Dear Alumni,
I hope everyone had a great summer and you are enjoying this very warm Fall weather. The 2015-16 school year is up and running and off to a great start. We have so many great announcements to share with you already, and it is only November…….
New Dorp High School was chosen as a New York City Department of Education “Showcase School” for the second consecutive year. As a Showcase school, we have been asked to open our doors and share our best practices so that others may learn from us. As one of only two Staten Island schools chosen, we are celebrating the accomplishments of our staff and students and focusing on the benefits of our career-themed Smaller Learning Communities as well as our very strong Hochman writing program. To date, in just two months, we have hosted over 200 visitors already. If you would like to learn more about our writing program, please read the article published in The Atlantic Magazine, http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/10/the-writing-revolution/309090/ .
We are also one of the lead schools in the 30,000 degree initiative on Staten Island that was described in the Staten Island Advance. Although in its beginning stage, the goal of this program is to increase the number of college degrees on Staten Island to 30,000. Presently, we have the second lowest percent of college degrees as compared to the other boroughs of New York City. We have partnered with the three Staten Island colleges, College of Staten Island, Wagner College and St. John’s University, for this project. You can find more details at the following links on the Staten Island Advance: http://www.silive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/08/college_leaders_urge_30000_deg.html and http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/11/staten_islands_college-readine.html
You might have read about the Chancellor’s recent press conference, regarding the collaborative program with the Rockefeller Foundation, The Gilder Lehrman Institute and the creators of the Broadway Smash Hit, Hamilton. Well, I am happy to report that New Dorp High School has been selected as one of the eleven NYC schools chosen for this initiative. We will be responsible for implementing a specific curriculum in order to prepare students for this theater performance. You can learn more about this project at http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/theater-arts/nyc-students-10-tickets-broadway-hit-hamilton-article-1.2413078 .
In addition to all of these exciting school-wide accomplishments and announcements, we also have individual students and staff members who have been recognized for their accomplishments. Here are just a few: Theresa Kutza, a science teacher at New Dorp has been chosen as a 2015 recipient of the Hometown Hero Award sponsored by the NY Daily News, Irwin Mandel, a Social Studies teacher received the Gold Star Teacher Award from the WISE foundation based on the accomplishments of his students in his financial literacy course, Najet Hessem, a 12th grade student in the Virtual Enterprise program came in third place in the Bosch Global Challenge during her recent visit to Germany, Isabella Gorishnya, an 11th grade student in The Law Institute, was chosen as a member of the U.S. International Moot Court team and will travel to the Netherlands in January to compete in the International Moot Court Competition and the New Dorp High School Moot Court Team, under the leadership of Angela Teutonico, have advanced in the NYC Moot Court competition.
On the sports front, the New Dorp High School Boys and Girls Varsity Bowling teams are both headed to the city semi-finals next week. In addition, Vivian Liell, an 11th grade member of the Girls Cross Country Track Team, and Madelyn Rodriguez, a 10th grade member of the team, qualified for the Cross Country State Federation Championships next week after placing first and second in last weekend’s city individuals.
Last year we announced the launching of the new New Dorp High School web site, www.newdorphs.org. The website is filled with information about our smaller learning communities, activities, calendar, pictures, staff profiles and much more. We even have our own App from the Apple store, so that parents, staff and students can keep up with the most up to date information. Please visit the site to learn more about the special programs at New Dorp and how our alumni can support the instructional programs by sharing your expertise and experiences with our students. Feel free to contact us with your ideas.
Hope to hear from you soon. On behalf of the New Dorp High School community, I wish you a wonderful holiday season!
Sincerely yours,
Deirdre A. DeAngelis
Principal