~ Celebrating 100 Years of Education Worldwide ~

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A Message from the Faculty Chair

Dear Community,

Past experience tells us that this time of year, we should be together, promoting each grade and wishing each other well as the summer begins.  It’s hard not to have a bittersweet feeling as we come to the end of this school year.  Yet, I recently attended the virtual Senior Art Show where the love of community was palpable — purpose, gratitude, and respect were fully present through the seniors, their teachers, their parents, and community members who came to enjoy and celebrate.   So, we know our upcoming year-end celebrations can still embody a fullness of spirit and togetherness, even virtually.  I hope you all will join us for our final Assembly of the year and the 8th and 12th-grade graduations.

We have a few employees to honor as the move on to the next adventure in their lives.

• Maria Ver Eecke has decided to retire from her position as Eurythmy teacher at the end of this year. You will still see her as she conducts the Second Grade Assessment process. Maria will continue to offer private eurythmy sessions as remediation to support individual students. Be sure to seek her out if you are interested.
• Ellen Cimino will be graduating her 8th-grade class and moving out of New York to be closer to her family.
• Earlier this year, Bobby Lyons announced her retirement to begin at the end of this school year — just in time to spend more time with her most recent grandchild.

Please join me in thanking Maria, Ellen, and Bobby for their years of dedication to Waldorf education.

Sincerely,

Kelly O’Halogan
Faculty Chair

Announcements

A Statement on Recent Events

As we reach out to you today, we are devastated by the reality we face.  It is heartbreaking that we, as a country, find ourselves again facing the harsh truth that social injustice and systematic racism continue to exist to such an extent that another black person is murdered at the hands of the police. We say his name: George Floyd.

We share in the sorrow, anger, and grief that is felt across our country.  We stand in solidarity with the Black community. As an educational institution, we stand for something more noble.  We believe a diverse community is essential to an excellent education. We are committed to challenging ourselves to uncover biases that hinder our growth as individuals and as an educational institution. We are committed to deepening the education of our students in such a way that social renewal in the world is not only discussed in the classroom, but is a crucial goal we actively strive to achieve.

click the button below to read the whole statement.

Virtual Senior Commencement

We look forward to welcoming you (virtually) to the School’s 61st Commencement Exercises on Friday, June 12th at 9:30 am.

This event will be live-streamed so all friends and family will be able to attend. To watch, visit https://www.waldorfgarden.org/commencement2020/ on the day of the event.

While the School Community is invited to attend the virtual commencement exercises, for the safety of all, the physical school building and grounds continue to be closed to all visitors.

The Waldorf School of Garden City Golf Classic & Dinner Reception originally scheduled for Thursday, June 18, 2020, has been postponed until Thursday, June 17, 2021.  The new date gives our School the best chance at bringing the community together in a responsible and safe way in support of our honorees and the Paul LeSueur initiative.​​

Thank you for your continued acts of kindness and generosity.

With appreciation,

Nicole S. Littrean
Director of Development

School News

Distance Learning Resources page Updated!

Please visit our Distance Learning Resource page (password: 225cambridge) for  new activities for you and your family including:

• Great workout videos from Coach Flanagan;
• Gardening Tutorials courtesy of Jeannine Davis;
• A Waldorf Star Making Activity initiated by Denver Waldorf School as a campaign to connect Waldorf families;
• And more….

 

Sophomore Receives Honors in Chemistry

The Waldorf School of Garden City is proud to announce that tenth grader, Yiren (Demi) Zhang, is a recipient of a New York American Chemical Society (NYACS) 31st annual High School Award. She is being honored with the Outstanding Chemistry Student Award from the Long Island subsection. Students are selected by demonstrating a strong interest in science and maintaining the highest grade point average in their High School in Chemistry.

Acts of Kindness Campaign

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” – Coretta Scott King

Kenneth I. Chenault ’69, Chairman & Managing Director, General Catalyst and former CEO and Chairman, American Express, is the co-founder of Stop the Spread.  The organization was launched in March of 2020 in response to the devastation created by COVID-19. Ken, along with a group of CEO’s, wrote a Medium post in March, which sparked a call to action and resulted in his op-ed in The New York Times that captured the imagination and commitment of more than 1,300 business leaders, all of whom have stepped forward to do their part. Since founding, Stop the Spread, a national effort has emerged, as large and small companies answer the call to serve our nation. To read more please visit: https://www.stopthespread.org/about

WSGC Alum, Scott Mills ‘86, Black Entertainment Television President, has raised $17M among top U.S. CEOs and business executives to address food insecurity across the country during COVID-19. The money has begun pouring into charities in Los Angeles, Atlanta, New Orleans, New York and Detroit. To read the full article at abcnews visit: https://abcnews.go.com/US/anonymous-african-american-donors-step-tackle-food-insecurity/story?id=70836368

For the past six years, Elora Nadel Niborski ’12 has been living in Arusha, Tanzania working on several projects. For the last year she has worked with Passion Projects International, where she finds sponsors for Arushan children helping them to attain a proper recognized education in Tanzania. The organization sponsors nearly 80 children. With schools now closing due to Covid-19, there is a significant strain on families who became accustomed to their children receiving meals at school each day. Elora and the rest of the Passion Projects team held a fundraiser to provide enough dry foods for all of the families during this difficult time. They supplied 70 kgs of rice and maize to each family. The families were extremely grateful, and the distribution of all the food was a huge success. Thank you, Elora, for all that you are doing!

Acts of kindness like this are so very needed now more than ever. We hope that by sharing this with the community, it will inspire others and bring a smile to many.

“These photos are of a fundraising event our Waldorf Nursery class did for the healthcare workers at the Winthrop Covid-19 Unit. One of the moms in our class is a nurse in the unit. It came out of an impulse during a parent meeting amongst our class. We felt we could do more for our children and each other by sending pictures and notes of thanks for all those that are going, truly, the extra mile. We have several healthcare workers in our class. When we learned that one mom works at Winthrop hospital and a group of her colleagues were transformed into a strictly Covid-19 unit, we wanted to express our gratitude for our families. One photo shows all the pictures and notes that were created by the children and the parents before I put them in the basket. We also donated gift cards for places like Starbucks, Target, Amazon etc. because they are not allowed to eat or drink any food donations that come in when they are working in the unit due to obvious health concerns. Two of the photos are drawings from the children and we collected almost $300 in gift cards to give them.”

Moments of connection seem to mean more in times like these when we are required to be socially distant. The first graders received letters and cards from their Senior Buddies this week, “My son was so excited to hear from his Senior. She told us a bit about how she is spending her time safe at home, and he seemed comforted by hearing her experience. It was a really touching moment.”

One act of kindness can change the world!  Every moment we use to share goodwill, resources, encouragement, and positive thoughts grounds us to something much bigger than ourselves.  Members of the Waldorf community continue to exhibit kindness toward humanity in many forms.  We are proud to share some of these examples with you.

Dear Waldorf Community Members,

#GivingTuesdayNow on May 5^th was a success because of you!  It is never about the dollar amount raised but more importantly, how we come together in support of an education we firmly stand behind.  Members from every segment of our community, Parents, Faculty, Staff, Trustees, Friends, Alumni, and Alumni Parents, donated to the WSGC Emergency Relief Fund.

We received donations of all sizes ranging from $25.00 to $15,000, with every gift, including the match, counting toward a total raise of $107,885.  We will continue to raise funds for this critical need with hopes that those who did not have an opportunity to contribute will consider a gift of any amount in support of the school.

Thank you for your care, diligence, and dedication to Waldorf education at the Garden City campus.

With appreciation,

Nicole S. Littrean
Director of Development

 

Camp Glen Brook

As you likely heard in this announcement Glen Brook’s Summer Camp will not be operating this summer as normal.  We are still hopeful we’ll find another opportunity to bring families or campers together to enjoy the beautiful natural world, community, and spirit of Glen Brook before the summer is through. The situation is constantly changing, and we will be sure to let you know when our campus is open again.

We are deeply grateful for the immense support from our community.  We have received so many emails and letters of support and affirmation, offers of assistance, and a surge of donations.  It is truly amazing to see our community’s love for Glen Brook from afar in this way.  In the face of this enormous loss, we are now looking to see what opportunities this time will bring us, and how Glen Brook can continue to evolve and grow to be ready to offer our community exactly what it needs.

We look forward to connecting with you soon and welcoming you back to campus when the time comes.

What’s Happening in Athletics?

As we close the athletic calendar for another year, we look forward to Sports Night on June 3rd at 7 pm as an opportunity to recap the wonderful seasons our varsity and middle school teams had this year. Student-Athletes and your families, check your email for the zoom link.

Our coaches and I are proud of all of our student-athletes and are looking forward to honoring them all, in particular our graduating seniors.

Alumni Notes

Honoring Alumni that have Graduated this Year:

Rebecca Cooperstein ’16
School – Muhlenberg College
Degree – B.A. in Theatre with a concentration in Acting & English
Project – For her final senior seminar on Harold Pinter, Rebecca did three make-up looks exploring the duality of Pinter’s female characters.  She was looking for the face they show versus the face they hide. Her Professor told her that it was one of the most original projects she had ever received.  Rebecca owes the conception of this idea to her Waldorf background. In addition, during her time in college, Rebecca managed her school’s radio stations’ social media platform.
Plans after Graduation – While pursuing auditions on Broadway, Rebecca plans to obtain a bartending certificate and make-up artist license.

Mark Gonzalez ’15
School -Tufts University
Degree – B.S. in Physics, Summa Cum Laude
Project – Mark completed his senior honors thesis, entitled “Investigating the Hubble Tension with an Axion-Photon Coupling”, which received the highest honors. He was also awarded the Class of 1947 Victor Prather Prize.
Plans after Graduation – This September, Mark will begin his studies towards a Ph.D. in Physics at Yale University. He intends to study theoretical cosmology and particle physics

Julia Gonzalez ’16
School – Colby College
Degree – B.A. in Educational Studies: Human Development major, Magna Cum Laude
Project – Julia’s thesis, Connection with Communities Near and Far: The Current Status of Academic Civic Engagement at Colby, allowed her to graduate with honors in her major. She also received the Community Engagement award from th department and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.
Plans after Graduation – In the fall, Julia will begin her new position as the English Language Development Teacher at STRIVE Prep School in Denver, Colorado.

Congratulations to all of our Alumni Graduates! We are honored to share your success and accomplishments.

If you would like to update us on recent developments in your life to share with the community, please send the information to lerouxb@waldorfgarden.org and send a photo. 

Marilynn Blend Carstensen ’70 celebrated her father’s life, Robert Blend at a beautiful memorial service in November 2019. It brought her so much joy to share the moment with fellow alums from The Waldorf School of Garden City. The time spent together brought back incredible memories of her Dad’s involvement and dedication to our wonderful school.  Pictured from left to right, Bill Englis ’70, Marilynn Blend Carstensen ’70, Stephan Chenault ’70, Ken Chenault ’69, Paula Valentine Gonthier ’70, and Alison Bradley Klein ’70.

Seth Travins ’93 is enjoying life in the Shetland Islands with his family. He can often be seen running with his Waldorf sweatshirt on! Seth was recently accepted into the post-graduate teaching course for primary school and will begin his studies in August.  In addition, he was awarded a bursary for living expenses by the Shetland Islands Council in their “Growing our own teachers” program. Congratulations Seth!

This upcoming September, Sean Proctor ’11, will begin course work at Oxford to earn an MBA. Getting his MBA from Oxford will be an experience that is truly unique and exciting, as the year will include much more than the expected business coursework and relationship building. As a member of Pembroke College, one of the 38 Oxford member colleges, he will be living in an institution that was founded centuries ago, sharing meals, experiences, and stories with students from all over the world who are working towards a range of different degrees. The program begins in September, and he is very excited to begin this adventure that will push him out of his comfort zone, and allow him to grow both personally and professionally.

Sharing some glorious news! Samantha D’Aleo, WSGC Alumni Relations Associate, had her beautiful baby boy on Saturday, May 2^nd. Meet JJ, short for Joseph Jack. Blessings to Samantha, her husband, Dominick, and JJ.

Visit or Join our Alumni Facebook Group:

We are proud of our Alumni! Please tell us what’s new:

 

In Memoriam during COVID-19

It is with great sadness to share that over the course of these last few months, we have learned about many unfortunate passings of Waldorf community members. Many of these losses were due to COVID-19, and some were due to other causes. Regardless of the reason, we want to send our deepest sympathies to all of these families and let them know we will continue to hold them in our thoughts and hearts. Once some time has passed, and these families have been able to have the closure needed we will share more details with the entire community. In the meantime, please continue to provide In Memoriam information with us.

Thank you.

News from AWSNA

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