Student News
Welcome to the North Allegheny School District Student News—Here, we celebrate the achievements, creativity, and spirit of NA’s bright minds. Stay connected with the latest stories and accomplishments showcasing the pride, passion, and potential of our student community. Our Tigers are committed to excellence!


Eighteen members of the North Allegheny speech & debate team turned in an impressive performance at the 2026 NSDA Speech & Debate National Championships, the world's largest academic competition. North Allegheny was recognized as a Debate School of Honor and was one of only two Pennsylvania schools to win a School Recognition Award.

More than 6,000 students competed over a week in Richmond, Virginia, and four North Allegheny juniors placed in the top 14! Junior Ashish Raajiv Sai placed 10th in Extemporaneous Debate out of a field of more than 1,000 students, the best performance in that event in program history. Juniors Rishon Ghosh and Moki Annavajhula placed 13th in Public Forum out of more than 400 teams and earned an automatic bid to compete in the 2027 National Championships. Junior Sanjeev Arora was recognized as one of the Top 13 Lincoln-Douglas Speakers out of a field of more than 300 competitors. In addition, Ashish and his partner Aniketh Ghosh advanced to elimination rounds in Policy Debate, and Sanjeev and senior Anish Ramachandruni also advanced to elimination rounds in Extemporaneous Debate. The North Allegheny speech & debate team is coached by Dominic Moore.

Twelve students from North Allegheny Senior High School earned medals in this spring’s Grand Concours, the National French Contest. Organized by the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF), the contest evaluates students’ reading, listening, and cultural understanding. Awards are presented according to the following criteria:
- Gold award: students in the 95th percentile and above
- Silver award: students in the 94th through the 85th percentile
- Bronze award: students in the 84th through the 75th percentile
The award-winning NA students pictured are (left to right):
- Sama Sattout (level 3—Gold award)
- Eddie Ma (level 5—Bronze award)
- Eric Peng (level 3—Bronze award)
- Ankit Pamula (level 3—Silver award)
- David Mao (level 3—Bronze award)
- Matt Choe (level 3—Silver award)
- Cedric Otey (level 3—Bronze award)
- Gael Martinez Vichique (level 3—Gold award)
- Mason Kuder (level 3—Gold award)
- Benjamin Du (level 3—Bronze award)
Not pictured: Sophie Yan (level 3—Bronze award) and Madelaine Mansfield (level 4—Bronze award)

Congratulations to the North Allegheny Senior High School students who participated in this year's National Spanish Examination and earned well-deserved recognition! Seven students received gold medals, 18 students received silver medals, and nine students received bronze medals for their outstanding performance. A list of medal winners is below:
GOLD:
Xingdi Shi
Aradhya Sircar
Sanjeev Arora
Paola Guerrero González
Shekina Saro
Gabriel Betancourt
Isabella Lin
SILVER:
Oliver Yokim
Casey Yang
Owen Lopresti
Caden Hoffman
Kaartic Muralidharan
Kavin Puri
Braxton Shieh
Aniketh Ghosh
Lila Sonaer
Nitin Aravindan
Rucheta Mahapatra
Jonas Koeske
Lily Saltmar
Faatima Tirmizi
Pedro Andrade
Stephanie Chen
Tatiana Morillo Vence
Rishon Ghosh
BRONZE:
Aayushi Vardhan
Anika Reddy
Grace Hazard
Aarav Madan
Francis Randiga
Serena Thomas
Ciaran Gill
Vijetha Gogineni
Natalie Ruiz

We are thrilled to congratulate the outstanding Spanish students at NAI who have demonstrated excellence on the 2026 National Spanish Exam (NSE), earning well-deserved recognition.

In this year’s competition, one perfect, 21 gold, 36 silver, and 28 bronze medals were secured, in addition to 63 honorable mentions. Earning a medal or an honorable mention on the National Spanish Exam (NSE) is a testament to our students' dedication and hard work.
The AATSP Exam is a program of the esteemed American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP). The NSE attracted over 83,000 student participants in 2026. Achieving gold, silver, or bronze status in the NSE opens doors for students to explore a variety of scholarship opportunities provided through the AATSP Exams program.
Sponsors of the exam are: Barbara Haller, Rose Mantella, and Adriana Perez. We extend our congratulations to all the students who participated in the competition.
Congratulations to these students and educators!
Level 1 Medals Awarded
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Level 2 Medals Awarded
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Twenty-four North Allegheny students in grades 9–12 delivered outstanding performances at the 2026 Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS) state competition, held at Penn State University. The students originally qualified for the state event following an exceptional showing at the regional competition in February.
At the state level, every North Allegheny participant received recognition for their work. Notably, three students achieved perfect scores: Aniketh Ghosh, Eric Peng, and Medha Thirumala.
Beyond their academic achievements, the students represented the North Allegheny community with professionalism, dedication, and exceptional peer support throughout the trip. Congratulations to all of our 2026 PJAS competitors!
Here is a full list of participants:
|
First Name |
Last Name |
Grade |
Award |
|
Karthikeya |
Chada |
10 |
1 |
|
David |
Cobbey |
12 |
1 |
|
Arnav |
Deokule |
10 |
1 |
|
Alexander |
Du |
11 |
1 |
|
Ali |
Ejaz Khan |
11 |
1 |
|
Aniketh |
Ghosh |
11 |
1 (perf) |
|
Aayush |
Iyer |
9 |
1 |
|
Shuchir |
Jain |
12 |
1 |
|
Vedika |
Kamble |
11 |
2 |
|
Junseo |
Lee |
11 |
1 |
|
Angelina |
Li |
11 |
1 |
|
David |
Mao |
11 |
1 |
|
Aayush |
Masurkar |
9 |
1 |
|
Aarush |
Muthukrishnan |
9 |
1 |
|
Eric |
Peng |
11 |
1 (perf) |
|
Arya |
Prasad |
11 |
1 |
|
Ayana |
Singh |
10 |
1 |
|
Ayush |
Srivastava |
11 |
1 |
|
Shivum |
Telang |
11 |
1 |
|
Medha |
Thirumala |
10 |
1 (perf) |
|
Aayushi |
Vardhan |
11 |
1 |
|
Isha |
Vyawahare |
11 |
2 |
|
Daniel |
Wang |
11 |
1 |
|
Casey |
Yang |
11 |
1 |

