Back to Articles Polaris Back to Sections She By Navrosedip Kundlas Volume 2 Issue 5 March 28, 2022 Image provided by Today She stares at the sun While everyone else has fun She closes her eyes and takes a breath While everyone else talks about life and death She goes ahead and takes a nap While everyone else plays a game called Trap Everyone besides her likes to have fun While she likes to look at the sun Everyone besides her likes to chat While she likes to lay on the ground flat Everyone besides her likes to play games While she likes to think about all her nicknames People wonder why She's so shy She can't answer their questions Because she's too busy with her collections Everyone stares at her Wondering why she's not happy She's too busy thinking about her past To talk about the forecast People waste their time on nonsense She just thinks it’s all a disturbance She likes to choose her words carefully People decide it’s more important to be friendly She wonders why people talk all the time She'd instead write a poem that rhymes People want to sit and talk She'd instead take her dog on a walk People like to dress up and attend parties She'd rather talk to a bunch of smarties People like to fight with their siblings She'd instead stare at paintings Her little sister loves to waste her time While she likes to make lemonade with limes Her little brother likes to play weird games No wonder why people call him names She stares at the sun While everyone else has fun She closes her eyes and takes a breath While everyone else talks about life and death She goes ahead and takes a nap While everyone else plays a game called Trap People like to keep up with the latest trends She'd rather wear the same clothes as her friends She doesn't get why people waste their time on useless things When everything you need is in your savings She's not like everyone else, so what? At least she's not wasting her time trying to act like she's smart. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Sports Back to Sections Badminton Season Rehmat Kaur Volume 4 Issue 4 May 29, 2024 Image Provided by Coach Croce The badminton season started, and the team has new players and captains this year. With tryouts from March 18th to March 19th, Coach Croce has chosen the 19 best players who will positively impact the team and its performance. I had the lovely opportunity of interviewing some of my teammates and asking them about their hopes and aspirations for the badminton season. COACH CROCE: “My hope for this badminton season is not only just to win our matches, but continuing to build relationships with the team, while helping them become even more successful scholar-athletes, always improving their skills. This is a special group that I have this season, and I believe, whether we win or lose, we will have an impactful, positive, and memorable season.” Captains: MELANIE CEVADA: “I hope that this year, now that we are more educated in badminton, we can grow as a team and get better. We have a lot of girls who have great potential and show great sportsmanship that I have a lot of faith this year. I believe that our entire team can achieve the best of their skills and prosper with our abilities.” REHMAT KAUR: “My hopes for the team are that we discover our potential and get a lot of wins. Last year was a tough one, but I am very hopeful for this year. We have many new talented players that have a lot to offer to the team. For me as a player I have gotten better with both my strokes and movement since last year, still a lot to work on but I’m welcoming this season with a ton of positivity!” ALISSON ALAS: “I hope that this year we become a stronger team not only physically but mentally. I hope we get more wins than last year and to just grow together as a team. As for me after 11 years of playing badminton as this is my last year playing, I want to make this year count and to be as successful as possible with the team. I hope to become a better player and fulfill my role as one of the captains to my best ability.” RICHMIA ERISNOR: “My goals for this badminton season are to not only get better as a player but get better as a person. I hope that with the experience that I'm getting from the team and all the different aspects of this season, my performance skyrockets. I also hope that I can receive more smashes and drop shots. I hope that the girls and I continue to stay friends, even after the badminton season ends. I hope that I can be a good role model for the upcoming girls as their captain.” Players: SAHAR ALI: “This badminton season, I hope to make a contribution to the team and myself as well. We have a strong team with strong players, who have each other's back; even if we lose, we learn from those mistakes to improve. I look forward to what the rest of the season has to bring!” IMAN ALI: “My hopes for the season are to have at least three or more wins as a team and beat teams. We lost to last year. I also hope that we can improve on our weaknesses and perfect our techniques.” JESELYS VAZQUEZ: “My hopes for me are to become a better player than last year and learn new techniques and master them. So far, I have been seeing well progress with my teammates' support and kindness, making it feel less embarrassing. As a team, my hopes for the badminton family are to grow, stay supportive, maintain a safe place for all the practices, become a better version of ourselves and be top 3 of the school’s team and win a lot of games with our hard-working players and new members.” NAVROSEDIP KUNDLAS: “My hope for the season is to improve from last season. I feel we have a really strong team this year, and by learning and improvising, we can achieve all our goals. Personally, I would like to move up on the lineup with my doubles partner and win as many games as possible. By working on my drop shots and smashes, I hope to improve my own skills. I can't wait to see what comes next!” AVA HINSON: “My hope for this season is to become a stronger player and to be more involved. I hope that our team wins a lot of matches and that we become a tight knit group.” HIBA KISHORE: “My hopes for this badminton season are improving as a person, as a player and helping my teammates get better. We are not just a sports team but a small family that helps get better as a community practice after practice and game after game. Hopefully someday the VSN Badminton Team will win a conference, but step by step we’ll get there.” These are the goals and aspirations of the badminton players and the coach for this season. Hopefully, we can achieve them and make the year memorable! BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Feature Back to Sections The Readers: Book Club! By Jeselys Vazquez Volume 2 Issue 7 June 13, 2022 Image provided by GoogleSearch March 14th marked the official opening of the North’s Senior High Book Club for all students, grades 10 – 12! You might think: “A book club? That must be boring and a waste of time”. It may sound like it, but once you go to the meetings and get a better idea of what we do here, you might change your mind. For example, I’ve never been to a book club. I have only seen them in TV series; however, after joining recently, I found that I really enjoyed attending! The one here at North is different from any regular book club. It is more fun and active with different activities regarding what we read as a group. It is a comforting space where we can all express our thoughts, opinions, and things that stand out as we read. I joined as soon as I heard about it. So far, it has been a wonderful experience and activity I enjoy doing during after school hours. So far, some books we have read are He’s Very Well Read (The New Yorker.pdf), Flowers for Algernon (short story version), and recently we have started our first book, The Third Twin. Last week we received physical copies of our books, and since then have been reading chapters 1-10. Our next meeting is June 8th, right after ninth period, so if you want to stop by, join us, and we would be happy if you would attend. Catch you later, Readers! BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Advice Back to Sections What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up? Annie Rachek Volume 6 Issue 3 June 8, 2026 Image Provided by Hozier We have all been asked the question, “What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?’’ at least once in our lives. This question of course has become more relevant as we grow up and transition to junior and senior High. Many of us have known the answer from the beginning and many of our answers have changed as the older we grow. If you have ever pondered the question of what occupation you want to have and how many kids feel the same, you are reading the right article. Dream jobs shift based on the country, time, ages, and gender but for now we are looking at dream jobs of kids (average between boys and girls). According to a study done by Vocovision in 2024, about 60.2% of youth want to be a doctor, athlete, or teacher with doctor being the most popular by a small margin of around 6%. But these specific jobs only make up about 5% of the global workforce according to the statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But this doesn’t mean all of these jobs are unrealistic, just that interests may shift over time. What Do You Want to Be? Around 91% of kids aged 13 to 17 years old say that they know what they want to be when they grow up in accordance with the findings of Payscale. But even if you think you know what you want to be or are not sure, yet, it is always great to investigate options in case you lose passion, interest, or the job does not work out. You should decide what you value in a job, for example, perks, flexibility, and payment not just what sounds fun. So, here are a few underrated or emerging job suggestions. Many of us have dreamed of owning a small shop or business and with easier ways to start like Shopify or Amazon. And places to market like TikTok or YouTube, many people have become entrepreneurs whether it be a clothing brand or a Knick knack store. A small business owner is great for flexibility with you being able to create your own schedule and hours. Starting a small business can feed artistic or creative minds or could interest someone with passion for math or business. Small businesses can be a large investment, and it is recommended to start small due to the unpredictably of sales and salary, especially when starting out. Running a small business may look impossible but can easily be run on the side or part-time if you play your cards right. Air traffic controllers are the people at the airport who guide the traffic of planes coming in and out. These are people on TV yelling “THERE’S TOO MANY PLANES DON’T TAKE OFF!” behind the computers. While this job can have demanding hours, it makes up for it with the good salary with median is around 150k a year with some experience, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They also have great benefits. One of the requirements for this job is a bachelor’s degree (4 years) but comes with insurance coverage and many other benefits. This job can be considered one of the most stressful jobs on the market and can come with intense training. If you get overwhelmed, I will not advise this job and would suggest something like a baggage handler if you’re interested in working at an airport. While not a flexible job, if you are looking for a job to support your family, have a passion for planes or the airport, and do not mind stress, this would be a great pick for you. Being a library clerk may not sound like a glamorous job, but it can be a good job to work on the side. Being a library clerk requires no degree and is not very demanding with you simply having to help around the library; for example, shelving books and helping someone at the library. This job does require good organization, so this might interest neat people or people with a love for reading or writing. The job does not pay great with around 40k salary in New York but, this is still a decent calm side job that can grow into a bigger career like a full-time librarian which can earn around 50-60k starting. A library clerk is a nice calm option for a side job or a job that can blossom into a full career. Even if you are firm in what your job will be, I would recommend just considering these options. If you are lost or not sure what you want to do for a living, I hope this helps you decide. Do not be pressured by dollar signs or requirements and make sure to aspire to jobs that yes make money but will also have you motivated to wake up in the morning. Even if a job seems unrealistic, give it a shot and have a backup plan if it does not work out. Sources Vocovision Bureau of Labor Statistics Payscale Indeed Ziprecruiter BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles News Back to Sections Post 2024 Election Leah Ally Volume 5 Issue 3 January 14, 2025 Image Provided by Elaine Ching With the 2024 Election recently coming to an end, it has been determined that Donald Trump will be the 47th president of the United States. Similar to many past elections, it is no secret that the results have left much of the country divided, especially with those who were in support of Kamala Harris’ campaign. Nonetheless, Trump is prepared to be sworn in and take office for his second term on January 20th, 2025, with J.D. Vance as his vice president. With many expectations and plans for his presidency, United States citizens eagerly anticipate what is next. However, what exactly can the United States expect in the next four years from his presidency? Prior to Trump’s victory, it was expected for much of the United States to make their voice heard by voting. This proved to be mostly accurate as 64% of eligible voters cast their ballots between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris on or prior to November 5th. As usual, the candidate who receives most of the electoral votes, which is at least 270 out of 538, wins the presidency. In this case, Trump received the majority of the popular vote and electoral votes. According to The New York Times , he had a total of 312 electoral votes with 77,095,526 individual votes, which is around 50% of the eligible voting population. In comparison, Kamala Harris received 226 electoral votes with 74,659,711 individual votes, which is approximately 48.3% of the eligible voting population. So, what led to these results? According to U.S. News , there were seven swing states that proved incredibly crucial to the election results, including Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Swing states refer to states that do not vote consistent with either party. In this election, every single swing state voted in favor of Donald Trump. This totaled up to 93 electoral votes, which Kamala Harris would fall short of. In terms of demographics, Trump proved to be more popular among the older group of voters, while younger voters were a 50-50 split. Kamala Harris was prominently supported by young women and minority groups; however, Trump’s favor among young men is what would eventually lead to his victory. Nonetheless, the United States has split opinions on his upcoming presidency. Expectedly, according to Pew Research Center, “Nearly three-quarters of Democrats (73%) say they are “fearful” about the state of the country, while 54% say they feel “angry.” On the other hand, “most Republicans (76%) say they feel hopeful about the state of the country, while nearly half (46%) say they are proud.” While these stats are expected after a competitive campaign, it raises questions on how Trump will unify the country and whether he will be successful in doing so. Now that the details and demographics concerning the 2024 Election have been established, what is Trump’s next step for the country? First, he must be inaugurated on January 20th to officially be sworn in. The Biden Administration has promised that there will be a smooth transition of power to ensure as much efficiency as possible for Trump. But as soon as he gets into office, Trump has plans waiting to be fulfilled. His most popular discussion has been surrounding immigration. It is no secret that he wants to limit people from foreign countries entering the United States, especially illegally. This relates to his focus on ideological screening. Ideological screening refers to the process of evaluating an individual's beliefs and values to determine their suitability for entry into the United States. He hopes ideological screening will help prevent criminal activity by filtering out individuals with anti-American sentiments and stop them from entering the country. Another hot topic of debate has been abortion, which is why many women were in support of Kamala Harris who promised to protect Roe v. Wade . However, Trump’s stance on abortion is not as obvious as Harris’s. Unlike his previous statements about banning abortion, he has now expressed that he believes that the status of Roe v. Wade should be specific to each state, meaning that there is no need for a national law to be made. Instead, he believes it to be a decision that should be made strictly federally. The economy is arguably the most important aspect of a country so how does Trump plan to address it? Well, he has put forth numerous tax and tariff policies that have gained the support of many recently. While he has been criticized for his previous policies only benefiting wealthy, high-class individuals he has since reformed these ideas by including reducing taxes on tips and overtime pay. This ultimately benefits those in the low to middle working class as they can fully enjoy the benefits of the extra money, they receive that is not included in their salary without paying taxes on them. Additionally, Trump has proposed eliminating taxes on Social Security benefits, which would benefit retirees and disabled individuals. Nonetheless, Trump is still ensuring that wealthy business-owning Americans benefit from his tax policies. According to AP NEWS, Trump will reduce the “corporate income tax rate to 15% from the current 21%.” This demonstrates Trump’s efforts to hopefully help all Americans regardless of background or economic status. At the same time, Trump has also expressed his thoughts on foreign trade. His plan includes increasing tariffs on imported goods, which would aim to protect American industries and jobs. Regardless of his seemingly straightforward plans, they are all considered to be controversial because of the possible drawbacks and risks for the economy. For instance, how will other countries react to his tariff policy, and will this increase costs for American consumers? Nonetheless the country awaits to see how his plans work out and whether they will reap benefits for all. With the election officially over it is unclear what is next for Kamala Harris and her political career, nonetheless her time as vice president and throughout her campaign has left a lasting impression on America. As Biden’s term comes to an end and Trump begins his, the transition will prove to be a crucial step for the next 4 years. With that, America awaits their new president, some with hesitancy, and some with a feeling of confidence. Sources: » 2024 General Election Turnout UF Election Lab High voter turnout in the 2024 election benefited Republicans | AP News 7 Swing States That Could Decide the 2024 Presidential Election | America 2024 | U.S. News How 5 Key Demographic Groups Helped Trump Win the 2024 Election | National News | U.S. News Biden and Trump promise smooth transition in White House meeting Presidential Election Results Map: Trump Wins - The New York Times A look at what Donald Trump has proposed for his second term | AP News BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Science & Technology Back to Sections A Scholarly Quest in Statistics By Ala Paruch and Lucy Wu Volume 1 Issue 8 June 8, 2021 Image provided by the Corporate Finance Institute With the rush of submitting the last few assignments and completing in-class finals for the school year, students were distraught and stressed. So rather than take a boring paper final, as per tradition, AP Statistics students were instead sent on a ‘quest’ to design, carry out, and present a research study or experiment of their choice. Researching a Question To begin our little ‘quest,’ we formulated our research question with the limitations of Covid in mind. In past years (aka the “before Covid”), students were permitted to conduct their study by going around the classrooms and asking students questions, or even asking them to taste test different foods. However, this year, we tried to avoid studies structured that way in the interest of time, but primarily in the interest of safety as well (I know, I know, we could have answered the age-old question of Pepsi vs. Coke, but I guess that’s another unknown in this world). As much as that seems like a disadvantage, it gave us a good opportunity to utilize Teams and send everyone their surveys digitally. Equipped with as much determination and motivation as juniors in a pandemic can have (to be fair, it’s dwindling quite quickly…) we are committed to making our project work, regardless of the treacherous obstacles in our way. This also sparked an idea for our research question. Since the start of quarantine, most people have been using technology more to stay connected. We assumed that to pass the time, most people have probably binge watched many TV shows (at least we have). So why not examine exactly that? In the end, we decided to research whether the grade of the student is associated with their favorite TV show. Designing the Experiment (How do we do this?) Once we determined our research inquiry, we had to finalize a few more details to continue our quest. First, we had to establish the explanatory and response variables in the study, or in other words, what causes (explanatory variable) the outcome of our study (response variable). Looking back at the question, we can safely say that the grade level affects the preference in the TV show , and not the other way around, so grade level is the explanatory variable and TV show preference is the response variable. Next, we had to formally establish the parameter of study (what we are studying) and the population of interest (who we are studying). Here we were looking at the favorite TV show (parameter of study) of all students at Valley Stream North from grades 7-12 (population of interest). Seems straight-forward so far, right? Well, let’s get into the nitty-gritty details - the experimental design . We had to establish a random method of collecting our data to fairly sample the population and get a representative sample. To equally represent each grade in our experiment, we chose English as the class we would send the survey to, since all students in the building are required to take English every year (and no, we didn’t want to randomly select from a roster because that would take an EXTREMELY long time to obtain all the names). Next, we established a system of selecting one class period per grade. Thanks to Ms. Small, we obtained a list of all English classes, along with their class period and name of the teacher. We then organized all classes by grade and assigned each class within the grade a number from 1 to n (n being the total number of English classes per grade). This process is also known as cluster sampling . Using the random integer generator function on the Ti-84 CE calculator (your trusty yellow Algebra I calculator), we randomly selected our sample classes, one class from each grade. Each student in each one of the selected classes is part of our sample . Upon choosing our sample, we expanded on the research question and formed a hypothesis, or rather the null and alternative hypotheses (those are fancy statistical words to define no statistically significant change vs. a statistically significant change - and don’t worry, we’ll cover what statistically significant means in a little bit). Collecting Our Data (and now… we wait) As stated before, we wanted to harness the power of Microsoft Forms to obtain our data for easy distribution and even easier analysis with Microsoft Excel (by the way, this article was NOT sponsored by Microsoft in any way, shape, or form). In fact, if you want to take a look, here’s the link to the original Microsoft Forms survey we used: https://forms.office.com/r/km5zdEekpz . We simply asked each student in our sample two questions: their grade level and TV show of preference from the list (we’re not perfect, so we will address this limitation later, but you can take a guess at what we probably should have done in the meantime). Luckily, we obtained 100 responses to the survey. Since it was a voluntary survey, we did not anticipate that all 140 students would fill it out, but we attempted to account for this by picking a slightly larger sample. By the way, shoutout to all of the amazing English teachers who took the time to share the survey with their students! Significance Testing (sounds scarier than it is) In statistics, to obtain “evidence” that something is either statistically significant or not, we can use a fancy math test known as a significance test (literally does what it says: it determines how likely an event is to occur by random chance in comparison to a claim). Since the data that we collected contains two distributions (a mathematical function that shows the possible values for a variable and how often they occur), the grade of a student and the favorite TV show of a student, and we are testing the association between them (NOT CAUSATION), we used a Chi-Square test to perform our calculations (FYI it’s pronounced KAI not CHAI). But alas, it’s never that simple, is it? There are three flavors of the Chi-Square tests: a Chi-Square test for Goodness of Fit , a Chi-Square test for homogeneity , and a Chi-Square test for independence , with each having different thresholds and conditions. Since we are going to have a single sample of data (not two samples) with multiple choices (not a single line of data), this fulfills the conditions to use the Chi-Square Test for independence , where you test whether two distributions are independent from each other as the name suggests. At this stage, we select our alpha value (commonly written as α ), which just sets the level where we conclude that there is either evidence of significance or no evidence of significance. If the p-value (probability value, or how likely something is to occur) generated by our significance test is HIGHER than our alpha, there is no evidence that there is a significant difference, whereas if the p-value is lower than our alpha, there is statistical evidence that there is a significant difference. Since this is a non-life-threatening decision, we used the standard 0.05 threshold for our study. After picking the alpha, there is one more task we must complete to perform the significance test, and that is ensuring that the conditions for the test are satisfied. The conditions for a Chi-Square Test for independence are as follows: The Random Condition , which requires the researchers to obtain a sample randomly or to randomly assign a treatment to a group of volunteers. This checks whether bias occurred in the sampling process and helps eliminate it. The 10% Condition , which uses the formula. 0.1N n (Where n in the sample size and N is the population of interest size). In simpler terms, this means that the sample we pull from the population has to be less than or equal to 10% of the size of the population of interest. The Expected Counts Condition estimates the probability of each cell in a two-way table of a Chi-Square data set considering the null hypothesis is correct. In short, it calculates the estimated probability for each category in theory, which we later compare with real life results. However, this condition requires all values in the data set to be equal or greater than 5. We fully met the random condition and and the 10 percent condition, because we randomly picked the class periods to fill out the survey, and it is safe to assume that there are more than 1000 students (n*10 = 100*10 = 1000) at Valley Stream North High School. On the other hand, the expected counts were not fully satisfied, with a few values below 5; however, we still continued our experiment, but continued it with caution . Analyzing the Data You know the drill now! First, we sorted and tallied the data by TV show preference for each of the grades. We input that table into a matrix in our calculator. Using the X2-Test (Chi-Square test) function on our handy calculators, we generated a p-value for our data. Place your bets now on whether the test was statistically significant or not, and no cheating! Drumroll please… with a p-value of 0.54 which was (drastically) higher than our alpha value of 0.05, the test was not statistically significant! With this rather disappointing result, we fail to reject the null hypothesis that the tests are independent. We did not find sufficient evidence to conclude that there is a significant difference between the two distributions. Why use the confusing wording to formulate our conclusion you may ask? Well, let’s try to understand. The term “ fail to reject ” implies exactly what the second sentence of the conclusion said: we did not find enough evidence (or our p-value was nearly not small enough) to say that the null hypothesis was wrong. However, just because the null hypothesis isn’t incorrect, it doesn’t mean that it is correct and using statements such as “ accept the null hypothesis ” would mathematically be incorrect and just would also just be a statistical faux pas. Discussing our Limitations ( uh-oh …) Sailing was smooth… until it wasn’t. So, we ran into some rough waters at certain stages of the process. When designing the questions, we only realized when it was too late that we should have probably asked the questions in terms of TV show genre rather than specific shows, to decrease the likelihood of a student choosing “other” and inflating that category, compromising the integrity of our study. We were pressed for time, so we had to rely on the integrity of the students (most of whom did very well) to answer the survey. Since this survey was a voluntary response survey, we could not control the nonresponse bias, so anyone who didn’t respond was sadly not part of the study. There was also the risk of the teacher posting the survey for their class not responding. Since we decided to give out the survey digitally, we reached out to the teachers on Teams in hopes that they would be willing to post our survey on the teams for each designated class. With that arose the possibility of them not seeing the message or even humanly reading it and then not responding, besides the usual risk of them saying “no.” Thankfully, that didn’t happen; however, it was significantly harder to ensure we got any responses at all. Lastly, (and perhaps most unfortunately), out of all the shows we anticipated would be popular among students, not a single student picked Jeopardy! as their favorite show to watch. Besides the shame this is, it also posed problems during the data analysis. Finishing with Conclusions (Hooray! We did it.) If you take anything away from this article, please remember: AP Statistics is the best class at Valley Stream North High School (and no, we received no extra points for saying that). We hope you will embark on the same journey we took and challenge your own perception of statistics. Going back to formal conclusions though, as we mentioned earlier, we did not get a statistically significant result, so we can sadly admit that as of now, there is no clear association between a student’s grade level and their favorite TV show. Even though we didn’t get the exact results we were hoping for, there are still a few things we learned from this experience. Firstly, we learned that designing an experiment is more (emotionally) draining than we initially thought. We also learned how to design an experiment that is safe for the public amidst a pandemic. Lastly, we tested the bounds of our friendsh- just kidding, we had a lovely time working with each other! We did spend long phone calls discussing the appropriate Chi-Square test to use, alongside collecting responses from many, many students. Yet because of this quest to design an experiment, our friendship only grew stronger with each statistical obstacle we overcame. But even if things don’t work out (like our expected counts), remember to hold your head up high, triple-check your calculations, and just "keep swimming! BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Polaris Back to Sections Nostalgic for Sentience’s Absence  By William Mullin Volume 2 Issue 2 November 19, 2021 Original photography from William Mullin Remember when you were little? And when you were happy, you laughed And when you were sad, you cried Why don’t you do that anymore? Just because of arbitrary self-restrictions Or other’s expectations, I suppose Remember what it felt like? To be free of self-consciousness Unknown to the crowd Why don’t you think like that anymore? Too aware now and I’m a mess Imbued with “social anxiety” Unfortunate that now you can’t even be free with yourself Simplicity dies, and overwhelming thought takes over Each choice, no matter how small, needs contemplation Each conversation requires active consideration A shame that nothing can be simply what it is A pity that everything will never be how it was I miss it. Both for you and for me. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Sports Back to Sections All County Athletes By Aleeza Dhillon Volume 3 Issue 3 February 24, 2023 Image provided by VSN XC/TF Instagram Listed below are all the All-County winners from North’s Winter Track team: All-County Girls Nattaly Lindo (11th grade) County Champion – Shot Put, County Champion – 20lb Weight Throw Melissa Innocent (12th grade) 2nd place – 3000m, 2nd place – 1500m, 3rd place – 1000m Moanna Thelusca (11th grade) 2nd place – 20lb Weight Throw Sahar Ali (10th grade) 2nd place – 1500m Racewalk Gabriela Mensah (12th grade) 3rd place – Triple Jump Brooke Fessler (11th grade) 3rd place – High Jump Haley Quinlan (9th grade) 3rd place – 1500m Racewalk All-County Boys Joshua Lopez (12th grade) County Champion – Shot Put Kevin Beltran (11th grade) 2nd place – 1000m, 2nd place – 1600m Sedgeley Duperval (11th grade) 2nd place – 300m, 2nd place – Long Jump Ethan Smalls (12th grade) 2nd place – 25lb Weight Throw On February 7th, North’s winter track team competed in the County Championship at St. Anthony’s High School. Boys’ and girls’ teams placed second in the County, with many athletes getting a new personal best! The team was Conference Champions this year, their 15th championship in a row. All-Conference Melissa Innocent (12th grade) Conference Champion – 3000m, 1500m and 1000m Gabriela Mensah (12th grade) Conference Champion – Long Jump and Triple Jump Moanna Thelusca (11th grade) Conference Champion – 20lb Weight Throw, 2nd place – Shot Put Nattaly Lindo (11th grade) Conference Champion – Shot Put, 2nd place – 20lb Weight Throw Charis Hackman (12th grade) Conference Champion – 4x400m Relay, 3rd place – High Jump Sahar Ali (10th grade) Conference Champion – 1500m Racewalk Victoria Singh (10th grade) Conference Champion – 4x400m Relay Kyla Lodge (12th grade) Conference Champion – 4x400m Relay Anaiya Jarrell (11th grade) Conference Champion – 4x400m Relay Brooke Fessler (11th grade) 2nd place – High Jump, 3rd place – Triple Jump Ericka Leus (10th grade) 3rd place – 55m Hurdles Haley Quinlan (9th grade) 3rd place – 1500m Racewalk All the athletes on the team worked their hardest to have an amazing season. The coaches, Mike Frazer and Tim Boyens, are proud of all the improvements and progress their athletes have made. Great job to everyone on the team, and let’s hope for an amazing spring season. BACK TO TOP

Back to Articles Feature Back to Sections My Experience Singing With MYO At Carnegie Hall Manal Layachi Volume 4 Issue 1 November 6, 2023 Image provided by Facebook On May 7th, I performed with my MYO group, the Nassau Senior Treble Choir, at Carnegie Hall. Carnegie Hall was first created in 1891, located on the corner of 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, it is a national historic landmark. All the MYO groups including mine got to perform on this prestigious stage. MYO stands for Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York and was created to foster a community of talented musicians from Long Island by providing them with an opportunity to perform choral and orchestral masterworks at a high level. I have been singing with MYO since 6th grade and it has been an amazing experience. My teacher this year was Mrs. O’Hanlon, a music teacher at Herricks High School, and she is an awesome conductor and mentor. Every Monday, we have rehearsal from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. We performed four songs at the concert at Carnegie Hall: “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by John Rosamond Johnson The first piece that we performed was “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” We did not sing the original version as a previous student of Mrs. O’Hanlon, James Floyd, arranged the song for us. At first, Mrs. O’Hanlon thought is was way too hard! With hard work and a lot of practice, we got the song down and even memorized it. This poem is referred to as “The Black National Anthem” and it was written by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson in 1990. This song has beautiful harmonies and melodies. I loved it! “J’entends Le Moulin”: Composed by Traditional French Canadian. Arranged by: Donald Patriquin. Our second piece was “J’entends Le Moulin” composed by the Traditional French Canadian and arranged by Donald Patriquin. This is a fun French folk song that is like a “game of rhymes”. We had originally sung this song at our last concert at Adelphi, but Mrs. O’Hanlon wanted to give us another try to make it better and try it again at Carnegie. Although this song was tricky, we had a lot of fun singing it and learning the French. “What Happens When a Woman”: Composed by Alexandra Olsavsky Our final piece as a group was “What Happens When a Woman” composed by Alexandra Olsavsky. This song is about the empowerment of woman it was very cool to sing at Carnegie. The sound resonated so beautifully when we performed, it literally gave you goosebumps. We got to do moves with this song which was fun and interactive and there were six amazing soloists. This strong and empowering piece was a great way to end the MYO year. “Walk in Jerusalem” Arranged by Rollo A. Dilworth All the MYO choirs got to sing “Walk in Jerusalem”, and African American Spiritual arranged by Rollo A. Dilworth, as their final piece at Carnegie. Mr. Norris, a director of Choral Music at Glen Cove High School, conducted us. It was a fun and interactive choir church song. It was a cool experience singing with the other choirs. At the end of the concert, we got a standing ovation, and I was filled with pride and joy. Although this was my last MYO concert and I had mixed feelings, I cannot wait to sing at Carnegie Hall with MYO next year. Sources: www.myo.org About Carnegie Hall | Carnegie Hall Lift Every Voice and Sing | NAACP J'entends le moulin | Elektra Women's Choir BACK TO TOP

Back to Artwork Chalk Pastel Peppers Back to Sections Chalk Pastel Peppers- Emily Rung Emily Rung November 6, 2023 Chalk Pastel Volume 4 Issue 1