_________________ bellmore ________________
HERALD Time to fall back
Bellmore meets its candidates
Students love their fluffy friends
Daylight Saving Time ends on Sunday
Remember to set your clocks back, and change your smoke and CO detector batteries
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NoVEMBER 3 - 9, 2022
Let’s talk about hair and makeup Bellmore-Merrick’s student salon is upgraded to state-of-the-art By JoRDAN VAlloNE jvallone@liherald.com
Courtesy Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District
ThE BEllMoRE-MERRick cENTRAl High School District’s cosmetology program celebrated the grand opening of its new salon suite last month, the centerpiece of its cosmetology program. Vanessa Monteleone styled her sister Ashlee’s hair.
The Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District’s cosmetology program, housed at Sanford H. Calhoun High School in Merrick, recently got some upgrades. Over the summer, the suite its students use to learn everything beauty related was completely redone, and last month the district celebrated the grand opening of its new, state-of-the-art salon. The salon, dubbed Salon Belle Mer, received a number of updates, including new, por-
celain shampoo stations, 20 salon work stations with LED lighting, and ventilated manicure tables. Mark Melkonian, the assistant principal at Calhoun and the cosmetolog y prog ram director, said the salon space was closed over the summer, and renovated in time for the start of the school year. The revitalization process took about four years of planning, he added, so the district could recruit more students for the program and ensure that the renovations would be worthContinued on page 9
Twins tackle Advanced Science Research at Kennedy High By JoRDAN VAlloNE jvallone@liherald.com
S
arina and Sameer Khan both know what it’s like to have a lot on their plates. The 17-year-old twins from Merrick are involved in many clubs and activities at John F. Kennedy High School in Bellmore, and have different paths they hope to follow after graduation. But they do have one thing in common: Both are students in the school’s Advanced Science Research program, and are in the midst of finalizing their projects, readying them for submission to the Society for Science
Talent Search Competition, sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Regeneron. Taking part in ASR is no easy feat, the program’s teacher, Barbi Frank, explained to the Herald earlier this year. Kennedy students apply to it as freshman, and applications are based on essays, grades and teacher recommendations. Sarina and Sameer said that as their deadline approaches, nearly any free time they have at school is dedicated to completing their applications — but despite all the hard work and grit it takes to make it through ASR, neither would change their experience in any way.
Sarina’s project
Sarina settled on her project, “The Impact of Psychological Stressors on Immigrants’ WellBeing,” after bouncing back and forth among several possibilities. “I started off with sociology and I’m ending with sociology, but during my sophomore year, I was going through doing research in chemistry,” she said, “and I ended up sticking with immigration psychology. “It’s a lot of trial and error — you send a lot of emails out to mentors, potential mentors, and you have to work around their schedule, along with your own, to make ends meet with your
research.” Sarina was motivated to study the topic based on her father’s immigration struggles, which her family experienced as well in her youth. The family was forced to move to Guyana, and later England for three years. “It was an unfortunate opportunity for my family, because it allowed us to see the world from
different perspectives,” she said, “and also understand how the current political climate associated with immigration is truly detrimental to those affected.” Working with her mentor, Dr. Wahiba Abu-Ras, a professor at Adelphi University — who had her own immigration challenges — Sarina administered a survey Continued on page 4