Erin Ye is one of the stars of Huntington High School’s science research program. The junior garnered honors at the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair in the behavioral and social sciences category.
Ms. Ye captured third place and garnered a special award “recognizing outstanding research in behavioral sciences” presented by the American Psychological Association.
“I was so excited to learn that I had won third place at LISEF along with an American Psychological Association special award,” Ms. Ye said. “I wasn’t expecting it at all and was grateful to be able to share my research in the first place.”
The annual LISEF program draws entries from many of the New York metropolitan area’s finest students.
“My project focused on how an online learning model has affected the language acquisition process for students in Huntington's English as New Language program,” Ms. Ye said. “My research suggested that students found it significantly more difficult to learn English virtually, which was reflected in their performance on Spanish and English vocabulary knowledge assessments. However, those with more positive perception of online learning were also correlated to have more balanced Spanish and English test scores, which was something I highlighted in my presentation. I hope to continue down this line of research on education and language acquisition.”
The teenager is very highly regarded by her teachers and classmates. Ms. Ye has earned top grades across the board.
“Erin is a tenacious student who has a deep routed passion for investigations,” science research program teacher Lori Kenny said. “She is passionate in all of the work she does and is super conscientious about the needs of her peer group. Each day working with Erin is a joy. She is an outstanding mentor to her classmates and is well regarded by the research faculty team.”
Ms. Ye expressed appreciation for the efforts of Mrs. Kenny along with science teachers Deborah Beck and Dame Forbes who “were all a huge help while I was working on my project,” the junior said. “I really can’t thank the science research department enough for all of their support and freedom that they've given me to explore my interests. I’d also like to give a special thank you to Mrs. [Eileen] Gonzalez and the ENL students at Huntington, who were gracious enough to help me collect data for my project. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them.”