By Bob Harris
With the ending of the 2012-13 school year, it is time to recount some of the good things going on in our Queens high schools.
John Adams High School has a flourishing robotics club called the Spartans. For eight years they have been building robots to take part in the nationwide First Robotics Competition. As part of their mission, they are now mentoring the robotics team at William Cullen Bryant HS.
Hillcrest HS has two of its nine institutes devoted to science. It has a pre-med institute and a health careers institute. The career institute just sent a large contingent to the regional HOSA competition in Syracuse, N.Y., where students won awards for CPR, first aid, EMT, medical math, nutrition and human growth and development.
John Adams HS also has a new New York University-sponsored neuroscience program. The only Queens school which had a semi-finalist is the Siemens National Science Competition was St. Francis Prep.
The Math, Science Research & Technology HS in Cambria Heights has a science program which does DNA research and also has a spring science fair. Three students each won a $10,000 presidential scholarship per semester from Long Island University to study nursing.
The National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering and AT&T is giving $50,000 to the Construction Trades Engineering and Architecture HS to promote high-tech skills among minority students. The grant will provide equipment and other classroom materials.
Students in Richmond Hill HS’s Health Careers Pathway recently had a tour of North-Shore Long Island Jewish hospital and visited the new emergency center. Students in Business Pathway secured internships in various businesses and the Virtual Enterprise program teaches them how to operate a virtual or make-believe business and sell at a virtual trade fair. The boys’ and girls’ tennis teams took part in the Autism Speaks walk in Citi Field as part of the school’s community volunteer activities.
Members of the Key Club at Forest Hills HS held a three-week project during which they cut fruit at an Edible Arrangements store to prepare more than 950 fruit salads for City Harvest, which feeds the needy throughout the city. Stefania Lessen and Halle Fitzgerald, of Forest Hills HS, represented New York state at the national finals of the We the People competition in Washington, D.C., where they had to give speeches and answer questions about the government.
The Francis Lewis HS unarmed drill team has earned an almost perfect score at the 31st annual National High School Drill Team Championships in Daytona Beach, Fla. Lewis has a large and active Junior ROTC program. The team puts in 26 hours of practice a week.
Students from Townsend Harris HS were winners of the New York City Metropolitan Regional Science Olympiad. This is the school’s third victory since it started competing in the event.
The Business, Computer Applications & Entrepreneurship HS designated Malachi Nelson as valedictorian, the Humanities and the Arts HS named Shantell Andrews its valedictorian and the Law, Government & Community Service HS chose John De Filippo as valedictorian.
BAD NEWS OF THE WEEK: There are proposals to take land from Flushing Meadows Corona Park and give it to the United States Tennis Association, another group wants to build a big soccer stadium and the New York Mets want to use parkland, formerly given to the Mets for a parking lot, to build a large shopping mall.
In addition, the city is taking land from the businesses in Willets Point so private investors can build commercial property of all kinds. This is a tremendous amount of building in an area with limited transportation and roads and a sad loss of parkland.
