Dear Parents,
It's hard to
believe
that
we're almost half-way through the 2019-2020 school year. It's been a busy year so far, filled with quite a few PTA meetings. The PTA Board hopes these meetings have been valuable, but please share any feedback with me as to how we might be able to improve them. We would be happy to hear any requests you may have for meeting topics as well.
Our
next meeting on December 12 at 6:30 pm in Baskerville 106
will focus on college specifics: supporting your child in creating a realistic college plan, the testing landscape, and essay writing. We will have three visiting consultants presenting these topics at the meeting. (See below for more details.)
Tomorrow, Tuesday, December 3rd, is
Giving Tuesday
. Last year on Giving Tuesday we were able to raise over $7,500 and are hoping to reach our goal of $12,000 by taking advantage of Facebook’s matching program. If you're on Facebook, you can donate through the
HSMSE PTA Facebook fundraiser page
at 8:00 am and increase the chance of Facebook matching your donation dollar for dollar. Please
share
the fundraiser with family and friends who might also want to donate. Then set your alarm and be ready to give at 8:00 am!
Those not on Facebook can donate online at
http://bit.ly/hsmsegivingtuesday
.
You can also mail a check to HSMSE PTA, Baskerville Hall, 240 Convent Avenue, New York, NY 10031. (Please mark it ATTN: HSMSE PTA.)
Our next
Principal’s Breakfast
will be held on
December 6th from 9:30 – 10:30 am
in room 106. Principal Bonds will discuss the latest HSMSE news, and answer questions. All families are welcome. Please RSVP to Ms. Pecorari at
[email protected]
if you plan to attend.
Don't forget that the
January Regents Week
is coming up. Freshman parents might be surprised to learn your kids are likely to have no school those days. Students attend school only on days when they're taking regents exams. This means that it can be a good week to travel, and some juniors take the opportunity to visit colleges during Regents Week. Note, though, that some
students will need to be at school for
the
American Academy of Teachers of German exam
(taken by seniors on
1/21
and by sophomores and juniors on
1/22
). This is a competitive exam for which many of our
students win recognition, and it's also the first step in competitions for some free summer travel and study opportunities in Germany. The
Senior Class Trip
will also be that week, from
1/22 to 1/24
.
Finally, I'd like to wish everyone Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! I look forward to seeing you at some of our future meetings.
Regards,
Ken Katzman
PTA President
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PTA Meeting on the College Process:
Focused Perspectives for Parents
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PTA Meeting: T
he College Process -- Focused Perspectives for Parents
Thursday, December 12
6:30-8:00 PM
Baskerville 106
Applying to college is challenging and stressful for students and their families. Join HSMSE families to get some in-depth perspectives on central parts of the process — how to be supportive as your child explores their options and decides where they will apply; learn more about the different testing options and requirements at various schools; begin to brainstorm about the college essay. Every family is different, so we have found it helpful to offer presentations from visiting consultants with different perspectives. Their experience and advice should provide helpful context and food-for-thought for all.
We look forward to seeing you!
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Festive Fridays
are an HSMSE tradition.
Every Friday in December, arriving students are greeted with festive music and fun treats.
Festive Friday will be paired with Ugly Sweater Day on December 6, Crazy Hat Day on December 13, and Cozy Pajama Day on December 20.
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SUPPORT HSMSE WHEN YOU SHOP AT FAIRWAY
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Every time you use your Community Partners Card at Fairway Markets, your purchases generate cash for HSMSE. You can shop in Fairway stores or order online. If you don’t already have a Community Partners Card,
ask your student pick one up from Ms. Pecorari in room 105
. You can also use the barcode image below.
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Boys’ Varsity Basketball
:
The HSMSE Dragons are 2-0 in league play and 5-0 overall after a dominating victory over Columbia Secondary School, 56-33. They will play the Richard Green High School of Teaching on Monday, 12/2 at 4:30 pm in the CCNY gym.
Cross Country:
Junior Colman Shaver represented HSMSE and the Public Schools Athletic League at last weekend’s New York State Cross Country meet. Racing against the fastest runners in the state, he finished in 18:24, the second best time in school history. Nine members of the team traveled to the meet to cheer him on as he ran this challenging hilly course upstate near Poughkeepsie.
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Indoor Track
:
Our Indoor Track team has been practicing for three weeks and on the first snowy day of winter competed in the PSAL’s Gobbler Classic against teams from all over the city. Twenty-three of the Flying Dragons were new to track & field competition but they had the example of our forty-three returning athletes to follow.
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Nineteen athletes won medals, including seven gold and three silver. Three athletes' performances were so exemplary that they qualified for the season-ending City Championships: Senior Jean Castilla in the 55-meter sprint, and juniors Eric Chen and Kumayl Aloo in the pole vault.
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The HSMSE indoor track team will compete in December at The Armory, at West 168th St & Fort Washington Ave. For more information contact
Coach Henning
. This month’s schedule is as follows:
- Sunday, December 8: Girls 9 am, Boys 1 pm
- Friday, December 13: Boys & Girls at 4 pm
- Saturday, December 21: Boys & Girls at 9 am
- Sunday, December 29: Boys 9 am, Girls 1 pm
Come cheer on Dragon teams!
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Katie Marlowe '13
went to MIT thinking that she'd major in math, since she had really enjoyed math at HSMSE, where she had completed the math track. She found college math really hard, but stuck with it. She also found that a lot of her classmates came to college with extensive computer science experience that she didn't have. (At that point, math track students at HSMSE took AP Statistics rather than AP Computer Science junior year.) Though she was a bit intimidated by her classmates' coding experieince, Katie signed up for a very introductory computer science course her freshman year and really liked it. At MIT, students declare majors at the end of their freshman year, and based on that one course, Katie declared a "Mathematics with Computer Science" major.
During her sophomore year, Katie applied for Google's engineering practicum internship (a program open to college freshmen and sophomores). She really liked it, and at the end of her sophomore year changed her major to computer science. The summer after her junior year, Katie returned to Google for a software engineering internship in Mountain View, CA. She enjoyed it a lot but didn't like living in the suburbs, so after graduating she returned to Google's New York City offices, where she's working very happily as a software engineer.
Though discovering how much she enjoyed computer science and working at Google were central to Katie's college experience, she pursued other interests as well. Following up on her HSMSE German studies, Katie took a German class as an MIT freshman. This allowed her to spend the following summer working in Germany through an MIT-funded internship program. As a student researcher at Continental, she worked on autonomous driving. Living in Germany for the summer also allowed her to spend weekends traveling around Europe. At MIT, Katie also joined a sorority. Though she had not expected to be involved in sorority life, she found when she arrived on campus that she really liked the support network and contact with upperclassmen that the sorority offered. Katie was also captain of the MIT ski team.
Katie is currently a software engineer working on Google Maps, specifically the search function. She loves working on a product that she uses every day and that everyone she knows uses all the time. When asked about what makes her work challenging, she explained that things move slowly when you work on a product like Google Maps, because every change you make has large stakes. At a start up, things move faster.
Katie has many fond memories of HSMSE, especially how much of a community it was for her and how much of her life revolved around that community. She remembers spending all day in school, then going to softball practice, then having dinner with her friends.
When asked what advice she would you offer to current HSMSE students, Katie encouraged HSMSE students to try a lot of new things when they go off to college. "As great as HSMSE was," she says, "it's a small place so options can be limited." She encourages HSMSE students to try new things, living in new places, and meeting new people. She emphasizes that until she went to college, she didn't know that she'd be interested in computer science, but she tried it it and discovered that she really liked it. Katie is happy to talk to HSMSE students who have questions about studying computer science in college, or about working at Google or other big tech companies.
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HSMSE offers a variety of clubs and extracurricular programs for your student to join.
Below is a partial list of HSMSE clubs and programs.
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Arduino Club
Asian Student Organization
Baseball Club
Black Student Union
Book Club
Boys Basketball
Chess Club
Cooking Club
Crafts
Environment Club
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Euro Challenge
Fed Challenge
Game Club
Garden Club
Gay Straight Alliance
German Club
Glee Club
Hebrew Club
Junior States of America
Math Team
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Math Club
Muslim Student Association
Outdoor Leadership Club
Picturesque
Ping Pong
Red Cross Club
Rubik's Cube
Softball Club
Volleyball Club
Yearbook
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To find out more about individual clubs, go to
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HSMSE sponsors 13 PSAL sports teams.
Contact the appropriate coach for more information.
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Baseball - Boys
David Scheiman
Softball - Girls
Crystal Downey
Basketball - Boys
Richard Epstein
Basketball - Girls
David Scheiman
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Cross Country -
Girls & Boys
Thomas Henning
Indoor and Outdoor
Track - Girls & Boys
Thomas Henning
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Soccer - Boys
Nick Diunte
Soccer - Girls
David Scheiman
Volleyball - Boys
Nick Diunte
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For the Public School Athletic League website and
HSMSE Team events, click here:
Go Dragons!
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2019-2020 PTA EXECUTIVE BOARD
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PTA President
Ken Katzman
PTA Vice President
Alison Monk
PTA Treasurer
Fern Robles
PTA Recording Secretary
Ted Choi-Hausman
Corresponding Secretary
Lisa Gordis
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Website Chair
Darian Levin
Fundraising Chairs
Ann Heller, Jeanne McLaughlin
Senior Class Representative
Barbara Mann
Sophomore Class Representatives
Megan Krasney, Judith Weinsteiner
Junior Class Representatives
David Cohen, Meghan O'Sullivan
Freshman Class Representatives
Julia Rigby, Mahlet Tsegaye
SLT (School Leadership Team) Parent Representatives:
Fern Robles, Erica Lubetkin, Anne Katz, Alison Monk, Jane Darcy
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The PTA pays for
- Enrichment programs
- Clubs & Athletics
- Trip and event scholarships
- Curricular support
- Support for Ms. Bonds's initiatives
- And a wide range of other school expenses!
The PTA helps organize
- Open Houses
- Mixers and other parent events
- Teacher appreciation
- Class-wide or school-wide field trips
- Monthly PTA meetings with speakers and presenters
- The HSMSE website
- This newsletter and more!
Please contact us with your questions, your ideas, and your willingness to
volunteer
!
Join us at our December PTA meeting, Thursday December 12 at 6:30 pm, in Baskerville Hall Room 106.
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Fulfilling the 200-hour service requirement helps HSMSE students to build social skills, create a sense of responsibility to their community, and help promote the development of their individual strengths.
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The PTA of HSMSE is recognized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit by the IRS.
Our federal tax ID number is 11-3671895.
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Matching Gifts
Does your company match gifts? If so, you may be able to double the impact of your gift. Simply ask your employer for a matching gift form, fill it out, and mail it to the PTA at:
HSMSE PTA
Baskerville Hall
240 Convent Avenue
New York, NY 10031
Matching gifts can make a huge difference in the lives of our children. All you have to do is ask!
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The High School of Math, Science and Engineering
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HSMSE.org
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