This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Amity Students Recognized with Superintendent's Award

Six students will attend weekend banquet

Six Amity students are being recognized with an annual superintendent's award this month. The award is given to students for contributions to school and community along with academic accomplishments. They’ll be honored at a regional banquet at the Laurel View Country Club this weekend.

Principal Kathleen Fuller-Cutler shares kind words about her awardees:

Graham Hughes, an eighth grader, is a most responsible student and person. He achieves both academic and citizenship honors and particularly likes science, math and everything connected to technology and engineering. Graham is an active participant in his community through Boy Scouts of America and he aspires to be an Eagle Scout.  He volunteers at the sports camp (VBS) at his church each summer and he also serves at the Emmanuel Baptist soup kitchen in New Haven.

Find out what's happening in Bethwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Graham has been nominated multiple times by staff for Amity Middle School’s, Jackie’s Nine Character of the Month, during seventh and eighth grades as he consistently shows traits of determination, persistence and integrity.  He also plays hard as we know from his active participation on the hockey and lacrosse teams for the Yale Program and is a participant in Amity Middle School’s Advanced Band.

Natalie Booth, also in eighth grade, is an outstanding student and person. She achieves first honors with all As and citizenship honors and plans to major in the visual arts. She is the type of student who can be relied upon to show kindness and compassion for others. Natalie is an active participant in the St. Baldrick’s program, a fundraiser for childhood cancer. She lovingly participates in the cancer fundraiser Relay for Life and also generously contributes her time to the Susan Komen World Breast Cancer fundraisers. This amazing young woman is part of the Get in Touch program where young people are instructed on how to do their own breast examinations through a “daisy wheel.”  If this were not enough, Natalie works on the yearbook committee and participates in after school band and regular band class. Leading quietly, yet giving so much of herself are major strengths of this amazing young woman.

Find out what's happening in Bethwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The awardees from are described in Principal Richard Dellinger’s words:

Emma Bogush is surely an unsung hero at Amity Middle School. Emma shines academically, maintaining an A to A- average over the past year and a half in middle school. She demonstrates an eagerness to learn and a sincere interest in her studies. With peers, Emma is considerate and helpful, well-liked and respected. Emma is always ready to lend a hand. She regularly volunteers to act as a peer tutor, was selected to participate in the Sister Schools Program, helped make blankets for cancer patients and spearheaded an effort to create 1000 paper cranes for victims of last year’s tsunami in Japan.  Emma is quite active in school and community events. She was in the school musical, is part of the Literary Magazine, performs with the Chamber Singers choral group, and has been a member of the Winter Guard for two years. Emma advocates for other students in the school. She takes an active stand against meanness and bullying, brings attention to incidents that she has witnessed, and has been instrumental in resolving such conflicts.  Emma exemplifies the traits recognized by the SCASA and truly deserves to be recognized.

Jordan Gorelick, of Amity Middle School-Bethany, is a motivated and hardworking student. He has consistently received academic honors in his advanced classes at Amity. In these classes, Jordan will often lead the class in meaningful discussion and questioning.  A straight ‘A’ student since entering Amity, Jordan is unassuming and humble and is well liked and respected by all of his peers. He is always willing to help out other students. As a mentor for peer tutoring, he offers positive feedback to other students and helps them in the areas where they struggle. Jordan displays outstanding character traits and has received citizenship recognition at Amity.  Jordan enjoys playing the trumpet in the middle school advanced band as well as the jazz band.  Jordan also loves baseball and was selected onto the Amity baseball team as a seventh grader with plans to play again this year.  In his spare time, Jordan raised money for Jewish troops in the U.S. Military and currently volunteers at his synagogue. He has earned this recognition by his overall academic achievement, attitude, and dedication.

Principal Charles Britton describes his two recipients of the Superintendent’s Award:

Matthew DiBuduo, in 12th grade, is an intelligent, kind-hearted and driven young man.  At the end of every school year, Matt earned a Class Award for achieving honor roll status each of the four marking periods.  Matt takes his studies very seriously and consistently enrolled in challenging courses.  Since his freshman year, Matt’s voice can be heard over the loudspeaker as he reports the weather forecast to the entire school.  Matt has become an Amity celebrity who is often asked what type of weather they can expect in the upcoming days.  Outside of the classroom, Matt has participated on Amity’s Unified Sports team where he served as an assistant to students with cognitive and physical disabilities.  Matt enjoyed participating in these sporting events as he was able to serve as a leader and role model.  Matt will be missed next year as he transitions to college where he most certainly will be a welcome addition to the campus community.

Patricia (Tricia) Coffey, also in 12th grade, is an outstanding member of Amity’s community.  Assertive, involved, organized, Tricia is a natural leader who actively engages in both her academic courses and extracurricular activities.  Scholastically, Tricia consistently challenges herself by taking rigorous courses, offers insight to classroom discourse, and has a strong work ethic.  Since her freshman year, Tricia played an integral role in Student Government.  From organizing fundraisers to prom planning, Tricia can always be depended on to get the job done.  Her hard work and dedication to the Class of 2012 was so impressive that her classmates elected her the Student Government President.    Under her leadership, the Amity Regional High School Student Government has worked closely with administration and faculty to positively impact countless aspects of student life.  Tricia is also a certified Zumba instructor and recently taught classes to benefit a cancer research program.  Tricia is a well-rounded individual who will continue to make any environment she’s part of a livelier and more productive one. 

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?