The annual award is given to a graduating high school senior who excels in math and science. Each Staten Island high school is asked to submit a single nominee, from which the honoree and runner-up are selected. The award is named for Michael J. Petrides, a legendary Staten Island educator, who died in 1994.
Highly-motivated and intelligent, Kathleen Coen ranks in the top 5% of her class at Notre Dame Academy. She has taken twelve advanced placement classes, but her skills go far beyond her work in the classroom. Kathleen has been an active leader of her school’s Girls Who Code Club for the last two years, which led to her participation in the Girls Who Code Summer Immersion Program placement at Goldman Sachs. Last year, she won the 2017 Congressional App Challenge for her Steer Clear app. The app works to combat drunk driving by helping users find free and safe rides with a registered designated driver at the party he or she is attending and is available for download through the Google Play Store. In the summer before her junior year, Kathleen earned a fellowship at the Office of Naval Research, where she conducted research on the efficiency of solid state drives through the use of Python scripting and oscilloscopes. Kathleen has also been serving as an intern at AECOM during the last two school years, shadowing leaders in the architecture and engineering community as they proposed new projects to clients. In addition to her work outside school, Kathleen is the Captain of the Notre Dame Academy Forensics Speech and Debate Team and is a member of the Notre Dame Academy Varsity Swim Team.
“I am always impressed by our nominees,” noted Borough President Oddo. “The Petrides Award has been given to many remarkable students over the years, and this year is no exception. Congratulations to our winner and to all the nominees for being the best and brightest in our community.”
James Venditto of Moore Catholic High School was named first runner up.
A full list of nominees is below:
Don Jonathan M. Codipilly, Port Richmond High School
Kathleen Coen, Notre Dame Academy
Qi (Ella) Fan, Staten Island Academy
Timur Ibragimov, Staten Island Technical High School
Sabina Kraja, Michael J. Petrides School
Julia LoCascio, St. Joseph Hill Academy
Anastasia Maximenko, New Dorp High School
Batool Mulla, Susan E. Wagner High School
Emma, Newgarden, St. John Villa Academy
Priya Singh, Tottenville High School
Amy Tang, Ralph R. McKee Career & Technical High School
Olivia Tobi, Gaynor McCown Expeditionary Learning School
Cherilyn Uhm, Curtis High School
Jake Valensi, Monsignor Farrell High School
James Venditto, Moore Catholic High School
Emily Wodzinski, CSI High School for International Studies