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UNIONDALE _____________
HERALD BEACON
1267041
Community’s annual meeting Page 3 SEPTEMBER 26 - OCTOBER 2, 2024
$1.00 fREE
Future leaders spend summer at Microsoft said. “Get them excited about education, coding, working in groups, and teaching them difTwo Uniondale High School ferent things about what it students spent the summer test- means to be a part of a compaing the latest in technology in a ny, a corporate network (and) Microsoft program designed to dealing with being diverse or expand its reach and educate underrepresented.” Aaron Osorio younger generations. expressed appreciaAaron Osorio, a senior, and his sister, tion for being selectAariana, a junior, ed for such a unique were two of the 30 program. participants in this “I think it was a year’s program. great learning expeMicrosoft’s annurience for everyal summer program, body, because it’s Blacks at Microsoft, almost like they invites students ages required you to be 15 to 19 to their faciluncomfortable,” he ities for six weeks to said. “You needed to get an introduction ALfRED OjuKWu get your hands dirty to the world of tech- Worldwide leader, with the coding. You nology. needed to also presBlacks at Microsoft The program ent. You needed to started in 2016 with a group of talk in front of a lot of people. six students visiting Microsoft’s You needed to learn how to New York City location, and it design your project to make it has grown since then to run in aesthetically pleasing to the multiple locations, including judges.” Boston, Washington D.C., and Over the course of the six cities in Texas, North Carolina weeks, the Osorios, along with and Florida, with 30 partici- the other students, lear ned pants at each location, accord- about coding and software, as ing to Alfred Ojukwu, the world- well as different mental health wide leader of Blacks at Micro- techniques and what the corposoft. rate world is like, according to “The whole point is to prepare them for school,” Ojukwu ContinUed on page 7
By KELSIE RADZISKI
kradziski@liherald.com
W
e value the program a lot. There’s so much emotion in it.
Kelsie Radziski/Herald
Jerson Manzanares, 2, joined the fun at the Uniondale soccer jamboree on Sept. 14.
Hispanic Heritage Month kicks off with soccer in Uniondale
By KELSIE RADZISKI
kradziski@liherald.com
To kick off National Hispanic Heritage Month, the Uniondale school district held its fourth annual Latinx Heritage Soccer Jamboree last weekend. “My biggest goal always is that (students) feel that they are welcomed, that they are loved, that their culture is celebrated and that this is their home,” Estrella OlivaresOrellana, the district’s director of multilin-
gual learners, said. Bright and early on a sunny Saturday morning, Uniondale kids of all ages ran around the lawn of the Cornelius Court School, warming up with lunges and jumping jacks, and plenty of stretching, led by volunteers from the Uniondale Police Activity League, as music blared from speakers. The students took turns at a variety of soccer drills, some running between poles and cones to shoot at a goal and others hopContinUed on page 5