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 Geraradi, 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.
First-graders in Antoinette Hatzopoulos' class at Glen Cove's Gribbin Elementary School enjoyed a reading of Mo Willems' children's book "Nanette's Baguette." The class also recreated the French village-style setting of the story and even had a taste of a baguette. Credit: Glen Cove School District
NEW HYDE PARK
Chamber orchestra
The New Hyde Park-Garden City Park school district has launched a chamber orchestra for its string students to rehearse and perform together.
Thirty-six musicians were selected in the fall through an audition process. The ensemble, which includes students from the district’s four elementary schools, had its debut performance last month at a Board of Education meeting in celebration of Music in Our Schools Month.
The Floral Park-Bellerose school district held a ribbon-cutting ceremony this month to unveil outdoor automated external defibrillator (AED) cabinets at Floral Park-Bellerose and John Lewis Childs elementary schools. In the case of an emergency, community members can access the AED device by pushing a button that will register a call to the Floral Park Police Department, where a dispatcher can enter a code that opens the cabinet's door. Credit: Floral Park-Bellerose School District
“I am very proud of the tenacity, commitment and artistic spirit the chamber orchestra players have shown throughout our inaugural year,” said Mary Eileen McNamee, director of the chamber orchestra.
COUNTYWIDE
Trivia Challenge
Four schools in Nassau County placed first in the 2019 Trivia Challenge that benefits the Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau County.
Participants in the event, open to grades three through 12, are on four-person teams and take a 100-question test on topics ranging from academics to popular culture, followed by a final round in which they compete verbally.
Winners were Munsey Park Elementary School, Manhasset, grades 3-4 category; South Woods Middle School, Syosset, grades 5-6 category; Woodmere Middle School, grades 7-8 category; and Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns & Rockaway, high school category.
Participants raised funds for the nonprofit by soliciting pledges from family and friends.
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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Feral cat found with rabies . . . Piano Man's last show . . . Travel to Block Island . . . Olympics opening ceremony
