Hello HS East Community, Happy New Year everyone! It is hard to believe that we are halfway through the 2012-2013 school year. This has been a unique school year thus far with can-celled school days, changes to the calendar and the elimination of the midterm testing period. We are adapting to the challenges presented and I am sure we will successfully navigate the remaining portion of the school year. I appreciate the cooperation of the students, parents and staff throughout it all. Our staff has been engaging in meaningful professional development activities to ensure that we continue to provide the best learning experiences for students. As you may know, New York State has committed to adopting Common Core Standards, which are learning standards developed nationally to ensure that stu-dents receive an education which truly prepares them for colleges and careers. Learn more about this topic at http://engageny.org/parent-and-family-resources. Teachers and administrators have received training to adapt to this shift in teach-ing and assessment. I have no doubt that our students will continue to achieve at the very highest level through this transition. Students are excelling in academics, the arts, athletics and altruism! One of the highlights of this year is six High School East students being named semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search competition. Intel is the most prestigious sci-ence research competition for high school seniors, recognizing the top students in the nation. High School East has the most semifinalists on Long Island and the third highest in the nation! As is always the case, our students dedicate an extraordinary amount of time to a variety of activities. Whether it is concerts, plays, sports competitions or fund-raising for charities, the result of their efforts is learning, growth and success. We have a lot to be proud of, as you will see in the following pages. Although we are still entrenched in this school year, we are preparing for the up-coming school year as well. Students have been presented with electives, re-ceived recommendations from their teachers and are meeting with their counse-lors to finalize their class choices for next year. I encourage parents to view their children’s course requests on the Parent Portal and use this opportunity to dis-cuss educational matters as a family. As always we thank the Board of Education, the Superintendent and Central Of-fice Staff, the High School East PTSA and of course the parents of our community for making it possible for us to provide the best educational experience for our students. Remember: Respect, Responsibility and Excellence! J. A. Woodberry

A Special Message from Dr. Woodberry

HALF HOLLOW

HILLS

HIGH SCHOOL EAST

PRINCIPAL’S

NEWSLETTER

January 24, 2013 Volume V, Issue II

Perspectives

The Insider’s View

Page 3 Supporting Our

Community & HSE Music

Page 5 Beyond Classrooms

of HSE

Page 7 Architecture Club

Page 9 Winter Pep Rally &

Holiday Show

Special Thanks to Con-

tributors:

Laura Anderson

Joseph Cappiello

Dennis Grunbeck

Lori Horbach

Marianne Mead

Rose Suarez

Allyson Uttendorfer

And Photographers:

Felice Crystal

Olivia Traina

Page 2 Perspectives

High School East Sandy Relief

Volleyball Fundraiser by Mrs. Horbach In response to the devastation faced by many families, the Physical Education department decided that it would be a great idea to get the students involved in fundraising efforts for the victims. Having one of our own Physical Educa-tion teachers highly affected by this storm provided even more motivation for us to do something. The students came together with the staff and orga-nized a Volleyball fundraiser. During their Physical Education classes all stu-dents participated and raised $1363 for disaster relief. The Physical Education department is very proud of the stu-dents at High School East and would like to congratulate them on such a great accomplishment.

Helping Our Own

More than 20 clubs and school organizations came together to “help our own”. Hurricane Sandy ravaged the east coast in October impacting several of our High School East community members. Spearheaded by our student government, High School East raised over $8,583.00 for those impact-ed by the hurricane. These funds were distributed before the December vacation to bring some hol-iday cheer during hard times. Our High School East community has demonstrated resilience and strength in a time of need. We are grateful to all who have donated and give special thanks to the following groups and individuals for their contributions. Student GovernmentStudent GovernmentStudent GovernmentStudent Government Mrs. LykosMrs. LykosMrs. LykosMrs. Lykos PE DepartmentPE DepartmentPE DepartmentPE Department Mrs. StaffordMrs. StaffordMrs. StaffordMrs. Stafford CheerleadersCheerleadersCheerleadersCheerleaders Spanish ClubSpanish ClubSpanish ClubSpanish Club Fall Musical Fall Musical Fall Musical Fall Musical Mrs. DeStefano’s ClassesMrs. DeStefano’s ClassesMrs. DeStefano’s ClassesMrs. DeStefano’s Classes National Art Honor SocietyNational Art Honor SocietyNational Art Honor SocietyNational Art Honor Society ACSLACSLACSLACSL Architecture ClubArchitecture ClubArchitecture ClubArchitecture Club Chess ClubChess ClubChess ClubChess Club Art ClubArt ClubArt ClubArt Club Computer ClubComputer ClubComputer ClubComputer Club AmnestyAmnestyAmnestyAmnesty MathletesMathletesMathletesMathletes Indian American ClubIndian American ClubIndian American ClubIndian American Club YearbookYearbookYearbookYearbook National Honor SocietyNational Honor SocietyNational Honor SocietyNational Honor Society FBLAFBLAFBLAFBLA Key ClubKey ClubKey ClubKey Club NewspaperNewspaperNewspaperNewspaper AASOAASOAASOAASO Varsity ClubVarsity ClubVarsity ClubVarsity Club French ClubFrench ClubFrench ClubFrench Club Thespian/Mr. Wiley Thespian/Mr. Wiley Thespian/Mr. Wiley Thespian/Mr. Wiley Mrs. Jacobs’ ClassesMrs. Jacobs’ ClassesMrs. Jacobs’ ClassesMrs. Jacobs’ Classes

Page 3 Volume V, Issue II

Supporting Our Community & HSE Music Coming Together The Amnesty International Club held its annual food drive for Island Harvest from October to November. This year the drive was essential as the food directly benefited families who suf-fered losses due to Hurricane Sandy. The drive was a true success as they collected over 1700 food items for families in need. Ms. Satnick/Mr. Pitman’s classes collected the greatest amount of food with 844 items! This drive was essential and helped families in time for the Thanksgiving holiday. In addition, the High School East Guidance department worked with the Rotary Organization to distrib-ute 15 turkeys and vouchers to families in

need this Thanksgiving. As always our school community came together to support those in need. We thank all organizations and individu-als for their efforts to support our community.

High School East Music on the National Stage The Music Educators’ National Conference has selected High School East students to repre-sent New York State in the 2013 All-Eastern Honors Ensembles. They will be performing on April 7th at the Bushnell Center for the Preforming Arts in Hartford, Connecticut. All-Eastern Honors Ensemble students are selected from a proficiency list by NYSSMA and participation in an All-State performing group. Students are selected from New York, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Washing-ton D.C., Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. Congratulations to the following students! Cara Jacobson Mixed Chorus – Soprano Voice Carol Lee Orchestra – Viola Alexa Spiegel Mixed Chorus – Alto Voice

Page 4 Volume V, Issue II

High School East Achievements DECA Honors

National DECA held their annual Suffolk Coun-

ty Regional Competition at Suffolk County

Community College on January 9th. High

School business students across Long Island

competed in various business categories. The

High School East DECA Business team won 46

awards and 4 Honorable Mentions. Included in

those 46 winners were (5) First Place, (7) Se-

cond Place, and (2) Third Place winners. The

remaining winners finished among the top per-

cent in all of Suffolk County in their category.

The students competed against every High

School in Suffolk County in a variety of busi-

ness topics such as finance, sports marketing,

and management. All 46 winners qualified for

the New York State DECA Competition. We are

extremely proud of their hard work and dedi-

cation to the club and the business program at

Half Hollow Hills.

First place winners were Jeff Cherkin, Ted

Goshman, Alex Pae and Gerald Lizzo. Second

place winners were James Litchhult, Bailey

Kaston, Bradley Weltmann, Matthew Diamond,

Bret Bierman, Sabrina Schnapp and Katie

Farello. Third place winners were Zach Gillam

and John Bavaro. State qualifiers were Paul

Eliasinski, Lauren Aronson, Alyssa Rothman,

Letitia Asare, Justin Dubler, Natalie Haebich,

Scott Gelman, Areeta Shah, Jake Gans, Elyse

Lee, Drew Greenberg, Eric Steinberg, Tyler

Hecker, Vivek Mehta, Jesse LaFauci, George

Bekheet, Michael Ferranti, Zach Leff, Dana

Craig, Danielle Rubenfeld, Justin Heller, Matt

Tisch, Ian Heller, Sanaj Naval, James DeFillip-

po, David Targett, Cole Siegenfeld, Hailey

Katz, Brett Dowler, Robert Greenfield, Casey

Barone and Matt Taylor. Honorable Mention

students were Harrison Rubin, Dean Schmigel-

ski, Lee Hochheiser and Kyle Heller. Congrat-

ulations to all the students!

Mathletes Tournament by Ms. Suarez

Congratulations to High School East's top

scorers at the 20th Annual Suffolk Math Tour-

nament held Friday, January 4th, 2013. Out of

155 students who attended the tournament

from 22 schools at the lower level, 77 partici-

pated as 9th graders. Of these individuals,

West Hollow's 6th grader Rinni Bhansali, who

is currently enrolled in Honors Geometry at

High School East, won 3rd place. This is

Rinni's first time participating in the tourna-

ment and is the first middle school student I

have asked to participate among high school

peers. Out of 255 upper level students from 26

participating schools, 133 participated as 12th

graders. Of these individuals, senior Kris

Pang won 2nd place in his grade level. Kris is

a veteran at this tournament and has won two

consecutive top team awards prior to this

year's top individual award.

Volume V, Issue II Page 5

Beyond the Classrooms of High School East Fun in Physics by Mr. Grunbeck December marked the 16th Annual Can Rolling Contest for Mr. Grunbeck's physics classes (AP Physics B and AP Physics C, this year). Students must bring in two cans of food (suitable for do-nating to a local food bank) to participate in this contest. The cans rolled down a small ramp. In each class, the student whose can rolls the far-thest gets a chance to win the contest. In order to win, the student must submit a written expla-nation as to why his or her can rolled the fur-thest. If the explanation is incorrect, then the second place student gets a chance to win, and so on. As such, this competition allows students to practice social responsibility while learning physics. This year, in light of all that is going on in the world, we thought that it would be nice to open

the food donations to all staff and students in order to be able to donate the most food that we can. The food was donated to the St. Hugh's Parish Outreach Program Food Bank in Hunting-ton Station. Thank you to Mr. Rendon and the Interact Club for the food they contributed to this worthy cause.

ESPN at High School East by Mr. Cappiello On October 23rd the Hills East Sports Marketing students were part of a fantastic event. ESPN NFL Analyst Adam Schefter was a special guest speaker for the day. He shared his career path with the students, what he does for ESPN, and also some great NFL football stories. It was a great opportunity for the students to hear and learn from a person whom they see everyday on ESPN. His advice about college and careers was immeasurable to our

business students. After Mr. Schefter’s presentation, the students got a chance to ask questions on a variety of top-ics from football to careers as well as proper communication skills. One student commented that “this will be one of the most memorable days for me as a high school student”. It truly was a memorable day for all students and faculty who were lucky enough to attend this event.

One Step at a Time

Page 6 Perspectives

2013 AP Art History Installation by Mrs. Uttendorfer

This year the purpose behind the annual AP Art His-

tory installation was to showcase how time manage-

ment and stress affects high school students. Alt-

hough many people would say that most students do

not overcome the stress that they are under, the Art

History class believes that students can achieve

their goals and overcome daily pressures. French

Artist, Arman, created a towering sculpture of

stopped clocks. This piece inspired us to look at

what we had here at school, both in terms of materi-

als and inspiration. Just like his clock sculpture,

none of the faces show the same display, as if to

suggest that “time stands still.” In our installation,

the clocks were placed randomly on

a pyramid structure. A school desk

was placed at the top, showing that

with balance, time, and taking "one

step at a time", success can be

achieved. Each student comes out

at the top and is ready to start his or

her own journey. The sculpture has

received positive reviews from facul-

ty and students alike and was even

featured in a News 12 “Cool at

School” segment. A Twitter feed

and Instagram account was used to

track the progress both during the

school day and after hours to utilize

social media.

Architecture Club Creates an Inviting Space

Page 7 Perspectives

Architects Design a New Student Center by Mrs. Mead

In an effort to brighten up the student center and provide our students with an inviting space, the school’s Site-Based Management Team pro-posed renovating the student center last year and the architecture club was recruited to facili-tate and complete the project. Our students and parents have donated an enormous amount of time and resources to help aide in completing this project. In particular, The Steck and Daleo families have donated extensively to our club and we are very appreciative. Last year, the senior class also donated a monetary gift to help fund this project. This year, Mr. Cappiello along with the school store is also working with the archi-tecture club to help see this project through. The school store already purchased new display cab-inets to showcase their products and is donating toward the purchase of tables and stools for the students to enjoy in a café-like setting. Our mem-bers, including Joshua Siev, president, Jagger Steck, construction manager, Calli Katzelnick, secretary, Alexandra Simon, CoVice President, Nick Fondacaro-CoVice President, James Kuo, Public Relations and Treasurer, Alex Needelman have all worked tirelessly to create a unique, de-sign friendly environment for our students to en-joy. Some of the tasks involved were construc-tion of the benches, upholstering the benches, sanding benches and bench legs, painting the

bench legs, shopping and inventory for the furniture and paint for the walls.

Page 8 Perspectives

HSE Makes a Statement in the Intel Competition! The Intel Science Talent Search is the oldest and one of the most prestigious science competi-tions in the United States. This year fifty-three seniors from Long Island are among the semifinal-ists. Of all Long Island Schools, High School East was number one with six semifinalists who will each receive an award of $1000. We are extremely proud of the following students and wish them much success! This year’s semifinalists truly embody our High School East vision by com-mitting themselves to lifelong learning and becoming productive citizens in our global society. Congratulations! Puja Bansal

Three Dimensional Molecular Imprinting for the Detection of Viral Pathogens Rohan Goyal Human Immunodeficiency Virus Induces Pro-Apoptotic Features in Renal Cells through the Down Regulation of Vitamin D Receptor Tammy Jin Variable M3-S2 Linker Tension Modulates N-Methyl D-Aspartate Receptor Activity in a Subunit Specific Manner Jonathan Kim Determining the Cell Cycle Stage of Cells in Developing Hair Follicles Abhinav Patil Geometric Phase as a Systematic Error in the Proton EDM Experiment Robert Tannenbaum Enhancement of Graphene-based Supercapacitor Devices in Both Symmetric and Asymmetric Electrochemical Cell Environments

Page 9 Volume V, Issue II

Winter Pep Rally & Holiday Show

Spirit and Cheer Despite the delay, the winter pep rally proved to be a success. The rally, held on January 4th,was filled with cheers of support for our winter teams, amazing performances and another pie war. This year, Mr. Del Giudice and Mr. Seely took the honors of receiving pie. All pro-ceeds went to our Hurricane Sandy relief. While the pep rally had to be postponed until after the vacation, many of our performers had the opportunity to take the spotlight twice. In De-cember High School East performed for the students of James E. Allen School with holiday carols and lively dances. This annual Hills East tradition brought joy to the performers and their audience. The students and staff of James E. Allen truly enjoyed our students and were extremely appreciate of their efforts. Highlights of both our winter pep rally and the holiday show are below.

High School East 50 Vanderbilt Parkway Dix Hills, NY 11746

Produced by: Roberto Trigosso Assistant Principal

Phone: 631-592-3128 Fax: 631-592-3121

E-mail: rtrigosso@hhh.k12.ny.us

HALF HOLLOW HILLS

HIGH SCHOOL EAST

PRINCIPAL’S

NEWSLETTER

High School East

Visit Our Website: www.halfhollowhills.k12.ny.us

Winter Sports Highlights

Prominent Winter Athletic Season for Hills East Thus far, the winter season has been a successful one for Hills East Athlet-ics. Our basketball, fencing, swimming, track and wrestling teams have been very competitive and are truly making us all proud. While all of our teams have made strides this winter, special congrats are in order for our girls track team. The Hills East Varsity Girls Winter Track Team has had a record breaking season to date. The 4x200 relay team of Amanda Ribeiro, Tivoni Tay-lor, Christy Perrier and Mary Chimezie broke the Hill East record by 3 se-conds running a 1:48.02 at the Stanner Games on January 12th. The 4x400 relay team of Lauren Keschner, Christy Perrier, Mary Chimezie, and Tiffany Perrier re-broke their record at the Millrose Games Trials on January 16th. The time of 4:03.97 qualified them to run in the Millrose Games on February 16th. The team has also had some outstanding individuals: Chris-ty Perrier running the 600m, Mary Chimezie and Amanda Ribiero in the 300m and the 55m, and Yael Golan in the 1500m. We wish the girls luck in the upcoming League Championship meet. In recognition of outstanding fall seasons two T-Bird football players were honored at the All-County dinner in December. R.J. Nitti received the Boomer Esiason Award, Most Outstanding Quarterback Finalist and All-County Selection. D.J. Paul received the 12th Man Award, Player Who Has Overcome Serious Injury. Congratulations!