
- Bhakti Kachhia
- Deeva Kamdar
- Arjun Padmanabham
- Reyansh Pasham
- Hrishi Patel
- Latisha Soma
- Shanmukhi Tanuk
- Shreya Hingmire
- Milo Keating
- Gulsum Akyurek
- George Synowiec
D54 App Challenge
This fall junior high students enrolled in STEM 2 classes participated in the 4th annual D54 App Challenge. This challenge gives students the opportunity to demonstrate their coding skills and use of the Engineering Design Process by creating an original app from scratch. Each student applied their skills and brought their own perspectives to designing and coding. After spending weeks making sure their apps were fully functional, the students were asked to create a video presentation demonstrating their app and how their code makes the app function.
Students submitted their app as well as the video presentation of the app to the judges, who were all systems and app developers. Each app was scored based upon its implementation of code, design, and creativity. We are so proud of all our students who participated and would like to congratulate our winners who scored the highest across all junior highs in District 54.
1st place
- Prisha Vajpayee and Isabelle McBurrows from Mead with their app “My Mind”
2nd place tie
- Anu Voora and Salim Najjar from Frost with their app “Health Helper”
- Avani Koyilada from Mead with their app “Mindfuel”
Junior High Math CompetitioN
All seventh- and eighth-grade students were invited to join Math Olympiad Clubs at their junior high schools (and Lincoln Prairie) to help them prepare for this district competition. This culminated in a school competition, and the top two teams from each school advanced to the 4th annual District 54 Junior High Math Competition on March 16. At the district event, 10 math questions were posted on the large screens, one at a time, and teams had 4 minutes to collaborate on the answers. The competition was tough this year, with tie breakers necessary to determine the winners.
1st place – Team Lebonbon from Mead
- Amogh Cholenahalli
- Edward Char
- Ire Erogbogdo
- Hanzhi Jing
2nd place – Team Einstein’s Sons from Mead
- Siv Patel
- Mori Fujimoto
- Arjun Padmanabham
- Reyansh Pasham
- Devansh Jyoti
3rd place – Team Pi-Thons from Frost
- Hirdey Deepak
- Surya Ravichandran
- Aryan Patel
- Benjamin Matlack
- Daichi Ito
Japanese Speech Contests
The following Dooley students received an award at the 10th Annual Heritage Japanese Language Speech Contest for native Japanese-speaking students, held in February at the Consulate-General of Japan in Chicago.
- JIC Award: Vivian Ayaka Jean and Natalie Long
- 4th place: Himawari Ferguson
- 1st place: Julia Kennedy
In addition, the following Dooley students received an award at the 40th Annual Japanese Language Speech Contest for native English-speaking students who study Japanese as a second language, held in March at the Consulate-General of Japan in Chicago.
- Japan America Society Award: Irfan Kicyigit
- 4th place: Yasmina Goodrum
- 3rd place: Sofia Katelieva
- 1st place: Jaanvi Solanki
PTA Reflections Winners
The following students qualified for the national level of Reflections, a PTA writing and fine arts competition.
- Sanika Mahajan, grade 8 at Eisenhower Jr. High, in the visual arts category for I Belong with Nature
- Nathan Jakobi, grade 8 at Keller Jr. High, in the photography category for We Are Diesel
- Arin Pandey, grade 3 at Link Elementary, in the film production category for Cubee
- George Synowiec, grade 7 at Mead Jr. High, in the photography category for The Mark I Leave. George also qualified for state in the literature category for I Belong
The following students qualified for the state level in the PTA Reflections program.
- Kevin Jelonek, grade 4 at Aldrin Elementary, in the film production category for My Community, and My Country
- Liam Seriruk, grade 5 at Aldrin Elementary, in the film production category for Portal to Belonging and in the photography category for Together We Belong
- Hetvi Vyas, grade 5 at Collins Elementary, in the film production category for We Are All Different and We All Belong
- Kiara Neema, grade 5 at Campanelli Elementary, in the literature category for Weaving the Web of Belonging
- Prisha Vadapalli, grade 3 at Link Elementary, in the literature category for Autobiography of Prisha’s Fridge
- Shri Hamsini Harish, grade 6 at Aldrin Elementary, in the literature category for Freezing Fire
- Atharv Kumar, grade 6 at Hoover Elementary, in the literature category for One Moment Away
- Adrija Saha, grade 7 at Mead Jr. High, in the literature category for A Journey of Belonging: Embracing My Roots and Spreading My Wings
- Devansh Jyoti, grade 8 at Mead Jr. High, in the music category for I Belong
- Rosie Bromley, grade 8 at Frost Jr. High, in the photography category for In the Rearview of the Sky
- Henry Muranaka, grade 8 at Addams Jr. High, in the photography category for In the Rearview of the Sky
- Savani Shende, grade 2 at Fairview Elementary, in the visual arts category for Reading Where I Belong
- Claire Tredup, kindergarten at Lincoln Prairie, in the visual arts category for My New School
- Saanvi Adepu, grade 5 at Aldrin Elementary, in the visual arts category for The Team
- Samika Pohare, grade 7 at Mead Jr. High, in the visual arts category for Differences Create the World
- Solomia Tizyo, grade 7 at Addams Jr. High, in the visual arts category for Belong (Symbolism of a String)
