Students place at regional PJAS competition

Eight Fox Chapel Area High School and Dorseyville Middle School students won awards as part of the 2025 Region 7 Meeting of the Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS). All eight students qualified for the state competition. Fox Chapel Area first-place winners were seniors Omar Al-Bataineh, Anna Delale-O’Connor, Etash Jhanji and Rohit Velankar; sophomores Heidi Stiger, Param Thawani and Rachel Kim; and eighth-grader Rishabh Krishnamurthy. The state PJAS competition will be held May 18-20, 2025, at Penn State University, Main Campus.

Additionally, Omar received a Perfect Score Award and an Excellence in Biology Award, Anna won a Society of Women Engineers Award, Rohit received a Perfect Score Award, Heidi won a Director’s Award for Physics, and Param received a Director’s Award for Engineering.

The participating students (from several schools from Allegheny and Westmoreland counties) researched their science projects for several months. During the competition, each of the students was required to make a presentation in front of a panel of judges. The regional competition was held February 8 at Baldwin High School.