Members of the girls varsity tennis team were recently honored along with coach Dennis Christofor at the Suffolk County Tennis Coaches Association Awards Dinner for a successful season. Senior Hana Ali received the Sportsmanship Award and freshman Nicolina Giannola earned All-County honors for her exceptional singles play. Students Sierra Welsch, Aamna Ali, and Natalie McGuigan earned All-League honors for their excellent singles and doubles play throughout the season. New additions to the team Jasmine Adams and Isabelle Roberts helped to secure a 7-3 league record for the season. Congratulations Royals!

Inspired by the artist Wassily Kandinsky’s painting Squares with Concentric Circles, Edna Louise Spear Elementary School students in Mrs. Deanna Lilimpakis’ class worked with art teacher Mrs. Meghan McCarthy on reviewing and drawing shapes, working in a concentric design and exploring wax resist, a process in which any substance that prevents or repels paint. The students used oil pastels as the wax component since they are made of oil pigments with a wax binder before applying watercolor paints. They also learned that the paint is repelled off of the wax and soaks only into the white paper.

Port Jefferson band students junior Gani Ates, seventh grader Max Joyner and eighth grader Max Paulus participated in the Suffolk Count Music Educators’ Association Day of Tuba Festival at Central Islip High School on Nov. 1. They joined more than 200 students from across Suffolk County gathered on one stage to perform alongside professional musicians including renowned guest artist Lauren Veronie Curran of the U.S. Army Field Band.

As part of their classroom studies, students in Ms. Heather Marshak’s ninth and tenth grade French classes have reached out to a humanitarian organization that works to advance children’s rights and equality for girls.

Through sponsorship with Plan International, the students are sponsoring Aïcha, a 10-year old girl from Niger and their donation – which will help in her education, health and family life – also gives them the opportunity to communicate with each other in French, the official language of Niger.
In addition to the listening and speaking skills necessary for the language, this altruistic approach to learning French has a great emphasis on the students’ reading and writing skills. They have also embraced the communication aspect and in developing their writing skills they have shared their common teenage interests – music, favorite foods and more.

“In learning about the very real struggles that young women in Niger face, our hope is that we can use our experience to develop a cross-cultural perspective that reflects peace, empathy and awareness,” Ms. Marshak said.