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Ward Melville High School

Ward Melville High School valedictorian Elizabeth Wang, second from right, salutatorian Kelsey Ge, second from left, with Maya Pena-Lobel,left, and Megan Specht, right, were named Scholars in the 2019 Regeneron Science Talent Search, a program of the Society for Science and the Public. Photo from Three Village Central School District

One team captain and one integral member of the student-led nonprofit Mission Toothbrush graduated at the top of their class June 30.

Elizabeth Wang and Kelsey Ge are Ward Melville High School Class of 2019’s valedictorian and salutatorian, respectively.

Valedictorian Elizabeth Wang in front of Ward Melville High School. Photo from Three Village Central School District

Elizabeth Wang

Wang, who graduated with a 105.91 grade point average, has attended school in the Three Village Central School District since kindergarten. She attended both Setauket and W.S. Mount elementary schools and P.J. Gelinas Junior High School.

The valedictorian was a member of the girls varsity lacrosse team, and she was the captain of both the varsity field hockey and varsity girls fencing team. Off the playing field, she was president of DECA, editor-in-chief of the school literary magazine Cinnabar, head news editor of the school newspaper Kaleidoscope and confirmation teacher at St. James Lutheran Church.

Wang, who took 12 AP classes in Ward Melville, said the school prepared her well for her future.

“Ward Melville High School offers a variety of different courses, electives and extracurriculars,” she said. “It’s the perfect opportunity to try new things and learn what interests you, what you enjoy and what you may be good at. I think I learned a lot about myself by experimenting with different things at Melville.”

This fall, Wang will be attending Harvard University, where she will major in neuroscience.

“My dream career would be something that combines medical research, patient care and teaching,” Wang said. “I like the analysis in the research setting, the practical application in the clinical setting and the interactive aspect of teaching.”

Salutatorian Kelsey Ge in front of Ward Melville High School. Photo from Three Village Central School District

Kelsey Ge

Ge graduated Ward Melville with a weighted GPA of 105.40. While she started in the Three Village Central School District at Arrowhead Elementary School, in fourth grade, she switched to W.S. Mount elementary for the Intellectually Gifted program. During her high school years, she took on 12 AP classes, two of which were college-level math courses.

She was involved in Model U.N., DECA, the math team and International Cultures Club. Outside of school, she has been the president of Mission Toothbrush since 2017. The student-led nonprofit organization collects hygiene supplies to donate to local charities and shelters. She also teaches an origami class for children at Stony Brook Chinese School.

Like Wang, Ge said she feels her years in the Three Village school district have prepared her for her future endeavors.

“The teachers and staff at Ward Melville are incredibly supportive and work hard to ensure that students are granted every opportunity to succeed, both in and out of the classroom,” she said. “They help students improve not just academically, but also as individuals prepared to face challenges in the future.”

The salutatorian is planning to attend Harvard University. While she hopes to major in economics, she said she is also interested in psychology, statistics and computer science.

The future looks wide open for Ge.

“Although I’m not sure exactly what my dream career looks like, I hope to work together with people with diverse interests,” she said.

By Andrea Paldy

The Harry Potter-themed façade in front of Ward Melville High School proclaimed, “Let the Magic Begin.” And at 11 a.m. on June 30 it did.

Led by valedictorian Elizabeth Wang and salutatorian Kelsey Ge, 546 seniors in green and gold emerged from the high school as students for the last time.

Sunday’s commencement exercises for Three Village’s 50th anniversary class were punctuated by a series of firsts.

William Bernhard, who gave his first commencement address as Ward Melville principal, officially recognized the district’s first graduating class — known as the “forgotten class” because it didn’t graduate on Ward Melville grounds. Bernhard awarded proclamations and honorary diplomas to class of 1969 graduates Joellen Fehrs McNamara, Cathy Haenlein and Elizabeth Toye Aktas.

The class of 2019 also left its mark on the festivities. By bestowing bells for Ward Melville’s iconic clock tower, the graduating class gave a gift that would be “heard loud and clear” and that said, “We were here. We were important,” student government president Lauren Walters said during the presentation. The bells chimed for the first (and second) time during the graduation ceremony, bridging the past, the present and the future.

Bernhard’s wish for the graduating seniors was a touching one. He said that he hopes that after going on to the military or to college and eventually into the workforce that the graduates will someday rejoin the Three Village community and raise their families here.

And when they hear the bells again, Bernhard hopes they’ll say, “That’s Ward Melville High School. That’s where my roots are. That’s where I made my lifelong friends. That’s where I got my wings — ready to soar and succeed in life.”

With a Harry Potter theme, Let the Magic Begin, Ward Melville High School’s senior prom was filled with whimsy June 27.

Students found various decorated rooms in the high school featuring the Hogwarts Express and rooms inspired by the fictional school’s houses: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff.

Before the prom, students rolled up to the school in various vehicles including vintage cars and fire trucks.

Justin Zhang

Justin Zhang, a junior at Ward Melville High School in East Setauket, won first place in the 2019 Model Bridge Building Contest at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton.

In this annual regional competition, coordinated by BNL’s Office of Educational Programs, high school students across Long Island design, construct and test model bridges made of basswood that are intended to be simplified versions of real-world bridges. Participants must apply physics and engineering principles to meet a stringent set of specifications. Their bridges are judged based on efficiency, which is calculated using the weight of the bridge and the amount of weight it can support before breaking or bending more than one inch. A separate award is given to the student with the most aesthetic design.

For this year’s competition, 132 students from 15 high schools registered bridges. Fifty-two students representing nine schools qualified. An awards ceremony to honor the winners was held at BNL on March 15.

Zhang, whose bridge weighed 12.75 grams and had an efficiency of 2819.03, was unable to attend the ceremony because he was participating in the New York State Science Olympiad. Zhang’s father accepted the award on his behalf.

“I had built bridges, towers, and, more recently, boomilevers (kind of like the arm at the end of a crane) as a participant on my school’s Science Olympiad team and I really love civil engineering,” said Zhang. 

“So, the Bridge Building Contest perfectly fit both my past experience and interests. Through the competition, I was able to improve upon the ideas that I had developed in years prior working on engineering challenges and apply some new things that I had learned. It was particularly challenging for me to adjust to all the specific rules involved in the construction process,” he explained.

Gary Nepravishta, a freshman at Division Avenue High School in Levittown, took second place with his bridge weighing 18.2 grams and having an efficiency of 1949.45.

With a mass of 13.88 grams and efficiency of 1598.68, the bridge built by senior William Musumeci of Smithtown High School East won third place. “I built one bridge and tested it to see where it broke, and then I used a computer-aided design program to make a stronger bridge.” said Musumeci, who will be attending Farmingdale University to study construction engineering.

Sophomore Benjamin Farina of John Glenn High School in Elwood won the aesthetic award for best-looking bridge.

An honorary award was given to retired BNL engineer Marty Woodle, who was recognized for his 40 years of service as a volunteer for the competition. 

“If you become an engineer, you are not necessarily trapped into one little aspect of science,” said Woodle. “The world is open to you to do some really fascinating work.”

Zhang’s and Nepravishta’s bridges have been entered into the 2019 International Bridge Building Contest, to be held in Baltimore, Maryland, in early April. For more information, visit www.science.energy.gov.

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By Bill Landon

The Sachem North boys lacrosse team retied the game at 4 to 4 late in the third quarter but the Ward Melville Patriots shut the door in the final 12 minutes, scoring four goals to put the game away, 8-5, at home April 5.

Ward Melville remains unbeaten, and the win put the Patriots atop the Division I leader-board at 6-0 as of April 5. The loss dropped the Flaming Arrows to 4-2.

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By Bill Landon

Ward Melville boys basketball lost a heartbreaker in the final seconds of a League I matchup against Central Islip on the road Jan. 4 despite leading by nine points earlier in the game. The Musketeers battled their way back to tie the game at 66 when Central Islip junior guard Ty-Shon Pannell drained a 3-pointer from well beyond the arc with 2.1 seconds left in regulation.

The Patriots in-bounded the ball and took the Hail Mary shot without success, dropping the league game, 69-66.

Robert Soto led the way for the Patriots with three field goals, a trey and nine free throws for 18 points. Ray Grabowski followed with two triples, two field goals and four points from the charity stripe netting 14 points.

By Bill Landon

Ward Melville squared off against the Newfield Wolverines out on the strip Dec. 8 in a three-way bout with Brentwood. The Patriots had their hands full with a surging Newfield squad but edged the Wolverines 16-11 to remain unbeaten 3-0 in Suffolk League II.

The Patriots are back out on the strip Dec. 13 where they’ll host Centereach starting at 5 p.m. at Ward Melville High School. The Patriots and Wolverines will also compete in a holiday tournament invitational Dec. 15 at Brentwood High School. First bout scheduled for 9 a.m.

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Suffolk County high school golf champions Palmer Van Tuyl, Gavin Girard, Alex Korkuc, Andrew Petraco, Nick Stoecker, Mike Petraco and coach Bob Spira. Photo from Bob Spira

The Ward Melville High School golf team closed the season with a feeling that could probably be compared to a hole in one.

The team walked off the Rock Hill Golf Course in first place after the Suffolk County high school golf championships Oct. 31. In addition to the team win, senior Alexander Korkuc finished third in the individual tournament with a score of 154. The team will go on to the Long Island championship, and Korkuc qualified for the state tournament. Both will take place in the spring.

“I told them right from the beginning, ‘You guys have the talent.'”

— Bob Spira

Bob Spira, who has coached the team for some 12 years, said the golfers are looking forward to the Long Island championship. The last time the Patriots took the title was in 2016.

“This year we’re back on the map again, so it’s really nice to be back on top,” Spira said.

The coach said the six team members work well together, and he considers all top players. He said they worked hard this season and didn’t hesitate to keep practicing shots that they missed in a match, even if it meant hitting 200 balls.

“I told them right from the beginning, ‘You guys have the talent,’” the coach said. “‘It’s just putting in the time and just everything working out. Even the best golfers can have a bad round. So, don’t let it get in your head, keep moving forward.’”

Korkuc said he wouldn’t want any other coach than Spira.

“He’s a great coach,” he said. “He’s been there for me four years, and he’s always told me to keep working and it will eventually work out.”

Ward Melville junior, Palmer Van Tuyl, said he’s been playing with the team since eighth grade, and he has witnessed how the team and he have grown as players. A highlight for him this year was successfully shooting two rounds under par in matches.

“That was really big in my development to know I have the ability to have really good scores in addition to solid play all season long,” Van Tuyl said.

He said his teammates who, in addition to Korkuc and himself, include eighth-graders Gavin Girard and Nick Stoecker with eleventh-grader Andrew Petraco and ninth-grader Mike Petraco, are strong players. Van Tuyl said having skilled younger players is important for the future of team.

“To have that much depth that early is, I think, a big key to our strength.”

— Palmer Van Tuyl

“To have that much depth that early is, I think, a big key to our strength,” he said.

When it came to the team win after the Suffolk County championship and Korkuc’s qualification, Van Tuyl said it made him forget his disappointment coming in 11th place on the second day.

“The self-pity or the self-sadness was completely overshadowed by the great feeling I had for the team, and the happiness I had for my friend,” he said.

Korkuc and Van Tuyl said their teammates are like a second family. Korkuc, who hopes to take a year off from college to attend a golf academy next academic year, has advice for his fellow teammates.

“Keep working hard and everything will fall in place like it did for me,” he said.

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By Bill Landon

The Patriots drew with eight points late in the game but dropped their season opener 61-50 against visiting Bay Shore Nov. 30.

Robert Soto led his team in scoring netting 15 points along with a pair of treys. Ray Grabowski followed with 12 points, and Chris Foglia banked seven.

Ward Melville will be back in action Dec. 3 where they’ll host Centereach in another nonleague contest in a Coaches vs. Cancer matchup at home. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:15 pm.

Residents of the Three Village Central School District rooted the Patriots on to a homecoming win against Walt Whitman High School Oct. 6.

The Patriots varsity football team beat the Walt Whitman High School Wildcats 32-10. Ward Melville now ranks 5-0 in the league, which is the first time since 1974.

Before the big game, students and families enjoyed a parade and carnival where attendees participated in games, crafts and listened to live music.

The Patriots will travel to William Floyd Oct. 13 and Longwood High School Oct. 20. Their next home game is Oct. 26 at 6:30 p.m.