Perspectives April 11

Perspectives

HALF HOLLOW HILLS HIGH SCHOOL EAST

Volume 1I , Issue III

April 6, 2011

A Special Message from Dr. Woodberry

PRINCIPAL’S NEWSLETTER

Greetings HS East Community,

The Insider’s View

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Spotlight on Excellence

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Spotlight on Respect and Responsibility

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High School East Has Got Spirit!

Fourth Quarter begins in a few days! Our students have been working hard all year to excel in their classes; however, I must emphasize the year is not over yet. With another quarter left and Regents and final exams in some courses, there is still an opportunity to make a significant impact on final grades. Parents, please encourage your children to continue to strive for excellence.

It has been an amazing year so far at HS East. This issue highlights some of the meaningful accomplishments of our students in various areas. I am extremely proud of all of them. As you read through the pages, you will see that our students are truly benefiting from their experiences here at HS East with our remarkable faculty and staff!

The Junior class gives us an indication of academic excellence with nearly 186 of them being inducted into the National Honor Society. The class of 2011 also shines here at HS East and their efforts have been recognized by many of the world’s finest colleges and universities. As has been reported in the media, college application rates have soared and admission rates are way down. Even still, our students are faring very well in the college admissions game. Remember, whether one is accepted to his or her top choice or not, there is a school out there for everyone. Hopefully, everyone will find the perfect fit.

Again, I encourage all of our students to stay focused academically and end the year on a positive note all around. As the warm weather approaches, attitudes and behavior tend to change. I urge all of the students to stay involved in positive activities both in and outside of school. Specifically to our seniors, I advise you to refrain from behaviors that could jeopardize all that you have worked for throughout your high school years.

Remember: Respect, Responsibility and Excellence!

Inside this issue: Sincerely, Dr. J. A. Woodberry Page 2 A Peek into the Hearts and Minds of Our Val and Sal

The Best of the Best at HSE Page 5 Peer Ambassadors Take On Bullies

Pages 6 East and West Unite in Europe

Page 8 A Scholar, An Athlete and A Gentleman

The Class of 2011 Top Twenty Students Always positive and with high hopes for a bright future, our top twenty seniors balance rigorous course work with a multitude of extra-curricular activities.

They truly exemplify respect, responsibility and excellence in all their endeavors.

The best of the best at Hills East are: Samara Badash, Samantha Caen, Jake Cohen, Scott Dunaisky, Katelyn Fletcher, Rachel Gerber, Samuel Goldberg, Monika Haebich, Eric Kessler, Thomas McCune, Alexandra Nemeth, Molly Ripp, Salutatorian Karishma Sabhnani, Alexander Schnapp, Daphne Shen, Benjamin

Spiegel, Danielle Stansky, Melissa Tannenbaum, Valedictorian Brett Teplitz, and Michael Winter.

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Perspectives

Spotlight on Excellence A Peek Into the Hearts and Minds of balance in an intense and challenging aca- friendship as a “volleyball match”—they keep the ball going even with an occaOur Val and Sal demic environment. sional twist or spin to the ball.

An avid tennis player and music lover, Salutatorian Karishma Sabhnani has a Valedictorian Brett Teplitz has aspirations passion for finance and business. She of becoming a doctor. Brett says his is going to explore other areas in source of inspiration is his parents. They college, however, in a quest to keep are the reason he became interested in an open and learning mind. “I would the medical field. He also credits Dr. Lake like to major in engineering or ecoand the science research program for nomics or statistics,” she says, “and deepening his knowledge and experience then go to grad school for business.” in biochemical research. His project in- As she awaits decisions from colvolving a mutation protein may lead to a leges, Karishma ponders whether therapeutic treatment for cancer someday she would like U Penn—Wharton, Princeton or Harvard. “I change my and may even render HIV inactive. mind about my top pick on an hourly Brett keeps very busy these days as vice- basis,” she claims. president of HSE National Honor Society, secretary of Mathletes, and member of This president of four clubs, dediScience Olympiads, Spanish Club and cated AP student and finalist in the Spanish Honor Society. He is also on the 2011 National Merit Scholarship Varsity Tennis team. With such a busy Program, cites her parents as her schedule, Brett still finds time to enjoy role models in life. “They never pressure Karishma would like to study and travel movies (the comedy Stepbrothers is a fa- me; I never felt pushed into anything I abroad someday. She has family all over vorite) and spend time with his friends. didn’t want. And I get my organization the world and muses, “Maybe I’ll take a He advises, “you can’t get through high skills from my mother.” Karishma also world trip the year after college graduaschool without friends to support you.” says she found her best friend for life right tion.”

He says that friendships provide a needed here at HS East. She describes their

Scientific Research

Perfection

One of our top twenty seniors Rachel Gerber earned the distinguished honor of semi-finalist in the 2011 Intel Science Talent Search with her project entitled “Nanosecond Simulations of the Folding Thermodynamics of the Trp-cage Miniprotein.” Although Rachel considers Math as her strongest subject, she has always been interested in science as well. She has been accepted on an early decision to Cornell where she will pursue a degree in biometry and statistics, a perfect blending of math and science research.

For the second year in a row, HS East boasts of a student earning a perfect score on the ACT college admissions and placement exam. Hannah Kenagy performed the feat and is among less than one percent of all test takers who earned the top score. ACT scores are accepted at all major U.S. colleges, and Hannah’s achievement indicates that she is ready for the challenge of higher education. We wish Hannah success as she advances in her academic pursuits.

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Volume 1I , Issue III

...and More Excellence Percussion is His Passion Andrew Grossman has been playing percussion instruments since fourth grade. This quiet and unassuming senior has consistently improved and fine tuned his craft over the years and grown into a talented and passionate percussionist.

He has graced the stages of HS East and numerous others as he competed and won NYSSMA honors throughout his four high school years, and this year he was honored as the All-Eastern Alternative in Percussion.

Andrew fell in love with the marimba.

This has been a particularly busy year for Andrew as he prepares for his future. His college application process involves grueling auditions in which he has to perform two marimba, two timpani and two snare drum compositions. He would prefer to go to a conservatory over a traditional college or university so he can concentrate on his music.

One day, Andrew would like to be a member of a symphony orchestra or perhaps a pit orchestra on Broadway.

Andrew says he has been inspired by If you have ever had the pleasure of the marimba artist Gordon Stout who teaches at Ithaca College. When Andrew seeing and hearing Andrew perform, was in 8th grade, he heard a recording of you would agree that he has a promMr. Stout’s performance and that’s when ising musical future.

Best in Show The Long Island Media Arts Show is an annual event hosted

by Eastern Suffolk BOCES in collaboration with the NYS Summer School of the Media Arts. Media Arts students visit Five Towns College to showcase their art and receive peer feedback and critiques from professionals in the corresponding fields.

Young Writer Takes the Gold Sophomore Jake Ethe’ was honored as a “gold-key recipient” in the Scholastic Art and Writing contest. Jake was selected among an exclusive group of students from across the country and this award recognizes that Jake’s writing has advanced to the national level of competition.

The essay Jake chose to submit is a personal memoir about his grandfather’s experience in the Holocaust. He says that his grandfather will always be his inspiration. While Jake likes to This event have fun with creative writing, he prefers essay writing and combines all loves poetry. The poets Alexander Pope and Allen Ginsberg forms of digital are his favorites. and media art: video, photography, computer graphics and animation. Mrs. Uttendorfer's video students: Dean Baram, Kimberly Cain, Rachel Cohen, Alex Freedman, and Matt Kronrad presented videos on various themes such as stop motion animation and Twilight Zone parodies.

Each student discussed his or her movie before it played for everyone to see. Following the preview, the two professional judges offered feedback and discussed the strengths. Dean Baram's video, The Futurist Manifesto and Rachel Cohen's video, The Hand, were so well received by the judges that they made it to the 'best in show' round and played for everyone that attended the event. Over 135 videos were played and over 500 students from Nassau and Suffolk Counties attended the event. Dean and Rachel's videos will move on to another round of judging by the NYS Film Commissioner.

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Perspectives

Spotlight on Respect and Responsibility Bringing Real Issues to Life

dramatizations of substance abuse, domestic violence, selfesteem issues, and depression. Some of the actors have actually experienced the scenes they portray and share their experiences in a question and answer discussion at the end of the performance.

Building a strong, positive character is as important as building a strong academic transcript. In this rapidly changing world, our young people are constantly faced with choices that can either foster selfrespect and integrity or lead to moral decline. The staff at HS East has been working together in an effort to offer programs that can help our students Facebook poses additional respect and responsibility make the right choices. challenges for young people.

Eleventh and tenth graders attended Ninth graders attended a productions by “Stories of Substance”, a presentation by the Suffolk County Police theatrical ensemble that uses drama, hu- department on internet safety and cyberThis informational assembly mor and music to educate students about bullying. making healthy decisions no matter what emphasized the consequences for engagissues they may face. The “stories” are ing in inappropriate use of computers, based on real life situations and include particularly on social networks.

Peer Ambassadors take on Bullies A force of thirty students, under the direction of school psychologist Mr. Miracolo and guidance counselor Dennis Murphy, are ready to fight bullying at HS East.

They are committed to raising awareness of bullying and harassment among all students. Peer Ambassador Julia Bertolino claims, “It’s great that students are involved because kids aren’t going to talk to a teacher about bullying; they rather talk to kids.” Peer Ambassador Nicolette Walsh says, “My friends that know I’m in the program say, ‘Wow, that’s great’.”

The Peer Ambassadors attended a day of intensive training with the psychologists and social worker Julia Gallo where they engaged in interactive games and role playing to learn how to deal with bullying situations. Feedback from the day was positive. The students discussed how great it was to get together and share a common interest. After the training, they felt it would be much easier to get to know individual people and how to start a conversation in order to help victims or bystanders stand up to bullies.

At HS East we have made a commitment to search for the best programs available that will engage our students in thinking critically about the choices they make.

At their last meeting, the peer ambassadors brainstormed projects to get the word out about their mission. Ideas included a no bullying day on which students come to the student center and sign a contract, handing out pins or badges that say “I support antibullying,”’ and a website or social network site where people can talk about bullying.

However they decide to get the message out, this passionate group of students will make it clear that bullying is not acceptable behavior at HS East.

With their infectious enthusiasm and energy, it won’t be long until other students follow their lead.

Volume 1I , Issue III

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Academic Teams Finish with Top Honors Hearings in Albany on March 5th. Stu- tion. Check in on our website for the dents were rated on their knowledge of results later this spring.

After a busy day of challenging course- the Constitution and their ability to work, projects and exams, our students relate today’s news and court cases to Our future leaders in the business world demonstrated their expertise continue their intellectual pursuits in a their knowledge of the Constitution. with another successful DECA State variety of academic clubs and teams.

The Hills East Science Olym- Competition in Rochester, NY. The piad team came in 7th out of Hills East DECA team had five State fifty teams at the New York Champions, Schuyler Berland, Alexa State competition earlier in Goetz, Ted Goshman, Karishma March. Prior to that, at the Sabhnani, and Aneesh Shah; and five top Long Island Regional Competi- ten winners, Jenna Ferranti, Adam tion, they had earned four Friedman, Madison Marisi, Victoria gold, five silver, five bronze, Sulenski, and Eric Steinberg in a variety one fourth, three fifth and of business categories. seven sixth place medals, totaling 25 medals earned, a new record for the team.

State and County Champs

The Science Olympiad Team

News of success on the state and county level came pouring in over the past two months and we are proud to recognize these accomplishments.

HS East students of “We the People” will represent New York as the state champions in the national finals in Arlington, Virginia. Under the guidance of their teacher, Mr. Pitman, the team earned the best score of the nine high schools that attended the NY State Final

HS East Speech and Debate students are having an exciting year as they rack up the honors at all levels. Twenty one students have qualified for the 2011 New York State Forensics Championships. Two of those students will represent at the National level: Shreyas Havaldar in JV ExDECA State Champions and Winners temporaneous Speaking and Zakiya Williams Wells in Declama-

For more photos, see the HS East website.

Team Killshark Dominates On February 4, 2011 the annual Trivia Challenge for the United Cerebral Palsy of Greater Suffolk took place. Over one hundred students participated in the event, which was organized and orchestrated by Mrs. Lykos. Students gathered and worked in teams to answer difficult trivia questions on topics ranging from pop culture to history and literature.

The day was a fun and enjoyable experience for all, especially Mr. Simon and Ms. Damato who helped run the challenge. The cumulative efforts of all the participants raised over $1,300 for this great cause!

After this school-wide competition ended, one team stood above the rest.

For the third consecutive year, Team Killshark dominated the competition.

Seniors Brandon Ehrlich, Jonathan Franco, Rachel Gerber and Jessica Golden took their trivia knowledge to the regional competition hosted by the UCP of Greater Suffolk for the third and final time. Team Killshark took 5th place at the competition, and we are very proud of their accomplishment! Thank you again to all who participated.

— article contributed by Rachel Gerber

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Perspectives

Around High School East Youth to Youth

discussion about how it felt to be the ones with the red sticks. They then read a book entitled The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson after which the students wrote responses and drew pictures.

They finished with a passage about Rosa Parks and discussed how it related to the book.

The students in Youth to Youth Teaching were able to walk in a teacher’s shoes recently at Signal Hill Elementary School. They designed a lesson on segregation for the elementary students.

First, they used blue and red popsicle sticks to separate the class. Children with the blue popsicle sticks were asked, Ninth grader Jenna Sarcona said it was “How many jumping jacks do you want fun teaching the children. She is feathe red popsicle stick children to do?” tured right executing the lesson with The students with the red sticks had to tenth grader Ashley Jimenez. comply. The blue popsicle stick students were then told they could relax. This along with another activity sparked a

Hills East Students are Out of This World

East and West Unite in Europe For the first time in over ten years, students from HS East and HS West had the opportunity to become travel buddies in two trips to Europe. One group began in France in the beautiful cities of Paris and Nice. They then ventured on to Montecatini and Rome, Italy. Another group enjoyed three cities in sunny Spain: Grenada, Seville, and Madrid. Lindsay Sperin (featured below with fellow travelers), who was on the Spain trip, said the best part was “getting to bond with students from West.” She also said that the stay in Madrid was her favorite part of the trip.

The students are grateful for this unique opportunity and The district’s planetarium teachers Tom Affatigato and Brian thank LOTE director Francesco Fratto and all those who Clare have worked for many months constructing a 200 chaperoned for making this adventure possible. Planning has square foot red Martian surface at the Discovery Center at already begun for more trips next year. the Fran Greenspan Administration Center. Along with a number of students from around the district, HSE students were instrumental in helping along the way. Allyson Uttendorfer’s AP Art students painted the Martian sky and horizon.

Tenth grader Jordan Raitses helped build the robotic arm rover. Eleventh grader Chris Wolfrom helped see the project through difficult times, working on robots, rockets, and many other technical problems.

The Mars surface will be used during elementary school trips to the Discovery Center and students will remotely drive two small robot rovers—one equipped with a video camera and the other with a robotic arm. After hundreds of hours of work, the Mars landscape looks spectacular. Drop by the Discovery Center and see for yourself!

— Thank you to Brian Clare for his contribution to this article

Volume 1I , Issue III

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High School East Has Got Spirit!

Teachers and Students Work Together to Make it Happen Spirit Day, March 18, 2011, was a huge success as period three classes battled for the honor of Most Spirited. Many students and their teachers rose to the occasion and demonstrated their spirit.

While there were several classrooms that contended for the top spot, the four that stood out were Mrs. Southard’s Business Ownership and Marketing class, Dr. Stabile’s Regents Biology class, Mr. Herr’s Health class and Mr. DelGuidice’s AP Calculus class.

At Pep Rally, the final four faced off in a draw and Mr. Del Guidice (featured in photo on right) was rewarded with a week off from duty and free lunch from

our cafeteria. His students won a bagel breakfast and Mr. Del Guidice said he enjoyed a bagel as well!

Pep Rally was also a spirit filled experience with the introduction of our spring teams and performances by the Hills East Dixettes and dancers from The Expressive Movement Club.

Lisa Diasparra thrilled the crowd with her rendition of Katy Perry’s “Firework” and Justin Starling captured everyone’s attention with a performance of two Rap tunes, “Remix: I’m ill” and “Remix: We Gotta Problem” .

Enjoy these photos and more on the Media Gallery.

HALF HOLLOW HILLS HIGH SCHOOL EAST

Excellence in Athletics Deshawn McNeil and Tommy Shair. Anthony Abidin went on to capture both the county and HS East athletes and teams gained recognition state championships at 125 lbs. at the county and state level this past winter.

The Boys’ Swim and Dive Team (combined with We congratulate all our athletes on all their HS West) captured their 5th consecutive successes and look forward to the spring seacounty championship with several team mem- son. bers taking first place at the state championships. The Hills East Dixettes (pictured right) had a great day at the Long Island Kickline Association Championships. The girls placed third in the Pom category and came home with the first place trophy in the kick category, earning them the title of Long Island Kick Champions.

Wrestling also had a successful end to the season. At the League III Wrestling Tournament, they had three league champs, Anthony Abidin,

Winter Sports Wrap Up

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

sport at the college level. Bria York State Champion in two Green (pictured left) signed swimming events and was honTwo of our finest athletes her letter of intent for Softball ored with All American status. have made a commitment to at Delaware State University. pursue participation in their Bria has been active in Volleyball and Basketball as well here at East and is a passionate and dedicated athlete.

Letters of Intent

Matt DeBlasio (pictured right with coach Jason Wiedersum) signed his letter of intent to Notre Dame for Swimming. Matt was the New

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

High School East

A Scholar, An Athlete national USA swimmer before academics as a biology major going on to Varsity Swimming and will go on to medical and A Gentleman in high school. He enjoyed success at County and State Championship competitions in the 200 Medley Relay and Fly events. He was all county in Medley and all league in Fly. Jared credits his swimming coach Jason Wiedersum who encouraged Jared to never give up and always try his hardest.

Varsity Swimmer Jared Siegel was honored recently with the very prestigious News 12 Scholar Athlete Award.

A reporter and cameraman followed Jared on a typical day here at Hills East as Jared attended classes and swimming practice. His spotlight of fame was already aired, but you can Jared says he will not swim still see the clip on the News competitively in college and 12 website. will most likely join a club swimming team. He wants to Jared started swimming in concentrate on excelling in his seventh grade as a regional and

school.