Van Antwerp Middle School

Van Antwerp Middle School

Karen Postlethwait, Coach
Coach Karen Postlethwait currently teaches sixth grade earth science at Van Antwerp Middle School.  In the past she has also taught high school biology and eighth grade physical science. She has a B.S. in secondary biology education from Penn State University and an M.S. in curriculum and instruction from The University of Albany.  Karen has coached the Science Bowl team for the last nine years and this is the fourth year she has brought a team to Nationals. In her free time, Coach Postlethwait enjoys hiking, kayaking, gardening, reading, and spending time with her husband and three kids.

Tejas Jacob
Tejas Jacob is a curious sixth-grader with a passion for science. He loves reading and learning a wide range of topics in physical science and earth and space. His favorite scientist is Stephen Hawking, and he aspires to be a theoretical physicist like him. He enjoys playing the piano, listening to Beethoven, playing chess and soccer.  When COVID-19 hit, he had to learn remotely for a year and was introduced to Khan Academy. Impressed and inspired by the website, he created math and science books and videos. He hopes to publish these some day. Some lesser known facts about him are that he can kick a soccer bicycle shot and is also beginning to learn the art of juggling balls. He won second place at the New York State Scholastic Chess tournament in the U1200 category. He enjoys being in nature and taking pictures of insects, birds, and animals.

Gideon Goldberg
Gideon Goldberg is an eighth-grader at Van Antwerp Middle School in Niskayuna, New York. One of the activities that he enjoys is building with legos. He mainly likes to build Star Wars and Marvel lego sets. Another thing that he likes to do in his free time is read. He mainly reads science fiction and fantasy series such as Dune and Harry Potter. When he is not reading or building with legos you can find him with his five year old dog Hercules. In the school band he plays the clarinet and in the school jazz band he plays the saxophone. He hopes to play saxophone in the Empire State Youth Orchestra next year. His favorite subjects in school are math, science, and technology and he attends the robotics club after school on Thursdays. He would like to explore engineering and other disciplines in the field of science and technology at college.

Aarush Iyengar
Aarush Iyengar is an eighth-grader currently attending Van Antwerp Middle School. His favorite subject is biology and he hopes to become a cardiovascular surgeon one day. Aarush enjoys playing classical music on the piano, coding in Python, practicing math, and having fun with his nine year old brother. In his spare time, Aarush likes to unwind by playing computer games with friends or curling up with a good book. Aarush also loves playing competitive chess and has over two dozen chess trophies and medals with a United States Chess Federation rating close to 1800 points. He attends tournaments all over New York and loves the nervous rush of excitement when sitting at the chessboard for over three hours. He strives to reach the rank of National Master (2200 rating points) and continues to practice everyday. When he is not in school, you can usually find him sitting in front of his computer either memorizing biological terminology, or in an intense chess game!

Brian Sun
Brian Sun is a seventh-grader at Van Antwerp Middle School in Niskayuna, New York. He enjoys math, science, piano, soccer, tennis, debate, and video games. Brian participates in MATHCOUNTS and plays for NY Elite Alleycats, Niskayuna’s modified soccer team, and Niskayuna’s Junior Varsity tennis team. He hopes to one day become a professor or coder.

Arjun Rangarajan
Arjun Rangarajan is an eighth-grader at Van Antwerp Middle School in Niskayuna, New York. Arjun has always been passionate about mathematics and science. He has excelled in the International Math Contest (IMC), MATHCOUNTS and American Mathematics Competition Level-Ten competitions, and is top three in Math League regionals. This is the second year Arjun's team has won regionals in the National Science Bowl. He is passionate about classical music and earned New York State Music Association level VI in solo piano. He performed in the middle school choir and orchestra. He is multilingual with special interest in Spanish and Tamil, and will be graduating from California Tamil Academy next year. He is also a black belt in the martial art of Taekwondo. His extracurricular interests include chess, cricket, swimming, computer games and programming. He is an avid reader and enjoys reading books on world history and mythology. His ambition is to pursue higher education in science and technology, with focus on computer science and artificial intelligence.