An Americas High School student is among the top 300 seniors named as semifinalists of the Intel Science Talent Search (Intel STS) 2007. Senior Gabriel Mendoza was named a semifinalist for the STS, America's oldest and most prestigious science competition. Often called the “Junior Nobel Prize," the competition provides an incentive and an arena for US high school seniors to compete an original project.

Gabriel’s project involves Statistical and Deterministic Modeling Techniques Using System Dynamics. The Americas senior has been participating in science fairs and scientific research since elementary school at Horizon Heights. His sophomore year Gabriel and his sister, Priscilla, won a Grand Prize Award at the International Science and Engineering Fair, and they both had a minor planet named in their honor by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Ceres Program.

Gabriel is also a National Merit Semifinalist, and has already been named a National Hispanic Merit Scholar. He recently attained the rank of Eagle Scout and is president of the National Honor Society.  As a semifinalist for the Intel STS, Gabriel will receive $ 1,000 with an additional $ 1,000 going to Americas High School. The competition is open to all U.S. high school seniors and more than 1,600 students apply each year. This year’s entrants hail from 46 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, and represent 487 schools.

“We live in an era when excellence in math and science is critical to not only individual success but to our nation’s ability to compete,” said Intel Chairman Craig Barrett. “Intel STS brings together exceptional students who embody the American tradition of innovation, and whose ideas and advances will help shape the world we live in for generations to come.”

Over the past 66 years, the STS has produced winners of the world’s most prestigious academic honors. Six former finalists have gone on to win the Nobel Prize. STS finalists have also been awarded the Fields Medal, the National Medal of Science and MacArthur Foundation Fellowships.