Students Recognized for Creativity and Innovation

Contact: Tricia Caldwell
Communications Manager
Phone: 203-777-7090
E-mail:  tcaldwell@cfgnh.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   

Nearly $100,000 Awarded to 14 Students through Milton Fisher Scholarship for Innovation and Creativity

Next Deadline for Applications April 18, 2011

New Haven, CT (September 8, 2010) - The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the region’s largest grantmaker and charitable endowment, announces the winners of the Milton Fisher Scholarship for Innovation and Creativity. A total of $92,000 in college scholarships (payable over four years of college) was awarded this year to 8 high school students who came up with distinctive solutions to problems faced by their schools, communities, or families. In addition, a total of $3,000 in scholarships was awarded to 6 high school students receiving honorable mention.

Jacob (Jake) Ness at the Intel Science Fair. Jake is one of eight recipients of the Milton Fisher Scholarship for Creativity and Innovation this year. He developed a strain of pumpkins that is both resistant to powdery mildew and edible.

A large number of extraordinary applications were received this year.  While each application submitted for consideration highlighted a creative project, scholarships were awarded to the candidates who demonstrated the greatest innovation and whose projects had the greatest potential impact. 

The winners were recognized for projects involving science, the arts, and social action; all completed (or are currently enrolled in) high school in Connecticut or New York or will be attending (or are currently attending) a college in Connecticut or New York. 

The Milton Fisher Scholarship for Innovation and Creativity was established in 2003 at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven by the Reneé B. Fisher Foundation. This scholarship is not a traditional scholarship focused on rewarding academic achievement.  Its specific goal is to reward and encourage innovative and creative problem solving.  Financial need does not affect the judges' decision about winning projects, but it does determine the amount each winner of the four-year scholarship receives. High school juniors and seniors and college freshmen from Connecticut and the New York metropolitan area are eligible to apply, along with students from elsewhere who plan to attend colleges in the New York metropolitan area or Connecticut. The application deadline for 2011 is April 18th; applications and a complete of set of guidelines can be downloaded at www.rbffoundation.org or at The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s web site at www.cfgnh.org.

Milton Fisher, born and educated in New York City, was a Connecticut resident from 1960 until his death in 2001. He was an attorney and an investment banker who also taught a unique course for adults called "Applied Creativity" for over 25 years. His deep interest in the roots of creativity, and the many the exercises he developed to help people become more innovative and creative in their lives, also led him to write the book Intuition: How to Use it in your Life, which has been translated into several languages. Fisher also served on the boards of several public companies and wrote two books about Wall Street. 

2010 Winners

Emily (Leah) Kate Larson  (Sharon, MA)
Recognizing that observant young Jewish women found no publication that addressed people like themselves, Leah Larson created a magazine to fill that void.  Yaldah, the  magazine for young Jewish girls that she launched, not only fills a need by providing a publication for a group that had trouble seeing their own interests and values reflected in print previously--it also provides an creative outlet for expression for these young women.   Ms. Larson’s high school experience was a combination of the Bais Chomesh school in Toronto and homeschooling; after completing a year of study at the Beit Chana Seminary in Israel, she will attend Stern College of Business at New York University, where she will study business and entrepreneurial studies, English, and graphic design. 

Alexander Hanyu Lin  (Westerly, RI)
Distressed by the volume of electronic waste produced in his community, Alexander Lin  came up with some innovative ways of addressing the problem, while at the same time spreading information technology to places where it is greatly needed.  Whether he was initiating a computer recycling program in his community, refurbishing over 300 computers, and collecting large quantities of e-waste, or whether he was educating his community, working to successfully get e-waste legislation passed, and raising funds to create “A Green Bridge across the Digital Divide,” he has made a difference in both his own community and a number of other communities around the world.  His efforts have resulted in the creation of  computer centers in the USA, Sri Lanka, Cameroon, Mexico, Kenya and the Philippines that provide resources and opportunities of the internet to over 7000 individuals. Mr. Lin, who spent part of his high school career at the Westerly High School in Westerly, Rhode Island, is a graduate of the Williams School in New London, Connecticut. He will attend Stanford, where he plans to major in chemical engineering.

Manju Mukesh Malkani (Lyndhurst NJ)
Manju Malkani’s observations in a rural clinic in India made her aware of a more widespread problem that disturbed her: Indian teaching hospitals were not providing sorely-needed training in mental health to medical practitioners. To address this problem, she worked with experts in child psychiatry in the U.S. to develop a series of up-to-date, evidence-based medical lecture modules which are now being streamed to  teaching hospitals in India. Ms. Malkani, who is a graduate of Academies@Englewood, will attend Stern School of Business at New York University, where she plans to major in marketing.

Jacob Donald Ness (New Milford, CT)  
Avoiding herbicides and pesticides while growing edible and cost-effective crops is a key challenge faced by organic farmers everywhere.  Jacob Ness addressed this challenge as it pertains to edible pumpkins in the Northeast. Rather than simply accepting that were no edible pumpkin varieties that were resistant to powdery mildew, a bane of farmers across the Northeastern U.S., he decided to try to create one. His painstaking and inspired experiment allowed him to develop a strain of pumpkins that is both resistant to powdery mildew, and edible--an achievement that will have potentially important implications for organic farmers, making it much more economical for them  to grow an appealing vegetable without harming the environment. He is currently a junior at New Milford High School.

Lorissa Nguyen Pham  (Portland OR)
Since vitamin B12 is understood as coming from animal sources rather than plant sources,    B12  deficiencies are a well-known problem confronting both vegetarians and people in developing countries who eat little meat. Lorissa Pham undertook a creative experiment   to find a vegetable-based source of B12 to help address this problem.   Her preliminary success at developing just such a source in cabbage fermented with Lactobacillus offers intriguing possibilities for developing countries.  Ms. Pham, who is a graduate of Oregon Episcopal School, will attend Yale College, where she plans to double-major in biology and creative writing. 
 
Aayush H. Upadhyay (Miramar, FL)  
Most students with perfect scores on virtually any standardized test they took would be pleased with the  congratulations they would get from teachers and parents and would be resigned to the inevitable envy they would get  from  their peers. But Aayush Upadhyay’s response was different: he analyzed the test-taking skills and attitudes that helped him succeed on these tests, and developed a method for teaching them to his fellow students. His school’s principal confirms that the innovative strategies he taught his peers helped raise their test scores significantly. Mr. Upadhyay, who is a graduate of Somerset Academy in Pembroke Pines, Florida, will attend Yale College, where he plans to major in computer science.

Jourdan Brandt Urbach (Roslyn Heights, NY)   
As a talented and accomplished young musician, Jourdan Urbach  became aware of the unique ways in which music and medicine together could improve pain-management and healing. He used that insight to help empower other young musicians like himself to save lives through music.  “Concerts for a Cure,” sponsored by the philanthropic organization he created, “Children Helping Children,” has encouraged  young conservatory musicians  to hold fund-raising concerts  for a wide range of music therapy programs for children in major medical centers across the country. His efforts have raised millions for the fight against neurological diseases in children, funding innovative medical projects that change the way children are being healed in our hospitals. Mr. Urbach, a graduate of Roslyn High School, will attend Yale College, where he plans to major in neuropsychology and music.

Anna K. Wallant (Ridgefield, CT)  
Anna Wallant’s interest  in art therapy and the environment combined to prompt her to embark on a project that had positive implications for both.  Troubled by the fact that tremendous numbers of old crayons--which are not biodegradable--simply go to waste in her community, she launched a used-crayon drive and came up with an innovative and well-executed plan to recycle them.  She developed a method for melting the crayons down and molding them into new distinctive, multi-colored crayons which she   enveloped in wrappers bearing messages that encouraged creativity; she then packaged the appealing and functional new crayons in attractive, biodegradable, environment-friendly containers and distributed them to area art therapists. Ms. Wallant, who is a graduate of The Harvey School in Katonah, New York, will attend Pratt Institute, where she plans to major in art education and industrial design.

2010 Honorable Mentions

Heather Leask  (Bozrah, CT) conducted innovative and painstaking original research on how to fabricate devices with memristive properties, an important and promising area in electrical engineering. A graduate of Norwich Free Academy in Norwich, CT, she plans to major in chemical engineering.

Stephane E. Fouché (Chestnut Ridge, NY) addressed the challenges faced by other students who, like himself, grew up speaking a language other than English before immigrating to the U.S. by creating  One World Mentoring, a peer-mentoring and peer-tutoring  program designed to help ESL students in his school, Spring Valley High School in Spring Valley, New York. He will attend Harvard College, where he plans to major in international relations.  

Amber S. Moye (New Haven, CT) was troubled by the fact that young African American women in middle school in New Haven were being given little guidance as they made the transition to high school.  When she recognized that they would benefit greatly from being mentored by high school students who shared their background and appreciated the special challenges that they faced, she created a mentoring program geared to their particular needs. A graduate of James Hillhouse High School, Ms. Moye will be attending Howard University, where she plans to major in communications.

Alexander Epstein (New York, NY) addressed a range of problems faced by citizens of New Orlean’s Lower 9th Ward as they tried to rebuild their community by creating, with his peers, the New York 2 New Orleans Coalition. The organization’s efforts helped make it possible for some 800 students volunteers to help rebuild New Orleans.  He has extended his efforts to encourage students to become engaged in initiatives geared towards  sustainability, economic development, food justice, and youth leadership in the Philadelphia community surrounding the college he attends, Temple University, where he is majoring in sociology.

Dylan Jared Assael (Woodbury, NY) conducted original research regarding the relationship between picocyanobactria and silicon that might help chart a new approach for solving environmental challenges in the future. Given the key role that this organism plays in removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, his research could have important implications for the ways in which we understand the response of the oceans and atmosphere to global climate change. A graduate of Syosset High School, he will be attending Dartmouth College, where he plans to major in biology and environmental science.

Ishan Sinha (Orange, CT) conducted innovative research on the intersection between neuroscience and music. One project involved using music therapy to help a stroke victim regain speech. Another involved researching the ways in which music can impair driving skills--research which has been incorporated into the middle school curriculum in his town. A graduate of Amity High School in Woodbridge, he will be attending Yale University, where he plans to major in neuroscience and music.

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