Suffolk: 30 students from LI win at Intel science fair in L.A.

Thirty Long Island students were among more than 500 winners of awards at the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair in Los Angeles.

The fair, administered by the Society for Science & the Public, drew 1,700-plus high school students from more than 70 countries last month. To become eligible, students first competed at 435 affiliate fairs at the state or regional level, such as the Long Island Science & Engineering Fair held at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury.

"Intel believes that young people are the key to innovation, and we hope that these winners inspire more students to get involved in science, technology, engineering and math -- the foundation for creativity," Intel Foundation executive director Wendy Hawkins said.

Local winners were: Justin Cheung and Joshua Zweig of Commack High School; Luhong Li of Great Neck North High School; Lelina Chang of Great Neck South High School; Bailey Liao and Daniel Rudin of Half Hollow Hills High School West in Dix Hills; Ken Aizawa, Matthew Chun, Kanav Gupta, Kevin Huang, Varsha Venkatesh and Amy Xu of Jericho High School; Jacob Plaut of Rambam Mesivta High School for Boys in Lawrence; Emma Jing Dong, Jessica Kim, Grace Lee, Caitlin McCormick, Andrew Moshova, Austen Te, Kim Te, Jinyu Wu and Stephanie Ying of Manhasset High School; Hannah Stewart of Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School; Harry Paul of Paul D. Schreiber High School in Port Washington; Allison Murphy of Sayville High School; Yongpeng Tang of Smithtown High School East; and Abrar Ali Nadroo, Ritayan Chakraborty, Justin Lafazan and Priyanka Narayan of Syosset High School.

BOHEMIA
New superintendent

Lynda Adams is the new superintendent of the Connetquot Central School District effective July 1. She will replace Ronald Smith, who has held the position on an interim basis.

Adams served this school year as deputy superintendent for the Center Moriches school district, where she was responsible for overseeing the district's curriculum, instructional technology, personnel and professional development.

"Connetquot is one of the largest school districts in the county, and I look forward to working with the students, staff and the entire Connetquot family to achieve great success for our students," she said.

COMMACK
LI Math Fair

The Commack school district won 16 gold medals -- the most of any Suffolk County district -- in the 2014 Long Island Math Fair at Hofstra University last month.

The fair, sponsored by the Nassau and Suffolk math teachers associations, required pupils in grades 7-12 to submit an essay on any math topic and give a 15-minute presentation.

Other top districts in Suffolk County, and their gold medal totals, were Half Hollow Hills in Dix Hills with 10 and Northport-East Northport with two.

COUNTYWIDE
Elementary science fair

Seven Suffolk County students were named first-place winners in their respective K-6 grade levels last month at Brookhaven National Laboratory's 2014 Elementary School Science Fair.

More than 500 projects from 120 schools were submitted. They were judged by lab staff and local teachers, as well as volunteers from the Long Island Matrix of Science and Technology.

First-place winners were: Ava Grimley, a kindergartner at Fort Salonga Elementary School; Kyle Wozniak, a first-grader at Fort Salonga Elementary School; Lia Edlin-Miller, a second-grader at Dickinson Avenue Elementary School in East Northport; Grant Faber, a third-grader at Forest Brook Elementary School in Hauppauge; Evan Como, a fourth-grader at Sunrise Drive Elementary School in Sayville; Hannah Fioramonti, a fifth-grader at Pines Elementary School in Hauppauge; and Kendall Stedman, a sixth-grader at Montauk Public School.

ISLANDWIDE
Scholarship winners

Seven Long Island students were among about 2,500 winners nationwide of college-sponsored National Merit Scholarship Corp. scholarships.

The awards, which provide as much as $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship, were given based on factors including academic achievement and extracurricular involvement.

The winners were: Joshua Burton of Lynbrook High School, Sean Coffey of Bishop McGann-Mercy High School in Riverhead, Laura Eule of Paul D. Schreiber High School in Port Washington, Sarah Mackin of Hauppauge High School, Christopher Mahler of Chaminade High School in Mineola, Kyra Martin of Mattituck Junior/Senior High School and Ryan McEvoy of Oyster Bay High School.