HS East Newsletter nov 12

Hello High School East Community, We are in uncharted territory due to the aftermath of hurricane Sandy. First, I hope all of you have been safe, warm and are finding your way back to normal lives. Members of our school community have been and continue to be impacted in different ways. As always, and especially in times like this, our staff members will be flexible, understanding and working to create the best situations possible for students at HSE. Of course our stu-dents and staff are already organizing fundraisers to assist victims of the hurricane. We missed a record number of school days over the past two weeks but prior to that we had a great opening and several noteworthy events and accomplishments. We wel-comed our returning students and the Freshman Class of 2016 on the first Friday of school at a general assembly and grade level assemblies. We had a three day freshman orientation program including an anti-drug assembly. We had our first two PTSA meet-ings as well as faculty workshops to enhance learning and instruction. Expectations have been established for everyone in our school community. Students and staff are en-trenched in the academic process, once again attempting to replicate the greatness for which we are known. The first quarter will end in just a few days, on November 19. We all must work really hard to make these few extra days as productive as possible. As our students strive for academic excellence they also take part in a variety of extra-curricular activities. The fall sports season was spectacular and our teams really made us proud. The Girls Tennis Team went undefeated to earn the top seed in the playoffs. The Boys Volleyball team earned a playoff spot and the Boys Soccer team excelled into the Suffolk County Final. Our clubs have been very active re-hearsing, practicing, planning and en-gaging in numerous activities. High School East is not merely a place to “go to school”, it is a second home for us where we continuously learn and better our lives. I encourage all stu-dents to get involved in activities and make the school your own! I wish everyone continued success throughout this school year!! Remember: Respect, Responsibility and Excellence! J. A. Woodberry Principal

A Special Message from Dr. Woodberry

HALF HOLLOW

HILLS

HIGH SCHOOL EAST

PRINCIPAL’S

NEWSLETTER

November 13, 2012 Volume V, Issue 1

Perspectives

The Insider’s View

Page 3 Excellence at HSE

Page 4 Music & Art

Page 5 T-Rex at HSE

Page 6 Making Strides

Page 7 Spirit Week

Page 8 Athletics

Special Thanks to Con-

tributors:

Allyson Uttendorfer

Brian Clare

Nicole Dalton

Danielle McRoy

And Photographers:

Felice Crystal

Olivia Traina

Life Touch Studio

Page 2 Perspectives

Excellence at High School East

Commended for Excellence Our twelve commended students in the Na-tional Merit Scholarship Program also deserve our recognition for their excellent level of achievement. Pictured to the right with Mr. Trigosso, our commended scholars are: Jen-nifer Carle, Sean Cartwright, Jordan Chemtob, Hiral Doshi, Jake Ethe, Alexander Frieder, Venkat Ganesh, Alexander Giris, Ro-han Goyal, Matthew Hassenfeld, Tammy Jin, Spencer Kaplan, Matthew Klinger, Jason Kurs, Ji-Yun Lee, Miranda Lupion, Kris Pang, Jordan Raitses, Ross Tannenbaum, and Jona-than Topielski. Not pictured; Josh Chemtob, Emma Cordano and Andrew Ou.

National Hispanic Recognition Program Emma Cordano, featured right with Dr. Woodberry, was selected as a scholar in the 2012/2013 National Hispanic Recognition Pro-gram. The College Board’s NHRP was initiat-ed in 1983 to identify outstanding Hispanic high school students. This year the honor was bestowed upon 5,000 of the highest scoring students from a nationwide total of 253,000 high school juniors who took the PSAT/NMSQ. We congratulate Emma on this recognition!

Congratulations National Merit Semi-finalists High School East is proud to congratulate our Nation-al Merit Scholarship Semi-finalists, Puja Bansal, Tyler Fisher, Shreyas Havaldar, Rekha Korlipara, Brian Levy, Helen Liu, Amanda Luper, Abhinav Patil, Sachi Patil, Benjamin Sorkin and Michelle Wang, pictured here with Mr. Trigosso. These students are among the highest scoring entrants on the PSAT/NMDQT exam in the country. To be considered for a National Merit Scholarship, they must advance to Finalist standing in the competition. We wish them continued success in this competition in addition to all their academic pursuits. They truly exemplify our standards of respect, responsibility and excellence.

Volume 1V, Issue 1 Page 3

Excellence at High School East Scholar Artist

Senior artist, Spencer Kaplan, pictured to the left with art teacher Allyson Uttendorfer, has been selected from among only twenty students across Long Island for an Award of Merit in the Scholar Art-ist Program. In 2007, Long Island districts’ arts ad-ministrators launched a collaboration with the Long Island Arts Alliance, Newsday, and New York Com-munity Bank Foundation, designed to recognize stu-dents judged to be “the best of the best” on Long Is-land. The Scholar-Artist program mirrors the re-gions’ Scholar-Athlete programs.

Inspiring Young Women Since 1916, the Girl Scout’s highest award has stood for excellence and leadership for girls everywhere. High School East Senior, Rekha Korlip-ara will be joining the ranks of generations of young women who have made a difference in their commu-nities and beyond. The inspiration for Rekha’s project began in mid-dle school. As a West Hollow student she had the opportunity to attend a career fair that featured prominent professionals. These individuals motivat-ed her to pursue her passion in research and engi-neering. When she began high school, she joined the school research program and has dedicated her summers to research. Last summer Rekha worked in a biomedical engineering lab at Rensselaer Polytech-nic Institute. She is a semifinalist in the Siemens com-petition and will soon enter the Intel Science Talent Search.

For her project, Rekha decided that she want-ed younger girls to have the same opportunity which she was given. Her plan was to introduce younger girls to different careers that will inspire their fu-tures. Rekha organized a career night, hosted by Chestnut Hill Elementary School with speakers from various fields. A professor, toxicologist, teacher, art-ist, bank manager and psychologist all came to sup-port the fair with Rekha’s efforts. She invited Mrs. Darlene Lilla, Assistant Principal and High School East Teachers Lisa Blitzer and Allyson Uttendorfer to participate in the event. The night was a true success! Many of the girls and parents were excited to share how much they gained from the evening. We congratulate Rekha and wish her much success.

Page 4 Volume V, Issue 1

Music & Art Oh Say Can You Sing? Boy did they sing! The High School East Concert Choir was invited to sing the National Anthem for the New York Mets at Citi-field on Friday, Septem-ber 21st. After a successful audition, Dr. McRoy

was notified of their acceptance to sing this fall. After their amazing performance, they were invited back to sing again! On their way off the field, they were congratulated by the Mets Vice President for Finance, a High School East graduate! Congratula-tions to Dr. McRoy and the Concert Choir for repre-senting High School East on the national stage.

Art Larger than Life! In September, Mrs. Uttendorfer's AP Art History

students, took a 2 1/2 hour drive upstate to visit

Storm King. This 500 acre sculpture park has over

100 sculptures on view, too large for any museum

to handle. The guide at the park referred to the sky

as the ceiling, the grass as the floors and the trees

as the walls. Art history students toured the park

with the intention of finding inspiration for their an-

nual art installation. Students also made connec-

tions to modern and contemporary art. After the

morning tour at Storm King the class headed north

to Dia Beacon to view more large-scale artwork

dating from the '60s to the present. This time in an

old Nabisco Factory. Students were impressed

with the size and sheer ability for an artist to con-

ceptualize and actually create work so large. The

students truly had a wonderful experience explor-

ing the art of the Hudson Valley.

T-Rex at High School East!

Page 5 Perspectives

Fossils Come Alive at East! The walk up to the science wing will never be the same with the addition of a new Hills East icon. Last year, teachers Brian Clare and Allyson Uttendorfer spent five months working with students to create the new “Hills East Science” Tyrannosaurus Rex sign. They enlisted a number of extremely talented students to work together and create this amazing sign, namely Sophia Ahmad, Samson Hung, Spencer Kaplan, Michelle Lee, Emmy Liu, Marissa Pesak and Daniela Rios. These remarkable students along with Mr. Clare and Mrs. Uttendorfer collaborated on what materials to use, where to place the sign and how it would be hung. Their creativity, ingenuity and hard work helped to create a museum quality piece that many passers-

by glance upon. The teachers began this project with the hope that these casual glances would inspire the next generation of science and art students and give us all even more High School East pride in a school filled with wonderful teachers and big ideas!

Page 6 Perspectives

Making Strides Making Strides for Hope by Nicole Dalton

It's 7am on a beautiful Sunday morning in autumn. The sun is just about to rise, and there is a chill in the air that screams….let's go to the BEACH!! And that's exactly what over 100 members of the Hills East community, comprised of teachers, students, and family members, did on Sunday, October 21st as we joined forces to Make Strides Against Breast Cancer. Deciding to forgo the traditional pumpkin patch-es and corn mazes that are so often the activity of choice on an October Sunday, Steve Goldman, Matt Mayo, Kerri McCourt, Charese Cunningham, Danielle Mahoney, Patrick Rendon and I instead chose to climb onto school busses, join forces with our students and go to the beach. We instead chose to make a difference. Armed with our custom banner, earned early on in our efforts for reaching a $1,000 fundraising milestone and marching over 100 strong, we began the five mile walk down the boardwalk on that picture perfect morning. For those of us who have been personally touched by this disease, this walk provides sol-ace, solidarity, and hope. Surrounded by supporters and survivors alike, the day is nothing less than inspi-rational. As the team leader for the highly successful Hills East team, I am blessed to have had so many people so willing to join forces this year as we continue to fight this battle against breast cancer, which is all too common on Long Island. I am proud to say that, as the event came to a close, we had raised over $3,500 for the cause. Generous contributions from faculty, staff, administration, students, families and friends of High School East aided in our accomplishment to not only meet, but exceed our initial expectations. While there is still a lot that needs to be done to stop cancer in its tracks, every stride taken that day was a step in the right direction.

Page 7 Volume V, Issue 1

High School East Spirit Week 2012!

This year’s High School East Spirit Week was filled with pajamas, team jer-seys, college shirts, pink gear for breast cancer awareness and school spirit! High School East students truly took school pride to heart as they participated in the week’s events. Spirit week was capped off with an in-spiring pep rally on Friday, a Thunderbirds Homecoming win and a suc-cessful competition night! The high scoring T-Birds football team beat Brentwood on the field and the junior class dominated the competition night. Our Homecoming King, Sean Cartwright and Homecoming Queen, Christy Chon were also honored at competition night.

High School East 50 Vanderbilt Parkway Dix Hills, NY 11746

Produced by: Roberto Trigosso 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

High School East Athletics

Another Remarkable Fall

Season for Hills East High School East athletes worked hard this fall season. They have spent hours in the gym and on the fields preparing to give their all to represent our school com-munity. Many teams have exceptional records this fall season. Congratulations to the girls tennis team for another undefeated season and for taking the first seed in the playoffs. Boys volleyball also dominated their opponents to earn a spot in the playoffs. The girls swim team had another successful season with many swimmers who qualified for the county championships. In addition, our football team had a successful season after moving to a highly competitive division I. Special congratulations to the boys soccer team! They surged through the playoffs to play in the Suffolk County final! We congratulate golf, gymnastics, girls volleyball, boys cross country, girls cross country, girls soccer and field hockey players and coaches for another fantastic fall season.