Borough President Vito Fossella Presents 'Readers Are Leaders' Exceptional Readers Awards

Borough President Vito Fossella presented awards to this year’s “Readers Are Leaders” Exceptional Readers during a ceremony at the Joan & Alan Bernikow Jewish Community Center of Staten Island.

"Readers Are Leaders" challenged fourth-grade students in Staten Island's public, parochial and private schools to read a minimum of five books at grade level or above during a five-week period from Feb. 20 through March 24. Students then submitted a report or project on their favorite book that they read during the period.

ach school picked one Exceptional Reader, who received an award from the Borough President. The program was started by then-Councilman Vito Fossella in 1996 and since its inception, fourth-grade students have read more than 780,000 books for the annual challenge. That's over 29 billion words read by Staten Island students!
"Readers Are Leaders" is sponsored by Community Media of Staten Island and the Staten Island FerryHawks. 

Here are this year’s Exceptional Readers:

• Brielle Glazer, P.S. 1
• Norah Quinones, P.S. 3
• Max Rivadeneira, P.S. 4
• Faith DeLuco, P.S. 6
• Ashley Poznanski, P.S. 8
• Sofia Albarran, P.S 19
• Basit Bakare, P.S. 22
• Erin Wong, P.S. 23
• Sarah Beshay, P.S. 26
• Elizabeth Sheey, P.S. 26
• Angela Velasquez, P.S. 29
• Madison Piantosi¸ P.S. 32
• Alexandra McDonald, P.S. 35
• Emma Aguirre, P.S. 36
• Sandra Nwanorue, P.S. 38
• Steven Mullady, P.S. 39
• Fiona Weng, P.S. 42
• Ella Tung, P.S. 48
• YuQuing Chen, P.S. 50
• Candance Stango, P.S. 52
• Angela Dong, P.S. 56
• Kiara Sandoval, P.S. 57
• Nicholas Thomas, P.S. 62
• Crystal Rivera-Olea, P.S. 68
• Ava Leung, P.S. 69
• Zuryal Adedeji, P.S. 861
• Eashan Biswas, Michael J. Petrides School
• Jenna Jaconetti, St. Clare’s School
• Gabriella Tabolse, St. Charles School
• Gabrielle Zavaglia, Academy of St. Dorothy
• Sophia Shutt, St. Patrick’s School
• Mia Gonzalez, Blessed Sacrament School
• Paul Cicero, Our Lady of Good Counsel School
• Liliana Varriano, St. Christopher’s School
• Judith Downey, Notre Dame Academy
• Jaqueline Dogan, Sacred Heart School
• A.J. Vinci, Our Lady Queen of Peace School
  
• Isabella Ciccone, St. Ann’s School
  
• Emilia Thomas. St. Teresa-St. Rita STREAM Academy