Harvard Club Of Long Island Honors Syosset High School Teachers

From the Syosset Central School District:

February 26 2020

Four Syosset High School teachers have been recognized by the Harvard Club of Long Island (HCLI) as part of their annual Distinguished Teacher Program which honors outstanding Long Island teachers. Veronica Ade, Kimberly Dwyer and Richard Sleslinski have each been named “Distinguished Teacher” and Marcy Eager is being honored as a “Distinguished Teacher 2020.”

Every year since the program’s inception in 2005, current Harvard undergraduates from Long Island have nominated the secondary-level teachers who have made the greatest difference in their lives.

In nominating Ade, the Research Program Facilitator at the high school for the past eight years, a former Syosset High School student described her as “Not only remarkable for all of the accolades she has brought to Syosset’s research program, but her for her outstanding attention to detail and understanding of students.” Ade, who holds two Master’s degrees (one in Education and one in Biology) has had her own research in ocean acidification published in Frontier Science: Ecology and Evolution.

Dwyer has been at Syosset High School since 2006 where she teaches ENL Math, Geometry and AP Calculus, and has coached the Mathletes since 2010. Recently named a NYS Master Teacher, Dwyer has served as an adjunct professor at LIU Post teaching calculus and is currently the Treasurer for the New York State Mathematics League. Her nominator credits her with teaching them “to value the importance of teamwork and remember the world outside the Mathletes bubble with mathematical and philanthropic fund-raising.”

Also a NYS Master Teacher, Slesinski has been teaching Physics for 16 years in Syosset. His nominator appreciated his “making a difficult subject like AP Physics so accessible and fun to learn, teaching at a pace that ensured every single student stayed up to speed, and going above and beyond in constantly taking students’ personal needs into consideration.” When he is not advising the Students Against Violence Everywhere club or playing music with his accordion, Slesinski is also a teacher leader who frequently engages in professional learning with colleagues from the greater Long Island region.

Eager has made “an impact so indelible it will never leave me,” said one of her former students. “I am a better student, thinking and aspiring chemist today because of it.” In addition to teaching Advanced Social Science Research, AP Micro and Macro Economics, AP Government and Politics, and AP World History at Syosset for 19 years, she is also an Adjunct Professor of Economics and Finance at Nassau Community College. An advisor for the high school newspaper, Eager has also coached Fed Challenge teams, a Lincoln Douglas Debate team, a team for the Council for Economic Education initiative, and several finalists and semi-finalists in the Intel Competition.

“On behalf of the Board of Education and the entire central administration team, I congratulate and thank Ms. Ade, Ms. Eager, Ms. Dwyer and Mr. Slesinski for their dedication to our students,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Thomas Rogers. “We are fortunate to have these exceptional educators as integral members of our faculty, and they richly deserve this recognition.”

Every year the HCLI recognizes 50-80 Distinguished Teachers, with 12 honored as finalists for a Harvard fellowship, the latter of which Eager has been named. Fellowship winners will be announced at a university luncheon in April.

This press release was produced by the Syosset Central School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.