CHIEF’S REPORT PISCATAWAY HIGH SCHOOL HIGHLIGHTS

Jason Lester, Principal February 2016

MESSAGE FROM MR. LESTER

With winter pretty much behind us, I am confident that we are ready to spring into March. We have been most fortunate that the weather has not been as extreme this season. I want to sing the praises of our hardworking and dedicated custodial family members at the high school led by Mr. Sverada and Mr. Francis. Our custodians have done an outstanding job making sure that PHS is operating at a very high level. This is a massive facility. My custodians cannot be the sole caretakers of this building; hence, we encourage everyone - students, teachers, and administrators, to make sure that we are doing our part in keeping our house a clean and SHINING example of this GREAT community. We had some pretty spectacular things happen at PHS read on and enjoy.

Strength & Honor

PHS HAPPENINGS MESSAGE TO MRS. IPPOLITO FROM A FORMER STUDENT We at PHS know how hard our teachers work to help their students gain life skills and achieve their future goals. It’s not very often they receive thanks from a former student. We are proud to include, in this newsletter, a message to Science teacher, Mrs. Ippolito, from one of her former students. It sends a very important message to all our teachers that what you do every day matters a great deal. We thank you all.

Hello Mrs. Ippolito!!! I don't think you remember me but you were my teacher at Quibbletown in 93-94 and then in high school in 1996 I think lol I just wanted to let you know that you really had a huge impact in my life... You were the reason I have always loved science and now I am a

registered nurse 😊... I am now 34 and have been a nurse for over 10 years. You were the

reason I truly believed I was smart enough to be great at science! So thank you for influencing me to become the best me... It is teachers like you that aren't compensated enough for your hard work and sacrifice... So thank you for helping me love science!! I never forgot all our cool experiments and all the wonderful things you taught me XOXO... Carolina Amador

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT NEWS

PHS has placed first again for the State of New Jersey on vocabulary.com with students answering close to

1.5 million questions and mastering close to 80,000 words. Outstanding!!

ALL-STATE BAND & ORCHESTRA AUDITIONS In December, we reported that one of our flute students, junior Catherine Wang, passed the audition to perform with the prestigious Group II NJ Region Band two months ago. This past Thursday night, All-State Band & Orchestra auditions were held at Columbia High School in Maplewood. Only students from all three Region Bands in New Jersey may audition for this elite group of high school musicians. The audition process is quite rigorous and selection is extremely competitive. We are thrilled to report that Catherine placed 6th out of 48 flute students across the state to be accepted into the 2016 NJ All-State Orchestra! Congratulations, Catherine! NATIONAL SIGNING DAY National Signing Day took place on Wednesday, February 3. Piscataway High School is proud to announce that Courtney Culp will be attending The University of Maryland at Baltimore County on a scholarship for girls’ soccer.

Congratulations, Courtney! 50 STRONG FATHER& SON CONFERENCE On February 6, 2016, the 50 Strong Mentoring program held the 2nd annual Father & Son Conference. Several workshops were conducted that inspired the bonding of father and son around great topics of men’s health,

college preparation, as well as understanding the struggles of being a male role model in today’s society. Special thank you goes out to Dr. Robert “Packy” Turner II for his keynote address, Ms. Jessica Brown, also known as the “College Gurl,” financial planner for college guru, and our proud PHS graduates making a difference in the world. I would be remiss if I did not mention Mr. Vaughn Mckoy author of Playing Up: One man’s rise from public housing to public service through mentorship. He gave away over 35 copies of his book. It was a great time!

ART NEWS Scholastic Writing Awards Since 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have recognized the vision, ingenuity, and talent of our nation’s youth, and provided opportunities for creative teens to be celebrated. Each year, increasing numbers of teens participate in the program, and become a part of our community–-young artists and writers, filmmakers and photographers, poets, and sculptors, along with countless educators who support and encourage the creative process.

During the regional round of adjudication, the judges reviewed over 4000 works of art submitted by over 1200 students from northern New Jersey. The selection process is extremely competitive allowing only 6% of regional submissions to move onto the national level, Gold Key Award. Only 20-25% of students garnered awards at the Silver Key Award and Honorable Mention.

This year Piscataway High School art students received 19 individual Awards. The 4 Gold Key winners will have their artwork on display at the Montclair Art Museum and their artwork will move to the national level for judging.

Six PHS Students Chosen for ARTStart Exhibition at William Patterson University

The annual William Paterson exhibit for high school students wrapped up on February 7th, with an awards ceremony. All students whose work was selected for ARTStart received a certificate of recognition from the University. 6 PHS students had work accepted to the William Paterson University annual high school student art exhibit. In addition, Katie Maas received an honorable mention award for the Digital Photo category!

Katie Maas

Demetria

Bethal

Oksana Kit

Giorel

Laxamana

Student Award

Nikki Bustillo Mary Dvorsky Katie Maas

Christine Papanier Nikki Bustillo

Courtney Culp Courtney Culp Mary Dvorsky

Kimberly Nguyen Neha Patel

Mary Dvorsky Kimberly Nguyen Kimberly Nguyen Kimberly Nguyen Kimberly Nguyen

Neha Patel Neha Patel Neha Patel

Mariah Pierre

Gold Key Gold Key Gold Key Gold Key Silver Key Silver Key Silver Key Silver Key Silver Key Silver Key

Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Honorable Mention Honorable Mention

Alexis Day

Arusa Khan

Ducret School of Art Annual High School Art Show The Ducret School of Art hosts an Annual High School Art Show each year. Almost 500 individual art entries are submitted to this competition, where the artwork is judged by professional artists. This year Piscataway High School art students received nine individual awards. Nikki Bustillo 2nd Prize Pastel Category

Mary Dvorsky 1st Prize Scratchboard Category

Nina Gabriel Honorable Mention Printmaking Category

Katie Maas Honorable Mention Printmaking Category

Kimberly Nguyen 2nd Prize Color Pencil Category

Chistine Papanier Honorable Mention Graphite/Pencil Category

Neha Patel 2nd Prize Scratchboard Category

Jamie Ramos 1st Prize Pastel Category

Elena Whiteman 1st Prize Color Pencil Category

BLACK HISTORY MONTH African-American Culture Club The African-American Culture Club (AACC) presented the 2016 African-American History Month Celebratory Assembly on the afternoon of Wednesday, February 17, 2016. There were poets, guest speakers, dancers, and a lecture hall filled to capacity with wide-eyed VERY enthusiastic students and teachers interested in learning more about American History.

Tasha Bethea, Alexi Blake, Amber Ingram, and Bryan Matthew emceed the program which opened with Marianella Romero Pegeron and Tenaj Bell beautifully singing the black national anthem, ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’. Eric Singh and Berlenska Desir each spoke of their connection to celebrating African-American history and its relationship to their respective Guyanese and Haitian heritage. Araya Simmons and Jahmine Bates

performed a Caribbean interpretive dance, Brielle Gorrell and Chardae Downer together provided a historical look at Maya Angelou and then, as a duet, recited Maya’s poem ‘Phenomenal Woman’.

Berlenska Desir

Eric Singh

Jurnee Edwards moved the audience to a standing ovation with her beautiful self-penned poem titled, ‘The Journey of a Feminist’. For many, many years African-Americans have been greatly impacted by fraternal and

sorority organizations, Mr. Stefan Jordan of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., and Mrs. Latifa Bell of Delta Sigma

Theta Sorority, Inc., led question and answer sessions on the significance of organizations of this type in not

just the African-American communities, but communities of the world. To close out the program, former PHS graduate, Kenneth Armwood, spoke about his tour during his years as a student at PHS. He emphasized for Black History month the importance of demonstrating self-respect. Ken is currently a Middlesex County Freeholder and former Piscataway Board of Education member.

Mr. Stefan Jordan, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

Miss Jurnee Edwards reciting her self-penned poem

Life Skills Class Theme Fairness and equality are themes that were introduced in the life skills class at PHS. Martin Luther King, The Extra Mile Monument, Cesar Chavez and other important leaders and icons were studied in class. Through classroom implementation of a standards based online newspaper content program called News2u (www.News2u.com), the students studied how fairness and equality are issues that are addressed from school sports, to the municipal government, to the White House. The lesson concluded with music that centers on the theme of “going the extra mile” for fairness and equality. FBLA NEWS

FBLA State Leadership Conference Months of preliminary competition, preparation, rehearsal, and so much more were put to the test at the 2016 NJ FBLA State Leadership Conference, held over two days at the Waterfront Convention Center in Atlantic City, attended by over two thousand NJ FBLA student members.

Six of our 39 competitors qualified to compete at the National Leadership Conference in Atlanta at the end of June, with additional members earning 5th place and recognition awards:

1ST PLACE: Business Financial Plan - Aneesha Bhatia, Aditi Patel 2ND PLACE: Community Service Project - Adam Liang, Neelay Patel, Chelsea Wong

4TH PLACE: Impromptu Speaking - Nikita Shah 5TH PLACE: Banking and Financial Systems - Nihar Chitnis, Shaharyar Soomro, Corey Tokarz Local Chapter Annual Business Report - Arth Baghel, Chelsea Wong RECOGNITION: Gold Officer: Catherine Wang Gold Member: Aneesha Bhatia Local Chapter Website of Merit: Adam Liang March of Dimes Excellence State Community Service Committee: Aneesha Bhatia, Chelsea Wong

Business Plan Simulation

Twenty three PHS FBLA members participated in the annual “Business Plan Simulation,” which is run by the

Piscataway Rotary Club in the PHS Library. Teams were formed and decisions were made regarding the

purchase of a deli in Piscataway, as well as management issues such as inventory, marketing, financials, and

some surprise problems that had to be solved in the second session. Teresa Rafferty, Superintendent of

Schools and active Rotarian, attended the first session and other Rotarians volunteered their time to advise the

students throughout the process. Local bankers evaluated the teams’ plans, with the winning team earning the

bragging rights and every participant getting a crash course in the challenges of buying and running a small

business, as well as the answer to “what the heck is a ‘P and L?’” Rotary has been partnering with PHS FBLA

for this event for almost 30 years. Greg Michaels, PHS FBLA Lead Advisor, managed logistics.

FBLA Finished IN 2ND Place!

(L-R: Cheslea Wong, Neelay Patel, Catherine Wang)

At Ethicon (part of J&J) in Bridgewater, PHS FBLA members Chelsea Wong, Catherine Wang, and Neelay Patel (all juniors) capped months of hard work leveraging their business acumen to win 2nd place - out of 165 teams statewide - in the 2016 Junior Achievement Titan Competition. In addition to recognition at the 2016 NJ FBLA State Leadership Conference in Atlantic City, the team will share a $500 cash prize. Junior Achievement has worked with both business and education for almost a century, and is an increasingly valuable PHS FBLA partner. Titan is a simulation where students run a virtual company, making hundreds of business decisions on parameters including research & development, capital investment, marketing/advertising, pricing, charitable giving, and more. After every round of decisions, a proprietary algorithm simulates a market and determines how teams performed (e.g., profits, market share, etc.) and scores them via a performance index. While Titan is virtual, PHS FBLA teams who made it to the regional rounds in January enjoyed the opportunity to network with students from around the state as well as senior management at companies including Synchronoss, Munich Reinsurance, and Johnson & Johnson. SCIENCE DEPARTMENT NEWS On January 6, 2016, six Rutgers Pharmacy students (Bianca Patel, Priyanka Trivedi, Brenda Ho, Elizabeth Adekunle, Camille Rabe, and Rebecca Shin) came to PHS to host a Pharmacy High School Outreach. The program was scheduled in F100 after school at 2:00 pm. Rutgers SNPhA (Student National Pharmacist Association) participate in this program every year. Their goal is to educate students on what pharmacy is, how they can learn more about it, and provide an overview of the program at Rutgers. They reach out to different high schools and talk to students, promoting the field of pharmacy. At the end of the presentation our students were provided an opportunity to ask questions about pharmacy or just college in general. Two of the visiting students, Bianca Patel and Priyanka Trivedi, were former PHS graduates. They were able to speak about the classes at PHS that prepared them for college.

IMPORTANT DATES: March 3: PHS Musical 7 pm March 4: PHS Musical 7 pm March 5: PHS Musical 2 pm & 7 pm March 9: Interim Reports Viewable March 17: St. Patrick’s Day March 18: PTSO Tricky Tray 7 pm March 20: First Day of Spring March 21: PTSO General Meeting 7 pm March 25 – April 1: Spring Break