La Mirada teen receives national award for photography

La Mirada resident and Whittier Christian High School senior Christian Lee has received a 2022 YoungArts award in photography.

Lee has been recognized at the honorable mention level, the organization’s second-highest honor, for his caliber of achievement. He joins 720 of the most accomplished young visual, literary and performing artists nationwide.

Selected through the organization’s prestigious competition, YoungArts award winners, all 15 to 18 years old or in grades 10 through 12, are chosen for their caliber of artistic achievement by esteemed discipline-specific panels of artists through a rigorous blind adjudication process. YoungArts award winners gain access to one of the most comprehensive programs for artists in the United States, in which they will have opportunities for financial, creative and professional development support throughout their careers. A complete list of the 2022 winners is available online at youngarts.org/winners.

Lee is the first from his high school to receive a YoungArts award and other national artistic recognition. He has been published in The New York Times, shortlisted by the Sony World Photography Awards and will have photos displayed in a gallery exhibition at the University of Cambridge.

– Submitted by Christian Lee

OC Girl Scouts win national awards

Two Orange County Girl Scouts were recently recognized on the national stage for their accomplishments in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) fields.

Diya Sreedhar, 15, of Irvine won the Congressional App Challenge for California’s 39th District. Established by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2013 to engage student creativity and encourage participation in STEM, the Congressional App Challenge is the most prestigious prize in student computer science. Members of Congress host districtwide contests for students in middle and high school, who develop computer programs (or apps) written in any programming language for any platform.

Sreedhar, a freshman at Troy High School in Fullerton and a Girl Scout since elementary school, has participated in and led many STEM activities. After losing a close relative to a brain tumor, Sreedhar, now a Girl Scout Senior, was inspired to provide others with direct access to vital health services by creating the app AURA, which uses AI machine learning to predict the disease prognosis of glioblastoma patients.

The AURA app is set to be displayed in the U.S. Capitol Building and featured on the House of Representatives’ website, House.gov. Sreedhar has also earned an invitation to the #HouseofCode Capitol Hill Reception in Washington, D.C., in May.

Gold Award Girl Scout Melody Chang, 17, of Irvine was chosen among three finalists as winner of the 2021 Dragon Challenge. Since 2015, the Dragon Kim Foundation has awarded $5,000 grants to talented high school students to fund projects that enable them to pursue their passions and impact their communities.

Chang, a high school senior at the Orange County School of the Arts (OCSA) in Santa Ana and a Girl Scout Ambassador, designed a Girl Scout Gold Award project, “Let’s Learn About Public Health,” to expand public health education and understanding of the importance of early detection and prevention among youth.

Chang’s project was inspired by personal experience, watching her grandmother suffer from hepatitis A, a condition preventable with early detection and health education she lacked in rural Taiwan.

Chang published an interactive public health book in English and Spanish for elementary school children, led workshops and ran a summer camp in partnership with the Santa Ana Unified School District and Girl Scouts of Orange County. Additionally, Chang worked with a team of educators to develop an online curriculum that can be used by teachers across the country.

With the support of the Dragon Kim Foundation grant, Chang plans to expand her project by translating her book into other languages, developing a curriculum to teach her book in elementary school, and advocating at the state level to bring her book and curriculum to more school districts. Learn more at letslearnaboutpublichealth.com.

– Submitted by Girls Scouts of Orange County

Irvine teen receives top national award in writing

Stanford Online High School senior Natalie Wang, 17, of Irvine has received a 2022 YoungArts finalist award in writing.

Selected through the organization’s prestigious competition, YoungArts award winners are chosen for their caliber of artistic achievement by discipline-specific panels of artists through a rigorous blind adjudication process.

Wang is among the nation’s 156 finalists in 10 art categories. As one of two winners from California in the Writing Play/Script category, she will participate in National YoungArts Week+, and her Writer’s Readings is featured on the https://youngarts.org/national-youngarts-week/ website.

Along with the YoungArts Finalist award, Wang’s literary works have been recognized by numerous sources, including the National Scholastic Art and Writing Competition, International Poetry Festival Youth Anthology, Creative Communications and other national competitions. She was invited to recite her essay “A Flower of Memory” — which won first place at the Southwest Regional level of the National FRA Americanism Essay Contest — at Irvine’s Memorial Day ceremony.

Wang’s interest in writing has inspired her to share her passion on a global scale. At Stanford Online High School, with a student body spanning across 47 U.S. states and 43 countries, she serves as editor-in-chief of the literary and arts journal “The Chrysalis.”

Wang also leads the school’s Literature Club and founded the Screenwriting Club, in which students collaborate during weekly workshops, guest speaker events featuring renowned authors, poetry open mics and more. Academically, she serves as a teaching assistant and peer tutor for two English literature courses.

– Submitted by Natalie Wang

Two OC high school educators selected as ‘Outstanding Teachers of America’

David Allen, a history teacher at Santiago High School in Garden Grove, and Julieanne Reall, a multimedia/technology teacher at Anaheim High School in Anaheim, were recently selected as recipients of the 2021 Carlston Family Foundation “Outstanding Teachers of America” awards.

Three other teachers, representing high schools in Palm Springs, Upper Lake and Los Angeles, were also selected, and each will receive a $15,000 cash award. Additionally, each of their high schools will receive a grant in the honored teacher’s name in the amount of $5,000.

The Carlston Family Foundation awards are given to California public high school teachers who teach primarily in the most challenging school environments. A teacher must be nominated by former students who are either enrolled in a four-year college or university or who already have earned a college degree. In 2020-21, the foundation received more than 100 nominations.

In an interview during the nomination process, Reall said: “It’s not just about content. It’s important to me to teach them about problem-solving skills. That’s what life is about. If I can teach them that, I feel like I can help them in a meaningful way no matter what path they take in life. When I found out the process and that my former students had nominated me, I was overwhelmed and honored. I love my kiddos, and to see them out there being teachers and professionals, that’s really special.”

Allen said: “I believe a cornerstone of education is providing opportunities for students to develop their own voice and exercise agency in their life. To that effect, beyond the content I teach, I hope students take from our time together a belief they can forge ahead on their own path with the skills both academic and social to make that journey possible. To receive this award because a former student did just that is both the greatest and most humbling honor.”

Allen, Reall and the three other honorees will join 81 previous honorees as members of the Carlston Family Foundation Board of Advisors and will participate in the Annual Educational Symposium that focuses on addressing major issues facing education in California.

– Submitted by Beverly Young, Carlston Family Foundation

Two OC transplant recipients take part in Donate Life Rose Parade float

Liver recipient Rene Sorrentino of Placentia participated in the 2022 Donate Life Rose Parade float. Her donor, Nicholas Paquette, was honored on the Donate Life float with a floragraph.

Sorrentino’s life and career were going great until a routine physical exam revealed that a virus was slowly destroying her liver. Her only hope was a transplant. She was getting progressively sicker and qualified to be placed on the transplant list at UCLA.

The two years of waiting that followed were laden with hospitalizations and procedures to keep her alive until a liver was available.

In February 2014, her brother flew in from Florida, likely to say goodbye. He asked the doctor if he could take Sorrentino back to Florida with him, where she would perhaps get a liver sooner.

The day after her arrival and admission into Florida Hospital, Sorrentino learned that a liver was available for her. She has since been privileged to meet her donor Paquette’s family.

Liver recipient Lynda Trachtman of Fullerton also participated in the 2022 Donate Life Rose Parade float.

Trachtman was diagnosed in 1985 with non-A, non-B viral hepatitis, which today is called hepatitis C. She discovered six years later that she had been misdiagnosed and that she had HIV.

The combination of HIV attacking her liver, along with the early HIV antivirals such as AZT, led to a fatty liver and subsequently liver disease.

Many people volunteered to donate part of their liver to Trachtman, but her 25-year-old niece, Sherri, insisted she be the donor. Sherri was a perfect match.

The transplant team at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York performed the transplant surgery, and Trachtman became the first woman to undergo this relatively new live donor transplantation with these sets of circumstances.

The Bravo! section highlights achievements of our residents and groups. Send news of achievements for consideration to [email protected].

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