________ Franklin square/elmont _______ WORD ON THE STREET IS
HERALD
you’re paying too much on your street.
Elmont library shares a laugh
Sign up today. It on ly tak Apply online at mptrg es seconds. .com/heraldnote or call 516.715.1266
Page 3 Vol. 27 No. 7
FEBRUARY 13 - 19, 2025
$1.00
Maidenbaum Property Tax Reduction Grou p, LLC 483 Chestnut Street, Cedarhurst, NY 11516 Habl
1281334
DEADLINE MARCH 3RD
amos Español
Islanders host patch contest for students By RENEE DeloRENZo rdelorenzo@liherald.com
Courtesy Belmont Park Village
Joshua Latiff was given a sticker with his winning patch design, which combined the Islanders’ logo with the flag of Guyana, during a pre-game celebration at Belmont Park Village.
The New York Islanders partnered with UBS Arena and Belmont Park Village to host their fifth annual Cultural Inspiration Patch Program Design Contest in November. Fifth-graders from the Elmont, Hempstead and Uniondale school districts submitted their artwork, inspired by their cultural heritage, competing in a pool of over 400 students. The 14 winners of the contest, and their families, were given tickets to the Feb. 4 Islanders ContInued on PaGe 16
Aafia Ahmed named a 2025 Regeneron Scholar By RENEE DeloRENZo rdelorenzo@liherald.com
Elmont Memorial High School senior Aafia Ahmed has always loved science. As a firstgeneration immigrant from Pakistan, and among the only members of her family to enter the science field, her family has supported long nights of research and regular commutes to her internship at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In January, after spending countless hours of the past two years conducting doctorate-level research in the college’s lab, Aafia was named a 2025 Regeneron Science Talent Search
Scholar. Beginning in eighth grade, Aafia recalled, she joined the science research program at her school and began learning how to conduct scientific research and experiments. And, she said, she was encouraged to make decisions on what she wanted to study. Michelle Flannory, who is an Elmont science research coordinator and teaches the science research program at the high school, said when students enter their freshman year of high school, they are then enrolled in a curriculum that prepares them to conduct projects specifically for submission
to the Regeneron competition. Flannory said Aafia had to do a lot of her research virtually at first because she entered high school during the pandemic. But, she said, Aafia rose to the challenge. She soon began research on schizophrenia during her freshman year, Aafia said, studying the neurological components of the illness. In 2023, she applied, and was accepted, to the Einstein-Montefiore Summer High School Research Program, where she p ivo t e d t o a n ew s c i e n c e research project beginning her junior year. She was matched with a mentor from the college,
Dr. Beatriz Villahoz, who began a dv i s i n g h e r o n s c i e n c e research. When Aafia began the fiveweek internship which began in July and ended in August she commuted to the lab five days a week, staying for six to seven hours a day. The first two weeks were intensive training, she said, where she practiced
how to study cell cultures and use pipettes. After all the training, it was time for her to start her own project. She said the toughest part was finding something in which she was genuinely interested. Villahoz, who worked as a staff scientist at the college for ContInued on PaGe 2