Chadds Ford student honored

Posted by Press Release on September 11, 2019

Chadds Ford’s Varoon Joshi, a seventh-grader at CF Patton Middle School, was named one of the Top 300 MASTERS in the 2019 Broadcom MASTERS® program. The Top 300 Broadcom MASTERS were selected from a pool of 2,348 applicants from 47 states, DC, and two U.S. territories. These competitors were evaluated by a panel of distinguished scientists, engineers, and educators and judged on creativity and originality of their science fair project, their ability to engage in analysis of data and understanding of STEM principles as they relate to the real world.

Each applicant was nominated to compete in the Broadcom MASTERS by placing among the top 10 percent of middle school competitors at Society-affiliated regional and state science fairs. Over 90,000 students participated in various feeder science competitions across the country. Varoon went through the Chester County Science Research Competition, Delaware Valley Science Fairs where he competed with students from all of Delaware, South East Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey. Patton teacher, Ms. Mary Jo Knauer, encouraged and supported Varoon through the competition.

Varoon's project is titled "Correlating Birth Order to Parent Perceptions of Various Child Qualities." He studied the influence of birth order on individuals' personalities. He utilized a confidential survey to gather and statistically analyze the parents’ perception of their children on thirteen personality characteristics and analyzed responses on 276 children from 144 parents.

Varoon performed his research under the mentorship of Dr. Neil Izenberg, founder of KidsHealth.org, and a former vice president at Nemours Children's Health System, and Dr. Ed Hass, director of consumer insights and marketing research at the Center for Health Delivery Innovation for Nemours Children's Health System.

Varoon is following in his older brother’s footsteps. Viraj Joshi (a UHS senior) was a Broadcom Top 300 in 2016. The only difference is, Varoon achieved this as a sixth-grader competing with sixth to eighth-graders including many from Silicon Valley (Seventy-seven of the 300 are from California..

"I came across several outstanding projects throughout this journey,” Varoon stated. “I am humbled and feel fortunate to be selected. It could have been one of many other fellow-participants. I'd like to dedicate this success to my parents, mentors, educators, and my brother who is my role model."

The next step in the Broadcom MASTERS takes place on September 18, 2019 when 30 finalists will be selected from the Top 300 MASTERS. Finalists and one parent or guardian will receive an all-expense paid trip to Washington, DC to attend the Broadcom MASTERS Finals Week competition from October 25-30, 2019. Finalists will present their research and compete in hands-on challenges for top prizes, including funds to attend a STEM summer camp and the Samueli Foundation Prize of $25,000.