- Middlesex County Magnet Schools
- College Ready. Career Ready. Life Ready.
May School Highlights
Academy for Allied Health and Biomedical Sciences
On May 4, 25 freshmen girls and teacher Kathy Wilhelmy participated in Girls in Stem Day at John- son & Johnson Corporate Headquarters in New Brunswick. The girls had an opportunity to participate in team-building exercises, including designing a product from given supplies, creating and presenting elevator speeches, and listening to a career panel. Finally, the girls were given the opportunity to have a one-on-one mock interview.
The Career Choices program Students of the Month for May are: Tapobrata Singha for Construction Technology AM; Unique Brimage for Digital Media Technology AM; Daniel Duran, Food and Health Technology AM; Jayden Rodriquez, Construction Technology PM; Olivia Taddeo, Digital Media Technology PM, and Anthony Nixon, Food and Health Technology PM.
The Woodbridge Academy Safety Ambassadors completed the last of five visits to Ross Street School in Woodbridge, and the team, along with Assistant Principal and Advisor Richard Heffers, attended the recognition breakfast at Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center on May 30.
The seniors successfully completed their Capstone Research Project hours with the mentors of their choosing. Each student attended a minimum of 30 hours of mentoring. Now the students are hard at work compiling their data and creating their Capstone presentations.
We completed the New Jersey Science Assessment on May 30-31 with all 11th graders sitting for the test.
The Academy held multicultural week May 21-25. Each day a different grade level presented door decorations and information about three countries. The seniors highlighted Brazil, Japan, and Italy; the juniors shone the spotlight on United Arab Emirates, Benin, and Nicaragua; the sophomores chose Greece, France, and Egypt, and the freshmen presented on Israel, Madagascar, and South Korea. Informative displays were shared during lunches and homeroom sessions.
A team of five seniors took third place in the audio competition of the 18th annual Middlesex County “Don’t Drive Dangerously” PSA contest. The students and their advisors, Senor Nava and Ms. Cuesta, attended the safe-driving conference and luncheon on May 8 at the Middlesex County Fire Academy in Sayreville.
Senior Tanvi Banota was chosen as one of the Courier News/My Central Jersey Top 10 Academic All Stars. She will be featured in an article in the Star-Ledger, the Home News, and other media outlets. Tanvi is on track to be our valedictorian and plans to attend Rutgers University Honors College in the fall.
Seniors Alijah Vanterpool and Casey Ra were honored at the 17th annual Greater Middlesex Conference Sportsmanship Luncheon at the Pines Manor in Edison. Alijah played soccer and Casey played soccer and softball.
Senior Joyce Vilson, varsity basketball and varsity softball, was honored on May 20 at the 25th annual scholar athlete program at Pines Manor in Edison. Her parents and Coach Geri Cuesta attended with her.
Three sophomores took the first prize in the Health Care Talent Development Network poster contest. Shyam Saravanan, Liana Masangkay, and Virali Patel created a poster showing the wide array of dental-care jobs available and the various pathways to achieving a successful career in dentistry.
Junior Nawal Panjwani sang the National Anthem and “God Bless America” at a flag-raising ceremony at the freeholders’ meeting room in the County Administration Building on May 19.
Club day was held on May 25, culminating with the Multicultural Talent Showcase and Fashion Show sponsored by the Spanish Honor Society. Over 25 students participated in the fashion show, wearing traditional clothing representative of their culture. Fourteen acts sang, danced or played musical instruments representing traditional and modern cultural performance.
The annual Academy Talent Show was held on April 27. The depth and breadth of talent was astounding. Students sang, performed classical, modern, hip hop, and Indian dances, as well as played instruments in groups and individually.
The senior class trip to Pocono Valley in Pennsylvania was taken on March 24. The majority of the Academy seniors participated and spent the day on the zip line, swimming, playing volleyball, basketball, tennis, and other sports. The day culminated with dancing to a DJ and making s’mores over the campfire.
The seniors (98 percent of them) attended the MCVTS prom on May 18 at the Grand Marquis in Old Bridge. The students looked fabulous and had a great time taking selfies, dancing, eating and selecting a king and queen.
Academy for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies
The Edison Academy’s Science League earned the following awards in Chemistry and Physics:
Chemistry: The team earned third place in the state. Individually, Dhruv Misra earned 10th place, Roshan Patel earned 19th place, and Jason Li earned 24th place.
Physics: The team earned third place in the state. Individually, Glenn Sun earned fifth place, Kevin Tang earned eighth place, and Spencer Ng earned 12th place.
Spring Open House at the Middlesex County Academy for Science, Mathematics and Engineering Technologies was held on May 2.
Edison Academy Seniors Malavika Vivek and Anjali Gupta were honored by the New Jersey Tech Council at Bell Works as "Innovators to Watch: Rising Stars in STEM." Malavika and Anjali were among six high school students alongside 45 members of New Jersey business and industry who were recognized.
On May 7, the Edison Academy Interact Club planted three trees in the Academy's Memorial Grove to commemorate fallen soldiers and those killed in the line of duty. The planting was to be followed up by a Memorial Day assembly. Vice President Ryan Shah helped spearhead this event.
On May 9, Jeffrey Bandara was honored at the Greater Middlesex Conference Sportsmanship Luncheon for his spirit of fair play.
On May 10 at the Edison Rotary's Student of the Year Dinner at the Pines Manor, all of our senior Students of The Month were in attendance. Congrats to Student of the Year David Kluszczynski!
On May 11, AP Environmental Classes were selected as finalists in the Philadelphia Zoo's UNLESS Contest! The "Eco Prom" proposal received an honorable mention.
The National Honor Society (NHS) Induction Ceremony was held May 17 at the Edison Academy! Scholarship, Leadership, Service and Character. Congrats to our 13 new NHS Inductees!
Seven students were inducted into the Sociedad Honoraria Hispanica (National Spanish Honor Society). Its motto is "Todas a una" (All Together for One Goal). Felicidades to our inductees.
Edison Academy's Interact Club received recognition from our Board of Chosen Freeholders for helping coordinate the @MCFOODSNetwork food donations this year. Over 2000 pounds of food donated to those in need throughout Middlesex County.
Edison Academy's Consumer Bowl team competed May 18 in the New Jersey State Finals at the Hughes Justice Complex in Trenton. The team brought home silver medals. Great job, Nikhil, Anna, Mohamed and Yoga and a big thank-you to Ms. DaSilva for coaching the team.
Jeffrey Bandara represented the Academy May 20 at the New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association Scholar Athlete Awards. Jeffrey was awarded the Pines Manor Scholarship in the amount of $1,000.
On May 23, Middlesex County Academy students attended a presentation by Mykee Fowlin @mykeefowlin doing his performance of "You Don't Know Me Until You Know Me." Julie Pirro brought Dr. Fowlin to the Academy through her NHS Individual Service Project.
The Quiz Bowl Team competed in the National Academic Quiz Team championship in Atlanta May 25-27. They visited the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum.
Interact Club had a Memorial Day ceremony May 29. Ryan Shah organized the tree donation, planting and speech; Varsini Dhinakaren designed and painted the plaque, Ms. Rosemary Simmons helped coordinate the event and Mr. Chris Price helped with the writing of the speech.
The Safety Ambassador Recognition Luncheon was held May 30. Congratulations to the Middlesex County Academy's Safety Ambassadors for all their hard work teaching first-graders at Lincoln and Franklin Elementary in Edison about being safe.
Ninth and tenth graders from the Edison Academy's Civil and Mechanical Engineering classes attended the "Ten-80 STEM Fest" on May 30 at Thomas Jefferson University.
Congratulations go out to seniors Zachary Acosta, Juliana Pirro, Shankar Koli, Jeffery Bandara, Anjali Bothra, Abby Tan, and Matthew Mariner, along with freshman Meha Patel, for achieving a fitness rating of "Excellent" in Mr. Smith's physical fitness testing program for the school year.
East Brunswick Campus
Eight of our Digital Film students have been selected to the 44th New Jersey Young Filmmaker’s Festival. Kimberly Hansen received first place for Documentary, and Noah Perez and Amanda Clark received first place for Experimental.
Five of our Digital Film students’ submissions were among the 40 selected works at the prestigious 12th Ocean County Library Student Film Festival. Amanda Clark, Samuel Seda, and Victor Ferrer won Juried Awards in their respective categories.
Ms. Mack and the dance students successfully completed their spring dance performance at the East Brunswick Campus on May 10-11.
Mr. Libitz and the Digital Film students successfully completed their fourth Reel Film Festival at the East Brunswick Campus on May 3-4.
Mrs. Moschera and her FFA students received second place in the FFA State Quiz Bowl.
Mrs. Moschera’s East Brunswick Campus FFA chapter received Gold Chapter rating for participation on the state level.
East Brunswick School of Career Development
Congratulations to Basic Business Technology seniors Andrez Barrera, Morgan Clarke, and Arianna Trent for passing their Microsoft Office Certification Exam.
Students in Mr. Levine and Mr. Libitz' classes had an extremely exciting opportunity on Tuesday, May 15th as acclaimed writer/director Billy Ray took time to Skype with 40 students about creative writing and the art of film. This opportunity came after students in Mr. Levine's creative writing and Read 180 classes viewed the 2003 film “Shattered Glass,” the first film written and directed by Mr. Ray. Mr. Levine contacted Billy Ray via Twitter, explaining the project. Mr. Ray immediately responded that he was thrilled to hear about it and would like to Skype with the students so they could ask questions of him about the film. Mr. Levine then got in touch with Mr. Libitz and organized this unique Skype session. Mr. Ray was especially insightful regarding vocational skills and having pride in hard work. "I make sure every day to have something written down. And if I don't know what to write, I just type until something comes up. For those of you in the automotive shops, you can't just go to Starbucks and sit for two hours until your muse tells you to change the carburetor. You just do it. The same goes for screenwriting."
Dr. Menell and HOSA hosted the Red Cross Blood Drive on May 29. Just under 20 pints of blood.
On May 11, 2018, Mr. Roth and selected culinary students participated in the New Jersey Association of Counties (NJAC) Cookoff. Eleven vocational and technical schools from New Jersey participated, and our school took home the Chef’s Award Gold for their Seared Cod over Risotto and the Silver Award for presentation. This is the first time East Brunswick Career Development participated in this event and we are very proud of this accomplishment.
Perth Amboy Campus
The Perth Amboy Campus is proud to announce that the Lady Patriots softball team won its first Gold Division title in school history, posting a 12-2 record in the division and a 16-7 record overall. The team was led this season by sophomore pitcher Jaylen Alvarez, who set the school record for strikeouts in a season (150) and career (248). The offense was led by junior standouts Daisy Arocho and Christina Crowe and senior Christine Zapata.
Jaylen Alvarez, Daisy Arocho, and Christine Zapata were named to the All-Gold Division softball team.
Christine Zapata was named to the GMC All-Star softball team and will be participating the All-Star game.
The Perth Amboy Campus sent 11th-grade students from HVAC, Carpentry, and Electrical Trades to the Career Day job fair at the new Carpenters Union facility in Raritan Center.
Culinary Arts students were given a tour of the Atlantic Cape Community College Culinary Arts center to see what that program has to offer. Atlantic Cape Community College is one of the schools with which we have an articulation agreement for Culinary Arts.
Junior Computer Systems Technology student Ronald Negro earned his A+ Certificate in both the 901 Hardware and 902 Software components of the certification.
The Perth Amboy Campus is proud to announce that Anthony Neich and Victor Caraballo each made the All-Gold Division baseball team. Anthony Neich will participate in the GMC Senior All-Star game. Victor Caraballo will be playing in the Undergraduate All-Star Showcase.
The Perth Amboy Campus junior and senior classes attended a motivational speech given by Olympian Joetta Clark-Diggs about getting your life started after high school and not being afraid to think outside the box when it comes to career choices. She also discussed with students the importance of health and discipline in achieving your goals.
The Perth Amboy Campus sophomore class was given a training seminar on the dangers of edible drugs, such as marijuana laced brownies, and the use of THC in vaping devices.
Piscataway Campus/Piscataway School of Career Development
On May 22, students in Chef Grieco’s bake shop baked a sheet cake for the Department of Community Services, Office of Aging and Disabled Services’ “90’s Birthday Bash,” which honored seniors 90 years old and older. The celebration was attended by 150 people, including seniors, their guests, freeholders, and volunteers.
On May 23, 30 students from Chef Grieco’s and Chef Rastelli’s career shops toured the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Students learned about culinary majors, careers, opportunities to travel abroad, and campus life. The trip concluded with lunch at the Bocuse Restaurant, which allowed Piscataway students to experience French cuisine through the lens of modern techniques.
On May 3, female students attended a leadership conference at Johnson and Johnson headquarters in New Brunswick. Students participated in workshops on how to set and reach their goals, and being a good leader, and learned about businesswoman in their community.
On May 30, the Piscataway Safety Ambassadors attended a recognition luncheon at the Imperia in Somerset. They received certificates to recognize their hard work and participation in the program for the school year.
