Caitlin Rudolph

About Me: I am sixteen years old and I am in eleventh grade at South Side High School in Rockville Centre. I am in the IB program at my school and my favorite classes are history and biology. I love learning about both US and global history and find different cultures especially interesting. I run on the cross country team and on the track and field team at my school.

Hobbies: In my free time I usually hang out with my friends. I also love to read. My favorite novel is To Kill a Mockingbird, but my favorite series is the Harry Potter books. I am currently reading Pride and Prejudice. I also like to go on the computer, and to watch different movies and television shows. My favorite movie is Apollo 13 and my favorite TV show to watch is Criminal Minds. I also love to ski during the winter and I go to the beach almost every day during the summer.

Travel Experience: I have had the opportunity to go on many vacations to different places; however I have only traveled out of the country twice. When I was going into ninth grade my family and I took a vacation to Mont Tremblant, Canada. I also went to the Bahamas last January with my friends. My family and I travel to Utah almost every year to go skiing, and for a couple years we went to California to ski there. I have also been to Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and Florida. I have never been to Europe and I am looking forward to being able to do so.

Allyson Smolyar

About Me: My name is Allyson Smolyar and I am sixteen years old. I was born on April 29, 1993, which makes me a Taurus. I have blue eyes and dirty blonde hair. I am Russian. My dad is from Odessa, Ukraine, and my mom is from Moscow, the capital of Russia. I am bilingual. My first language was Russian, and I have been studying Spanish in school since seventh grade. I’m a junior in Lawrence High School in Nassau County. I spent my ninth grade year going to school in Lawrence Woodmere Academy, a private school, however I didn’t enjoy it. I’m very social and outgoing, and enjoy meeting new people.

Hobbies: I have been a dancer since I was three. Dancing is my passion. I learn diverse style such as ballet, Pointe, modern, hip-hop, pop and lock, salsa, ballroom, and jazz. At the age of fourteen, I began to teach as well as take classes. I love staying healthy and in shape. I began to run track in tenth grade, and am a captain of the Lawrence track team as of my junior year. I go to the gym an average of five days a week. I love shopping, and going out. I enjoy skiing. Every year I look forward to the summer because I love swimming and being on the beach in the sun. I love listening to music… it gets me through the day.

Travel Experience: My family loves to travel; hence I’ve been to a significant amount of places around the world. Domestically, I have visited Florida, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Vermont, and Illinois. Every year my family, family friends and I go on a vacation over the New Year. This consisted of nine years of vacationing in Dominican Republic, and a few years in other islands such as Aruba or Bahamas. When I turned twelve I took my first trip to Europe, which consisted of a one week stay in a villa in Italy, and a one week cruise around the Mediterranean, stopping in places such as Sicily, Monaco, Northern Africa, Spain, and more. We returned to Europe for summer trips and explored areas in France, such as Paris and Cannes, Barcelona, Spain, and Belgium. I have also been fortunate enough to go on a trip to Moscow, Russia, and Odessa, Ukraine, my parent’s home towns. I visited the beautiful culture of my people, and the experience was priceless.

Casey Grippo

Hey, my name's Casey and I'm currently a Freshman at Garden City High School. I'm one of the youngest in my grade, but you could never tell because a lot of my friends are older than me. I have both a mom and dad and I also a younger sister named Lindsay. Lindsay is one of my best friends and even though we love to argue, we always have fun together. I also have a shih tzu named Mandy. I'm crazy and I love to have fun!

School: My favorite class in school is photography. It's a film photography class and I feel a lot of satisfaction when I see my image develop in the chemicals. Photography is the perfect class for me because I love art, but I was never good at drawing or painting. My photo teacher lets us listen to our own music and work at our own pace, which makes it a fun environment.

Music: I love music and I feel like music makes up a big part of who a person is. My favorite bands are The Velvet Underground, Jefferson Airplane, Talking Heads, Grateful Dead, and Fleetwood Mac. Even though Rock makes up the majority of the music I listen to, I love all types of music especially techno and hip-hop.

T.V Shows & Movies: My favorite t.v show of all times is Bones, but I also love The Good Wife, Grey's Anatomy, and Gossip Girl. I watch tons of movies and some of my all-time favorites are Adventureland, Clueless, and Fierce People.

Hobbies: I love listening to my music, making memories with my friends, and dancing. I am on my high school kickline team. Kickline is like a mix between dance and cheer, basically like what the Rockettes do! I love performing for people.

My Travels: Every year during the summer, my family and I go on vacation to a different place. Mainly we go to Aruba, but we have also been to Hawaii, Turks & Caicos, as well as many places in the country. Two years ago, I went on a people to people trip to Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, France, and Britain. I made friends on that trip who I am still currently friends with. I am excited to hopefully have the same wonderful experience this year:).

Candra Marie McCoy

Hi, my name is Candra McCoy. I am 16 years old. I was born on June 18, 1993 at Glen Cove Hospital. I am currently a junior at Glen Cove High School. I am an AP/honor student, active member of DECA and Editor-in-Chief of my school's newspaper. My favorite subjects in school are Math, Mandarin Chinese and Social Studies. When I am older I hope to pursue a career in Psychology. My family is a very important factor of my life. I have a 1 year old sister named Brooke and a 23 year old brother named Angel. I am of Puerto Rican, African American and Welsh heritage. I have a small immediate family, while my extended family is very large.

I participate in three varsity sports: cross country, basketball and spring track. My favorite of the three is spring track because it’s exhilarating. In my track career, I have won several medals and I hope to win many more this year.
In my spare time, I love to read, draw, and watch movies. My favorite authors are Stephenie Meyer, Laurie Halse Anderson, and Tamara Summers. My favorite movies are Percy Jackson and the Olympians, A Walk to Remember and The Notebook. I also enjoy photography. My favorite season is spring because I love going outside, taking pictures and hanging out with friends. My favorite foods are Chinese, Spanish and Italian. I also love soup!

In the fall, I held my first job at Bayville Scream Park. I worked in the clown house and my stage name was "the Joker”. I had a great time hanging out with friends and scaring all the customers. I'll be starting drivers Ed this fall and I can't wait to start driving. "Look out all you people on the sidewalk, Candra's coming through!"

I've traveled to various places in the US. I've also traveled internationally to places like: Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Cayman Islands, Barbados, Mexico and my favorite Bermuda. I am so excited to be going to France, Spain and Italy this summer. I can't wait to create memories that will last a lifetime. Europe is going to be so exciting and hopefully the beginning of new friendships.

Tiara Dusenbury

Hey Everybody!! I’m Tiara Dusenbury

About Me: I was born December 8th 1993, I ‘m sixteen and I am a student at Uniondale High School. I have two sisters a younger one named Mya and an older sister named Monique, and I have one dog named Coco. When you first meet me I am very shy but once you get to know me I am a very fun person to be around and I love to laugh, and just have fun, and be myself. I’m really excited about going on this trip and making new friends, and I’m really excited about being able to try out my French in France.

Favorite Foods: I love Spanish food, but my most favorite food is Italian.

Subjects: Math and Science

Music: I like alternative, country, hip- hop, R & B, and rap music. Some of my favorite artists are green day, black eyed peas, Trey Songz, Lil Wayne, Tim McGraw, and Ne- Yo.

Authors: Jacqueline Woodson, Stephenie Meyer, Carrie Jones, and Michael Phillips.

Colors: Blue and Red

T.V. Shows and Movies: I really enjoy watching shows that can make me laugh such as The King of Queens, and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. My favorite movies are Forrest Gump, Titanic and He’s just not that into you.

Hobbies: Some of my hobbies are reading, listening to music, dancing, and of course shopping. I also enjoy hanging out with friends and just watching a movie or just hanging out and having a good time.
Travel Experience: I have never gone anywhere out of the United States, so I’m very excited about being able to go overseas to Spain, Italy and France. Also I have never been on a plane so that would be another first for me; I am both scared and excited about going on a plane. Some places I’ve been to in the U.S. are Florida, New Jersey, Virginia, Maine, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Upstate New York.