Take a minute to recognize the achievements of our students for the 2023-2024 school year!

  • Senior Spread - The Poolesville Pulse: Our student journalists have published their Senior Spread to celebrate the next steps of our Class of 2024.  You can follow the link to read the Class of 2024: Future Plans from The Poolesville Pulse.  Great work, Falcons, and congratulations to the Class of 2024!

  • Congratulations to Harshita Chinta, junior, for being awarded a $1,000 scholarship from the HOSA Future Health Professionals Organization. Thank you, Mr. Gordon, for your support of Harshita as her advisor.
  • Congratulations to Ava Milisits! Ava was recognized this past Sunday, May 19, at the NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner.
  • Congratulations to Emma Zou! Emma received an Award of Excellence from the National PTA Reflections arts program for her Music Composition titled, “A Life of Belladonna.” Emma will have artwork featured in the National PTA’s virtual exhibition and will receive a $200 Young Artist Scholarship.

  • Congratulations to Ms. Van Yuga and the Class of 2025 Junior Class Officers for a successful, fun, and memorable Prom event this past Friday.  All of our Falcons looked amazing, and it was a beautiful and incredible event, and your hard work produced this amazing success.  Congratulations and thank you!  Congratulations, as well, to our PTSA for their successful Post Prom full of games and LOTS of prizes.  

  • Congratulations and Thank You to our HERO Club for reminding us all to take a break from the high stakes testing of the last two weeks to dance and enjoy ourselves.  Please see this video to see how our HERO Club encouraged staff and students to “Move with Music” this past week.  Thank you, also, to all students and staff who participated and had fun!

  • Congratulations to the Falcons who competed in the 2024 DECA International Career Development Conference (ICDC).  The PHS chapter represented the largest ICDC attendance in school history and had the largest number of ICDC winners in school history.  Harsha Gandluri and Gautam Tangirala (Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making) were International Finalists based on their Top 20 finish.  International winners included Pranav Karthikeyan and Jason Liaw (7th place, Financial Services Team Decision Making), Eric Huang (9th place, Innovation Plan), and Sarthak Pal Mahajan (9th place, Principles of Finance).  There are over 200 teams for each competitive event, and each team competing was a finalist from their respective state or province.  You can review all ICDC winners at this link.  

  • Congratulations to the Falcons who participated in the PTA Reflections Arts program!  Catherine Aixinjueluo, Jillian Dove, Daniela Martinez, Vittal Rajagopalan, Trenton Woelfer, and Emma Zou will be honored on May 19 at the MCCPTA Reflections Awards Ceremony and Showcase.  

  • Congratulations to Lahari Bandaru and Daniel Mathew for being awarded National Merit $2,500 scholarships financed by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. They were selected from a pool of more than 15,000 finalists nationally.
  • Congratulations to Falcons Shreyas Kassam, Jacob Lee, Flavia Martinez, Lorraine Niaba, and Yash Pandit won the 2024 Glinsky Expo Award at the Conrad Challenge Innovation Summit. These students attended the event to present their innovative idea of how to extend the lifespans of basketball shoes with biodegradable shoe soles and demonstrate their solutions.
  • Congratulations to the following Humanities juniors for their amazing performance at the National History Day (NHD) state competition, and we wish you luck at the National competition:
    --Risha Manthini-Individual Performance-First Place
    --Grace Guo and Asher Lyons-Group Exhibit-First Place
    --Avery Chupka- Individual Exhibit--Second Place
    Three of our students also won Special Prizes:
    --Michael Fayer - Special Prize in Labor History
    --Ethan Chen and Olivia Ding - Special Prize-Women's History
    Additionally, Asher Lyons and Grace Guo have the honor of presenting their exhibit at the NHD Exhibit Showcase at the National Museum of American History On June 12th.

  • Congratulations to the PHS History Bowl Falcons who competed in Nationals this past weekend.  We had a record nine teams and 48 students compete in the competition.  Our Varsity A team consisted of Jacob Ergueta, Michael Fayer, Asher Lyons, Carl Olszar, and Andrew Sha and reached the playoff round, finishing 13th in the country.  In addition, Claire Barnsess won the Gold Medal in Psychology and the Silver Medal in Art History.  The following students also finished in the Top 10 of their respective competitions: Sayan Chandaroy, Michael Fayer, Jeff Hou, Ann Sha, and Annie Zhao.    

  • Congratulations to the Falcons who competed at the 2024 Maryland State Chess Championships!  The total scores of all who participated earned the school State Championship title for PHS and second place in the U1200 Section.  Jordan Go won the individual State Championship and will represent Maryland at the US Open Chess Tournament in July.  Abhijeet Ghodgaonkar, Jacob Lee, and Eddie Wu also all finished in the Top 10.   

  • Congratulations to Chloe Chang, Humanities sophomore, who has earned a  national position within Amnesty International USA as Student Activist Coordinator.  Chloe founded our school's amnesty chapter just last year as a freshman, and we are so proud of what she has accomplished in this short time.

  • Congratulations to one of our Seniors, Matthew Kalbacher!  Matthew runs his own YouTube channel that features his extensive knowledge of various locomotives.  In the coming weeks, Matthew will have the opportunity to physically operate a steam engine.  You can find his YouTube channel here.  His goal is to have 1,000 subscribers before he graduates at the end of this month, so I’m hopeful that our school community can help him reach his goal.  

  • Congratulations to Tanirika Choudhry for winning the Princeton Prize in Race Relations.  Tanirika and other honorees will be celebrated at the regional ceremony in Washington, D.C. this week.  

  • Congratulations to the following Poolesville High School students for winning the National Merit Corporate-Sponsored Scholarships. We are so proud of you.

    • Soumya P. Jailwala, Computer Science, Walgreen Co.
    • Aditya Lahiri, Bioinformatics, Astrazeneca Pharmaceuticals
    • Jasmine Q. Li, Engineering, Astrazeneca Pharmaceuticals
    • Milo A. Stammers, Mathematics, Astrazeneca Pharmaceuticals

  • Congratulations to Mr. Khetarpal and the Falcons involved in the House of Code (Congressional App Challenge).  These Falcons (Aditya Patil, Sienna Simms, and Karthik Vedula) had the opportunity to go to the U.S. Capitol to present their app LunaSim to fellow student attendees and meet Congressman Trone.  You can see the app featured on the official website. 

  • Congratulations to Mr. Hill, Shreyas Kasam, Jacob Lee, Flavia Martinez, Lorraine Niaba, and Yash Pandit.  This team of Falcons were selected as finalists in the Energy and Environment category of the Conrad Challenge, an international competition focused on STEP and entrepreneurship.  This team, named “uSole,” was selected from approximately 200 teams in their category.  The team will be traveling to the NASA Space Center in Houston this week for the Finals. 

  • Congratulations to Agneya Tharun, 11th grade, for representing the Sixth Congressional District of Maryland at The National STEM Festival this past Thursday (4/11).  His project was entitled Redefining Energy from the Sun: Thermoelectricity for a Sustainable Future. 

  • Congratulations to Jason Liaw, Class of 2025, for receiving a proclamation from the Montgomery County Council for his published book, Down to Business, along with his co-author, Finley Scurlock.  It is truly amazing to publish an entire book (especially at such a young age), and this proclamation was a much deserved acknowledgement of the dedication, innovation, and collaboration involved.  Congrats, Jason!

  • Congratulations to our State Champion History Bowl Team, which included Hanna Biedron, Jacob Ergueta, Austin Gallardo, Swarnarup Paria, Andrew Sha, and Annie Zhao!  In addition to our State Champion Varsity Team, our Junior Varsity A Team (Nick Cabrera, Jackson Hickman, Kirabo Payne, Tristan Reyes, and Beth Weld) went 7-0 and won the JV Division.  Nick Cabrera was the overall winner of the JV Bee, and Jackson Hickman qualified for Nationals.

  • Congratulations to our Falcons who won recognition at the MCPS Forensic League Awards this past week:

    • Laura Civillico won 3rd place in the Humor Category
    • Ishani Biswas, Laura Civillico, Olivia Ding, and Christopher Yeung won 3rd place in Readers’ Theater
    • Olivia Ding won 2nd place in the Serious Poetry Category
    • 6th place in the Overall Team Award

  • Congratulations to the Falcons who won first or second place to advance to the state round of National History Day:

    • Group Exhibit - 1st Place - Grace Guo and Asher Lyons
    • Group Exhibit - 2nd Place - Ethan Chen and Olivia Ding
    • Group Website - 1st Place - Alex Cornner and Alex Kijewski
    • Individual Exhibit - 1st Place - Claire Barness
    • Individual Performance - 1st Place - Michael Fayer
    • Individual Performance - 2nd Place - Risha Manthini
    • Individual Website - 1st Place - Lucia Reyes
    • Individual Website - 2nd Place - Avery Chupka
    • Papers - 1st Place - Megan Stallard
    • Papers - 2nd Place - Zoe Lee
  • Congratulations to Tate Stromgren, who presented to the IEEE Junior Engineering and Science Conference.  His presentation was on the “Design of a CubeSat to Test the Impact of Radiation on SSDs,” and he won the Karen Profet Best Presentation Award.

  • Congratulations to Daniel Mathew on being named a 2024 Recognized Carson Scholar!  Daniel was chosen as a Recognized Carson Scholar because his academic achievements and humanitarian efforts made him stand out as a leader.  Daniel will be honored in front of family, peers, and educators at the Carson Scholars Fund’s 28th Annual Maryland Awards Banquet in May. 

  • Congratulations to our Falcons who competed in the History Bowl Tournament.  PHS had 69 students participating in the competition, with 64 in the actual Bowl.  These Falcons set an all-time IAC National Record by having seven teams qualify for Nationals.  Congratulations to all of the students involved and best of luck at Nationals!

  • Congratulations to ninth grade Falcon Sydney Tamashasky for her award-winning short story, "A City Storm"! Sydney's narrative won 2nd place in the Bethesda Urban Partnership's 2024 Essay and Short Story Contest in the category of "High School Short Story"! Sydney and the other contest winners will be reciting their work at the Local Artists Showcase on March 15th in Bethesda.  Expect to see her story published on the Bethesda Urban Partnership's website in the weeks to come.

  • Congratulations to Laura Civillico, Rhia Basit, Ava Milisits,  and Kyna Owusu.  They were honored at a special evening session of the Maryland General Assembly in the Maryland State House on Monday, February 5.  These Falcons were recognized on the floors of the House of Delegates and State Senate and received formal citations.  Last year, Laura won a NATIONAL National History Day(NHD) Gold medal for her paper, “Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Frontier of Gender Roles in America.”  Rhia, Kyna, and Ava’s exhibit, “Andre Leon Talley’s Closet: The Frontier of Fashion,” was chosen for the NHD Student Exhibit Showcase at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History last June.

  • Congratulations to the PHS students who competed in the Maryland DECA State Competition.  We had 62 Falcons in this competition (with over 600 total participants), and 26 of them placed in the Top 3 in their events.  All Top 3 finishers qualify to compete at the International Career Development Conference (ICDC) in Anaheim, CA, in April.  Thank you to Mr. Foster for chaperoning our students and to Ms. Hunsicker-Blair for her leadership of this group as their staff sponsor.  Congratulations to all students involved and an additional congratulations to the international qualifiers:

    • 1st Place - Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making: Clara Park, Mehek Patnaik
    • 2nd Place - Buying and Merchandising Team Decision Making: Lemar Chehab, Azimullah Rifai
    • 2nd Place - Career Development Project: Guruprasath Jayaprakash, Yash Pandit
    • 2nd Place - Community Awareness Project: Lindsay Huang, Victoria Mo
    • 2nd Place - Financial Services Team Decision Making: Pranav Karthikeyan, Jason Liaw
    • 1st Place - Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research: Sachet Korada, Aileen Sharma
    • 1st Place - Independent Business Plan: Aaron Bhattachan, Jacob Lee, Bryan Yung
    • 1st Place - Innovation Plan: Eric Huang
    • 1st Place - International Business Plan: Zaheen Ahmed, Anwitha Kondragunta
    • 2nd Place - Marketing Communications Series: Grace Yeung
    • 2nd Place - Principles of Business Management and Administration: Ishaan Nanda
    • 1st Place - Principles of Finance: Sarthak Pal Mahajan
    • 3rd Place - Retail Merchandising Series: Krish Putta
    • 1st Place - Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making: Pankhuri Malayanil, Arav Giragani
    • 2nd Place - Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making: Harsha Gandluri, Gautam Tangirala
  • Congratulations to the seven Falcons who participated in the Green Inventors Challenge on January 29.  The Challenge featured two winning teams from Poolesville High School: Team Eurotracker and Team Twang.  Congratulations to all involved Falcons!

  • Congratulations to Abigail Hoy, Christopher Ramos, and Adriana Schulman!  These Falcons were all recognized at the Hispanic Heritage Foundation Youth Awards.  Abigail won Silver and Adriana won Bronze in the Green Sustainability Category, and Christopher won Bronze in the Engineering Category.  

  • Congratulations to the members of the Poolesville Model United Nations (UN) team for their wonderful results at the American University Model UN Conference.  The following Falcons won individual awards:

    • Mohammad Ashkar Ali - Honourable Mention in the Industrial Development Committee

    • Alessandra Bazzano-Zeldin - Honourable Mention in the Task Force Zimbabwe Committee

    • Ravi Iyer - Best Delegate and Diplomacy Award in the Disaster Relief Committee

    • Aarush Kandukoori - Honourable Mention in the Human Settlements Committee

    • Vibhi Maniar - Diplomacy Award in the Development Bank Committee

    • Shreyas Sasanakoti - Honourable Mention in the Food and Agricultural Committee

  • Congratulations to the PHS students who submitted entries to the National PTA Reflections Arts Programs.  We had 11 students submit entries: eight advanced to Counties and six have advanced to the state competition.  MCCPTA received 164 pieces of student artwork across 23 MCPS schools. In the high school division, up to three student entries per arts category may advance to the Free State PTA for judging at the state level.  Each student entry was evaluated on how closely a piece related to this year's theme "I am Hopeful Because.. ." based on the artwork itself and the artist statement; how creative and original the piece was in its conception of the theme and its presentation; and the level of skill demonstrated in the basic principles/techniques of the arts area.  Please see the complete list of entries below:

    • Catherine Aixinjueluo - Visual Arts - Honorable Mention 
    • Vaishnavi Banda - Dance Choreography
    • Pranavi Bhamidipati - Literature 
    • Jillian Dove - Music Composition - Award of Excellence
    • Kareena Gupta - Music Composition
    • Diya Kamalabharathy - Music Composition 
    • Daniela Martinez - Dance Choreography - Award of Merit
    • Kirabo Payne - Photography 
    • Vittal Rajagopalan - Film Production - Award of Excellence 
    • Trenton Woelfer - Music Composition - Honorable Mention
    • Emma Zou - Music Composition - Award of Merit

  • Mock Trial Victory - After the first two trials were canceled, our plaintiff side was victorious over Northwood (who was 2-0).  It was a decisive win by 17 points which is the highest margin of victory of any team this season.  If you see any of the following students, please congratulate them. 

    •  Shalav Pawar (11)

    • Laura Civillico (10)

    • Sydney Short (12)

    • Brooke Roberts (11)

    • Mihika Lall (11)

    • Saahas Yaddula (11) 

    • Jaden Mekede (9)

  • QuestBridge Scholarship - Congratulations to Daniel Lee, Poolesville High School, Johns Hopkins University for being named one of thirteen MCPS seniors from nine high schools to receive a four-year, full-tuition scholarship from QuestBridge. 

  • Poolesville High School has earned the College Board's AP® Computer Science Female Diversity Award for expanding young women’s access to AP Computer Science Principles (CSP). This award acknowledges 1,127 schools for their work toward equal gender representation during the 2022-23 school year. PHS is one of only 834 schools to be recognized for achieving this important result in AP CSP. This honor recognizes the outstanding work PHS is doing to engage more female students in computer science.

  • Congratulations to SMCS seniors, Daniel Mathew and Milo Stammers who were named Top 300 Scholars in the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation's oldest and most prestigious science and math competition for high school seniors. They will each receive a scholarship and the school will also receive a financial reward to support STEM-related activities for each scholar. They will find out on January 24th if they are chosen as one of the 40 Finalists who receive additional scholarships with the chance to win the First-Place scholarship.

  • Congratulations to the PHS Model UN team who competed in Winston Churchill High School's Annual Model UN Conference WinMUNC IV this weekend 12/15 and 12/16, and was awarded the Outstanding Small Delegation award with their performance at the conference. Additionally, Vibhi Maniar, Sydney Saeed, Neil Panchal, and Mohammad Taariq Ashkar Ali all won verbal commendation awards, while Ravi Iyer won an honorable mention award.

  • Congratulations to the 43 PHS students who competed in the Maryland DECA Region 1 Competition. Congratulations to all students who were involved, and an additional congratulations to all the award winners. 

    • 1st Place- Financial Services Team Decision Making Event: Pranav Karthikeyan, Jason Liaw 
    • 1st Place- Marketing Team Decision Making Event: Clara Park, Mehek Patnaik 
    • Honorable Mention- Business Marketing Finance Exam: Eric Huang 
    • Honorable Mention- Business Marketing Finance Exam: Tanisha Sharma

  • Congratulations to the PHS It’s Academic Team on their recent win, propelling their return to the show in the playoffs! The taping of the show aired this weekend and can be seen in its entirety by following this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTWuvkfmcnc. Go Falcons! 

  • Congratulations to seniors Brianna Akuamoah-Boateng and Sophia Deng, Team WaterBuffalos, for being chosen as finalists for Project Green Challenge.  Project Green Challenge is a month-long sustainability challenge focused on social and environmental justice, as well as environmental advocacy.  Brianna is currently representing Team WaterBuffalos in the finals in San Francisco. 

  • Congratulations to the students involved in the PHS Model UN for their leadership and success being recognized through a feature in the Voice of America.  We had several students interviewed, and I am proud of their positive representation of Poolesville High School.  You can view the story at this link.  Thank you, also, to Ms. Snavely for her guidance and support of these students.

  • Congratulations to Brianna, Brookly, Jacob, Bridget, and Victor.  These student leaders presented to local and state officials during the Fair Access breakfast at Poolesville Day.  Their discussion was insightful, compassionate, and authentic in their advocacy for future generations of Poolesville Falcons.  

  • Congratulations to our Falcons who are National Merit Semifinalists!  Please follow the link for the official MCPS Press Release.  The students who were recognized were:

    • Vaishnavi Banda  
    • Lahari Bandaru  
    • Neel Bhattacharyya  
    • Nathaniel C. Chen  
    • Daisy B. Dastrup  
    • Patrick T. Foley  
    • Anil T. Ghosh  
    • Ronan G. Graff  
    • Leavy Hu  
    • Soumya P. Jailwala  
    • Aditya Lahiri  
    • Amy A. Le
    • Jasmine Q. Li  
    • Daniel Mathew  
    • Elizabeth C. Newton  
    • Aidan H. Paul  
    • Nora E. Rudmann  
    • Andrew W. Sha  
    • Milo A. Stammers  
    • Emma Y. Zou 

  • Congratulations to Raymond Lim, violinist, for his acceptance into the NSO Youth Fellowship Program for this school year.  

  • Poolesville High School was recognized as the Number 1 public school in Maryland by the US News and World Report.  You can read more here.  Congratulations to all of our students, staff, and families whose hard work and support makes this recognition possible. 

  • Poolesville High School was recognized as the Number 1 public school in Maryland by Niche.com.  You can read more here.  Congratulations to all of our students, staff, and families whose hard work and support makes this recognition possible. 

Staff Success

  • Congratulations to Ms. Gomer and all Falcons for advancing in the National History Day competition.  Read more details in the linked article: Several MCPS Secondary Students Advance to National History Day Competition.  
  • Congratulations to Ms. Grubb!  She was featured in the latest NFHS Women in Leadership Newsletter.  You can read about Ms. Grubb and other featured leaders at the following link.  
  • Congratulations to Ms. Stephanie Gomer for winning the Maryland History Day High School Teacher of the Year, as nominated by your students.  You can read the feature article about Ms. Gomer and the Middle School Teacher of the Year using the included link.  Ms. Gomer will be honored at the Maryland History Day Awards Ceremony.  This is truly a remarkable honor and is incredibly deserved!

  • Congratulations to the following Poolesville High School staff who achieved National Board Certification in December of 2023! 

    • Mr. Kanach
    • Mr. Lee
    • Mr. Young   

    Congratulations to each of you for achieving the National Board Certification!