Category Archives: Academics

Wheatley’s Mock Trial Team Competes in the State Finals!

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Filed under Academics, Competition, Student Clubs, Students

Last month, Wheatley’s Mock Trial Team captured the Nassau County Championship—the first time in our school’s history! As part of this victory, the team was celebrated (along with finalist Locust Valley High School) by the Nassau Bar Association with a lovely dinner during which the championship trophy was presented to the team and school.

This past Sunday, the team departed for the State Finals Competition. They were accompanied by Mr. Ronald Roaldsen, the Mock Trial Advisor, and Ms. Melinda Gomez, who accompanied the team as a chaperone. Mr. David Schwartz, the team’s legal advisor, also took the trip to Albany.

Going up against the best teams in New York State, the students performed admirably. Although they just missed advancing to the final round, they had a great experience and are proud of their work!

Congratulations to the team members:

ATTORNEYS

  • Jacob Ribotsky
  • Rebecca Sparacio
  • Ashley Vincenzo
  • Emily Yagoda
  • Brenda Zhong

WITNESSES

  • Maggie Caroddo
  • James Li
  • Brooke Schwartz
  • Rebecca Zeltsman

The students were led by our Mock Trial Advisor, Mr. Ron Roaldsen, and have been supported throughout the season by Mr. David Schwartz, who has served as the team’s legal counsel.

Thank you to Mr. Roaldsen for the team photo at the State Competition. Thanks as well to Melinda Gomez for the wonderful courtroom sketches from today’s action!

Athletics Signing Day at Wheatley!

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Filed under Academics, Athletics, Guidance, Students

Last month, friends and family gathered together to recognize and celebrate the Wheatley student-athletes who have committed to pursuing athletics in college. Mr. Scaturro provided a write-up of these remarkable members of the Class of 2019.

Karan Amin

Karan has been playing tennis since the age of six. This was a year-round commitment to training, playing first at the regional and eastern section levels.  Karan qualified and played his first national tournament when he was twelve and has been continuing to grow his game every year. Karan represented the Eastern Section Team both in the 14s and 16s junior boys’ divisions at the National Zone Team Championships. In his junior year, Karan was ranked inside the top 150 in the country and top 10 in New York State. Currently, he is playing first singles for Wheatley, and he looks forward to playing for Williams College next year! This past weekend, Karan played in the Nassau County singles championship. Although he came up short in this finals match, he qualified for the State Competition.

Tiffany Bernot

Tiffany Bernot began playing Varsity Soccer for The Wheatley Wildcats as a starter in 8th grade and made an immediate impact. She has always been a complete player. Very motivated, a hard worker, enthusiastic, always helping her teammates, and performing at the highest level, culminating in her being named Captain as a Junior. She was a major contributor to our 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 Conference and Nassau County Championship Girls Soccer Teams and even led our Wildcats into State Semifinals in 2016. She has been awarded All-Class, All-Conference, All-County, and Playoff MVP honors throughout her High School career. Tiffany was voted a Newsday Top 50 High School Player To Watch, MSG Varsity Playoff Player of the Game, and Verizon Fios Playoff MVP of The County Championships. Tiffany is looking forward to attending SUNY Albany to play Division 1 Women’s Soccer next fall.

Samantha Rothstein

Samantha has played Varsity lacrosse for 4 years at Wheatley and has been captain since 11th grade. This year, Samantha was recognized as a News 12 Scholar-Athlete and was listed in the top 100 lacrosse players on Long Island to watch. In 2018, she was Long Island’s top scorer with 94 goals 16 assists and was recognized as an Honorable Mention Academic All-American. Additionally, Samantha broke the school record for the most goals scored in one game by an individual player. In 2017, she was named Newsday’s Athlete of the Week.  Samantha also captained the Varsity Soccer team in 2018, which won the Long Island Championship and competed in the NYSPHSAA Girls Soccer Final Four. She was named All-County and All-State this past for her efforts in soccer. She loves being a part of the team here at The Wheatley School and is very excited to continue her lacrosse and educational career at Tufts University in the fall. Recently, Samantha was celebrated for scoring her 250th career goal in lacrosse!

Sydney Silverman

Sydney was a three-year starting goalkeeper at The Wheatley School who earned All-County and All-State honors as a sophomore.  She helped the Wildcats to three Nassau County Championships and a Long Island Championship. She was a part of the 2016 NYSPHSAA Girls Soccer Final Four team in 2016.  She was honored as the Albertson Soccer Young Goalkeeper of the Year in 2014 and Junior Goalkeeper of the Year in 2015. Sydney was then awarded the ECNL Goalkeeper of the Year in 2016 before claiming the Senior Goalkeeper of the Year in 2017.  Sydney is looking forward to attending UNC Wilmington next fall to play Division 1 Women’s Soccer.

Nick Tagios

Nick has been a four-year starter on the Varsity Boys Soccer team here at The Wheatley School.  He was named All-County and All-State in 2016, 2017 and 2018. Nick was named the Conference Player of the Year in both 2017 and 2018 while being the team captain in those years as well.  He was a participant in the 2018 Exceptional Senior All-Star Game at Manhasset High School. Nick will be attending Long Island University at CW Post next fall to play Division 1 Men’s Soccer.

 

 

Rahul and Emma are Heading to the National History Day Finals!

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Filed under Academics, Competition, Students

As April Recess was winding down, students and faculty were preparing for the New York State History Day finals in Cooperstown. Five Wheatley students were accompanied by Mrs. Jo Beth Roberts, Mr. Patrick Shanahan and Dr. Scott Eckers, departing on Sunday, 29 April. The Wheatley competitors, who had winning entries in last month’s Long Island History Day at Hofstra University, were:

  • Ashley Vincenzo (Senior Individual Website):  The 1953 Iranian Coup:  A Tenuous Western Triumph, A Significant Global Tragedy
  • Aliza Virji (Junior Individual Website):  Operation Babylift:  The Triumph of Enduring Vietnamese Culture After the Tragedy of War
  • Benjamin Casella (Junior Individual Documentary):  The Space Shuttle Program:  A Cosmic Triumph with a Tragic End
  • Rahul Ajmera (Senior Individual Exhibit):  The Real Housewives of the Lower East Side:  The 1902 Kosher Meat Boycott
  • Emma Melnikov (Senior Individual Performance):  A Murder to Make the Masses Seen:  The Tragic Romanov Fall Paving the Way for Bolshevik Triumph

Our students were proud of the work they had produced over the past few months and excited to share their findings with judges, parents, and peers.  All five of our students made it to the run-off round, in which each category’s top four to six projects from the state competed again!  Both Rahul Ajmera and Emma Melnikov took first place in the state for their projects! As such, they will be competing in the National Finals at the University of Maryland in June!

All district social studies teachers should be commended for working so diligently with all our students.  Their efforts helped support a high level of historical inquiry and writing—critical skills that transcend high school social studies classes.

Congratulations again to Rahul and Emma!

Next year’s National History Day theme is “Breaking Barriers in History.”  There is already buzz about possible topics!

[Thanks to Dr. Eckers for the write-up and photos!]

Wheatley Students Have Wonderful Experiences in Italy!

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Filed under Academics, Community, Students

Is there a better way to spend spring vacation than to practice your Italian conversational skills in Italy? For 21 Wheatley students and their chaperones, the answer to that question was a resounding “no!”

As such, thanks to the commitment of three chaperones (Mrs. Susan Vasselman, Mrs. Michelle Gross and Willets Road’s Mrs. Rosa Chiarenza), 21 Wheatley students departed on Wednesday, 17 April, for eight wonderful days in Italy!

Students enjoyed beautiful weather and special times seeing the sights and talking to the locals as they visited Rome, Sorrento, Pompeii, Benevento, the Tremiti Islands, Vieste, Castel del  Monte in Andria, Altamura, Alberbello and Bari. Two years ago, Mrs. Vasselman led a different group of students on explorations of Italy’s west coast and Sicily; this trip offered an exciting experience on Italy’s east coast. Some of the students took advantage of the opportunity to swim in the Adriatic Sea!

Participants included: Dina Aldad, Alison Amarain, Juliana Anteri, Daniel Aquino Okeke, Pádraig Brady, Julia Braito, Jessica Calabrese, Alexandra Castiglie, Julia Dioguardi, Jenna Fey, Cecilia Jozef, Jacob Kaufman, Tyler Krause, Jason Liu, Amanda Molstad, Victoria Mora, Eric Ness, Temitope Oshodi, Olivia Palmieri, Daniel Piscopia and Camellia Ye.

Special thanks to Mrs. Vasselman, Mrs. Chiarenza and Mrs. Gross for taking the time away from their own families during the holidays and recess. Their absence from their own families afforded our students such a valuable real-world learning experience. It is sure to be a very special memory of their Wheatley years.

[Thanks to Mrs. Vasselman for some of the photos and Mrs. Anderson for some of the write-up! Thanks to Dina Aldad for the video summary!]

 

 

 

 

Class of 2019 Celebrates College #DecisionDay

Across the country, May 1st is recognized as College Decision Day. This is the day by which seniors must typically commit to their college of choice. At Wheatley, students filled the hallways with their new school colors, celebrating an important landmark in their many years of hard work and commitment. Throughout the day, @WheatleySchool shared pictures of the seniors, tagging the selected colleges as part of the Tweet.

Here are some of the images from the day!

Seventeen Wheatley Students Earn Medals at the Al Kalfus Long Island Math Fair!

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Filed under Academics, Competition, Curricula, Students

On Friday, 12 April, 17 Wheatley students headed to Hofstra University in order to compete in the annual Al Kalfus Long Island Mathematics Fair.

Students from across Long Island came to compete at this prestigious event. Each student wrote a research paper on a mathematics topic of their own choosing.  Top papers often have the students’ own creative twists and original mathematics as part of their research. Students presented their research to a panel of judges followed by a question and answer period.  Achieving at this level is an extraordinary accomplishment for high school students!

We are proud to announce we had 5 students win gold medals, 5 students win silver and 7 students win bronze medals.

Thank you to Mr. Belackas, Mr. Gadamowitz, Mr. Meyers and Mr. Paulson for volunteering as judges. Thank you as well to Dr. Teseo for serving as their coach and providing the write-up and photos.

Last First Grade Paper Title Medal
Gulati Shrey 9 Magic Squares Gold
Pahuja Armaan 9 Chaos Theory and its effects on Meteorological Predictions Bronze
Prajapati Krittika 9 Binary Numbers Bronze
Wong Justin 9 The Influence of Replacing Prime Numbers in Public Key Cryptography Silver
Bansal Manav 10 Mathematical Models Utilizing Differential Equations to Model Tumor Growth Gold
Chabria Anya 10 The Applications of Mathematics in Literature Bronze
Hassan Sarah 10 Applying Linear Animation Using Mathematics Programming and Art Bronze
Jayam Viraj 10 Examining Functions Under Quasi-Stereographic Projections Gold
ArbitalJacoby Alex 11 Calculating Atomic Radius Bronze
Ramos Madison 11 Mathematical Modeling Neural Networks Silver
Wong Trenton 11 It’s all about that Base: Three-Halves Gold
Yagoda Emily 11 Solving Rubik’s Cube with Musical Chord Progressions Silver
Zachariah Aaron 11 Transfinite Numbers Silver
Zhong Sharon 11 Wind Resistance and Failure Analysis Bronze
Shukla Manan 12 The Banach Tarski Paradox Gold
Singh Vedant 12 Using Optimization to Increase Efficiency Silver

2019-04-30 12.59.39

Wheatley Students Recognize and Celebrate Earth Day 2019!

Across our planet, Earth Day took place this past Monday, April 22nd. As we were on vacation during that week, we celebrated the day on April 16th and 17th with a series of activities and information booths intended to educate and inform our students on issues related to Earth Day.

Some of the activities included:

  • Assemblies with guest lecturers on food choices, water conservation, and careers in conservation
  • Demonstration of a hive of bees
  • Interactions with a 10-foot boa constrictor and other animals
  • Fresh squeezed lemonade
  • Demonstration of how coffee grids can be recycled
  • Stainless steel water bottle sales
  • Environmental T-shirt sales and plant sales
  • Bike collection for the EAC’s Afribike donation program
  • Sale of mulch from the Wheatley Woods
  • Lots of music and tasty treats!

As you can see from the photos, Wheatley’s Earth Fest was a lot of fun for all! A huge “thank you” to Steve Finkelstein and our EAC students for all of the work they did to prepare for the activities.

Our friends at Island Photography were at our Earth Fest and shared the following photos: