NHP Memorial students honored

Richard Tedesco

New Hyde Park Memorial High School students were recognized for conspicuous extracurricular achievement during the annual awards ceremony the Sewanhaka Central High School Board of Education conducted at Sewanhaka High School last week on Tuesday night.

The recognition included artistic and scientific achievement, participation in the high school’s Model United Nations program, and the Sewanahaka Superintendent of Schools Ralph Ferrie’s Student Advisory Council.

New Hyde Park senior Tomasz Pietruszka was honored for his contribution to team of students from district high schools who won the New York City First Tech Challenge Robotics Competition earlier this month. Having won the regional competition in designing a robot to compete against other robots in a regional competition at the Javits Convention Center, Pietruszka was preparing for a trip with his teammates to St. Louis the next morning for a world competition as one among 120 teams. 

“It’s cool,” he said. “It’s fun participating in it.”

In this year’s game, “First Overdrive,” students designed their robots with common sets of parts to race around an elliptical track lifting, pushing, carrying and passing 40-inch inflated balls. Extra points are scored by robots positioning the balls on a 6-foot 6-inch overpass before the end of the 2 minute and 15 second match.

New Hyde Park senior Natalie Bracco was recognized as the best delegate along with Priyanka Sharma at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology Model U.N. Conference.

Bracco, vice president of New Hyde Park Memorial U.N. Club, she said she’s been a member of the club since her sophomore year. As a member of the Human Rights Committee at the M.I.T. conference she represented India and said she addressed the topics of child marriage and the rights of displaced peoples.

“Everybody gets a country and you take on a new perspective,” Bracco said.

She said she once had to represent North Korea on the topic of nuclear proliferation.

“It was interesting to see things from that perspective,” she said.

In the fall, Bracco said she’ll be attending Boston University and plans to major in political science or international relations.

Jalissa Sanchez and Nicholas Kofer, sophomore class president and vice president at New Hyde Park Memorial, were recognized for their participation as part of the superintendent’s council.

“We have to speak for the students. It definitely works,” Sanchez said.

Kofer said cleanliness in the school and the state of the school cafeteria were among the subjects they addressed this year. And they said district administrators are responsive to the issues they bring up.

“We have such a talented group of students. They’re involved in so much. It just amazes me,” said New Hyde Park Memorial Principal Richard Faccio. “They’re well-rounded individuals and great individuals. Interacting with is the best part of my job.”

The complete list of awards to New Hyde Park Memorial students follows:

• Art Supervisors Association Senior Scholarship Award: Cara Bono

• Solo Artist Exhibition: Devanshi Patel

• New York City First Tech Challenge Robotics Competition: Tomasz Pietruszka

• Skills USA Regional Awards: Architecture Drafting 2nd Place: Matthew Kern; Architecture Drafting 3rd Place: Jaspreet Singh; Promotional Bulletin Board: Shivanie Muneshwar

• Rutgers Model UN Conference Outstanding Delegate: Domenico Pietromonaco, Jesmine Romanelli, Jay Shah

• Massachusetts Insitute for Technology Model UN Conference – Best Delegate: Natalie Bracco, Priyanka Sharma; Outstanding Delegate: Jaclyn Williams; Honorable Delegate: Lydia Manchery, Jerin Thomas; Best Position Paper: Christa Alexander, Zoe Chan, Timothy Foley

• Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council: Megan Brown, Jonathan Chambers, Steven Chambers, Anthony D’Ammassa, Timothy Foley, Christian Hidalgo                                                                                             Christian Hong, Amanda Kahn, Nicholas Kofler, Eleni Kothesakis, Gregory Kothesakis, Hope Lee, Samantha Longo,Lauren Lynch, Nimi Patel, Justin Rezin, Joseph Richards, Matthew Rowinsky, Shawn Sam, Jalissa Sanchez, Gabriella Tomasini, Grant Wong, Shawn Zachariah, Michael Zornberg 

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