OUR TEAM
Click each name for additional information on that person and how to contact them.
OFFICERS
Co-President
Senior Fiona Hsu serves as this school year’s Science Olympiad co-captain. Aside from competing in, of course, Science Olympiad competitions, she has also been in a few MUN conferences. Unfortunately, the entirety of her personality revolves around having moved from USA to Taiwan to USA, and thus she carries a bunch of unrelatable and strange credentials ranging from the ability to do balloon sculpting to doing front flips (no I will not demonstrate). She also runs. Which, in fact, is painful. This year, Fiona has also become a Co-President of the Academic Challenge Club. If you ever have any questions, please ask Rayyan Ibrahim (I’m just kidding. Somewhat). She has a special obsession with chemistry, because NaOH is yummy (also just kidding, please DO NOT consume NaOH). Overall, she has other interests outside of school, including creating foodstuffs, drawing, reading, reading too many papers, surviving through typhoons in Taiwan, and gaming quite a bit (it’s all in the past now, probably).
Co-President
Senior Rayyan Ibrahim currently serves as an Ocean Sciences Bowl Captain and Science Olympiad Captain. Rayyan specializes mostly in biology events but has a deep hatred for Science Olympiad’s “Forestry” event. Outside of AC, he is also the President of the MSJ Biology Club and Percussion Captain of the MSJ Drumline. Outside of MSJ, Rayyan has worked in a herpetology lab and has participated in ecological fieldwork. He enjoys spending time out in nature, with hobbies ranging from wildlife photography to fishing. He also likes hanging out with his pets, which include parakeets and cats (the birds and cats don’t interact with each other for obvious reasons).
Vice President
​Junior Jeffrey Li serves as a Science Olympiad Co-Captain and Vice President for the AC club this year. Other than Academic Challenge, Jeffrey also participates in the Physics and Math Clubs at MSJ, along with DECA. He has recently taken a strong interest in badminton. He has a very diverse music taste ranging from K-Pop to rap to Lana Del Rey.
Junior Advaith Mopuri is the secretary and a co-captain of the science bowl team for AC this year. Advaith specializes in math and physics, and is unusually bad at chemistry. He likes running, working on puzzles, playing with his dog, and most other things you can do outside. Advaith also likes playing board games, watching sitcoms, and making bad jokes. In his free time, you can probably find Advaith playing Brawl Stars and grinding/tilting Bo.
Co-Secretary
adhuvasan@gmail.com
Advai Srinivasan is one of the Science Olympiad captains this year; he also participates in science bowl and focuses on the earth and space sciences. He likes rocks and minerals a lot and tends to find himself lost in identifying images. Outside of sad hobbies he likes to bake, cook, and read manga/webtoons. He also plays trombone and finds fun in playing random songs he hears from time to time. He’s a fan of the series JJK and finds the weekly delays the only source of motivation to make it to the next week. If you ever want to get rid of him, buy him some galena as he is bound to eat it after identifying. (i am joking, please buy me galena tho, in fact i'll take tremolite, realgar, cinnabar)
Treasurer ​
Junior Aravind Muralidharan serves as ocean science bowl captain and the treasurer for the AC club this year. He has also tried in Science Bowl, Quiz Bowl, and Science Olympiad with varying degrees of success. His other activities include playing violin for the school orchestra as well as the California Youth Symphony; running for MSJ track and field in the 100 meters, long jump, and triple jump; and grinding for USABO. In his free time he likes to listen to and play classical music, attempt records in MarioKart 8 deluxe, work on jigsaw puzzles (looking for a good 2000 piece puzzle right now), and play street basketball with his friends.
Co-Activities Coordinator
challengeprady@gmail.com
Pradyumna Krishna is a sophomore at Mission San Jose High School, and the current captain of MSJ Quiz Bowl. In Quiz Bowl, he specializes in literature and fine arts. Outside of his academic life, he is interested in computer science and machine learning. In his free time, he watches a lot of sports, and ponders whether he would be a great NFL player in an alternate reality. He wants to try out for the badminton team for fun.
Publicity Officer
jasmineltx328@gmail.com
Jasmine Li is MSJAC's Publicity Officer for this school year. She competes in physics and inquiry events in science olympiad. Other than AC, they also do theater (MSJ Universal Performers) and dance (HCMC airbands) on campus. Jasmine is unfortunately chronically online. In her free time, she watches comedy specials, doomscrolls on Twitter, hates on Albert Camus, and keeps up with the Midwest Emo music scene. As of recently, they have been reading plays (Describe the Night, Arcadia).
Activites Coordinator​
Junior Ethan Yan is an Activities Coordinator for MSJ AC. During Sophomore year, he competed as a physics and math specialist in Science Bowl and participated in physics and inquiry events in Science Olympiad. He participates in math and physics contests, such as the AMCs and F=ma. Outside of school, he is an avid figure skater, with his favorite jumps being Axel and Lutz and least favorite being Loop. He also enjoys watching movies, some of his favorites being Gladiator, The Man in the Iron Mask, and The Godfather, from which he chose music for his figure skating routines.
SCIENCE OLYMPIAD
Science Olympiad Co-Captain
Senior Rayyan Ibrahim currently serves as an Ocean Sciences Bowl Captain and Science Olympiad Captain. Rayyan specializes mostly in biology events but has a deep hatred for Science Olympiad’s “Forestry” event. Outside of AC, he is also the President of the MSJ Biology Club and Percussion Captain of the MSJ Drumline. Outside of MSJ, Rayyan has worked in a herpetology lab and has participated in ecological fieldwork. He enjoys spending time out in nature, with hobbies ranging from wildlife photography to fishing. He also likes hanging out with his pets, which include parakeets and cats (the birds and cats don’t interact with each other for obvious reasons).
Science Olympiad Co-Captain
Senior Fiona Hsu serves as this school year’s Science Olympiad co-captain. Aside from competing in, of course, Science Olympiad competitions, she has also been in a few MUN conferences. Unfortunately, the entirety of her personality revolves around having moved from USA to Taiwan to USA, and thus she carries a bunch of unrelatable and strange credentials ranging from the ability to do balloon sculpting to doing front flips (no I will not demonstrate). She also runs. Which, in fact, is painful. This year, Fiona has also become a Co-President of the Academic Challenge Club. If you ever have any questions, please ask Rayyan Ibrahim (I’m just kidding. Somewhat). She has a special obsession with chemistry, because NaOH is yummy (also just kidding, please DO NOT consume NaOH). Overall, she has other interests outside of school, including creating foodstuffs, drawing, reading, reading too many papers, surviving through typhoons in Taiwan, and gaming quite a bit (it’s all in the past now, probably).
Science Olympiad Co-Captain
adhuvasan@gmail.com
Advai Srinivasan is one of the Science Olympiad captains this year; he also participates in science bowl and focuses on the earth and space sciences. He likes rocks and minerals a lot and tends to find himself lost in identifying images. Outside of sad hobbies he likes to bake, cook, and read manga/webtoons. He also plays trombone and finds fun in playing random songs he hears from time to time. He’s a fan of the series JJK and finds the weekly delays the only source of motivation to make it to the next week. If you ever want to get rid of him, buy him some galena as he is bound to eat it after identifying. (i am joking, please buy me galena tho, in fact i'll take tremolite, realgar, cinnabar)
Vice President
​Junior Jeffrey Li serves as a Science Olympiad Co-Captain and Vice President for the AC club this year. Other than Academic Challenge, Jeffrey also participates in the Physics and Math Clubs at MSJ, along with DECA. He has recently taken a strong interest in badminton. He has a very diverse music taste ranging from K-Pop to rap to Lana Del Rey. Some of his overall favorites include ponytails, money, and Huh Yunjin.
SCIENCE BOWL
Science Bowl Co-captain
Sophomore Roshan Annamalai is one of the Science Bowl co-captains this year. Besides science bowl, he also does science olympiad and specializes in the earth and space events. Although he has little of a personality apart from STEM competitions, he is a certified weeb who spends most of his free time watching anime and reading webtoons, light novels, and web novels. His music taste is rapidly fluctuating and, at the time of writing, going through a hyperpop phase, though he still listens to a considerable amount of alt-rock and k&j-pop. Despite being afraid of grass, he still enjoys watching grass grow at watching-grass-grow.com, a pastime he believes all agrostophobes should partake in.
Junior Advaith Mopuri is the secretary and a co-captain of the science bowl team for AC this year. Advaith specializes in math and physics, and is unusually bad at chemistry. He likes running, working on puzzles, playing with his dog, and most other things you can do outside. Advaith also likes playing board games, watching sitcoms, and making bad jokes. In his free time, you can probably find Advaith playing Brawl Stars and grinding/tilting Bo.
QUIZ BOWL
Co-Quiz Bowl Captain
challengeprady@gmail.com
Pradyumna Krishna is a sophomore at Mission San Jose High School, and the current captain of MSJ Quiz Bowl. In Quiz Bowl, he specializes in literature and fine arts. Outside of his academic life, he is interested in computer science and machine learning. In his free time, he watches a lot of sports, and ponders whether he would be a great NFL player in an alternate reality. He wants to try out for the badminton team for fun.
Theenash Sengupta
Quiz Bowl Co-Captain
Theenash Sengupta is currently a sophomore at Mission San Jose High School and the co-captain of the Quiz Bowl program in the 2024-2025 school year. In his freshman year, he competed in Science Bowl, Science Olympiad, and Quiz Bowl, attending various invitationals and events throughout the year. He plans to continue his participation in these events this year, and hopefully improve his performance. Theenash specializes in Biology and Chemistry, and has participated in the Biology Olympiad (scoring within the top 75 on the semifinal exam) and plans to participate in the Chemistry Olympiad this year as well. Outside of the STEM field, Theenash can be found participating in various events for his local Scouts BSA Troop 125, playing piano, or failing at table tennis. In his free time, Theenash enjoys watching thriller / drama shows on Netflix (Three-Body Problem is one of his favorites), listening to music, and arguing with his younger brother.
OCEAN SCIENCE BOWL
Ocean Science Bowl Co-Captain
Senior Rayyan Ibrahim currently serves as an Ocean Sciences Bowl Captain and Science Olympiad Captain. Rayyan specializes mostly in biology events but has a deep hatred for Science Olympiad’s “Forestry” event. Outside of AC, he is also the President of the MSJ Biology Club and Percussion Captain of the MSJ Drumline. Outside of MSJ, Rayyan has worked in a herpetology lab and has participated in ecological fieldwork. He enjoys spending time out in nature, with hobbies ranging from wildlife photography to fishing. He also likes hanging out with his pets, which include parakeets and cats (the birds and cats don’t interact with each other for obvious reasons).
Ocean Science Bowl Co-Captain​
Junior Aravind Muralidharan serves as ocean science bowl captain and the treasurer for the AC club this year. He has also tried in Science Bowl, Quiz Bowl, and Science Olympiad with varying degrees of success. His other activities include playing violin for the school orchestra as well as the California Youth Symphony; running for MSJ track and field in the 100 meters, long jump, and triple jump; and grinding for USABO. In his free time he likes to listen to and play classical music, attempt records in MarioKart 8 deluxe, work on jigsaw puzzles (looking for a good 2000 piece puzzle right now), and play street basketball with his friends.
HISTORY BOWL
History Bowl Captain
Junior Ashwin Vaidyanathan serves as the history bowl captain for MSJ AC and currently participates in History Bowl and Quiz Bowl. His main interests are history and political science, and he has participated in national and international level competitions in both. He enjoys studying these subjects deeply, by which he means going down Wikipedia and Youtube rabbit holes. At school, he also does Model UN, is Vice President of the Civics Club, runs a politics blog, and is regrettably, a percussionist in MSJ’s marching band and wind ensemble. Outside of school, Ashwin enjoys practicing percussion, watching Youtube videos, and listening to music. His music taste is primarily K-pop, but he also listens to classical music, especially when locking in during the wee hours of the night. Recently, he has taken a peculiar interest in working out and going to the gym, an interest which will face the ultimate test at the hands of the College Board this year.
ALUMNI
These MSJHS alumni have all served as officers or captains of MSJ Academic Challenge in the past.
TITUS TSAI
MSJ Class of 2022