Outstanding High School Students Recognized at SHS

On May 9, forty-six students and their parents, friends, teachers and administrators gathered for the Scarsdale High School Awards Assembly. Co-Principal, Fred Goldberg, and Assistant Principal Sue Peppers shared the stage with SHS teachers and community leaders in presenting the awards to the outstanding SHS juniors and seniors. Students were recognized for their achievement in the Arts, English, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Technology and Community Service.

Mr. Goldberg opened up the evening by stating that this was a proud day for the entire school community. “Short and sweet, I look at our award winners and I recognize that our future has value.”

For the first time, the MSG Varsity Award, made possible by Cablevision, was presented by Mr. Gregory Leong to Jon Mermelstein and Riley Wood, two students who have made significant contributions to the MSG Varsity website. On a humorous note, Mr. Leong drew on his background as a Math teacher, and improvised naming the award recipients Young Man “x” and Young Man “y”, so as not to divulge the student names until the end of his presentation and keep the audience guessing .

Multiple award winners included Nicole Bernstein, Grace Dhanraj, Justine Gelfman, Callie Gilbert, Celia Lowenthal and Sam Waters.

As the students were recognized for their many achievements, what was most impressive was that these students were able to follow their interests and passions and find success. What made their achievements even more remarkable was that these students, while excelling in what they did, had all contributed so much to their community whether it was being the “go to” person for questions the night before a math test, helping their friends produce their college recruiting videos, building houses with Habitat for Humanity, travelling to Nicaragua and other third world countries to help the underprivileged and starting a music camp for homeless children in Westchester.

Before presenting the final award of the night, the Principal’s Award to Student Government President Sam Waters, Fred Goldberg thanked Sue Peppers for all her devotion and tireless efforts in putting together a beautiful awards ceremony.

Here is a list of all the talented SHS students and the awards they received:

Arts Awards:

• Excellence in Visual Art 3D– Valerie Keating
• Excellence in Visual Art 2D – Celia Lowenthal
• Media Award – Travis Misarti
• Friends Permanent Collection Award – Connor Bodine
• Elisa Draper Art History Award – Alyssa Marcus

English Awards:

• Brown University Award – Brian Solender
• Harvard University Award – Callie Gilbert
• Princeton University English Excellence Award – Celia Lowenthal
• Yale University Award – Jonathan Goldstein
• Audrey McGinn Creative Writing Award – Emily Yankowitz
• Scarsdale Inquirer Award – Benjamin Newman

Mathematics Awards

• Rensselaer Mathematics & Science Award – Cherie Hu
• Math Faculty Award – Andrew Guo

Performing Arts Awards

• Band Award – William Heffner
• Chorus Award – Rachel Halperin
• Orchestra Awards – Grace Dhanraj
• Friends of Music and Art Drama Award – Justine Gelfman
• Lowell Alecson Memorial Award – Sophie Nobler
• Sid Case Memorial Scholarship – Kyoko Hirota

Science Awards

• Bausch and Lomb Award – Jacob Kirschenbaum
• Science Achievement Award – Sarah Keltz
• Science Department Award – Alyson Favilla
• New York Science Supervisors Association Awards: Shia Li Lum (Biology), Nicole Bernstein (Chemistry), Jack Braun (Physics), Matthew Ginsberg (All-around)

Social Studies Awards

• Social Studies Excellence Award – Larry Millstein, Caroline Pitofsky
• Social Studies Faculty Award – Sarah Roth
• Social Studies Achievement Award – Ayaka Umehara
  

World Language Awards

• Latin Award – Samuel Waters
• Spanish Award – Rebecca Faust
• French Award – Danielle Nista
• Departmental Award – Grant Schutzman

Steve Corbin Academic Success Award – Kyle Goldman

Junior Scholarship/Service Award – Jacob Cannon

Junior Academic Excellence Award – Callie Gilbert

Wellesley Book Award – Kathryn Evans

Scarsdale Alumni Eric Rothschild Award – Grace Dhanraj

Counseling Department Award – Etienne Desbois

Scarsdale Foundation Award – Valerie Keating

Dartmouth Award – Nicole Bernstein

Principal's Award – Samuel Waters

Billy Safian Humanitarian Award – Justine Gelfman

Halliday Clark Sr. Memorial Award – Lauren Alin

Casey Ferrone Memorial Award – Claire D’Silva

Scarsdale Chamber of Commerce Award – Michele Ko

Rotary Club Award – Melissa Tucker, Eric Dobosh

Technical Services Award - Fahad Asam

MSG Varsity Scholarship Award – Riley Wood, Jon Mermelstein

Top Row: Jack Braun, Kathryn Evans, William Heffner, Cherie Hu, Eric Dobosh, Rebecca Faust

Bottom Row: Lauren Alin, Fahad Asam, Nicole Bernstein, Connor Bodine, Grace Dhanraj, Matthew Ginsberg

 

 

 

Top Row: Andrew Guo, Alyson Favilla, Jacob Cannon, Valerie Keating, Jacob Kirschenbaum, Ayaka Umehara

Bottom Row: Justine Gelfman, Kyle Goldman, Callie Gilbert, Jonathan Goldstein, Rachel Halperin, Riley Wood

 

 

 

Top Row: Ben Newman, Sophie Nobler, Grant Schutzman, Caroline Pitofsky, Brian Solender, Sarah Roth

Bottom Row: Michele Ko, Jon Mermelstein, Alyssa Marcus, Larry Milstein, Danielle Nista, Sam Waters

 

 

Top Row: Travis Misarti, Celia Lowenthal, Sarah Keltz, Etienne Desbois, Kyoko Hirota, Jack Braun

Bottom Row: Shia Li Lum, Emily Yankowitz, Claire D’Silva, Melissa Tucker

The Awards Committee members were Lauren Barton, Carol D’Angelo, Neil Ginsberg, Susan Hollander, Lauren Meyer, Jason Noble, Eric Rauschenbach, Chris Renino, Nancy Thompson, Sue Peppers (Presiding).

Presenting the awards to students were the following: Ann Liptak, Linda Leavitt, Sue Peppers, Sylvie Corten, Joseph Vaughan, Fred Goldberg, Lynne Wilson, Greg Leong, Andrea O’Gorman, Lewis Arlt, Carolyn Stevens, Adrienne Meyer, Julie Teicher, Nadine Gordon, Robert Draper, Laura Estersohn, Loryn Solomon, Godwin Okoli, Kenneth Safian, Jackie Irwin, Maria DeAngelis.

This article was contributed by Hyun Heffner with photos by Michael Heffner.