Students Make Their Mark in Class and Beyond

Let’s celebrate their recent achievements, accomplishments and contributions to our school community.

Three journalists from Tower, the School’s student newspaper, were honored with Best of SNO (School Newspapers Online) awards for their exceptional storytelling. 

Elaina Barreto ’27, lead opinion editor, won in December for “Opening Windows and Doors: How the arts inspire change in incarcerated individuals and how their art inspires change.” In the fall, Ella Liu ’27, features editor (“Field hockey fights for inclusivity on the field”) and Neena Atkins ’26, lead features editor (“Social media fuels political polarization”) took home trophies for their topical stories. 

Tower has also been chosen as a Crown Finalist by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association in the Hybrid Student News Source (print and web) category to be announced next month.

Ellen Cowhey, director of the journalism collective and Tower co-advisor with Matthew Ives, is proud of all her students. “It's not just about winning the awards because I try to tell the kids it's more about what we're doing for our community and how we are serving them,” she said.

Under the guidance of Kristina Gremski, science research program director, students are making an impact as powers for good with their research.

Senior Max Lovitt’s research paper was published through a professional computer science conference, the 2024 IEEE International Conference on Big Data, where he also gave a virtual presentation of his project on suicide and social media. He was also invited to present his findings at the AMIA 2024 Annual Symposium High School Scholars in San Francisco this past fall. 

Classmate Aaron Weinberg ’25 won second place at the Upstate New York Junior Science and Humanities Symposium (JSHS) for his work, “Characterizing the RyR2-Mediated Cardiac Pathophysiology of COVID-19 in Rodent Models.” Out of 700 regional high school students, only 72 were selected to participate in the symposium. Weinberg’s win includes $1,500 in college scholarship money. He was one of five finalists selected to present at the National JSHS event in April.

“I’m in awe of what Aaron, Max and other seniors in science research have accomplished,” Gremski said. “When they speak about their research, it’s hard to believe that they are still high school students — they speak with the confidence and knowledge of a graduate student.” 

In the world of debate and diplomacy, the Masters Model United Nations team, advised by faculty members Brittany Farrar and Ben Thorn, are off to a great start solving real-world problems through collaboration and hard work.

At last month’s CMUNCE XXIV, aka the Columbia University Model United Nations Conference and Exposition, the students took home first-place accolades in the Best Small Delegation category. “Although a younger team with many rookies in attendance, this group stayed consistent, focused and raised the level of debate in their respective committees,” said Farrar.

The victory was made possible by the following awarded delegates:

Alex Thorn ’25 - Verbal Commendation (4th)
Mason Dwek ’26 - Honorable Mention (3rd)
Ross Manzano ’26 & Johanna LeBuhn ’27 - Outstanding International Court of Justice Team (2nd) (coached devotedly by our own former lawyer Ben Thorn)
Lena Paull ’27 - Best Delegate (1st)
Neena Atkins ’26 - Best Press Corps (1st)
Sophie Moussapour ’25 - Best Delegate (1st)

Next up is the North American Invitational Model United Nations (NAIMUN) LXII conference next month in Washington, D.C. with “all eyes are on the 15 advanced upperclassmen team and their goal of surpassing last year's Honorable Small Delegation (3rd) result.”

Inspired by the artistry of French photographer Henri-Cartier Bresson, the work of Helen Gao ’27 was selected to be included in the annual Drexel University High School Photography Exhibition.

The black and white photograph, titled “Fries on Friday,” was taken by Gao for upper school visual arts teacher Rachel Langosch’s “in the style of” project. 

A proud Langosch noted, “Cartier-Bresson is the photographer who coined the term ‘the decisive moment,’ and it's this idea that when you take the photograph, it's not the moment before or after but that perfect moment where it's like puzzle pieces, everything clicks into place and I think that's really what happened in Helen’s image too.” 

Of the 980 student photographers who entered from across the country,  only 188 students were accepted into the prestigious show. Helen’s work will be on display at the Drexel University photography program gallery in Philadelphia and in an online gallery through March 9.