Hempstead Student-Athlete Wins Big With Northwell Scholarship Award

HEMPSTEAD, NY. — A Hempstead Tiger earned a bit more than her stripes this month, as Hempstead High School junior Riley Belle was awarded a $2,500 scholarship from Northwell Health’s Center for Advancing Health during the annual Northwell Health Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial event.

Belle is a student in the Medical Scholars Pipeline Program at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell, a summer program that gives students from across Long Island the opportunity to learn about the healthcare field and see what a career in the field could look like. Administrators who worked with her both at Hempstead High School and at the Zucker School noted that she was a standout student, and this month her efforts were recognized with an award.

“The week before, I was stressing, I was like how is this and this and this going to work out? And it appeared at the right time,” Belle told Patch. “I remember the day [I found out], I was literally in class, and I was in AP Seminar. I was looking at my laptop, looking at my email and I saw Ms. Granger sent it. And I was looking around, my friends are around me, they don’t notice but I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh.’”

Ms. Granger, in this case, is Gina Granger, head of the pipeline program. From Granger’s point of view, Belle was a standout student from the moment she arrived last summer to her first round of summer coursework.

“She always got to school early, and when she got there, she was always reading a book, which we thought was pretty terrific,” Granger said. “So she had a strong performance in class, she would always ask how she could help with the program, ask for feedback or other opportunities that were available. She was delightful. And, also, we have maybe 18 students coming from eight or nine different schools, but she really had a knack for bringing everybody together.”

Once she found out she had won the scholarship award, Belle told a couple of her teachers, who passed the word onto school administrators. Telling her parents, however, was something she waited to do until she got home.

“I waited until I got home, because I wanted to see their reactions,” Belle said. “And when I got home, I put it on the tv. I screen mirrored the email from the phone to the tv. My mom was very happy, but I think for her there was a sense of, ‘Ok, I’m doing a good job.’ Like, ‘I did a little something.’”

When asked about the award and how it feels, Riley’s mother, Delicia, said it was an honor.

“As a parent, it is an honor to my child’s dedication, and her academic efforts being acknowledged for this scholarship,” Delicia said. “For now, we’re going to try to put it safely. When the time comes, and she decides what she's going to do, Im pretty sure we're going to use it 100% towards academics.”

“I’m not seeing that money for a really long time,” Riley joked.

The high school junior did say that she has some idea of what her future looks like. Ideally, it includes continuing to run track in college; she hopes to receive a division one offer letter by September. As for her career beyond college? She has that figured out, too.

“I am looking towards going into medical malpractice [law], because I love law and I love medicine, and that’s right in between those,” Belle said. “So I’m very pumped for that. I’ve always been very passionate about law, but I love helping people at the same time, so that’s the perfect mix.”

The high school junior has already started logging hours in the legal field, taking on part-time work at Sherwood and Truitt, LLP. To the people who know her around school, though, it’s an important recognition of a deserving, talented student.

“It's a special honor to not just Riley, but for her colleagues and the students, seeing that someone from Hempstead can achieve this great scholarship and be in this program, and promotes that for the younger students, the ninth and 10th graders, that if you’re a scholar athlete and you focus, that these great opportunities can open up doors for them,” Assistant Superintendent James Clark said. “And it also allows our students to understand that they’re evening the playing field. So when they look at one of their peers like Riley, they can say, ‘I can do this, if I'm committed.’ And there's people in the universities that are looking at Hempstead as an outstanding academic facility…this is the praise that lets our students know that we're moving in the right direction, and it also lets parents our community know that Hempstead students are being promoted and they can do anything, just like the other 56 school districts.”

The eleventh-grader’s accomplishments don’t end in the classroom, either. She’s a member of the girls’ 4x400 meter relay team that won a Section VIII conference I championship last week, combining running a 4:13 mile in the championship meet. Belle was quick to point out that 4:13 isn’t the unit’s best — they’ve run a 4:10 mile before, and their goal is to break 4 minutes before the outdoor track season begins — but said the team was proud of their accomplishments. As an individual, she also placed third in the conference in the 600-meter run.

While she’s multi-talented, Belle said the honor from the Zucker School felt like recognition. Not only of her talent, but of the work she has put in.

“That felt really great,” Belle said. “I felt really happy, but I also felt a sense of honor, because I felt that my achievements and my efforts, and my strive that I’ve been doing was noticed.”