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Two Hawaii students – including a Big Island teen – have been recognized as among of the nation’s top achievers and are among 19 receiving a big check from the Davidson Institute.

Nolan Kamitaki, of Hilo, is captain of Waiakea High School’s math league team and member of the science bowl team. He wants to pursue a medical or science degree in college.

Hawaii’s other Davidson Fellow is Melody Lindsay, 17, of Honolulu.

Nolan Kamitaki

With mounting concern about U.S. competitiveness and low student achievement in relation to other countries, conventional wisdom leads many to believe that the great inventors, artists and innovators of the future will come from distant shores. 

However, 19 young people named as 2009 Davidson Fellows exemplify the extraordinary work that can be achieved by U.S. students who are given opportunities to excel.

From developing a technique that allows scientists to identify potential bone marrow donors in a fraction of the time and for six percent of the cost of traditional techniques, to researching methods of identifying low-energy paths for spacecraft, the accomplishments of the Davidson Fellows, who range in age from 13 to 17, are a testament to effective teaching and mentoring, supportive families and individual determination. 

Based on their achievements in the fields of science, technology, mathematics, music, literature, philosophy and “outside the box,” these 19 students will receive $50,000, $25,000 and $10,000 scholarships from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, a national nonprofit organization headquartered in Reno, Nev. that supports profoundly gifted youth.

“We are thrilled to recognize the 2009 Davidson Fellows not only for their incredible projects, but also for the journey they forged to reach this point,” said Bob Davidson, co-founder of the Davidson Institute. “Each year the breadth and depth of Fellows’ accomplishments overwhelm us. With nurturing, gifted students will be among those who will solve the world’s most vexing problems, now and in the future.”

The 2009 Davidson Fellows have accomplished important work in a variety of subjects, such as:

* Designing computer simulations to determine how various patterns affect an epidemic’s spread across a social network;

* Researching a molecular mechanism showed to influence breast cancer cell proliferation and migration;

* Celebrating mankind’s best achievements through music;

* Creating a literary portfolio exploring different facets of distance in writing; and

* Seeking to make learning a side effect of fun by developing the interactive Elementeo Chemistry Card Game.

Unfortunately, not all gifted students get the support they need according to the Fordham Institute’s study, “High Achieving Students in the Era of NCLB.” The findings show that top pupils have “languished” academically. 

In addition, a national teacher survey found that while most teachers believe all students deserve equal attention, advanced pupils are a lower priority in their schools, receiving dramatically less attention than low-achievers.

“Our goal is to not have any student left behind,” said Jan Davidson, Ph.D., co-founder of the Davidson Institute. “We applaud the tenacity of these and other profoundly gifted children, who often take it upon themselves to gather the resources they need to succeed.”

2009 Davidson Fellow Laureates – $50,000 Scholarships

* Melody Lindsay, 17, Honolulu, Hawaii; Harping Around the World: Cultural Leadership for the 21st Century

* Nicole Rhodes, 17, Vancouver, Wash.; The Dictionary of Distance

* Eric Sherman, 15, Ephrata, Pa.; Computer Analysis of the HLA Histocompatibility Complex: Identification of Bone Marrow Donor Matches

2009 Davidson Fellows – $25,000 Scholarships

* Erika DeBenedictis, 17, Albuquerque, N.M.; Space Mission Design

* Nolan Kamitaki, 17, Hilo, Hawaii; Programming a Network Approach to Contain the Spread of Epidemic

* Jason Karelis, 17, East Setauket, N.Y.; Mechanistic Studies of MenD, a Novel Drug Target for Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

* Amy Levine, 17, Gaithersburg, Md.; Grayscale Unraveled

* Y. Dana Neugut, Teaneck, N.J.; A Study of Arsenic Metabolism & Renal Function in an Arsenic-Exposed Population in Bangladesh

* Allison Ross, 16, Mercer Island, Wash.; African and Western Heroes’ Journeys in Literature: An Exemplication

* Anshul Samar, 15, Cupertino, Calif.; Igniting Interest in Chemistry with Elementeo Chemistry Card Game

* Roman Stolyarov, 17, Addison, Texas; Fabrication and Characterization of an All-Glass Visible Omnidirectional Dielectric Mirror

* Doreen Xu, 16, Indianapolis, Ind.; The Roots of Evil

* Sarina Zhang, 13, San Diego, Calif.; Reaching Out to the World with the Magic of Music

2009 Davidson Fellows – $10,000 Scholarships

* Connie Kim-Sheng, 17, La Crescenta, Calif.; Inspired by Beauty: Piano Masterworks

* Prithwis Mukhopadhyay, 16, Woodbury, Minn.; A Common Food Additive Induces Cell Migration and Neoplastic Phenotype by Decreasing ASB Activity

* Aditya Palepu, 17, Oakton, Va.; A Heterogeneous Mixture Model for Unsupervised Pattern Classification

* Rahul Pandey, 17, Rochester, Mich.; A Microwave Metamaterial Lens with Negative Index of Refraction

* Fiona Wood, 17, North Haven, Conn.; Biophysically Realistic Computational Models of Temporal Encoding in Cortex

* Darren Zhu, 17, Winston-Salem, N.C.; Synthesis & Characterization of Self-Assembled Monolayers of Isocyanides on Ferromagnetic Thin Films

For more information on the Davidson Institute, or to learn more about the 2009 Davidson Fellows, visit www.DavidsonFellows.org.

Kelson Lau and Jordan Olive are developing technology that will be implemented on NASA's Lunar Micro Rover. (Photo courtesy of the Governor's Office)

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While Americans across the country celebrated the 40th anniversary of man’s first walk on the moon this week, two Hawaii students are participating in a NASA summer internship program, where they are developing technology that will be used on the Lunar Micro Rover.

Kelson Lau, a recent Waiakea High School graduate and current University of Hawaii at Manoa student, and Jordan Olive from the University of Hawaii at Hilo, are participating in the NASA Robotics Academy, a NASA multi-center, 10-week residential summer internship for students specifically interested in robotics.  

Both were participants in Waiakea High School’s award-winning student robotics program.

Lau, who was presented with the Governor’s Innovation Award in 2008, is working on the Solid-State Cooling System for the Lunar Micro Rover to test a method of cooling the rover’s CPU and other sensitive electronics such as the motor controller in the harsh lunar environment.

Olive is working on a dust deflection device, and its effectiveness in space, developing circuit boards that will control and regulate power onboard the lunar micro rover, and designing a “hot plate” that will test the rover for space readiness.

“My participation in the Waiakea High School Robotics Program has easily been the best thing that has ever happened to me.  I not only gained many priceless memories, but met amazing mentors and people, made new friends, gained skills, and had amazing opportunities opened for me,” Lau said. 

“I believe that my participation in robotics has given me the skills and confidence needed to participate in the Robotics Academy Internship at NASA and contribute to the program.”

Olive also expressed his appreciation for the skills gained by participating in student robotics programs. 

“Hawaii [is] doing something right! As a newly graduated senior last July, I was very intimidated to join the team of scientists and engineers working on the Lunar Micro Rover at NASA Ames Research Center,” he said. “The experience gained from Waiakea High School’s Robotics and Hawaii Space Grant funded fellowship projects gave me enough ‘know how knowledge’  to actually come up with a device (electrodynamics dust shield) that will actually be implemented on the Lunar Micro Rover. Robotics in Hawaii is no little thing.”

Robotics is a critical component of the Lingle-Aiona Administration’s Hawaii Innovation Initiative because it engages students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education. 

The competition also fosters students’ teamwork, communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills that will better prepare them to enter the work force.

For more information about student robotics programs, visit www.robotics.hawaii.gov

Learn more about NASA summer internships and the Hawaii Space Grant Consortium fellowship at www.spacegrant.hawaii.edu

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Panaewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens are getting a little TLC.

East Hawaii Kiwanis Club, Mayor Billy Kenoi, and Key Club, Kiwins, and Builders Club members from Hilo High, Hilo Intermediate, Waiakea High and Waiakea Intermediate schools plan a community service project Monday, Feb. 16 at Panaewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens.  

More than 100 volunteers will glove-up President’s Day for the volunteer community service landscaping project. Dan Connolly of Santa Clara, Calif., Kiwanis International’s District Governor representing California, Nevada and Hawaii, will chip in, too.  

Kiwanis Club members, including Kenoi, and the sponsored youth volunteers will be digging, planting, fertilizing, weeding and doing other chores on zoo grounds from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. A luncheon in the zoo pavilion follows. 

The Kiwanis Club and its sponsored youth clubs have helped the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo since 2001 when club volunteers erected the building that houses the petting zoo, a project that won the Governor’s Kilohana Award for volunteerism. The club has returned three to four times a year to help landscape and maintain the zoo’s grounds.  

The 12-acre Panaewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens, said to be the only tropical rainforest zoo in the U.S., is located off Highway 11 between Hilo and Keaau.

— Find out more:

Panaewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens: www.hilozoo.com

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Five top science students from Hawaii and Samoa – including Nolan Kamitaki of Waiakea High School – have won all-expenses-paid trips to the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Chosen for the best experimental research papers in regional competition at the recent Pacific Symposium for Science and Sustainability in Honolulu were:

* First place: Lucia Mocz, a senior at Mililani High, won a $2,000 scholarship to the college of her choice. Her teacher, Namthip Sitachitta, also will receive a trip to the national event.

* Second place: Nolan Kamitaki, Waiakea High junior, who received a $1,500 scholarship to the college of his choice.

* Third place: Samuel Meleisea, senior at Tafuna high School, Samoa. He received a $1,000 scholarship.

* Fourth and fifth place: Carolynn Kitamura, senior, and Alyssa Fujimoto, junior, both from Kamehameha Schools.

Mocz and Kamitaki will compete at the national symposium.

A multiple-science award winner, Kamitaki recently was the featured guest speaker at the 82nd Hawaii Academy of Science annual dinner meeting. He gave an account of his experiences with the Hawaii State Science and Engineering Fair (HSSEF), the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) and the Pacific Symposium for Science and Sustainability (PS3).

Nolan compares his experiences with the Dr. Suess book, “And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street,” a story about a boy’s vivid imaginative views of the world. He explained his involvement with the Academy’s programs contributed to his maturity and awareness that helped him succeed in the intense environment of the competitions.

“I would not have known what I was capable of,” he said, if he had not been “forced” into his first school science fair by his seventh grade teacher and given the many opportunities that followed.

In 2006, as an eighth grader, he won the junior research first place award at HSSEF for his project, “Arsenic in the Schools and the Students?” He also received a nomination to the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge (DCYSC) and was selected the National Champion of the DCYSC held in October 2006 in Washington, D.C.

As a freshman in high school, Nolan conducted research in computer simulation with his project, “Programming a Network Approach to Contain the Spread of Epidemics.” He won first place at HSSEF in 2007. He also placed second in the 2007 PS3 competition, earning a trip to the 46th National Junior Science & Humanities Symposium (JSHS) in Orlando, Fla.

In 2008, he worked a second year of his computer simulation looking at different variables. This project won second place in the 2008 HSSEF. He also won an award in May at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in Atlanta, GA.

Meanwhile, the upcoming National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium will host Meleisea, Kitamura and Fujimoto as observers. Vanessa Lui, a McKinley High junior, was selected as an alternate.

The regional competition is sponsored by the Hawaii Academy of Science through a grant from the Academy of Applied Sciences. It is open to all high school students from Hawaii, American Samoa and Micronesia.

The Junior Science and Humanities Symposium is sponsored by the U.S. Departments of the Army, Navy and Air Force with leading research universities. It is slated for April 30 to May 4.

More than 400 students are expected to participate from 48 regional symposiums.

— Find out more:
Junior Science and Humanities Symposium: www.jshs.org/
Hawaii Academy of Science: www.hawaii.edu/acadsci