George Rebane

This morning we held the annual Survivors’ Breakfast for TechTest2017 at our usual venue, Tofanelli’s in Grass Valley.  The event was scheduled earlier than usual (0730) due to some school needs; after all this is a school day and we wanted to hold the lollygagging to a minimum.  This was the eleventh breakfast that feted the test takers who numbered 20 this year with 14 of those able to attend along with divers parents, sponsors, friends, and SESF directors.

Executive Director Russ Steele started off the hearty breakfast with some opening remarks, which were expanded upon by board member and former 7-Hills math teacher Robert Sharpe and yours truly.  Everyone had a chance to tell the gathering about their college plans and career hopes.  It was truly inspiring to hear about the futures to which these accomplished students were bound.  It’s good for the soul to be uplifted by such young people after being bombarded by America’s, and especially California’s, stats on STEM educational performance.

I am fortunate to have been able to work with many of these students during the preparatory TT seminars over the last years since juniors and some qualified lower-class students may take the test for practice before going for the money in their senior year.  TT is a four-hour, college level, merit scholarship examination – only your resulting test score counts in ranking the winners.  (All past TT solution sets are available on sesfoundation.org.)  The test is administered and graded by the Nevada Joint Union High School District – Ms Barbara Ross, academic committee chair – and draws scholars from all the county’s high schools as recommended by their science/math teachers.  SESF writes the test and, with participating sponsors, underwrites the scholarship awards.

Besides the coveted Survivors’ t-shirt, the top three scoring seniors receive scholarships of $6K, $4K, and $2K.  Additionally, $300 honoraria are awarded to the next several highest test scores.  Pictured in the above collage we have this year’s Survivor attendees and the three top money winners – l2r Harrison Constantino, Keegan Zetterberg, Jack Devlin – whose scores were within three points of each other.  (Thanks to Ellen Steele for the photos.)  The ranking of the top three will be announced during the county’s annual awards ceremony later this spring at which time all TT awardees will receive their checks.

The third picture with the four students (and the old guy in the back) includes Ryan Brott, this year a junior, who turned in TT2017’s very impressive top score.   Ryan is an academic all-star, respected and acknowledged by his peers, who excels in several different fields, and who definitely needs a dedicated post to do justice to all his accomplishments.

And now we start preparing for TT2018.