Archives

Review past accomplishments and awards of our SPARK alumni.

2020

International Science and Engineering Fair

Although no awards were given at the International Science and Engineering Fair for 2020, these SPARK finalists presented their abstracts: Sally Barksdale (2019), Yash Gulani (2019), Grace Littler (2019) and Rishi Misra (2018, 2019).

Other competitions

• Neha Sonthi (2019) and Sally Barksdale (2019) were named bronze winners for their projects at the Virtual Edition INSPO Research and Innovation Competition.
• The 2020 State Science and Engineering Fair of Florida was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. SPARK scholars Avani Bansal (2019), Sally Barksdale (2019), Ashton Body (2019), Skyler Demi (2019), Sarah Fraga (2019), Yash Gulani (2019), Stephanie Hernandez (2019), Ylliah Jin (2019), Grace Littler (2019), Rishi Misra (2018, 2019), Victoria Pham (2018, 2019), Neha Sonthi (2019), Aditi Verma (2019) and Amy Yan (2019) were invited as finalists.
• The Society for Science & the Public announced that Ashton Body (2019) was named a top 300 Scholar in the 79th Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation's oldest and most prestigious science and mathematics competition for high school seniors. Ashton received $2,000 and her school also received $2,000 to use toward STEM-related activities.
• Sally Barksdale (2019) placed first at the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS) at the University of Florida (UF) in January 2020. Sally presented her project to an audience of peers and a panel of UF researchers, who selected her as the top student speaker from Florida. Sally was invited to represent the state at the National JSHS in Virginia.
• An article in Devil's Advocate, the newspaper of Stanton College Preparatory School, highlighted the mentorship experience of Aditi Verma (2019) in collaboration with Mayo Clinic researcher Peter Storz, Ph.D.

2019

• Ashton Body (2019) placed third at the International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix and was awarded $1,000 for her project on targeted drug delivery for drug-resistant cancer. She also received a $3,000 special award from the Drug, Chemical and Associated Technologies Association (DCAT).

2018

• At the Northeast Florida Regional Science and Engineering Fair, Kavitha Vudatha (2017, 2018) placed first in the medicine and health category and received a special award for overall best project in the medicine and health category from the University of Florida College of Medicine.
• At the International Science and Engineering Fair, Devanik Biswas (2017) was the third-place grand award winner in the biomedical and health science category for his project on the blood-brain barrier.
• SPARK scholars from St. Johns County placed in regional, state and international science fairs.
• An article in Mayo Clinic's medical science blog Advancing the Science highlighted the research interests of Courtney Krider (2017, 2018).