Katy ISD Students Honored in Duke University Program

(October 1, 2008) – High-achieving talented junior high students from Katy ISD have been singled out for recognition in the 2008 Duke University Talent identification Program (TIP).

The Duke-sponsored program identifies academically talented 7th graders based on their standardized test scores and invites them to take either the SAT or the ACT.  Grand Recognition is given to those 7th graders who score in the top two percent of TIP participants on the SAT or ACT test. State Recognition is earned by students who earn scores equal to or higher than half of the college-bound seniors who took the tests.

During the 2007-08 academic year, 364 Katy ISD 7th graders participated in the TIP. Of those participating, 13 current students earned Grand (as well as State) Recognition and 126 scored at the State Recognition level.  Katy ISD is one of the top ten districts in Texas in total participation in the TIP.

Katy ISD students who earned Grand Recognition are Naveen Balakrishnan, Memorial Parkway Jr. High; Jedidiah Boggs, Beck Jr. High; Angela Camille, Beckendorff Jr. High; Rohan Deviprasad, Cinco Ranch Jr. High; Larry Ding, Beck Jr. High; Katie Hosie, WoodCreek Jr. High; Natalya Johnson, Mayde Creek Jr. High; John Kim, Beck Jr. High; Lisa Liu, Beckendorff Jr. High; Collin McCloy, Beckendorff Jr. High; Rachel Shepherd, WoodCreek Jr. High; Sarah Stevenson, McMeans Jr. High; and Yi (Alan) Yang, Beckendorff Jr. High.

Students recognized at the State level are:

Beck Jr. High: Eric Annestrand, Margaret Baxter, Alexander Centner, Bohao Cheng, Woo Choi, Caitlyn Clark, Karen Cuartas, Katelynn Dobson, Daniel Fernee, Alexis Frankson, Randall Glancey, Rachael Lanier, Celine Lee, Yifei Li, Dominic Litong, Hongzhou Liu, Samantha Martino, Drew Mills, Reese Needham, Joyce Ni, Micah Noon, Nora Pek, Chanelle Qi, Maximiliano Salinas, Kate Samuelson, Arturo Sobarzo, Joseph Waid, Michelle Xu, Shirley Xu and Katherine Yu

Beckendorff Jr. High: Aubrey Baker, Carl Bartine, Ho Eun Chae, Alexander Corbin, Alyjan Daya, Louise Goodfellow, John Groth, Stanley Johnson, Phillip Mallinger, Steven Pham, Taylor Power, Julian Ranz Gomez, Alaina Roth, Tilly Selden, Matthew Sullivan, Umang Thanki, Vince Toledo, Tejaswi Veerati, Linda Xie and Zhuouqun Xie

Cinco Ranch Jr. High: David Bjerkaas, Kartik Chitturi, Jin Hyuck Chung, Samuel Kinne, Jessica Lafferty, Dylan McGee, Jenevieve Parker, Leslie Penick and Sharon Zhu

Katy Jr. High: Wendy Garcia and Lee Andrea Wolt

Mayde Creek Jr. High: Tori Haugvoll, Jalyric Joseph and Micah McClimans

McDonald Jr. High: Danielle Andersen, Aaron Barber, Nazwa Khalid, Jeremy Martin, Alvaro Martinez, Laurina Sellu, Ruqaiya Shipchandler and Aubrey Zenn, Jr.

McMeans Jr. High: Radu Bondar, Ariadne Busono, Rhythm Chokshi, Gabriel Churion, Kathleen Frelier, Alissa Hall, Margaret Lin, Marissa Mann, Vijay Manohar, Autumn McArthur, Adrienne Perkins, Samantha Reichstein, Rhittika Roy, Alan Tan, Thomas Xu and Su Jeong Yun

Memorial Parkway Jr. High: Kaycee Baker, Kaitlyn Budke, Katharine Elliott, Sarah Gargani, Sung Kim, Joshua Kingma, William McKinley, Marie Saunders, Hannah Silverberg and Tanya Xu

Morton Ranch Jr. High: Jonah Galvin, Kyle Hiller, Kali Johnston, Stephen Park and Daniel Sullivan

West Memorial Jr. High: John Dunlap, Jeremiah Fitzerald, Cory Fleitas, Henry Merschat, Savannah Sarabia and Nathan Schmidt

WoodCreek Jr. High: William Kintzele, Matthew Proffitt, Aminah Sallam, Jeremiah Yap (students at Beckendorff and Cinco Ranch Jr. High Schools in 2007-08)