Garden City High School Adelphi University Prize for Leadership honorees (left to right) Ryan Torino, Edward Keenan, Andrew Butler, Elizabeth Adamo, and Lauren DeJoseph. Adelphi University recognized five exceptional Garden City High School students for their outstanding public service at the university's annual Prize for Leadership ceremony held in October. Along with their volunteer activities, nominees must document an outstanding record of academic achievement. Garden City residence also is required, but nominees may attend high school in any community.

This year, 18 students where honored at a reception in the Ruth S. Harley University Center on the Adelphi campus. The students each received a $1,000 stipend. They also were invited to attend special presentations at Adelphi throughout the year and may take two complimentary university classes of their choice. The reception was followed by the first Adelphi program open to the honorees, a presentation by Nobel Laureate William D. Phillips, Ph.D. Dr. Phillips received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1997 and is known for advancing new techniques used to chill atoms to extremely low temperatures.

Garden City School District Superintendent Robert S. Feirsen served on the Leadership Prize screening committee, along with Adelphi University President Robert A. Scott and Garden City Village Administrator Robert Schoelle. The committee reviewed more than 100 applications that included extensive documentation from teachers and supervisors with firsthand knowledge of each nominee's activities. "The review process is very time consuming, but not the least bit tedious," Dr. Feirsen said. "It's really uplifting to learn how much these young people are contributing to the community."

GCHS honorees volunteer at local hospitals and in programs for seniors and handicapped children, they fundraise for charitable organizations dedicated to relieving hunger and poverty, and participate in organization, such as Amnesty International, the Miracle Club, and S.A.F.E. (Support American Forces Everywhere) Foundation.