National Trig-Star Committee Selects Winners of the Richard E. Lomax National Trig-Star and Teaching Excellence Awards

The National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2015 Richard E. Lomax National Trig-Star Awards.  The Trig-Star committee met on July 31 and August 1, 2015 to determine the three top high school students from the national examinations submitted by state winners.  This year there were thirty-nine state winners submitted.  A past president of NSPS, Richard Lomax was the driving force behind the elevation of the local Trig-Star program to the national level.  In October 1994, Board action named this high school trigonometry skill award in his honor.

William Mitchell

Russell Kenney

William Zhang

The Richard E. Lomax National Trig-Star Awards are as follows:

First Place:        William Mitchell, West Valley High School, Fairbanks, Alaska

Second Place:    Russell Kenney, Big Piney High School, Big Piney, Wyoming

Third Place:       William Zhang, Vestavia Hills High School, Vestavia Hills, Alabama

The Richard E. Lomax National Teaching Excellence Awards are as follows:

First Place:        Sandra Ryan, West Valley High School, Fairbanks, Alaska

Second Place:    Jennifer Banks, Big Piney High School, Big Piney, Wyoming

Third Place:       Todd Taylor, Vestavia Hills High School, Vestavia Hills, Alabama

The first place student receives $2,000, second place student receives $1,000, and third place student receives $500.  The first place teacher receives $1,000, second place teacher receives $500, and third place teacher receives $250.  The Trig-Star Policy states that “the National Student and Teacher Awards be given to the winning students at or before the next state professional land surveying organization conference of the student’s home state.”

The following is a list of the remaining State Winners in the order of finish:

Zhongxu Chen, Oregon; Haoxiang Li, Illinois; Wally Johnson, Kentucky; Erika Lustig, Michigan; Christian Jacobsen, Montana; William Lies, Kansas; Nashalie N. Ortiz Torres, Puerto Rico; Vincent Pan; Nevada; Anastasia Mullins, Georgia; Joseph Work, Ohio; Joseph Barnes, South Dakota; JiangLai Zhang, New Jersey; Katherine Platt, Pennsylvania; Alan Zimmer, Missouri; Alexander Snouffer, Maryland; Grady Mauch, North Dakota; Joshua Shepherd, Washington; Elizabeth Han, Iowa; Taylor McCreary, California; Jack Bao, Indiana; Luke Guo, North Carolina; Haoxiang Zhang, Connecticut; Nhi Tran, Minnesota; Lubin Deng, Colorado; Kyle Pittman, New Hampshire; Katie Kanich, Delaware; Jordan Goldstein, Texas; Kael Stelck, Idaho; Antonio Faraci, New York; Christopher Fechisin, Virginia; Benjamin Reas, Wisconsin; Jeremy Green, Utah; Jacob Judd, Tennessee; Alexander Foster, South Carolina; Isabella Latta, Maine; and Alexander Cooper, Massachusetts.

The Richard E. Lomax National Trig-Star and Teaching Excellence Awards are a few of several annual NSPS awards.  For more information about the NSPS awards and scholarship programs, please contact NSPS, 5119 Pegasus Court, Frederick, MD  21704, (240) 439-4615, e-mail: Trisha Milburn at trisha.milburn@nsps.us.com, or visit the NSPS web site at www.nsps.us.com.