Pelham Examiner

Pelham Examiner

Pelham Examiner

Sophia Leung, Senior Editor

Sophia Leung is a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania with an undecided major in the College of Arts and Sciences. In addition to contributing to the Examiner, Sophia is a coxswain on the men's heavyweight crew team at Penn and is looking to continue writing during her college career.

All content by Sophia Leung
News analysis: Class of 2021 lives a gap year

News analysis: Class of 2021 lives a gap year

By Sophia Leung, Senior Editor
July 28, 2021

Senior year for most is a year full of lasts. Last classes with best friends, last times in the halls with all your friends, last homecoming, last live musical, last lunches, last tests, last goodbyes....

Pelham Examiner Assistant Managing Editor Bella Caruso (left) and Managing Editor Georgia Russello check the first print edition during its press run.

[Photo] PELHAM EXAMINER PUBLISHES FIRST PRINT EDITION!

By Bella Caruso, Assistant Managing Editor
July 23, 2021

The Examiner editors checked the finished copies.

PMHS Student Association President Sophia Leung.

Sophia Leung’s graduation speech: Seeing so much more clearly with shields down

By Sophia Leung
June 30, 2021

The parents in the audience might not be struck by this quite as much as I am, but I can’t tell you how breathtaking it is to look out at a group of people with no plastic barriers between us. I had...

The first two of five major recommendations from the report on the racial equity audit done by the NYU Metropolitan Center for Research on Equity and the Transformation of Schools.

Problems revealed in equity audit are lived experience for BIPOC grad and parents, who call for changes

By Sophia Leung and Cristina Stefanizzi
March 22, 2021

As a person of color who went through the Pelham school system, Nora Tahbaz read nothing in the district’s racial equity report that was a surprise. It was her lived experience. Tahbaz, a Pelham Memorial...

School board president talks about racial equity moves including Princeton Plan, restorative justice

School board president talks about racial equity moves including Princeton Plan, restorative justice

By Cristina Stefanizzi and Sophia Leung
March 18, 2021

Pelham Board of Education President Jessica DeDomenico said enacting the Princeton Plan as recommended in the district's report on racial equity "solves a lot of the concerns around race and equity" but...

Beware deadline error on ballot: Manor absentee votes due at village hall Tuesday by 9 pm

Beware deadline error on ballot: Manor absentee votes due at village hall Tuesday by 9 pm

By Sophia Leung, Deputy Managing Editor
March 15, 2021

Absentee ballots for the Pelham Manor election are due at village hall by 9 p.m. on Tuesday, not at a later time stated in an error in the text on some ballots. Some ballots distributed over the...

Lucas Matos, Stephen Tahbaz, Jack Denison, Shep Solimine and Michael Salama.

Foto Feature: WinterFest brings Pelham together while apart

By Charlotte Howard and Sophia Leung
January 11, 2021

Under the auspices of Pelham Together and the Pelham Chamber of Commerce, WinterFest offered the chance to hear musicians Saturday in front of houses and businesses, with holiday lights blazing and treats...

Pelham Manor launches online Covid-19 hub with testing site look-up, links to local, national resources

Pelham Manor launches online Covid-19 hub with testing site look-up, links to local, national resources

By Sophia Leung, Deputy Managing Editor
January 11, 2021

The Village of Pelham Manor this week launched a Covid-19 information hub on its website in an effort to consolidate resources for residents regarding necessary precautions and other relevant information...

Racial equity report: District lacks consistent commitment to equitable and racially just schools

Racial equity report: District lacks consistent commitment to ‘equitable and racially just’ schools

By Sophia Leung, Deputy Managing Editor
December 20, 2020

The Pelham school district's racial equity consultants found the district lacks "a consistent commitment to fostering an equitable and racially just school environment," citing disparities in the testing...

Village of Pelham police vehicles parked next to Town Hall, which houses the department.

Members of Pelham police reform panel on work: Talks ‘between neighbors,’ ‘lot of education’

By Sophia Leung, Contributing Editor
October 1, 2020

The Village of Pelham Police Steering Committee has met seven times over the past several weeks to discuss the status and public perception of the police in Pelham. Ella and Veronica Stern, two of six...

Mark Finegan, Amy Lucas, Maribeth Albin, Kathryn Walker, John Plunkett, Brian Leighton
and Stephen Magarelli in PMS gym shared by high school and middle school.

Foto Feature: Most Pelham teachers dress in Red for Ed to protest safety of hybrid model

By Sophia Leung, Contributing Editor
September 18, 2020

Most Pelham teachers wore Red for Ed on the first day of school last week as well as on the first day of district-wide in-person teaching to protest the district's hybrid learning model. Teachers'...

Members of Pelham Teachers Association to hold Red for Ed protests over hybrid reopening plan

Members of Pelham Teachers’ Association to hold Red for Ed protests over hybrid reopening plan

By Sophia Leung, Contributing Editor
September 9, 2020

Members of the Pelham Teachers' Association will be wearing Red for Ed on the first day of school Thursday and on the first day of hybrid learning, which will be as early as Monday, in protest of the current...

51 Hudson Valley teacher and staff union presidents oppose hybrid model; Pelhams signature omitted in public letter

51 Hudson Valley teacher and staff union presidents oppose hybrid model; Pelham’s signature omitted in public letter

By Sophia Leung, Contributing Editor
August 21, 2020

Presidents of 51 teacher and school staff unions in the Hudson Valley issued an open letter Friday opposing the hybrid school reopening model, saying it poses “significant risks” to students and teachers. Pelham...

Reporters notebook: Why is ACT gambling with my college future?

Reporter’s notebook: Why is ACT gambling with my college future?

By Sophia Leung, Contributing Editor
August 6, 2020

On Monday morning, after three Covid-19 test cancellations, months of excruciating studying and a long night of anticipation, cause for a massive sigh of relief sat in my email inbox: “You have a seat...

Pelham United: PMHS alum seek to educate community and push for change

Pelham United: PMHS alum seek to educate community and push for change

By Sophia Leung, Contributing Editor
July 30, 2020

Prior to Pelham’s Unity Rally in June, Nora Tahbaz and Veronica Stern had been discussing ways to bring change to Pelham within their respective social groups, but neither had a clear plan of action....

Panelists at County Human Rights Commission event highlight anti-Black racism theyve faced

Panelists at County Human Rights Commission event highlight anti-Black racism they’ve faced

By Sophia Leung, Contributing Editor
July 20, 2020

In the first of what will be several discussions on the impacts of discrimination in its many forms, the Westchester County Human Rights Commission invited four panelists to share their experiences as...

Photo courtesy of Kathryn Fugazy

Honor heroes not by memorializing, but by taking action

By Sophia Leung, Staff Reporter
June 26, 2020

As BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) in Pelham, particularly students, are more openly sharing their personal experiences with racial injustice, the community is torn on how to respond. Some...

Kimberly Garvey, a physician assistant at New York-Presbyterian Lawrence Hospital in Bronxville: Honestly, it was really scary.

‘Hoping I never see what I saw again in my life:’ Pelham healthcare workers describe months battling killer Covid-19

By Sophia Leung and Delia Lavallee
June 18, 2020

Jennifer Lapponese stood daily in the Montefiore Medical Center emergency room in the Bronx screening patients entering the hospital during Covid-19’s peak. Stationed by the elevators, she witnessed...

The teachers: Methods created on fly; teaching kids while caring for own

The teachers: Methods created on fly; teaching kids while caring for own

By Sophia Leung, Delia Lavallee, and Evan Kaplan
May 7, 2020

In a Colonial School third grade classroom, 20 or so students listened rapt as Joanne Lombardi explained Chinese culture in early March. Then the world changed. Coronavirus slammed into New York,...

Before the storm, Henry Driesen (center) with two classmates at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in their ROTC uniforms.

Pelham college students return home, adjust to distance learning during pandemic

By Sophia Leung, Staff Reporter
March 27, 2020

Students at all levels of education are struggling to adapt to the chaos that is the Covid-19 pandemic. PMHS alumni who were, until recently, unconcerned about exposure now find themselves back home and...

Junior Leagues plans for Juliannes Playground: Lawn space for blacktop, student-funded basketball hoop

Junior League’s plans for Julianne’s Playground: Lawn space for blacktop, student-funded basketball hoop

By Sophia Leung, Staff Reporter
January 8, 2020

The Junior League of Pelham, which is in the planning phase of its project to revitalize Julianne’s Playground between Third and Fourth avenues in Pelville, is considering replacing the blacktop area...

PMHS minority students say they experience little bias, though some offensive comments are reported

PMHS minority students say they experience little bias, though some offensive comments are reported

By Sophia Leung, Staff Reporter
November 8, 2019

Editor's note: To allow for privacy and open communication, assumed names are used in this article.  Most minority students at Pelham Memorial High School interviewed by the Pelham Examiner say they...

Scientist Yung Lie funds young scientists pursuing innovative new research

Scientist Yung Lie funds young scientists pursuing innovative new research

By Sophia Leung, Staff Reporter
October 4, 2019

The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation provides scientists early in their careers with grants to pursue innovative research that may not be supported elsewhere. Yung Lie, a Pelham resident, is the...

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