LI winners in region's History Day
Herricks High School team members Pranjal Jain, left, Melissa Lau, Emily Cho, Prithula Simran and Amber Wiqas placed third in the senior group exhibit category of Long Island History Day. The team is among those advancing to the state competition in Cooperstown. Credit: Emma Sample
Thirty-nine Long Island students are first-place winners for their explorations into local, state, national and world history.
The 2019 Long Island History Day challenged participants to research topics of their choice on the theme of “Triumph and Tragedy in History.” Groups or individuals could submit entries in one of five categories: documentary, exhibit, paper, performance or website.
More than 800 students — the most ever for the event — took part in the annual regional competition at Hofstra University, which culminated with the contest day on March 31. Topics ranged from the evolution of women’s health to brain injuries in professional football.
The top two, three or four winners in each category advance to the New York History Day competition, being held Monday at The Farmers’ Museum in Cooperstown.
First-place winners and their school districts were:
Emma Melnikob and Ashley Vincenzo, East Williston; Jay Nagpal, Half Hollow Hills; Katie Dolce, Vincent Gerardi, Peter Proscia, Rose Recce and Michael Seda, Hauppauge; Amisha Brahmbhatt, Karan Kaknia, Prableen Kaur, Tiffany Leo, Sanjana Lodha, Sarah Ninan, Roshni Patel, Dheyaia Simrin, Gurvir Singh, David Xiang, Celeste Zhang and David Zhang, Herricks; Jonny Miller, Rachel Miller and Gabby Nakkab, Hewlett-Woodmere; and Krishna Chalise, Christine Choi, Michelle Dong, Diya Gurnami, Samuel Han, Emily Kim, William Kim-Shoemaker, Lauren Marchand, Sofia Safa, Davesh Valagolam and Jerry Zhao, Jericho.
Aharon Cohen, Benjy Fried, Marc Matlis, Moshe Rattner and Shmuli Glick of Hebrew Academy of Long Beach also placed first.
Northport High School senior Elliot Macolino was chosen to receive an Amazon Future Engineer Scholarship, given to 100 students nationwide. He will receive a $10,000 annual scholarship for four years, as well as a paid engineering internship with Amazon after his first year of college. He is shown with mathematics and computer science teacher Andrew Frisch. Credit: Northport-East Northport School District
EAST SETAUKET
Blue Ocean Competition
Ward Melville High School’s Business Department received a $1,000 prize for being one of three schools internationally to bring in the most submissions for the 2018-19 Blue Ocean Entrepreneurship Competition, which challenged students to pitch innovative business concepts via video.
This year’s competition attracted 250 submissions from nine countries, including 22 from Ward Melville. In addition to the prize for most submissions, Ward Melville had three submissions make it to the competition’s semifinal round.
Wading River School students recently collaborated to create a tree-themed collage based on one of the school's principles: "Our strength is shared together and it grows together." Standing alongside the collage are fifth-graders Summer Murphy and Jack Calvert, with art teacher Rosemarie Petruzzellis. Credit: Shoreham-Wading River Central School District
COUNTYWIDE
Autism awareness
Many local schools hosted educational events in recent weeks in recognition of National Autism Awareness Month.
In Deer Park, Robert Frost Middle School students wore Band-Aids across their mouths and communicated using gestures or pen and paper for an entire day. The effort was intended to increase acceptance of autistic individuals by providing a firsthand experience of their daily struggles.
In Ronkonkoma, Cherokee Street Elementary School invited children to contribute to autism-themed artwork in the hallway by writing on puzzle pieces their conclusion to the phrase: “I am unique because …”
In Mastic Beach, William Floyd High School's Counseling Center recently held its third and largest on-site admissions event of the year. The event provided seniors with the opportunity to have one-on-one meetings with admissions counselors from a variety of local colleges, universities and trade schools. Credit: William Floyd School District
In Babylon, the elementary school held an assembly in which children were introduced to the disorder through a “Sesame Street” character.
ISLANDWIDE
GeoBee qualifiers
Twenty-three Long Island students were among 100 statewide to qualify for the National Geographic New York State GeoBee, held last month in Albany. None reached the national level.
Long Island’s qualifiers and their school districts were: Patrick Dircks, Bethpage; Molly McHale, Cold Spring Harbor; Benjamin Buckhout, East Hampton; Matthew Vo, East Meadow; Grant Peterson, East Williston; David Feuer and Jonathan Sanders, Great Neck; Michael Zanetti, Herricks; Eric Zhang, Hicksville; Caleb Kao, Jericho; John Hartnett, Locust Valley; Nicholas Meyer, Oyster Bay-East Norwich; William Sellerberg, Roslyn; Dylan Shen, Smithtown; Daniel Chan and Aberam Sriganesh, Syosset; Jacon Paredes, Three Village; and Mouhammad Seck, West Hempstead.
Other qualifiers were: Yonatan Conn, Solomon Schechter School of Long Island, Williston Park; Maximus Lu, Long Island School for the Gifted, Huntington Station; Sandeep Sood, Buckley Country Day School, Roslyn; Anthony Vazquez, Joseph Fox Latin School, Uniondale; and Samuel Winkler, The Green Vale School, Old Brookville.
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.
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