Nadia Goodman of Old Lyme was one of several students on two teams at the Country School in Madison who won recognition at the national eCYBERMISSION STEM Contest 2021.

This past March, teams of three or four students were instructed to ask questions, define problems, and construct explanations and/or design solutions based on identified problems in their community.

The Country School 8th Graders’ projects focused on the engineering and design process under the challenge category “Forces and Motion.”

Cooper Burke of Madison, Katelin Hornyak of Killingworth, and Serena Shanbag of Guilford designed a water-flow sink timer to address CDC hand-washing guidelines while minimizing water waste. Teammates Nadia Goodman of Old Lyme, Alexander Podoltsev and Michaela Troy of Madison, and Joey Salafia of Killingworth designed and tested an inflatable bathing suit, in recognition of a national shortage of lifeguards.

Both Country School teams earned high enough scores to receive state commendations. Team TCS Blue, the bathing suit engineers, earned first place in Connecticut with each team member receiving $1,000 Savings Bond. Team TCS Gold received an Honorable Mention and tied for 3rd place in Connecticut.

Antonio Brown and Jaylen Callender

Two students from Montville have won the Quiet Corner Football Scholar Athlete Award. Antonio Brown, of Montville High School, is headed to UMass Dartmouth and Jaylen Callender, of New London Science and Technology Magnet High School, is going to Tufts University.

They both are expected to play football at the college level.

Among Callender's notable achievements were a 3.92 GPA plus m any athletic accomplishments, including the 2017 Jim O'Neill Academic Award and the 2021 ECC Student Athlete of the Year Award.

Antonio Brown won the Principal's Award for 2017-2018. finished with a 3.0 GPA and was an ECC All-Star in 2018 and 2019 in football.

Gregory Zeliff

Charter Oak Federal Credit Union has named Gregory Zeliff, an experienced banker and business lender, as its Assistant Vice President of Business Lending.

Zeliff has 35 years of commercial lending, portfolio management, and real estate management experience with numerous credit unions and banks serving Connecticut's business communities.

"He has a proven record of growing commercial lending and customer relationships that will serve us well as more businesses in eastern Connecticut look to Charter Oak to serve all of their business banking and lending needs," said said Brian A. Orenstein, Charter Oak's President and Chief Executive Officer..

Zeliff, of Wethersfield, joins Charter Oak's growing business lending department, which now includes two experienced lenders serving eastern Connecticut's business community as well as a support team of experienced credit analysts.

To reach Zeliff email gzeliff@cofcu.com or call 860-446-3347.

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