School Notebook: Students chosen for All-National Honor Ensembles
Eastport-South Manor Jr.-Sr. High School students Lennon Lotardo, left, Benjamin Isaacson and Aidan Young were selected for the National Association for Music Education’s All-National Honor Festival in Maryland. Credit: Eastport-South Manor School District
Twenty-nine Long Island students are among 541 nationwide named to this year's All-National Honor Ensembles by the National Association for Music Education.
The ensembles — which include a concert band, guitar ensemble, jazz ensemble, mixed choir, modern band and symphony orchestra — performed earlier this month at Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Fort Washington, Maryland. The students qualified for their state's 2021-22 All-State Festival and were chosen through an audition process.
Long Island's students and their high schools were: Airlea Deutscher, Bayport-Blue Point; Tristan Hearth, East Islip; Benjamin Isaacson, Lennon Lotardo and Aidan Young, Eastport-South Manor; Zachary Carle, Molly Keena and Rebecca Kenjesky, Farmingdale; Brianna Bras, Freeport; Justin Koczko, Garden City; Dayoung Yu, Great Neck South; Jacob Leshnower and Mark Shapiro, Half Hollow Hills East; Alexandra Ebanks, Harborfields; Carolyn Lau, Herricks; Anastasia Inglima, Hewlett; Michael Gallagher and Michael Varacchi, Longwood; Oluwaseyifunmi Adeniyi, Malverne; Connor Gibbons, Manhasset; Cody Kanyaro, Plainedge; Carly Salzano, Sachem North; Luke Surrusco, Smithtown East; Isabella Coles, South Side; Luca Alexandru and Alan Huang, Syosset; Ronan Flynn, West Babylon; Hunter Montgomery, Westhampton Beach; and Thomas Valle, The Wheatley School.
"To have three students selected in one year … is such a great honor and testament to the quality of music programs Eastport-South Manor delivers," said the district's superintendent, Joseph Steimel.
COUNTYWIDE
Math scholars
Eighty-eight students have been accepted into the Institute of Creative Problem Solving for Gifted and Talented Students at SUNY Old Westbury. They were recommended by local educators and are considered among the top one-tenth of math students on Long Island.
Nassau County students and their school districts are: Mark Oladipo and Jordan Siegel, Bellmore-Merrick; Hunter Chinda, Lavleen Kaur, Aashka Shah and Yuvraj Singh, Bethpage; Victoria LaBarge, Shreya Satpathy and Hridhaan Shetty, East Meadow; Michael Bank, Simran Katari, Radhika Kumar, Jaden Kwon and Kate Park, East Williston; Alyssa Jane Bermudez and Isabella D'Ambrosio, Franklin Square; Rebecca Chau, Mihir Goyal, Vivian Hu and Connor Lee, Garden City; Catherine Jin, Maximilian Peng, Gauri Sharma and Anna Zou, Herricks; Alexander Baum, Hewlett-Woodmere; Owen Chan, Aadil Mahmood, Agamvir Singh and Aster Yeung, Hicksville; Hunter Durham, Island Trees; Isaac Chen, Rayan Hasan, Srinivasa Polisetty, Suriya Senthilkumar, Jay Song and Lilian Zhou, Jericho; Jack Kelly, Locust Valley; Ishan Sookram and Sofia Soroka, Lynbrook; Andrew Tsai and Alexander Valenzuela, Manhasset; Kellan AuYeung and Jacklyn Nozhnitsky, Merrick; Matthew Ahlfeld, Kieran Kim, Siena Livorno, Justin Spera and Deirdre Steiner, Mineola; Avni Gupta and Aarav Maini, New Hyde Park-Garden City Park; Brandon Hsieh, North Shore; Pranav Mohankumar and Rishaan Sen, Plainview-Old Bethpage; Ethan Lee, Roslyn; Katherine Gilman, Lily Maglio and Adittya Nischal, Sewanhaka; Nora Han, Matthew Jiang, Sophie Li, Jenna Sim, Sughan Sriganesh, Bernadette Tam and Leon Zhao, Syosset.
Other area students are: Tommy Barker, Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens; Moksh Naik, Holy Trinity Diocesan High School in Hicksville; and Jeremy Ratner, Portledge School in Locust Valley.
ISLANDWIDE
Red Ribbon Week
Many schools educated children and teens about the dangers of drugs and alcohol last month in recognition of Red Ribbon Week.
In Malverne, eighth-graders at Howard T. Herbert Middle School read a book about the consequences associated with smoking, drinking and drugs. They also performed a skit about peer pressure and how bad decisions can keep people from achieving their dreams.
Children at Dogwood Elementary School in Smithtown demonstrated togetherness in taking a stand against drugs by participating in various themed days — including a Team Day in which they wore jerseys to school.
In Roslyn Heights, students signed red banners pledging to remain drug free at East Hills Elementary School.
— MICHAEL R. EBERT
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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Newsday Live Music Series: Long Island Idols Newsday Live presents a special evening of music and conversation with local singers who grabbed the national spotlight on shows like "The Voice," "America's Got Talent,""The X-Factor" and "American Idol." Newsday Senior Lifestyle Host Elisa DiStefano leads a discussion and audience Q&A as the singers discuss their TV experiences, careers and perform original songs.
