HS East Newsletter June 2012

Perspectives

HALF HOLLOW HILLS HIGH SCHOOL EAST PRINCIPAL’S NEWSLETTER

Volume 1V, Issue 1V

June 8, 2012

A Special Message from Dr. Woodberry Dear High School East Community,

The Insider’s View Page 2 A student becomes a Mighty Man Page 4 Supporting human rights around the globe Page 6 Architecture Club designs for district Page 7 The top performers at HSE Page 8 Record breaking track season

Another great year at High School East is coming to an end. We could not have had a finer group of students, educators, parents and community members working together to achieve academic success. Looking through the articles for this issue gave me the opportunity to reflect on the remarkable people we have here at High School East.

Even though I am fortunate to personally witness a lot of the amazing things that happen here, when viewed in total, I am truly surprised by all of the accomplishments of our students.

Class of 2012, as you move on to bigger venues, know that you have a solid foundation and you are ready to excel at the next level. Remember all you have learned here at High School East, both the academic and life lessons. All of your experiences here may not have gone exactly as you would have imagined they would, but please focus on the good as you prepare to start a new life. We hope that you feel you have been nurtured, challenged and inspired by the adults who worked with you over the past four years. You will always be a part of us here at High School East. We are very proud of your development and accomplishments. Continue to live up to the high standards of your Half Hollow Hills community no matter what path you choose. All the best in your future endeavors!

Good luck to the Class of 2012! I wish everyone an enjoyable and safe summer!

Special Thanks to Contributors: Jason Braun

Remember Respect, Responsibility and Excellence, Dr. J. A. Woodberry Principal, HS East

Patrick Breig Rose Suarez Bryson Owens Dan Weinberg Calli Katzelnick Alexandra Simon Susan Wolff Danielle Mahoney And Photographers: Felice Krystal Life Touch Studio Allyson Uttendorfer

Award Winning Senior In addition to the many awards and scholarships she received at the Senior Awards Ceremony last Thursday evening, Hannah Kenagy recently won a third place Engineering Bronze Medal at the prestigious International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering, Environment Project (I-SWEEEP) Olympiad in Houston, Texas. The following is an overview from the ISWEEEP website:

1,000 participants shared t heir ideas, experience and knowledge to promote maintaining global sustainability in the future.”

Congratulations “I-SWEEEP 2012 showcased the top high once again to school researchers from all over the world, Hannah—we are who displayed their innovative ideas. Over very proud!

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Perspectives

Brains and Braun Bring Honors Hills East DECA Dominates The Hills East D.E.C.A. team once again dominated the New York State Competition in Rochester, NY. Students competed against every high school in New York State in a variety of business categories. Each category had between 45-65 participants. The team had six International Qualifiers: Schuyler Berland (1st place), Ron Qiao (2nd place), Jeremy Schnapp (2nd place), Alex Pae (2nd place), Adam Needelman (2nd place), and Adam Friedman (2nd place). The following students also finished in the top 10 in NYS: Jeff Cherkin, Ryan Fishbein, Ted Goshman, Matt Henry, James Litcchult, Alex Milo, Eli Scwartz, Areeta Shah and Aneesh Shah. Congratulations to the entire team on a great job once again at States!

Tri-Athlete Takes Third Terrence Bailer, a junior here at Hills East, placed third in his age division (1519 years) in the Mini Mighty Man Triathlon at Eisenhower Park.

Terrence prefers the triathlon event to just running—-he says the swimming keeps it interesting.

During the event, he swam 400 meters, biked six miles and ran two miles.

Terrence credits his mother, an avid tri-athlete, for inspiring him to enter his first event at 13 years old. It was raining that day at SUNY Old Westbury for the Strong Island Kids Triathlon, but Terrence came in second in his age division. After that, he was hooked. He says he will probably continue his quest for the top medal in the future. He trains regularly at the gym, running on the treadmill, swimming in the pool and playing basketball.

Here at school, Terrence excels in his studies, is a member of the African American Student Organization and Business Honor Society. He has his sights set on a career in business someday.

Mathletes Score High Again In the Suffolk County Senior High Mathematics League, we have a team that placed 1st in the division and 7th in the league. This team consisted of Shreyas Havaldar, Alexander Giris, Tammy Jin, Adam Needelman, Brian Levy, and Kris Pang. Top individual scorers being recognized by the league include Shreyas Havaldar, Alexander Giris, Andrew Ou, and Kris Pang. These seven individuals were invited to participate in the state competition NYSML and national competition ARML. Alexander Giris, Brian Levy, Andrew Ou, and Kris Pang attended NYSML; Andrew Ou was on a team that placed 2nd in the B Division.

- reported by Advisor Rose Suarez

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Volume 1V, Issue 1V

Students Shine with Creative Expression E-Factor Creator Reflects on able to do it. I thought since I never and after expenses, we donated $1,580 to our local chapter of the did anything this big before, it His Experience ACS. All of the acts were amazing but there was only one winner, Lisa On the first day of my sophomore Diasparra who sang Angels by Jessica year, I visited my guidance counselor Simpson.

Ms. Michalowski in order to get her advice on how to get the show I was very proud of myself due to started. She told me to write up a the fact that cancer has played a sigproposal and meet with Dr. Wood- nificant role in my life. My Aunt died berry for his approval. When I met from breast cancer in the year 2000; with Dr. Woodberry, he told me I my grandfather died in 2009 from cancer, needed a club to sponsor the event. lung That’s when I met with the Diversity and most imCommittee, and the planning began. portantly, my mother was We first started to talk about a diagnosed with date, and then we started talking breast cancer about auditions, tickets, etc. We even in 2001 and has tried to get a celebrity to make an been a survivor appearance for the show. But that ever since. I did not work out. On opening night can’t wait to do of the E-Factor I was very apprehen- it next year, sive. I was afraid everything might not which I hope go the way we planned or I might be can be district wide and to continue a terrible host. But in the end, every- the fight against cancer. thing worked out and we raised $1,858 from ticket sales, food sales, - Special thanks to Bryson Owens and donations throughout the night, for this article wouldn’t work or come together.

In the school year of 2011-2012, I organized a Talent Show along with the HSE Student Diversity Committee in order to raise money and do-

nate it to the American Cancer Society for cancer research. It was a very long, stressful, yet fun process. When I came up with the idea in July of 2011, I thought that I wouldn’t be

Mastery of the Spoken Word stage to display their mastery of the and the curriculum includes spoken On Friday, June 1st, Mr. Breig’s senior Modern Poetry Class hosted the Third Annual Hollow Hills Poetry Slam in the High School East Lecture Hall. Seniors from both High School East and High School West took the

spoken word with poems that broached topics such as race, gender, relationships, family, friendship, and more. Students weaved wonderful rhyme, crafted beautiful imagery, told unique and personal stories, and displayed powerful emotions. In the end, the team called Miracle from High School West took home the trophy, with teams Infinity and Captured Freedom from High School East taking second and third place.

word poetry, which is performed on stage. Poetry slams are spoken word competitions that have been held locally and nationally since the mid 1980s. At slams, spoken word teams compete and winners are crowned.

Mr. Breig and Ms. Kelly, who teach the Modern Poetry class at East and West respectively, thought that a slam would be a great way for students to show off their writing abilities, speak their minds, meet new people, and have fun performing and listening to the poems they created.

Modern Poetry is a senior elec- Each year, the event has accomtive that focuses primarily on po- plished all of these goals. etry written in the last fifty years, - article by Patrick Breig

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Perspectives

HSE Students Giving Back Amnesty International at HHH East Throughout the school year, the Hills East chapter of Amnesty International has been very busy supporting human rights causes around the globe.

A main focus of the club this year has been working together with other clubs. With the help of Spanish Honor Society, two separate events have been held to support the village of La Ceiba, Nicaragua. La Ceiba is a rural community that is very poor, and where many children only get one meal per day – from the local church. Amnesty, in conjunction with

Soccer for a Cause The Matthew Logan Scarpati Memorial Soccer Tournament was originally conceived in 2010 as an opportunity for former teammates of Matt’s to have an opportunity to play soccer in a friendly but competitive atmosphere to raise money for the Miles for Matt Foundation. Matthew Scarpati was a Hills East graduate who was tragically killed on the bicycle path of the Wantagh Parkway by a drunk motorcyclist.

In the tournament’s first year, 12 of the 16 teams playing included players

through this program is a big commitment, however, as there is no backing out once the decision is made. We are pleased to announce that we have met our funding goal and will be able to support a woman in a developing country for an entire year. Amnesty is very thankful for the help it received from French Honor Society, Indian Club, the Newspaper Club, and others in putting together the Food Fest, as this was integral in Also recently, a global issues QR reaching the financing target. code scavenger hunt (see photo below) and a Food Fest were held in As the school year inches closer to order to raise money for Women for the end, one aspect of human rights Women International, an organization promotion that we especially hope which allows groups or individuals to will endure is the raising of awaresupport a specific woman and her ness. The display in the main lobby family for a year. The fact exemplifies this, as it has facts about that this organization the current injustices around the supports only women is world and what everyone can do to imperative, because it is help create change. We hope that proven that empowering our local Amnesty Chapter will conwomen and promoting tinue to promote real transformation, gender equality raises both in Hills East and all over the entire nations out of planet. poverty. Choosing to support someone - Article by Dan Weinberg Spanish Honor Society, is using the proceeds from the two events to help build a dining facility. When some of the money was delivered around the holiday season, small toys were also sent down for the children, and we received handwritten letters in return. They were heartfelt and touching, and truly let us know that all of the effort that was going into these events was worth it.

with some direct connection to Matt, whether it was through past varsity teams or club teams. After the first year was complete, we realized that there was an unmet need for a soccer tournament in which many different types of teams could be included.

have enough interest to form entire divisions of similarly experienced teams. As we approach the third annual tournament, we are excited to welcome 28 teams, including 12 varsity squads from around Long Island, various alumni teams from around Long Island, and several club teams In 2011, we expanded to 20 teams, from around New York. and invited a small number of high school varsity squads to test how well The players are all excited to play they could be integrated into the Saturday, June 9th, on the fields bespirit of the day. After a successful hind Hills East, in an extremely comyear two, we felt prepared to open petitive but relaxed atmosphere in the tournament up to more and the name of a great cause. more teams with varying backgrounds, as we felt that we would - Article by Michael Bongino

Volume 1V, Issue 1V

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Community Service and Scholarly Leadership Giving a Voice to Silence

Caleb’s work with Engergeia dealt with the issue of self-esteem in school. He created a tumbler account in which students could participate in an open-book discussion about their experiences. His goal is to give a voice to those who have been bullied and as result, have low self-esteem, but suffered silently. By connecting to others, they realize they are not alone and this helps them overcome their problems. Caleb promoted the site by posting information on Facebook, giving invites, and speaking to students in their English classes. So far, the site has been very successful.

Congratulations Caleb Garard for participating in the 2011/2012 Energeia Partnership for Teens Junior Academy for Regional Stewardship.

Caleb, a High School East junior, has been involved with Engergeia for two years. Based at Molloy College, Energeia “is committed to educating leaders for the benefit of all people who live and work on Long Island.”

The partnership “brings together a diverse group of ethical leaders from Long Island's public, private and not-for-profit sectors to help address this region's most complex issues: education, institutional racism, poverty and the working poor, land use, energy, transportation, healthcare and media/social netIn addition to Energeia, working.”

Caleb is very involved in A Scholar and A Leader Congratulations are in order for Zakiya Williams Wells, a junior at Half Hollow Hills High School East!

Zakiya is among only a small number of students to be awarded a full scholarship to attend the Telluride Association Summer Program “Democracy and Diversity” at Cornell University this summer. This

prestigious six-week-long educational program selects 64 participants from all over the world to study exemplary historical statements of the ideals of democracy, drawing on traditional and contemporary works in political philosophy.

This unique experience will give Zakiya the opportunity to work alongside world-renowned professors from some of our nations best universities including Princeton, Yale, Columbia and Cornell.

During this program, she will work with these professors to explore the numerous avenues possible in the fields of sociology, anthropology, cultural and legal students, and political science.

extracurricular activities, both inside and outside of school. He is an excellent clarinetist who competes in NYSSMA and he studies financial literacy by taking World of Money courses. Caleb has even started his own web-based business, Healthy Promis, which sells heart healthy natural drinks.

- article by Patrick Breig

This experience will further strengthen Zakiya’s resume during her time here at Hills East. Last summer she was also selected for a similar esteemed program through Indi an a Un i ve rs it y ent it led , “Blackness, Media, and SelfConcept.” These programs will give her the interactions, community service, leadership skills and selfdetermination needed to achieve her ultimate goal of becoming a bilingual Environmental Lawyer. Luckily for us, Zakiya will be back next year for her senior year, striving to achieve excellence in all areas of her life and providing us with an admirable role model to our younger students.

- article by Jason Braun

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Perspectives

Designing Minds Focus Close to Home our community about architecture, two 16 ft benches in the shape of an and show them how much fun this “S” (See photo below). Club members constructed, upholstered, and The Architecture Club at Hills East program is in High School. painted the metal legs. We believe is a rewarding and enjoyable after that the benches will add a new creaWorking closely with the Hall of school activity for all students interested in design. This club allows stu- Fame committee at Central Office, tive style to the space. We are fortudents to participate in building vari- Architecture Club put their Iron nate to have had the help of two ous unique structures, and create CAD skills to work creating a design families in constructing these their designs in real life situations plan for the soon-to-be HHH Hall Of benches. Architecture Club’s conwithout necessarily taking the Archi- Fame at Central Office. The HOF struction manager, Jagger Steck’s tecture class. Along with building room will showcase the talents of family donated all of the wood and famous and successful alumni Mr. Steck personally welded the legs from the Half Hollow Hills for the bench, while Mrs. Garcia, school district. The room in- mom of Architecture III student, cludes display walls with re- Jessy Garcia, used her expertise with cessed Niche’s to showcase furniture upholstery to help us finish imagery and memorabilia, a off the bench. movie room for screenings, and trophy cases. Walls will be Architecture Club provides stuarranged to guide the visitors dents with a place to belong, learn successfully through the space, new skills, make a positive impact on encouraging continued but the community, and introduce stuguided movement. Architec- dents to the world of architecture. ture Club members presented Each dedicated member of the Arthe HOF plans in person to the com- chitecture Club has made a positive beneficial items for our own school, mittee and are awaiting final con- impact on the school, the district, our Architecture Club mainly focuses on constructing objects or struction, marking the first “real-life and the greater Long Island community. items for those in need.. In the latter job” in the field of Architecture. part of this school year, Architecture club focused their energies on pro- In an effort to make the student It is our mission to continue to use center more appealing, the Architec- our skills to better our community jects close to “home”. ture Club took on the adventurous and help those people and places in After the winter holidays ended, task of creating a new and attractive need.

- Written by Calli Katzelnick the Architecture Club organized a sign for the school store, which features the T-bird logo, a new name and Alex Simon field trip to work with Beth Ezrin’s th “The Bird Cage” (see 4 grade class at Chestnut Hill. Both officers and club members worked photo above), and diligently to construct multiple three- school colors. dimensional architectural puzzles that we would later rebuild with the Architecture Club elementary school kids. We made also came up with difposters with fun facts about each ferent design plans to building and included pictures of make our student centhese magnificent structures that ter a more userhave sustained throughout time. The friendly, fun, flexible Architecture Club members were room for teenagers to able to teach the younger students in visit throughout the day.

We fabricated

ARCHITECTURE CLUB

Volume 1V, Issue 1V

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Musicians, Actors and Writers Hills East Top Performers The High School Symphony Orchestra, led by Mrs. Leanne Strom, attended the NYSSMA Adjudication Festival and received the highest rating possible, a Gold with Distinction Award. After many hours of practicing and rehearsing, the string players of Mrs. Strom's Symphony Orchestra have much to be proud of. The Orchestra prepared some very difficult repertoire and received many outstanding comments from the judges about their level of musicianship. This was a momentous occasion for the graduating seniors, as it was their last performance. A special mention to our very talented soloists; violinists Janet Park, Sarah Tse and Helen Kim, violist Alex Winter and cellists John Ahn and James Vaccaro. This was the first time Half Hollow Hills High School East Orchestra has attended the NYSSMA Majors Festival. They have set forth a high standard of excellence for the future of our Orchestra program. Congratulations to the students of HSE Orchestra!

ble for its Gold with Distinction!

More congrats are in order for the students of drama for their recent awards from the Towns of Huntington and Babylon. At the Hunting-Tony’s, HS East was well represented with nine nominations for Anything Goes, and five for Taming of the Shrew. We won the following: Best Publicity—Taming of the Shrew; Best supporting Actor in a Musical—Josh Estes; Best Female Vocalist—Olivia Patronis; Best Musical—Anything Goes. At the Babylon Citizens Council on the Arts (BaCCA), even more accolades rained on our young thespians: Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play—Josh Estes; Best Actor in a Supporting Role in a Play—Josh Rosenbaum; Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Play—Sophia Pavlatos; Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical— Olivia Patronis; Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical—Nikki Horowitz; Teens in Tune Award— Veronica Fox, Madison Marisi, Lindsay Harris, and Valerie Tepper.

Congrats to the students and their directors StephaAlso, congratulations once again to the Symphonic nie McCarthy, Danielle McCroy and Ben Wiley.

Band who earned another Gold and the Wind Ensempresentation of the story. They were then asked to be creative and write a unique children’s story at the kinThis past spring, Mrs. Wolff’s child development class dergarten level. The students used the library lab to enjoyed creating children’s books and then went on a create their books. field trip to Paumanok Elementary School to share the books with the five kindergarten classes at Paumanok. The visit to Paumanok was a huge success. The high The lesson for the child development class was how school student’s read their books rotating around to important it is to get children off to a good start by the five different kindergarten classes. The child development students would stop as they were reading and awakening their interest in books at an early age. ask open ended questions to the kindergarten stuThe lesson started with the child development class dents. They also had the younger students make predictions while reading their stolearning about different types ries. Some of the students had of books (pop up, picture props such as masks and one books, touch books) and then book had maps of other counwe discussed types of books tries to go along with their that small children are interstory. The kindergarten students ested in (rhyming words, fanwere very enthusiastic interacttasy stories, funny episodes, ing with the high school stucolorful books). The students dents and it was definitely an then practiced reading chilenjoyable learning experience dren’s books to each other and evaluated each other on for all involved. their appearance while reading, voice and diction, and the - article by Susan Wolff

Teens Share Creative Writing with Tots

HALF HOLLOW HILLS

Student Athletes Shine at HSE and Beyond

HIGH SCHOOL EAST

Season Highlights PRINCIPAL’S NEWSLETTER

High School East 50 Vanderbilt Parkway Dix Hills, NY 11746

Produced by: Darlene Lilla Assistant Principal Phone: 631-592-3128 Fax: 631-592-3121 E-mail: dlilla@hhh.k12.ny.us

The Spring sports season has produced victories and honors for our student athletes. Girls Lacrosse had great success, qualifying for the playoffs. Alexis Maffucci and Gina Dolisi were named All County and Cara Pascarella was named All League. Boys Lacrosse also qualified for the playoffs. Hills East also boasts of two County Champion teams: Girls Badminton and Boys Tennis.

Alec Tuckey won the deciding match for the Boys Tennis victory. We also congratulate our top golfers Ben Noskin, who received All Conference and Steve Chung Jr. (featured right), who received both All Conference and All County. Special recognition by the Town of Huntington was bestowed on Jordan Gross and Nicole Jablon who were honored as 2012 Scholar Athletes.

High School East

Congratulations to our athletes and coaches for their perseverance on the court, track, green and field.

You make us proud!

Some of our athletes take their skills beyond the walls of Hills East, in community

The Amazing Girls of Track

Visit Our Website: www.halfhollowhills.k12.ny.us

travel teams. The Half Hollow Hills Thundercolts, an Islandwide High School Roller Hockey team, became Tier II Long Island Champions. Hills East students who helped bring their team to victory are: Josh Blum, Justin Gewirtz, Evan Hyman, Andrew Korman, Dylan Mastrandrea, and Brandon Seiden.

Girls’ Track has had an amazing season with record breaking events. Earlier in May, at the Loucks Invitational, eighth grader Mary Chimezie broke the 100m dash record, running 12:61. The 4x100 relay team of Mary Chimezie, Rosie Oroyemi, Amanda Ribeiro and Meredith Esswein re-broke the Hills East record running 49:91. The 4x400 relay team of Tivoni Taylor, Christy Perrier, Lauren Keschner and Tiffany Perrier (pictured right) broke the Hills East record running 4:03.95.

Then, during the Division Champs Meet, the dynamic four, Tivoni, Christy, Lauren and

Tiffany, broke their own record running 4:02.65, placing them second in the division.

Also, Tivoni broke the 400m Hurdle Hills East record running 67:03 and placing fifth in the division. The 4x100 of Rosie Oroyemi, Jessika Kagan, Meredith Esswein, and Mary Chimezie placed second in the division. Finally, as if that is not enough, the 4x400 Relay Team of Tivoni, Lauren, Christy and Tiffany broke their own record for the fourth time at the State Quals Meet! This time they did it in grand fashion running a sub four minute time of 3:58.95, also qualifying them to run at Nationals.

Congrats to the girls and their coaches Laura Anderson and Brian Strack!