Board Of Education (BOE) member Scott Nelson presented awards and certificates to 15 Roselle Park High School (RPHS) students during the June 14 BOE meeting.
Utkarsh ‘Sonny’ Patel, Dhruv Shah, Dip Parikh, and Subham Singh were the first to be recognized for helping a resident with issues she had in her house over Memorial Day weekend. RPHS principal Sarah Costa, who was in the audience at the meeting, came forward and spoke a few words on the young men before bringing them up for their certificates.
Another student, Katherine Mota, who was not able to be present, was presented with an award for her excellence in French.
Diana Carolina Muñoz, an advocate for the millions of undocumented students in America, was also honored. The RPHS student has spoken on this issue at Felician College, Princeton University where she served as a symposium moderator, Rutgers University, as well as other schools in New Jersey.
“Carolina has touched an untold number of lives,” said Raymond Bangs, the RPHS teacher who introduced Ms. Muñoz, before presenting her with the award, “For this, we recognize with great respect the efforts Ms. Muñoz has exerted in educating others on this societal issue.”
Mr. Bangs then presented the next awards to what he called ‘The Magnificent Nine” – Aaron Berkowitz, Kwasi Bowman, Lauren Corigliano, Abby Daitol, Jonathan Granger, Sejal Jain, Maria Makil, Sam Nadasky, and Gulshandeep Nandha. Although Aaron, Abby, and Lauren were not present due to conflicts in schedule, Mr. Bangs listed the accomplishments of the ‘9’ along with their upcoming college endeavors.
- Aaron Berkowitz will be attending Rutgers to study Physics.
- Sejal Jain will be going to a special Adelphi University/New York University Dental School Program to prepare for a career in dentistry.
- Sam Nadansky was accepted to Stevens Institute of Technology to study Chemistry/Chemical Engineering.
- Abby Daitol will prepare for a career in Biomedical Engineering at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).
- Kwasi Bowman was accepted to Johns Hopkins University where he will pursue the study of Neuroscience.
- Gulshandeep Nandha will be attending Rutgers University where she plans to major in Chemistry; then attend Pharmacy school.
- Maria Makil will attend Seton Hall University in preparation as a Physician Assistant.
- Jonathan Granger, who will also attend Johns Hopkins University to study Oncology, took the SAT II exam in Chemistry and scored a perfect 800.
- Lauren Corigliano will study at Wheaton College to pursue a degree in Biochemistry. In addition to breaking the school’s record for the total number of goals set in a career, Ms. Corigliano arranged for the donation of laptop computers to the RPHS AP (Advanced Placement) Chemistry Program.
“I wish each of these marvelous students much success on the next step of their journey. I am confident that we have prepared them well,” Mr. Bangs stated.
The high school teacher also extolled the achievements of a former RPHS student who was also in the audience. Bobby Repousis, who graduated high school in 2000, has earned a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Chemistry and is currently completing his Master’s degree in Chemical Engineering at NJIT. Mr. Repousis had also presented Mr. Bangs an interface which would improve the capabilities of graphing calculators.
“Today, with the generosity of the Corigliano family’s donation of laptops, coupled with additional interfaces like this original one we have purchased via our recycling efforts,” Mr. Bangs concluded, “Our AP Chemistry lab now rivals many college chemistry labs. The special recognition this evening will certainly serve as a strong incentive to achieve success for my future AP Chemistry students.”
