3. Poughkeepsie Day School Sophomore Wins National Essay Contest Trip to Azerbaijan
Adam DePaz, a sophomore at the Poughkeepsie Day School, was one of ten essay winners in a National High School Essay Contest sponsored by the World Affairs Councils of America on the Republic of Azerbaijan. Adam learned about the essay competition through his high school history teacher, Karen Nichols, a board member of the World Affairs Council of the Mid-Hudson Valley.
The essay contest, which received over 150 entries from across the United States, asked contestants to assume that they were Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy advisor on Azerbaijan who had to write briefing materials on her upcoming trip to that country, located between the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, and a focal point for global energy policies. Adam had to do extensive research on the country and explain where the strategic interests of the U.S. and Azerbaijan converge and diverge.
An accomplished musician and singer, Adam, the son of Bernadette Condesso of Poughkeepsie and Amir DePaz of Red Hook, has an interest in history and politics, as well as math and science. He recently won recognition at the Washington Area Model United Nations at George Washington University.
Adam and nine other national winners will spend two weeks this summer in Azerbaijan as guests of that country’s government.
Click HERE to download the Essay
For more information contact:
Martin Charwat, World Affairs Council of the Mid-Hudson Valley, macharwat@yahoo.com
or
Karen Nichols, knichols@poughkeepsieday.org
2. Panel Discussions and Concert about Oman
On April 26 at 3:00 p.m. the World Affairs Council of the Mid-Hudson Valley, the Center for Middle Eastern Dialogue and the Department of Political Science and International Relations of the State University of New York in New Paltz will sponsor “Back from an Oasis in the Middle East: Oman as Viewed by Local Educators.” Featuring two panels onOman’s culture, history and politics by area educators who visitedOmanJanuary 3-10, 2012, it will take place in the Student Union Building Room 100. The panels will be followed by a Middle Eastern dinner buffet.
On April 26 at 7:30 p.m. in the Studley Theater SUNY New Paltz campus, there will be a special performance by the “Omani Quintet,” playing traditional Omani music. The musical group is touring theU.S., sponsored by the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center of Oman. The event is also sponsored by the SUNY New Paltz School of Fine and Performing Arts.
Both events are free and open to public. For directions and parking please see http://www.newpaltz.edu/map/ and http://www.newpaltz.edu/parking/. For more information please contact Ilgu Ozler at (845)257-2635 or ozleri@newpaltz.edu.
1. ACADEMIC WORLD QUEST [AWQ] Winners 2013:
The team of Ray Bartolucci, Graham Bass, Breanna Lechase and Akiko Endo, representing Roy C. Ketcham High School, won the Regional Academic World Quest competition held at the Henry A. Wallace Center in Hyde Park on Saturday, March 2. The team’s coach is Marc Foxhall, who is an English teacher at the school. Patrick Alderson was the alternate for the team.
The competition was sponsored by the World Affairs Council of the Mid-Hudson Valley. The World Affairs Council is a non-partisan forum for citizen participation in world affairs. Its mission is to raise public awareness of critical world issues
Academic World Quest is the Council’s flagship program. Teams compete to represent the mid-Hudson region in the national competition. The competition focuses on global issues, with questions generated by a committee of the World Affairs Council. This year’s topics included the Middle East, China, Afghanistan/Pakistan, US Energy Policy, US Education: Competing Globally, US Economic Competitiveness, UN Millennium Development Goals: Environmental Sustainability, Geography, the Cuban Missile Crisis: 50th Anniversary, and Current Events.
Second place in the competition was captured by the ‘B’ team from Arlington High School; third place went to Kingston High School, and fourth place went to ‘A’ team from Arlington High. The B team from Poughkeepsie Day School won the Roosevelt Round of questions.
The Roy C. Ketcham team will represent the mid-Hudson region in the national competition, which will be held in Washington D.C. on April 27.
In all, 14 teams from the mid-Hudson region competed, including teams from Cornwall, Oakwood Friends School, Spackenkill High School and Washingtonville High School.
Both IBM and the Handel Foundation have contributed to support the event. Sheila Appel, the US East Regional Manager, IBM Corporate Citizenship & Corporate Affairs was the quizmaster for the competition. The Council also wishes to thank the Henry A. Wallace Center for their generous support.