HS East Newsletter June 2012

A Special Message from Dr. Woodberry

HALF HOLLOW

HILLS

HIGH SCHOOL EAST

PRINCIPAL’S

NEWSLETTER

June 8, 2012 Volume 1V, Issue 1V

Perspectives

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 sea-

son

Special Thanks to

Contributors:

Jason Braun

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 scholar-ships she received at the Senior Awards Cere-mony last Thursday evening, Hannah Kenagy recently won a third place Engineering Bronze Medal at the prestigious International Sustain-able World Energy, Engineering, Environment Project (I-SWEEEP) Olympiad in Houston, Texas. The following is an overview from the I-

SWEEEP website: “I-SWEEEP 2012 showcased the top high school researchers from all over the world, who displayed their innovative ideas. Over

1,000 participants shared their ideas, experience and knowledge to p romote maintaining global sustainability in

the future.” Congratulations once again to Hannah—we are

very proud!

Dear High School East Community, 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 founda-tion 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 nur-tured, 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! Remember Respect, Responsibility and Excellence, Dr. J. A. Woodberry Principal, HS East

Page 2 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 be-

tween 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!

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, Alex-ander 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

Tri-Athlete Takes Third Terrence Bailer, a junior here at Hills East, placed third in his age division (15-19 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 in-spiring 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 fu-ture. He trains regularly at the gym, running on the tread-

mill, swimming in the pool and playing basketball. Here at school, Terrence excels in his studies, is a mem-ber of the African American Student Organization and Business Honor Society. He has his sights set on a career

in business someday.

Volume 1V, Issue 1V Page 3

Students Shine with Creative Expression

E-Factor Creator Reflects on

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

nate it to the American Cancer Soci-ety 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

able to do it. I thought since I never

did anything this big before, it wouldn’t work or come together. On the first day of my sophomore year, I visited my guidance counselor Ms. Michalowski in order to get her advice on how to get the show started. She told me to write up a proposal and meet with Dr. Wood-berry for his approval. When I met with Dr. Woodberry, he told me I needed a club to sponsor the event. That’s when I met with the Diversity

Committee, and the planning began. We first started to talk about a date, and then we started talking about auditions, tickets, etc. We even tried to get a celebrity to make an appearance for the show. But that did not work out. On opening night of the E-Factor I was very apprehen-sive. I was afraid everything might not go the way we planned or I might be a terrible host. But in the end, every-thing worked out and we raised $1,858 from ticket sales, food sales, and donations throughout the night,

and after expenses, we donated $1,580 to our local chapter of the ACS. All of the acts were amazing but there was only one winner, Lisa Diasparra who sang Angels by Jessica

Simpson. I was very proud of myself due to the fact that cancer has played a sig-nificant role in my life. My Aunt died from breast cancer in the year 2000; my grandfather died in 2009 from lung cancer, and most im-portantly, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2001 and has been a survivor ever since. I can’t wait to do it next year, which I hope can be district wide and to continue

the fight against cancer. - Special thanks to Bryson Owens for this article

Mastery of the Spoken Word On Friday, June 1st, Mr. Breig’s sen-ior 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

stage to display their mastery of 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 dis-played 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. Modern Poetry is a senior elec-tive that focuses primarily on po-etry written in the last fifty years,

and the curriculum includes spoken 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 stu-dents to show off their writing abili-ties, speak their minds, meet new people, and have fun performing and listening to the poems they created. Each year, the event has accom-

plished all of these goals. - article by Patrick Breig

HSE Students Giving Back

Page 4 Perspectives

Amnesty International at

HHH East

Throughout the school year, the Hills East chapter of Amnesty Interna-tional 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

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. Also recently, a global issues QR code scavenger hunt (see photo be-low) and a Food Fest were held in order to raise money for Women for Women International, an organization which allows groups or individuals to support a specific woman and her

family for a year. The fact that this organization supports only women is imperative, because it is proven that empowering women and promoting gender equality raises entire nations out of poverty. Choosing to s u p po r t s omeon e

through this program is a big commit-ment, 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 re-ceived from French Honor Society, Indian Club, the Newspaper Club, and others in putting together the Food Fest, as this was integral in

reaching the financing target. As the school year inches closer to the end, one aspect of human rights promotion that we especially hope will endure is the raising of aware-ness. The display in the main lobby exemplifies this, as it has facts about the current injustices around the world and what everyone can do to help create change. We hope that our local Amnesty Chapter will con-tinue to promote real transformation, both in Hills East and all over the

planet. - Article by Dan Weinberg

Soccer for a Cause The Matthew Logan Scarpati Memo-rial 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 Wan-tagh Parkway by a drunk motorcy-

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

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. In 2011, we expanded to 20 teams, and invited a small number of high school varsity squads to test how well they could be integrated into the spirit of the day. After a successful year two, we felt prepared to open the tournament up to more and more teams with varying back-grounds, as we felt that we would

have enough interest to form entire divisions of similarly experienced teams. As we approach the third an-nual tournament, we are excited to welcome 28 teams, including 12 var-sity squads from around Long Island, various alumni teams from around Long Island, and several club teams

from around New York. The players are all excited to play Saturday, June 9th, on the fields be-hind Hills East, in an extremely com-petitive but relaxed atmosphere in

the name of a great cause. - Article by Michael Bongino

Page 5 Volume 1V, Issue 1V

Community Service and Scholarly Leadership

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 Cor-nell University this summer. This

prestigious six-week-long educa-tional program selects 64 partici-pants from all over the world to study exemplary historical state-ments of the ideals of democracy, drawing on traditional and contem-porary works in political philosophy. This unique experience will give Zakiya the opportunity to work alongside world-renowned profes-sors from some of our nations best

universities including Princeton, Yale, Co-lumbia and Cornell. During this program, she will work with these professors to explore the numerous avenues possible in the fields of sociology, an-thropology, cultural and legal students, and

political science.

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 Indiana Univers i ty ent i t led , “Blackness, Media, and Self-Concept.” These programs will give her the interactions, community service, leadership skills and self-determination needed to achieve her ultimate goal of becoming a bi-lingual Environmental Lawyer. Luck-ily 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 admira-ble role model to our younger stu-

dents. - article by Jason Braun

Giving a Voice to Silence Congratulations Caleb Garard for participating in the 2011/2012 Ener-geia 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 ra-cism, poverty and the working poor, land use, energy, transportation, healthcare and media/social net-

working.”

Caleb’s work with Engergeia dealt with the issue of self-esteem in school. He created a tumbler ac-count in which students could par-ticipate 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 pro-moted the site by post-ing information on Face-book, giving invites, and speaking to students in their English classes. So far, the site has been

very successful. In addition to Energeia, Caleb is very involved in

extracurricular activities, both inside and outside of school. He is an ex-cellent 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

Page 6 Perspectives

Designing Minds Focus Close to Home

ARCHITECTURE CLUB The Architecture Club at Hills East is a rewarding and enjoyable after school activity for all students inter-ested in design. This club allows stu-dents to participate in building vari-ous unique structures, and create their designs in real life situations without necessarily taking the Archi-tecture class. Along with building

beneficial items for our own school, our Architecture Club mainly fo-cuses on constructing objects or items for those in need.. In the latter part of this school year, Architecture club focused their energies on pro-

jects close to “home”. After the winter holidays ended, the Architecture Club organized a field trip to work with Beth Ezrin’s 4th grade class at Chestnut Hill. Both officers and club members worked diligently to construct multiple three-dimensional architectural puzzles that we would later rebuild with the elementary school kids. We made posters with fun facts about each building and included pictures of these magnificent structures that have sustained throughout time. The Architecture Club members were able to teach the younger students in

our community about architecture, and show them how much fun this

program is in High School. Working closely with the Hall of Fame committee at Central Office, Architecture Club put their Iron CAD skills to work creating a design plan for the soon-to-be HHH Hall Of Fame at Central Office. The HOF room will showcase the talents of

famous and successful alumni from the Half Hollow Hills school district. The room in-cludes display walls with re-cessed Niche’s to showcase imagery and memorabilia, a movie room for screenings, and trophy cases. Walls will be arranged to guide the visitors successfully through the space, encouraging continued but guided movement. Architec-ture Club members presented

the HOF plans in person to the com-mittee and are awaiting final con-struction, marking the first “real-life

job” in the field of Architecture. In an effort to make the student center more appealing, the Architec-ture Club took on the adventurous task of creating a new and attractive sign for the school store, which fea-tures the T-bird logo, a new name “The Bird Cage” (see photo above), and

school colors. Architecture Club also came up with dif-ferent design plans to make our student cen-ter a more user-friendly, fun, flexible room for teenagers to visit throughout the day. We fabricated

two 16 ft benches in the shape of an “S” (See photo below). Club mem-bers constructed, upholstered, and painted the metal legs. We believe that the benches will add a new crea-tive style to the space. We are fortu-nate to have had the help of two families in constructing these benches. Architecture Club’s con-struction manager, Jagger Steck’s family donated all of the wood and Mr. Steck personally welded the legs for the bench, while Mrs. Garcia, mom of Architecture III student, Jessy Garcia, used her expertise with furniture upholstery to help us finish

off the bench. Architecture Club provides stu-dents with a place to belong, learn new skills, make a positive impact on the community, and introduce stu-dents to the world of architecture. Each dedicated member of the Ar-chitecture Club has made a positive impact on the school, the district, and the greater Long Island commu-

nity.

It is our mission to continue to use our skills to better our community and help those people and places in

need. - Written by Calli Katzelnick and Alex Simon

Volume 1V, Issue 1V Page 7

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 Sym-phony Orchestra have much to be proud of. The Or-chestra prepared some very difficult repertoire and received many outstanding comments from the judges about their level of musicianship. This was a momen-tous occasion for the graduating seniors, as it was their last performance. A special mention to our very tal-ented 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 Or-

chestra! Also, congratulations once again to the Symphonic Band who earned another Gold and the Wind Ensem-

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 follow-ing: Best Publicity—Taming of the Shrew; Best support-ing Actor in a Musical—Josh Estes; Best Female Vocal-ist—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 Val-

erie Tepper. Congrats to the students and their directors Stepha-

nie McCarthy, Danielle McCroy and Ben Wiley.

Teens Share Creative Writing with Tots This past spring, Mrs. Wolff’s child development class enjoyed creating children’s books and then went on a field trip to Paumanok Elementary School to share the books with the five kindergarten classes at Paumanok. The lesson for the child development class was how important it is to get children off to a good start by

awakening their interest in books at an early age. The lesson started with the child development class learning about different types of books (pop up, picture books, touch books) and then we discussed types of books that small children are inter-ested in (rhyming words, fan-tasy stories, funny episodes, colorful books). The students then practiced reading chil-dren’s books to each other and evaluated each other on their appearance while read-ing, voice and diction, and the

presentation of the story. They were then asked to be creative and write a unique children’s story at the kin-dergarten level. The students used the library lab to

create their books. The visit to Paumanok was a huge success. The high school student’s read their books rotating around to the five different kindergarten classes. The child devel-opment students would stop as they were reading and ask open ended questions to the kindergarten stu-dents. They also had the younger students make pre-

dictions while reading their sto-ries. Some of the students had props such as masks and one book had maps of other coun-tries to go along with their story. The kindergarten students were very enthusiastic interact-ing with the high school stu-dents and it was definitely an enjoyable learning experience

for all involved. - article by Susan Wolff

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

Student Athletes Shine at HSE and Beyond

Season Highlights

The Spring sports season has produced victories and honors for our student ath-letes. 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 Con-ference 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. Some of our athletes take their skills be-yond the walls of Hills East, in community

travel teams. The Half Hollow Hills Thun-dercolts, 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 Kor-man, Dylan Mastrandrea, and Brandon Sei-

den. Congratu-lations to our athletes and coaches for their p e r s e v e r -ance on the court, track, green and field. You make us

proud!

The Amazing Girls of Track 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 re-cord, 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 f o u r , T i v o n i , 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. Fi-nally, as if that is not enough, the 4x400 Re-lay Team of Tivoni, Lauren, Christy and Tif-fany 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 Na-

tionals. Congrats to the girls and their coaches Laura Anderson and

Brian Strack!