KEKAHA — Three St. Theresa School learners — Anthony Riola, James Burkhart and Sophia San Agustin — represented their school at the Hawaiʻi State Science and Engineering Fair held April 2 at Blaisdell Arena, where competitors from across the state gathered to present their research for judging.
School officials congratulated the students in a press release for their outstanding research and for proudly representing the school at the state competition.
“Their participation highlights not only the talent and hard work of the learners but also the strength of the school’s science program. St. Theresa School continues to inspire young innovators, proving that even a small school can make a big impact on the state and even national stage,” the release stated.
In 2025, the school reached an extraordinary milestone. Three St. Theresa learners qualified for the prestigious national Junior Innovators Challenge.
“This accomplishment is especially significant given the highly competitive field: Out of approximately 3,000 national qualifiers, only 300 students were selected to advance,” the release said. “From Hawaii, just six students earned this distinction — and notably, half of them were from St. Theresa School in Kekaha.”
This year, at the state level competition, eight-grader San Agustin earned third place in her division with her project “White Noise, Black Out,” as well as a special award from the Hawaii Optometric Association in the amount of $100. San Agustin’s project investigated how white noise affects REM sleep length. Her findings showed that most participants experienced an increase in REM sleep duration when exposed to white noise, with an overall average increase of 6 minutes (6.25 percent increase).
“It was such a good experience,” said San Agustin. “I was impressed by the projects from Punahou and Iolani. Their projects inspired me to do an even more advanced project next year. Going to state competition was beneficial for me because I learned a lot from everyone else’s projects. I would love to expand my project next year and study how white noise affects memory plasticity.”
San Agustin added, “It was fun to also hang with Anthony and James, too!”
Sixth-graders Riola and Burkhart also qualified for state level competition.
Burkhart earned high honors at the regional (Kauai) level, taking third place overall in the Junior Division and receiving the Lemelson Award (Early Inventor’s Award) for his inventive work with plastics and cement.
Burkhart concluded that plastics can replace sand in concrete creating stronger and more durable concrete bricks, while providing a useful approach to recycling plastics.
“This competition motivated me to do better next year,” he said. “I liked seeing what other people studied and learning what inspired them to do their projects. I plan to do even better next year. Next year, I think I will continue to study ways to reuse plastics.”
Riola presented “Stretchin’ and Movin,’” a project studying the benefits of physical therapy and red light therapy for arthritis, after a strong regional Kauai showing where he earned the Biological Science Award, second place overall in the Junior Division and was named a Thermo Fisher Junior Innovative Challenge national nominee.
“It was a fun experience,” he said. “I was very nervous when I saw the amount of competition there! I learned that Kauai has only one region and other islands have several regions, meaning that Kauai has a lesser amount of competitors. I think Kauai did pretty good!”
“I was happy to represent my school,” he continued. “I’m going to try to make it to the state competition next year with an environmental study project. I’m happy that my dad came with me to Oahu … he really helped and supported me.”