A St. Mary’s High School student from Roslyn Heights was among two recipients of the Manhasset Rotary Club’s “Student of the Quarter” award for the 2012-13 school year’s fourth quarter, which recognizes high school students for their academic achievements and community service.
Hamd Mahmood, a freshman at St. Mary’s, was honored by the Rotary Club at its monthly meeting May 14, in addition to Manhasset High School freshman Mary Malahame.
Mahmood has been ranked No. 1 in his class throughout the school year and is already taking two advanced placement courses which are generally reserved for students of higher grade levels, guidance counselor Jessica Moraitis said.
“When I met him, he seemed like most of the other freshmen, a little bit shy, a little bit intimidated, but I’ve come to find that’s not him at all,” Moraitis said.
This year, Mahmood was the only member of the school’s Science Olympiad team and is involved with St. Mary’s Scholar Service Institute program, a leadership organization that combines competitive academics with an increased attention on community service projects.
Moraitis said that Mahmood has also selected the most rigorous sophomore academic schedule of his entire class for the 2013-14 school year.
“He definitely has a drive for learning and for knowledge,” Moraitis said.
Moraitis said Mahmood comes from a family of doctors, and he plans to enter the family into the medical field as a surgeon.
Malahme was honored for her work within Manhasset’s Community Adolescent Peer Partnership program, also known as CAPS, in which she helps mentor younger students.
“She’s done a great job reaching out to kids who she maybe wouldn’t have met otherwise, and she really has made other students comfortable in our school who wouldn’t have had an easy time making friends and they look up to Mary as well,” Malahme’s guidance counselor, Kristen Wolfinger, said.
Wolfinger said Malahme has gone out of her way to find board games her students may like, in addition to attending CAPS trips with the students.
“To become part of the group as a ninth grader, Mary really had to step out of her comfort zone and work with students that she had no knowledge about,” Wolfinger said. “She’s reliable, responsible and really passionate about what she does.”
