For the first time in Calhoun High School history, a track relay team has qualified for nationals. The sprint medley relay squad of Devon Bayer, Grace Moore, Cristin Rodriguez and Juliann Vizoso finished third at the national qualifying meet in New York City on Feb. 12 and will return to the city for the National Track & Field Championships on March 11. more

Calhoun High School senior Josh Aberman loves poetry, particularly the Beat Generation poetry produced by such luminaries as Allen Ginsberg. So, when Aberman was looking to do a fundraiser for the Economic Policy Institute as a senior project, he thought he might try an event aimed at writers. more

The Society for Science & The Public has awarded Intel Science Talent Search badges to five –– count ’em, five –– Kennedy High School students. Research Report … more

In the past, only Advanced Placement English students in the Bellmore-Merrick Central School District took the English Regents in January of 11th grade. The feeling was that they should be ready at that point to pass the exam with a high mark, giving them greater time to concentrate on the A.P. exam in May. more

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a saying: “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve.” For King, service to others was the highest form of humanity. more

Kennedy High School junior Claire Kelly spent three weeks last summer at the University of Chicago, delving deep into the human brain, examining the connection between impulsivity and drug addiction. Senior Rachel Mashal, the class of 2016 salutatorian, put fruit flies on a restricted diet to determine whether lower food intake would ward off drug addiction — specifically caffeine addiction — while also extending life. (As it turn out, it did both.) And senior Alexis Tillman hung out on lonely street corners (with either her mom or dad nearby) for weeks, filming homeless panhandlers to determine what, precisely, might persuade charitable passersby to give them loose change or even a dollar or two. more

The drug addicts’ brain scans that Dr. Stephen Dewey takes appear in psychedelic shades of red, yellow, green and blue, each indicating a level of brain activity — or inactivity. Red means excited. Blue is dormant. Dewey is the laboratory director for behavioral and molecular neuro-imaging at the North Shore-LIJ Feinstein Institute for Medical Research. In that capacity, he’s put hundreds of addicts’ brains to the test — the positron emission tomography test, that is — seeking to understand precisely what happens to the mind when a pot smoker lights up or a heroin junkie shoots up. And, he has found, it isn’t pretty. more

Kennedy High’s Homecoming was ablaze with school spirit, on and off the football field, last Friday. Homecoming festivities were held at the school, which takes in students from parts of … more

The Meadowbrook Alternative Program, which the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District offers as an alternative to the mainstream, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. more

“Remember, you are the future.” Douglas Smestad repeated this affirmation daily to the hundreds of students he taught for two and a half decades in history classes at Calhoun High School, … more