Arcadia High Comes in First in Regional Science Bowl

INSIDE OUR SCHOOLS

Arcadia High School’s victorious Regional Science Bowl team clockwise from top left: Coach Cherryl Mynster with students Sonia Zhang, Jeshwanth Mohan, Brian Lam, Xing Liu, and Selena Zhang (Photo – NASA/JPL-Caltech)

After months of training till midnight and hours of anxiety amid fast-paced competition, five Arcadia High School students took back their crown and are headed to the National Science Bowl in Washington, D.C.

By Melissa Pamer

The Jan. 22 regional science competition marked the 30th year NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California has hosted the tournament. The event brings together science- and math-minded high schoolers from across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Santa Barbara counties. Arcadia last won the bowl in 2015; this year marked Arcadia eighth victory since the competition began.

The San Gabriel Valley school narrowly defeated Irvine’s University High School, which came in second after winning for the past four years. Another former winner, Troy High School in Fullerton, placed third. Twenty-two teams competed.

“It was pretty intense throughout,” said Arcadia senior Sonia Zhang, who has competed in the bowl alongside her twin sister Selena since they were sophomores. “It was just a lot of hard questions. … The pacing was really quick.”

The team credits their victory in part to the “power of friendship,” which regularly led to an extra hour of chatting after study sessions that ended at midnight. That closeness showed up on competition day.  “After every round, we were complimented about our teamwork,” said Jeshwanth Mohan, also a senior.

“It’s like the Super Bowl of science,” said Arcadia High coach Cherryl Myster, who teaches advanced placement chemistry.

Regional Science Bowl tournaments take place across the country in the lead-up to the National Science Bowl, which is coordinated by the U.S. Department of Energy and includes an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington for participating teams. The first national competition took place in 1991; JPL has been hosting the regional annual event since 1993.

Melissa Pamer is Newsroom copy chief at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. This article was first published at jpl.nasa.gov and was edited for clarity and length.