The Northport-East Northport School District congratulates East Northport Middle School “Investigate Gifted & Talented” students, Daniel D’Souza and Andrew Mead, for being selected for the Center for Civic Education’s We the People: Project Citizen program national-level competition.

Each year, the program is made possible through a research grant from the U.S. Department of Education. It engages young people in project-based learning as they work to monitor and influence local public policy.

East Northport Middle School sixth grade Investigate students worked to identify a problem in their community, researched alternative policy-based solutions, developed proposals to address the problem, and designed political action plans to convince public officials to adopt and implement their policies.

This year, Andrew and Daniel researched the issue of bicycle safety and submitted their project to the State Level Competition hosted by the Justice Resource Center in New York City. After extensive research and conducting interviews with experts, such as Joseph DiPalma, president of the Nassau-Suffolk Bicycle Coalition, Andrew and Daniel’s project was selected to represent New York State in the middle school category at the national competition in California.

The district wishes Andrew and Daniel luck as their bicycle safety “Project Citizen” portfolio goes to California for review by national judges. The students worked with teachers Brianne Furstein, Fran Bertos and David Scott in developing their project.