Students of Distinction
SPONSORED BY
Louis Annunziata
July 2019
Churchill School and Center
Howard Beach, NY
Louis Annunziata graduated from
the Derek Jeter Turn 2 Foundation’s
Jeter’s Leaders program during a
special ceremony this summer. The ceremony
celebrated students’ academic
achievements and welcomed the 2023
class of leaders. Jeter’s Leaders, which
is Turn 2’s signature initiative, is an
intensive four-year program for high
school students who serve as ambassadors
for Derek Jeter in their communities.
“Over the past four years, these
students have continuously gone above
and beyond to serve as leaders create
positive social change, and inspire
other young people,” said Jeter.
Annunziata is one of eight high
school seniors who graduated from
the Leader’s program. “I’ve had many
good experiences and the program
prepared me for the real world,” said
Annunziata. “I’ve learned how to be a
team player. Everyone has to put in the
same amount of work, or else it’s not
really fair, and you never know what
might happen with a group project.”
Throughout the course of the program,
Annunziata spent time mentoring
kids, working on group projects, and
participating in community service projects
such as picking crops on a farm
and painting murals at a school.
Moving forward, he is heading
to Farmingdale State College this
fall. Upon completing undergraduate
studies he plans to obtain his Master’s
Degree in business management and
become an entrepreneur. Annunziata’s
message to the class of 2023 is, “be
open to new ideas and never take
My is
The Jeter’s Leaders Class of 2023
inductees with the 2019 graduates.
Photo courtesy of Turn 2 Foundation, Inc.
anything for granted in this program
because this is a once in a lifetime
opportunity and not many kids get this
chance that you have.”
Each one of Jeter’s Leaders is
awarded a $5,000 scholarship by the
Turn 2 Foundation upon graduation
from the program.
“From volunteering in their communities
and serving as role models to their
peers, to excelling in their academics
and achieving their goals, these
students have grown into outstanding
leaders,” said Sharlee Jeter, President
of Turn 2 Foundation. “We are incredibly
proud of these young people and
we know their futures are bright.”
By Carlotta Mohamed
Rose Reilly
August 2019
The Mary Louis Academy
Fresh Meadows, NY
Mary Louis Academy sophomore
Rose Reilly recently was awarded
$4000 fi rst prize for writing the winning
essay in Life’s WORC/The Family
Center For Autism’s annual essay competition.
All 146 entries from students
across Queens, Nassau and Suffolk
County high schools were based on
the prompt: How can I lead my school
and community to become a bully-free
place for individuals with autism and
developmental disabilities? Reilly’s
essay in full follows:
Bullying often targets people with
special needs because they know that
they can get away with antagonizing
them. In order to prevent and stop
bullying on a massive scale one must
start with reforming their own school
and community. Some reforms that
could help are exposing kids with
special needs and kids that don’t have
them with clubs and integrated classes,
also teaching children at an early age
why children with special needs act
differently, and to make sure that when
bullying happens the bully understands
what they did was wrong.
In order for these groups to get
Rose Reilly
Photo provided by Danny Frank
along with each other they have to be
exposed to each other fi rst, and at a
early age. One way to do this is by
introducing social gatherings or clubs
specifi cally for this purpose. Clubs that
have team-building games and that
go on trips to places to improve social
skills. In these clubs everyone can learn
something. Children with special needs
can learn life skills and social cues
while others will learn compassion and
patience.
Another way of exposing these
children to each other is by having
them in integrated classes. Integrating
classes will set up those with developmental
"#$%
disabilities for the real world
and others to be able to interact with
them effortlessly.
We fear what we don’t understand.
We have seen this problem a million
times before. By educating children on
why those who act differently act the
way they do, they will be able to understand
and be able to sympathize more
with those who are different. Teachers
could explain it by saying that interactions
with special needs is like playing
a game of charades. This demonstrates
the challenges a child with special
needs faces when trying to understand
the message someone else is trying to
communicate. Also teaching them to be
sensitive to children with special needs.
When bullying does happen there
must be a process in order to make
sure that it doesn’t happen again. This
includes making sure that the bully
realized what they did wrong. A bully
may not understand the harm they are
doing. By explaining instead of always
punishing the bully, a bully will be able
to understand how their actions affect
others, and will prevent it from happening
again. Telling a bully to “think
about what they have done” obviously
doesn’t work if the child does not know
what they have done was wrong.
Teaching them to sympathize will prevent
future negative behavior.
By helping bullies understand
what they did wrong, intermingling
these children together and educating
students without special needs why
they act differently is key to reforming
a community and or school to prevent
bullying against those who see the
world differently. These reforms would
lead to an environment where we learn
how to accept others’ differences and
celebrate in our similarities.
Our congratulations to Rose!
By Jacob Kaye
!
TIMESLEDGER,QNS.COM BT AUG. 23-29, 2019 19
/TIMESLEDGER,QNS.COM
