Way to Go! Southold student wins world language award
Juliet Rand, a junior at Southold High School, is the state winner of the World Language Student of the Year Award, which is issued by the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers and the nonprofit Council on International Educational Exchange. Rand is seen here with Southold French teacher Virginia Gilmore. Credit: Daniel Gosnell
A Southold High School student has been named the state's World Language Student of the Year.
Juliet Rand, a junior, beat out approximately 170 nominees to earn the designation from the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers and the nonprofit Council on International Educational Exchange. She was awarded a $5,000 scholarship for a summer language intensive program.
Rand, who was nominated by Southold French teacher Virginia Gilmore, studies Spanish and French. She started to study the latter language because of her love of opera.
"I'm looking to study opera in college and a lot of operas are in French," said Rand, 17. "It's a beautiful language."
Rand started studying opera in the seventh-grade through the Southold Opera House, where she appeared in "La Bohème." She has also won a Teeny Award from the nonprofit East End Arts for her role of Christine Daaé in a school production of "The Phantom of the Opera" and was selected last year for the New York State School Music Association's All-State Women’s Choir.
In school, Rand is a member of the National Honor Society, select choir, jazz band, chamber orchestra, track team and the drama, wellness and poetry clubs.
She also studies ballet at the North Fork Academy of Dance and is an organist and cantor at St. Patrick's Church in Southold.
— MICHAEL R. EBERT
Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.
