Take a minute to recognize the achievements of our students for the 2023-2024 school year!

  • Congratulations to Agneya Tharun, 11th grade, for representing the Sixth Congressional District of Maryland at The National STEM Festival this past Thursday (4/11).  His project was entitled Redefining Energy from the Sun: Thermoelectricity for a Sustainable Future. 

  • Congratulations to Jason Liaw, Class of 2025, for receiving a proclamation from the Montgomery County Council for his published book, Down to Business, along with his co-author, Finley Scurlock.  It is truly amazing to publish an entire book (especially at such a young age), and this proclamation was a much deserved acknowledgement of the dedication, innovation, and collaboration involved.  Congrats, Jason!

  • Congratulations to our State Champion History Bowl Team, which included Hanna Biedron, Jacob Ergueta, Austin Gallardo, Swarnarup Paria, Andrew Sha, and Annie Zhao!  In addition to our State Champion Varsity Team, our Junior Varsity A Team (Nick Cabrera, Jackson Hickman, Kirabo Payne, Tristan Reyes, and Beth Weld) went 7-0 and won the JV Division.  Nick Cabrera was the overall winner of the JV Bee, and Jackson Hickman qualified for Nationals.

  • Congratulations to our Falcons who won recognition at the MCPS Forensic League Awards this past week:

    • Laura Civillico won 3rd place in the Humor Category
    • Ishani Biswas, Laura Civillico, Olivia Ding, and Christopher Yeung won 3rd place in Readers’ Theater
    • Olivia Ding won 2nd place in the Serious Poetry Category
    • 6th place in the Overall Team Award

  • Congratulations to the Falcons who won first or second place to advance to the state round of National History Day:

    • Group Exhibit - 1st Place - Grace Guo and Asher Lyons
    • Group Exhibit - 2nd Place - Ethan Chen and Olivia Ding
    • Group Website - 1st Place - Alex Cornner and Alex Kijewski
    • Individual Exhibit - 1st Place - Claire Barness
    • Individual Performance - 1st Place - Michael Fayer
    • Individual Performance - 2nd Place - Risha Manthini
    • Individual Website - 1st Place - Lucia Reyes
    • Individual Website - 2nd Place - Avery Chupka
    • Papers - 1st Place - Megan Stallard
    • Papers - 2nd Place - Zoe Lee
  • Congratulations to Tate Stromgren, who presented to the IEEE Junior Engineering and Science Conference.  His presentation was on the “Design of a CubeSat to Test the Impact of Radiation on SSDs,” and he won the Karen Profet Best Presentation Award.

  • Congratulations to Daniel Mathew on being named a 2024 Recognized Carson Scholar!  Daniel was chosen as a Recognized Carson Scholar because his academic achievements and humanitarian efforts made him stand out as a leader.  Daniel will be honored in front of family, peers, and educators at the Carson Scholars Fund’s 28th Annual Maryland Awards Banquet in May. 

  • Congratulations to our Falcons who competed in the History Bowl Tournament.  PHS had 69 students participating in the competition, with 64 in the actual Bowl.  These Falcons set an all-time IAC National Record by having seven teams qualify for Nationals.  Congratulations to all of the students involved and best of luck at Nationals!

  • Congratulations to ninth grade Falcon Sydney Tamashasky for her award-winning short story, "A City Storm"! Sydney's narrative won 2nd place in the Bethesda Urban Partnership's 2024 Essay and Short Story Contest in the category of "High School Short Story"! Sydney and the other contest winners will be reciting their work at the Local Artists Showcase on March 15th in Bethesda.  Expect to see her story published on the Bethesda Urban Partnership's website in the weeks to come.

  • Congratulations to Laura Civillico, Rhia Basit, Ava Milisits,  and Kyna Owusu.  They were honored at a special evening session of the Maryland General Assembly in the Maryland State House on Monday, February 5.  These Falcons were recognized on the floors of the House of Delegates and State Senate and received formal citations.  Last year, Laura won a NATIONAL National History Day(NHD) Gold medal for her paper, “Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Frontier of Gender Roles in America.”  Rhia, Kyna, and Ava’s exhibit, “Andre Leon Talley’s Closet: The Frontier of Fashion,” was chosen for the NHD Student Exhibit Showcase at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History last June.

  • Congratulations to the PHS students who competed in the Maryland DECA State Competition.  We had 62 Falcons in this competition (with over 600 total participants), and 26 of them placed in the Top 3 in their events.  All Top 3 finishers qualify to compete at the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in Anaheim, CA, in April.  Thank you to Mr. Foster for chaperoning our students and to Ms. Hunsicker-Blair for her leadership of this group as their staff sponsor.  Congratulations to all students involved and an additional congratulations to the international qualifiers:

    • 1st Place - Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making: Clara Park, Mehek Patnaik
    • 2nd Place - Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making: Lemar Chehab, Azimullah Rifai
    • 2nd Place - Career Development Project: Guruprasath Jayaprakash, Yash Pandit
    • 2nd Place - Community Awareness Project: Lindsay Huang, Victoria Mo
    • 2nd Place - Financial Services Team Decision Making: Pranav Karthikeyan, Jason Liaw
    • 1st Place - Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research: Sachet Korada, Aileen Sharma
    • 1st Place - Independent Business Plan: Aaron Bhattachan, Jacob Lee, Bryan Yung
    • 1st Place - Innovation Plan: Eric Huang
    • 1st Place - International Business Plan: Zaheen Ahmed, Anwitha Kondragunta
    • 2nd Place - Marketing Communications Series: Grace Yeung
    • 2nd Place - Principles of Business Management and Administration: Ishaan Nanda
    • 1st Place - Principles of Finance: Sarthak Pal Mahajan
    • 3rd Place - Retail Merchandising Series: Krish Putta
    • 1st Place - Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making: Pankhuri Malayanil, Arav Giragani
    • 2nd Place - Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making: Harsha Gandluri, Gautam Tangirala
  • Congratulations to the seven Falcons who participated in the Green Inventors Challenge on January 29.  The Challenge featured two winning teams from Poolesville High School: Team Eurotracker and Team Twang.  Congratulations to all involved Falcons!

  • Congratulations to Abigail Hoy, Christopher Ramos, and Adriana Schulman!  These Falcons were all recognized at the Hispanic Heritage Foundation Youth Awards.  Abigail won Silver and Adriana won Bronze in the Green Sustainability Category, and Christopher won Bronze in the Engineering Category.  

  • Congratulations to the members of the Poolesville Model United Nations (UN) team for their wonderful results at the American University Model UN Conference.  The following Falcons won individual awards:

    • Mohammad Ashkar Ali - Honourable Mention in the Industrial Development Committee

    • Alessandra Bazzano-Zeldin - Honourable Mention in the Task Force Zimbabwe Committee

    • Ravi Iyer - Best Delegate and Diplomacy Award in the Disaster Relief Committee

    • Aarush Kandukoori - Honourable Mention in the Human Settlements Committee

    • Vibhi Maniar - Diplomacy Award in the Development Bank Committee

    • Shreyas Sasanakoti - Honourable Mention in the Food and Agricultural Committee

  • Congratulations to the PHS students who submitted entries to the National PTA Reflections Arts Programs.  We had 11 students submit entries: eight advanced to Counties and six have advanced to the state competition.  MCCPTA received 164 pieces of student artwork across 23 MCPS schools. In the high school division, up to three student entries per arts category may advance to the Free State PTA for judging at the state level.  Each student entry was evaluated on how closely a piece related to this year's theme "I am Hopeful Because.. ." based on the artwork itself and the artist statement; how creative and original the piece was in its conception of the theme and its presentation; and the level of skill demonstrated in the basic principles/techniques of the arts area.  Please see the complete list of entries below:

    • Catherine Aixinjueluo - Visual Arts - Honorable Mention 
    • Vaishnavi Banda - Dance Choreography
    • Pranavi Bhamidipati - Literature 
    • Jillian Dove - Music Composition - Award of Excellence
    • Kareena Gupta - Music Composition
    • Diya Kamalabharathy - Music Composition 
    • Daniela Martinez - Dance Choreography - Award of Merit
    • Kirabo Payne - Photography 
    • Vittal Rajagopalan - Film Production - Award of Excellence 
    • Trenton Woelfer - Music Composition - Honorable Mention
    • Emma Zou - Music Composition - Award of Merit

  • Mock Trial Victory - After the first two trials were canceled, our plaintiff side was victorious over Northwood (who was 2-0).  It was a decisive win by 17 points which is the highest margin of victory of any team this season.  If you see any of the following students, please congratulate them. 

    •  Shalav Pawar (11)

    • Laura Civillico (10)

    • Sydney Short (12)

    • Brooke Roberts (11)

    • Mihika Lall (11)

    • Saahas Yaddula (11) 

    • Jaden Mekede (9)

  • QuestBridge Scholarship - Congratulations to Daniel Lee, Poolesville High School, Johns Hopkins University for being named one of thirteen MCPS seniors from nine high schools to receive a four-year, full-tuition scholarship from QuestBridge. 

  • Poolesville High School has earned the College Board's AP® Computer Science Female Diversity Award for expanding young women’s access to AP Computer Science Principles (CSP). This award acknowledges 1,127 schools for their work toward equal gender representation during the 2022-23 school year. PHS is one of only 834 schools to be recognized for achieving this important result in AP CSP. This honor recognizes the outstanding work PHS is doing to engage more female students in computer science.

  • Congratulations to SMCS seniors, Daniel Mathew and Milo Stammers who were named Top 300 Scholars in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation's oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors. They will each receive a scholarship and the school will also receive a financial reward to support STEM-related activities for each scholar. They will find out on January 24th if they are chosen as one of the 40 Finalists who receive additional scholarships with the chance to win the First-Place scholarship.

  • Congratulations to the PHS Model UN team who competed in Winston Churchill High School's Annual Model UN Conference WinMUNC IV this weekend 12/15 and 12/16, and was awarded the Outstanding Small Delegation award with their performance at the conference. Additionally, Vibhi Maniar, Sydney Saeed, Neil Panchal, and Mohammad Taariq Ashkar Ali all won verbal commendation awards, while Ravi Iyer won an honorable mention award.

  • Congratulations to the 43 PHS students who competed in the Maryland DECA Region 1 Competition. Congratulations to all students who were involved, and an additional congratulations to all the award winners. 

    • 1st Place- Financial Services Team Decision Making Event: Pranav Karthikeyan, Jason Liaw 
    • 1st Place- Marketing Team Decision Making Event: Clara Park, Mehek Patnaik 
    • Honorable Mention- Business Marketing Finance Exam: Eric Huang 
    • Honorable Mention- Business Marketing Finance Exam: Tanisha Sharma

  • Congratulations to the PHS It’s Academic Team on their recent win, propelling their return to the show in the playoffs! The taping of the show aired this weekend and can be seen in its entirety by following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTWuvkfmcnc. Go Falcons! 

  • Congratulations to seniors Brianna Akuamoah-Boateng and Sophia Deng, Team WaterBuffalos, for being chosen as finalists for Project Green Challenge.  Project Green Challenge is a month-long sustainability challenge focused on social and environmental justice, as well as environmental advocacy.  Brianna is currently representing Team WaterBuffalos in the finals in San Francisco. 

  • Congratulations to the students involved in the PHS Model UN for their leadership and success being recognized through a feature in the Voice of America.  We had several students interviewed, and I am proud of their positive representation of Poolesville High School.  You can view the story at this link.  Thank you, also, to Ms. Snavely for her guidance and support of these students.

  • Congratulations to Brianna, Brookly, Jacob, Bridget, and Victor.  These student leaders presented to local and state officials during the Fair Access breakfast at Poolesville Day.  Their discussion was insightful, compassionate, and authentic in their advocacy for future generations of Poolesville Falcons.  

  • Congratulations to our Falcons who are National Merit Semifinalists!  Please follow the link for the official MCPS Press Release.  The students who were recognized were:

    • Vaishnavi Banda  
    • Lahari Bandaru  
    • Neel Bhattacharyya  
    • Nathaniel C. Chen  
    • Daisy B. Dastrup  
    • Patrick T. Foley  
    • Anil T. Ghosh  
    • Ronan G. Graff  
    • Leavy Hu  
    • Soumya P. Jailwala  
    • Aditya Lahiri  
    • Amy A. Le
    • Jasmine Q. Li  
    • Daniel Mathew  
    • Elizabeth C. Newton  
    • Aidan H. Paul  
    • Nora E. Rudmann  
    • Andrew W. Sha  
    • Milo A. Stammers  
    • Emma Y. Zou 

  • Congratulations to Raymond Lim, violinist, for his acceptance into the NSO Youth Fellowship Program for this school year.  

  • Poolesville High School was recognized as the Number 1 public school in Maryland by the US News and World Report.  You can read more here.  Congratulations to all of our students, staff, and families whose hard work and support makes this recognition possible. 

  • Poolesville High School was recognized as the Number 1 public school in Maryland by Niche.com.  You can read more here.  Congratulations to all of our students, staff, and families whose hard work and support makes this recognition possible. 

Staff Success

  • Congratulations to the following Poolesville High School staff who achieved National Board Certification in December of 2023! 

    • Mr. Kanach
    • Mr. Lee
    • Mr. Young   

    Congratulations to each of you for achieving the National Board Certification! 

 

Click to see Super Student Successes for the 2022-2023, 2020-2021, 2019-2020, 2018-2019, 2017-2018, 2016-2017, 2015-2016, 2014-2015, 2013-2014, 2012-2013, 2011-2012 school years.