Hawthorne High School’s Advanced Placement Biology course, taught by Matthew Zaolino, has 20 senior students enrolled this year, and 15 of them plan to go into a pre-medicine program after high school.
This year the class is made up of ambitious students with goals to be anesthesiologists, pharmacists, cardiologists, veterinarians, orthopedics, pediatricians, nurses, dietitians, and nutritionists. Students are also aspiring to major in biomedicine and physician and emergency medicine. Not only do these students have ambitious goals but they are also applying to well-known universities such as: Princeton, Northwestern, John Hopkins, Rutgers, Villanova, NJIT, Westchester, University of New Haven, and Boston University.
Senior Christina Pecoraro has been accepted to the University of North Carolina’s pre-medicine program and will be attending the university next fall. Pecoraro commented on her acceptance by saying, “It feels crazy; it’s weird knowing so early.” She continued to say that it feels good to know that all her hard work the past four years has paid off.
Senior LJ Kozlowski said the recent AP Biology field trip to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City (where the students watched via live video and two-way audio, an operation being performed by Dr. Stuart R. Geffner, Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Surgery at Barnabas Health in New Jersey) inspired him to be a surgeon. Senior Mike Charron said that working at the well-known pharmacy, Walgreens, inspired him to study the pharmaceutical industry.
When asked why she wanted to study nutrition, senior Aislinn Ellerbrook responded, “I am interested in the science and complexity behind nutrition and dietetics. The obesity rate in America alone has sky rocketed, and I hope that in my future, I will be able to educate people about the importance of nutrition.”
Throughout the year the students learn about three broad topics: molecules and cells, heredity and evolution, and organisms and populations. With those topics in mind, students focus their studies on eight major themes which include science as a process, evolution, energy transfer, continuity and change, relationship of structure to function, regulation, interdependence in nature, science, technology and society. Senior Tino Graziano feels that HHS’s AP Biology course is definitely preparing him for the “true college bio major” he will hopefully be entering in next fall.
During the course of the school year, the class will be preparing for the AP exam that takes place in the beginning of May. If a student scores a 3 or higher (out of a possible 5) that student can get college credit for the course. Zaolino is preparing the students for the test by incorporating AP questions on regular marking period tests that are similar to the questions they will see on the AP exam.
In addition to receiving possible credits by taking the AP exam, students can also receive credit through a Mid-College program from Farleigh Dickenson University in Madison, New Jersey. Senior Marina Kaghado explained that a student must maintain a 70 or higher in the class and pay $200 to receive college credit.
Some think AP Bio must be all work and no fun, but this class surely proves that thought wrong; the students laugh amongst themselves as they joke about the saying, “All hail General Zi.” General Zaolino chuckles right along with them.