Perspectives - hhh.k12.ny.us

Greetings HS East Community, 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 ac-ceptances 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 stu-dents 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! Sincerely, Dr. J. A. Woodberry Principal

A Special Message from Dr. Woodberry

HALF HOLLOW

HILLS

HIGH SCHOOL EAST

PRINCIPAL’S

NEWSLETTER

April 9, 2010 Volume 1 , Issue III

Perspectives

The Insider’s View

• Awards and Honors

Across the Curriculum

• Italian Poetry Takes the

Stage

• Charity and Service in the Hearts of HS East Stu-

dents

Inside this issue:

Page 3 Constitution Wizards

Page 5 East Business Students

Team Up with Local Business

Pages 6 Spotlight on a Deter-mined Competitor

Page 8 Athletes Honored for

Academic Excellence

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, Dy-lan Berkenfeld, William Chan, William Choi, Jared DeRossi, Carly Emmer, Kim-berly Gill, Emily Hantverk Alyssa Has-brouck, Matthew Miecnikowski, Daniel Park, Rohit Ramani, Chelsea Renter, Olivia Serigano, Sohini Sheth, James Song, Jaclyn Vingan, Olivia Wang, Elissa Warmbrand,

along with Dr. Woodberry.

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 excep-tion with many students receiving recogni-tions exceeding our district’s high expec-

tations. Firstly, we are proud to announce our valedictorian Chelsea Renter and salutato-rian 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 al-ready had a taste of college life at Colum-bia Uni-versity last s u m m e r where she

studied genetics and molecular biology. She is also an accomplished musician, play-ing 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 Miec-nikowski. We wish them success in this

competition and beyond. Earlier this year, we featured Alexandra Gaspard (pictured right) as a semi-finalist in the 2010 National Achievement Schol-arship Program, and she is now a finalist. This program, in operation since 1964, recognizes outstanding achievements among Black American high school stu-dents. Approximately 120,000 students compete for this award annually and rela-tively few achieve finalist status, making it

quite a distinguished honor.

You will most likely see more of these students as they continue to accumulate accolades of praise for their achieve-ments. They truly inspire all of us here at East and we know we will be hearing about their accomplishments for years to

come.

Journalism Honors The Thunderbird Student Reporters under the supervision of Advisors Ms. Fluger and Ms. Davis were honored by The Columbia Scholastic Press Asso-ciation’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 inter-

ested.” 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, Jes-sica Gaspard, Bari Z u n d , E l l i o t Greenfield, Alexa Teeman, Justin Levine, Neilab, Rahimzada, Marlee Shnitkin, Arielle Dollinger, Rebecca Harris, Zachary Korman, Brittany Nadler, and Josh

Rosenberg.

Scientific Research The awards keep pouring in for Dr. Lake’s re-search 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 Manage-ment; and Sonia Bansal, 2nd place in Cell and Mo-

lecular Biology. Team projects also received recognition: Thomas McCune and Brett Teplitz, along with a teammate

f r om H S West, earned a NYSSEF Top-8 Team Project. Also, Rohit Ramani e arned a NYSSEF Top-8 Project and Best in Fair Team Project.

Volume 1 , Issue III

HS East Clubs Present Winners in Statewide Competitions

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 he had only ten min-utes to prepare a mar-keting promotion for a West Hills Farm. He then had to pre-sent it for judicial appraisal. Overall, the students worked hard, but had fun doing so; and in the process, exercised im-portant 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 Market-ing 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!

“DECA was a great oppor-tunity that broadened my

view on Job opportunities.”

In this photo: Madison Marisi, Adam Friedman, Amy Zornberg, Dylan Berkenfeld, Ted Goshman, Jacob Dorfman, Alexa Goetz, Christian Laskaros, Karishma Sabhnani , and Scott Abrahamson

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. Ac-cording 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 constitutional issues in the simulated con-

gressional hearings.”

After hours of these grueling mock hearings with 19 judges scrutinizing their knowl-edge of current events and the constitution, HS East students outscored their adversaries and are now preparing for the na-tional finals at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Vir-ginia, April 24-25. If they win there, then it is off to the cham-pionship round April 26 in Senate hearing rooms on Capitol

Hill!

The students, along with their advisor, Scott Edwards, are fea-tured 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 Miec-nikowski, 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!

“The students studied for months to prepare for their roles as ex-perts testifying on constitutional issues in the simulated congres-

sional hearings.”

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 Sa-

brina Woods. Early in the year, Ms. Milone selected the participating stu-dents 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 under-

s t a n d t h e meaning. They also listen to an audio of the Italian poems on their iPods to listen for pronunciation and intonation. As the competi-tion draws near, they practice by reciting for their classmates who judge them based on criteria they receive from Ms. Milone. They also recite in front of Francesco Fratto, our

LOTE director. On the day of the contest, they must recite their poems

for three judges along with students from all over Long Island and Queens. The best from

this round goes on to a final judging. The process from beginning to end not only allows students to develop their Italian speak-ing skills, but builds confidence in public speaking and presentation skills. Ms. Milone said that one of the students, who used to speak in a soft voice in class, now speaks Ital-

ian loud and with confidence.

Perspectives

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 Ga-relick, Victoria Pirulli, Andre Doughty, Stephen Distante, and Karly Frigenti pre-viewed original films made independently and

collaboratively in class. Mandy and Victoria placed in the Best in Show category and will have their film entitled ‘One

in a Dozen’ reviewed for a second time with potential for submission into the West Hampton Film Festival this Spring. Mr. Wiley’s com-puter graphics students Nikki Horowitz, Heather Ramos, Obasi Akamnonu, Mowahid Anwar, Dan Weinberg, Kyle Farrell, and Matt Sokol also re-ceived top honors for exhibiting pieces in the computer graphics cate-gory. Mrs. Mead’s Media Arts students were there to support the exhibiting artists.

The day was a success for HS East.

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! 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 om /

*LI+Media+Arts+Show

Ms. Uttendorfer and students at the Long Island Me-

dia Arts Show. Students setting up for the show

Peter Scelfo receiving the highest award from Dr. Joseph

Tursi.

The winners proudly display their award certificates.

21st Century Learning


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 manufac-tures 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 develop-ment sessions to create these new products. They get hands on training in marketing,

sales, and product devel-opment. Mr. Cappiello said, “It is great to see our business leaders of to-morrow getting real life experience of what hap-pens in the business world. The 25 students who participated have told me that the last ses-sion was one of the most exciting things they have done in their high school

careers.” —Thank you to Mr. Cappiello for his contri bution to this article.

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 com-petition, which was held on Friday, March 19th and Saturday, March 20th at the United

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 stu-dents with their events and honors are as follows: Sonia Bansal, 5th place Forensics; Will Chan, 4th place E n v i r o n m e n t a l Chemistry and 4th place Physics Lab; Hiral Doshi, 6th place Anatomy and Physiology; Carly Emmer, 4th place E n v i r o n m e n t a l Chemistry and 5th place Forensics; Ashton Hsu, 4th p lace E leva ted Bridge; Rohit Ra-

mani, 1st place Cell Biology, 4th place Phys-ics 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 Sci-ence Department and building and district-level administration for their continued sup-port 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 prepar-

ing the students for the competition.

The proud Mr. Page with the Science Olympiad team and assistant

coach Mr. DiPalmo.

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 re-searched a particular Greek God or God-dess and created profiles for these deities. At the event, participants wear costumes and use role-play and first person narration

to share the myths. This year, Ms. DeStefano added an additional project in the form of a blog, inspired by the Percy Jackson series. The premise of the blog

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 knowl-edge of the gods they’ve researched by continuing their role-play in vari-

ous modern day scenarios. Featured right is a student in one of Ms. DeStefano’s classes receiving

feedback as he blogs.

—Thank you to Ms. DeStefano for her con-

tribution to this article.

Perspectives

Continued Success for HS East Scholars

Spotlight on a Determined Competitor There seems to be numerous photos these days of senior Rohit Ramani receiving recognition for a variety of top hon-ors. The latest is a First Place Designation after placing as one of the Top Eight Teams in the New York State Science and Engineering Fair (see page 2). Rohit is the only student from our district to move on to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair hosted in San Jose, California. His project title is: “Construction of a Contrast-Enhanced Brain-Mimicking Hydrogel and Simulation of the Mechanical Effects

of Chronic Electrode Implants”. Rohit, a mild mannered, friendly student, whose presence

brightens the hallways of HS East, summarized his complex project. He and his team “created a novel brain-mimicking

model which can be used to study generalized brain deforma-tion, or specific changes in brain geometry as a result of natu-ral processes. This model is almost like a brain mold, which

can be used to test brain devices such as electrodes. The second part of the project is to design a chronic electrode implant which could treat paralysis on the chronic timeline 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.” This project was also awarded Best in Fair by NYSSEF last week. Rohit additionally came in first in the state for cell biol-ogy 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, Colum-bia, 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

and in his future.

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 Alli-ance’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 win-

ning works.

“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.”


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 do-nated 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. Hope-fully, 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 charita-ble 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 for-gotten...helps them feel hope for the

future.”

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 Rubal-caba, Justin Sohn and Bari Zund, along with their HS West counterparts, were recently featured in a press release from Legislator Ste-ven 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 af-fected by graffiti and I got to work outdoors. It

was fun.”

Help for Haiti Students of the HS East Diversity Committee and our physical edu-cation 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 Handi-cap International. Both organizations are focusing their funds and efforts

on the victims of the Haiti earthquake.

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: [email protected]

HALF HOLLOW HILLS

HIGH SCHOOL EAST

PRINCIPAL’S

NEWSLETTER

High School East

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

Winter Sports Wrap Up

Athletes Honored for Academic Excellence

Athletic talent and skill are admirable qualities, but when an athlete also excels academically, it is a powerful combination. With the determi-nation, motivation and self-confidence a scholar athlete possesses, he or she is sure to achieve great success in the future. We commend the following HS East teams for their recognition by the New York State Public High School Athletic

Association with its Scholar Athlete Team Award: Boys Basketball, Boys Indoor Track, Girls Basketball, Girls Indoor Track, Wrestling, Boys Fencing, Girls Fencing and Boys Swimming

and Diving. We are proud and grateful for the honor they bring to HS East and wish them continued suc-

cess.

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.

Champion Wrestler DeShawn McNeil, a determined and dedi-cated wrestler, won the League 3 Champi-onship at 152 pounds. He was also named Most Outstanding

Wrestler.

All American Swim-

mer Matt DeBlasio Most Outstanding Wres-

tler DeShawn McNeil

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.

Pep Rally Kicks Off the Spring Season

Scholar Athlete Swimmer

Jason Golan

The Spring sports season received a grand introduc-tion 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 ath-letes 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 de-feating Harborfields 7 matches to 0. Girls Lacrosse is also off to a strong start with a momentous win

against Smithtown East 17 to 13. See more sports news daily in our Morning Sports

Report and look for photos soon on the Media Gallery.

Perspectives - hhh.k12.ny.us

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