by Hilary Hersh

Reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and .........  boatbuilding?  

You heard right. Recently, sixth graders in both classes built model reed boats like the ones the main character constructs in the book they've been reading: A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. In the book, the character, Salva Dut, and the group of Sudanese refugees he was traveling with, needed to build boats to cross the Nile River and make it to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. 

by Hilary Hersh

 

On May 12th, English 8H went to the Morgan Library & Museum to see two exhibits related to the class's study of the play "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry.

 

One of those exhibits featured the life and work of the American poet Gwendolyn Brooks, a contemporary of Hansberry who, like her, was raised in the Black community on the southside of Chicago. The students learned about Brooks's style of presenting the lives of her community's residents in a true-to-life, nonjudgmental way in her poems, and her participation in the struggles for racial justice. 

by Shoshana Spencer
Students in my 9^th- and 10^th-grade digital art classes used Photoshop to create logo spoofs and advertisement parodies that communicated critical messages about different companies and products. Included are spoofs promoting the NFL and it’s high rate of concussions, Spotify advertisements, and the dark history of the Fanta beverage, among others. Scroll through the slideshow to view these witty and eye-opening creations!

Congratulations to the ninth-, 10^th-, and 11^th-grade Spanish students in Ms. Pevzner's, Mr. Ahern's and Ms. Magni's classes who won medals and certificates after taking the National Spanish Exam! After taking the time to prepare for the exam, the students were very excited to take tackle the exam, which they took during class over the course of two days. Every student who took the exam won a gold, silver, or bronze medals, as well as honorable mentions.

After reading essays from Aimee Nezhukumatahil’s collection, World of Wonders, students from Dr. Davis’s 11^th grade English class and Ms. Umansky’s 10^th grade English classes traveled to Coney Island to visit the New York Aquarium. World of Wonders encourages readers to connect their own experiences to the beauty in the natural world. Students examined the animals on display and wrote responses as part of a personal essay writing unit. Before returning to school, students and chaperones enjoyed lunch at Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs!

Mr. Gordon’s 12^th grade history class and Ms. Spencer’s 10^th grade digital art class partnered up to attend the exhibit “The Utopian Avant Garde: Soviet Film Posters of the 1920’s” at the Poster House Museum in Chelsea. Mr. Gordon’s class recently finished reading Orlando Figes’ book The Whisperers about private life in Stalin’s Russia, while Ms. Spencer’s class has been learning about the artist Shepard Fairey, who was influenced by revolutionary poster art from that era. The students enjoyed viewing the thought-provoking art throughout Poster House.

 

by Jordan Brodsky

On April 26^th, the Community Service Club revisted El Nido de Esperanza in Washington Heights to volunteer. Nido de Esperanza is a non-profit organization that seeks to break the cycle of poverty by changing the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, as one in four children in New York City are born into poverty. They work with families from pregnancy through the child’s third birthday. They also work with new immigrant moms in the community, and believe in tackling poverty neighborhood by neighborhood and empowering moms. Six key areas they work on with these families to help make parenting a little easier are: nutrition, education and literacy, material goods and finances, child safety and health, community and support, and mama well-being.

 

Earlier this week, the Student Government Organization held a bake sale to raise funds to support Ukraine. The bake sale was a great success. Students joyfully enjoyed their delicious purchases and the SGO raised over $500!

The flyers around campus read, “Out of the ashes of the pandemic comes The York Prep Drama Club Production of Places!” And this week, the Drama Club put on four performances of the one-act comedy, written by Drama director John Viscardi, to packed audiences who smiled and laughed throughout each show. The cast and crew felt great to be back on stage, and the YP community felt energized (and greatly entertained) by our talented students!

The Class of 2022 has worked closely with Ms. Rooney and Mr. Leventhal, and we congratulate them on their college acceptances. We are very proud of them and wish them all the best towards their bright futures. Please click through to see the full list of acceptances.

On Wednesday, May 4th, the Evening of Arts will take place in the York Prep Chapel and library. It starts at 4:00 pm, with a musical performance from 4:00 - 5:00 pm in the library. Stay until 6:00 pm to enjoy the incredible art and design projects produced by York Prep’s artists and makers! Scroll through the slideshow for a little preview.

This month, students in Dr. Davis’s 11^th-grade English class presented creative projects inspired by Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye. While some students wrote thoughtful poems from the perspective of different characters, others showed off their artistic talents through visual art. The artwork is on display in Room 218 for the rest of the quarter.

I recently did a small but fun lab with my Honors Chemistry class. To learn about Limiting Reagents, students performed calculations on Oreo cookies divided into wafers and filling. This helped students visualize excess and limiting reactants, and why these must be determined when predicting products. The simple and fun experiment had a delicious conclusion when the students got to bite into their cookies – but with fresh, new Oreos, of course! 

by Shayna Haberman

Last week, my 10th-grade Honors Chemistry class completed our Yummy Moles Baking Project, and it was incredible! The students had a fantastic time baking, and they also told me the calculations portion was fun! The project objective was to learn about calculating dimensional analysis by converting all the ingredients of a recipe into moles. 

This year York Prep’s annual History Day made its return on March 2nd after a two-year hiatus. Students from Mr. Gordon and Mr. Buckley’s classes spent the past six months locating primary and secondary sources, compiling important information on their topics, and designing their final projects, which came in the form of essays, websites, documentaries, and museum exhibits. Students exhibited their projects on the 4th floor chapel, while history classes from all grades visited throughout the day.

Congratulations to our Varsity Boys Basketball team for winning the 2022 New York State Championship! They beat Trevor Day in a very exciting game, where they were down by 14 early on–then took the lead with less than two minutes left! It was a heroic comeback, and this marks York Prep’s first State title since 1992.

by Eric Tull

In February of each year, the York Prep Pantherdome hosts the Annual York Prep Social Studies Superbowl. This year, the eighteenth celebration of that tradition took place during Spirit Week, the run-up to Mid-Winter Break.  The four high school classes went head to head (so to speak), answering questions about history, geography, government, and current events. The questions, in three different categories of difficulty with point values to match, were written by retired York History teacher Mr. Michael Roper. Categories of questions included “Historic Words”, “Firsts”, and “Planes, Trains, and Ships”.

by Andrea Maylath, Leah Umansky, and Emily Borden

A cross-curricular approach to teaching animal farm brought some of York’s best and brightest 8th grade teachers together.  Mr. Schwartz (art), Ms. Umansky (English), Ms. Hersh (English), Ms. Maylath (English), Ms. Borden (Science), and Mr. Ward all collaborated to bring the complexity of Animal Farm to life.  The results were exciting and enlightening.

This month, the students in Mrs. Haberman’s 12^th-grade Honors Environmental Science class were assigned to design a public service announcement about an obstacle facing forests in a state of their choosing. As a part of their Forests and Forest Management unit, the students created raps, posters, and more to raise awareness. 

Ms. Borden’s 8^th-grade science class recently employed classic toys in their lab, which demonstrated velocity and acceleration! Her students built ramps constructed of mini whiteboards and textbooks. They then raced hot-wheels cars on their ramps, and recorded the time it took their cars to travel a certain distance. The students were able to calculate the velocity of their cars using their measurements. Finally, they changed the height of the ramps in order to investigate how ramp height affected velocity.

by Aida Bardissi

Earlier this month, I took my 12^th-grade elective Modern Arab World to the Center for Architecture’s temporary exhibit called “Cairo Modern” where it shows the buildings and architectural layout of Cairo, Egypt through the centuries — tied to the historical and political moments we’ve discussed in class. After our visit to the exhibit, we had a group discussion in nearby Washington Square Park about what we saw.

Every year, seniors in the Scholars Program have the chance to complete the year with a capstone project of original research. Senior scholars meet periodically with their Senior Research Director for one-on-one sessions to develop their projects. This year’s topics include “Sleep Deprivation in Adolescents with ADHD”, “Houston Astros and the Legacy of Sign Stealing in Baseball”, “Electric Cars: How to Reach the Future Faster”, and “College Admissions: The Legacy Upper Hand”. This month, Alex Chilkowitz talks about his topic “The Downfall of the NFL: How CTE and American Culture Changed the Rules of the Game”, and the inspiration behind it. 

After recently reading Hamlet, Mr. Marzoni brought his English 12-2 students to Central Park to stage Act V. The cast consisted of Josh Izhaky as Horatio, Nate Doldron as Hamlet, Sebastian Ramirez as the Gravedigger, Dylan Freidman as King Claudius, Ryder Morse as Laertes, Frederica Krieger as Queen Gertrude, Sam Carrigan as the Priest, Shurube Alimansky as Ophelia, and Zach Grodman as Osric.

by Lindsey Young

This quarter, my 10th-grade STEAM class started a new unit: Coding and Electronics. Students started out by learning how to code a simple computer game.  Then students learned how gaming companies take a game from concept, to beta, and to final product. Then, using our newfound coding skills, students practiced using coding skills to program small computers called microcontrollers. These microcontrollers are small yet powerful tools used in robotics to execute a myriad of functions. STEAM students are currently learning how to turn on LED lights, connect speakers, and run servo motors with them. During this unit, we explored how programming, circuit design, and an engineer’s creativity can come together to make useful and exciting products. 

by Brian Shure

The boys varsity basketball team is enjoying perhaps the most success they have had in quite some time this season. Hoping to have a strong squad this year, the team went out and scheduled the toughest competition they could find, in order to prepare themselves for a late season run. So far that challenging schedule has paid off immensely. 

Sasha Abelson-Shaer is a senior basketball student manager for the Varsity Boys Basketball team at York Prep. Sasha handles the video content in-game, as well as managing other daily duties for the program. He is also a star baseball player in the spring, having started on varsity since his freshman year. Sasha dives into what this basketball season has been like. 

11^th Grader Liam Benten recently developed his own creative study guide for an exam in Ms. Pierce’s Microbiology class. The exam was on DNA structure, and he created a “subway map” to illustrate the different components. Thank you to his Jump Start teacher, Ms. Arnao, for sharing his creation. 

On Friday, January 14th, students in Dr. Davis's Senior Scholars Research Methods class participated in a special Zoom session with librarians from the Research Division of the New York Public Library. These six seniors have been working on individual research projects all year, which will culminate in an April presentation and defense.

by Hilary Hersh

After students in my English 7-1 finished reading The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, they brought one scene from the book to life with the help of the dance and drama departments. Dance instructor Lance Martin and drama teacher John Viscardi directed the students in a dance re-enactment of the rumble scene in which the two gangs—the Greasers and the Socials—settle scores. Martin and Viscardi guided the students through various movements in sync with music from the fight scene in West Side Story. 

 

Mrs. Haberman’s Honors and 12-3 Environmental Science classes recently had a very exciting virtual visit from two Smokejumpers! In conjunction with their Forestry and Forest Management unit, two smokejumpers from Montana Zoomed in to speak with the class about their jobs as firefighters who parachute into forests to fight wildfires.

 

by Andrew Marzoni

Earlier this month, Mr. Cockrell and I accompanied a group of 11^th graders to Wolf Eyes Library Style, a residency and exhibit by Michigan noise music ensemble Wolf Eyes at the Library for the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center. Students appreciated the band’s efforts at pushing the boundaries of what is normally considered music through homemade instruments (including a “transforming mutant horn”), abstract painted “scores,” and some truly mind-bending sounds, which they were able to take home on free vinyl LPs of music Wolf Eyes recorded just for the library (one of nearly 300 albums released over the course of their career). Apologies to those parents and family members with record players at home! Learn more about Wolf Eyes Library Style here!

Class of 2017 alum Lia Schaffner strives to help others to find their voice. She recently published her first book Rainbow Plague, which illustrates how quickly society can change and evolve into a very negative environment for certain parts of the population. “I got the idea from looking at the Trump administration and so many horrible things happened to so many people,” says Lia. “We are not doing enough to promote awareness, be a part of the change, and to be involved with politics.”

York Prep’s student literary magazine, Genesis, has won another accolade! The 2021 Scholastic Yearbook and Magazine Awards results have just been released, and we are honored to announce that Genesis has won first place in the Junior and Senior High School Scholastic Magazine category! Congratulations to the student editorial staff, the student writers and artists, and thebfaculty advisors Ms. Umansky, Ms. Cox, and Ms. Tabourin! Please scroll through the slideshow to see the talented student editorial staff!

 

York Prep class of 2016 alum Rebecca Meckler was in seventh grade when her Jump Start teacher, Ms. Feibusch, encouraged her to join a new club. She chose the Drama Club, and the rest was history. She continued taking on different roles in the Drama Club throughout the rest of middle school and high school, graduated from Carnegie Melon with a BFA in Stage and Production Management, and is currently the on-call Assistant Stage Manager for "Mystere" - a Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas.

This month we talk with Rome Kadi, an 11th grader who has taken his passion for sports broadcasting to the winter hardwood this season. He is the play-by-play announcer for the York Prep varsity basketball team, and he is doing a great job! Below he shares his thoughts with Coach Turi on how it’s gone so far. 

 

 

We interviewed Coach Michael, the head coach for Girls Varsity Basketball, as they gear up for the start of the regular season. 

Coach Turi: How has preseason camp gone so far? 

 

Coach Michael: Preseason is going well. I’m thrilled about the number of girls that turned out for basketball.