Competitions and
Achievements
2007-2008
The students at UTS are unique. They are driven to be the
best that they can be.
Below are some examples of how a number of students have
contributed to school and community life in a range of academic,
musical and social pursuits.
Click here for previous years student achievement
highlights.
Senior German Students pass the new A2 German Proficiency Test
June 11, 2008
Congratulations to 11 UTS students who passed the new A2 test
of language proficiency in German. This test is part of the new
"Common European Framework" of language proficiency evaluation,
which is recognized internationally and is set to be adopted
into new revisions of the Curriculum documents in 10 Canadian
provinces over the next few years.
They clearly impressed other school's German Teachers and the
German Language Consultant, who was in charge of supervising the
testing on behalf of the German government.
Please congratulate the following students:
Lena Bae
Matthew Chan
Mihai Chelaru-Centea
Kelly Chin
Kalyna Franko
Ana Komparic
Amy Lu
Thilo Schaefer
Stanley Sun
Sarah Truong
Sonia Zhang
UTS student's work to be published in Science Teachers' journal
June 11, 2008
Congratulations to Oles Chepesiuk, who's poem
"Bioluminescence" will be published in the June issue of The
Crucible, the journal of the Science Teachers' Association of
Ontario (STAO).
Oles' poem was for his Biology class portfolio, where
students are challenged to creatively demonstrate that they can
learn biology outside of the classroom and outside of the
curriculum.
Oles' interest was piqued by the idea that an organism can
create light, so he selected bioluminescence for his assignment.
His lighthearted poem outlines the chemical reactions organisms
create to produce their light: "That's bioluminescence! Supplied
not by light, But by chemical reactions requiring some might."
It also explores the reasons why particular organism evolved
this ability: "to find food deep under the sea," "to catch other
fish as the anglerfish does" and "to find a partner or more;
Recognizing a mate underwater is a chore!"
Oles is the second UTS student to be published in The
Crucible - in 2006, UTS student Roland Li's song Endocrine
System, written to the tune of Green Day's American Idiot, was
published. Much like Oles' poem, it was to illustrate how
students can understand concepts through songs and poems.
UTS tops Canadian Physics contests
June 11, 2008
Congratulations to S6 Physics students who have earned top
marks on two of Canada's most challenging Physics contests.
Sir Isaac Newton Prize Exam (SIN contest) is sponsored by the
University of Waterloo. It is administered by high school
physics teachers across Ontario and around the world! Thanks to
top students' scores, UTS placed third overall!
Congratulations to UTS' top finishers:
| Jonathan Schneider |
99.82 percentile |
| Jon Chiang |
98.76 percentile |
| Daniel Lam |
98.24 percentile |
| Mark Livschitz |
95.75 percentile |
| George Weekes |
95.10 percentile |
| Robert Bai |
95.10 percentile |
| Gwendolyn Lovsted |
93.59 percentile |
| Connie Wong |
92.50 percentile |
Congratulations to Jonathan Schneider who also placed 15th
overall and 6th in Ontario in the Canadian Association of
Physicist High School Prize Examination (CAP contest).
Congratulations to Jeremey Zung, who had an outstanding
performance on the Ontario Association of Physics Teachers
(OAPT) Physics Exam where he placed 3rd in the province.
UTS Girls' Chess Team rule the Ontario Championship
June 11, 2008
The UTS Girls' Chess Team proved Queens rule in chess at the
Ontario Girls' Chess Championship 2008. Here's their results:
Chalini Lankage - grade 8 silver medal
Fern Ramoutar - grade 9 silver medal
Sashi Lankage - grade 11 gold medal
Congratulations to the team!
UTS National Parks Winning Posters Now Online
June 11, 2008
As reported last month, M3 Geography student posters were
recognized in the Parks Canada Ecology Integrity Poster Contest.
The winning entries are now online:
Irene Cheng and Flora Chiang (13th place):
Glacier National Park
Aaron Fong and Tommy Wei (17th place):
Grasslands National Park
Tasha Stansbury and Victor Li (Honourable
Mention):
Ukkusiksalik National Park
Kenneth Wu (Honourable Mention):
Point Pelee National Park
To view all winning posters, please visit
http://www.pc.gc.ca/apprendre-learn/prof/itm1-con/on/eco/2008/eco1b_e.asp
Two UTS students’ work recognized at the Toronto Star High
School Newspaper Awards
June 6, 2008
Congratulations to Diana Berbece and Lily Hu for receiving
Toronto Star High School Newspaper Awards in recognition of
their work published in the Cuspidor.
Diana Berbece won 2nd place in the Feature Writing, Long
category, in recognition of her piece’s solid factual reporting
and vivid writing style.
Lily Hu won 2nd place in the Comics category, in recognition
of her strip’s ability to entertain Cuspidor readers.
Students’ entries are judged by the Toronto Star’s editorial
staff every year, and the caliber of the students’ work is a
testament to the excellent work being done in high school
newspapers in Ontario.
The Awards will be presented on May 29 at the Toronto Star’s
production facility, and will include a tour of the press centre
and a special guest speaker.
The Toronto Star High School Newspaper Awards were
established in 1995 to recognize excellence in high school
journalism across Ontario, and aim to encourage this excellence
for years to come.
UTS students top Canadian Math contests
June 6, 2008
UTS Math students have earned top scores in several Canadian
Math Contests, sponsored by the University of Waterloo. These
contests are used to challenge and recognize Canada’s top math
students.
Jonathan Schneider earned a perfect score in both the Hypatia
and Euclid Contests for grade 11 and grade 12 students,
respectively. Cecillia Wong and Jonathan Zung wrote outstanding
Euclid exams. Although the complete rankings are not yet
published, Cecillia, Jonathan and Jonathan are sure to give UTS
a team score that will rank at or near the top in the country!
Lincoln Guo earned a perfect score in the Fryer Contest for
grade 9 students.
Richard Liu earned the top UTS score in the Galois Contest
for grade 10 students, missing out on a perfect score by one
measly mark.
Congratulations!
UTS wins its 13th Consecutive Classics Conference
May 30, 2008
A remarkable, focused and determined effort by all the
members of the UTS Classics team at the 40th Classics Conference
earned UTS’ 13th consecutive victory. UTS placed 1st place
overall at the Conference, thanks to its 1st place overall in
Academic events, 3rd place overall in Athletic events and 4th
place overall in Creative events. UTS was ahead by more than 187
points against the second place school, Markham District High
School.
In spite of all the unique challenges the team encountered
this year, UTS’ 40-member team demonstrated an amazing aptitude
for Latin and Ancient Greek, fought hard for athletic victories,
and amazed the judges with their creative masterpieces.
Highlights include:
Creative
1st place in Pottery - Valerie Ho
1st place in the Audiovisual competition - Alex Poutiainen
1st place in Archaeological Dig - led by Ryan Bradley and Ernest
Chi
2nd place in the chariot race, thanks to our improved new
chariot, upgraded by the joint efforts of Karthika Muthuramu,
Alex Poutiainen, Mr. Terry Forth and Mr. David Nelson of T.C.A.
Technologies
3rd place in Chariot Design - led by Karthika Muthuramu
3rd place for the Fashion Show - led by Ana Komparic
5th place for the Skit - led by Sinye Tang
Academic
1st place in Quaerite Summa - Rafael Krichevsky, Jenny Gu,
Ishita Petkar and Abigail Ferstman
1st in Intermediate Latin Derivatives - Leslie Newcombe
1st in Junior Greek Sight Translation - Amy Lu
1st in Classical Geography - Ali Damji
Trophy for Oral Mythology for the successes in all three levels
of the competition
Rafael Krichevsky won the John Bell Award and Overall
Academic Individual Award for placing 1st in 5 individual
academic events, on top of leading our Quarite Summa team to an
impressive victory and numerous other successes!
Soohyun Park won the intermediate Pentathalon trophy thanks
to her high combined scores in 5 academic contests.
Our banquet was graced with the wonderful Greek oratory of
Jeremy Zung, who won 1st place in the Oral Reading as well as
1st places in 3 other academic challenges.
Special thanks to Mr. Eugene DiSante and the Classics Society
Exec members: Hanna Retallack, Jeremy Zung, Ana Komparic, Sinye
Tang, Christine Farquharson and Rebecca Moscoe-DiFelice for
their hard work and dedication.
UTS student Math achievements
May 12, 2008
International Tournament of the Towns
Melody Guan, Tina Yuan, Grace Luo and Jason Cheung, all in
F2, took up the challenge to compete in the International
Tournament of the Towns held recently at U of T. They all earned
certificates of achievement - quite an honor for students in
Grade 8.
The Tournament of the Towns is a democratic and open math
contest, where all students are admitted to any level of
competition, separated by two levels of difficulty. Some
problems of Level A are as challenging as problems of the
International Mathematical Olympiad! Students are challenge to
use their imagination and fresh ideas to solve Tournament of the
Towns problems.
Math Kangaroo
UTS students also took part in the Math Kangaroo, another
international math tournament hosted at U of T. Congratulations
to UTS' medalists:
Gold
Melody Gu
Jonathan Zung
Silver
Gordon Bae
Adrian Wu
Bronze
Rehman Lakhani
Soohyun Park
Sherwin Wong
Andy Xia
Norman Yau
Students with top results will have an opportunity to
participate in one of the Summer International Math Kangaroo
camps organized every year in sites across Europe.
Math Kangaroo problems also challenges students solve
problems using creativity, logical thinking or a different
perspective.
Pascal, Cayley and Fermat Contests
UTS is the Canadian Team Champion for the Pascal Contest! Our
team consists of the three students with highest scores: Jimmy
He , Richard Liu and Sheldon Tung. All three students had
perfect scores on this year's contest! This trio of contests is
hosted by the University of Waterloo’s Centre for Mathematics
Education and Computing.
UTS Bialystok Debate Tournament a resounding success
April 23, 2008
Nearly 100 debaters, volunteers and judges turned out for Bialystok Debate
Tournament, the culminating event of the 2008 Debate Society season. Students
debated both sides of the resolution “This House would boycott the Beijing
Olympicsâ€, then debated one impromptu round of the resolution “This house
believes that to win is better than to play by the rulesâ€. Judges were treated
to excellent arguments on both sides of these resolutions; so much so that the
debate bubbled over into lunch, which was graciously supported by a donation
from UTS Parents’ Association.
The Debating Executives and their Advisors would like to sincerely thank
everyone for their support and participation in this annual event.
Congratulations to the award winners, which were presented by UTS alumna
Lauren Bialystok ’98 herself:
Junior Division
Top Debater Fern Ramoutar
Runners Up Rein Otsason
Adam Robarts
Top Teams
1 Fern Ramoutar and Adam Robarts
2 Rein Otsason and Andres Salgado-Bierman
3 Adarsh Gupta and Michael Lemanski
Senior Division
Top Debater Jim Robson
Runners Up Lujia Lin
Mark Krass
Top Teams
1 Terrence Chin and Jim Robson
2 Laurence Batmazian and Mark Krass
3 Charles Grandfield and Samuel Levy
UTS wins Reach for the Top Metros
April 23, 2008
Despite stiff competition, the Senior Reach for the Top team
came in first in the Metro Toronto League for the second year in
a row! The team will now go on to represent Toronto at the Reach
for the Top Provincial tournament which will be televised this
coming September on TVO. Watch for more details in the fall!
Congratulations to UTS’ phenomenal group of polymaths:
Jake Brockman
Jenny Gu
Rafael Krichevsky
Lujia Lin
Sacha Mangerel
Nick Stark
UTS students sweep the top spots at the Concours
Oratoire
March 25, 2008
Twelve UTS students competed at the Concours Oratoire for
Independent schools on Saturday, March 1, at Havergal, with
eight taking the top spots:
1st place: Jordan Sugarman, Benot Cyrenne, Sacha Mangere;
2nd place: Veronica Anissimova, Khalid Esmail , Hannah Kopinski, Nicola Yang,
Mihai Chelaru-Centea.
Special mention goes out to our remaining participants who all had great
performances:
Roderic Chan, Michael Lemanski, Alisa Ugodnikov, and Tasha Stansbury.
UTS’ first place winners will go on to the Concours Oratoire Provincial at
Glendon College on May 10.
The Concours is a French public speaking contest for Independent Schools,
from grades 7 to 12. Congratulations to all UTS’ enthusiastic participants, who
worked very hard and presented speeches on varied topics with poise and flair.
Flicitations et bonne chance at the Concours Provincial on May 10!
UTS Debating News
March 25, 2008
UTS has a strong performance at the Bilingual Debate
at Brebeuf College
Sima Atri, Benoit Cyrenne, Lujia Lin, and Rameez Sewani
dazzled the judges at the Bilingual Debating Regional Qualifier
at Brebeuf College on Tuesday, March 4. They all did UTS proud,
with Rameez and Lujia placing second and third, respectively, in
individual rankings. In team rankings, Lujia and Sima placed
second, while Benoit and Rameez came third, qualifying all four
debaters for the Provincials on March 28-30.
Flicitations and good luck at the provincials!
UTS students go to Canadian Jr. High School Debate Championships
Rein Otsason and Andres Salgado-Bierman earned an invitation to the
Canadian Junior High School Debate Championships as a result of their first
place ranking in the Grade 6 - 8 Division of the Ontario Jr. High School
Championships held on Feb. 23. UTS sent a total of 9 debaters to this
tournament. Rein, Andres, Melody Guan and Jeannie Xu all finished in
the top ten for their division. Best of luck to Rein and Andres
at the Nationals in Newfoundland, May 8 - 12.
UTS students qualify for Ontario High School Debate Championships
Alexandra Aliferis and Jake Brockman teamed up to take first place in the
Metro West division of the Richmond Hill Regional Qualifier on Februdary 23.
They accepted an invitation to compete in the Ontario High School Debate
Championships to be held later this month. Eleanor Vaughan and Rameez Sewani
came first and 6th in individual speaker points but were nudged out of a
spot in the Provincials because of a lower win-loss record.
Michael Lemanski wins Great Canadian Geography Challenge
school championship
March 25, 2008
Congratulations to Michael Lemanski for winning the Great
Canadian Geo Challenge school championship. Una Jefferson
finished 2nd and Markus Stahl finished 3rd out of over 300 UTS
students! The Great Canadian Geo Challenge is Canada’s largest
geography competition, challenging students from grades 4-10.
Michael has now qualified for the Provincial championships on
April 12. Should Michael win the Provincial championship,
he has the chance to move to the Nationals and possibly
represent Canada at the National Geographic International
Championship.
Senior Play a “bloody†success
March 25, 2008
Cast Members of DraculaAfter 5 months of rehearsals
and a challenging production week schedule, the cast and
crew of this year's Senior Play,
Dracula, Nightmare of the Dead, presented 3 very
successful shows to enthusiastic audiences Thursday,
February 28 to Saturday, March 1. Friday's crowd honoured
the production with a standing ovation. Ms. Catherine Hannon
wants to congratulate the cast, crew and student volunteers
on a superb effort and thank all the staff, students,
parents and friends who came out to the shows.
UTS receives two honours at the Sears Drama Festival
March 25, 2008
The results are in from the Sears Drama Festival, and two
UTS students were awarded for their efforts in their production
of the original play Liminality at the Festival on Thursday,
February 21.
Emma Healey received the Award of Excellence for Playwriting, the highest
level award granted to students at the festival. Emma wrote Liminality, which
was commissioned in 2005 by the Paprika Youth Theatre Festival at the Tarragon.
It was presented at the Summerworks Youth Theatre reading series.
Actor Jennifer Tse received an Award of Merit for her performance.
Congratulations to both of them - well deserved!
The Sears Drama Festival is an annual provincial drama competition which
brings together 10,000 students from over 300 schools.
UTS brings down the house at Sears Drama Festival
March 3, 2008
UTS students had a brilliant performance at the Sears Drama
Festival on Thursday, February 21. The Festival is an annual
provincial drama competition which brings together 10,000
students from over 300 schools.
UTS students performed Liminality, written by Emma Healey.
The play was commissioned in 2005 by the Paprika Youth Theatre
Festival at the Tarragon and was presented at the Summerworks
Youth Theatre reading series.
UTS’s actors had all their lines down and the audience
laughing and applauding with delight. Director Jordan Sugarman,
along with the cast and and crew, have been working hard since
October and their efforts certainly paid off. Actors Samir
Kulkarni, Mical Klip and Jennifer Tse all
offered stellar performances that brought depth and maturity to
their characters well beyond their ages. Grant Oyston
and Tudor Manole worked very hard to make sure the technical
elements, from sound to lighting, were on cue.
The cast, crew, Mr. David Cope and Ms Julie Stoyka thank everyone for
their support, particularly the UTS classmates who came to watch the
performance.
Stay tuned for the results of the competition!
UTS students represent the world at the Secondary
Schools’ United Nations Symposium
December 18, 2007
Twenty-four M4-S6 students participated in Secondary Schools'
United Nations Symposium (SSUNS) in Montreal from November 15 to
19. SSUNS is a simulation of real UN bodies and some
multilateral and national bodies that are outside the UN system.
It is Canada's premier high school conference, bringing together
over 1000 students from around the globe.
UTS’ s students were spread out in 20 different simulations,
ranging from disarmament, climate change, tourism, peacebuilding,
international labour, reinventing government, counterterrorism,
HIV/AIDS, OPEC, journalism, and a variety of historical
conflicts. All of the students carried themselves with a high
degree of maturity and enthusiasm, and displayed a solid
understanding of the complex issues they were discussing. In the
closing ceremonies, a number of UTS delegates were honoured for
their contributions:
Mark Krass - SSUNS Scholarship and Pierre
Elliot Trudeau Award for Diplomatic Finesse
Benoit Cyrenne - Nellie McClung Award for
Advocacy
Jake Brockman - Pierre Elliot Trudeau Award for
Diplomatic Finesse
Alexandra Aliferis - Pierre Elliot Trudeau
Award for Diplomatic Finesse
Khalid Esmail - Edward R. Murrow Award for
Journalistic Integrity
Ali Damji - Honourable mention
Laurence Batmazian - Honourable Mention
UTS students participate in the North American Debate
Championship
November 8, 2007
UTS was capably represented by Alexandra Aliferis and Jake
Brockman at the 3rd annual North American Debate Championships
in Calgary the weekend of October 20. UTS placed 25th overall
out of a total 56 teams from across Canada and Germany.
Alexandra ranked 21st out of 112 debaters and Jake with a
rank of 28th out of 112 debaters, where he was only two points
behind Alexandra in the individual standings. They both did an
excellent job, sustaining the intense level of debate throughout
six long rounds.
UTS sweeps the Partners in Research essay contest
October 25, 2007
Three UTS students took three of four winning spots in the
Partners in Research essay contest. This year’ s topic was
genetics, and students were asked to answer the following
questions: What are your views on genetic testing? Is the human
genome project worthwhile? Should human cloning be allowed?
Cindy Zhu won for her essay The Opting-Out System: A
Solution to Our Donor Organ Shortage Problem.
Ana Komparic won for her essay Drawing the Line: Ethical
Issues Surrounding the Use of Embryonic Stem Cells.
Gordon Bae won for his essay Regenerative Medicine:
Miracle or Monster? This is Gordon’ s second consecutive
winning year. Last year, he won first place for his essay
Genetic Testing: Advance in Science or Ethical Dilemma.
Each received a certificate of merit and a $250 prize. They
were each presented their awards at a banquet hosted by Partners
in Research and the Banting Research Foundation on Wednesday,
October 17.
Partners in Research is a Canadian charity, founded in 1988,
dedicated to educating young people across the country about
biomedical health research.
Eleanor Vaughan takes top spot at the St. Clements
Impromptu Debate Tournament
October 11, 2007
Congratulations to Eleanor Vaughan who won the top
individual speaker honors at the St. Clements Impromptu Debate
Tournament on Saturday, September 29.
UTS debaters Mark Krass, Fern Ramoutar, and Nida Noorani also
had excellent rounds. Seasoned UTS debaters Jake Brockman and
Sima Atri attended as judges and took opposing sides in the show
debate on the resolution that Canada is more like a truck than a
sports car. They provided a very entertaining example of how
debating is done!
UTS students named AP National Scholars
September 24, 2007
Congratulations to the following five UTS students who
received the Canadian AP National Scholars designation for 2007:
Riley Brandt, Kate Gerster, Kent Huynh, Young Kim, and Lujia
Lin.
The AP National Scholar designation is awarded to students in
Canada who receive an average grade of at least 4 out of 5 on
all AP Exams taken, and grades of 4 or higher on five or more of
these exams. This year 203 Canadian AP National Scholars were
awarded, 23 in Ontario. The Ontario students will be honoured at
a reception for them and their families and teachers hosted by
CAPSON (the Council of AP Schools in Ontario) which will take
place on Thursday, November 22.
Judith Ma wins Michael Smith Science Challenge Contest
June 4, 2007
Congratulations to Judith Ma for placing first in Ontario and
fourth in Canada in the 2007 Michael Smith Science Challenge.
The Challenge is a national science competition for Grade 10
students or younger which emphasizes logical thinking. It is
named in honour of UBC's Nobel Prize Winner Dr. Michael Smith,
and is sponsored by the UBC Faculty of Science and NSERC
PromoScience. 538 students wrote the examination nationally.
This year the top score was 48 out of 60, and Judith obtained
43. She was followed closely by Victor Poon and Jimmy Xie who
both had 43, tying for second in the province and fifth in
Canada. Of the 13 UTS students who wrote the contest, seven
finished in the top 10% of the country including Laurence
Batmazian, Jenny Gu, Amy Lu and Laurence Ying.
UTS launches sustainability initiative
October 9, 2007
On September 26, the UTS community launched its year-long
sustainability initiative by coming together to confront an
environmental crisis unprecedented in scale and urgency: climate
change. The morning featured a special assembly, where Anne
Parker, one of Al Gore's Canadian presenters ran the
Inconvenient Truth workshop for F2-S6 students. That afternoon,
the student executive of the Social Issues Council ran an open
forum where students brainstormed proactive measures that our
community can take to reduce its ecological footprint. It was an
enormously productive session, and UTS looks forward to a host
of student-led initiatives to engage staff, students and parents
on this issue in the year ahead.
UTS’ s sustainability initiative is one of six developed to
further UTS’ s aim of fostering social responsibility and global
citizenship in its community. Each academic year a different
theme will be explored through special activities and
presentations: Human Rights, Global Village, Creativity,
Community/Leadership, Health, and Sustainability.
2006-07 Student Achievements
2005-06 Student Achievements
