Thanks to all of the families who attended our wellness meeting Monday night. It was an informed, open, and honest conversation about the importance of the emotional and social wellbeing of our students. Parents heard what the school does on a regular basis to support our diverse community; we will likely implement some of the programming ideas that came from the meeting, including a series of assemblies next year that will help our students with tough decision-making. We also discussed how to know when a threat of taking one’s life is real (take all threats seriously), making sure all of our kids have a path to help, especially when faced with serious decisions, and how families can keep the lines of communication open in their own relationships with their teen. Many ideas came from parents about what individual families can do, and they are looking forward to the meeting with Freedom Institute for drug and alcohol education (often drugs and alcohol are related to the serious decisions teenagers must make), open to all families, 6:30 PM, here at the high school, April 21, 2009. For further information about the meeting, please contact your class parent representative.

We are so proud of our basketball teams, Boys’ Varsity coach James Miller, JV coach Anthony Shay, Asst. coach Billy Lipani, Asst. coach Macky Bergman, Girls’ Varsity coach Peter Fisher (who is also Athletic Director), and Asst. coach Preethi Thomas. On Tuesday, with small, but strong team, the girls sought victory against BWL, unfortunately coming up just a bit short. That said, our team worked tirelessly together and we will miss our seniors, Jessica Wilson, ’09, Vio Picayo, ’09, and Gloria Barden, ’09, who brought such leadership, grace, and positive influence to their team. The Boys’ Varsity team fought to the end in their playoff game yesterday, and after a challenging loss, I know the boys are looking to be the team to beat next year. They, too, worked together all year, and are such a close team (with no seniors) that next season is bound to be an exciting one!

We are also very impressed by the work of this year’s Scholastic Key winners! Montana Jaro, ’10, won a Silver Key for her short story “Down the Stairs”, which she read at the fiction/memoir assembly. Celi Khanyile-Lynch,’09, won a Gold Key for her personal essay/memoir titled “Identity Search.”

We are also thrilled to announce that Devon Brown, ’10, was accepted into Brown University’s summer neuroscience program, and they are paying him to attend!

Also in the news, the wonderful accomplishment of four of our seniors, dedicated to Vinnie Barile’s karate class for the past four years. For them today? Green belts! Congrats to Evan McDaniel, ’09, Delaney Porter, ’09, Ben Wellington, ’09, and Ryan Kim, ’09.
Finally, I already know that “The Taming of the Shrew” which opens tonight, will be a memorable night of theater! Directed by Performing Arts Chair Meghan Farley Astrachan, the cast’s mastery of Shakespeare’s writing is truly impressive, as is the acting, the set and the direction are equally remarkable. Tickets are available now at Charlton Street Reception. Shows run Thursday, Feb. 26 at 7PM, Friday, Feb. 27 at 7PM and Saturday, Feb. 28 at 7PM. Come and support our talented actors!

Families, please take a look at this trimester’s exam schedule! We do not expect any changes, however, the most current schedule is posted at the high school. Below, please find what exam week will look like in case you have any questions, or need to make particular arrangements.

Monday, March 2: Regular school day. Classes will review material or complete work. All students are expected.

Tuesday, March 3: Reading Day.

• School open regular hours.
• This is a day for students to prepare for exams, final papers and exhibitions. This is also an opportunity to catch up with outstanding work, work with groups for final presentations, use the Tech Center and printers around the school, etc. This is a quiet work day. Students may choose to work at school or at home. Students are not required to report to school, and it is not counted as an absence if they are not here. However, you may prefer your child to come to school for the full day to work. Please send him or her. School will be open. The Library will be open all day. All teachers will be at school regular school hours to provide the opportunity to meet with students.
• No classes will meet so that all teachers are available. There will be review sessions held. If a student is in crisis, teachers may encourage that student to make a mandatory appointment.

Wednesday-Friday, March 4-6: Exams. Exam periods are 9 AM-11 AM and 1 PM-3 PM. Each day, students should come in plenty of time for their morning exam or project presentation, and students may leave after their assessments are complete. Again, the exam schedule is attached to this blog.

Monday, March 9: Community Service Day! Students have the opportunity to use Monday to participate in community service opportunities across the city. Please check this terrific list of opportunities. Tech instructor Stephen MacGillivray has also made a connection with Housing Works on 10th and Hudson, and they are in need of volunteers! All students need to do is stop by! We are also offering a project here at school, soundproofing the music room at TSAC. Any student interested should be at the high school by 9AM to help Micah and Vin with this project. It is open to all students who are interested in fufilling in-school community service hours, and anyone interested should let Micah or Vin know he or she will be helping on Monday.

All the best,

Ruth

Thanks to all the students who participated in Community Service Day on December 11.  Many had wonderful experiences and truly made an impact.  Several of our students helped out at Charity:Water; one of our alums, Ella Saunders-Crivello, ’08, is the Assistant Volunteer Coordinator.  This is the message I received from her :

I wanted to send out a thank you for getting your students involved, I know it was a choice on their parts but it wouldn’t have happened if you didn’t pass along the word. Everyone in the office was so shocked and grateful for how many EI students were there and I was so proud of all of them and how hard they were working. Check out the quick video they made to showcase how dedicated our volunteers were today.

Please take a look at the video featuring our students hard at work.

Congrats to all on a terrific Trimester I!  Grades and comments for Trimester I will be available online on “My Backpack” on December 23, by 5PM. Please check to make sure you can log on to the system successfully. If you have any problems logging on, please contact help_desk@lrei.org, which can assist you. If you would like your child’s grades or comments mailed, please send an email to Adria Maynor, amaynor@lrei.org.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding a grade or comment, please contact the teacher directly, the student’s advisor, and/or class dean. Please note, teachers, advisors and class deans will be on vacation starting on Friday, Dec. 18 at 12 noon, so a response may not come until after January 4, 2010.

If you are a parent of a 10th or 11th grade student, you should have received a letter from Amy Shapiro, Director of College Guidance and your child’s PSAT scores.  If you have not received this information, please contact the College Office at ext. 324.

Finally, from Phil:

Congratulations, Seniors!  We are so proud of our twelfth graders.  Included in our early information about college admissions is early admission to Carleton College, Smith College, Georgetown University, Brown University, Vassar College, Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Communications, McDaniel College, Ithaca School of Photography and Cinematography, Marymount Manhattan College, the Universities of Mississippi, Montana, Rhode Island, Tampa and Vermont and Quinnipiac College.  A list as diverse and interesting as our seniors and their interests and futures.  Bravo!

I wish you and your family a safe, restful, wonderful holiday break. See you in 2010!

All the best,

Ruth

Updates and Announcements:

More great student news!

• Maya Peart-Hill, Class of 2012, has been “selected to participate in “Expanding the Walls Program,” a unique [seven month] program for teens that uses photography as a medium to explore community, identity and history, at the Studio Museum of Harlem.   It was quite a rigorous selection process that required her to undergo two interviews [and secure three recommendations!]”.
• Both Robert Kiley, ’10, and Kai Furbeck, ’10 have been honored by Young Arts 2010 as Merit Award winners in Photography as well as New York Regional Award winners in photography.

Thank you so much for the welcome back. It has been terrific catching up with faculty and students, and I look forward to hearing from you. Beginning November 30 through Dec. 4, I will host an informal morning coffee in the cafeteria for Ninth Grade parents and for parents of new students from 7:45-8:15. If you are new to the community, feel free to drop in and say hello.

From what I have heard, our new Ninth Grade class is fantastic. All of their teachers are impressed with the level of engagement, their passion, interest, creativity and energy. From what I have seen so far, we do have an exceptional group. On Friday, I will host a pizza party for the Ninth Grade with Grade Dean Margaret to begin to get to know the class a bit better.

It has been great catching up with the other classes, also. I have been grateful to see our students in action this week, starting with the amazing play, “The Spirit of the Lenape” written and directed by Meghan Farley-Astrachan. Then yesterday, the community was fortunate to experience an inspirational assembly presentation by the “Fierce and Fabulous” Feminism English class. The group, members of the Class of 2010 and 2011, Frank Shanley, Zoe Lubin-Fosha, Ayana Workman, Chloerose Bree-D’Orazio, Chappell Laird, Chelsea Dalessandro, Jake Goodman, Sonrisa Murrary-Fox, Jenny Sonenberg, led by instructor Ileana Jimenez, informed the high school on the continuing serious problem of child trafficking here in New York City and in the United States. They presented their findings and introduced outreach workers from the organization, GEMS, Girls Education and Mentoring Services, who participated in the Q&A. When the community was asked why we should care about this issue, Julian Pratt, ’12, responded, “If we don’t care, that says something about our humanity. No matter where this is happening in the world, it is not acceptable for us to accept that it is.”

The class is accepting donations of winter clothing, toiletries, hygiene products, baby items and children’s clothes and toys for GEMS. There is a box in the lobby until December 14. From Ileana Jimenez:

If you feel further inspired, you can host a screening of the film Very Young Girls in your own home by ordering the film via Netflix and inviting friends over to watch and donate. Proceeds from your house party would go directly to GEMS. Information here: http://www.gems-girls.org/index.html

At this, the end of the first trimester, students are wrapping up papers, projects and other coursework. Even though there is a significant amount of work, our students continue to be passionate about their classes beyond the school day. This Saturday, thirteen members of Bill Bailey’s Constitutional Law class will be attending The New York City Bar Association Symposium for High School Students ,“My Rights, My Nation: Talking About Constitutional Rights Now and in the Future” from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. For more information please visit their website at http://nycbar.org/myrights.

Finally, today we welcomed back Ella Sauders-Crivello, ’08 and the organization she works for, “Charity:Water”. Again, as with Tuesday’s assembly, students left inspired and encouraged. We hope they consider the wonderful service both GEMS and Charity: Water provide as Community Service Day, Friday, December 11 approaches. Volunteering one’s time can make a huge difference to organizations and individuals. As this is the week before Thanksgiving and the edge of winter, isn’t this a perfect time to reflect on that which we are grateful for, what we have harvested this year?

All the best,

Ruth

(Please remember tomorrow is Community Service Day for all high school students! There are no classes.  Trimester II begins on Monday.)

LREI’s mission statement reads, in part, Our goal is to educate students to become independent thinkers and lifelong learners and to pursue academic excellence and individual achievement, in a context of respect for others and service to the community.

The Senior Project sends Twelfth Grade students into the world to actively pursue and demonstrate lifelong learning outside of the classroom, beyond the four walls of high school, and to live the life of the mind. Specifically, the Senior Project at LREI is an opportunity for students to pursue a particular area of interest or passion in an independent format.   In keeping with the school’s mission statement and progressive philosophy, the Senior Project emphasizes experiential learning and real-world application of knowledge.

This year, the Project is comprised of several components, each of which requires student to plan, research, write, and reflect, with the guidance of a faculty mentor.  By the end of the Project, students must demonstrate their new learning in multiple ways, including but not limited to: essay, portfolio of research work, performance, and presentation.  Projects will be approved and evaluated by the Senior Project Committee, which is composed of high school faculty and administration.  Once the proposal is approved by the committee, a faculty mentor will be assigned.  The faculty mentor will personally advise and assist the senior through their experiential component, which runs from Wednesday, April 7 through Friday, May 14, 2010.

LREI encourages and teaches our students to probe, to challenge and to develop one’s own interests and passions, and certainly the goal of the experiential component is to express our educational experience to those in the world of work or service.

In the past, our Seniors have enjoyed internship opportunities at Bleecker and Sullivan Advertising, Random House, Harlem Hospital, Mary Ellen Mark, DDC Lab, Democracy Now!, Public Theater, The Center for Constitutional Rights, Amnesty International, the UN Development Program, the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA), the Harlem Success Academy, NYU School of Medicine (Departments of Pathology, Dermatology and Cell Biology), Balthazar Restaurant, WNYC, and many, many more, thanks to the generosity of parents and friends of the school.

Even though we have been very successful in the past with placing our students in experiences that have matched their passion and interest and have made an impact to them, we could use your help!

Do you have an experiential opportunity you would like to share with us?  An internship at your place of work available from April 7 through May 14, 2010?  Know someone who could use a dynamic intern in the spring?  Please let me know!  Our students are interested in a wide range of things. Therefore no opportunity, whether it be in an office setting, participating in field work or community service, is too big or too small.

As we grow our list of opportunities for the Class of 2010, we will also accept offers of internships or community service opportunities for all of our students for the summer, winter or spring breaks, or after school.  If you would like to offer an opportunity to all of our high school students, please let me know and we can post them for all on LREI EXCHANGE.

Many thanks in advance!

All the best, Ruth

Updates and Announcements:

*All 11th and 12th grade families should have received an email from the college office regarding spring NYU courses in their preview program!  If your child would like to apply to take an NYU class and he or she is in good academic standing, applications are due on Wednesday, December 16 to the college office!

*PSAT scores were mailed to all families of 10th and 11th graders on Monday. Please be on the lookout for them.  Any questions, please call the college office at x324.

*From the National Merit Scholarship Corporation:  “This year about 34,000 commended students throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise.  Commended Students are placed among the top five percent of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2010 competition by taking the 2008 PSAT/NMSQT.”  Congratulations to Kai Furbeck ’10 and Ben Neuhaus ’10 who have been named “commended students” in the 2010 National Merit Scholarship Program.

*From the National Achievement Scholarship Program:  I am pleased to announce that one of our seniors has been named “among some 3,100 Outstanding Participants in the National Achievement Scholarship Program being referred to U.S. colleges and universities.  This student scored in the top 3 percent of more than 160,000 Black Americans who requested consideration in the 2010 National Acheivement Program when they took the 2008 PSAT/NMSQT.”  Congratulations to Devon Brown, ’10.

Susan Now, photography teacher, has informed me that we have two seniors who have been honored by YoungARTS this year!  More information to come next week.

Dear LREI Families,

Thank you to those who were able to join us last Wednesday for our Building for Action event. It was wonderful to have so many of you there, along with alumni, past parents and staff, to share in the tremendous support for LREI that was in the room. For those of you who were not there, you might want to visit our web site, click on the Building for Action button to view much of the information we shared on the 24^th. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you can watch the Then and Now slide show that was a crowd favorite at the event. Or, just click here.

As you heard last week, or will see on the web site, we announced plans to renovate and green all of the classrooms in the Sixth Avenue buildings over the next few summers—we completed the majority of the middle school classes this summer—and to add a great deal of space to the Charlton Street campus, as well as to renovate current Charlton Street spaces. This work grows out of the strategic plan created by the Board of Trustees, and a large group of LREI community members, in 2000. In addition to creating improved spaces for our current student body in the lower, middle and high schools, this campaign will create a larger high school building to provide for the planned increase in the high school student body. A larger high school student body will be more attractive to many prospective families, will allow for an increasingly academic program and will support our tuition remission program for all three divisions and ongoing increases to faculty salaries and professional development funds.

In the weeks and months to come there will be many opportunities to learn more about Building for Action. There will also be opportunities for those who want to join the Building for Action team. There will be a drop-in information session on the morning of Wednesday, October 8^th from 8:15-9:30, in the Sixth Avenue cafeteria. I will be available to discuss our goals and to answer any questions you may have.

I look forward to continuing the conversation.

Best,

Phil

Today, we respectfully remember the lives lost on September 11. Today, students were able to enjoy the annual September Concert organized by music teacher and Jazz Band director, Vin Scialla.

On another note, during student orientation, we focused on the hallmarks of successful LREI students in order to help our new community members determine where they are and how they can, too, be successful.

Our most successful students are:

• Involved. They are invested in the day to day aspects of school. They participate fully in clubs, either creating their own or joining existing clubs, they participate in our athletic and arts after school. They invest their time in chorus, jazz band, “IE”, our literary magazine, write for the newspaper or are members of the community service roundtable, or student government.
• Living the life of the mind. Our most successful students understand that the classroom goes beyond four walls, that discussions and conversations and analysis continue in the lobby, at the lunch table, in a faculty member’s office. Our most successful students realize that once homework is finished, it is time to study.
• Thoughtful and respectful. Of differences, of culture, gender, ethnicity and sexuality. Students may need help with this, so respectful participation in Life Issues classes (for Ninth Grade) and informative assemblies are key.
• Engaged citizens of the world. They read the news, they are aware of happenings beyond our block, are curious about social justice issues and bring the world into the curriculum as our teachers do.
• Committed to service. Our 25 hour requirement won’t do. Our most successful students make a significant impact with work for an organization, church, synagog, or community program. To encourage this aspect of success, this year, we have two days designated as individual community service days. Monday, Dec. 8, 2008 and Monday, March 9, 2009 are days where we will not have classes, but students may use those days for individual service opportunities. In December, there are many opportunities to be found helping organizations or religiously affiliated groups with holiday charity and service. In March, students will find a perfect opportunity to participate in spring cleanup.

In order to help us help your students become our most successful, please let me know if you have information or are affiliated with an organization that could use our students’ help. Help us build our inventory of community service opportunities for students.

Also in the effort to assist all of our students in the quest for success, Pat Carter, Academic Support teacher, will be hosting Homework Help drop-in hours.

ASC After-School Homework Sessions: Beginning Monday, September 15th, the ASC will be available for after-school homework/quiet study on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3:45 pm to 5:45 pm. This is an excellent time for students to study independently in a quiet, supervised environment or meet with me for extra planning or organizational assistance. Students may also obtain extra homework help in certain subjects (English, History, Spanish). And if students fall behind in their work, faculty are encouraged to require students to make-up missing assignments in the ASC during these sessions. Please be sure to pass this information along to your child.

All the best,

Ruth

Dear LREI Community.

Thank you for joining us for the opening of this year’s Visibility: Gay and Lesbian People We Love photo exhibit. I am sorry to miss this wonderful event. While not here in body, I am with you in spirit and as a fellow supporter of the School’s social justice mission. This mission was clearly present at the student organized opening at the high school last week.

Thank you to Keith and Kim, to the other members of the LGSA, to the many volunteers and to Chap for the time and energy and care that has gone into creating this show. Thank you, as well, to all who have contributed photos. Without your participation and, in many cases, your courage, this show would not be possible.

We host this exhibit every other year and are often asked the same two questions as we approach the opening. The first question concerns the goals for the exhibit. This is an excellent question and one that we spend a good deal of time discussing. As a school and as a community we need to support colleagues who are not afforded the same rights as others. LREI has always been active in the fight for equality and social justice. We host this exhibit to give voice and hope to those who must hide part of themselves from family, friends and colleagues. I have never had to hide who I love from anyone. As a matter of fact, society has always encouraged me to be very open about this part of my life—whether when I was in school or now as an adult. Yet many people risk rejection and injury for sharing this joy with family and friends. Often, when discussing the visibility exhibit, it is suggested that the prejudice against people who are lesbian or gay does not exist anymore. Unfortunately this is not so. Witness the tragic killing of Lawrence King in Oxnard, CA just a few weeks ago. King, a middle school student, was shot to death in school, reportedly because he was gay.

The second question often comes from parents of our youngest students. They ask about our sharing and discussing this exhibit with our youngest students. As you view the photos in the exhibit a number of themes will emerge for you–dignity, friendship, equality and courage, among others. But most of all, the theme or feeling or emotion that you will take away from viewing these beautiful photographs is love—love for family and friends and parents and children—and I can think of no reason that, of all things, we should ever question the appropriateness of love, the power of love, the importance of love and the right to love. This seems to me to be a wonderful topic for discussions with young children, and with people of all ages, for that matter.

Enjoy the show,

Phil 

As you may know, tomorrow is our professional day. NAIS, National Association of Independent Schools, is hosting its annual conference in New York City this year. That means, I have the benefit of not only enjoying workshops designed for educators and division heads in independent schools from around the country, but of seeing colleagues and friends from ages ago.

My best friend from high school, Don Orth, is Director of Communications at Cate School in California, and visiting for the conference. Of course, one of the things we planned was to have him visit LREI’s high school while in town.

When we talked about his visit later, he remarked, “In any good school, the kids feel confident and comfortable, they are at home and look you in the eye when speaking to you; that’s what I found in your school.” He went on to say, “Your students are invested and involved in lots of things, not just coming to school, then leaving. And ideally, a school should be like this, like yours, but they’re rare.” Finally, he noticed that the faculty members he met, Micah, Vinay, Preethi, Peggy, just clearly seem to “love the work.”

It feels great to be able to show off this awesome community and academic experience to someone who is so thoughtful and knowledgeable about education. I am happy he recognizes how particularly special this school is; as we host prospective students during these revisit days, I have heard from those newly admitted students similar remarks. They want to be like the students they meet and see in class. They want to know their teachers as our students know theirs, and they want to be as proud of their high school as we all are.

LREI is so different than the high school Don and I attended (a private Quaker school), and that is a very good thing.

All the best,

Ruth

I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend. During the time off, I finally had the chance to catch up on some reading; one article I read absolutely resonated with me, and I had to share it with you. If you have not read the article yet, please do check out New York Magazine’s cover story, Why Kids Lie.

Following is an excerpt from the article:

…In her study of teenage students, Darling also mailed survey questionnaires to the parents of the teenagers interviewed, and it was interesting how the two sets of data reflected on each other. First, she was struck by parents’ vivid fear of pushing their teens into outright hostile rebellion. “Many parents today believe the best way to get teens to disclose is to be more permissive and not set rules,” Darling says. Parents imagine a trade-off between being informed and being strict. Better to hear the truth and be able to help than be kept in the dark.

Darling found that permissive parents don’t actually learn more about their children’s lives. “Kids who go wild and get in trouble mostly have parents who don’t set rules or standards. Their parents are loving and accepting no matter what the kids do. But the kids take the lack of rules as a sign their parents don’t care—that their parent doesn’t really want this job of being the parent.”

Pushing a teen into rebellion by having too many rules was a sort of statistical myth. “That actually doesn’t happen,” remarks Darling. She found that most rules-heavy parents don’t actually enforce them. “It’s too much work,” says Darling. “It’s a lot harder to enforce three rules than to set twenty rules.”

A few parents managed to live up to the stereotype of the oppressive parent, with lots of psychological intrusion, but those teens weren’t rebelling. They were obedient. And depressed.

“Ironically, the type of parents who are actually most consistent in enforcing rules are the same parents who are most warm and have the most conversations with their kids,” Darling observes. They’ve set a few rules over certain key spheres of influence, and they’ve explained why the rules are there. They expect the child to obey them. Over life’s other spheres, they supported the child’s autonomy, allowing them freedom to make their own decisions.

The kids of these parents lied the least. Rather than hiding twelve areas from their parents, they might be hiding as few as five…

It is not for us to judge one’s parenting style or decisions for their children. At the high school, we have found that when rules are consistent and consistently enforced here at school, kids feel better and behave better because the boundaries set reinforce our care and concern for the community while helping us to appreciate and hold community members to the highest standard. At the same time, we do support giving students many freedoms because we want them to be able to advocate for themselves and yes, make their own thoughtful decisions. However, sometimes in the chaos of the day, it can occationally be easier said than done.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the article.

On another note, students enjoyed seeing a preview of An Evening with Tennesse Williams today during assembly. All of the performers featured were fantastic, and the play, a series of one-acts, which will head to the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland this summer, promises to be a memorable, enjoyable night of theater! Please join us on Thursday, Feb. 28, Friday, Feb. 29 and/or Saturday, March 1, at 7 PM. Tickets are on sale at the Charlton Street reception desk starting tomorrow.

All the best,

Ruth

On behalf of the faculty and staff here in the high school, thank you so much for the terrific expressions of appreciation, the decorations, gifts and treats this week. The tremendous generosity and heartfelt wishes have been greatly appreciated. Thanks for the thougtfulness and hard work!

Today’s assembly marks the end of the Thursday Gender Series programming thoughtfully planned and implemented by English teacher Ileana Jimenez, and a host of others who helped with putting everything together. The assembly today was a perfect one for Valentine’s Day as the focus was on immigration, asylum and relationships which are hardly covered by our national conversation on immigration, even though several presidental candidates have attempted to address immigration issues. Panelists included:

• Victoria Neilson, the Legal Director at Immigration Equality, a national organization fighting for equal immigration rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and HIV-positive community. Neilson runs Immigration Equality’s pro bono asylum project and provides technical assistance and mentoring on LGBT and HIV immigration issues to attorneys around the country.

• Jeremy Reiss and his partner Arturo Tochtli who addressed issues related to being a binational couple (US/Mexico) and the progress of the Uniting American Families Act. Jeremy Reiss is Director of Workforce Mobility Initiatives at the Community Service Society, the leading anti-poverty organization in New York City. Reiss is an Adjunct Professor of Urban Studies at the Joseph F. Murphy Labor Institute, CUNY, and serves on the Board of Directors of the East River Development Alliance, the Advisory Board of Urban Agenda, and the Economic Security Advisory Board of the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy. Reiss is also on Barack Obama’s Urban Policy Advisory Committee for the presidential election.

• Sebastian Cordoba who showed clips from his most recent documentary Through Thick & Thin, which follows seven lesbian and gay couples who are struggling with immigration rights in the US. He shared his perspective on the making of his film as well as share his own story about immigration.

The panel was informative and educational, and serves as the prelude to the finale, the play Tara’s Crossing, the story of a transwoman who seeks asylum from Guyana and is imprisoned by the INS when she arrives in the United States. I have read the script, and it is powerfully moving and thought-provoking. The students will see it next month, on Monday, March , as our second First Monday program. The social justice theatre troupe, Houses on the Moon, will be performing the play our high school during a special morning production; we will have discussion groups in the afternoon.

Needless to say, the series has encouraged conversation and inspired ideas for future assemblies from our students. I support and encourage thoughtful programming for our weekly assemblies and thank Ileana for her vision and hard work.

All the best,

Ruth