John Jay High School

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Scholar Athlete Teams

Five of John Jay High School’s athletic teams have qualified for the New York State Public High School Athletic Association’s (NYSPHSAA) Winter Scholar/Athlete Team Award. NYSPHSAA bestows this honor upon varsity teams with a combined GPA of 90% or better at the end of each sports season. Congratulations to the following teams: Women’s Baseketball, Men’s Basketball, Varsity Ice Hockey, Men’s Swim & Dive, and Men & Women’s Ski. The student athletes are listed as follows:

Women's Basketball Sydney Glenn Raegan     Knox Courtney Knox Sarah Lang Lauren    Murray Molly Newcomb Jen Oddo Sarah Secret Delaney Spencer Paige Treyz Men's Basketball Justin Andrews Matt Bernstein Zach Feldman Matt Ferentini Brad Goldman Will Jahn Joe Kells Nick Kiger Scott Owen Alec Shearer

Varsity Ice Hockey Thomas Blaney Frazier Bostwick Jack Grimm Matt Lanza Mark Leprine Anthony Manno Dylan McMichael Jeremy Morowitz Tyler Posadas Vincent Riocci Anthony Scapperotti Shawn    Smith John Tobin Patrick    White Men's Swim & Dive David Batten Charlie Carr (BHS) Max Delin Daniel Fulop Liam Hackett Sam Johnson Matt Kaufman Gregory Markert Tad McKoan Jamieson Ring

Benjamin Smith Mark Stein (BHS) Niki Tchobanov (BHS) Brian Valedon (BHS) Men & Women’s Ski Dakota     Adamec Reid Balkind Bear Carlson Helen Eifert Jane Eifert Seth Feder Amanda Ko Phil Levens Andrew Marderstein Addie Midgen Cameron Moss Andrew Stan Brett Sweeney Renee Wallace Sarah Wallace Sam Wolfson Laura Zuk Sarah Zuk

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Science Olympiad Regional Results

John Jay High School’s Science Olympiad team placed 4th in the Lower Hudson Valley Regional competition held at Byram Hills High School on Saturday, February 11, 2012.  John Jay has qualified for the New York State competition for the 27th time in the 28 year history of the event. Medals were earned in 11 of the 18 team scored events, in first to sixth places, as follows:

Seniors:
Matthew Kaufman, 4th place in Chemistry Lab and in Water Quality
Stephanie Riocci, 4th place in Optics
Irina Silver-Frankel, 6th place in Tower
Brennan Spellacy, 4th place in Chemistry Lab and in Water Quality
Matt and Brennan also came in 7th in Thermodynamics

Juniors:
Matthew Herman, 4th place in Write It Do It
Alexander Lee, 3rd place in Forensics
Elijah Lee, 2nd place in Geological Mapping, 4th place in Write It Do It
Jackson Ruzzo, 4th place in Optics, 6th place in Protein Modeling
Timothy Song, 6th place in Protein Modeling
Matt and Alex also came in 7th in Robot Arm

Sophomores:
Defne Arslan, 1st place in Helicopter, 6th place in Magnetic Levitation, 5th place in Remote Sensing
Karen Giraldo, 3rd place in Forensics, 6th place in Tower
Isaac Silver-Frankel, 2nd place in Geological Mapping, 6th place in Magnetic Levitation, 5th place in Remote Sensing
Sebastian Singh: 1st place in Helicopter

Freshmen William Greene and Jacqueline Ricca came in 7th in Rocks and Minerals

Team Co-advisors: Dr. Linda Rachele Burke, Mrs. Amy Shimberg

Building Event Coaches: Mr. Matthew Funnel, Ms. Jennifer McLean

Academic Event Coaches: Dr. Burke, Mrs. Shimberg, Ms. Emilia Camporese, Ms. Michela Gilarde-Green, Mrs. Ann Marie Lipinsky, Mrs. Anna Stathis, Mrs. Caroline Weldon

A team:
Seniors: Mathew Kaufman, Stephanie Riocci, Irina Silver-Frankel, Brennan Spellacy
Juniors: Matthew Herman, Alexander Lee, Elijah Lee, Jackson Russo, Timothy Song                   
Sophomores: Defne Arslan, Karen Giraldo, Isaac Silver-Frankel, Sebastian Singh

B team:
Sophomores:  Stephanie Cajigas, Judith Figueroa, Victoria Giordano, Madeline Strohmeyer
Freshmen:  Katherine Clyde, William Greene, Jonathan Reich, Jacqueline Ricca, Cal Ritterhoff                    

       

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Science and Humanities Symposium at John Jay High School

John Jay High School hosted the Westchester-Rockland Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (WR-JSHS) on Saturday February 4th. Over 400 students from Westchester and Rockland Counties, including five from John Jay, competed and were judged by professionals from universities and industries in the region. WR-JSHS is divided into a speaker competition and a poster competition.

The event, organized by John Jay High School science teacher Ann Marie Lipinsky and a committee of teachers from around Westchester, featured 13 speaker rooms, each with 10 or 11 speakers. The top two speakers in each group will move on to compete in Albany at the Upstate NY JSHS competition where the 3rd and 4th place winners will have the opportunity to be poster presenters.

Four John Jay High School seniors participated in the speaker competition and earned excellent results. Stephanie Riocci placed second in Medicine and Health I, and will continue to Albany. Mina Shah placed third in Medicine and Health IV, Logan Carbaugh placed third in Medicine and Health II and Michael Yablon placed 4th in Genetics. Mina, Logan and Mike will go on to present posters in Albany. In the poster competition, Eli Lee, a John Jay High School junior, won third place in the Biology category.
 
Stephanie's project, "The Optimization of a Reverse Transfection Protocol, and Subsequent Development of a Novel Response Element Reporter Array," involved building a tool that can be used to screen for proteins involved in angiogenesis that could be targets for anti-cancer drugs and her reporter array is currently being used in the lab where she worked. Mina's project, "Assessing the Effects of Mesenchymal Stem Cells on Endothelial Retraction via Paracrine and Cell-Cell Interactions," examined the way the stem cells can move through tissues to the site of injury for repairing the damaged tissues. It is an important step in regenerative tissue therapy involving adult stem cells. Logan developed the idea for his project, "The Effects of DSCR1 in Suppressing Angiogenesis in Pancreatic Cancer," after learning that individuals with Downs Syndrome rarely get solid tumor cancer. He studied the gene region DSCR1 and the proteins produced by that region to show that they do decrease the growth of tumors. Michael’s paper, "The Effect of DNA Methylation on DNA Damage and Mutagenesis from DNA-Acrolein Adducts," revealed a possible explanation for the differences in people's susceptibility to lung cancer. Eli is studying Hydra. His project, "HYP63: finding p53-family Homologs in Hydra Polyps," examines the lack of cancer in the hydra by looking for a tumor suppressor gene related to the p53 gene in humans.

Congratulations to Stephanie, Mina, Logan, Michael, and Eli on their accomplishments.

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Art Department Information

Several John Jay High school students were recognized in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards. Five students received Honorable Mentions for their artwork and writing (Elizabeth Brady, Hannah Corrie, Janice Choi, Silvia Gristede and Ellie Martino). Three Silver Keys were awarded to Janice Choi for her artwork. Work awarded with a Gold Key designation is entered into the national competition- Janice Choi received 3 Gold Keys and Silvia Gristede, Jessica Stewart and Jonathan Tang all received one. Congratulations to our young artists and writers!

Three John Jay High School artists were chosen to exhibit their drawings at Concordia College Regional High Schools Exhibition at Osilas Gallery. These students are Elise Cole, Laura Zuk and Ellie Martino.

Wednesday, February 8th is the opening reception for the Pace University Small Works Exhibit which runs from February 3rd to March 22nd at the Choate House Gallery. This exhibit showcases artwork from high schools all over Westchester County. Hannah Casill, Samara Petigrow, Kelsey Nusbaum, Joe Meltz, Silvia Gristede, Julia Zuckerberg, Jenna Beobide and Julia Dingee are the artists who were selected for this year’s exhibit.

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Lewisboro Land Trust Photography Show

The following students will be participating in the Lewisboro Land Trust Photography Show "There's No Place Like Home" at the Katonah Village Library. The opening reception is on Feb. 11 from 4-8 pm. Exhibition/sale hours are from Feb 13-25. The judge is Neil Watson, Executive Director of the Katonah Museum of Art.

Christoph Sawyer
Anita Celaj
Lauren Miro
Mackenzie Jones
Meredith Salton
Stephanie Cajigas
Chris Beckett
Jessica Stewart