Winner of the 2024 NJ State Science Bowl Championship Inspires Underrepresented Youth

Aldric Benalan, Science Bowl Champion and STEM advocate inspires youth.

WEST WINDSOR, N.J., April 29, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Aldric Benalan, a Sophomore at West Windsor Plainsboro High School North and captain of the Science Bowl team was excited and thankful to all his teammates and coach for winning the 2024 NJ State Science Bowl Championship conducted by the US Department of Science/energy. The event took place in the Princeton Plasma Physics laboratory.

Congratulations to the West Windsor Plainsboro High School North team and all the teams that participated in this remarkable event across the state and region.

Benalan also participated in the 2023 US National Science Bee on April 27-30, 2023 in Arlington, Virginia where students from all over the United States competed in the National Science Bee. He won first place in the Junior Varsity Division (9 & 10-grade level) and was crowned JV National champion. Additionally, in June 2022, he was the National Champion of the Science Bee in the 8th-grade division. The tournament took place in Orlando, Florida. The National Science Bee is a buzzer-beater academic quiz on science topics for elementary, middle, and high school students. Students entered through a qualifying exam, and those who qualified moved on to the national competition with multiple qualifying rounds and then Semifinals and Finals.

Benalan has always been fascinated by science and has a keen interest in earth science, particularly astronomy. His secret to success is to keep calm and focus when competing. In addition to the National Science Bee, Benalan has been performing well in competitions like the Science Olympiad, Science Bowl, Quiz Bowl, USABO, USESO, and various other tournaments.

To prepare for the National Science Bee, Benalan read books, watched science-based videos on

YouTube, and joined after-school quiz activities. The quizzing activities with friends were fun and relaxing for him. Aside from engaging in science activities, Benalan enjoys playing chess and table tennis and exploring and travel new places and cultures.

Outside of competitions, Benalan enjoys doing STEM-related volunteering projects. His volunteer activities include volunteering at a science summer camp, serving as a STEM tutor for a non-profit organization, mentoring middle school science teams to train younger students, and organizing online tournaments.

In terms of his awards and achievements, Benalan won medals in various Science Olympiad events like Astronomy, Rocks & Minerals, Dynamic Planet, and Remote Sensing in the New Jersey State Science Olympiad competition, Princeton Science Olympiad, MIT Science Olympiad, UPenn Science Olympiad, and more.

During Benalan's elementary years, his interest and curiosity came from watching science-related YouTube videos, Wild Kratts TV episodes, Basher Basics kids' science books borrowed from the local library, and participation in various math and science fairs, competitions, and STEM events in the library.

During Middle School: Benalan formed the Science Bowl team and won the NJ state championship in 2022 and led the team to nationals, placing it 5th in the nation.

In the future, Benalan hopes to motivate underrepresented kids to engage in STEM activities at a very young age. He aims to bring awareness to them about the various free stem activities available around them. Even during vacation time in southeast Asia, rather than spending time in tourist spots, he was motivated to spend time with underprivileged kids and had them do various STEM-related activities. Aldric's philosophy is knowledge shared is knowledge multiplied.

Media Contact

Subella Benalan, Subella Benalan, 1 201-574-6423, [email protected]

SOURCE Subella Benalan