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Ohio and California High School Students
Snag Top YES Honors
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The Young Epidemiology Scholars Competition was held last month in Washington, D.C., where $50,000 college scholarships were awarded to each of the two first-place winners. Alexander Chernyakhovsky, 17, a junior at William Mason High School in Mason, Ohio, and Amrita Sehgal, 18, a senior at Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, Calif., were selected from 60 regional finalists in Washington and more than 560 submissions nationwide to take top honors. In total, the YES Competition, which is sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and administered by the College Board, awarded nearly $500,000 in scholarships this year.
Each YES competitor develops a research question and hypothesis about a health issue that concerns a group or groups of people and then conducts research to analyze the subject and suggest potential ways to improve the problem based on the analysis.
Chernyakhovsky’s project explored the patterns of avian influenza viruses (known as H5N1) in people, using computer simulation to predict the next areas of infection and the timelines for outbreaks. Inspired by the 2006 outbreak of bird flu, Chernyakhovsky intended his study to create forecasts for possible application by the World Health Organization in selecting the three strains of influenza to include in the annual flu vaccine. Using the Ohio Supercomputer Center to run his simulations, Chernyakhovsky determined the routes by which the viruses are likely to spread by including such data as the migration patterns of various birds.
For her study, Sehgal hypothesized that teenagers weren’t getting enough calcium in their diets and might be putting themselves at risk for osteoporosis later in life. Through her research, Sehgal found that only 38 percent of teenagers in her study — 20 percent of girls and 52 percent of boys — consumed the recommended daily allowance of calcium, and this amount decreased as they got older. In an effort to prevent future osteoporosis, Sehgal recommended increased health education touting the benefits of consuming calcium.
"The YES Competition is designed to encourage students to explore careers in public health and epidemiology, but we know it does much more than that," said College Board President Gaston Caperton. "Alexander and Amrita addressed national and global health issues, and we congratulate them. We look forward to seeing the outcomes of their hard work in the future."
In addition to the $50,000 scholarships and a Washington, D.C., awards ceremony, both Chernyakhovsky and Sehgal were recognized in the most public of forums — the 7,400-square-foot screen on the Reuters building in Times Square.
For more information about the YES Competition, visit the program’s Web site.
Another research competition administered by the College Board is the annual Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology, which is funded by the Siemens Foundation. This competition offers students an opportunity to achieve national recognition for science research projects that they complete in high school and a chance to win a $100,000 college scholarship. The deadline for entering this year’s competition is Oct. 1, with winners announced in December. To learn more about the Siemens Competition, visit the foundation's Web site or e-mail us at spro@collegeboard.org.
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