High Tech Students and Teachers Honored at 11th Annual UNIS Haiku Contest

(New York—June 3, 2017) Judges from the United Nations International School (UNIS) honored three High Tech High School students and two High Tech teachers at the 11^th annual UNIS Haiku Contest in English, French, and Japanese Awards Assembly, announced Dr. Joseph Giammarella, Principal of High Tech.

High Tech students Emily Ortega (senior) of North Bergen won First Place for French, West New York resident Ivanna Guerrero (junior) earned Second Place for French, and Jessica Gonzalez (freshman) of North Bergen took home Third Place for French.

High Tech instructor Dr. Laje Gashi won First Prize in the French Teachers Division and fellow High Tech teacher Akemi Dobkin earned Second Prize in the Japanese Teachers Division.

Poets, their families, and their teachers received special recognition during this event.  Judges reviewed over sixty entries in the French division, 300 entries in the English division, and another 600 haikus in the Japanese division.  Contestants also wrote haikus in Arabic, Italian, and Spanish.   

A pair of schools or programs submitted in the French division, nine schools or programs likewise in the English Division, and seventeen schools or programs from across the world entered the Japanese Division.  Approximately a dozen of these poems earned First, Second, or Third Place finishes. Furthermore, the balance of the haikus received Special Mention and Honorable Mention distinctions.