School News, October 6, Southampton Town

In recognition of their exceptional achievement on national Advanced Placement exams, 19 Southampton High School seniors have earned Advanced Placement Scholar designations.

Of those students, seven were named AP Scholars, another 10 earned the recognition of AP Scholar with Honor, and two were recognized as AP Scholars with Distinction. To earn Scholar recognition, students are required to score a 3 or higher on three or more AP exams; for Scholar with Honor, they must earn a 3.25 on all AP exams taken and grades of 3 or higher on four or more of those exams; and for Scholar with Distinction, they must receive an average score of 3.5 on all AP exams and grades of 4 or higher on five or more of those exams.

AP Scholar students are Tessa Arnzen, Sean De Carvalho Doyle, Cadie Hancock, Riley Herrmann, Allison Rishel, John Terry and Jacqueline Thulin. AP Scholar students with Honor are Juliette Archer, Yassine Boukaissi, Charles Davis, Paige Garvin, Juliette Kearns, Luke Mobius, Brandon Perez, Sadie Radice, Thayer Schwartz and Andrew Souhrada; and AP Scholar with Distinction students are Logan O’Neill and Dhivya Sampath.

Three Southampton High School students have earned national recognition through the College Board National Recognition Program, which colleges use to identify academically competitive, underrepresented students.

Brandon Perez and Sophia Oliveira each earned a National Hispanic Recognition Award and Yassine Boukaissi earned a National African American Recognition Award. To earn the recognition, the students were required to hold a grade point average of 3.5 or higher, excel on the PSAT/NMSQT or PSAT 10 exams, or earn a score of 3 or higher on two or more AP exams.

Participants in the WVI Dolphin Foundation’s Leadership and Life Skills Mentorship Program at Southampton High School had the opportunity to visit Google headquarters in New York City on September 20. During the trip, students toured the offices and met with Lawrence Grant, a technology executive with more than 20 years experience in enterprise technology and cybersecurity governance, architecture and engineering. They also spent time with Fortune Footwear CFO Thomas Paccione.

The mentorship program aims to equip students with leadership and life skills through connections with mentors and meetings with celebrity athletes and veterans.

“The program is about getting students to start thinking about their future and possible careers,” said Athletic Director Darren Phillips.

Students in ninth through 11th grades who are interested in participating can contact Phillips through the district’s athletic office.

Southampton Intermediate School eighth-graders recently participated in a Home and Careers lesson that focused on family dynamics. During the lesson, taught by Home and Careers teacher Christina Duryea Cassel, students learned about the family cycle and how flowerpots are similar to family dynamics. The flowerpots they received symbolized the support and strength within a family.

Students also learned about crises that can happen in a family that create “cracks” in their “flowerpots.” To symbolize the cracks, students were instructed to break off a piece of their flowerpots and tasked with putting them back together with glue while learning about helplines for themselves, friends or family members. Students bandaged the cracks in their flowerpots with healing activities that would provide happiness, positivity and stress reduction. The students then planted basil in their pots to represent the growth that occurs with these healing activities.

Three Southampton High School students recently received prestigious musical designations. Casey Cartagena and Julian Misut, both violists, have been named to the Suffolk County Music Educators’ Association’s All-County Orchestra and as alternates to the New York State School Music Association’s All-State Orchestra. Dhivya Sampath, an alto singer, was named to the All-County Chorus.

The students earned these honors based on their standout performances at the NYSSMA Solo Evaluation Festival last spring.

Southampton High School senior Dhivya Sampath has been recognized as a semifinalist in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program as a result of her outstanding scores on the qualifying exam. Sampath is now among 16,000 students across the nation competing for $28 million in scholarships. To earn the title, she placed among the top students who took the 2021 PSAT. Sampath is accomplished in both academics and extracurriculars. She is an AP Scholar with Distinction and, as a singer, was recently named an All-County musician. She is a member of her school’s National, Tri-M Music and Foreign Language honor societies, as well as its math team and peer assisted leadership club. She also sits on the Southampton School District’s Health and Wellness Committee as a student member. Outside of school, she performs with the Metropolitan Youth Choir, Suffolk County chapter. She plans to study on a premed track in college.

Eastport-South Manor Jr.-Sr. High School announced the acceptance of three musicians into the National Association for Music Education All-National Honors Music Ensembles.

Benjamin Isaacson (clarinet), Lennon Lotardo (bass 2 – mixed chorus) and Aidan Young (double bass) were selected from the top 1 percent of students from all 50 states. Benjamin is only one of two clarinetists chosen from New York State, while Aidan is just one of four double bassists and Lennon just one of 11 bass 2s from the state. Selection to participate in All-Nationals is based on New York State School Music Association solo evaluations on which all three students acquired a perfect score.

Additionally, Benjamin, Lennon and Aidan are only the fifth, sixth and seventh students in the history of Eastport-South Manor Central School District, pre- and post-merger, to be named to an All-National Honors Ensemble. This school year also marks the first time in the district’s history that three students were selected. Past representatives have been band members Bryan Filetto and Rebecca Nelsen and vocalists Lizzie Arnold and Megan McGuiness.

The All-National Honors Festival will take place in Baltimore, Maryland, in November.

Tuttle Avenue Elementary School was an even friendlier place as students participated in “Start With Hello Week,” held from September 19 to 23. Throughout the social program, students were encouraged to reach out to peers who may be suffering from social isolation, as well as to promote a school culture of connectedness.

On Monday, students, faculty and staff wore name tags and addressed each other by name. They also signed the Start With Hello signature banner and pledge to include others. Students then left positive chalk messages at Tuesday’s recess for the following grade level and wore T-shirts with positive messages. Wednesday’s activities included a game of Find a Friend Bingo and wearing a favorite T-shirt that displays something important to each participant. Students wore school gear on Thursday to show Tuttle pride and mixed with other classes during lunchtime. To end the week, students wore green to display commitment to being an inclusive and connected community and participated in games that promoted teamwork and cooperation.

Eastport Elementary School students were applauded and cheered by their peers as they walked down the red carpet studded with their names on gold stars during the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The event was the culmination of the school’s summer reading program, which encouraged students to read daily and record the number of minutes read. In total, students in grades three through five read more than 81,848 minutes during the summer months. Each of the students received a certificate from librarian Alyssa Sorensen and Principal John Fabian and had their photo taken in front of a green screen to mark the occasion.

Students at Westhampton Beach Elementary School have been celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month through a wide variety of engaging activities that were organized by the school’s equity committee.

Each day during the month, students are sharing Spanish phrases and biographies of famous Latinos and Latinas over the school’s public address system and taking part in daily activities and challenges on a shared interactive digital calendar that can be accessed in their classrooms. Students have also been reading books and watching videos on the importance of Hispanic Heritage Month and the different cultures and traditions within Spanish-speaking countries. Additionally, classes are working together to research and create traditional Hispanic recipes that will be compiled into a school-wide cookbook.

Eastport-South Manor Junior-Senior High School seniors Benjamin Isaacson and Aidan Young were named National Merit semifinalists in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program. Each will continue to compete for one of 7,250 National Merit Scholarships, collectively worth $28 million, to be awarded next spring. Students entered the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program during their junior year by taking the 2021 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. As part of the

nationwide pool of 16,000 semifinalists, these academically talented students represent less than 1 percent of high school seniors and includes the highest-scoring entrants from each state.

Additionally, seniors Brendan Archbold and Fiona Schlegel were named Commended Students in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship Program for their exceptional academic promise. Although Brendan and Fiona will not continue in the 2023 competition for National Merit Scholarship awards, Commended Students placed among the top 50,000 students who entered the 2023 competition by taking the 2021 PSAT exam.

Christopher Koltzan of East Quogue is among the nearly 750 first-year and transfer students starting their studies at York College of Pennsylvania. Koltzan plans to study general business.