Building Our Community: Kenneth Cohen

Kenneth Cohen

By Hiba Rashid

Since its official opening in 2006, the East-West School of International Studies has worked closely with community leader, Kenneth Cohen. He helped build the school by organizing open houses throughout Flushing to advertise the new school and catch the attention of community members.

Mr. Cohen serves on the NAACP Metropolitan Council as the regional director, as well as on our Community Advisory Board as a founding member. Mr. Cohen has guided our school towards unique student opportunities and advocated for us throughout the community.

From our beginning years, he has continued to generously provide us with opportunities that help to further build our school community. Mr. Cohen tries to remain as involved with our school as possible by visiting at least twice a month, especially when East-West hosts special events. He has emphasized the success of East-West to the past three Board of Education Chancellors and stated that East-West serves as a model for community involvement.

Recently Mr. Cohen has collaborated with East-West and Queens College to plan an exciting partnership. It would connect the students from Queens College with the younger students of East-West. Promoting college readiness and success is the most essential goal of East-West, making this unique opportunity even greater for our school. Furthermore, this partnership would incorporate the development of African-American studies in our curriculum. This would consist of research and workshops, inside and outside the classroom. Our students would have access to campus resources, such as the Rosenthal Library and civil rights archive. It is important for us to keep supporting this partnership as it expands and enriches East-West in the future.

With all his contributions to the society, Mr. Cohen was rewarded with the honor of being invited to the White House by First Lady Hillary Clinton. The reception united various educational organizations to discuss their struggles and future goals. Mr. Cohen and his wife, Valerie Cohen, attended on the behalf of District 25 to promote its educational curriculum. During this time, Mr. Cohen was a member of the Community School Board 25. His appearance at this event led to the special visit from the First Lady herself to the local elementary school of I.S. 25. Mr. Cohen considers this acknowledgement of his community from a national leader as his greatest accomplishment thus far as a leader.

Mr. Cohen & Ms. Cohen, second and third from the left

A strong family stands with Mr. Cohen. Valerie Cohen, the Youth Director of the NAACP Northeast Queens Branch, has also contributed to East-West. She has been meeting with the team of our Social Studies teachers to collaboratively arrange lessons on the history and growth of the NAACP. Kenneth Cohen Jr., a young activist and growing leader of the NAACP, is currently a college student and serves on the Community Education Council for District 25. Just like the outstanding individual his son has become, Mr. Cohen hopes for all youth to grow and prosper in such a way.

Kenneth Cohen (far right in yellow) & Kenneth Cohen Jr. (center) holding “Justice for Troy Davis” sign

Mr. Cohen encourages this generation to become involved and active within their schools and local communities. Youth should take the opportunity to become involved now and not wait for the future to come to them. They should take action by registering to vote, participating in community service projects, joining young Democrat/Republican groups, and becoming active members of non-profit organizations such as the NAACP. All these experiences add up and can build a great youth leader who can improve the future of society. We should discover our passions and as Mr. Cohen says, “design your own destiny.”

Student Government: Past and Present

By Hiba Rashid, student reporter
Photos by Ms. Cheng
(Ms. Cheng’s note: This is Hiba’s follow-up to our previous feature on Student Government: “Meet the new student leaders“)

Student Government 2010 – 2011. From Spring 2011

As the successors, Anthoulla Themistokleous and I interviewed the current President and Vice-President, Max Poumie and Ogo Morka to gain more insight about Student Government. We began by asking further about the purpose of this system in East-West. “Student Government gives students something to believe in and assure that their voices reach the administration,” according to Max. The students need representation to realize that their opinions matter, even in the school environment. This idea intertwines with the main goals of Student Government including the unification of the high school and the middle school.

The incoming Student Government, for 2011 – 2012. Cabinet members (top row). Student representatives from 6th to 12 grade (bottom row). From Spring 2011

First musical at East-West!

By Hiba Rashid, student reporter
Photos by Mr. Shibata (view event photo album)

East-West students spelling S-U-C-C-E-S-S!

On May 25th and 26th, East-West held a production of the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee! Ms. Hartong was responsible for directing the production with the help of our students. There were hours and hours of effort and rehearsing before opening night! Two auditions were held before rehearsal officially began. Nearly 60 students auditioned for 25 roles. It was difficult to make decisions, especially since our students were so passionate about acting and singing.

This play was chosen because the characters reflect the personalities of the East-West students; they’re dedicated and have a desire to succeed. Also, the comedy and the music in the play is fun!

Rehearsal began in January and it was held every Thursday for about three hours. But as the show dates grew closer, rehearsal was held for nearly 6 hours a week. The last rehearsal on May 24th was the longest one, it lasted from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. All these hours of practice clearly paid off because opening night was a success!

East-West Drama Star: Ms.Hartong

Ms. Hartong with her backstage crew during play rehearsal

Ms. Hartong, a former actress, playwright, and director is a new Drama teacher at East-West! She is responsible for organizing our first school play and is contributing greatly to the growth of our school. Ms. Hartong is also a Theater professor at Brooklyn College.

She was born in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1968 and graduated from Smith College at the age of 22. Ms. Hartong started her own theater company in Massachusetts, where she also studied Shakespeare at Shakespeare and Company.

Before beginning her career as a teacher, she was involved in many aspects of professional drama. In 1994, Ms. Hartong even became a stand-up comic in Amsterdam, Netherlands! She began an international tour as a one woman show and continued to direct plays. This journey allowed her to gain knowledge about different forms of acting and enhanced her acting.

Thanks to these experiences, she won a Jerome Grant award for playwrighting. She participated in the Best of the Fringe Festival in Montreal, Canada and is a member of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab in NYC.

After being satisfied with her acting career, she decided to settle down and realized she wanted to teach youth about acting and its significance. To fulfill this goal, she participated in the International Theatre and Literacy Project in Tanzania, as an arts educator to teach the students there how to express themselves through acting.

Ms. Hartong applied this teaching experience when she returned to the U.S. and officially began teaching around 2004. In the beginning, she taught elementary school students and then branched out into higher grades. This is when she became part of the staff at East-West.

From East-West to College!

11th grade students visit SUNY Albany

East-West continuously plans college trips for our students in their last years of high school. It is a great opportunity to gain an understanding about the various options they have when choosing the college they wish to attend. Through these trips, students can explore their interests regarding majors and several other aspects of college life. It is important for students to participate in these trips because they can open their eyes to what their future might be.

A college trip to SUNY Albany was organized on March 24, 2011 by Ms.Park to which all sophomores and juniors were welcomed. We were able to visit the whole campus as well as gain insight on what the college has to offer. It was a great chance for our students to understand life at SUNY colleges, ask questions, and think about whether they would want to consider this type of college.

Once we’re seniors, we will have to make these crucial decisions related to college. Our own East-West 2011 seniors have already gone through this process and have began receiving acceptance letters! College trips have had an influence on their decisions so we encourage students to participate.

The colleges which our 2011 seniors have been accepted to are:

An Uncommon View of the Holocaust; Mr.Korman’s story

By Hiba Rashid, our new East-West news intern:

The audience listened and asked questions at the end. From Spring 2011

On Wednesday, March 30, 2011, Manny Korman visited our school. Mr. Korman is a mentor to our principal, Mr. Sherman. He is a part of the East-West community and has contributed greatly to us. Mr. Korman attended the recent presentation from the Holocaust survivor, Rosa Strygler and volunteered to share his own experiences from that time.

Before beginning to tell his story, Mr. Korman explained to us that his life during the Holocaust was very different from that of others. He first discussed how his family was forced out of their home one early morning in 1938 and were sent on trains towards an unknown destination because they became victims of ethnic cleansing, due to their Jewish heritage.