The Meadowbrook Alternative Program graduated 19 students from its senior class on June 18.

During her commencement speech, valedictorian Jordan Ladd addressed the crowd of fellow graduates, staff, board members and school administrators. 

“At MAP, you’re seen as a whole person,” she said. “You figure out your strengths and your weaknesses and see what works.”

Salutatorian Chazz Opperman thanked teachers and staff for not giving up on him.

“Through a series of blessed mistakes, I’m somehow right here; exactly where I’m supposed to be, accepting my high school diploma,” he said.

During his faculty address, teacher Zachary Gosse spoke about the importance of experimenting in life and embracing both successes and failures.

“There is no single roadmap that guides you through life,” he said. “Everyone follows their own path. And it is perfectly okay to fail, but it is the insight that you gain from your failed experiments that will once again enable you to be successful.”

The Meadowbrook Alternative Program kicked off is Shakespeare Festival on May 3 - digital style.
 
“We have created a green-screen wall, which will not only enable me to film larger, more active scenes from Shakespeare, but our entire staff can now use it to create video projects with the students,” said director and English teacher Laura Sheridan. “The supplies needed to create the wall and to purchase audio/visual equipment were provided through a grant from the Parent Community Center.”

Performances included Julius Caesar, Antony & Cleopatra, Much Ado About Nothin, and Romeo & Juliet and were videotaped and presented in the auditorium. They included students, staff and administrators.

“The festival takes months to prepare, especially now that we do most of it pre-taped,” Sheridan explained. “It involves many hands and a lot of volunteering.”

In preparation of the festival, several students took a field trip to Manhattan to see Julius Caesar performed at the Classic Stage Company in mid-March.

“Experiencing a live performance of Shakespeare gave them perspective and inspiration for their own scenes,” Sheridan said

On April 30, the Meadowbrook Alternative Program’s School and Community Leadership class delivered their cyberbullying presentation to the fifth- and sixth-grade classes of the Newbridge Road Elementary School in the North Bellmore School District.  

“This partnership was forged earlier in the school year when the students at Newbridge Road and the leadership class at MAP both read the children's novel “Wonder” and went to see the film back in November,” said Zachary Gosse, a special education teacher. “The main character in the book experiences bullying in his new school, which inspired the leadership students to identify tools to help combat cyberbullying in school buildings.”  

MAP students identified a free software app (ReThink) that is easily downloaded to any phone, tablet or device, which effectively stops cyberbullying before the damage is done. 
 
“The presentation provided a venue for the leadership students to discuss the negative impact cyberbullying has on learning environments and how ReThink helps give users an opportunity to pause and re-evaluate a hurtful message or post before it is sent,” Gosse added.
  
The leadership class also displayed their student made infomercial highlighting ReThink and how it can benefit adolescents who use their cellphones on a regular basis.