Eleven Ossining High School Science Research Students Heading to State Finals

For the 11th year in a row, Ossining Science Research students will make up the largest number of New York State finalists competing at the annual New York State Junior Science Humanities Symposium.

The Class of 2015 will be sending a new record of nine students to compete at the State level in the speaker competition, and two in the poster competition. This year’s total of 11 students is the largest among all schools that annually compete to place students at the New York State Junior Science Humanities Symposium, which will be held in Albany in March.

On Feb. 7 at John Jay High School, more than150 students from 31 high schools competed for 26 spots from the Westchester and Rockland region and those 26 finalists will showcase their research findings at the State finals. Students’ research was evaluated by professional researchers who are specialists in fields ranging from theoretical physics to behavioral science.

OHS students chosen to present in the speaker competition are Tess Halpern, Chris Gallego, Rebecca Hannan, David Leibert, Ari Kanevsky, Elizabeth Keeley, Juliet Ivanov, Stephanie Becker, and Charles Gulian. Students Herc De Guzman and Adam Krupinski were also invited to present their research in poster format.

Angelo Piccirillo and Valerie Holmes, who co-teach the Ossining High School Science Research program, said the consistent success of the Ossining Science research students is the result of collaboration that exists among teachers, mentors and staff at OHS, along with parental support.

“You take that and add the most important ingredient, which is superior students, and you have a winning formula,” said Mr. Piccirillo. “Our philosophy is simply to nourish an environment that puts all our students in the best position possible to succeed, and then it is up to them to take advantage of the opportunity.”