Blair High School Students Win Full Scholarships to University of Maryland

Samuel Zbarsky of Rockville and Charlie Pasternak of Bethesda, juniors in the Montgomery Blair High School Science, Mathematics, and Computer Science Magnet Program, won first and third place, respectively, in the University of Maryland Math Competition.

Each was awarded a full four-year scholarship plus expenses at the University of Maryland College Park, as well as $500 in prize money for first place and $300 for third.

In addition, Zbarsky received an additional $100 for earning the high score in Montgomery County. In this same contest in 2009, Zbarksy was awarded third place and a full scholarship.

This contest, open to all high school students in Maryland and the District of Columbia, is composed of two parts. 

The 279 top scorers of the 2584 students who took Part I qualified to participate in Part II. Results from both parts were then considered together to determine final overall standings, and results were announced on January 5.

Besides the first through third place recipients, 37 Honorable Mention winners were named.

Of these, 23 (nearly two-thirds) were Blair Magnet students: Daniel Amir of Bethesda; Rahul Bhale of Olney; Alexander Bourzutschky and Catherine Xue of Potomac; Adam Busis, Andrew Gilbert, Andrew Hu, Jason Hyun, Gregory Kehne, Patrick Owen, and Naomi Rubin of Silver Spring; Kevin Chiang, Diwakaran Ilangovan, Bob Ma, and Dennis Yang of Gaithersburg; David Kaufman of Chevy Chase; Andrew Lu, Thomas McHale, Eric Neyman, Michael Winer, Scott Wu, and Victor Xu of Rockville; and Wenqing Xu of Takoma Park.

Every year since 1998, at least one student from the Blair Magnet has won first through third place (all three in 2003-2005), and at least 14 have been awarded Honorable Mention. Mr. Eric Walstein, Blair Magnet teacher, sponsors the Blair Math Team and administers the Keeping a Special Program Special.