Students from Sachem High Schools North and East came together for a day of training as part of the Teens as Teachers Substance Abuse Prevention and Education Program club and course. The program, which included multiple guest speakers from across Suffolk County, featured interactive activities designed to strengthen students’ skills as peer educators as they work collectively as community liaisons, educating youth and promoting a safe and healthy lifestyle. 

The peer educators within the program facilitate lessons to sixth-grade students around the district on how to resist pressures to use drugs and alcohol. The skills-based health education program is designed to mitigate risk factors and build the basis for a safe, supportive and respectful learning environment. The Too Good for Drugs (TGFD) curriculum is used to put social and emotional learning to work through fun and interactive lessons, building the self-confidence young people need to make healthy choices and achieve success.

The training program organized by Sachem Health Education Department educators Patricia Broderick, Lori Hewlett and Kristen Maccarone began with a brief presentation from Sachem substance abuse and violence prevention counselors. Then the students transitioned into an inspirational presentation given by Kym Laube, executive director of HUGS Inc., about the importance of leadership. 

Following the guest speakers, students separated into groups and practiced presenting the lessons they will be delivering to the district’s sixth-grade students in the coming months. 

Nine Sachem Central School District seniors have been named Commended Students in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program.

At the end of September, about 34,000 of the approximately 50,000 highest scorers were chosen for this honor based on their PSAT/NMSQT results. Paul Noble and Nobonita Paul have been chosen from High School North and Timothy Chiu, Kayli Manalo, Nicholas Manzella, Kayla Miranda, Emma Rigaud, Alecia Robins and Rachel Yaker have been selected from High School East.

Selected students receive letters of commendation in recognition of their outstanding academic performance and become candidates to be chosen for special scholarships sponsored by corporate businesses.  

North (L-R): Nobonita Paul, Paul Noble.  

East (L-R): Timothy Chiu, Nicholas Manzella, Kayla Miranda, Rachel Yaker, Emma Rigaud, Kayli Manalo, Alecia Robins

Sachem High School East senior Tharini Prakash and High School North senior Paige Menneci have been selected as semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. 

Tharini is president of the English Honor Society and treasurer of class government. She is also an active member of the National, Foreign Language, Math, History and Science honor societies. 

Paige has been an Advanced Placement student since ninth grade and boasts perfect NYSSMA scores from grades eight through 12. She is a member of the National Honor Society, for which she also serves as secretary, as well as the Foreign Language and Science honor societies.      

More than 1.6 million juniors from high schools across the country entered the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2016 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. The nationwide pool of 16,000 semifinalists represents 1 percent of U.S. high school seniors and includes the highest-scoring entrants from each state.

In February, 15,000 semifinalists will be selected to advance to finalist standing.

Sachem High Schools North and East will be well represented at the 2017 New York State School Music Association’s All-State festival, as a total of 10 student-musicians were selected to perform during NYSSMA’s annual Winter Conference. The event will take place at the Rochester Convention Center in Rochester, New York, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. 

From High School East, students Timothy Demott and Edmond Tomaselli will perform with the mixed chorus, while Cecilia Antonelle will sing with the treble chorus. Justin Taveras will play the trumpet as a member of the wind ensemble and Samantha Fierro has been selected as an alternate for the chorus. 

From High School North, students Morgan Tiller and Paige Menneci have been selected for the mixed chorus and Marissa Tedeschi for the treble chorus. Sofia Sangiorgio has been chosen as a flute alternate for the band and Matthew Mazer as an alternate for the chorus. 

“The entire Sachem music department is incredibly proud of our students who were selected to perform with this year’s NYSSMA All-State ensembles in December,” said Justin Comito, chairperson of secondary music. “This achievement is a testament to the hard work, talent and dedication of each student, along with their teachers and family members who have mentored and supported them throughout their musical career. On behalf of the entire Sachem community, we wish them all the best in this incredible musical opportunity.”

The process for selecting an All-State musician is rigorous and includes teacher recommendations, audition scores at the NYSSMA solo evaluation festival during the prior spring, and participation in other performing organizations. 

Two Sachem high school science research students excelled in their respective concentrations over the summer as they furthered their research initiatives at Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory.
 
Angelina Franqueiro, a fourth-year science research student from Sachem High School North, was accepted into the 2017 High School Summer Program at Stony Brook University’s Garcia Center for Polymers at Engineered Interfaces. Angelina has been performing cutting-edge research on understanding the differences in rigidity between normal cells and cancer cells, a focus presented in her paper, “Nano Mechanical Properties of Breast Ductal Carcinoma MDA-MB-231, MDA-MB-4175, MCF-7” and “Normal Breast Ductal Cells MCF-10A and their Extracellular Matrices.” She has delved deeply into the subject by investigating the biophysical properties of living cells utilizing atomic force microscopy. 

Daniel Waxman, a fourth-year science research student from Sachem High School East, was accepted into the 2017 High School Research Program at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Daniel’s concentration in particle physics allowed him to utilize the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at the laboratory. His work over the summer was centered on programming computers to identify the particles that resulted as products from the collisions within the ion collider. The title of Daniel’s work is “STAR Particle Identification using Machine Learning Algorithms,” and this study contributes toward a better understanding of particle physics.

Both students will enter their research projects in the 2017 Siemens Competition for Math, Science and Technology. Daniel also plans to enter his work in the upcoming Regeneron Science Talent Search, formally known as the Intel Science Talent Search.