STEER for Student Athletes summer programs that provide material for inevitable class essays

September 11, 2024 at 10:14 p.m.

Daisy Aguilar and Blanca Garcia work on Project Based Learning, run by Port Chester Middle School teacher Alison Fasano, this summer. (Courtesy photo of STEER for Student Athletes)

When you are assigned to write that inevitable back-to-school essay titled "What I did on my summer vacation," Port Chester's STEER for Student Athletes participants have many special stories to tell. They range from a "Nourish our Neighbors" initiative to a college transition program at four local colleges, and from attendance at softball and soccer camps to interning with the P.C. Police Department to exploring academic programs at schools ranging from Mercy to Harvard.

Here are seven of the more interesting STEER summer projects more than worthy of essays:

    Port Chester High School football player AJ Alvarez participates in the LIFT program at Purchase College designed to keep student athletes in shape with strength and conditioning workouts over the summer.
 Courtesy of STEER for Student Athletes   

1. Project Based Learning, more popularly known as PBL, run by Middle School teacher Alison Fasano, is a winner of a program designed to help students take the initiative to make their communities a better place. And Lady Ram soccer players Kimberly Flores, Yvonne Santiago, Bridget Morocho, Blanca Garcia, Daniela Lopez, Daisy Aguilar, Marisabel Rodriguez, Allison Lopez and softball player Tamara Correia did just that. They decided to begin an initiative, "Nourish Our Neighbors," which would support senior citizens in Port Chester by delivering food to them every month. The program is designed to help combat hunger locally with crops grown from the Port Chester Middle School garden.

2. Ram football players Alejandro Velasquez and AJ Alvarez, Lady Ram volleyballers Nataly Suertegaray and Daniela Lopez and Track & Field's Elizabeth (Liz) Cruz participated in the LIFT program at Purchase College designed to help keep them in shape with strength and conditioning workouts. STEER alumna Ayenaliz (Nani) Velasquez, an Ithaca College grad and former Lady Ram T&F great, was one of the coaches conducting multiple sessions a week for the STEER student athletes.

3. A new College Transition Program offered twice-a-week sessions at four different colleges (Manhattanville, Mercy, Iona and Purchase) featuring different scenarios—from Time Management to Saving Money—with STEER student athletes participating including volleyballer Samantha (Sam) Munoz, cheerleader Adrian Osorio, soccer players Sophia Maldonado, Bayron Aguirre, Valeria Novoa and Christian Flores and T&F's Alexandra (Alee) Cruz.

4. Former Lady Ram softball and basketball greats Brooklyn and Madison Ostrowski, winners of athletic scholarships to Villanova University, were among the Wildcat players who helped coach and train three Lady Ram softball players and STEER student athletes—Melina Morban, Tamara Correia and Yvonne Santiago. The sessions took place during an overnight softball camp at Villanova run by Wildcats head coach Bridget Orchard, formerly of Rye Brook. And STEER advisor and P.C. Lady Rams softball coach Jeanine Maiolini offered scholarships to STEER's Yvonne Santiago and Marisabel Rodriguez so they could receive coaching on the game's fundamentals at her annual summer softball camp on the Port Chester High School campus.

    Melina Morban (left), Yvonne Santiago (middle) and Tamara Correia (right) with Brooklyn (second from left) and Madison (second from right) Ostrowski during the overnight softball camp at Villanova University run by Wildcats head coach Bridget Orchard.
 Courtesy of STEER for Student Athletes   

5. Football and baseball player Erik Coria, soccer aces Michael Tuba, Arianna Da Silver, Daisy Ayavaca, football players Fred Duran and Rasheek Hill and ex-Ram quarterback and school record-breaking long jumper Colin Taylor were among those STEER student athletes participating in college internships. Among the more unusual ones: Da Silva interned with the Port Chester Police Department and Taylor interned with STEER.

6. STEER soccer players Daniela and Alison Lopez, Bridget Morocho, Kimberly and Brandon Flores and Brittany Morocho got their kicks by attending a week of preparation for the upcoming season held by Eastern FC (Football Club) Soccer, an elite youth soccer club that assists players in developing skills for premier, college and professional levels of play. Their curriculum is geared to individual and team needs. And the classrooms ranged from an overnight soccer camp in Philadelphia to a pre-season fitness camp.

7. Kimberly Flores also attended The Academies Program at Harvard designed to provide various opportunities for high school students that transcend traditional classroom topics, the different programs including business, pre-med, government and coding. Mercy also offers a Step Program that allows STEER student athletes to explore licensed professions in the scientific, technical, health and health-related fields.

That's a short essay on what STEER student athletes did on their summer vacation.