2008-2009 Student/Staff Archive
2007-2008 Student/Staff Archive

STUDENT/STAFF ACHIEVEMENTS
2009 - 2010 School Year
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SOMS Teachers Integrate 21st Century Tools at Tech Expo 2010
On March 5th, SOMS 8th grade technology teacher, Peter Olsen and 8th grade ELA teacher, Maureen Carroll presented a workshop at TECH EXPO 2010. The presentation focused on infusing media into literature using Google Lit trips which take students on virtual journeys based on curriculum.

Partnering 21st Century technology skills with challenging literature, Carroll and Olsen worked collaboratively to bring the classroom alive by creating a virtual trip across America and Canada retracing and exploring the route of Buck’s arduous journey, using the model they created from Jack London’s notorious novel of adventure and survival from California to the Yukon and beyond. Utilizing Google Earth’s ability to give a bird’s eye view, students can visit and experience life during the Yukon Gold Rush by viewing purposely positioned historical photos and documents, photos of actual mining camp remains still standing today, and relevant excerpts and quotes from the novel that will collectively bring the student through Buck’s transformation from domesticated pet to dominant primordial beast.

Also presenting at the Tech Expo were SOMS teachers, Kerri McBride, Luke Freeley and Patty Eyer who gave workshops on integrating 21st century skills into curriculum.

SOCSD Mathletes Compete Worldwide Using Computer Technology
Last week, 1,133,246 students, and 56,082 schools from 235 countries, correctly answered 479,732,613 questions and set a new World Record during the 24 hours of World Math Day. In this 24 hour period, question sets are answered in one minute timed sections, in random categories of: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and simple equations in an age appropriate level of difficulty.

While playing, the website attempts to find other players of the same level to match against the competitor. If no matches are found, the player plays "against" the computer, which answers questions at a pace similar to the past history of the student. After each game, the results are shown along with the competitors' results.

SOCSD students spent many combined hours in the classrooms, libraries, computer labs, and their homes, keeping competitive with the rest of the world. While individual category and world results are still being calculated, Tappan Zee Elementary has already been advised that 3rd grader Michael S. has individually placed 32nd WORLDWIDE!!!

TZHS STUDENT RECEIVES COVETED GOLD KEY RECOGNITION
The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards of 2010 competition bestowed Gold Key Recognition to TZHS 11th grader Sheila Krishna. Every year over 165,000 works of art and writing are submitted to The Awards for consideration. Gold Key recognition is given to only 10,000 students each year as determined by a panel of distinguished leaders in the creative field.

SOMS Students Display at SUNY's Young Artists at Work
In celebration of Youth Art Month, three 8th grade SOMS students, Katie K., Erin S., and Carolyn Q., have been chosen to have their artwork displayed during the Young Artists at Work exhibit at SUNY Rockland Community College. The annual exhibit is presented by the SUNY Rockland Community College Art Department in collaboration with the Rockland Art Educators Association. The Young Artists at Work exhibit, by elementary, middle and high school art students from Rockland County, will be on view in the Rotunda of the College Library Media Center from Monday, March 8th through Friday March 26th. A reception for the artists, their families and friends will be held on Thursday, March 11th from 5:30 - 7:30 pm on the Library Bridge located on the Library's second floor. Exhibit hours are Monday - Thursday from 8am - 10 pm, Saturday from 8:30 am - 4:30 pm, and Sunday, from 1 pm until 4 pm. The exhibit features a wide range of art mediums, including painting, drawing, sculpture, fashion illustration, graphic design, photography, jewelry, and ceramics.

TZHS Art Student Wins Fashion Design Award
TZHS Junior, Sarah Song, won First Place in the Cornell Design League's 26th Annual Fashion Show Competition. The challenge: Design the perfect outfit for a music award ceremony. The competition was open to high school students. As the First Prize winner, Song's design will be shown at the Design League's Annual Fashion Runway Show in Ithaca, NY, in a finished display of her design in a fashion fabric. Song plans on entering college as a Fashion major.

Five TZHS Seniors Named as National Merit Scholarship Finalists
Five TZHS seniors have met the requirements to advance to Finalist standing in the National Merit Scholarship Program. The selection of some 8,200 Merit Scholarship winners from the group of more than 15,000 Finalists is now in progress. The students are Rosie Alig, John Davison, Miranda Peeples, Kevin Qian and Justin Reiter.

GOLD & SILVER for SOMS Math Team
On Wednesday, February 24th, the South Orangetown Middle School Math Counts Team brought home a 1st place finish in the county division competition held at Felix Festa Middle School. The Math Counts Competition is sponsored by the Rockland Chapter of NYS Society of Professional Engineers. Martin Dolphin is the coordinator of the Rockland Chapter of Math Counts. The SOMS team, consisting of members, Rouhin Ghosh, Amit Krishnan, Changseob Lim, and Eli Rapoport earned first place under the supervision of Math Counts Advisor Ms. Kerri McBride. Kyle Fuller, Alex Li, Nick Paniza, and Shawn Shapiro also competed. Additionally, Changseob Lim earned a 2nd place individual award. The SOMS team will now compete at the State Level on March 13th against 60 other teams from all over New York State in Troy, New York. The top three teams from that competition will move on to the 2010 Nationals, which will be held in Orlando, Florida.

SOMS Science Olympiad Team Aces Invitational's
The SOMS Science Olympiad Team made an impressive showing at this year's invitational challenge held at Ravena Middle School in Ravena, NY. Students competed in twenty different events against 14 top teams from New York State in preparation for the Regional Tournament to be held on March 6th at Scarsdale Middle School in Westchester County, NY. Twelve students won individual medals for six different entries. The team also placed for entries in the categories of: Anatomy, Bio Process Lab, Car of Tomorrow, Can't Judge a Powder, Disease Detectives, Dynamic Planet, Ecology, Elevated Bridge, Shock Value, Experimental Design, Fossils, Meteorology, Ornithology, Pentathalon, Physical Science Lab, Road Scholar, Science Crime Busters, Solar System, Sumo Bots, Trajectory, and Write It Do It.


 

TZHS Medals at 2010 Science Olympiad
On Saturday, February 13th, Byram Hills HS in Westchester County hosted the 2010 Science Olympiad. The TZHS team placed 8th out of 33 teams that entered from Westchester and Rockland Counties. In the Olympiad, students compete in three general categories. Eight TZHS students won medals for four different entries. Sheila Krishnan and Yurim Lee won 2nd Place medals in Disease Detectives; John Mathew and Joval Mathew won 2nd Place medals in Dynamic Planet; Neal Patel and Caren Irgang won 3rd Place medals in Environmental Chemistry; and Nik Tampakis and Sal Rinchiera won 3rd Place medals in It's About Time.

SOCSD Excels in 2009-10 Reflections Program: "Beauty is ... "
The annual National PTA Reflections Program is an arts recognition and achievement program for students. Students are given opportunities to express themselves creatively in different areas and to receive recognition for original works of art, while highlighting the importance of the arts in education.

Since its inception in 1969, more than 10 million students have participated in the program. Entries can be submitted in any of six categories: Literature, Music Composition, Photography, Visual Arts, Dance Photography, and Film/Video Production. Only original works of art are accepted. Participation in the program is organized by grade, and are critiqued against others in the same grade. This allows for recognition and judging by appropriate developmental age and skill levels.

Entries are first judged at the local unit level, where selected works are chosen to represent the PTA at each subsequent level. Once entries reach the State level, they may be selected for submission to the National PTA. The Award of Excellence and Awards of Merit are recognized at the annual National PTA convention and are displayed as part of the program's traveling exhibit.

This year, SOCSD had 87 winners district-wide, broken down as follows: 23 First Place winners, 18 Second Place winners, 17 Third Place winners, and 29 of the entries took Honorable Mention. Of those, 34 went on to Regional's, and 6 went to the State level. Results from the entries at the State level will be known in March. Winning State entries will go on to the National PTA Convention.

Results:
WOS - Click here for results
TZE - Click here for results
CL - Click here for results
SOMS - Click here for results
TZHS - Click here for results

Sons of Italy Rockland Lodge 2176 Honors TZHS Italian Student of the Month
TZHS Senior Julie Stevenson was honored Wednesday evening, January 27, 2010, at the monthly Order Sons of Italy Rockland Lodge meeting as the Lodge's Student of the Month recipient. She follows Alyssum Quaglia, the October recipient, in the Lodge's new program that recognizes Seniors who not only excel in the study of the Italian language, but demonstrate a true interest in Italian culture beyond the classroom. The program was organized by John DeSimone and Nick Sfraga. The evening's master of ceremony was Lodge President Ken Lee. TZHS principal Ed Bolan introduced Julie to the membership of the Lodge.



 

TZHS Varsity Boys Swim Team Breaks 29 Yr. Old Record
The TZHS Boys 200 yard medley relay team of Lance Neuendorf, Stanley Wong, Jack Carey and James Pacella broke the 29 year old TZ record and set a new Rockland County record on December 17th with a time of 1 minute, 39.10 seconds to lead the unbeaten (4-0) Dutchmen past Clarkstown 100-81. This broke TZs old record of 1:39.20 held by the 1980 TZ relay team which included Neuendorf's father, Robert Neuendorf. The relay team's next hope is to earn all-American status. In order to accomplish that, the team will have to break a record of 1:38.5.
 

TZHS Italian Honor Society Inducts 51 New Members
The Tappan Zee High School Dante Alighieri chapter of the Societa’ Onoraria Italica, the National Italian Honor Society, sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Italian, held it’s 11th annual induction ceremony on December 1st, 2009. Over 300 parents, relatives and friends filled the TZHS band room to give their support and to congratulate the 51 new inductees, as well as the 28 second year members and 27 third year members who were recognized that evening. To be eligible to be inducted into the Societa’, students must maintain a 90% or better average in Italian, as well as an overall average of above 80%. Once inducted, students must perform community service activities, as well as maintain the same grade criterion to maintain membership in the Honor Society.
 

Tones Brings Home 7 ESSPA Awards
At this year's Empire State Scholastic Press Awards (ESSPA), TZHS's literary magazine, Tones, earned seven awards. The annual award is sponsored by Syracuse University. Advisors Donna Grasso (art), and Sarah McMane (literature) announced the news and the winners. Awards were won in the following categories; Fiction: Gold went to Michael Kraus for "Hangman", while Andy Chung was awarded Silver for "Breaking News". In the category of Non-Fiction, Anastasia Psaras' "New York" entry won Silver, and an Honorable Mention went to Grace Gorenstein for "Hands". Rosie Alig picked up an Honorable Mention for "Forecast" in the Poetry category, and Kevin Qian won Silver in the category of Artwork. In the Overall Publication category, Silver was awarded to the staff of Tones.

Tappan Zee H. S. Boasts Eighty-Six AP Scholar Award Winners
Eighty-six Tappan Zee High School students have earned the designation of AP Scholar by the College Board in recognition of their exceptional achievement on the college-level Advanced Placement (AP) exams.

The College Board ‘s Advanced Placement program offers students the opportunity to take challenging college-level courses while still in high school, and to receive college credit, advanced placement, or both for successful performance on the AP exams.

About 18% of the more than 1.7 million high school students worldwide who took AP Exams performed at a sufficiently high level to also earn an AP Scholar Award. The College Board recognizes several levels of achievement based on students’ performance on AP Exams.

Bradley Silverman, qualified for the National AP Scholar Award by earning an average grade of 4 or higher on a five-point scale on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams.

Twenty-six students qualified for the AP Scholar with Distinction Award by receiving an average grade of at least 3.5 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams. These students are: Caroline Aitchison, Richard Arietta, Andres Cabrera, Michael Carlone, Wonyoung Chung, Marion Distante, Ryan Fitzsimmons, Allyson Furcick, Daniel Hodash, David Howard, Esther Jeung, Annjela John, Ellen Knapp, Michael Kraus, Jessica Li, John Lucas, Daniel Lynn, Lauren Miller, Katelin Morales, Esther Pak, Tina Philip, Anastasia Psaras, Benjamin Riley, Matthew Rudnitsky, Bradley Silverman, Katherine Unger.

Twenty-two students qualified for the AP Scholar with Honor Award by receiving an average grade of at least 3.25 on all AP Exams taken, and grades of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams. These students are: Stanley Abraham, Aarati Akkapeddi, Merilyn Baby, Sinead Casey, Matthew Davin, John Davison, Elizabeth Harris, Daniel Kane, Aditi Kothari, David Lee, Rose Milando, Deanna Nardella, Jordan Pardo, Miranda Peeples, Sara Pollack, Alyssum Quaglia, Justin Reiter, Salvatore Rinchiera, Katherine Royal, Joseph Schaefer, Nikitas Tampakis, Grant Zappulla.

Thirty-eight students qualified for the AP Scholar Award by receiving grades of 3 or higher on three or more AP Exams. These students are: Anthony Alcaro, Rosie Alig, Deanna Amoia, Hetal Baman, Kevin Berrigan, Nicole Bustamante, Meagan Carley, Craig Cozzi, Renee deLisser, Malcolm Dell, Kelly Fischer, Christopher Fusco, Sean Gaffney, Bivin George, Dakota Green, Thomas Griffin, Joseph Gryzlo, Erik Hinrichsen, Katie Huling, John Ki, Sarah Kittle, Vivian Lee, Jaclyn Lennon, Sharon Mathew, Eliana Michaels, Ellen Mutter, Ryan Norris, Crystal Oh, Nicholas Panayotidis, Tanya Philip, Matthew Popp, Gregory Starikovsky, David Sun, Ana Svibruck, Taimy Thomas, Harris Tucker, Jennifer Walpole, Candace Young.

Cottage Lane Teachers Present at 2009 National Association for Gifted Children

Cottage Lane teachers Kottie Christie-Blick and Jacob Tanenbaum were selected as presenters at the 56th Annual NAGC Convention and Exhibition, held on November 5-8 in St. Louis Mo. The focus of the conference is for teachers and researchers to share their learning and best practices in the field of gifted education, with a goal to meet the ever changing needs of gifted/high ability students. The topic of their presentation was Bringing the World to Your Students: Blogging. Their discussion highlighted innovative ideas for making a blog, enticing to students, and outlined the role of the student, the teacher in a remote location, and the teacher in the classroom for a successful and educational blogging experience. They cited examples using their own blogs as illustrations. Tanenbaum's Teacher-At-Sea work for NOAA blog, and Christie-Blick's New Zealand work with Global Educators blog left their listeners enthusiastic about beginning new blogging experiences with their own students as well as adding some gust to the ones already in use.
Christie-Blick, a 4th grade gifted cluster teacher at Cottage Lane said, "This conference reinforces the critical, and worthwhile need for districts to invest in personal development for their teachers in order to bring new concepts and initiatives in teaching back to their own districts. What we have brought back is not only to the gifted population, but to ALL children in South Orangetown. The connections made with other teachers and children across the nation will be used to a great advantage to the children of Cottage Lane and SOCSD."

Tanenbaum, Cottage Lane's 4th and 5th grade computer technology teacher added, "These conferences are actually as important in the learning that is brought back to the district as what we bring to the conference itself. We, as teachers, must give back. If you want cutting edge concepts maintained in the district, teachers must attend these national conferences to learn cutting edge technologies in this ever changing world. This conference gave us that opportunity."
Beth Lipton, Assistant Principal and educator of the gifted also attended the conference, this time as a learner. “The tone of the conference was markedly different from past years”, states Lipton. “Formerly, the mindset was “once gifted, always gifted”. This thought process led to a more rigid approach to giftedness, focusing on the “free gift”, as opposed to hard work, dedication and perseverance. A narrow view of giftedness can preclude students from participating in enrichment and challenge programs, including diversely gifted students (gifted, with a disability), and students that have, for example, content area high ability, artistic or social-emotional intelligence. The new framework discussed at NAGC, is Talent Development, in which the focus is hard work and creating opportunities for children’s diverse interests and talents to shine through, and instruction that responds to the students’ needs." As a result of this conference Miss Lipton is developing a TZE book study group for the parents of currently identified students. Together the group will learn and grow a broader understanding of high-ability learners needs, both as parents and as educators.

TZHS Freshman Named As A Winner In Eiffel Tower Contest

TZHS Freshman, Emiko Chisholm has been named one of 50 winners out of the over 800 entrants in the Eiffel Tower Contest commemorating the monument's 120th Anniversary. Chisholm is a student of French in Ms. Mary Root's class at TZHS. The contest, sponsored by the French Embassy's Cultural Services in partnership with the American Association of Teachers of French, was open to all students in the tri state area from grades K - 12. Entries could be submitted in design, painting, sculpture, paper mache, plaster, clay, wire, video, web page, speech, poem, comic, or small model. Chisholm's winning entry was in the form of a model of the Tower.  In an award ceremony held on Friday, November 13, she was awarded one of five scholarships in the amount of $500.00.
 

TZHS Girls Cross Country Team Wins Section I Class A Championship

The Tappan Zee Girls Cross Country team won the Section 1 Class A title Friday, November 6th at Bowdoin Park in Wappingers Falls, NY. This is the first sectional title in TZHS's Girls Cross Country history. The team scored 30 points with Somers coming in 2nd with 75 points and Ursuline finishing 3rd with 79 points. Jacqueline Pollack was the overall winner of the race covering the 3.1 mile course in 19:20.88 which was the 2nd fastest time in school history on that course. Taylor Jo Gillen was 3rd and Megan Curran was 6th. Meagan Jaskot and Kerri Cody finished 9th and 11th respectively. Elaine Bermudez finished 17th and Kellyanne Bondulich was 20th. The girls will travel to the New York State Championships this weekend on the campus of SUNY Plattsburgh. The girls are currently ranked 4th in Class A in the state.

Sixteen Tappan Zee High School Seniors Named in 2010 National Merit Scholarship Program
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation has announced the names of the Semifinalists in the 55th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Over 1.5 million students took the 2008 preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying test last October. This is a nationwide competition for recognition and awards conducted by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Five Tappan Zee seniors were named as Semifinalists and will advance to Finalist standing. Those students are: Rosie Alig, John Davison, Miranda Peeples, Kevin Qian, and Justin Reiter. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 8,200 National Merit Scholarships, worth more than $36 million, that will be offered next spring.

Eleven TZHS seniors received Commendations. They are: Aarati Akkapeddi, Jungwoo Choi, Sara James, John Ki, Tae Young Ko, David Lee, Ellen Lee, Rose Milando, David Sun, Nikitas Tampakis and Harris Tucker.

Approximately 15,000 Semifinalists are expected to advance to the Finalist level. It is from this group that all National Merit Scholarship winners will be chosen.

To become a Finalist, a Semifinalist must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by the high school principal, and earn SAT scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test. The Semifinalist’s participation and leadership in school and community activities must be documented.

The National Merit Scholarship winners of 2010 will be announced beginning in April 2010.

Tappan Zee Swimmer Brittney Bailey Breaks 16 Year Record
Tappan Zee Varsity Swim Team member Brittney Bailey broke the Tappan Zee Varsity Swim Team record in the 200 yard individual medley. Bailey broke the record, which was held for over 16 years, with a time of 2.15.54. She, along with team members Michaela Raphael, Ali McNamara & Julia Cicalo helped contribute to the Girls Varsity Swim Team's win over Clarkstown H.S. 100-84.

The Girls Varsity Swim Team is currently undefeated with a 3-0 record.

Tappan Zee High School Music Department Sets All-Time Record

The music department is proud to announce that SIX of its students were accepted into this year’s New York All State Music Ensembles. Ellen Lee (violin), Vivian Lee (viola), Ellen Mutter (violin), and Nikitas Tampakis (viola) (all seniors) will be participating in the All-State Symphony Orchestra. Sophia Choi (cello – junior) will be participating in the All-State String Orchestra. Jack Davison (Baritone Sax – senior) will be participating in the All-State Jazz Ensemble. This is the highest number of TZ students ever to be accepted into an All-State Festival breaking the previous record of five students accepted into last year’s festival.

Auditions for All-State ensembles take place every year. Of the many thousands of students who audition statewide, only 350 are accepted into the various ensembles. Ellen Lee, Vivian Lee, Ellen Mutter, Nikitas Tampakis, Sophia Choi and Jack Davison all performed level VI works (the highest level of difficultly) and received perfect scores of 100. In addition to a solo piece, each student is asked to play various scales and sight-read. It should be noted that Jack Davison was the ONLY Baritone Saxophone player to be accepted into the Jazz Ensemble from the entire state of New York.

The students will be traveling to Rochester, New York on December 3rd where they will be rehearsing up to six hours a day for three days. The final performances on December 6 will take place at the Eastman Theater which is one of the premier performing halls in the country. The TZ music department along with the entire SOCSD district is extremely proud of these six students and attributes their success to years of hard work, patience, and perseverance.

South Orangetown Central School District Awarded $783,087 Foreign Language Grant

It has just been announced that the South Orangetown Central School District will be receiving a multi year competitive Federal Grant in the amount of $ 783,087. The award is issued through the United States Department of Education's Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP). South Orangetown applied for the funds under the program name Project Global Connect. The grant was originally applied for by Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, Lynn Gorey, and Tappan Zee HS Assistant Principal Juliet Gevargis in spring of 2009. The funds will become effective immediately with payments of $261,029. per year for each of the next three years. The grant will allow SOCSD to introduce an enhanced foreign language program combined with 21st century technology in both teaching and learning. Dr. Ken Mitchell, Superintendent of South Orangetown Schools was thrilled with the news and said, "Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our two administrators, Juliet Gevargis and Lynn Gorey, we have acquired a significant grant for the next three years that will enable us to enrich our already exemplary foreign language program by providing students with access to the study of languages that are becoming more and more essential for Americans to learn. The world continues to shrink in the 21st century; such a learning opportunity will provide many of our students with unique language skills that will enable them to succeed and thrive in it."

Creation of a state-of-the-art foreign language lab at Tappan Zee HS along with installation of new web-based software will allow exposure to new languages and will benefit the entire district.  Assistant Superintendent Lynn Gorey commented, "In many suburban areas throughout this country much like Rockland County, our children do not get a significant amount of the multicultural experience. It is clear that as a nation we must teach our youth to have a greater understanding and appreciation of other cultures and languages, especially the critical languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Russian.

While full details of the newly enhanced program have not yet been established, Assistant Principal Juliet Gevargis said, "We were thrilled to get the news of this extraordinary opportunity that will be available to our students and our entire district. In these times, it is essential for all citizens to have exposure, understanding and appreciation for all cultures and languages. This grant will further enrich and diversify our foreign language program."