They’re E.M. High’s top two

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Adjusting to a larger campus, however, is nothing new for Siegelaub. Before coming to East Meadow High, he attended the Progressive School of Long Island, in Merrick, where his eighth-grade graduating class numbered eight students. “My transition into high school was tough, because there were 400 kids and I didn’t know anyone,” he said. “Going into college is kind of the same thing, in the sense that you’re going to be a little fish in a big, big pond.”

What helped him become acclimated quickly, Siegelaub said, was jumping into extracurricular activities. One of his earliest memories in the school is of joining the homecoming committee, and making friends there. He also credited his parents, Marc and Betsy, with whom, he said, he has a very open and honest relationship.

Alam has been in the East Meadow School District since first grade, when his family moved to the area from Queens. His parents, Syed and Shahina, were born in Pakistan, and he has two older sisters, Bisma and Sanya, and a younger sister, Sarah. He will start classes at Cornell University this fall, and plans to study biological engineering.

But Alam said he’s not thinking about college just yet, and wants to embrace the present while spending the summer with friends and family. “You want to take this time to really live in the moment and not worry about what’s going to happen in the future, or what’s happened in the past,” he said. “Just enjoy this.”

“They go way too fast, these years,” Siegelaub added. “Back when I was a freshman and not knowing anybody, I thought, these years will never go by. But here I am, saying, I don’t know where the time went.”

Siegelaub plays drums in the school’s pit orchestra as well as the percussion and steel drum ensembles, and said he never really explored his musical side until he joined the high school music program. Another fond memory, he said, was of traveling to London in his sophomore year as part of a school A.P. European and Model Congress trip.

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