Many students were absent at school on the Friday before spring break, mostly due to vacations. A select group of student boarded a bus at 6:45 a.m., tri-folds underarm, on their way to Portland State University. These students were the top 30 percent of  presenters at the Jane Goodall Science Symposium, and they were about to continue to the next level: the Northwest Science Exposition, better known as the state Intel Science and Engineering Fair competition.

These students have been working tirelessly on their science fair projects since the beginning of this school year, and their hard work has finally paid off.

“I felt like we were really behind for a while,” Duncan Prince, sophomore said. “But it all worked out, and we did really well.”

The state competition lasted the whole day, extending until 9 p.m. The students presented their projects to an all new group of judges, many of them highly-qualified science professionals.

The competitors were some of the top students from schools throughout Oregon, and from these students, “Team Oregon” was chosen. “Team Oregon” continues onto the international ISEF competition which will take place in Pittsburgh, PAthis year.

Bringing  pride to West Linn this year are Duncan Prince and Caleb Archuleta, sophomores, who were sent to internationals from the Jane Goodall Symposium, but also racked in several at the State level.

Other winners from West Linn were Spencer Chang, senior, James Topping, sophomore, and Madison Smith, sophomore. Though these students were not the only science fair participants who continued to the state level, both Chang’s project and Topping and Smith’s projects received one or more awards.

Exhibitors at NWSE were James Siderius, senior, Kristy Lanz, Nora Hand, Zoe Maxwell, Arianna Hall, and Clara Altemus, juniors, Lauren Cramer, Priya Basak, Renee Layoun, Nathan Weirich, Tiffany Lee, and Jackson Chandler, sophomores,  Camille Collier, Tesalyn Breault, Jacob Clark, Daniel Tang, Claire Baumgardner, Madison Cochran, Rochelle Biancardi, Shana Feltham, Melanie Martinsen, Vienna Cordova, and Jacob Clark, freshmen.

The international ISEF competition in Pittsburgh takes place in May. The members of “Team Oregon” will receive free plane tickets to the competition, and will be sharing rooms with fellow “Team Oregon” members of their choice.

“I’m definitely sharing a room with Duncan,” Caleb Archuleta, sophomore said. “He’s my partner, but he’s also pretty much the only person I know.”