In Our Communities - Rockland

Nine Medals for SOMS

   The South Orangetown Middle School (SOMS) Science Olympiad Team received a whopping nine medals at the Ravena-Coeymans-Selkirk (RCS) Middle School Invitational, where the students competed against teams from schools across New York State. The medals went to Ross Kruse for first place in the Dynamic Planet event; Louis Clements and Andrew Higgins for third place in RoboCross;Patrick Flanagan, Louis Clements, and Rouhin Ghosh for fourth place in Experimental Design; Chris Stuhlweissenburg and Nick Paniza for fourth place in SumoBots; and Nick Paniza and Kevin Flanagan for fourth place in Physical Science Lab.  April Biggs, Deena Kramarczyk and Mei Yip-Chen are the coaches for the Science Olympiad. The next level of competition for the team will be at Scarsdale Middle School in Westchester on March 7, which includes middle schools in the Lower Hudson Valley Region (primarily Rockland and Westchester counties).


Advice from a Dolphin

   Miami Dolphins linebacker (and Spring Valley native) Kelvin Smith Jr. visited students in Mary Ann Massillio's seventh grade Home and Careers class in January to discuss his career and his life, and to share his hopes for the future. Smith’s advice to the class was to “have good positive influences you can follow,” crediting his father and uncle as his. Smith also stressed to the class the importance of having a plan. Along with fulfilling his childhood dream of playing in the NFL, Smith has two college degrees from Syracuse University to “fall back on if things don’t work out,” he said. Smith stated that in the future, he wants to open a recreation center “in Rockland County to create a sports environment for kids,” where they can enjoy the sports they are interested in. After Smith answered questions from the students, 13-year-old James H.’s name was drawn from a hat containing the names of all the students in the class, making him the lucky winner of a football autographed by Smith.