This year the Business Office will be offering parents the ability to do online re-enrollment for the 2015-16 school year. A Disclosure and Consent to Use of Electronic Records and Signature Form has been sent home to all parents this week. Both parents or legal guardians, need to sign the form and return it to the Business Office prior to re-enrollment for the 2015-16 school year in order to utilize electronic signatures. You will be receiving additional information in December regarding re-enrollment for the 2015-16 school year. Please contact the business office if you have any questions.

Brown University, located in Providence, Rhode Island, is one of eight Ivy League colleges.  Brown Representative Emily Cox visited with 25 Heritage students last week to give them first hand knowledge of their campus and programs.

Brown is very selective, and last year their acceptance rate was 8.8%. Students may be drawn to Brown’s open curriculum, meaning they do not have a core curriculum that students are required to take in order to graduate. Instead, students select 30 classes out of over 1800 in order to graduate; instead of majors they have concentrations.

Brown encourages students to explore classes and is looking for intellectually curious students who want to be the architect of their own education.

The University of Chicago is a university of individualists. The core curriculum is one third of the academic experience. The major is one third, and electives are one third. Therefore, it is very easy to double major, or major and minor. Forty percent of students double major and sixty percent participate in an internship. 120 countries are represented on the campus, and 99% of freshman are retained to sophomore year. 

Permanent campuses are located in Beijing, Delhi, and Paris. Students can study at those campuses and take courses that are part of the core or other programs.

Located in the Hyde Park neighborhood, the University is seven miles from downtown Chicago, which is a beautiful city with 60 museums and thousands of restaurants. The city is an additional resource that is actively sought out by students. 

Need-blind admission means that an admission decision will be made without regard to the family's ability to pay. No loans are included in the financial aid package. A few merit scholarships are considered and no separate application is needed. National Merit Semi-Finalists receive $4,000 per year for four years, as well as National Hispanic and National Achievement Scholars. 

American Heritage welcomed George Washington University to campus. Assistant Director of Admissions, Nadine Saint, provided AHS students a wealth of information about academics and campus life at George Washington University. Located in the heart of DC, GW provides students with the opportunity to explore a wide range of academic majors, countless internship and research opportunities and study abroad. GW students are also very active within the community and have a strong commitment to community service. Given their ideal location, GW students are at the center of the world of politics, science, business, technology and more! AHS students were extremely interested to learn about all the amazing opportunities George Washington University has to offer.

Whether they have known all their lives what they wanted to be when they grow up or they have no idea what career path to take, the AHS Career Fair was a great event for all 7th and 8th grade students today.

From a forensic chemist, criminal investigator, and general contractor to a thoracic surgeon, accountant, commanding officer of the U.S. Air Force, and structural engineer, leading industry experts filled the Heritage Gymnasium with handouts, visual displays and most important their knowledge and experience in their chosen fields.  Students had a page of questions to help guide them, yet many went off their scripts in an effort to satisfy their curiosity and learn as much information as possible. 

 “You’re really challenging me with your questions!” said Ingrid Berenbaum, a transportation engineer who told a group of eager female students how her position is a good one for women with a good career path.

 Petty Officer Packard works for the U.S. Coast Guard in the recruiting office in Miami.  “How did you get started in this?” a student asked.  “After 911, I got patriotic and joined the Coast Guard for the career stability, the benefits, and the adventure.” Officer Packard replied.  Now thirteen years later, he told the students he wants to go back to school for his Masters degree and become a professor at a university.

 Jason Kapit is a top real estate agent in South Florida who gave a group of students some very valuable advice.  “Excel at everything,” Kapit said.  “This is a very self-motivating job because you work on commissions, not salary.  So if you are at the top of your game, if you are awesome, then you can do what you want and do very well,” he said.

 AHS Alumni Brett Tessler, Class of ’91, is a sports agent for NFL football players.  He enjoyed being back at Heritage with the chance to talk to curious and motivated students and hopefully inspire them like he was inspired as a student at American Heritage.  Mr. Tessler told some AHS student athletes that in order to be a good agent, “you have to do three things:  earn people’s trust, be a good negotiator, and put other people’s needs in front of yours.”

 The advice from Mirlande Germain-Titus, a pilot, really resounded with all of the students and left them with a lasting mark.  “You can do your job well, but you need the right attitude to do anything really well.”

Judge Williams, a Circuit Judge at the Broward County Courthouse, was one of the funniest speakers we have had. He really engaged with us students in a way that differed from any of the other lecturers. 

Judge Williams essentially told us all the key steps about being a successful leader. He reminded us that being confident and humble goes a long way versus someone who is cocky and arrogant. He told us likability is the key to success because no one will trust you and give you power if you are not likable.

"Success comes from doing something for everyone else," Judge Williams said. He related this topic to people like Michael Jackson who sang for the world straight from his passion and desire to sing, not for the money and fame. Walt Disney did the same, too. His efforts to spread creativity and imagination throughout the world came a long way in creating a multi -billion dollar empire. 

One thing that that really touched us was when Judge Williams spoke about bullying. He explained bullies never target the weak but the ones who are most successful. This really hit us all when Judge Williams spoke about our beloved classmate, James Fuller. He specifically spoke about the recent Sun Sentinel article written about James after he was killed, which mentioned that before attending American Heritage while at his former school, James was bullied before seventh grade because he was so smart. Tying this in, Judge Williams told us bullies target the successful like James who are Mensa Members, Eagle Scouts, and people who really will make a difference in this world. 

Submitted by Carine Ghannoum, Junior, Honors Pre-Law Society

Judge Williams (center) with Judge Haimes, one of the AHS Pre-Law teachers,
and Nikki Laurie, Honors Legal Studies Program Director

Students in the American Heritage Pre-Engineering Program were treated to a visit from the Dean of Admissions at Columbia University, Jessica Marinaccio, and one of the college’s prized professors of Mechanical Engineering, Michael Massimino, a former astronaut with NASA and the first person to tweet from Space.

“I knew I wanted to be an astronaut when I was 6,” Mr. Massimino told the captivated AHS Pre-Engineering students who filled the Black Box Theater. He received his bachelor’s degree from Columbia and said, “When I was there Barak Obama was a student there, and I didn’t know I would be going to school with a future president of the United States.” The 5^th oldest college campus in the U.S., Columbia’s Fu Foundation School of

Engineering and Applied Science has a true spirit of innovation as the place where the laser was invented, where the term global warming was coined, and where modern robotics was created. With 6,000 undergrads and 17% of the students from outside the U.S., there is great diversity and culture both in the self-contained campus and in the surrounding area of New York City.

“The experience that changed my life was going to college, going to Columbia specifically,” Massimino reflected. After he graduated from the Engineering School, he didn’t know what he would do as a job and reverted back to his childhood dream of becoming an astronaut. He worked at IBM for two years, then earned his Masters degree from MIT in Mechanical Engineering and Technology and Policy, and then sent in an application to NASA in 1989.

“They said ‘No,’” Massimino explained matter of fact.

He went on to say he earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, applied a second time to be an astronaut at NASA, this time with a stronger application and got rejected again. He paused. Then he said he landed a job at McDonnell Douglas Aerospace and worked closely with astronauts. He put in another application to NASA, and this time he got an interview so he was considered a finalist. After a week-long process of rigorous interviews, exams, and activities, “they called me and told me ‘No,’” he said. The room was silent.

“So then I went to work at Georgia Tech and submitted my application to NASA again for the fourth time in 1995. I went through another long interview process, and this time they called me and told me ‘Yes,’” the veteran of two space walks said. The students burst into cheers.

Mr. Massimino was assigned to the fourth and fifth Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions in 2002 and 2009.

“Doing this stuff is really cool,” Massimino said, “working in that space suit, we designed over a hundred new tools for the flight, we had flight controllers in the control room working with us, there was cool stuff in science and technology everywhere. We wanted to do as much as we could because we knew this was our last chance to do what we needed to do,” he explained of the Hubble missions.

Mr. Massimino shared photos that he and his fellow astronauts had taken on the space shuttle and in space, and the students asked questions about his experience.

 “In gravity, what is your orientation like?” a student asked.

“Good question,” Massimino said. “When I first got up in space it was as if the earth was rotated because your inner ear works on gravity, so I got a little sick but after a couple days, you get used to it. I remember having a conversation on the ceiling after the first week,” he said.

“What is it like up in space at nighttime?” another student asked.

“The darkness on the other side of the earth is quite spectacular,” Massimino reflected. “The absence of light was amazing, and the stars are incredible, too. It’s like a great big planetarium. And the moon looks three-dimensional, it’s round, it was really cool,” he shared.

“The food in space is fantastic, and if you don’t like it just add Tobasco sauce; it’s easy to warm too.” He showed some photos of the shuttle’s kitchen and his space buddy at mealtime. Everyone laughed.

“Traveling in the space shuttle is kind of like going on a camping trip with your friends. You have a bed roll that’s connected to the wall, and you are floating. I slept on the ceiling; I thought that was cool.”

Mr. Massimino went into detail about the work he and his space flight crew did on the Hubble telescope, and students asked more technical questions about the equipment and the mission. “We landed after two weeks,” Massimino said to finish his story, “and the space shuttle we flew in is at Kennedy Space Center so you can see it.”

Advice he gave to the students: “Anything you want to do, pursue it. There may be obstacles in your way, and things won’t all be easy. I know American Heritage is a really good school with hard classes. Stick with it; don’t give up. None of this would have been possible for me without the engineering education I received. The carrot at the end is you get to do some really cool stuff. I loved what I was doing, and it didn’t feel like work.”

Mr. Massimino left NASA a year ago and is teaching an undergraduate course at Columbia, Intro to Human Space Flight, which harnesses his

years of academic and professional experience. He has appeared on the TV show The Big Bang Theory six times and is a favorite guest on many of the late night talk shows, including “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” where he has appeared as a guest five times. 

To answer the question: What did he tweet from Space?

“Launch was awesome!”

(Photos submitted by students Alisha Kabir and Zachariah Chou)

Twenty-four AHS students traveled up north to New York last Thursday to attend the Columbia Model UN Conference. Not only was this the first time Heritage delegates have attended this event, but they also topped the other 50 schools, most of who attended this conference many times before. American Heritage was awarded the Outstanding Large Delegation Award solidifying our position as top school in Florida and one of the top five schools in the nation.

“This particular event was a different format because they were all small crisis committees,” explained Mark Gruskin, AHS social studies teacher and Model UN advisor. “This was much more intensive than our other events, and the students continued to astound everyone through their effort, character, dedication and performance,” Mr. Gruskin added. 

Here is a list of the individual awards earned by AHSers.

Best Delegate:  Andrew Klauber, Josh Elkin, Catalina Berenblum, Matthew Soree

Outstanding Delegate: Grace King, Matthew Robins, Maria Riillo

Honorable Delegate: Zachariah Chou, Hamza Rashid, Michael Rollins,

Mikhail London, Mayuri Viswanathan

Commendation: Pedro Rojas, Morgan Marquez, Sydney Britton, Alisha

Kabir, Carine Ghannoum

As an added treat, the students visited Horace Mann in Riverdale, NY, which is Mr. Gruskin’s alma mater. The alumni office welcomed American Heritage with warm hospitality and gave the students a personal tour along with special gifts and souvenirs to remember their great victorious weekend.

Congratulations to our ‘model’ students on a job well done at Model UN!

American Heritage and Academy students in 4^th through 6^th grades entertained hundreds of Heritage families and friends on January 29 and 30 with their stellar performance of the Broadway musical My Son Pinocchio, Jr. Directed and choreographed by Ms. Alisa Jacob, AHS Lower School Dance Instructor, My Son Pinocchio, Jr. is a heart-warming tale of Geppetto, played by Chloe Trujillo, and his son Pinocchio, played by Dax Sagaro. With the help of the Blue Fairy, played by Sheridan Munach, and her Fairies in Training, Brianna Goldberg, Sofia Goldin, Taylor Terrell, and Sarah Franzblau, we learn a valuable lesson that is often forgotten: accepting our children for who they are not what parents want them to be. 

Students in the cast all participated in the after school enrichment program directed by Ms. Jacob. The club met for one hour and a half twice a week for five months. “This program is an important milestone leading into the middle and high school musical theater department,” explained Ms. Jacob. “We are able to educate the children through key experiences of singing, dance, and drama while having fun and making new and lasting friendships,” she added.

Moments before the first production on Thursday was about to begin, we had a chance to talk to some of the cast members about their experience in the play. Paris Surtain, a 5^th grader who played the part of the Left Marionette, said, “I’ve always wanted to be a performer on the Disney Channel. Dancing is my favorite, and I’m working really hard. This experience makes me feel special because Ms. Jacob gives everybody a chance to show what we’re really good at and express ourselves.”

            “First we went through the lines and now we have roles and we’re doing lights and putting it all together; we’re in harmony,” said Chris Gaski, 4^th grader playing the roles of Junior, Fiorello, and Rico. “Ms. Jacob knows if we’re doing something wrong and tries to fix it and doesn’t judge us if we’re doing something wrong; she makes us feel really good about what we’re doing.”

            When asked if she was nervous, Mikaila Barsoum, 6^th grader in the roles of the Town Father, Signor Proto, and Professor Buonragazzo said, “I’m really excited, there’s not a lot of time to be nervous because I’m so excited. This is my first year at American Heritage, and it’s a lot of change because my old school wasn’t as advanced as this is, and it’s a lot of fun doing new things and being challenged.” Mikaila trains outside of school at Blue Dog Acting and wants to be a singer and actress when she gets older.

            My Son Pinocchio, Jr. was Taylor Terrell’s first play. She’s a 5^th grader playing Arancia, one of the Fairies in Training, and said, “It’s been really fun, I like the dress rehearsal, the makeup, and seeing the sets and everything coming together is so exciting. I’m not really that nervous because Ms. Jacob gives us the confidence to do what we need to do.”

            How does the Director feel just minutes before the curtain goes up? “I’m thinking about a million things at one time–the notes I told the kids and remembering their blocking,” Ms. Jacob said. “I’m excited about the show because of the lesson it’s teaching that forgiveness and acceptance are key, and there’s no perfect parent or child.”

“All the perfect kids are in the play!” said one of the young actors who overheard his Director. Everyone laughed.

“We are very thankful to administration for all of their support of this after school enrichment program,” said Ms. Jacob. “As the drama program grows and grows, it gives these kids the skills and confidence they need to feed into the middle and high school theatre program; this is where the seeds are planted; this is where we get our future stars.”

Cast members get all ready for the show. They are ready to perform!

The 2014-15 school year marks the third graduating class of the Pre-Engineering Program at American Heritage School and the third group of capstone projects created by students of the Engineering Design and Development (EDD) class. The goal of the engineering program is for all of the studies of the previous three years in engineering, sciences and mathematics to culminate in an innovative project that helps to improve the world.

This year, several of the projects are candidates for U.S. patents. The students are working with Alan Weisberg, a registered patent attorney in Fort Lauderdale with Christopher & Weisberg, P.A., and former engineer and consultant with IBM.

 “The capstone projects start at the beginning of the school year and are comparable to a college thesis,” said John Vermes, Pre-Engineering Program Chair and AP Physics and Engineering Faculty. “We encourage our students to think critically, develop research, presentation, and public speaking skills, work as a team, and solve challenging problems in our world.”

This particular engineering class is made up of seniors and headed by Mr. Vermes, Mr. Lodato, Mr. Padin, and Mr. Shen. The class was organized into groups representing typical roles at real companies with research and marketing objectives, a testable design, prototypes, professional portfolio of findings, and final products that can be clearly demonstrated to an audience. In the biomed engineering realm, students are working with telemedicine and wearable medical technology. The engineering and biomedical engineering projects range from a stretcher attachment that would allow EMT’s to access equipment in an ambulance faster, a hydrolite that uses solar power and water for energy, a rehabilitation knee brace, a sleeping mask, and a shoe organizer. 

“The students got a taste of the real world as they worked as a team to produce significant results with admirable products,” Mr. Vermes said. 

Students conduct thorough research in a Plantation Emergency Medical vehicle which gave them
the idea for a more efficient stretcher system to help save lives.

Accelerated math students in grades 4–6 at American Heritage School are on a mathematical track not available in any other school in the state of Florida. Our Lower School offers the Stanford University Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY), which is a rigorous and innovative math program designed to take young minds and extend them as far as their capabilities will allow. Students acquire valuable skill sets such as critical thinking and problem solving and continue develop as they progress through to high-level mathematic courses.

Our students in grades 4–12 attend math competitions throughout the year and earn high honors in the state and the nation. Students devote time after school and on weekends to work on test taking strategies that help them succeed at MathCounts, Math Olympiads, and district, regional, state, and national math competitions.

We are proud to be ranked the #1 high school in math throughout Palm Beach County!

The Miami Herald Silver Knight Awards is one of the most highly regarded student awards in the country. American Heritage was proud to have students nominated for 13 out of the 15 total categories. Three students were named Silver Knights, and three students received Honorable Mentions.

The Silver Knight Award recognizes outstanding students who have not only maintained good grades but have also unselfishly applied their special knowledge and talents to contribute to their schools and communities. The program is open to high school seniors with a minimum 3.2 GPA (unweighted) in public, private, and parochial schools in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.

 Congratulations to our amazing Silver Knights!

Lauren Goboff (English)

Mayuri Viswanathan (Vocational Tech)

Ian Olsson (World Languages)

Lauren Goboff is dedicated to self-expression, except when the language hurts the people she loves. She believes that while the word “retarded” is not meant maliciously, it still has no place in common usage. She joined the “Spread the Word to End the Word’’ campaign to help end its use at her school. A recipient of Bronfman Youth Fellowship, a National Merit Semifinalist and AP Scholar with Honor, Lauren is also chapter president of Best Buddies at American Heritage. She is a free verse poet, a speech competitor and dancer.

"I was shocked and really, really happy! My hands were shaking by the time I stepped off stage. It was truly an amazing feeling,” said Lauren Goboff when asked how she felt when she heard her name called as a Silver Knight.


Mayuri Viswanathan  is a first-generation American Hindu and learned about her cultural origins and spirituality at Shiva Vishnu Temple of South Florida. Inspired, she wanted to help other young Indian-Americans embrace their cultural identities. For four years, Mayuri taught yoga, spirituality and the Tamil language, an ancient Dravidian language primarily spoken in India, at the Vidya Mandir learning center. Her goal is to eliminate misconceptions about Hindu philosophy.

Mayuri has completed an internship at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at Rutgers University, is a two-time biology Olympiad semifinalist and a National Merit semifinalist.

Ian Olsson collected more than 2,000 books to donate to communities in need when he was a freshman. He called the initiative Letters for Better. The first few thousand books went to Cypress Elementary School in Pompano, and then Ian and his younger sister established a club at Heritage that generated more than 14,000 books earmarked for four elementary schools that had empty or nearly bare libraries. His goal is to share his passion for reading with others, one book at a time.

Congratulations to the Honorable Mention winners!

Leah Ramsaran (Art)

Alyssa Fantel (Drama)

Jude Alawa (General Scholarship)

Congratulations to all of the Nominees!

Carolyn Deeb, Athletics

Morgan Marquez, Journalism

Lawrence Xu, Mathematics

Timothy Bang, Music & Dance

Kunal Naik, Science

Catalina Berenblum, Social Science

Matthew Soree, Speech

Silver Knights and Honorable Mentions celebrate with Mrs. Shienvold, Heritage's Silver Knight Coordinator. (Left to right) Mayuri Viswanathan, Leah Ramsaran, Lauren Goboff, Mrs. Adrienne Shienvold, Jude Alawa, Ian Olsson, and Alyssa Fantel.

For students in their first year of speech and debate, the competitive season culminates with the Florida Forensic League Novice State Championship. This year, American Heritage novice debaters captured state titles in not one but two events. Nicolas Fonseca earned State Champion in Congressional Debate, and David Min is State Champion in Lincoln Douglas Debate. Jordan Parker and partner Jonah Platovsky competed in the semi-finals in Public Forum Debate. Another five AHS students representing both our Plantation and Boca/Delray campuses also advanced to elimination rounds. These young speakers are distinguishing themselves among their peers from around the state, and we are proud that Heritage Speech and Debate is in the top 2% of forensics programs in the country.