New Haven Independent

However, the father must be modeling something right because his Micro Society Magnet School seventh-grader was honored as a student of the month at Wednesday night’s Board of Education meeting.

Roggie was one of six students in the New Haven Public Schools given recognition in Registro, the Spanish language edition of the Register, for their academic and all around achievements.

“The idea,” said Lucas Underwood, a reporter for the paper, “was to give academic achievers the attention the paper gives to student athletes.”

Young Leon, said his principal Laura Russo, who was there to applaud, is an honor student, on the safety patrol, and a school leader. And — no surprise — she said his family is supportive. Roggie wants to be a teacher when he grows up.

This seventh-grader, who has recently been excelling in the study of polygons, is another student of the month: Janilee Sanchez from the Katherine Brennan School in West Rock. As her parents, Maria and Alex Beltran (on the left), beamed, her principal (and also Connecticut Association of Schools Assistant elementary principal of the year) Amy Clarke said Janilee was the definition of a model student: “A high achiever, she lasers in on all her subjects, and is helpful to everyone, her teachers and her peers.”

Clarke said that Janilee’s interest in math is not at all unusual these days for the girls in the school.

What’s one of Clarke’s and Janilee’s secrets to academic success? Clarke said that Janielee and each of her students knows precisely their past CMT scores and other assessments and knows, based on the data, precisely what area to focus on and to shore up.

This young man appeared not to need shoring up in any subject. Joshua Dalby, clarinetist, head of the robotics club, and black belt in karate (“and don’t forget he’s also over six feet tall,” his grandmother urged a reporter not to omit) was one of a second group being honored at the BOE meeting.

These high-achieving students were selected by their principals and featured on radio station WYBC in a BOE partnership with the Community Health Network. Joshua’s an eighth-grader from the Sheridan Technology Magnet School out on Fountain Street, now being housed temporarily on Valley Street. He’s bound, he said, to work for NASA.

His grandmother, May Stephens (on the left in photo), and his mom Michelle VanArsdale, who live with Joshua in Orange, said all his life Joshua has been interested in being an engineer or designer for NASA,. So when they saw in the newspaper that Sheridan is partnered with NASA and Hamilton Sundstrand, one of the companies that manufacturers space suits, they urged their bright boy to apply. He’s flourished. He tutors algebra for sixth-graders. His favorite course is applied technology, where they translate theories in physics into building bridges that move.

Oh, and Joshua has also just returned from a triumphant tour of Brussels, London, and Paris on a program called People-to-People. It’s an introduction to leadership — as well as a first time to Europe — for the eighth-grader. He was recommended by his social studies teacher and was Sheridan’s only representative on that program. Needless to say, of all the wonders he saw, what sticks in his mind was that piece of applied physics known as the Eiffel Tower.

“These kids,” said Superintendent of Schools Reggie Mayo, “are everything we could ask for in students: high achievers who are also mentors and give back to their schools and communities.”

He also asked the parents of the students to take a bow. Mario Leon, the Beltrans, and Joshua Dalby’s proud mother and grandmother stood, and this time their kids applauded them.