Perspectives
HALF HOLLOW HILLS HIGH SCHOOL EAST
Volume 1 , Issue III
April 9, 2010
A Special Message from Dr. Woodberry
PRINCIPAL’S NEWSLETTER
Greetings HS East Community,
The Insider’s View
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Awards and Honors Across the Curriculum
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Italian Poetry Takes the Stage
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Charity and Service in the Hearts of HS East Students
Believe it or not, the 3rd marking period ends in a few days. Although we are three quarters of the way through the school year, I want to stress to everyone to keep working hard to make the best of your time here. To the majority of students at East who have achieved beyond expectations and to those who have struggled, continue to strive for excellence. As we compiled the information for this issue, I was amazed at all of the accomplishments of the students in our school. Of course I witness these feats on a daily basis but considering them all in their entirety really made me proud. As you read through the pages, you will see that our students are truly benefiting from their experiences here at East with our remarkable faculty and staff! The Junior class gives us an indication of academic excellence with over 170 of them being inducted into the National Honor Society. The class of 2010 also provides concrete evidence of what occurs here with acceptances to the finest colleges and universities in the world. Already we have had students accepted to schools including Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Boston College, Cal Tech, Duke, Emory, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Northwestern University, NYU and Colgate, to name a few. 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 for which you have worked for so many years. Remember: Respect, Responsibility and Excellence!
Inside this issue: Sincerely,
Page 3 Constitution Wizards
Page 5 East Business Students Team Up with Local Business
Pages 6 Spotlight on a Determined Competitor
Page 8 Athletes Honored for Academic Excellence
Dr. J. A. Woodberry Principal
The 2010 Top Twenty HS East Scholars It is that time of year again—Spring is upon us, college acceptances begin to pour in, and our Top Twenty Students receive the recognition for which they have been striving. Not only are these students the best of the best academically, but they have achieved so much more. Read on to page 2 for some of their accomplishments. In this photo: Evan Baden, Sonia Bansal, Dylan Berkenfeld, William Chan, William Choi, Jared DeRossi, Carly Emmer, Kimberly Gill, Emily Hantverk Alyssa Hasbrouck, Matthew Miecnikowski, Daniel Park, Rohit Ramani, Chelsea Renter, Olivia Serigano, Sohini Sheth, James Song, Jaclyn Vingan, Olivia Wang, Elissa Warmbrand, along with Dr. Woodberry.
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Perspectives
Awards Honor Innovation and Excellence Academic Achievement Every year, HS East students boast of high achievement and awards honoring their innovative projects and excellent academic standing. This year is certainly no exception with many students receiving recognitions exceeding our district’s high expectations. Firstly, we are proud to announce our valedictorian Chelsea Renter and salutatorian Carly Emmer featured below. These students exemplify the determination of our students as they prepare to compete in a complex and changing world. Chelsea has already had a taste of college life at Columbia University last summer where she studied genetics and molecular biology. She is also an accomplished musician, playing flute in numerous music events. Carly exhibits her athleticism on the track and is
also a finalist in the prestigious Intel competition. Proudly, this year we also have four finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. Each year there are 1.5 million entries nationwide for this competition. Of that, only about 15,000 become finalists and approximately 8,200 will receive scholarship awards. Featured at right with Dr. Woodberry and Ms. Lilla are: William Choi, Daniel Park, Kevin J. Norris and Matthew Miecnikowski. We wish them success in this competition and beyond.
You will most likely see more of these students as they continue to accumulate accolades of praise for their achievements. They truly inspire all of us here at East and we know we will be hearing Earlier this year, we featured Alexandra about their accomplishments for years to Gaspard (pictured right) as a semi-finalist come. in the 2010 National Achievement Scholarship Program, and she is now a finalist. This program, in operation since 1964, recognizes outstanding achievements among Black American high school students. Approximately 120,000 students compete for this award annually and relatively few achieve finalist status, making it quite a distinguished honor.
Scientific Research
Journalism Honors
The awards keep pouring in for Dr. Lake’s research students. The following awards were earned by HS East students (pictured below) at the New York State Science and Engineering Fair: Jaclyn Vingan, 4th place in Behavioral Sciences; Olivia Serigano, 3rd place in Medicine and Health; Carly Emmer, 2nd place in Environmental Management; and Sonia Bansal, 2nd place in Cell and Molecular Biology.
The Thunderbird Student Reporters under the supervision of Advisors Ms. Fluger and Ms. Davis were honored by The Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s 2009 Silver Medalist Certificate. The Association, in its letter of commendation, stated, “it’s obvious how hard everyone works to publish the newspaper to make its content relevant for the student audience. You have done an excellent job in selecting story topics in which students are interested.”
Team projects also received recognition: Thomas McCune and Brett Teplitz, along with a teammate from HS West, earned a NYSSEF Top-8 Team Project. Also, Rohit Ramani earned a NYSSEF Top-8 Project and Best in Fair Team Project.
The present staff with advisors are featured below. They are: Kevin O’Reilly, Monika Haebich, Sophia Ahmad, Cody Lau, Grace Segers, Ally Wooster, Jackie Ferro, Jessica Gaspard, Bari Zund, Elliot Greenfield, Alexa Teeman, Justin Levine, Neilab, Rahimzada, Marlee Shnitkin, Arielle Dollinger, Rebecca Harris, Zachary Korman, Brittany Nadler, and Josh Rosenberg.
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Volume 1 , Issue III
HS East Clubs Present Winners in Statewide Competitions DECA Champs Excel at States
Constitution Wizards HS East “We the People” constitution team took first place in the State finals. They competed against eight other high schools that had also qualified for the state competition. According to the New York State Bar Association’s news release on March 10th, “the students studied for months to prepare for their roles as experts testifying on “The students studied for months constitutional issues to prepare for their roles as exin the simulated con- perts testifying on constitutional gressional hearings.” issues in the simulated congres-
sional hearings.” In this photo: Madison Marisi, Adam Friedman, Amy Zornberg, Dylan Berkenfeld, Ted Goshman, Jacob Dorfman, Alexa Goetz, Christian Laskaros, Karishma Sabhnani , and Scott Abrahamson
After receiving kudos for becoming Suffolk Champions, Hills East DECA went on to compete at States. Needless to say, they did a fabulous job with six State Champions and six Top 10 Winners! In the competition, students have to either take a challenging test in their area of concentration or role play with judges. Christian Laskaros stated that “DECA was a great opporhe had only ten minutes to prepare a mar- tunity that broadened my keting promotion for view on Job opportunities.” a West Hills Farm. He then had to present it for judicial appraisal. Overall, the students worked hard, but had fun doing so; and in the process, exercised important twenty first century skills: effective oral and written communication, and agility and adaptability. Aneesh Shah claims, “DECA was a great opportunity that broadened my view on job opportunities.” Our state champions are: Adam Friedman, 3rd place in Marketing Management; Alexa Goetz, 2nd place in Financial Analysis; Karishma Sabhnani, also 2nd place in Financial Analysis; Ted Goshman, 3rd place in Principles of Marketing; Christian Laskaros, 3rd place in Decision Making-Marketing; and Madison Marisis, 2nd place in Principles of Hospitalitiy and Tourism. The Top 10 Winners are: Scott Abrahamson for Automotive Services Management, Dylan Berkenfeld for Sports Marketing,, Jacob Dorfman for Public Speaking, Jon Scharf for Accounting Applications, Aneesh Shah for Marketing Management, and Amy Zorberg for Sales Demonstration. Congratulations to the DECA champs and Mr. Cappiello!
After hours of these grueling mock hearings with 19 judges scrutinizing their knowledge of current events and the constitution, HS East students outscored their adversaries and are now preparing for the national finals at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia, April 24-25. If they win there, then it is off to the championship round April 26 in Senate hearing rooms on Capitol Hill! The students, along with their advisor, Scott Edwards, are featured here claiming victory. They are: Sonia Bansal, William Choi, Suraj Chopra, Suhaira Choudhry, Sara Cordano, Jacob Dorfman, Rahul Doshi, Carly Emmer, Spencer Fogel, Alyssa Hasbrouck, Shivani Kapadia, Sarah Khan, Matthew Miecnikowski, Jackson Mlawer, Brittany Nadler, Shawn Pasternak, Trevor Reddick, Chelsea Renter, Olivia Serigano, Sachin Sharma, Sohini Sheth, Aaron Siev, Jason Stern, Sophie Waldman and Kaitlyn Walsh.
Congratulations and best of luck in the next round!
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Perspectives
21st Century Learning Video Students Take Top Honors The Long Island Media Arts Show was March 17, 2010 at Five Towns College. This annual event provides media students exploring video, computer graphics and photography the chance to exhibit and have their work reviewed by professionals in the field. Mrs. Uttendorfer’s video students Dean Baram,
Alex Freedman, Kevin Kronrad, Mandy Garelick, Victoria Pirulli, Andre Doughty, Stephen Distante, and Karly Frigenti previewed original films made independently and collaboratively in class.
Italian Poetry is Music to Their Ears Effective oral communication is a valuable 21st century skill for our students, and developing this skill in their foreign language study can be challenging. Each year, the students in Ms. Milone’s Italian classes have an opportunity to apply their knowledge and understanding of Italian in the Italian Poetry Contest held by The American Association Teachers of Italian at SUNY, Old Westbury. This year, there were seven winners: College Italian students Nicole Honovich and Denise Marte, Italian Honors Level 4 students Peter Scelfo, Megan
O’Donnell, Debora Fiore and Elliot Greenfield; and Italian Honors Level 3 student Sabrina Woods.
Ms. Uttendorfer also created a wiki page on her Video II class wiki that features the five videos which HS East submitted to the show. Go to the link below and enjoy!
Mandy and Victoria placed in the Best in Show h t t p : / / v i d e o 2 e a s t . w i k i s p a c e s . c o m / category and will have their film entitled ‘One *LI+Media+Arts+Show in a Dozen’ reviewed for a second time with potential for submission into the West Hampton Film Festival this Spring. Mr. Wiley’s computer graphics students Nikki Horowitz, Heather Ramos, Obasi Akamnonu, Mowahid Anwar, Dan Weinberg, Kyle Farrell, and Matt Sokol also received top honors for exhibiting pieces in the computer graphics category. Mrs. Mead’s Media Arts students were there Ms. Uttendorfer and students at the Long Island Meto support the exhibiting artists. Students setting up for the show dia Arts Show. The day was a success for HS East.
Early in the year, Ms. Milone selected the participating students based on their speaking proficiency and capability to learn lines. She then meets with the students after school and during free periods to learn the poetry and understand the meaning. They also listen to an The winners proudly display their award certificates. audio of the for three judges along with students from all Italian poems on their iPods to over Long Island and Queens. The best from listen for pronunciation and this round goes on to a final judging. intonation. As the competition draws near, they practice The process from beginning to end not only by reciting for their classmates allows students to develop their Italian speakwho judge them based on ing skills, but builds confidence in public criteria they receive from Ms. speaking and presentation skills. Ms. Milone Milone. They also recite in said that one of the students, who used to front of Francesco Fratto, our speak in a soft voice in class, now speaks ItalLOTE director. ian loud and with confidence.
Peter Scelfo receiving the highest award from Dr. Joseph Tursi.
On the day of the contest, they must recite their poems
Volume 1 , Issue III
Page 5
21st Century Learning HS East Business Students Team Up With Local Business The business students at HS East recently teamed up with the Esselte Corporation to create new school supplies to be sold to high school and college students around the world. The Esselte Corporation manufactures thousands of different supplies and was looking to create new and exciting products geared towards the student of today and beyond. The students will be working with Esselte throughout the 2009-2010 school year in focus groups and product development sessions to create these new products. They get hands on training in marketing,
sales, and product development. Mr. Cappiello said, “It is great to see our business leaders of tomorrow getting real life experience of what happens in the business world. The 25 students who participated have told me that the last session was one of the most exciting things they have done in their high school careers.” —Thank you to Mr. Cappiello for his contri
States Military Academy at West Point, NY. The team came in 11th in a field of 54 teams which had qualified for the competition, out of more than 360 teams in the State. Our students also earned medals in seven events, which establishes a new district record. The award-winning students with their events and honors are as follows: Sonia Bansal, 5th place Forensics; Will Chan, 4th place Environmental Chemistry and 4th place Physics Lab; Hiral Doshi, 6th place Anatomy and Physiology; Carly Emmer, 4th place Environmental Chemistry and 5th place Forensics; The proud Mr. Page with the Science Olympiad team and assistant Ashton Hsu, 4th place Elevated coach Mr. DiPalmo. Bridge; Rohit Ra-
21st Century Survival Skills in Action Mr. Page, the advisor for Science Olympiads, was proud to announce the success of our students at the State Science Olympiad competition, which was held on Friday, March 19th and Saturday, March 20th at the United
Role Play Makes the Gods Relevant for Today Once again, Ms. DeStefano’s Mythology classes prepared for their big event “The Meeting of the Gods”. Each student researched a particular Greek God or Goddess and created profiles for these deities. At the event, participants wear costumes and use role-play and first person narration to share the myths.
bution to this article.
mani, 1st place Cell Biology, 4th place Physics Lab and 5th place Protein Modeling; Eric Teplitz, 1st place Cell Biology and 5th place Protein Modeling; and Olivia Wang, 6th place Anatomy and Physiology. The seven other members of the State team are also commended for their hard work and dedication. They are: Will Choi, Scott Dunaisky, Katelyn Fletcher, Hannah Kanagy, Aneesh Shah, James Song, and Chris Wolfrom. Mr. Page also extends his thanks to the Science Department and building and districtlevel administration for their continued support in difficult economic times, and the HSE custodial staff for allowing us to work late into the night. He also thanks assistant coaches Glen Cochrane and Matt DiPalmo, who both helped to prepare the students and to insure a safe and successful trip. Finally, thanks are in order for science teachers Lauren Barlow, Terry Goodenough and Jen Hlywa for their assistance in preparing the students for the competition.
is that the Olympian Gods have discovered a portal from Mount Olympus to the McCaffry Lecture Hall and are now posing as students at HS East. In this virtual world, students may extend their knowledge of the gods they’ve researched by continuing their role-play in various modern day scenarios.
Featured right is a student in one of This year, Ms. DeStefano added an additional Ms. DeStefano’s classes receiving project in the form of a blog, inspired by the feedback as he blogs. Percy Jackson series. The premise of the blog
—Thank you to Ms. DeStefano for her contribution to this article.
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Perspectives
Continued Success for HS East Scholars Scholar Artist Honored by SCALA Peter McNierney, AP Art student extraordinaire, has been racking up the honors this season. Recently, he received congratulations from the Long Island Arts Alliance’s Scholar Artist Committee on being selected as a 2009-2010 LIAA Award of Excellence Winner in their Scholar Artist program. His award will be presented at a gala on Sunday, May 16, 2010 at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts. The latest in Peter’s endeavors is his selection by SCALA (Suffolk County Art Leaders Association) to receive the prestigious Mary Ray Scholarship this year. They only give one scholarship to a senior who will attend art school. Peter had to write an essay and present three works of art to qualify. He is pictured here with his winning works. model which can be used to study generalized brain deformation, or specific changes in brain geometry as a result of natuThere seems to be numerous photos these days of senior ral processes. This model is almost like a brain mold, which Rohit Ramani receiving recognition for a variety of top hon“With the results of this project, we are ors. The latest is a First Place Designation after placing as one making steps closer for chronic treatment of the Top Eight Teams in the New York State Science and of paralysis as well as understanding the Engineering Fair (see page 2). Rohit is the only student from very poorly understood deformation of our district to move on to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair hosted in San Jose, California. His project the brain.” title is: “Construction of a Contrast-Enhanced BrainMimicking Hydrogel and Simulation of the Mechanical Effects can be used to test brain devices such as electrodes. The second part of the project is to design a chronic electrode of Chronic Electrode Implants”. implant which could treat paralysis on the chronic timeline Rohit, a mild mannered, friendly student, whose presence and induce motor movement. A novel design was created with a unique class of metals, the Bulk Metallic Glasses, which yield great flexibility and strength. With the results of this project, we are making steps closer for chronic treatment of paralysis as well as understanding the very poorly understood deformation of the brain.”
Spotlight on a Determined Competitor
This project was also awarded Best in Fair by NYSSEF last week. Rohit additionally came in first in the state for cell biology in the State Science Olympiad Competition (featured on page 5). This young scholar has a promising future ahead. He has already received positive responses from Caltech, Columbia, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, RPI, Stony Brook Honors, and NYU. He has received acceptances from University of California, Berkeley and Northwestern. We wish Rohit continued success in his competitions this year brightens the hallways of HS East, summarized his complex and in his future. project. He and his team “created a novel brain-mimicking
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Charity and Service are Priorities at East Architecture Club Goes Green and Helps Furry Friends
Here at Architecture Club-Project Green, we have been working on a few great projects that benefit us, the environment and the surrounding community. Currently, we are creating multiple cat “jungle gyms” and “scratching posts” to be donated to the Little Shelter Animal Shelter of Huntington. Every Monday we have been working tirelessly to turn new and scrap plywood, recycled carpet, recycled fabric, and cat toys into “jungle gyms” for cats with no homes. We also painted and decorated them with colorful cat paws. Hopefully, those once frightened and severely underprivileged cats will love our creations. The Architecture Club appreciates the HSE administration for supporting our work to improve the lives of the entire the community, even the pets. Sincerely, HSE Architecture Club Rebecca Simon-Vice President Kevin O’Reilly-Treasurer Mrs. Mead-Advisor
Students Band Together to Offer Hope for the Future
French teacher Ms. Sirulnick and her students received accolades of praise from the Founder and President of Life and Hope Inc., a charitable organization helping victims of the Haiti earthquake. The students of the clubs of LOTE at HS East organized a collection of useful supplies for people who lost everything in the quake. Ms. Lucia Anglade of Life and Hope stated, “Donations like yours help the Haitian people know that they have not been forgotten...helps them feel hope for the future.”
Help for Haiti
Students of the HS East Diversity Committee and our physical education teachers combined efforts to raise money for the disaster relief in Haiti. On Monday, February 1st and Tuesday, February 2nd, students donated one dollar in their physical education classes and competed in numerous fun games. Their generous donations reached $1,022.00! The money was split between two organizations chosen by the diversity committee students: Holt International Children’s Services and Handicap International. Both organizations are focusing their funds and efforts on the victims of the Haiti earthquake.
Combating Graffiti in Our Own Back Yard
HS East students joined forces with HS West students to eliminate the unsightly graffiti that has been appearing in the vicinity of our schools. The students below: Dominic Akerele, Elliot Greenfield, Mikaela Kur, Chelsea Rubalcaba, Justin Sohn and Bari Zund, along with their HS West counterparts, were recently featured in a press release from Legislator Steven Stern commending this valuable community service. Elliot Greenfield stated, “Working on this project brought me and the community together. I got to help a family that was affected by graffiti and I got to work outdoors. It was fun.”
HALF HOLLOW HILLS
Winter Sports Wrap Up
HIGH SCHOOL EAST 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
Association with its Scholar Athlete Team Award: Boys Basketball, Boys Indoor Track, Athletic talent and skill are admirable qualities, Girls Basketball, Girls Indoor Track, Wrestling, but when an athlete also excels academically, it Boys Fencing, Girls Fencing and Boys Swimming is a powerful combination. With the determi- and Diving. nation, motivation and self-confidence a scholar athlete possesses, he or she is sure to achieve We are proud and grateful for the honor they great success in the future. We commend the bring to HS East and wish them continued sucfollowing HS East teams for their recognition by cess. the New York State Public High School Athletic
Athletes Honored for Academic Excellence
Boys Swimming Takes Top Honors It was another successful season for the boys of Half Hollow Hills Swimming and Diving. The team finished the dual meet season with a school record of 10 wins and 0 losses. Our own Matt DeBlasio won the state championship in the 200im and was honored as All American Swimmer. In addition, swimmer Jacob Golan was selected as Long Island Scholar Athlete for Boys Swimming and Diving.
All American Swimmer Matt DeBlasio
Scholar Athlete Swimmer Jason Golan
Praise for Girls Track HS East Girls Track was moved to League 2, a tough challenge, but the girls finished with a good showing. Brittany Parrott came in 6th in Long Jump, Carly Emmer 3rd and Jamie Kassner 5th in the 300m, Susan Israel 6th in the Shot Put, Sabrina Woods 5th in the High Jump, and Morgan Donovan 5th in the 1,000m. Many of the girls went on to compete in the Large School Championships.
Champion Wrestler DeShawn McNeil, a determined and dedicated wrestler, won the League 3 Championship at 152 pounds. He was also named Most Outst an ding Wrestler.
Pep Rally Kicks Off the Spring Season Visit Our Website: www.halfhollowhills.k12.ny.us
The Spring sports season received a grand introduction at Pep Rally on March 26th. HS East students and staff displayed school spirit as they cheered on their favorite teams. Teachers and students also competed in a hilarious three legged race. Games for all sports are now under way and our athletes are doing a great job! The Baseball team won their opening game against West Islip with a game winning home run by Lee Giglio. The Boys Tennis team has been racking up the wins, most recently defeating Harborfields 7 matches to 0. Girls Lacrosse is also off to a strong start with a momentous win against Smithtown East 17 to 13.
High School East
See more sports news daily in our Morning Sports Report and look for photos soon on the Media Gallery.
Most Outstanding Wrestler DeShawn McNeil