All Girls Are Special!

Margarita Basurto in a violin lesson
with Nicholas Orifici at East End Arts School

In 2017 . . . Peconic Bay Zonta gave a music scholarship to young Margarita Basurto, a violin student at the East End Arts School. Excited by Margarita’s progress, we have renewed her scholarship at the school.

Recently, Zonta members Liala Strotman and Annika Shapiro sat in on one of Margarita’s lessons with her teacher Nicholas Orifici (see Orifici's faculty bio here).

Said Annika, “Margarita thanked us several times for our support. Nick has been teaching her for seven months and said she is doing very well and has improved a lot.”

In 2016 . . . Peconic Bay Zonta joined with Brookhaven Women In Science to send Camille van der Watt to a summer workshop on scientific computing, held at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Recognizing Camille’s potential in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), both organizations were happy to support her participation.

Today, according to David Biersach, her mentor at Brookhaven Lab, Camille continues to do exceptionally well in high school. As a sophomore, “she is approximately four years ahead of her peers in mathematics, having already completed college courses in calculus I & II,” said Biersach, a technology architect at BNL.

COMING UP: In 2001, Zonta giving gets a girl airborne – literally!