Students Recognized for Creativity and Innovation

Milton Fisher Scholarship for Innovation and Creativity Given to 8; Honorable Mention to 16

Next Deadline for Applications April 12, 2010

New Haven, CT (October 1, 2009) - 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 $136,000 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 $8000 in scholarships was awarded to 16 high school students receiving honorable mention.

A large number of extraordinary applications were received this year - nearly five times as many as in the past. 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 most impact in the community. More scholarships and honorable mentions were awarded this year than any previous year.

The winners were recognized for projects involving science, the arts, and social action; all attended public high schools in New York and Connecticut.  

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 of funds the winners of the four-year scholarship receive each year. High school juniors and seniors and college freshmen from Connecticut and the New York metropolitan area are eligible to apply. The application deadline for 2010 is April 12th; applications and a complete set of guidelines can be downloaded at www.rbffoundation.org or by calling The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven at (203) 777-2386.

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.  
 
For more information about The Community Foundation visit www.cfgnh.org.            

2009 Winners

Daniel Boccato (Yonkers High School, Yonkers, NY)
Recognizing that his community lacked a venue in which students could engage each other--as well as artists, parents and educators--in dialogue on creativity and the arts, Daniel created the ARENAgallery in Yonkers High School. Using his experience as an immigrant to the U.S., Daniel created portraits of himself and of his peers,  and invited other teens to express themselves through  media including oil paintings, linoleum prints and video productions that have formed the core of a series of successful exhibitions  of student art organized around intriguing themes such as “Beautiful Audacity.” The gallery embodies the idea that Art can be a mechanism for social change--in Daniel’s words, “posing new problems, urging us to question the status quo and even ourselves.” He currently attends Cooper Union School of Art.

Irina Denisenko (Staten Island Technical High School, Staten Island, NY)
Irina was troubled by the fact that when patients are being treated for spinal cord injury,
painful and expensive surgery is commonly the only option offered to treat the damage suffered by otherwise-healthy areas of the spine adjacent to the injury. She knew that researchers had met with little success when they tried to stimulate nerve action through the use static magnetic fields. But they had not explored the effectiveness of oscillating and pulsed magnetic fields. After extensive library research, Irina devised and conducted an experiment at the College of Staten Island’s neuroscience lab that demonstrated the potential of oscillating and pulsed magnetic fields to successfully stimulate sciatic nerves.  Conclusions from her research have inspired other researchers to continue to explore the possibilities of repairing damaged nerves without surgical intervention. Irina currently attends the University of Pennsylvania and plans to major in Life Sciences and Management.

Victor M. Flores Jr. (Uniondale High School, Uniondale, NY)
Disturbed  by the impact of pesticides on the environment and on the human health,  Victor chose to explore the properties of a natural alternative to chemical pesticides: bio-pesticides known as plant elicitors, which can activate hormonal pathways in plants.   While the use of chemical pesticides has been associated with problems including brain cancer, leukemia, birth defects and diabetes, the use of plant elicitors as a form of pest control has no side effects on humans. Victor conducted experiments that demonstrated not only that plant elicitors were effective in protecting pea plants against pea aphids, but also that they increased the plants’ rate of growth. His work has attracted the interest of professionals working in this field. He currently attends Harvard College.

Christina Yvonne Johnson (Renaissance High School, Bronx, NY)
Christina looked around her northeast Bronx neighborhood and realized that she was far from alone in having a weight problem: obesity was almost an epidemic among young people in her community, where parks were unsafe, and where the kind of outdoor activities that helped keep young people fit in other places were fraught with too many dangers to pursue. Christina addressed her own health issues and those of young people in her community by founding “Get Active, Get Healthy.” “Get Active, Get Healthy” addresses childhood obesity through a comprehensive set of prevention initiatives pursued in collaboration with Federal, State and local public agencies and the food industry. It creatively uses the Wii game, aerobics classes, bowling, etc. to combine fitness, exercise, good nutrition and fun.  The program has coordinated a successful campaign to heighten awareness of Childhood Obesity, and to give the community tools to combat it.  It has helped make Christina, and young people in her community, more healthy and fit. She currently attends Penn State University and plans to major in Biology and minor in Theater.

Alexandra Michele Larsen (Stuyvesant High School,  New York,  NY ) was aware of the fact that early diagnosis of autism could make a huge difference in the effectiveness of various treatments and in the long-term cost of a person’s care; but she also knew that general nature of the symptoms made early diagnoses extremely difficult.  Using an MEG (magnetoencephalography) machine, Alexandra found that some specific brain activity in subjects who had already been diagnosed as autistic was not present in subjects who did not have autism. Her research opens up possibilities for diagnosing autism much earlier than has been possible in the past.  Since early intervention dramatically improves the quality of life for an autistic person and his or her family and has the potential to significantly reduce the annual $35 billion cost for care of people with autism in the U.S.,   her findings have far-reaching implications She currently attends Johns Hopkins University and plans to major in Public Health with a concentration in Neurology.

Olivia Rose Mahler-Haug (Branford High School, Branford, CT) was excited to have the chance to teach a pottery class for children at the Eli Whitney Museum, but was stumped by what to do about the fact that it normally took much more than one week (the duration of the course) to design, craft, and fire pots. Olivia met this challenge by creating an innovative one-week “micropottery” class and portable clay studio that   condensed the process of making pottery from theme to finished earthenware into  tasks that could be completed in a week, with time left over for her to teach her young charges not only the craft of pottery-making, but also what pottery can reveal about different cultures. Her pupils left her course with a sense of the various forms and functions of the most iconic ceramics and vessels around the world, from celadon Chinese teapots, to carved English tiles to Native American etched pinch pots--and got to take home the miniature ceramics they had designed themselves

Tiara Alexis Marshall (Brentwood High School, Brentwood, NY) Tiara knew that oil contamination posed tremendous problems for the water supply in the developing world--that the water supply in villages in Ecuador, for example, was still contaminated by oil from spills in the 1960s. But what if bacteria with the ability to digest oil could be enlisted to get rid of the oil in a community’s water supply? Tiara, who plans to pursue an education in environmental science, was the leader of a team of Brentwood High School students who explored the possibility of creating a cost-effective filtration system using a biofilm membrane to eliminate oil and other contaminants in water. Funded by the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams Initiative, which gives grants to invent technological solutions to real-world problems, the team collaborated with staff of the SUNY Stony Brook Garcia Laboratory to develop a biofilm and a pump housing unit as a prototype. If the pump proves successful when it is tested in Ecuador, Tiara and her colleagues plan to market it at cost to other communities plagued by oil-contaminated water supplies.  

Nicholas James Wasko (Joel Barlow High School, Redding, CT) loved drama, but the stage in his high school auditorium was so rundown as to be unsafe. To raise money for capital improvements to the Joel Barlow High School’s deteriorating performing arts theater, Nicholas founded an improv comedy troupe, Troupe du Jour, which was so successful that it raised not only the $15,000 needed for his school to purchase new curtains, a new lighting system, and a new stage floor, but an additional $30,000 as well (from sponsors and fans in the community)  that it donated to  Hurricane Katrina-related  rebuilding efforts, the local food pantry, and other charitable organizations. Nicholas currently attends the University of Connecticut and plans to major in Neuroscience.

2009 Honorable Mentions

Jeremy Trungdzu Bui (Enfield High School, Enfield, CT)
After visiting his ancestral home of Phan-Rang in Vietnam, Jeremy saw a need to help impoverished children in the village gain greater access to education. Moved to action, he created the Viet-Sun Foundation with his brothers to provide academic scholarships for children in the village. His work involved building relationships with the families of Phan-Rang and with communities in the U.S. Through events, such as a sporting tournament and walk-a-thon, he successfully raised funds across the nation and increased awareness about the lack of educational opportunities for children in poorer nations. He currently attends the University of Connecticut and plans to major in Accounting or Finance.

Christopher Marquies Daniels  (James Hillhouse High School, New Haven, CT)
How do you give the students who make up a tremendously diverse student body a sense of pride in their school and themselves? That’s the challenge Chris took on when he had the opportunity to design and paint murals at Hillhouse High School in New Haven, CT as part of an Art Club project. Themed “I Am,” Chris’s distinctive murals celebrate the diversity of the student population and the uniqueness of every student, while projecting an inspiring spirit of hope. He currently attends Paier College of Art and plans to major in graphic design.

Kasey Ross Glass (West Hill High School, Stamford, CT)
Kasey’s response to the dearth of opportunities in her community for teenagers to engage in meaningful community service while building self-esteem, was co-founding the Happy Club for Teens , an organization that  helped  her peers engage in activities that  were both constructive and personally enriching. Members orchestrated food drives, raised funds for animal welfare, visited senior citizen centers, volunteered at drug rehabilitation residential facilities, and planted a Memorial Garden to the fallen soldiers of the Iraq War. She currently attends the University of Connecticut and plans to major in Psychology and Languages.

 Mackenzie Eileen Goodrich (Bristol Eastern High School, Bristol, CT)
Although organizations in her community provided lunch and dinner to people in need, the hungry were on their own when it came to breakfast. To help fill this gap, Mackenzie created Mack’s Morning Meal at a local soup kitchen. Drawing on her years of volunteer experience in gathering food for food pantries and homeless shelters, Mackenzie organized local grocers, religious institutions, nonprofits and supportive community members to provide an additional meal for the hungry. In between breakfasts, she planned menus, solicited donations, and picked up food from various vendors. She currently attends College of the Holy Cross and plans to major in Pre-med and Biology.

Crystal Shannon Knox-Smith (Queens High School of Teaching, Laurelton, NY)
Concerned that young women in her community lacked the awareness and knowledge that could help them avoid abusive relationships, Crystal   created the “NO DISRESPECT: abuse is not love” Domestic Violence Awareness patch program for the Senior Girl Scouting Gold Award. Crystal’s efforts involved collaboration with state and national organizations; the innovative and constructive patch program she developed has the potential to be replicated on the national level, where it would reinforce other initiatives designed to prevent    domestic violence. She currently attends Penn State University and plans to major in Education.

Amalie M. Kwassman (Edward R. Murrow High School, Brooklyn, NY  ) When a stabbing occurred outside her school, Amalie Kwassman  found herself wondering whether her peers had sufficient outlets for their intense emotions other than physical violence.  Those doubts--combined with a love of words and expression she had had since third grade--led Amalie to found the   “Poetry With a Purpose” Club, an activity designed to promote the use of creative expression to foster social justice and to provide her peers with  an outlet for expressing their thoughts and feelings in a constructive manner at a particularly difficult time in their lives. She currently attends Smith College and plans to major in Creative Writing.

Gayatri Malhotra (Stuyvesant High School, New York, NY)
Although  the adult Indian American Community had a magazine that spoke to their needs, Gayatri found that no such publication existed for children. Gayatri created the VishwaKids magazine for children to further peace and tolerance through the understanding of the diverse cultures of India. Gayatri’s project not only serves as a way to educate and entertain Indian American children, it also helps different religious and ethnic groups of the Indian American community find common ground.  She currently attends Barnard College and plans to major in Biochemistry and French.  

Alexa Louise Muri (Lewis S. Mills, Burlington, CT)
The  abandoned two-hundred-year-old one-room school house in her town struck Alexa as a wasted opportunity. In cooperation with her local historical society, she turned it into a thriving and educational window on history. She initiated the renovation and secured assistance from Historical Society members and volunteers. And she developed a curriculum on colonial life to bring an important part of our nation’s history to life for grade school children. She currently attends the College of William & Mary and plans to major in International Business.

Tyler Samuel Nighswander (Hamden High School, Hamden, CT )
Tyler found that the conventional materials used to teach electronics to children were not sufficiently engaging the children he taught  at the Eli Whitney Museum, so he developed materials of his own. Working with another high school student and a college student, Tyler designed a paper schematic glued to fiber board with aluminum strips; he later supplied copper strips which enabled the children to place electrical components anywhere on the board, thereby constructing unique models. Tyler’s innovations made learning electronics much more fun for his students. They taught basic concepts and problem solving-skills and helped children experiment and apply those concepts to their own creations. He currently attends Carnegie Mellon University and plans to major in Computer Science.

Benjamin Kevin Nissan (Collegiate School, New York, NY)
While at a school assembly, Benjamin learned about the dangers of climate change from a former student who is an environmentalist and became determined to find new ways to reduce the environmental impact of human activity. One day, while looking up at the lights in school, he decided to tackle strategies for reducing his school’s energy consumption. After some detective work, he discovered that the school was wasting a lot of energy: old lighting fixtures provided the same amount of light all the time, whether or not sunlight was streaming in through the windows. Benjamin developed a plan to reduce energy waste through the use photosensors that dimmed the artificial light in a room according to the level of ambient light that was available. His work demonstrated that the energy used from lighting could be reduced by 80-90% in most rooms and informed the school’s Physical Plant and Finance Directors’ decision to implement a project to make the necessary modifications over three years. Benjamin’s work serves as a model for others to take an active role in addressing climate change and environmental issues. He currently attends Harvard College.

George Henry Ortega (Dalton High School, New York, NY)
George’s little brother never spent enough time brushing his teeth: the reasons to brush were too abstract to convince him to brush long enough to do the job. But what if he could get his little brother to view brushing as doing heroic battle against evil germs?     George transformed the abstract concept of a germ into a somewhat evil-looking cartoon-like character that he affixed to a home-made timer. The result was getting his brother   excited by the notion that if he brushed his teeth for two minutes, he could defeat evil germs like the one on his timer. George worked with the National Foundation for Entrepreneurs to develop his innovative creation into a product that can help children become early adopters of good oral hygiene, an important component  of overall health. His product is patent-pending. He currently attends Yale College and plans to major in English and Economics.

Stephanie Paola Peraffan (Forest Hills High School, Forest Hills, NY)
Stephanie knew that New York City had a Condom Availability Program that had the potential to reduce teen pregnancy and the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases among high school students in New York but students in her school were not taking advantage of it.  Stephanie worked with Miranda Rupchand to investigate why--and to develop a series of creative strategies to make students aware of the health resources available to them, and encourage them to use them. She currently attends Queensborough Community College.

Priya Gautam Ranade (East Lyme High School, East Lyme, CT)
Troubled  by the lack of screening guidelines for melanoma,  Priya developed an innovative preventive screening program to minimize melanoma deaths. The computer simulation model she developed has the potential of reducing the toll taken by melanoma, the only cancer for which incidence and death rate continues to increase. She currently attends the University of Connecticut and plans to major in Pre-med and Biology.

Miranda Rupchand (Forest Hills High School, Forest Hills, NY)
Miranda knew that New York City had a Condom Availability Program that had the potential to reduce teen pregnancy and the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases among high school students in New York but students in her school were not taking advantage of it.  Miranda worked with Stephanie Perrafan to investigate why--and to develop a series of creative strategies to make students aware of the health resources available to them, and encourage them to use them.  She currently attends John Jay College and plans to major in Computer Science and Law.

Zak David Smolen (Staples High School, Westport, CT)
Zak was an avid fencer who needed more practice than he could rely on sparring partners to provide. He transformed a personal interest into a public benefit by using his knowledge of physics, golf balls and counter weights to invent an automated fencing practice target that his coach plans to have the fencing team use from now on. He currently attends Union College and plans to major in Electrical Engineering.

Michael Tom (Greenwich High School, Greenwich, CT)
Recognizing that people with the medical condition known as neurogenic bladder have great difficulty determining   when their bladders are full, Tom invented a tensiometer to measure tissue tension. Tom’s invention could be developed into an implantable device that that could send individuals a signal about bladder fullness when they needed it. It has the potential to improve the quality of life for millions of people who experience complications associated with neurogenic bladder, such as urinary incontinence, infections of the bladder and kidney stones. He currently attends Harvard College and plans to major in Physics.

Contact:
Tricia Caldwell
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