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Vol. 24 No. 51
DECEMBER 16 - 22, 2021
Central art teacher is top educator said, give her the chance to work with different kinds of students. “Creative Suite is an amazing Last month, Lisa Federici, an class that allows kids to be creart teacher at Wellington C. ative, but not while being a tradiMepham High School in Bell- tional art student,” she said. “It’s more, was named the 2021 such a fun class — it brings kids Regional Art Educator of the in from every walk of life.” Year by the New York State Art Federici also teaches five levTeachers Association. She won els of sculpture, with Levels 1 t h e aw a rd fo r and 3 running in Region 9 in New the fall, and LevYork, which is els 2 and 4 in the Nassau County. spring. The Level A teacher for 14 5 class is more of years, Federici an independent told the Herald program, she she was “very explained, usually lucky” to have attracting only a spent her entire handful of stucareer thus far in dents if it runs. the Bellmore-Mer“It’s such an rick Central High amazing experiSchool District. ence to teach an Having started at art class,” she lisA FEDERiCi John F. Kennedy said. “Even for High School, she kids who are just later taught at Merrick Avenue doing it for a graduation requireMiddle School before moving to ment, seeing them engaged is Mepham, where she has been for just exactly why I’m a teacher — the past five years. the art is just an added bonus.” Federici, who is originally There is a nomination profrom Farmingdale and now lives cess for the Art Educator award, in Suffolk County, teaches Studio and a friend of Federici’s, a Art, an introductory class, and teacher in Rockville Center, let Creative Suite, Bellmore-Mer- her know that she had sent in a rick’s digital art program. The markedly different classes, she Continued on page 15
By JoRDAN VAlloNE jvallone@liherald.com
Courtesy Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District
YiANNA FouFAs AND Talia Robles, both sophomores at Wellington C. Mepham High School in Bellmore, competed in an all-girls wrestling tournament in Copiague.
Mepham High wrestlers are ‘Queens of the Mat’ By JoRDAN VAlloNE jvallone@liherald.com
Earlier this month, two Wellington C. Mepham High School students competed in an all-girls wrestling tournament dubbed “Queen of the Mat” in Copiague. Yianna Foufas and Talia Robles were the first students in Mepham’s history to take part in a girls-only tournament. Foufas, 15, of Bellmore, told the Herald that before she started wrestling, she wasn’t
interested in sports. “In early elementary school, I sucked at all sports,” she recounted. “I was always the kid that got picked last — I did not want to be in sports at all.” Deciding to change, she said, “During recess, I started working out. I was running around the playground, doing pull-ups on the monkey bars.” An avid artist with an interest in fashion design, Foufas joked that her outside interests were “very different from wrestling.”
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Toward the end of elementary school, she started to learn Brazilian jiu-jitsu and strength training. “I said to myself, ‘Hey, I’m pretty strong for a girl,’” Foufas said. “I went from the kid who sucked at all sports to the girl wrestler.” She has also competed in track and cross-country at Bellmore-Merrick. Robles, who’s also 15 and also from Bellmore, is an animal lover and a rescue volunContinued on page 12