Dr. Bruce Sabatini, principal of Northern Valley Regional High School at Demarest, at left, joins with the six students at the school who have been named finalists in in the 2011 National Merit® Scholarship Competition.  All Finalists will be considered for National Merit Scholarships to be offered in 2011.

The Woman’s Club of Old Tappan is offering a $1,000 scholastic award to a graduating high school senior who plans to continue a course of higher education.

To be eligible, a student must have been a resident of the borough for at least two consecutive years immediately prior to graduation.  The scholarship is awarded on the basis of scholastic achievement, leadership, activities in and out of school, community involvement, and a personal letter.

Applications may be obtained online at the Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan guidance website at www.nvnet.org or by contacting the Woman’s Club of Old Tappan Scholarship Committee Chairperson Elaine Duncan at 201-768-6775. Completed applications must be received by Wednesday, May 4.

By Robyn Nadel

RIDGEFIELD – The Ridgefield Memorial High School (RMHS) Alumni Scholarship Committee is holding a Zumba night, 7-9 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 17, at the Slocum Skewes School, 650 Prospect Ave., to help raise funds for 2011 scholarships.

Linda Robinson is scheduled to be the volunteer instructor.

Check in time begins at 6:30 p.m. with the first session starting at 7 p.m. and after 15-minute break, the second session will start at 8 p.m.  Feel free to participate in one or both sessions.  Bring a towel.

Zumba is a Latin dance fitness program that combines music, dance and energetic moves designed to make excess calories disappear.

Last year the RMHS alumni provided more than a dozen students with scholarships to assist them with their continuing education and with your help, this year more students can see their dreams realized.

Admission is a donation of $20 ($25 at the door) and students with identification get in the door for $10.

Checks can be made payable to the RMHS Alumni Scholarship Fund and sent to Michele Petrillo, c/o Baskets N Beyond, 103B Washington Ave., Dumont, N.J. 07628.

By Robyn Nadel

OLD TAPPAN – Donations to benefit high school age students at the Fort Lee Education Center in hopes of having a Prom this spring include: formal prom dresses, bridesmaid dresses, formal shoes, evening bags, jewelry and young men’s suits.

The Fort Lee Education Center is operated by the Youth Consultation Services of New Jersey (YCS), which is the state’s largest non-profit social service agency.

New and clean, gently used items can be dropped off in the borough at Old Tappan Library, 56 Russell Ave., Old Tappan Borough Hall, 227 Old Tappan Road and Northern Valley Old Tappan High School, 100 Central Ave., through Saturday, Jan. 15, 2011.

Members of the Old Tappan Girl Scout Troop No. 1396 decorated boxes and posters for this Holiday and Formal Wear Collection drive as part of their Silver Award.   Help make the wish of a prom a reality for these children.

By Robyn Nadel

ENGLEWOOD – The Englewood Health Department held a World AIDS Day educational program for the juniors and seniors at the Dwight Morrow High School and Academies @ Englewood in the Dizzy Gillespie Auditorium on Dec. 1.

The theme for World AIDS Day 2010 is “Universal Access and Human Rights,” and the event was an opportunity for all to take action to ensure that human rights are protected and that global targets for HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care are met.  The keynote speaker was Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a medical correspondent for the national CBS News who appears daily on “The Early Show” and regularly on “The CBS Evening News” with Katie Couric. It was emphasized that young people see HIV as stigmatized in their communities and they are less likely to get tested, educate themselves about prevention, or seek treatment

“As we pause to reflect on the toll of HIV on this 20^th anniversary of World AIDS Day, we must not forget that our fight against this devastating disease is far from over.  HIV remains a significant threat to the health and well-being of multiple communities in the United States.  The most recent CDC data indicate that more than 1.1 million Americans live with HIV, and that an estimated 56,000 new infections occur in the United States every year”, said Dr. Ashton.

The other student-driven events included poetry reading, a presentation by the Englewood Youth Advisory Board, distribution of education materials, and a display table.  The winner of the 2010 World AIDS Day Poetry/Story Contest was Myles Simmons, a Grade 8 student at the Janis E. Dismus Middle School who received an award from the Englewood Health Department and was recognized by the student body.

The Director of Health Services/Health Officer of the Englewood Health Department, Nelson Xavier Cruz, was present at the 2010 World AIDS Day event to convey opening remarks and remind people that HIV has not gone away, and that there are many things that still need to be done. “On this World AIDS Day, we are all reminded that we must do more – as individuals, as communities and as a nation – to stop HIV/AIDS.  We must relieve the burden of HIV in African-American and Hispanic communities by reaching them with effective prevention programs. We must confront the complex issues that keep gay and bisexual men at risk.  We must arm our youth with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to prevent HIV throughout their lives.  Above all, we must not give up until this fight is won.”

High school students and preschoolers join together at Northern Valley Reghionasl High School/Demarest in the unique Teens ‘n’ Tots program.

By Douglas E. Hall

DEMAREST – The Northern Valley Regional High School located here and its twin school in Old Tappan have long enjoyed an outstanding reputation.

No doubt the unique Teens ‘n’ Tots program offered to advanced honors child development students that includes the opportunity to interact with preschoolers of three, four and five years old

is one area of study that make Northern Valley Regional special.

Lisa Corbisiero, a teacher who is in charge of this program under the family and consumer science curriculum, says the program has been in place for 20 years here.  It seem amazing that this program has not been replicated in other high schools, but she says she know of no other school offering this unique learning experience of teens interacting with the pre-school children.

Recently the program developed an activity based on the 2004 animated film “The Polar Express, which is based on the children’s book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg.

Under direction of 14 teen teachers, the preschool children lined up to get their golden ticket to board an imaginary train.  The tickets were punched with a hole and then the children got “on board the train” settled down to listen to the story of “The Polar Express” read to them by Samantha Kirsch.

When the story was completed all the children received a bell necklace so each child could believe as the boy in the story.  They also colored sketches of scenes from the story.  Hot chocolate and cookies were served as a special snack.  Then mats were placed on the floor so the children could relax and watch the film

The popular child development program includes a variety of thematic lessons throughout the school year.

The program also offers field trips ranging from picking apples to attendance at shows that include visits to BergenPAC in Englewood.

There are 50 high school students in the program, 18 of them honor students..  Those who have an interest, are encouraged to write original children’s stories and/or create art works suitable for children’s books.

.While some students may be on the road to a career in writing and illustrating such books, others are inspired to become teachers, pediatricians, child psychologists, or just better parents.

Those interested in registration information for a preschool child, age 3-5 years, should call the Teens ’n’ Tots Early Learning Center for registration and open house dates at 201-768-8156 and speak to Kathy Riedel.   .

By W. L. Bill Allen, Jr.

Director, NJ Sport/Action

TENAFLY– In the program’s final season as a co-op contingent, the ice hockey team supported by Tenafly and Cresskill High Schools  is off to a 2-3 start.

The combo club, which some call the Ice-Cats (Tenafly Tigers and Cresskill Cougars), kicked-off its current campaign by losing, 1-2, to Bayonne on Dec. 3, 2-3 to Fair Lawn on Dec. 10 and 1-2 to perennial power Ridge on Dec. 11.

More recently, however, the Ice-Cats have found their scoring tough and pummeled Paramus Catholic, 4-0, on Friday, Dec. 17, prior to pummeling Pascack Valley, 4-1, on Saturday, Dec. 18.

After being a member of the Northern Bergen Interscholastic League in that conference’s final year last season, the Ice-Cats are now part of the Northern Jersey Interscholastic Conference/Big North League-Gold Division, along with Paramus Catholic, Fair Lawn, Bayonne, Clifton, Ridgewood, Pascack Valley, River Dell and Dumont.

“Even though we’ve only got one player from Cresskill this season, technically, we’re still a co-op program and that’s why we’re in a league with all those much larger schools,” explained Andy Escala.

Now in his 13th campaign at the Cats club’s controls, Escala is an Englewood native who played ice hockey at the Peddie School as a member of the Class of 1989 and was an NCAA Division 1 baseball player at Jacksonville University as a member of the Class of ’94.

“I’m very happy with the quality of the team’s play so far this season,” evaluated Escala.

“We’re still young, but I think we’re better than our record would indicate,” Escala expounded. “For instance, each of our three losses were by just one goal and we actually seemed to have the game against Ridge, which is undefeated, 5-0, won. But what seemed to the be winning goal  was disallowed.

“Early on, the puck just didn’t seem to be bouncing our way, but that seems to be changing. Overall, we’re playing good defense, allowing just 1.6 goals a game, and that’s keeping us in games.”

Captaining the club Dan Guglielmo, a senior defenseman, although two more captains will be added at the end of this week.

Joining Guglielmo on the list of defensemen are four juniors: Seth Porter, Gary L’Heureux, Austin Rosen and Kevin Kim, with junior Jon Winawer starting between the pipes.

The team’s three lines are comprised by junior centerman Brandon Bernstein, senior right wing Mike Schultz and junior left wing Asaf Markowitz, junior centerman Jordan Lang, junior right wing Scott Shalek and his twin, junior left wing Eric Shalek, and senior centerman Jake Greenberg, sophomore right wing Rich Cho and soph left wing Eli Markowitz.

“The bottom line is that these kids are practicing and playing hard and I think we’re going to be competitive with just about any team that we’re going to face this year,” Escala emphasized.

After facing NV/Old Tappan last night, Wednesday, Dec. 22, the Ice-Cats are slated to return to action by taking part in the Montclair Invitational, a six-team, three-day event which is slated for Sunday, Dec. 26, Tuesday, Dec. 28, and Thursday, Dec. 30.

On day one, Tenafly/Cresskill will battle Hunterdon Central at 8 p.m., with a 6 p.m. tussle against Northern Highlands slated for day two, while the locals’ day three opponent is yet to be announced.

The other three teams in that tourney are Fair Lawn, Paramus and the host, Montclair High.

By Robyn Nadel

FORT LEE – Borough high school students who have achieved high honor roll, honor roll status in the first quarter marking period for the 2010-2011 are:

GRADE 9

High Honor Roll: Mustafa Al Shalchy, Joy Chen, Andy Choi, Michelle Choi, Rachel Geller, Gabriella Gohn, Eliana Higgins, Juan Meriles, Aliza Aya Ohnouna, James Park, Ramizah Salim, Jaryn Stewart and Taeseon Yu.

Honor Roll: Sam Abraham, Zouhare Al Baroudi, Kamola Amanova, Erica Amarini, Christiphor Ashman, Ecrin Bilge, Melanie Blitz, Shawn Carter, Serena Chen, Samantha Choo, Karalyn Marie Ford, Alessio Guacci, Hyo Jung Hong, Kyu Jin Jang, Ashley Jenq, Shant Khatchadourian, Da Jung Kim, Daniel Minjae Kim, Hyun Min Kim, Sang Yoo Lee, WanZhen Li, Edward Lipkin, Kevin Lu, Yogeswari Medepalli, Jared Medrano, Michael Morell, Alexandra Mosichuk, Amanda Mui, Ashley Pacheco, Euna Pae, Tae Hyun Park, Melanie Plattner, Ammad Quraishi, Jacob Rosenblatt, Ken Seah, Youn Sim, John Sinisi, Alexa T. Soto, Callie Stabile, Be-Han Tam, Joshua Tschoe, Callie Weinstein and Nicholas Wong.

GRADE 10

High Honor Roll: Angelo Bavaro, William Chen, Patrick Darcy, Nayana Datwani, Saniya Datwani, Vaibhav Dhadda, Danielle Elmers, Hansol Gim, Mengna Katt, Stephanie Nihamin, Yong Min Shin, Tzu Han Yang and Tiffany Zhu.

Honor Roll: Summer Abdelhamid, Dmitry Agapitov, Larisa Alkhazova, Sung Won An, Daphne Aquije-Flores, Peter Betti, Johnny Chen, Lemon Chung, Hannah Cirone, Margo Grisanti, Victoria Huynh, Esther Hwang, Aashna Jain, Hee Jeong Kim, Alexandra Kunikoff, Brooke Kunikoff, Sarah Kwon, DoKyong Lee, Yvonne Lee, Pavel Mishin, Debora No, Tiffany Pan, Ga Hae Park, Yoo Jin Park, Christina Ramirez, Isabel Ramos, Andrew Roetman, Tony Sheng, Min Jung Shin, Ariel Tejada, Lawrence Wu, Rei Yoshida, Su Jin You, Brian Yu and  Colette Zoe.

GRADE 11

High Honor Roll: Michelle Dean, Megan Gimson, Kei Kase, Mark Kasvin, Ju Kim, Tiffany Lopez, Hea Lin Park, Allen Qin and Bikram Sodhi.

Honor Roll: Yeonjeong Bang, Kimberly Barbosa, Matheus Barbosa, Monica Chan, Victoria Chang, Christopher Chen, Shirley Chen, Myoung Woo Cheon, Joy Cho, Alexander Choy, Daniel Elward, Nicole Farber, Kathryn Gibb, Amanda Goldstein, Frankie Goris, Patrik Haskins, Ashley Hong, Donna Hong, Monica Hong, Regina Kang, Panagiotis Katsogiannos, Natalie Khatchadourian, Bong Joo Kim, Jeemin Kim, Kyung Kim, Natalia Kim, Timothy Kim, Theadora Lecour, Anna Seungyeon Lee, Jennifer Lee, Emilia Leszkowicz, Nina Lukach, Sophia Luppino, So Young Moon, Rosa Morocho, Mee Ran Moun, Praniti Nagarmat, David Nodelman, Nika Norouzi, Douglas Owens, Sin Yeong Park, Elisabeth Podlubny, Demir Radoncic, Natalie Shapnik, Steven Shapnik, Ji Hoon Son, Maria Suarez, Alexa Sudol, Jelena Sutovic, Leandeline Tejada, Eric Tsoi, Frederic Volkovinski, Sung Hyun Yoon, Michael Zagurskiy and  Marina Zheng.

GRADE 12

High Honor Roll: Vincent Arfuso, Lindsey Clesmere, Dana Galasso, Bryan Halpern, Hong Hee Kim, Kristina Leale, Seung Hee Lee, Jiaren Li, Peter Liapes, Lorelly Lopez, Brianna Mattessich, SangChul Song, Casey Stabile, Morong Xu, Bing Yang and Dong Hyun Yi.

Honor Roll: Adrian Altunkara, Klevis Baholli, Genesis Carvajal, Jeffrey Cho, Deborah Chon, Yamel Contreras, David Daniels, Deanna DeFilippis, Giana Dente, Bianca Duran, Justin Najeeb Elkhechen, Amanda Engelhardt, Erin Maureen Ford, Michael Frankel, Joanne Fuentes, David Gilels, Seung Kyu Gim, Yimin Gong, Alejandra Guarin, Ann Ha, David Ha, Daiana Hong, Rachel Hong, Henry Huang, Shaodi David Huang, Sara Hwang, Indee Jones, Nadine Jun, Andrew Kim, So Jung Kim, Andrew Kleinman, Eunbi Koh, Peter Kokkosis, Aangi Atul Kothari, Max Leblanc, Adrian Lee, Andrew Lee, Suk Jae Lee, Karen Nishinaga, Brittney Oh, Michelle Oh, George Padin, Olga Pappas, Bindi Sudhi Parikh, Dongjin Park, Eden Park, Hyejin Park, Hyun Ah Park, Elizabeth Pavlov, Jungwon Rhee, Monica Rodriguez, Morgan Romba, Ruslan Rustamov, Lauren Sielski, Jenny Wang, Kyu Yi, Sung Whan Yoon, Dong Hun Youn, John Yun and , Jing Ying Zhuo

Photo by Bill Allen-NJ Sport/Action

In the most bizarre ending to a game in the four decade history of the state playoffs, Wayne Hills senior back Brian Dowling (9) was seemingly tackled by a host of NV/Old Tappan defenders during a kickoff runback with 23 seconds left in the game and a whistle was blown by at least one official, but the action was not stopped and Dowling tossed the ball to teammate Troy Zaffino who ran the rock back 76 yards for what became the game-winning touchdown in a 24-21 victory.  The win was scored by  the 11-1 Hills over the previously unbeaten Golden Knights in the NJSIAA North Jersey Section 1, Group 3 state championship game on Saturday, Dec. 4, at the New Meadowlands Stadium.

A team of contestants representing the borough’s high school, will be seen competing against West Milford High School when they take part in MSG’s Varsity’s award-winning high school quiz show, The Challenge. The first round match-up will air in at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 9 on Cablevision’s iO TV (Channel 14). From left are: David Bernardo (academic advisor), Haitham Orfali, Monica Terracino, host Jared Cotter, Cristina Rotondo (team captain), Timothy Hoffman and Stephen Mozia (team alternative).

By Robyn Nadel

HACKENSACK – A team of contestants representing the borough’s high school, Timothy Hoffman, Stephen Mozia, Haitham Orfali, Cristina Rotondo (team captain) and Monica Terracino and one team alternate, Stephen Mozia, will compete against West Milford High School when they take part in MSG Varsity’s award-winning high school quiz show, The Challenge. The first round match-up will air in at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 9 on Cablevision’s iO TV (Channel 14). MSG Varsity will feature new episodes of The Challenge at 5:30 p.m. every Sunday.

Jared Cotter, former FUSE TV host and a semi-finalist from American Idol, will serve as moderator asking competing high school team questions based on their knowledge of history, arts and literature, current events, math and science. This season students will be taped competing before a live studio audience.

Schools advance in the tournament through a series of elimination rounds. After months of competition, one school in each region is crowned regional champion, winning $2,500 for their school. The final winning teams from each region go on to The Challenge Championship where they square off against one another in a Tri-State Showdown. The school crowned Tri-State Champion will receive $10,000 in prize money and each student participating in the final Challenge Championship game will receive $500.