Student Standouts: Dugaputi ’27, Radhakrishnan ’27, Boys Cross Country, Girls Cross Country
Congratulations to this week’s standouts below. Way to go #RamNation! And as always, if you have a story to share, please email weeklynews@micds.org.
Two Juniors Place 3rd in Harvard Research Competition for High Schoolers
Congratulations to Abhinav Dugaputi ’27 and Shrey Radhakrishnan ’27 for earning third place in North America for their original research in The Harvard Undergraduate Research Journal (THURJ) Competition! THURJ is “led by Harvard students to promote research experience and skills for high school students.”
“Participating in the THURJ was a unique experience, but it was also a little scary at first,” said Dugaputi. “Growing up, I always thought that research was this incredibly complex discipline reserved only for the very top academia. My friend Shrey convinced me to sign up for this research competition, and knowing that I wanted to break this fear, I accepted. I took a leap of faith, and it paid off. Collecting political data, synthesizing it, and quantitatively assessing it allowed me to broaden my horizons while allowing me to explore more about the wonderful world of data. The single most rewarding experience from this journey, though, was the feedback we received. Receiving the honor of having our work reviewed by Harvard undergraduates is good, but to receive feedback on where we could improve is truly special.”
Here is the abstract that Dugaputi and Radhakrishnan provided in their paper:
Who uses nostalgia more in political speeches: the President of the U.S. or a state governor? We hypothesized that governors – leaders of smaller community units – are more likely to express nostalgia (positive references to the past) than presidents – leaders of larger community units. Our sample included 8 State of the Union speeches from the last 5 U.S. Presidents, and 8 State of the State speeches from governors of various states across 3 decades. Using Excel, we manually coded and normalized nostalgic references across the different speeches, finding 55 total nostalgic references in State of the State and 90 in State of the Union speeches. Surprisingly, State of the State speeches had more variability than State of the Union, while having a lower median rate of nostalgic references; 1.35, and 1.62, respectively. A t-test, however, found no statistically significant differences between the means, suggesting minor usage variations.
Boys Cross Country is Heading to State
A Statebound Girls Cross Country Team
The MICDS Girls Cross Country team is heading to state as well! At the state qualifiers, the following five girls individually qualified: Frances Applegate ’27, Elise Tourais ’28, Narya Phatak ’26, Veronika Landrum ’29, and Cate Wagner ’29. The team placed in fourth overall. Congratulations, ladies! State is on Friday, November 7 at Gans Creek. Go Rams!
