Our school community received some exciting news in recent weeks: Four Roslyn High School students were named as semifinalists in the Intel Science Talent Search. Little more than a week later it was announced that two of those students have become finalists.

The two finalists, Lauren Cooper and Lisa Schwartz, are to be congratulated on a singular achievement. Only 40 students in the nation reach the final round of the Intel competition (formerly known as the Westinghouse competition) which is the most prestigious research contest for high school students. The two students who are semifinalists, Risa Borowick and Lisa Goodman, have also earned distinction by joining an elite group of 300 students to reach that stage of the competition.

A total of 19 students entered research projects in the competition, the highest number in many years and possibly the most ever at Roslyn High School. Projects may be submitted in mathematics as well as the biological, physical and social sciences. Cooper's project was in the social sciences and Schwartz' was in math. The semifinalists' projects were in those two areas, as well.

It is often said that exceptional students will do well wherever they go to school. There is no doubt that all four of these young women are exceptional students and Roslyn is fortunate, indeed, to have them in our schools. But it is lso true that many excellent high schools rarely, if ever, have any students at all reach this level of the Intel competition. Roslyn students reach the semifinal round almost every year, one student was a finalist and placed fourth in the competition just two years ago. Without an outstanding research program to support them, even the most talented students might not have the opportunity to excel.

The remarkable showing by our students demonstrates not only the scope and extent of Roslyn High School's research program but, also, reveals an important but largely unknown fact about education in our schools: The exceptionally high level of participation by female students in science and math.

There has been a great deal of concern in educational circles over the years about the fact, historically, many more boys than girls enroll in science and math courses in high school. This is not the case in Roslyn. The current ratio of boys to girls in math and science classes at Roslyn High School is nearly 50-50. If you look into science labs, in most cases you would see just as many girls as boys.

This high level of enrollment by so many students of both genders leads to impressive levels of participation in the high school's Introduction to Research course and Independent Study in Research, which provide an avenue for the pursuit of individual research projects like the ones that did so well in this year's Intel competition. Roslyn students have done very, very well at a number of prominent research competitions, including the Long Island and International Science and Engineering Fairs; the Long Island Math Fair; the Long Island Science Congress; and the Metropolitan NY Junior Science and Humanities Symposium. Social science research has also been strongly encouraged in recent years and our students have excelled in this area, as evidenced by the strong Intel showing of two such projects.

Dr. Stoller, the principal of Roslyn High School, chairs a Research Committee which oversees the entire research program, and a number of faculty members work one-on-one with students as advisors on their projects. Two teachers have earned special recognition at this time: math teacher Steven Conrad and social studies teacher Allyson Weseley. Each supervised one Intel finalist and one semifinalist this year. Others who deserve credit for overseeing this outstanding program are Holly Giordano, the high school's research coordinator and Charles Duggan, who serves as research consultant.

Once again, I warmly congratulate our two finalists and two semifinalists and commend the 15 other students who entered the Intel program this year. The Research Program is thriving because of the interest, creativity and dedication of the students, their teachers and their families.