February School Highlights

Academy for Allied Health and Biomedical Sciences

Senior varsity basketball players played their last home game on February 16^th. Kiara Rodriguez, Akshaya Ramaswamy, Michelle Grzelczak, Sukhnoor Ghumman and Kiana Lee led the Hornets to a 74-43 victory over Perth Amboy Tech.  Congratulations and good luck in the upcoming state playoff game.

 

Freshman Vighnesh Ginde is tied for third in the New Jersey Mathematics League. He has scored 22 out of 24 points so far and has helped propel the Academy to the top 20 schools in the state. 

 

Senior Kiara Rodriguez attended the 30^th annual National Girls & Women in Sports Day at Seton Hall University.  Kiara, along with the honorees from around the state, heard from Jill Loyden, a former member of the U.S. National Soccer Team and alternate on the 2012 Olympic Team, as well as Sue Liddy, head basketball coach at Holy Angels who won her 700^th game this year. Kiara was selected based on her success on the basket-ball court and her serving as captain the past two years. 

 

Students throughout the Academy have completed end of course exams.  Students in Medical Terminology, Dynamics of Healthcare, Anatomy & Physiology I and Scientific Principles of Nutrition took the Rutgers School of Health Professions end of semester examinations on February 2^nd and Project Lead the Way classes of Introduction to Bio-medical Sciences, Human Body Systems and Medical Interventions took their exams on January 26^th.  Ninety-six percent of the students participating scored high enough to be eligible for college credit.   

 

Seniors Kopal Jha, Priya Nigam, Wamia Siddiqui and Serin Varughese have advanced as finalists for the 2017 National Merit Scholarship award.

 

Seniors in Anatomy & Physiology have been studying the makeup of blood. Students have observed blood and have been identifying the differences in blood types. Students now realize the importance of ensuring proper blood typing when doing transfusions and other blood procedures.

 

Students in Mr. Stiles’ sociology class began the semester studying culture. Students have looked at the definition of “culture” and how the application of that definition has changed over time.

 

Juniors in Ms. Veilleux’s Advanced Placement American History class studied the New Deal.  During their studies, students toured the building seeing how the Works Progress Administration functioned and how the Academy building displays artifacts from that time.  A focal point of the WPA project that caught student interest was the marble work throughout the building.  Students realized this was how masons obtained work through the WPA during the Great Depression.

 

Students in Medical Interventions created the BIONIC HUMAN.  Students had to use gene therapy and other biomedical processes to design a “super human” who demonstrated a number of “super characteristics” such as night vision, immunity, and super strength.  Students finalized their project by drawing their super human and presenting to the class. 

 

Academy for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies

The Edison Rotary recognized Meghna Mehta and Priyanka Dey as their Students of the Month.

 

The Academy commemorated “President’s Day” on February 21^st with a brief assembly in the morning during homeroom.  Members of the Class of 2019 assumed the role of a chosen president and gave an “impersonation” of him regarding his accomplishments as president.  The following presidents were represented:  George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Wood-row Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.

 

Five teams participated in the annual Career Tech Expo on February 28^th.  Representatives from business and industry were on hand to judge the different innovations.  Prizes were awarded to first, second and third place winners.

Academy juniors, Kunal Adhia, Abby Tan, Abhishek Hariharan, Abhishek Patel and Maya Pandurangan, won 1^st place at the New Jersey High School Consumer Bowl competition held at East Brunswick High School on February 6^th.   As a result, the team has advanced to the regional competition in Freehold on April 6^th.

 

Electrical/Computer Engineering junior Anjali Gupta earned Honorable Mention for the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) Award for Aspiration in Computing.  Only 350 National Honorable Mention Award recipients were selected from more than 3500 applicants.

 

The Academy Class of 2018 hosted the annual semi-formal dance on February 24^th.  The masquerade ball theme attracted 68 participants who enjoyed great food and fun with their friends as they danced the night away.

 

The following seniors have been named finalists in the 2017 National Merit Scholarship Competition:  Rohan Agarwal, Akshat Gokhale, Nirmal Prakash, Kush Singh and Anthony Wang.

 

The Academy junior varsity team won the first JV History Bowl championship in the school’s history at the Mid-Atlantic History Bowl on February 18^th at Princeton University.  The team was led by sophomores Jatin Lankada and Akhil Maheshwary.  Other members included:  sophomore Dhiren Vazirani and freshmen Manas Harbola and Avinash Kumar.

 

The Academy’s Safety Ambassadors visited first graders at Lincoln Elementary School and Benjamin Franklin School on February 27^th to discuss the importance of safety. The students involved included:  Neehar Peri, Avneet Randhawa, Kelley Chau, Bartosz Skiba, Anusha Nagar, Stephanie Almeida, Rita Agarwal, Abhishek Hariharan, Christine Matthews, Julie Pirro, Elizabeth Kuriakose, Ajaita Saini, Maya Pandurangan, Anjali Bothra, Poojit Hedge, Khushi Gandhi and Swapnanil Deb.

 

Electrical/Computer Engineering junior Malavika Vivek was selected as a 2017 #INCLUDE Fellow and will be attending the INCLUDE Summit in Silicon Valley in April.  Malavika was one of 30 students chosen from over 500 applications for this fellowship.  This summit enables her to interact with many women in leadership roles at technology companies.

 

Fifty two students took part in the AMTNJ's 40^th Annual High School Math Contest.  Our team placed third statewide and was awarded a plaque. Mohammed Mannan placed second individually while Kunal Adhia and Poojit Hegde tied for third place. Akshat Gokhale and Venkatesh Narayan received honorable mention.

 

Seven Academy students qualified for AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Examina-tion that will take place on March 7^th, based on their outstanding results on AMC 10/12. Students qualifying were: seniors Mohammed Mannan and Akshat Gokhale; juniors, Poojit Hegde, Kunal Adhia and Jonathan Wong; and sophomores Glenn Sun and Venkatesh Narayan. Poojit Hegde, Venkatesh Narayan and Glenn Sun made Distinguished Honor Roll - best 1% in the Nation; and Mohammed Mannan and Akshat Gokhale made Honor Roll.

 

East Brunswick Campus

The East Brunswick Campus was one of 49 locations around the nation to host a staged reading of “The Laramie Project,” a play about the 1998 murder of gay student Matthew Shepard. The reading, free and open to the public, was held Friday, February 24^th, at 7 p.m. in the auditorium on the MCVTS East Brunswick Campus. Two students behind the event, juniors Lauren Cyrus of South Brunswick and Jose Dominguez of Edison, said the number 49 was chosen to honor the 49 people killed at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando last June. The play, written by Moises Kaufman, is based on interviews during the trial of the killers of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming. It was first performed in 2002.

 

The School of the Arts Dance Program hosted their annual student choreography event on February 2^nd and 3^rd. Dance instructor Ms. Cleo Mack tasked her students to choreograph their own work.  These performances showcased the professionalism and techniques of dance. The students did a remarkable job choreographing their own work.

 

The School of the Arts held their first audition for the 2017-2018 school year. Approximately 30 students attend the auditions. The teachers were very impressed with the artistic level of the candidates.

 

The 2017 Career Tech Expo took place on February 23^rd.  The level of competition was impressive and the presentations were amazing. There were 17 careers majors represented from the entire campus. The results were as follows: 

 

First Place:    Dance

Second Place:    Multimedia Art and Design

Third Place:  Digital Film

 

Ms. Lisa Ann Moschera and her agriscience students celebrated FFA Week by hosting a series of events to showcase the FFA program. The list of activities were: Decorated various class-rooms in FFA colors to help promote FFA at the East Brunswick Campus, hosted a FFA breakfast meeting, hosted a thank-a-farmer lunch which was attended by the owner of Estch Farms in Monroe Township and the NJ State FFA Parliamentary and hosted an alumni dinner after school. 

 

Mr. Louis Horowitz and the East Brunswick Campus Safety Ambassadors visited Parkview Elementary School and conducted safety workshops for all the first graders. The high school students were eager to work with the first graders and their experience was extremely posi-tive. The Safety Ambassador Program is sponsored by Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital and will continue through May of this year.

 

The Tigers cheerleaders had a great month. They won first place (co-ed competition cate-gory) at the David Brearley High School and Howell High School invitational competitions. They also won third place at the Wayne Hill High School invitational.

East Brunswick School of Career Development

Seventeen students from the School of Career Development competed in the State Career Development Conference in Atlantic City from February 21^st to 23^rd.  The students had met twice per week before school since September to work on their respective skill set for their individual competition categories. Seventeen of nineteen chapter members advanced to the State Competition following the Regional Competition on January 5^th. Students competed in the categories of Customer Service and Supermarket Careers. Each category consisted of a written test, mock job interview, and a role play scenario. Students in the customer service category role played selling an alarm while students in Supermarket Careers role played bag-ging groceries. Each role play focused on the job at hand while demonstrating appropriate customer engagement and interaction. This competition was the first time in 38 years that both the Blue Division and Gold Division competed under one roof; 3,500 competitors from across New Jersey competed to determine who would advance to the International Career Development Conference, to be held in Anaheim, California on April 25^th to 30^th. This was the first year that our students and advisors were experiencing a finals round. Out of 46 compet-itors in the Customer Service category, we had one member make it to the final round. Out of 50 competitors in the Supermarket Careers category, six members made it to the final round.

Overall Award Winners - Supermarket Careers

Bruno Joao - 6^th Place

Michelle Johnson - 5^th Place

Karen Lopez       - 4^th Place

Nick Malgioglio   - 3^rd Place

Event Finalists:

 

Supermarket Careers

Melisa Ayllon

Jada Morris

 

Customer Service

Diego Alvarez

 

East Brunswick Career Development and East Brunswick Tech hosted the Career Tech Expo on February 23^rd.

 

The Winners Were as Follows:

 

1^st Place     - Building Services

2^nd Place    - Culinary Arts

3^rd Place     - Basic Business Technology

 

Mr. Roth’s Culinary Arts students, faculty and administration participated in the 4th annual Chili Wars competition on January 27^th.

 

The Student Competition Results Were as Follows:

 

1^st Place - Ryan Febus / Aiyana Guzman

2^nd Place - Britney Baril / Franyi Reyes

3^rd Place - Elizabeth Greci

 

The Faculty/Administration Competition Results are as Follows:

 

1^st Place  - Joseph Adochio

2^nd Place - Sonny Paprota

3^rd Place  - Robert Feldman

 

Kyle Gordon and Maleena Hernandez, Health Services Students, received acceptances and partial scholarships to local colleges and universities.  Kyle has been accepted to Rutgers, William Patterson, and Moravian College. Maleena has been accepted to Kean, Rowan, and St. Peters Universities.  Their scholarships toward schools range from $20,000 to $90,000, depending on which school they decide to go to.  Both students hope to pursue careers in the Medical field.

Perth Amboy Campus

Our school hosted a police vs. student basketball game on February 6^th. The entire school body was in attendance to watch the game and to promote positive relations between local law enforcement and our students.

 

Perth Amboy Campus held a high honor roll ceremony honoring every student who achieved straight As on their 2^nd marking level report card.

 

The annual Career Tech Expo took place on February 22^nd. Students from each career area had to market an innovative product to the judges in a “Shark Tank” style format. The win-ners were as follows: 

 

1^st  Place   -          Automotive Technology

2^nd Place  -         Electrical Technology

3^rd Place  -          Computer Systems Technology

Piscataway Campus/Piscataway School of Career Development

The Safety Ambassador Team visited Randolphville Elementary School On February 13^th for their first visit with the first graders. High school students presented skits on fall prevention, safety in and around cars, wheeled sport safety and pedestrian safety.

 

The Teen Outreach Program continues to meet weekly, educating the students on healthy relationships, social skills, decision making skills and future choices.

 

The Johnson and Johnson Leadership group met on February 21^st for the students to present their projects.  Their presentations included information about their shop, what they do, and the goals that they wish to achieve.

 

Mrs. Ricciardi’s adult cosmetology class had Mrs. Rasha from Great Clips, owner of 7 salons, visit to show a video about job opportunities at Great Clips. Each student was given an appli-cation for employment which registers them for a $250 raffle and/or a cosmetology seminar.  A video was shown about their salon opportunities and benefits. All students completed an application/registration and were truly grateful for the possibility of a job placement.

 

Twenty-one nursing students graduated from the Practical Nursing Program with faculty, family, and friends in attendance on February 15^th.  Gurpreet Bedi and Samantha Hart were inducted into the National Technical Honor Society with a GPA of over 91%. Lori Rogers was given the Teachers Award for academic excellence and Christian Sharpe was given the Humanitarian Award.  The speakers at this event included Superintendent Brian J. Loughlin and Assistant Principal Michael Cappellio.  The evening ended with a candlelight ceremony celebrating the attributes of nursing.

 

Representatives from the Rutgers Chapter of the Society of Hispanic Engineers and Verizon collaborated with students from Computer Systems Technology Career Class and Computer Assisted Drafting Class to compete in a variety of STEM activities on February 23^rd. Piscata-way students also learned about college requirements for engineering and different career opportunities. We look forward to hosting both groups again soon and continuing our collab-oration.

 

Ms. Evans’ class participated in an interactive presentation on Careers in Computer Science with representatives from NJIT on February 24^th. Students learned how important Computer Science and how the demand in the industry is growing.

 

Mr. Povinelli’s culinary students served over lunch to 50 new business partners in Career Vocational Education as we conducted our 3^rd annual job fair at the Piscataway Campus on February 24^th.