Pennsylvania DECA prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality, and management. The NA DECA team recently competed in the State CDC in Hershey, Pa., with an unprecedented 44 NASD students qualifying for the DECA International Career Development Conference which will be held in Orlando in April. 

The NA DECA team of 118 students received a total of 46 medallions for top scores on their test scores and role-plays. Additionally: 

• 14 students received 1st Place

• 10 students received 2nd Place

• 10 students received 3rd Place 

• 6  students received 4th Place and

• 4 students received 5th Place

Our state officers, Amanda Hulver and William Sun, were both triple medallion and 1st Place award winners, as well as Adi Mallik. 

Collin Wang was elected as the District 2 Representative at the district conference and was sworn into office to serve for the 2023-2024 school year.

North Allegheny was recognized for meeting its membership goal and the District has the second-largest DECA chapter in the state.  

North Allegheny Senior High School students were recognized for their results from the National German Exam, which was administered in January.

NASH juniors completed the Level 3 exam, and the following students received awards:

• Gold Medal: Claire Fiedler
• Silver Medals: Dana Ochoa, Jayna Cole, Owen Den Uyl, Abby Behrend
• Bronze Medals: James Behrend, Siya Jain, Amanda Campos
• Achievement Recognition: Daniel Balderas

NASH seniors completed the Level 4 exam:

• Achievement Recognition: Grace Rowley

Gold medal winners can win a scholarship toward a study abroad program in Germany over the summer.

The National German Exam (NGE) is the official German language exam for high school students of German sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of German (AATG). For more information, visit: https://www.nge.aatg.org/

Twenty-two North Allegheny seniors were recognized as Finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program.

Approximately 15,000 students across the country were named Finalists and have the opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,250 National Merit Scholarships that will be offered this spring.

NASD 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program - Finalists

• Noor B. Ahmed
• Jacqueline J. Chalifoux
• Daksh Goyal
• Samhita Gudapati
• Amanda L. Hulver
• Kathryn P. Mi
• Tabo L. Mkandawire
• Maggie Y. Mu
• Vikram Nagarajan
• Victoria Nie
• Satvik Reddy Palagani
• Dahyun Park
• Naiya M. Patel
• Katharine Peng
• Rohan S. Reddy
• Himanshu Setya
• Anshul J. Shah
• Pradyun L. Solai
• William Sun
• Grace Y. Wang
• Daniel G. Zhang
• Ella C. Zimmer

The Write Stuff! Several NASD students received recognition in the Western PA Council of Teachers of English (WPCTE) Flash Fiction Contest. The WPCTE is a professional organization that provides shared learning experiences for teachers and engaging literature and writing events for students and is an affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

Students and staff from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Saint Vincent College determined the winners from more than 240 entries - double the amount from last year. Grand prize winners are recognized in each grade band and honorable mentions are selected based on the judges' scores. 

WPCTE Flash Fiction Contest Winners from NASD

• Grace Yang - “Art”
  • Honorable Mention, Grade 6
• Ellie Tang - “The Extinction of the French Stinks”
  • Honorable Mention, Grade 8
• Saniya Divekar - “The Consequences of Thoughts”
  • Honorable Mention, Grade 9
• Christian Gaertner - “Oh, Beauty of the Ocean”
  • Winner, Grade 12
• Sarah Whiteman - “A Single Violet”
  • Honorable Mention, Grade 10

During a virtual award ceremony on Tuesday, January 17, WPCTE will award virtual certificates to all winners and invite Grand Prize winners to read their entire story and Honorable Mention winners to read an excerpt or provide a summary of their writing.

For more information about the WPCTE Flash Fiction Contest, visit https://sites.google.com/view/wpcte.

North Allegheny students took first place in both the Varsity and Junior Varsity divisions of the Pennsylvania Knowledge Master Open (KMO). In the computer-based academic quizzes, students work as a team to correctly answer as many of the 110 questions as possible in 90 minutes. A team of NAI students competed in the JV division and won first place in Pennsylvania and second place nationally, while the NASH team won first place in the Varsity Division in Pennsylvania and second place nationally. 

North Allegheny students that participated include: 

• North Allegheny Intermediate High School 

  • Alayna Donnell

  • Sai Saharsh Gumudavelly

  • Odin Hsu

  • Geeth Kuna

  • Jason Liu

  • Sritej Padmanabhan

  • Omisa Shah

  • Samuel Xiao

  • James Xiao

  • Talon Xing

  • Leonardo Yu

  • Ray Zeng

  • Marcus Zhan

  • Ashnavi Ghosh

  • Idan Leshem

  • Neelansh Samanta

  • Dave Uh

  • Sarah  Whiteman

  • Ada Zhang

North Allegheny Senior High School 

• Max Feng

• Daniel Lu

• Vijay Arora

• Aneri Shethji

• Brooklyn Hollaway

• Lily Nguyen

• Angel Qu

• Iris Hong

On Monday, November 7, North Allegheny Middle Schools hosted a flag football tournament to raise money for the Heyward House. More than 120 girls from Carson, Ingomar, and Marshall Middle School took to the field while 8th grade boys served as coaches and cheerleaders. 

Students raised $1,490 for the Heyward House, which is dedicated to impacting the lives of today's youth. Proceeds from the concession stand benefited the MMS Make-A-Wish club. 

In between the games, the NA High School Flag Football Team and alumni were recognized. Additionally, Steely McBeam from the Pittsburgh Steelers was in attendance.

Tai Luangkesorn, a seventh-grade student at Marshall Middle School, received the 2022 Carnegie Science Award in the Student Junior Division. 

Established in 1997, Carnegie Science Awards have honored the accomplishments of more than 600 scientists, technologists, educators, business leaders, and organizations who are making a difference in Pittsburgh and beyond.

Winners are chosen by a committee of peers - both past awardees and industry leaders - who selected the most deserving innovators whose contributions have led to significant economic or societal benefit in western Pennsylvania.

For more information about the Carnegie Science Awards, visit https://carnegiesciencecenter.org/carnegie-science-awards.

The National Merit Scholarship Program announced that thirty North Allegheny Senior High School students received Letters of Commendation. Approximately 34,000 students throughout the nation have been recognized as Commended Students. Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 students who entered the 2023 competition by taking the 2021 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT). For more information about the National Merit Scholarship Program, visit www.nationalmerit.org.

NASD 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program - Commended Students

• Ishan Bansal
• Srivatsa N. Bellamkonda
• Ella L. Deeter
• Jupnoor S. Dhingra
• Nathaniel L. Faber
• Lina C. Fu
• Raj Ginde
• Harron J. Lee
• Owen G. Lubic
• Kevin S. Luo
• Ritvik Mahapatra
• Catherine M. Maldia
• Adi Shankara Mallik
• Kevin Mao
• Andrew P. Mclaughlin
• Arienne P. Pastor
• Benjamin A. Quint
• Neha Rajesh
• Kedar Rao
• Rajat Reddy
• Vincent M. Rotunno
• Aideen C. Scanga
• David Z. Shi
• Zach S. Stamper
• Audrey J. Starck
• Venkatesh Subramanyam
• Kiran Szymkowiak
• Heming Wang
• Matthew Wei
• Helen Y. Ye

North Allegheny School District was recognized with two honors from the National Speech & Debate Association for the 2021-2022 school year.

The District was honored as one of the Top 100 Schools in the nation, landing the 13th spot out of more than 3,000 schools. 

NASD Speech & Debate received 600 Strength Points. Strength points are calculated based on student and coach achievements. The Club Award is notable because it demonstrates outstanding commitment to teaching students essential life skills - including communication, research, listening, writing, and organization.

Based on the club’s rankings and strength points, the NA Speech & Debate team was designated as an official member of the PINNACLE CLUB for the year 2022. This is the most prestigious membership award the Association can bestow upon a school and is was awarded to NASD due to the number of students involved in the NASD Speech & Debate program and the degrees that they have earned through competition, leadership, and service.

For additional information, visit https://www.speechanddebate.org/news.

North Allegheny Family & Consumer Science students took home first place in the annual Salvation Army Runway RePurposed competition benefitting the Family Caring House on Thursday, October 6 at the Sheraton in Station Square. The winners of the competition were Trinity Fitzgerald (model) and Arianna Tegtmeier with a dress made from blue surgical gloves. Additional NASD participants included Julia Baldini (model) and Gabby Notaro with a dress made from playing cards, and Ellie Ortsey (model) and Tory Bennett with a design using newspapers.

In addition to the student design competition, local designers and boutiques are challenged to repurpose everyday items by turning them into wearable fashion. Runway RePurposed promotes the idea that everyone and everything deserves a second chance to be something great. For more information about Runway RePurposed, visit https://easternusa.salvationarmy.org/western-pennsylvania/runway-repurposed.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) and Pennsylvania State Police recognized Franklin Elementary student Ananya Sri Boddupalli in the 2022 School Bus Safety Poster Contest. Ananya, a first grader, finished second in the Kindergarten through 2nd grade age group.

The theme for this year’s contest – “1 Bus + 1 Driver = A Big Impact on Education” – reminds everyone of the important dynamic between students and their school bus drivers, who navigate commonwealth roadways daily to deliver students to school and home without incident.

This year’s winners were chosen from over 400 student entries from schools across Pennsylvania. The first-place entries will be moved on to the national competition, which will be judged at the end of this month.

Governor Tom Wolf has proclaimed October 17-21 School Bus Safety Week in Pennsylvania.

On Friday, October 7, North Allegheny School District will celebrate Homecoming with several activities at North Allegheny Senior High School. 

The evening will begin at 4:45 p.m. with food trucks in the NASH parking lot. At 5:40, the NA Tiger Marching Band will lead floats around the school twice. The theme of this year’s parade is “Around the World.” 

The North Allegheny Tiger Football team will take on the Mt. Lebanon Blue Devils with kickoff at 7:30 p.m. For more information to purchase tickets for the game, visit our https://athletics.northallegheny.org.

During halftime, the Homecoming Queen and King will be announced. Members of the senior class vying for the titles include: 

• Srivatsa (Nrisimha) Bellamkonda
• Michael Bistocchi
• Andrew Gabriel
• Rohan Gupta
• Siddarth Jayakrishnan
• Harron Lee
• Evan Lentz
• Ritvik Mahapatra
• Sam McDowell
• David Shi
• Julien Walker
• Gianna Capizzi
• Victoria Chen
• Caroline Curran
• Avery Hoffman
• Madeline Kasunich
• Karina Lin
• Cate Maldia
• Srinidhi Raghavan
• Samantha Smallwood
• Lamees Subeir
• Amsumai Yallalacheruvu

North Allegheny School District is pleased to announce that 22 students have been recognized as Semifinalists in the 68th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. 

Approximately 16,000 students across the country were named Semifinalists and have the opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,250 National Merit Scholarships worth approximately $28 million that will be offered next spring. For more information about the National Merit Scholarship program, visit https://www.nationalmerit.org.

2023 NASD National Merit Semifinalists

1. Noor Ahmed
2. Jacqueline Chalifoux
3. Daksh Goyal
4. Samhita Gudapati
5. Amanda Hulver
6. Kathryn Mi
7. Tabo Mkandawire
8. Maggie Mu
9. Vikram Nagarajan
10. Victoria Nie
11. Satvik Reddy Palagani
12. Dahyun Park
13. Naiya Patel
14. Katharine Peng
15. Rohan Reddy
16. Himanshu Setya
17. Anshul Shah
18. Pradyun Solai
19. William Sun
20. Grace Wang
21. Daniel Zhang
22. Ella Zimmer