A St. Croix 10th-grader will be headed to California this spring to compete at an international science competition, after earning first place this week at the Good Hope School science fair.
The winning study, by sophomore Eliza Mongeau, shows the potential antibacterial property of two plants common to the Virgin Islands, guava and tamarind, pointing the way to better health and lower prescription costs.
Mind you, Mongeau is 15 years old. Her study, entitled “Antibacterial Properties of Local Plants,” earned her a trip to San Jose this spring for the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair.
Good Hope is the only school on St. Croix that sends students to compete at the international Intel exhibition.
The Good Hope fair was held Tuesday through Thursday. Winners were announced Wednesday night.
Mongeau said she was building on the work of a former Good Hope student who had done basic work in the antibacterial potential of the plants. She took the work farther, performing halo and cell division tests to study the effects of an extract from the leaves of the two plants on two bacteria, E. coli and B. subtilis.
Thursday morning as she discussed the project, she was already laying plans for how to take the project further before departing in May for the San Jose conference. That next step would be trying to extract specific compounds from the leaves of the plants to zero in on which carries the germ-killing properties.
The project’s potential lies in finding lower-cost alternatives to expensive, existing medicines.
Her own potential is obvious, but she’s not nearly ready to start discussing plans for her future, she said, pointing out that she’s still a sophomore and has plenty of time to make up her mind.
The previous weekend she took part in the school’s musical, “Blame It On the Movies,” so she’s not ready just yet to begin narrowing her options for the future.
During the Good Hope Science Fair, students have to defend their work, answering questions from a panel of judges who make sure the students understand the science behind the project.
This year’s winners in the upper school were: first place, Mongeau; second place, freshman Diana Cardenas with a project on ratios found in nature; third went to junior Eric Guzman for a solar-powered air filter.
Honorable mentions went to sophomore Alex Julien and freshmen Gabriella Canales, Jaleel Christopher and Cassandra Ceballos.
Students in the Good Hope middle school also compete. This year’s middle school winners were: first, John Devera; second, Dennis Vanterpool; and third, Russel Ollie, Jr. Honorable mentions went to Duncan Coles, Selesha Subnaik, Cerrelle Lee and Darryl Donohue.
Sixth-grade winners were: first, Morgan Coles and Kyle Fennessy; second, Ricardo Vidal, Ky’Ara Hodge, and Elyse Mitchell; and third, Aliyah Allick, Lydia Polean and Kaseema Serrant.
This year’s fair was judged by Kemit Amon-Lewis of The Nature Conservancy; research specialist Donald Bailey from the UVI Agriculture Experimental Station; Dr. Bethany Bradford, a veterinarian with the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Agriculture; Olasee Davis of UVI; John George, vice president of technology at Hovensa; Anna-Lisa Johanson; Dee Osinski of V.I. Waste Management; Dr. Michelle Peterson of UVI; and naval engineer David Walworth.
Special judges were Dr. Wayne Ethridge and Dr. Dara Hamilton, both of the Association of Virgin Islands Psychologists; engineer Jim Smith of Global Crossing; Tim Manning, vice president of environmental health and safety at Hovensa; and Good Hope art teachers Phyllis Biddle and Pedra Chafers.
The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair brings some 1,400 top students from around the world for a week in May. Participating students will have the chance to meet Nobel laureates, go on field trips of scientific interest, and set their own personal goals a little higher for the future.
