EXETER, NH (March 23, 2009)—Four Phillips Exeter Academy students will learn next month whether they have been named national finalists in this year’s USA Biology Olympiad (USABO), the country’s premiere biology competition for high school students.

Abigail (Abbi) C. Davies, a senior from Newburyport, MA; Danai S. Kadzere, an upper (junior) from Greensboro, NC; W. Douglas Meadow, a lower (sophomore) from Jacksonville, FL; and Antigone (Annie) E. Mitchell, a lower (sophomore) from Ridgefield, CT, ranked in the top 500 of more than 6,000 students who took the entrance exam in February. They were the only students from the state of New Hampshire to qualify for the semi-finals.  

The semi-finals, a second round of competition given earlier this month on Exeter’s campus, was a challenging, two-hour, multiple-choice, interpretive and fill-in-the-blank test. The exam’s 20 highest-scoring students will be invited to participate in the USABO National Finals this June, for two weeks of training at George Mason University (GMU) in Fairfax, VA, with leading biologists. The top four finalists will represent the United States, July 12-19, at the International Biology Olympiad in Tsukuba, Japan.

After reading a flyer announcing the competition, Kadzere thought it would be fun to give it a try. She had taken an introduction to biology class, but had never participated in a biology competition. “I really enjoy biology#all of it is fascinating! Learning something new is always pretty exciting,” she says.

Now, Kadzere is looking forward to the summer, with hopes of being at GMU and even Japan. “It would be amazing, [and] ridiculously exciting to go to nationals (not to mention the world competition, and I have never been to an Asian country before.) If this happens, I would be absolutely thrilled! But if not, I hope to make it to a higher level next year.”

Science Instructor Yoojin Choi is also looking forward to a future filled with more biology. “I’m pleased to see our students excel in the national arena and glad that the Academy could aid them in this achievement. The Center for Excellence in Education, which sponsors the biology Olympiad in the U.S., says the number of participants this year far exceeds last year’s numbers, so the event is gaining prominence. I would love to see Exeter continuing to participate in the Olympiad,” she says.
 
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