News

Yang Qualifies for USAJMO

Earlier this year, a few dozen Pace students joined over 160,000 students worldwide in taking the American Math Competition (AMC) 10 and 12 tests. Based on those performances, three superstar students, sophomore Stephen Yang, junior David Fu and freshman Arnav Maddineni, advanced to the American Invitational Math Exam (AIME). Around 2-3% of students taking the AMC qualify for this second, much more difficult round of testing. Based on his combined scores on the AMC and the AIME, Yang has qualified for the third round of testing for tenth graders and below, called the USA Junior Math Olympiad (USAJMO). Only around 500 of the original 160,000 students qualify for this third round, and this is Stephen's second straight year doing so. Over the last three decades at Pace, only one other student has ever qualified for this test—and only three students in all of Georgia qualified for the third round last year.

Stephen will take the nine-hour, six-question USAJMO test over two days on March 21 and March 22—join us in wishing him best of luck and major congratulations on this accomplishment!

Model UN Makes Waves in Washington

Sixteen Upper School “MUNers” and three faculty sponsors joined 3,000+ delegates at Georgetown University's 60th North American Invitational Model UN (NAIMUN) conference from Feb. 16-19. Since January, Pace students have read, researched and written position papers representing the views of Indonesia or Uruguay on a wide range of topics from workers' rights and labor practices to urbanization of poverty and maternal health. What sets NAIMUN apart from typical models is that student committees represent real people, organizations and situations. Senior JD Foster portrayed the ecology group EarthFirst!, and sophomore Van Muller spoke as a feminist and “westernizer” on the Beijing University School Board in 1916. 

Delegates met with alumna Leah Favero '22 while participating in General Assembly committees with over 300 delegates, adjusting their plans and proposals as negotiations progressed, and relentlessly researching to evolve their arguments. Pace MUN celebrates the work of all the delegates and especially congratulates sophomore Claire Jiang, who was named Best Delegate in the World Health Organization, placing her among the top 40 of the 3000 delegates. Congratulations to all the participants!

An Emerging Visionary

Prudential Financial has announced its 2023 class of Prudential Emerging Visionaries, 25 exceptional young leaders from across the nation who are addressing the financial and societal challenges of a changing world—and junior Sidney Keys is among the winners. 

A recipient of the Societal Solutions for a Changing World Award, which highlights work that creates more equitable and sustainable communities, Keys was named an Emerging Visionary for his work founding Books N Bros, a book club that improves young Black men’s relationship with reading by amplifying African American stories and literature. Keys created the program to increase literacy among young men of color. His project curates boxes of books representing diverse perspectives that are shipped across the country monthly, along with hosting virtual and in-person meetups. The club is a safe space for young men of color to connect and grow a relationship with books together and serves more than 700 internationally.

Keys will receive a $5,000 award to help take his innovation to the next level, and he has been invited to attend an all-expenses-paid trip to Prudential’s Newark, N.J., headquarters for a three-day summit in April, where he will receive coaching, skills development and networking opportunities with Prudential employees and other young leaders.

“The goals of our Emerging Visionaries program reflect Prudential’s overarching purpose: to make lives better by solving the financial challenges of our changing world,” says Chairman and CEO Charles Lowrey. “We applaud all of our honorees for their commitment to improving the lives of others and creating inclusive and thriving communities.”

Knights Earn All-Region Basketball Honors

Three members of the varsity girls basketball team have been selected to the Region 5-AAAA All-Region Team. First Team honors went to Ryan Wrigley; Lawson Monroe received Second Team Recognition; and Kate Grice landed on the Third Team roster.

Sharman White was named Region 5-AAAA Coach of the Year, while Kyle Greene was All-Region Player of the Year. Eric Chatfield received First Team honors; LJ Moore was selected to the Second Team; and Third Team honors went to senior Kendall Evans.

Robotics Reaches State

It was a busy weekend celebrating the successes of the FIVE Pace robotics teams that made it to the Georgia FIRST LEGO League Robotics Tournament at Georgia Tech. Seventh-grade team Creative Currents received first place in Core Values; seventh-grade team Energy Explorers had a high robot score of 275; and eighth-grade team Positive Voltage earned fifth place with a high robot score of 255. Representing the Lower School, the fourth-grade team notched its best-ever robot run at 195 points. While they did not take home an award, they had a fantastic time—we are so proud of all of these Knights!

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