Ronkonkoma Middle School eighth grade student Katlyn Morgan Smith continues to make vast strides in both the Long Island music community and surrounding areas. 

Katlyn is an active participant in Ronkonkoma Middle School’s Tri-M Music Honor Society, Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra. She also participates in LISFA, NYSSMA, SCMEA, and was recently the Grand Prix winner at the International Concert Festival Competition at Weill Recital Hall this past March. 

She began playing violin and piano at the young age of 5, and due to her commitment to her studies, she is now currently studying under Anton Polezhayev, who was a part of the New York Philharmonic. 

Along with her older sister Ashely, the two student-musicians formed their own ensemble, and were booked by Live Nation to perform at Westbury Music Fair and other fundraising performances. They have also recorded at Sound City Cove Studios and have many music videos available to watch on YouTube. 

Her aspiration this year is to prepare and participate in the Menuhin Competition in 2020. Katlyn would like to thank her parents, instructors, arrangers and the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra for her successes thus far. 

“My compassion for music has always come from my heart,” she said. “It brings people together, it makes them feel emotion, and brings them back to their favorite memories.”

Students enrolled in Tiffany Prin’s class at Ronkonkoma Middle School recently completed a unit of study on penguins, which then culminated with a trip to The Long Island Aquarium in Riverhead. During their time spent in the scientific unit, the students learned about how penguins’ blubber insulates their body from the freezing cold temperatures in Antarctica. With this information on hand, the students used household materials to create their own forms of insulation and dipped their hands in cold buckets of ice to see how much of an improvement insulation can make.  

Without having to book an international plane ticket, sixth and seventh grade students from Ronkonkoma Middle School recently interacted and learned about a handful of exotic animals, courtesy of Nature Nick of Nature Nick’s Animal Adventures.

For his presentation, Nature Nick brought along a number of animals to showcase including “Bananas” the toucan, “Bubbles” the African Barbary falcon, “Meatloaf” the Flemish giant rabbit, “King Arthur” the Western crowned pigeon, along with “Fabio” the Chilean flamingo. 

In addition to offering rich descriptions detailing the animals’ native land, diet and life cycles, Nature Nick also allowed a handful of volunteers to hold the animals for a few moments, which they clearly enjoyed. 

Hundreds of administrators, staff and students from Ronkonkoma Middle School recently lined Peconic Street in Ronkonkoma to show overwhelming support for Chris Pendergast and the ALS Ride for Life participants as they honorably paraded throughout the community.

Under the direction of school guidance counselor Tara Sullivan, who organized the event, the group made their way along the front of the school building as spectators cheered. Students were kind enough to create banners and posters which featured words of encouragement. Bohemia resident Paul Weisman, who also battles ALS on a daily basis, was among the individuals who also walked alongside Mr. Pendergast. 

ALS Ride for life was founded in 1997 by Chris Pendergast and his supporters. Each May, during ALS Awareness Month, those diagnosed with ALS ride their power wheelchairs across Long Island all the way to Manhattan in order to raise awareness of the disease, which currently has no cure. 

Despite only being a sixth grade student at Ronkonkoma Middle School, Cristian Martinez has already garnered an impressive number of accolades due to his profound work in the world of poetry.

Most recently, Cristian was awarded the title of Grand Champion at the Walt Whitman Student Poetry Contest of 2019 for his poem a “A Glimpse of Tomorrow” out of a total of 2,500 other entries. Due to his successes, his poem will be published in the anthology, “Whitman’s Apprentice Anthology.”

He will also be published in the “Poets to Come Anthology” for his original work “Unanswered Questions,” along with two poems in the “Leaves for Me Anthology” for his other works “The Glory” and “My Mentor Robert,” and the Suffolk County Poetry Review for his poem, “Winter.”

In addition to his multiple publications, he won first place for his poem, “Clouds Have Secrets” in the Princess Ronkonkoma 2019 Poetry Contest.

Cristian was also a featured poet at his first poetry reading which was held at the Barnes & Noble in Lake Grove in April. He shared that this experience was amazing because he was able to read several poems on different themes that he is concerned about.