Hewlett team tops in tristate-area Euro Challenge

A team of sophomores from George W. Hewlett High School has proved its know-ledge of Europe in a big way.

Jason Brooks, Niki Farkas, Jonah Greebel, David Kaufman and Jeremy Tarica were the top-scoring team in the tristate area last month during the 2010 Euro Challenge, a competition designed to promote understanding of the European Union and the global economy.

Hewlett beat out 38 teams during a preliminary round in early April at Credit Suisse in Manhattan. The school was eliminated in the semifinal round consisting of 20 teams from around the nation at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in Manhattan on April 27. "I knew we were very good, but I didn't know we would be the best in the area," said team adviser Patricia Nardi.

The competition required teams to conduct a 15-minute presentation on one of 16 countries in the European Union by examining an economic problem and offering solutions. Hewlett students proposed ways to reduce France's unemployment rate, Nardi said, citing Greece's ongoing debt crisis as an economic problem. "I read every article in The Wall Street Journal about Greece," Farkas said. "I knew that we were very prepared."

The challenge was launched by the Delegation of the European Union to the USA in partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and The Moody's Foundation, and coordinated by Working in Support of Education.

FREEPORT

Books for displaced pupils

Librarians in the Freeport School District recently donated 428 new and used books to South Bay Elementary School in West Babylon, which was destroyed by a fire in February, with classes relocated to nearby Our Lady of Grace Church. In addition, another 50 books were donated from the Freeport Public Library's collection.

"It's our turn to help a neighboring school in need, and we are happy to assist," said Mimi Bino, a librarian at Freeport's New Visions Elementary School, which itself received book donations from local schools when it opened in 1995.

GARDEN CITY, JERICHO

Scholarship winners

Students Jan Gong of Garden City High School and Matt Lam of Jericho High School won $15,000 scholarships in the national finals of the Young Epidemiology Scholars Competition, a health-research contest from the College Board and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Gong's project was: "Myocardial Infarction in Chinese Populations: A Genome-Wide Association Study." Lam's project was: "Epidemiology Study of Cancer Pain in New York Chinese Immigrants and the Role of Education in Overcoming Barriers to Pain Treatment."

PORT WASHINGTON

Koreans honor educator

Geoffrey N. Gordon, superintendent of Port Washington School District, was named 2010 Long Island educator of the year by the Korean Parents Association of Long Island, an organization formed last year to support Long Island's growing number of Korean students. Gordon was selected for his "willingness to go above and beyond usual duties" in assisting Korean teens with college applications and other issues.

ROSLYN

Soccer ball art winner

Riley Denihan, a seventh-grader at Buckley Country Day School, beat out thousands of students to win the Soccer Unites the World drawing contest sponsored by adidas and Modell's. The contest required students to decorate a ball in celebration of South Africa's hosting the African continent's first World Cup, which starts June 11. Jeremy Hall, a member of the New York Red Bulls, visited the school last month to give soccer balls to Riley's classmates and a $1,000 Modell's gift certificate to the school.

COUNTYWIDE

Focus on saving the Earth Dozens of local schools celebrated Earth Day last month with activities designed to raise environmental awareness.

In Oceanside, students from all 10 district schools convened at Oceanside School No. 6 for a celebration at its Schoolhouse Green - a nature center and series of walking trails - that included sing-alongs, tree plantings and Earth-friendly skits.

In Long Beach, East School students made "Save-the Earth" posters and decorated a tree with recycled paper on which they wrote Earth-friendly habits they intend to adopt.

In Seaford, Harbor School's Student Council planted a shade tree on the school grounds, while Sea Cliff Elementary School held classes with the lights off to save energy.

ISLANDWIDE

Merit Scholarships

Seven Long Island students were among 1,000 nationwide last month to be named winners of corporate-sponsored scholarships from the National Merit Scholarship Corp. Most of the awards offer annual stipends of between $500 and $10,000, while some offer a single payment between $2,500 and $5,000. Winners were:

Babylon: Sal Albanese of Babylon High School; Bellport: Katherine O'Connor of Bellport High School; Garden City: Thomas Elustondo of Garden City High School; Great Neck: Charles Starr of Great Neck South High School; Kings Park: Eric Mintzer of Kings Park High School; Massapequa: Jessica Apicella of Massapequa High School; Middle Island: Linda Liu of Longwood High School.