High school students John DiModica and Aaron Zhang and teacher Jenny Dixon were among the student scholarship recipients and Suffolk school district honorees recognized at the annual Student Scholarship and District Honoree Luncheon held by the Suffolk Association for the Suffolk Supervisors of Educational Technology. District administrators, technology directors, the students’ parents and technology vendors were also in attendance at the event, held on June 3 at Captain Bill’s in Bay Shore.

Students from Suffolk County schools that are active members of Suffolk ASSET were able to apply for one of twelve $2,000 scholarships for graduating seniors who plan to pursue collegiate studies in a field that integrates technology. The Suffolk ASSET application committee reviewed more than 70 applications, and among those chosen were two members of Deer Park’s Class of 2015, DiModica and Zhang. DiModica plans on attending Binghamton University to study pre-medicine, physics or computer science. Zhang will be attending Brown University to study computer science. The scholarship recipients were also gifted with iPad Air tablets from Suffolk ASSET.

At this function, each participating school district also was given an opportunity to acknowledge a staff member that has supported their district's technology initiatives and endeavors. Deer Park’s staff honoree was Dixon, a special education teacher at JFK. Dixon has integrated a wide range of technology aspects in her classroom, including interactive whiteboard lessons, interactive table programs, iPads, iPod Touches, MacBooks and Google Chromebooks. This school year, technology has played an important role in the development of her fourth- and fifth-grade students. She implemented group and independent work on the Google Chromebooks using such programs as Spelling City, to build fluency, decoding and phonics skill; Raz-Kids; and Reading A-to-Z, which develops reading comprehension through visual and auditory lessons. These programs helped build excitement for reading and gave her students the confidence needed to build a strong foundation for years to come.

“We are extremely proud of John and Aaron for all of their accomplishments and contributions to the Deer Park school community, and are excited to hear of their achievements at the next level,” said Andrew Choi, instructional technology administrator. “We also praise Ms. Dixon’s efforts to support classroom instruction using the wide array of instructional technology tools that we provide.”