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Teams ready for DestiNation Imagination Global competition

Three Pleasanton middle and high schools teams that recently won the state DestiNation Imagination tournament are getting ready to compete Tuesday at the Globals tournament.

The middle school team Awkward Silence won the science challenge Spinning a Tale in which they researched, developed and presented an energy cycle. Team members, pictured above, are (l-r): Isha Vazirani, Cameron Monks, Neha Nene, Kanishka Ramanan, Connor Ottati (seated), Anthony Ottati and Kaavya Shah. They attend Hart Middle School, Pleasanton Middle School, the Athenian school in Danville and Wells Middle School in Dublin.

The high school team AMOCA won a community service challenge called Project Outreach. Team members are Akhil Ramalingam, Omkar Moghe, Amar Jyothiprakash, Christopher Azuma, Michael Azuma. They attend Foothill High School, Amador Valley High School and Harvest Park Middle School.

Another high school team, Challenge F, won in the Project Outreach category. Those team members are Preston Hedrick, Erica Grant, and Naveed Akhter. All three attend Foothill High School.

Destination ImagiNation is a national program in which student teams solve open-ended challenges and present their solutions at tournaments. Teams learn to think on their feet, work together and devise original solutions to satisfy the requirements of the challenges.

The national tournament begins May 24 in Knoxville, Tenn.

Pleasanton student's art to hang in D.C.

Amador Valley High School student Shao-Ning Lu won the 11th District Congressional Art Competition on Saturday for her pencil and color pencil piece titled "Together We Support." Lu will be flown, with a guest, to Washington, D.C., to attend an awards ceremony June 22, and her artwork will hang for one year in a busy corridor that leads to the U.S. Capitol, used daily by Members of Congress and visitors to Washington, D.C.

"The Art Competition is a great opportunity for talented high school students in our community to showcase their work in an art gallery and meet other young artists from the area," said Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-11). "My congratulations to all the students who participated and especially to the winner of this year's competition, Shao-Ning Lu. I look forward to seeing her piece hang in the U.S. Capitol."

The second-place winner is Yandi Wu, a freshman at Foothill High, for her oil painting entitled "Time is Ticking." Winnie Chang, a junior at California High School in San Ramon, took third place for her oil painting titled "Shh! Here Come the California Quails." Adaurie Dayak, a sophomore at Kimball High School in Tracy, took fourth place for a collage titled "Literary Cat." These winning pieces of art will be displayed in one of McNerney's three offices, located in Washington, D.C., Stockton and Pleasanton.

Posted by Pleasanton Resident, a resident of the Pleasanton Valley neighborhood, on May 21, 2011 at 9:05 am

Congratulations to the kids