User:Neon129
| Neon129 | |
|---|---|
| General Information | |
| Years in SO | 3 years |
| Current Team | Georgia Tech |
| Past Team(s) | River Ridge High School |
| State |  Georgia
|
| Division | D |
| Scioly.org Information | |
| Exalted | 1x
|
| Medals | |
| Total medals | 8 medals
|
| Competitor Info | |
| Competitions attended | 34 competitions
|
| Events competed in | 6 |
| Social Media | |
| Discord | Neon129 |
Hey! My name is Neon129, but you can just call me Neon! I previously competed at River Ridge High School for the 2023, 2024, and 2025 seasons, and was team co-captain during the 2025 season. I am currently a student at Georgia Tech, where I volunteer and write tests as a part of gtscioly!
Division A
I don't remember too much about my time in ESO, given how long ago that was. My elementary school's scioly had quite a few members, and even with enough spots for two full teams, I still had to apply! I got lucky enough to be a part of the team during my 3rd grade year (2016) and my 5th grade year (2018), but I've got no clue what happened to 4th grade. The team I was on did manage to qualify for the state competition in 2016 after getting like 5th or 6th at the county regional at River Ridge, but I never did medal in anything though..
I mainly stuck to paper rockets, rocks and minerals, and bottle rockets from what I can remember. I do remember one rather disappointing moment at regionals in 2018 where my bottle rocket never did launch, kinda funny thinking back on it.
Division C
I would have absolutely joined scioly in 9th grade (2022), if it were not for the complete lack of any team promotions whatsoever. By the time I figured out we had a team, it was already January....
2023 (10th Grade)
This was my first year doing scioly, and honestly, my results weren't all too bad considering that I spent practically no time on it! My first taste of competition was Brookwood that year, getting put on B team, showed up to do my two events, and left right after I was done. Looking back on it, 10th in astronomy was pretty good, especially considering that the test looks like it was ripped straight from a grad program. Our choice of regionals that year was unfortunate, with our team being one spot off from qualifying for state, but I did get my first medal!
| Event | Georgia Scrimmage | Brookwood | Regionals |
|---|---|---|---|
| Astronomy | ? | 10th | 5th |
| Fermi Questions | ? | 20th | 15th |
2024 (11th Grade)
After only doing two events the previous year, I decided to step up a bit and do a build event as well, before then promptly forgetting about it for the next few months. I am still pretty proud of pulling off second in astronomy at the Georgia Scrimmage, even if it was just out of the schools that didn't get top 10 at state the previous year. By the time Brookwood came along, I had to hurriedly put together what was an absolute unit of a tower (ended up weighing like 130 grams or something), and it somehow held full weight, but then proceeded to immediately shatter (quite literally, no pieces stayed attached to any other) when we tried to take the setup off. I was super close to a medal in astronomy, and I got slotted into geomapping for participation points with no notes, I've still got no clue how I pulled off 15th. Regionals went a lot better than the year before; I got 3rd in astronomy, and our team just barely eeked out 8th place by only a couple of points to qualify for state! I wasn't expecting much from state, honestly was just happy to be there, but ended up with a 4th place medal in astronomy.
| Event | Georgia Scrimmage | Brookwood | Regionals | State |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Astronomy | 2nd | 6th | 3rd | 4th |
| Fermi Questions | ? | 31st | 12th | 15th |
| Geologic Mapping | - | 15th | 10th | 12th |
| Tower | - | 23rd | 12th | 21st |
2025 (12th Grade)
This year was the first time since the pandemic that our team had officer positions, as getting to state again was just the motivation we needed to give RRHS SO a makeover. I was elected team co-captain along with my geomapping partner, and with the help of the rest of the team, we were able to get enough people to have two teams! The year started off with the Georgia Scrimmage, only getting 6th in astronomy (let's not talk about geomapping). We did have enough people interested to bring one team to the new Forsyth Central invitational, although my partner in astronomy had a conflict and couldn't go. Still got 5th on my own though, shame they didn't give medals for it. Moving on to possibly my best achievement ever during my time in scioly, we have Brookwood. Did a little better in geomapping, tower wasn't the greatest, but I won astronomy... somehow. I remember sitting through those awards, never having ever won an event before, having the overwhelming shock of winning over 70 something teams. 10/10, would recommend. Regionals went about as good as I expected, had some no-shows, but still got the state bid, and I got my first medal that wasn't for astronomy! State didn't go quite the way I wanted (was really hoping for an astro medal...), but my overall results were pretty solid. Tower went a lot better than expected, astronomy still wasn't bad, and geomapping was better than last year, so I'll take it!(we don't talk about chemlab...)
| Event | Georgia Scrimmage | Forsyth Central | Brookwood | Regionals | State |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Astronomy | 6th | 5th | 1st | 2nd | 7th |
| Chem Lab | - | 29th | - | 7th | 20th |
| Geologic Mapping | 74th | 13th | 10th | 1st | 9th |
| Tower | - | 13th | 32nd | 4th | 11th |
| Pokemon Medley | - | - | - | - | 8th |
Volunteering History
2023-2024
Didn't do too much this year, just helping out with the regional division a tourny at my school.
| Competition | Role |
|---|---|
| (Div. A) Cherokee County Regionals | Barge Building Event Supervisor |
2025-2026
Urban Schools Initiative Volunteering
| Role | School(s) |
|---|---|
| Head Coach Mentor | Rex Mill Middle School |
| G.P. Babb Middle School |
Competition Volunteering
| Competition | Role(s) |
|---|---|
| Greenbrier Invitational | Solar System Event Supervisor |
| Astronomy Event Supervisor | |
| Yellow Jacket Invitational | Solar System Event Supervisor |
| Pokemon Medley Exam Co-Writer |
Wiki Editing
I've mostly focused on cataloging the history of scioly at schools in cherokee county.
- River Ridge High School (Active)
- Etowah High School
- Cherokee High School
- Creekview High School
- Sequoyah High School
- E.T. Booth Middle School
- Creekland Middle School (Canton)
- Teasley Middle School
- Freedom Middle School
- Dean Rusk Middle School (Active)
Scioly participation in the county was much higher pre-covid. Oddly enough, the division A program in the county is very well-developed and has been since the 2010s at the very least. There was something I read a while back saying that every middle and high school in the county had a team around 2007 (before river ridge and it's feeder middle school mill creek were built), and a majority of the schools in the county have some spotty results from the 2000s to back this up. Covid seemed to kill the programs at every school except river ridge, with dean rusk rejoining in 2023 after a decade or so of being dormant.
Given the pretty strong division A program, there is no lack of kids interested in doing scioly, rather it's probably an issue of finding available teachers. I'll be helping out with the urban schools initiative though GT scioly, so hopefully I can pull some strings to get cherokee county involved, since it is a metro county.