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January School Highlights

Academy for Allied Health and Biomedical Sciences

The New Year started with Academy seniors presenting their capstone project proposals.  All seniors work on a research proposal with professional mentors as part of the Biomedical Innovations curriculum.  Prior to beginning their mentoring, students must present their proposal and research process to a review committee.  Each group of seniors met before various individuals from higher education, business and industry to receive feedback on their proposals. The Academy recognizes and thanks the following individuals for their generous contributions of time and talent toward the intellectual development of our students: Dr. Margarita Camacho of Barnabas Health, Dr. Barbara Zilinskas of Rutgers University, Dr. Darshan Desai and Ms. Karen Roach of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Dr. Robert S. Prezant of Montclair State University,    Mr. Haskell Berman of HealthCare Institute of New Jersey, Mr. Raymond Vaccari of ManufactureNJ Talent Network, Ms. Marcy Engleman of the Mutter Museum, Mr. Greg Ambra of DZS Clincial and Mr. David Postolski of Gearhart Law. 

 

The Career Choices Program hosted the annual open house on January 20th. Over 30 administrators, principals, guidance counselors and teachers from 12 local districts attended the program which included an overview of the Career Choices curriculum, student presentations, and a tour of the program.  

 

Tenth grade students are preparing for their final driver’s education projects before they sit for the state driver’s license examination at the end of the marking period. 

 

Seniors created a modern movie poster in their English class as part of the Beowulf project.  Students selected their favorite movie hero to battle Beowulf’s arch nemesis Grendel.  For the final poster students summarized their movie as well as explaining the hero’s victory using literary devices. 

 

Students worked in groups in Algebra II class to create piece-wise function graphs. These graphs show multiple functions within one line.  An example of this in appearance would be a mountain. 

 

Freshman in Spanish I continued their studies with family trees.  Each student created a family tree of their “family.”  The entire project was written and presented to classmates exclusively in Spanish.

 

Sophomores in Dynamics of Healthcare presented on psychological disorders. Students selected various ailments and researched the symptoms, life-style implications and treatments.  Students then presented to the class so all became better versed with these often difficult-to-treat diseases.

 

Senior Serin Varughese has been named as a candidate for the 2017 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program. Participation in the program is by invitation only. Each of the more than 5,000 candidates have been invited to apply based on their outstanding performances on SAT I and SAT Subject tests as well as their academic achievements in high school. Serin will compete to become one of approximately 800 students nationwide to be named a semi-finalist in mid-April. From that group, up to 161 scholars will be selected. Students selected as Scholars will participate in an all-expenses paid program designed for them in Washington, DC in June where he will ultimately receive The Presidential Scholars Medallion at the White House.


Academy for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies

The Academy honored the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on January 17th during a morning assembly featuring students from the Class of 2019 reciting excerpts from Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech from August 28, 1963 and his last public speech on April 3, 1968.

 

The Edison Rotary recognized seniors Noah Paladino, Emma Jaques and Aaron Kellett as their Students of the Month.

 

The Academy Foundation hosted an Academy Alumni Presentation on January 10th.  Several Academy alumni discussed their careers and education choices followed by questions and answers from current students.

 

Six Sigma Robotics, the school’s VEX Robotics team, recently qualified for state-level championships.  The team made it to the semi-final round at Highpoint on January 16th.  Although they lost their last match, the team won the Design Award - celebrating the team with the best engineering notebook.  Six Sigma is now qualified to compete in the State Championships at Cherry Hill on February 25th

 

The Academy’s Red Cross Club is sponsoring a winter clothing drive with all donations going to Elijah’s Promise in New Brunswick.

 

The DO SOMETHING Club coordinated the writing of 49 cards of thanks and encourage-ment to deployed military members.  Words of thanks and appreciation were received from many of the recipients. 

 

The Academy History Bowl varsity and junior varsity teams both won awards for being semi-finalists in the New Jersey History Bowl State Finals in Ridgewood, New Jersey on January 14th.  Seniors Pratik Mishra, Nirmal Prakash, Anthony Wang and Ayush Parikh represented the varsity team.  Juniors Akhil Maheshwary, Jatin Landada and Freshmen Manas Harbola and Avinash Kumar represented the junior varsity team.

 

The Academy Model UN delegation scored three Honorable Mention Awards at the Ivy League Model United Nations Conference (ILMUNC) in Philadelphia, PA.  Seniors Avneet Randhawa, Akshat Gokhale and Rohan Marwaha once again added to their already impressive tally as they attended their last ILMUNC.

 

PENNAPPS is an international hackathon held at the University of Pennsylvania where undergraduates, masters, Ph.D. and high school students compete to create the best “hack.”  The winners were as follows:

 

3rd Place overall:  Stephanie Almeida, Nikhil Jain, Ali Mohammad and Kush Singh

 

Best Use of Capital One API:  Rishi Masand, Sankroth Kota and Ishan Vachhani

 

Best Humor Hack:  Swapnanil Deb

 

Other participants: Kevin Tang, Spencer Ng, Jeffrey Fong, Dev Patel, Abhishek Patel, Zarir Hamza, Kunal Adhia and David Kluszczynski

 

East Brunswick Campus  

The EB Tech cheerleaders organized a talent show on January 24th. The entries ranged from stand-up comedy to singing and dancing. The talent show was a huge success and we were excited to witness the amazing talents of our students.

 

The East Brunswick Campus hosted an open house on January 21st. Approximately 50 prospective students attended the open house. Many career major teachers attended to promote their career major and discuss the opportunities each career lends itself.  The parents and students in attendance were impressed with our new programs and with the entire school.

 

The East Brunswick Campus and the student council hosted the first marking period honor roll celebration. The student council gave each student who made the honor roll a certifi-cate and a cookie that was made from the bake shop. The student council raised money to pay for the cookies and multimedia art and design made the certificates.

 

Patrolman Craig Hoover from the East Brunswick Police Department held an Internet safety assembly with the entire student population on January 26th. Office Hoover focused on topics including cyberbullying, sexting, and social media. The students and staff received great information about the dangers of inappropriate internet usage.

 

East Brunswick Campus continued our tradition of hosting a fitness challenge where we determined which grade was the fittest on January 27th. Physical education teacher Stephanie Pegues organizes the event each year. Students compete in a series of fitness challenges and the grade with the highest overall point total wins the Fitness Cup. The United States Army assisted Ms. Pegues with judging. The next round of the fitness challenge will take place in the spring.

 

The East Brunswick Tech community outreach initiative participated in two wonderful community service projects this month:

 

The student council, in collaboration with Mr. Roth’s culinary art students, cooked over 150 servings of food that was donated to Elijah Promise in New Brunswick on January 13th. The culinary art students cooked a wonderful pasta dinner with salad and faculty advisor Ms. Meagher-DiEllo drove the food to Elijah’s Promise. The student council raised money to cover the cost of the food.

 

Ms. Wolansky and her Cosmetology students took part in Middlesex County Project Homeless Connect sponsored by the Middlesex County Department of Human Serv-ices on January 25th. Ms. Wolansky and her students provided beauty services for the homeless. They washed, cut and styled hair and also applied make-up to individuals in need. The people we serviced were extremely appreciative of our services and are already looking forward to next year.

 

East Brunswick School of Career Development

The following East Brunswick Career Development students have been accepted to the following colleges:

Karen Fruehwirth - Wilson College and Mercy College (awarded merit scholarships to both!)

Tariq Gorrell - Culinary Institute of America

Thomas Pecoraino - Ohio State University

Sal Rapacciuolo - Culinary Institute of America 

 

Dr. Menell's United States History II students simulated the Allied Invasion of Normandy (D-Day) as part of their World War II unit. Students wore "uniforms" during the reenactment. 

 

Students in Mr. Levine's 10th grade English class worked on a unique assignment devoted to Reginald Rose's play 12 Angry Men. For this assignment, students modernized the lives of the fictitious 12 men in the jury by creating unique social media profiles each juror. Stu-dents would draw an Instagram page or Facebook page on a piece of oak tag paper and then would fill in their template based on the characters in the story. One of the unique student projects even had a Twitter feed created for a juror who ended up changing his mind throughout the course of the Twitter feed. For example, the first tweet read, "The kid definitely killed his dad... #guilty." Then throughout the feed, the juror changed his mind noting “Leaning towards not guilty now...#changingmyvote." Mr. Levine made sure to tell his students however that when they serve on jury duty, they will not be able to live tweet their thoughts from the jury room!

 

A group of EB and EBCD students attended the Young Men's Conference where they heard inspirational and motivational speakers discuss a range of topics, including: planning for college, staying mentally and physically healthy, and overcoming obstacles in one's life.

 

Perth Amboy Campus

The following students from Mr. Rand’s HVAC shop passed the Gas Heat Employment Ready test from Essco Institute:

 

Aaron Batista, Maicol Collado, Matt Cordova, Anelvis Emeregildo, Tyler Melnick, Anthony Paz, Josue Rios, Nicholas Rutter, Alex Salazar, and Michelle Santiago.

 

The Perth Amboy Campus welcomed the new Middlesex Executive County Superintendent Dr. Yasmin E. Hernandez-Manno to our school for lunch and a tour of the facility.

 

The Perth Amboy Campus welcomed the film crew from Classroom Close-up NJ as they filmed a segment for the show about the Perth Amboy Campus’ Aquaponics Project. Several students and faculty members were interviewed about their contributions to the project for the show.

 

Varsity boys basketball coach John Meyer celebrated his 100th win with the Perth Amboy Campus Patriots. Congratulations to Coach Meyer and his team!

 

Piscataway Campus/Piscataway School of Career Development

Aspire High Youth Group at Piscataway Campus and their advisers prepared and delivered 25 boxes of nonperishable and canned food items, along with turkeys to fifteen less fortunate families from around Middlesex County. “Students coordinated with staff members and own families gathering donations and shopping for grocery items to put in the boxes,” said faculty advisor Ms. Kathy Book. The Aspire High Youth Group is a leadership development program that encourages its members to be active partners in their communities.

 

Ms. Samantha Benson from the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority presented Financial Literacy 101 to seniors on January 13th.  Students learned about debt management and the basics of borrowing for college.  Each student was given the resource booklet “Real Money 101; Make wise decisions about your fiscal future” and the Credit Card Smarts Calculator.

 

Mrs. Ricciardi’s adult cosmetology students visited Gregg's Beauty Supply for a sugar waxing & nail art demonstration class.  The students learned a new way of nail art with gold and silver polish. Two of our students were models for the demonstration. They were very happy and pleased with this new look.

 

Twenty-Eight male students attended the annual Young Men's Conference held in New Brunswick on January 13th. The young men attended workshops on planning for their future careers, drug & alcohol prevention, nutrition, fitness and positive relationships. All who attended were provided with backpacks filled with educational materials and left feeling inspired. 

 

The Johnson and Johnson Young Women’s Leadership group participated in a lesson on “Dress for Success” on January 17th. Students participated in activities that helped them pick the winning outfit for specific situations, such as: job interviews, casual Fridays at work, and special presentations.

 

The Teen Outreach Program provided through the Central Jersey Family Consortium continues to meet at the Piscataway Campus on a weekly basis.  Students are participating in activities such a boundary setting and positive peer relationships.