Friday, October 5, 2018
Vol. 78, No. 40
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SERVING PLAINVIEW, HICKSVILLE, AND LEVITTOWN
NATIONAL MERIT SEMIFINALISTS
Hicksville HS student donates to hospice care network BY GARY SIMEONE
Hicksville High School Principal Raymond Williams (far left) and Chairperson of Guidance Efthymia Rafaelides (far right) congratulate Hicksville’s three National Merit Scholarship semifinalists (center, left to right) Snehadri Das, Catherine Chen and Rohil Agarwal. Photo courtesy of Hicksville Public Schools Three Hicksville High School seniors have been named semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. Congratulations to Rohil Agarwal, Catherine Chen and Snehadri Das. Catherine, Rohil and Sne-
hadri qualified as semifinalists by scoring among the highest in the state on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test last year, ranking among the top 1 percent nationally.
Catherine plans to study microbiology in college, Rohil will study engineering and Snehadri will study math and finance.
Armed robbery in Hicksville
A 22-year-old man was robbed by a pair of men armed with a handgun on Tuesday, September 19th on Roma Street. According to Nassau County Police, at 8:30PM, the victim was confronted by two men who got out of a black Toyota Rav 4. Police say they displayed a hand-
gun and demanded money. They took an undisclosed amount of money from the victim and fled in their vehicle, heading south on Jerusalem Avenue. The victim was not injured. The subjects were described as male blacks wearing blue/red bandanas over their faces, dark
hooded sweatshirts and blue jeans. No further description is available. Detectives request anyone with information regarding this incident to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS. All callers will remain anonymous.
Last year, Anya Marquardt, a senior at Hicksville High School, donated her time and energy to help a Long Island hospice care network. She engineered an art drive in her school to benefit a non-profit organization that helped her overcome a tough time in her life. “My younger sister and I attended bereavement groups a few years ago, when my dad passed away from cancer,” said Marquardt. “My dad had used the hospice services and at the time they were offered to our family, so I wanted to give back to them in some way.” Beginning last April, she worked with school staff to place boxes throughout the high school to collect art supplies and materials. She also placed boxes in the middle school, Fork Lane Elementary School and a local dance studio. The boxes were placed inside the high school’s guidance office, in teacher’s rooms and in all the art rooms. She also spoke about the donation drive to her fellow students and placed fliers all around the school grounds. “I serve as president of the National English Honor Society, Social Studies Honor Society and Art Society, and I’m head of the school newspaper, so I was able to get the word out to a lot of students.” Students ended up donating enough supplies to fill up 15 boxes throughout the school district. Some of the items donated included crayons, markers, paper and glue sticks. She said that most of the supplies would go to kids who are part of one particular hospice network, which is located in Woodbury. They have different age ranges in their groups from eight and under to nine to twelve, so a lot of these supplies would really benefit some of these kids,” said Marquardt. Hicksville High School Principal Raymond Williams said that Anya is one of the school’s most focused and motivated students. “What was the most impressive thing to me was that before she began putting this drive together, she approached me and some of the teachers to convey the importance of this work,” said Williams. “The thing that’s so meaningful is that she is not only doing this as part of the school community, but for the community as a whole.” Marquardt said that she is planning on putting together another donation drive for this school year.
STEM activities strengthen writing skills PAGE 8 Passenger dies in fatal Hicksville crash PAGE 3