Two semifinalists in Intel talent search

Two Oceanside High School teens have been chosen as semifinalists by the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search, two of 300 high school students nationally to receive the award.

They are Brittany Kwait and Kara Zielinski.

Kwait, 17, is also a National Merit semifinalist who received and received a perfect score on the SAT test. She is also on the soccer team and the editor of the school newspaper.

She has applied to a number of Ivy league universities as well as Duke University, but has not decided on where she will go. She does know, however that she will pursue a career in medicine and research.

“Actually,” she said. “I really plan on doing both — being a physician and doing medical research.”

The title of the research plan that won her the award is “Screening of a Structurally-Related Series of Small Molecules for Binding with Plk4 and Their Potential Effect on Centriole Structure and Normal Cell Division.”

She explained in layman’s terms that she has been working with researchers at Mt. Sinai Hospital on a project that studies how small molecules band with proteins and how to impede cell division. She said that her research has implications for cancer research.

She said that she found her mentor at the hospital, Dr. E.P. Readdy and the researcher on the project that she worked with, Richard Mettus, with the help of her teacher, Heather Hall.

Hall has been working with science research students at Oceanside High School for seven years and has had a number of Intel semifinalists over the years. She says, however, that Kwait and Zielenski are the first females recipients at the school in her memory.

Hall says that her main job is acting as facilitator for the students, helping them find their area of interest, pointing them in the right direction and then making contacts with researchers in the real world.

“I wear many hats,” she said,” but the main one is to advocate for the students in the program. Sometimes, that means emotional support.”

Zielinski, 17, is not sure what college she will attend, although Cornell and Yale seem to have the inside track. She has also applied to Boston University and Northeastern. She wants to major in molecular biology and purse a career in research.