The Sun Shines on the EHS Prom
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- Written by: Joanne Wallenstein
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Heavy rain on Friday June 13 threatened to ruin the hairdo's and dampen the hemlines of attendees to the Edgemont High School prom – but just in the nick of time, the sun came out at 3 pm to allow photo opps outside. Students gathered at pre-prom parties at homes and then went onto the school for more photos in the EHS cafeteria.
After all the posing was done, students boarded the buses for the big event at the VIP Club in New Rochelle – followed by an all night party. By the time seniors returned home for breakfast in the early morning hours everyone was ready to snooze.
See these beautiful photos of the Class of 2014 taken by proud mom Mariela Melamed and send photos of your EHS prom-goers to scarsdalecomments@gmail.com to add to the gallery.
Pitching & Closing: by Scarsdale's Ellen DaSilva
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- Written by: Joanne Wallenstein
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Scarsdale's Ellen DaSilva has just written "Pitching & Closing: Everything you need to bring revenue-generating partnerships to a tech-startup." Ellen currently lives in San Francisco where she works on the Business Operations team at Twitter, which finds and targets strategic revenue opportunities for the company. Previously, she worked at Barclays on more than $10 billion worth of initial public offerings and other primary issuances for technology and media/telecommunications companies
Ellen grew up in Scarsdale and earned a BA in English literature with honors from Brown University and is now a trustee of the Brown University Hillel.
Ellen met co-author Alexander Taub through a mutual connection from Scarsdale (Adam Levin) when she was looking to leave banking and break into tech. Alex is active in the New York tech scene as the creator of the BD Meetup and an advisor to early-stage companies. He has been featured in Business Insider as one of the "Top 20 Under 25" on the New York tech scene. He writes a popular blog called Alex's Tech Thoughts; has been published in Fast Company, the New York Observer, The Next Web, and VentureBeat; teaches business development classes; and has been quoted on many tech websites, including TechCrunch, Gigaom, the New York Times, Business Insider, Mashable, and PC Magazine. He is also a contributor to the Forbes Entrepreneur section.
After moving to Twitter, Ellen stayed in close contact with Alex, helping him with background for his bi-weekly column for Forbes. When McGraw Hill approached him about writing a book on Business Development at tech companies, he asked Ellen to co-author the book.
Their new book, Pitching & Closing spans 5 major topics and dives in-depth about each. Part 1 is about
the business development basics. What is it? How is it structured and organized at companies? What does it entail? Part 2 is an introduction to partnerships. Part 3 takes an extensive look at the process of pitching and closing, the namesake of the book. Part 4 is an overview of industry best-practices. And Part 5 features war stories from some of the best names in the business, including Charlie O'Donnell (Brooklyn Bridge Ventures), Gary Vaynerchuck (VaynerMedia), Jesse Itzler (Marquis Jet) and many more.
The purpose of the book is twofold: first, it is meant to serve as a guidebook to the art of business development and closing deals for people already in the industry. Second, it is meant to used as a training manual for new graduates or graduate school students who want to learn more about the industry and how non-technical roles work at tech companies.
We ask Ellen how she managed to write the book while working full time at a demanding job. She said, "The process itself was surprisingly organized. We kept ourselves to a rigid schedule, drew from our past experiences and spent a lot of time consulting experts in various aspects of business development, partnerships and startups. It was exhilarating getting it over the finish line and I think I speak on behalf of both of us when I say we're proud of what we produced."
Learn more about Ellen, the tech world and professional savvy -- and find out where to pre-order her book on her blog "The World According to Ellen."
Trainers at Total Form Fitness Save a Life
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- Written by: Joanne Wallenstein
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Two alert trainers at Total Form Fitness in Hartsdale used their life-saving skills on Sunday June 1 to save a cab driver who had a stroke in his cab in Hartsdale. Trainers John Marsh and Derek Grant were walking to the new frozen yogurt shop in Hartsdale when a cab driver at the Mobil station waved at them and then handed his phone out of the car window to John. John noticed the man had dialed 911 and quickly saw that the driver could not speak and was slumped in the driver's seat. The man's face was drooping and his tongue was hanging out of the side of his mouth, which according to the trainers are signs of a stroke.
Realizing the driver was in distress, Grant pulled him from the car and laid him down on the pavement while March performed CPR. The two checked for a pulse and couldn't find one but Grant continued to perform chest compressions until an ambulance arrived. He estimated that he performed close to 200 compressions before EMS workers appeared and took the man to the hospital.
Though they don't know the man's name, he is a driver for Central Taxi and the company sent Marsh a text to let him know that the driver was stable. If not for their smart response, the driver, who did suffer a stroke, may have died before the ambulance arrived.
News12 is calling the two "Hartsdale Heroes." See a video of what happened here.
One-of-a-KIND Conversation With Daniel Lubetzky, Founder and CEO of KIND Snacks
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The JCC of Mid-Westchester presents a conversation with Daniel Lubetzky, Founder and CEO of KIND Healthy Snacks, and a pioneer of social entrepreneurship on Tuesday, June 10, at 7:30pm at the JCC, 999 Wilmot Road in Scarsdale.
Cheryl Strauss Einhorn, media consultant, award-winning journalist, and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, leads the discussion with Lubetzky, the son of a Holocaust survivor, who will share his unique perspective on socially conscious business decision-making and making the world a "kinder place."
Lubetzky is CEO of KIND Healthy Snacks, the leading maker of fruit and nut bars, and Chairman of PeaceWorks Inc, pursuing both peace and profit through joint ventures among neighbors striving to coexist in regions experiencing conflict. "Kindness is the greatest show of strength. Too often, we are led to believe that strength is best demonstrated by exerting dominance or superiority over others, while kindness is portrayed as the opposite -- a sign of weakness," he recently wrote for the Huffington Post. "How do we, through our words and actions, show that it takes courage to be kind?"
KIND is distributed across 60,000-plus retail points in the US, and is the fastest growing healthy snack company in the US. Lubetzky is also Founder of the PeaceWorks Foundation's OneVoice Movement, and co-founder of Maiyet, a new luxury fashion brand that partners globally with artisans in mixed economies.
Born and raised in Mexico City, Lubetzky studied at Trinity University, and Stanford Law School. Fluent in Spanish, English, Hebrew and French, he has lectured at universities, the World Economic Forum, the World Bank, and the United Nations. He was selected by the World Economic Forum as one of 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow (GLT) and as a Young Global Leader, and received the World Association of NGOs Peace Security and Reconciliation Award, the Catholic Theological Union's Peace-Makers Award, and the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship.
In 2009, TIME Magazine named Lubetzky among 25 "pioneers" of social innovation and BusinessWeek named him among "America's Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs." In 2010, Entrepreneur Magazine selected him as Entrepreneur of the Year.
Karen Kolodny, Executive Director at the JCC Mid-Westchester explains "This series of JCC conversations attempts to shed light on what is trending in industry, business, finance, and intellectual pursuits. We feel privileged to have top-notch industry leaders coming to our JCC to open up a public conversation focusing on business."
Tickets are $15 at the JCC front desk, or online at www.jccmw.org. Register by June 3 to join a VIP Reception at 7:00PM as an event sponsor. Student pricing is available; contact Liat Altman at (914) 472-7672 altmanl@jccmw.org. A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will go to the JCC of Mid-Westchester Scholarship Fund, which provides educational and recreational opportunities for children in the area.
Varsity Girls Softball Team Tops Ursuline 4-3
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The Scarsdale High School Varsity Girls Softball team beat out Ursuline in a very close game at Supply Field on Monday May 19. The final score was 4 3.
The game was ultimately a win on the part of numerous members of the team. Senior Dana Goldstein went 2 3 with a homerun in the fourth inning and a single in the fifth inning. Over the course of seven innings, Ursuline only managed to hit three balls pitched by freshman Lauren Wolfe who let up only run during the entire game and had no strikeouts.
By the bottom of the second, the Scarsdale Raiders had scored the early lead with 1 0. Junior Chrissy Gobes kept the game going with a double.
By the fifth inning, the varsity girls were up 3 0. Suddenly Ursuline scored once in the top of the fifth and then scored two more runs. The pressure was high, but the girls powered through and scored in the bottom of the fifth to be up 4 3. This score continued for the duration of the game, and the girls are extremely satisfied with their win.
The girls' record this year is 11 9 so far with the majority of their losses only lost by one run. Knowing that Ursuline's softball team is usually a very hard team to beat made the win today all the more was satisfying.
"It was a great win for us as it was our last home game during which we honored our seniors. Our goal this season was to have a home sectional game and we will find out our seed on Tuesday," said Captain Taylor Mancini, a junior. "This is my third year on the team and it is very exciting to be sitting in a position that we can have our first home sectional game. We have not had this in recent history."
The Varsity Girls Softball sectional game is at 4:30 on Thursday 5-22 at John Jay East Fishkill. If they win their sectional game, they will move on to play bigger games but if they lose they will be done for the season.
In other Scarsdale High School sports news, the Raiders Varsity Baseball team played against Horace Greeley Monday and unfortunately lost, but the loss did not bring their spirits down too much. At their May 12 game, the boys were victorious against Environmental High School with a final score of 10 1.
