What Can Scarsdale Girls Learn from Sheryl Sandberg?
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(This article was contributed by Tina Henderson) The empowerment of women continues to be of utmost importance in our society. Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook and creator of the "Lean In" movement, reminds us "despite decades of efforts and some visible exceptions, the number of top women leaders in many fields remains stubbornly low: for example, 21 of the current Fortune 500 chief executives are women." (New York Times article, "A Titan's How-To on Breaking the Glass Ceiling," February, 22, 2013). Ms. Sandberg's effort has generated criticism from some pundits who believe her perspective comes from an elite and privileged position. We would argue that her consciousness-raising is timely and fantastic.
Women "hold ourselves back in ways both big and small, by lacking self-confidence, by not raising our hands, and by pulling back when we should be leaning in," Sandberg writes. This must change; it can change and should change. The change should start with teenage girls. Why not tackle this concern earlier on during adolescence? Why not encourage girls to find their authentic voice, to speak out, believe in themselves, and pursue their passions?
Scarsdale's own Girls Center, the unique empowerment program, sponsored by Scarsdale/ Edgemont Family Counseling does just that. Rooted in research by Carol Gilligan and Rachel Simmons, suggesting that girls often lose their voices in the middle school years, The Girls Center, is on a heartfelt mission to boost young girls' confidence, pointing them towards leadership positions, authenticity and resilience. As one participant from last year's program said. " The Girls Center made me more open, more sure of myself. It helped improve my confidence and allowed me to feel comfortable and not alone with who I really am."
Scarsdale's own innovative approach to women's empowerment, TGC, has a lot in common with Sandberg's 'Lean In" movement. The only difference is we believe starting earlier is key. We, at The Girls Center, are passionate about helping our very own young women become the leaders and shapers of tomorrow. Won't you join in?
**TGC opens its doors March 7th. We still have a few spots left. Please call SFCS at 723-3281 by March 1st to enroll.
Tina Henderson is a long time middle school teacher and tutor. She recently co-founded The Girls Center with fellow educator and author Laurie Albanese. She studied under Carol Gilligan at The Harvard Graduate School of Education and since then has been passionate about empowering teenage girls.
Three SHS Students Named Intel Semi-Finalists
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Scarsdale High School's science research program had a banner year– for the first time three SHS seniors were named Intel semi-finalists for their science research projects. Under Beth Schoenbrun, the Director of Science Research at the high school, Kathryn Evans, Madeleine Minke and Jamie Tanzer, who represent 75% of the school's eligible students, were awarded this prestigious prize.
To what does Ms. Schoenbrun attribute her student's success? She says, "This was due to their own hard work, the complete support of the science research program by the district at every level, the strong efforts of Mrs. Laura Estersohn to help them analyze and understand their statistics, and Ms. Nicole Pisano's and my reading and re-reading their final papers." She also wished to add, "While we are very proud of our students, the goal is not to win science competitions, but to do original and hopefully publishable research. Any additional awards are icing on the cake."
The Scarsdale semi-finalists, along with other award winners from around the county were honored by the Westchester County Legislature on Monday February 11. In his remarks, Chairman of the Board of County Legislators Ken Jenkins said, ""Year after year, Westchester high school students prove themselves as being among the nation's best—in the classroom, in athletics and in their communities. Tonight, we honor this remarkable group of Intel Science Talent Search competition finalists and semi-finalists and congratulate them on their academic commitment, unceasing efforts and cutting-edge intelligence. It is also important that we recognize that these students received a lot of support from parents, other family members and guardians in their quest for excellence. But there is one undeniable reason why Westchester can point to so many top science, tech, engineering and math students: the quality of our schools and the educators who are dedicated to ensuring a meaningful future for our children."
Here's information about the research projects submitted by Scarsdale's semi-finalists:
Kathryn Evans
Endogenous Retroviruses: I have spent the last two summers in the Rockefeller University lab of Dr. Robert Gifford studying fascinating genetic elements known 
as "endogenous retroviruses." Retroviruses usually conjure up the image of spiky little particles of HIV; however, endogenous retroviruses are a fundamentally different sort of virus. Endogenous retroviruses, or ERVs, are genetic elements formed when retroviral genomes become permanent fixtures within the chromosomes of their hosts. ERVs have not been fully explored in the public genome data, which led to my assignment: characterize ERV diversity in Afrotheria, a diverse superorder comprising one third of the orders of placental mammals.
I used computer-based genome screening to characterize ERVs in the four sequenced Afrotherian genomes: rock hyrax, African bush elephant, West Indian manatee, and lesser hedgehog tenrec. I identified a total of ~88,000 ERV insertions, which I helped organize into a relational database. I grouped these insertions into 25 evolutionarily distinct groups through comparison of ERV protein sequences to one another, and to previously characterized retroviruses. This study provided the first comprehensive overview of ERV diversity in Afrotheria, and revealed lots of interesting ERV insertions that can be further explored in future research. One insertion I found seemed to provide evidence for a cross-species transmission of a retrovirus between Malagasy tenrecs and the Malagasy grey mouse lemur. This finding was interesting because a similar cross-species even is how HIV recently entered the human population.
Madeleine Minke
Integration of Auditory and Visual Information: During multisensory integration, the brain combines information from different senses to create one "stream" of information. This study looked at the integration of auditory and visual information depending on whether the visual information warned the subject what the auditory information would be. EEG results showed that the original response in the audiovisual cortex was suppressed and speeded up, which indicates that the audiovisual information affects the way the brain responds to auditory stimuli. As the asynchrony of the stimuli increased, the severity of the brain's response increased, thus supporting the previous belief of the interactions between the auditory and visual sensory systems. The ultimate goal of the research is to develop a therapy for people with multisensory integration disorders.
Jamie Tanzer
The Role of Microbial Proteases in the Elicitation of Allergy and the Formulation of the Enzyme Hypothesis: The Enzyme Hypothesis proposes that laundry detergents may be an etiological contributor to allergic disease. Allergenic microbial enzymes in laundry detergents (particularly proteases, which break down proteins) and other laundry detergent ingredients, left as residue on clothing, weaken protein components of the skin barrier (a vital part of the immune system) and contribute to the development of allergy through the skin. Infant skin may be particularly vulnerable to this process. In my experiments, skin samples from adult and young mice were exposed to proteases or laundry detergent at concentrations equivalent to the amount left as residue on clothing. Both caused skin damage, with greater damage to the skin of young mice. These results suggest that further
research on laundry detergent and its role in the development of allergy is needed.
Middle School Students Toast Biographers at Book Party
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Eighth graders in Ms. Serafin's English class at the Scarsdale Middle School celebrated biographies last week at a book party where they toasted the authors and shared what they learned about their chosen subjects. The event was highlighted by a visit from one of the authors, Dorit Whiteman, who escaped Hitler's takeover of her native Vienna at age 11 and eventually wrote Lonek's Journey. Middle School student Adriana Nicolaievsky, also an emigree, read Whiteman's book about a Jewish boy who escaped Nazi-occupied Poland and a Siberian slave labor camp to find freedom and his family in Palestine.
Adriana toasted Dorit who then shared her story with the class, describing a comfortable life in Vienna before Hitler's ascent, the family's narrow escape to London and her experience as a boarder with a poor family in an unheated cottage in northern England. Whiteman's family eventually moved to the United States where she earned a PhD in Clinical Psychology from NYU.
Fellow student Christine Hu hosted her party at Delmonico's for the famed scientist Nikola Tesla and designed an invitation to her book party 
that actually lit up!
Sam Goldstein moved the party to a beach on the island of Oahu to toast the author of Soul Surfer, Bethany Hilton who lost her arm after an attack by a tiger shark while she was surfing when she was only 14 years old.
The book party, called "The Life of the Party," was the result of a collaboration with Middle School English teacher Trish Serafin and Librarian Liz Waltzman. To prepare, each student read a biography, designed an invitation, and hosted a "book party" at a suitable location.
For those of us in the audience, it was great fun to listen to the students discuss their books and raise our glasses of Sprite to toast their success.
The Second Nuclear Age
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Paul Bracken, Professor at Yale School of Management, will speak on the dangers confronting us as a result of nuclear proliferation on February 28 at 7:30 pm at the Scarsdale Library. In his new and timely book, Professor Bracken draws on his experience as an analyst of cold war nuclear strategy at the Hudson Institute to introduce new strategies that might reduce the risk of nuclear conflict in such areas of current geopolitical concern as Iran, Korea and South Asia. Professor Bracken, recently named one of the top 100 Professors in America by the Princeton Review, has consistently been rated as one of the top executive education teachers in the world.
For further information go to www.yalewestchester.org or call Rich Fabbro at 914-391-3707. This event is 
sponsored by the Yale Westchester Alumni Association.
Scarsdale Kids On the Air
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Scarsdale kids aren't shy and now a few are making the news. Catch Lucie Fink a 2010 graduate of Scarsdale High School and a junior at Johns Hopkins on the Today Show with Matt Lauer on January 24 talking about teen's online relationships and setting ground rules for spring break.
Also, three Scarsdale High School sophomores were recently interviewed for Good Morning America by Lindsey Davis. Paige Phiipps Rachel Berglass and Rebecca Rosenbaum were on the morning show to discuss Snapchat – a new app that lets you take a picture, send it to a friend and then see it vanish after it is viewed. See what they say about the perils of this new app here ... do these compromising photos actually disappear?
