On April 3, Forest Hills High School hosted a civics fair. Students participating in the WISE competition displayed their months of hard work, while classes, in gallery-walk fashion, viewed and met the participants.
WISE, or “Working in Support of Education,” is linked to Hills’ Academy of Public Service, run by Ms. Ferrante, a social studies teacher, with a special shoutout to Ms. Richardson, English teacher, who works alongside Ferrante.
The WISE program has its students in APS create projects that are focused around students helping in local communities. For years, APS has created admirable improvements in schools, local parks, and around Forest Hills. The students and staff members, although not loudly and often celebrated, deserve all credibility for the amount of work dedicated to these projects, as the hours of work and persistence are endless and the results are impactful.
APS students that completed projects pitched their ideas to students as they responded to questions during the fair.
Later in the day, official judges were brought in and took an overall vote of the best three projects from Hills. Those students were given prize money for their outstanding projects.
The Top Five Winners:
First Place:
- Project: SHELL: Students Helping English Language Learners
- Students: Emily Padilla, Anisa Akobirova, Angel Mizhquiri Brad
Second Place:
- Project: Ready, Set, Safe: Creating Crisis Ready NYC Youth
- Students: Zoe Sharapov, Jenny Ye, Tamana Saini
Third Place:
- Project: Rangers Conservation Corps.
- Student: Daniel Ortega
Honorable Mentions:
- Project: Calculators For All: Adding up to Equity
- Students: Abdullah Tashrif, Rafael Regalado, Frances Orama
- Project: Democratic Classroom Initiatives
- Students: Vanessa Ten, Marieta Vujicic, Matthew Macias
Student Organizers include Ria Naipaul, Morgan Greenaway Davis and Elaine Handoko. Congratulations to all of the winners at the fair!
