Way to Go! Jay Patel of Jericho Middle School wins Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes award

A Jericho student’s documentary about the developer of the whooping cough vaccine is among the winners of an international competition that asked young people to highlight historical “unsung heroes.”

Jay Patel, an eighth-grader at Jericho Middle School, won the $2,000 Outstanding Middle School Project in the 2023 Discovery Awards, coordinated by the Kansas-based nonprofit Lowell Milken Center for Unsung Heroes. The contest asked students to develop research projects about people from history whose accomplishments remain largely unknown.

His winning documentary recognized Pearl Kendrick, who was a bacteriologist credited with co-developing the first successful whooping cough vaccine in the 1930s.

Of winning, Patel, 13, said: “I was extremely excited, because it was a lot of work. It was a great feeling.”

Patel said he got the idea to create a documentary about Kendrick after seeing a cover story about her last year in Smithsonian magazine. To create the 10-minute video, he used software like iMovie and Final Cut Pro.

“Jay is an incredible young man,” said Jericho School District Superintendent Hank Grishman. “I look forward to many, many recognitions as he finishes school at Jericho.”

Patel also plays tenor sax and is a member of his school’s Shared Decision Making Committee and baseball, soccer, track and volleyball teams.

By Michael R. Ebert

michael.ebert@newsday.com

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.