Jackson and Gopal representing for Trentonian Good News section
Evolution of humans includes changes in vocabulary as behaviors warrant new words.
Take for instance the word “represent” a cool lexicon addition with a hip verb definition of “go and be a good example to the others of your group or in your position.”
Salonna Jackson, 12, a Trenton resident, is just about ready for major representation as a contestant in America’s Miss National Pageant, Sept. 2-5 in Mount Laurel.
Jackson, a Columbus Elementary School graduate, who achieved perfect attendance and numerous honor roll achievements, admitted her summer days have included extended hours in bed.
“I’m not exactly a morning person,” Jackson said. Despite a sleep-in attitude, Jackson has managed to leave the mattress world for pageant competitions to claim Junior Ambassador Miss New Jersey 2014 and America’s Miss Southern States 2015 honors.
Her non-pageant performances includes volunteering, including a Thanksgiving event when she and family members deliver Thanksgiving Day meals to food-challenged city residents.
Jackson resides in Trenton with her grandparents Margaret and Luis Rios. Her grandmother serves as chaperone, press agent and coordinator.
Jackson will attend Hedgepeth Williams Middle School next month.
“I’m proud to be representing Trenton and hope to bring home the national title next week,” Jackson relayed via email.
Nikhil Gopal is starting his junior year at Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, NJ. His science fair project, Point of Care Testing for Malaria Using a Smartphone and a Microfluidic ELISA Chip, earned him the Grand Prize in this year’s 63rd annual Mercer Science and Engineering Fair held in Rider University.
This allowed him to enter the Intel International Fair along with over 1600 finalists where his project took 2nd Place in his category.
Nikhil is now one of sixteen global finalists in the annual Google Science Fair, an online competition for students ages 13 to 18. Here is Nikhil’s explanation of his project:
“Malaria kills nearly 1 million people yearly, mostly in Africa and India. A simple and inexpensive way to track progression of the malaria parasite is needed. I created a portable system to detect malaria proteins using ELISA (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay). My system uses a smartphone and a microfluidic disc which uses centrifugal force instead of electricity to mix reagents,” Gopal explained on his webpage.
“The microfluidic disc uses 1/100th the volume of a standard ELISA resulting in cheaper reagent costs. The system is designed for rural settings without access to expensive laboratory equipment and costs under $10 per sample.”
Gopal said he became interested in malaria after one of his relatives died from a resistant strain.
The award celebration for the Google Science Fair is September 27, 2016.