Dear parents/ guardians,

This fall continued to highlight the many things that we are proud of at Bronx Lab. In our continued efforts to increase parent involve-ment, more parents came to the October Parent Teacher Confer-ences than ever before. In October, Student Council organized their first event, the Halloween Fashion Show, where staff and students displayed their costumes. The GSA put together an after school event to coincide with National Coming Out Day. The Office of Col-lege Placement and the Class of 2012 broke all school records with 95% of seniors attending our annual SUNY Lock-In. This November, the Respect Committee and Respect Reps got together and organ-ized a Respect Week that ended with a wonderful school wide as-sembly. In this newsletter you will find the above events detailed.

Before you start reading, I just want to thank you all for your support of Bronx Lab School.

Sincerely,

Christopher Lagares, Principal

Staff Recognition of Star Students

On Wednesdays the staff recog-nizes pupils as Star Students. These are teens who have mod-eled the characteristics of being great students.

The staff has recognized the follow-ing students: Reinaldo Acevedo by Mike Z. Steven Alcantara by Kelsey Kline Rayjeen Clarke by Ethan Nichols Freddy Valesquez & Daquan Jo-seph by Noel Eaton

October-November 2011 Volume 3, Issue 2

Inside this issue:

Updates from OCP 2

10th Grade Explore Week 3

BLS 5 Awards / FEGs Summer Jobs 4

Respect Week/ Peer Tutoring/ PTCs 5

National Coming Out Day 6

Jazz Band/ Student Council at Work 6

Important Dates 8

Principal’s Word:

NEWSLETTER BRONX LAB

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Every month we will hold our PARENT ASSOCIATION MEET-INGS to help you stay involved, become active at the school, and have your voice heard. If you want to get involved contact:

parentoutreach@bronxlabschool.org

Updates from O.C.P.

Page 2

SUNY LOCK-IN

On October 20, 2011, BLS Seniors participated in the 5th Annual SUNY Lock-In. The Class of 2012 broke all BLS records when 95% of the seniors stayed until 8PM to apply to their SUNY colleges and obtain valuable feedback on college choices and essays. Six (6) out of 8 advisories had a 100% attendance. 95% of the senior

class stayed un-til 8PM to partici-pate in the SUNY Lock-In, up from 81% from last

year.

Senior, Florian Shabanaj, is a Questbridge finalist. Once matched with a college, Florian will receive a full four year scholarship. According to their website, “QuestBridge is a powerful platform bridging the nation's brightest, under-served youth and leading institutions of higher education and further opportunities. We are an aggregator of excellence. QuestBridge pro-vides a single, internet-based meeting point which links exceptional students with colleges, scholarship providers, enrichment programs employers, and organizations seeking students who have excelled despite obstacles. By facilitating these exchanges, QuestBridge aims to increase the percentage of talented low-income students attending the nation's best universi-ties and the ranks of national leadership itself.”

For more information visit: http://questbridge.org/

Questbridge Finalist

Cohort SUNY LOCK-IN Attendance

Class of 2010 75% Attendance

Class of 2011 81% Attendance

Class of 2012 95% Attendance

Congrats to Karleene Diaz!

Congratulations to Karleene Diaz, she was accepted into The National Youth Leadership Fo-rum on Law and Crime Scene Investigation (CSI). According to their website, “this is a sum-mer high school student program that provides the nation‟s top students with an in-depth look at the legal profession, the judicial process, forensics and crime scene investigation. Stu-dents taking part in the Forum on Law and CSI interact with nationally-recognized legal pro-fessionals, analyze different types of evidence and explore the process of forensic crime solving. Law and CSI students take an active role in a simulated trial and go behind the scenes at some of the most prominent law firms, universities and legal sites in Washington, D.C.”

Page 3

10th grade, at many schools, is defined by what students are not. They are not freshman, are not in their first year, and are not in need of the extra support to make a difficult transition. But they are also not upperclass-men, are not on the brink of college, and (at most schools) are not the leaders of school. Of course, those of us who love to work with students in their 10th grade year would rather focus on what they are. They are maturing into young adults, are capable of deep reflection and strong leadership, and are developing the critical thinking and reasoning skills that will make them successful college students and citizens. At Bronx Lab we have chosen to take the latter approach.

The program for 10th grade explore week is based on this belief. On 10th grade explore week students par-ticipate in activities that affirm who they are and develop the relationships with their advisor and advisees that will help them grow into the young adults they can become. The most powerful activity of the trip is “if you really knew me” a workshop run by social worker Lindsey Charles and upper-class students Scarlett Ramirez, Mayvette Irizarry, and Victoria Yulfo in which students share personal experiences with their advi-sory group.

This year also featured (for the first time) a group who challenged themselves by sleeping in tents rather than in a cabin. Bibi‟s advisory did an amazing job with this challenge.

I would like to give a special thanks to the 10th grade advisors for going on the trip as well as the BLS staff for supporting our 10th graders so that this trip could happen. The trip proved once again that the BLS 10th grade students, teachers, and advisors ARE incredible!

10th Grade Explore Week

By John McCrann (Outdoor Programs Director)

Page 4 BRONX LAB SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

Bronx Lab School 5

The purpose of the BLS 5 is to provide students, families and staff with a framework for building a successful school commu-nity. We will use these 5 simple principles to guide our words and our actions. By adhering to them we will be able to foster a common language of respect, accountability, preparedness, risk taking and support.

Bronx Lab 5

-Be Prepared-

-Be Respectful-

-Be Accountable-

-Challenge Yourself-

-Support your Community-

BLS 5 Awards for October—November

The BLS 5 is the code by which Bronx Lab students live. These include: Be Respectful, Be Accountable, Be Prepared, Challenge Yourself and Support Your Community. Each week students are nominated for who best exemplifies these 5 attributes.

During the months of October & November, the fol-lowing students were nominated:

Support Your Community: Ralph Sanchez by Mi-chael Glass

Support your Community: Saydia Hoosain by Kelly Dunscomb

This past summer, FEGS placed 45 BLS students in summer jobs. Stu-dents worked at sites such as the New York Public Library, Blooming-dale's, St. Luke's- Roosevelt Hospi-tal, an animal hospital and State Farm Insurance among others. For many of our students this was their first real work experience where they were able to put to practice the skills discussed in our workshops. Our stu-dents learned how to write a resume, a cover letter and how to land and perform in a job interview.

This summer experience, landed two of our students permanent work. Paul Boney at Bloomingdales and Sukari Lopez at an animal hospital, as well as two job offers from the New York Public Library. Most importantly, our students networked and were able to secure references for future job search.

For more information about the FEGS WIA program, please see a FEGS staff member in Room 405

FEGS-WIA Gets Students Sum-

mer Jobs!

RESPECT WEEK

Page 5 VOLUME 3, ISSUE 2

During the first week in November, the student body came together to celebrate the year‟s first Respect Week. The two main goals for the week were to have students and staff continue to bond with each other, this time focused on helping each other learn how to change behaviors and to take the RESPECT! work out of „just‟ advisory discus-sions and interactions and place it in the „mainstream‟ of daily BLS life. Highlights of the week included a Day of Compliments, in which students decorated their doors in advi-sory with compliments they gave their peers. The Student Leadership Summit amassed 115 student leaders at Bronx Lab, recognized their contributions, and laid the founda-tions for leadership classes for our students.

The week ended with a Respect Assembly. For the fourth time in a year, the entire school came together to celebrate the work we have done around respect. Shantavia Davis, Marriah Cousins, and Franky Garcia sang the Bill Wither‟s classic Lean on Me. Mika‟s drama F-Block acted out skits to show us the differences between reacting posi-tively and negatively to common situations our students may encounter in a school day. The assembly ended with each grade‟s special chant.

Peer Tutoring

A new peer tutoring program began at Bronx Lab. Students now can receive help in their core subjects from their fellow students in the small cafe on Tuesdays and Fri-days from 3:15-4:30.

Parent Teacher Conferences

We met and exceeded our goal of 225 parents during the October Parent Teacher Con-ferences. In October, 238 parents showed up to participate in their child‟s education. More parents showed up on the first night alone, than did in total in Oct. 2009. Parent involvement in our school is integral to our success. Janice, John McCrann, Irene, and Noel had the highest percentage of parent attendance and each won a pizza party to celebrate this achievement.

Oct. 2009 Oct. 2010 Oct. 2011

Day One N/A 125 144

Day Two N/A 70 67

Days following N/A 7 27

TOTAL 140 202 238

Page 6 BRONX LAB SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

As part of our continuing efforts to have a positive and respectful environment, on Octo-ber 11, 2011, the GSA at Bronx Lab School hosted our first National Coming Out Day . So many of the performers left Bronx Lab talking about the positive vibe in the room and how tender, caring, attentive the students were.

The event was chock full of performers. Jay Toole from Queers for Economic Justice ad-dressed the audience. "Simply Rob" Vassilarakis, a spoken word artist, did a little per-formance. Roopa Singh played a song with some students. Barry Robinson expanded our cultural repotoire by performing a small opera song. The singing continued with Jake Mendes. Our very own Social Worker, Lindsey Charles, had her father speak and sing to the crowd.

For more information on National Coming Out Day please visit: http://www.hrc.org/

National Coming Out Day

Bronx Lab Jazz Band rocks the Lehman College Jazz Fest

Page 7 VOLUME 3, ISSUE 2

Student Council at Work: Halloween Fashion Show

Bronx Lab‟s Jazz Band was invited to perform at the Third Annual Lehman College Jazz festival. While performing in front of many high school and middle school groups, we were one of the few invited back for an exclusive, full album studio recording by the Leh-man College Music Dept, free of charge. That means BLS will return and complete a full-scale multi-track CD in the upcoming months.

For more information on the festival visit: http://www.lehman.cuny.edu/academics/arts-humanities/music/jazzfest.php

In October, members of our Jazz Band also sat in on a sound check with Jazz great Arturo O‟Farrill.

1. Saturday Regents Prep is held on Dec. 17th, Jan 7th, Jan. 14th and Jan. 21st

2. Parent Association Meeting & Jewelry Making Class Thursday Dec. 16th and 17th

3. School Leadership Team (SLT) meeting on Thursday Dec. 15th

4. Winter Arts Fest Monday Dec. 19th at 4PM in the Small Cafe

IMPORTANT DATES

Page 8 VOLUME 3, ISSUE 2

If you are ever in need of free legal advice, the school has a relation-ship with one of the country‟s most prominent law firms, Wilmer Hale LLP, to help families with legal problems that could disrupt the education of students. To set up a private time to meet with a lawyer, please contact your child’s advisor, Damaris Frias (damaris.frias@bronxlabschool.org).

Free Legal Advice

Join over 620 people and become a fan of Bronx Lab, visit us on FaceBook at http://www.facebook.com/

F∙E∙G∙S Health and Human Services is the non-profit organization partnered with Bronx Lab to provide counseling, support, and college and career development services to students at Bronx Lab. If you are interested in accessing F∙E∙G∙S‟s myriad of services for youth and families including employment and career services, behavioral health and residential services, please contact Llesenis Soto at llesenis.soto@bronxlabschool.org

Attention parents of all grades:

F-Block

F-block is now in full effect, with over 200 students programmed to different electives. This year BLS is offering a wide range of activities where students will earn elective credits for. Students will have the opportunity to join clubs such as Theatre, Dance, Music, Cycling, Mountain Program, Art, Jewelry Making, Fitness club and Swimming for boys as well as Ladders where stu-dents can improve on their Literacy and mathematical skills. Be part of a club today! To join come see Ms. Soto in room 405.