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Meghan Brady-Fuchsman Staff Writer |
Congratulations to Sophomore Jacqueline Balestrieri on being named a Semifinalist in the Siemens Competition! The Siemens Competition in Math, Science, and Technology is a prestigious competition for high school students, and this year, 2500 research projects were submitted with 419 of them being chosen to be receive recognition as Semifinalists.
As a Sophomore, Jacqueline was required to complete her research in a team. She worked with Sophomores Tong Ye from Half Hollow Hills High School East and Dylan Makani from the North Shore Hebrew Academy. Their project, “The Mitigation of Titanium Dioxide Stress and Characterization of Brassinosteroid Insensitive-1 Gene in Lemna minor”, identified a previously undiscovered gene in an aquatic plant called duckweed. They then
used this plant to determine the negative effects toxic titanium dioxide nanoparticles have.
Their research was conducted at the summer program at the Nassau Community College iResearch Institute, a program in its first year, under the guidance of Dr. Serena McCalla, Director of Science Research at Jericho High School, and Dr. Terrence Bissoondial-Director of Science Research at Hewlett High School. Six projects were completed at iResearch this summer, but Jacqueline’s was the only one selected to move onto Semifinals. In response to her time at iResearch, Jacqueline says, “iResearch was an enriching experience which allowed me to enhance my research skills by developing a study which allowed me to apply my newly-learned skills over the summer.”
Of the nine students from St. Anthony’s who entered the Siemens Competition this year, Jacqueline was the only one named a semifinalist. Mr. Paul Paino, St. Anthony’s Science Research Director, is very proud of Jacqueline’s success. “In all my years here at St. Anthony’s these were the best nine papers we’ve entered. I was happy to see iResearch, in its first year, produced a competitive paper and that Jacqueline enjoyed it. She has a great foundation in research for the fu
ture.” This was also the first year St. Anthony’s had Sophomores completing summer research, and so she is the first Sophomore at St. Anthony’s to receive recognition from a national science competition.
This summer, Jacqueline will continue to do research in a laboratory. She is undecided on exactly where and what she would like to research. She hopes to turn her love for science and her obvious talent in the subject into a career as a medical research physician.
