Weekly Email April 20, 2006

Dear parents,

Spring is an exciting time for LREI High School seniors, for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, where they will be for the next four years becomes clearer as college results start to roll in. In a year when the Wall Street Journal has written about colleges rejecting students in record numbers, our students have done exceptionally well, with many getting in to colleges or universities that they had frankly considered to be "reach" schools. Please see the attached list of 2006 college acceptances as they stood as of April 11.

At LREI, Spring also marks the advent of Senior Projects. From the Handbook:

The Senior Project - a major piece of original work in the field of his or her choice - is the culmination of each student's career at the High School. The senior project has two components: the research paper and the practicum. Beginning in March, seniors work on the research component, meeting regularly with their project mentors on the faculty. The research component serves as the factual basis for a five-week practicum, which begins in mid-April. The practicum is a field experience that often involves professional internships and domestic or foreign travel. The Senior Project Evening on May 31 is a major event in the school year to which parents, teachers and the entire school community are invited.

The combination of research and productive work in the outside world makes the Senior Project an appropriate culmination to an excellent progressive educational high school experience, and unlike many Seniors at other schools, LREI Seniors often end up working harder, and with more passion, during the third trimester than they do during the second! Over the past few months, the Senior Project Committee, led by Senior Dean Adele DeBiasi Pelz and Senior Seminar teacher (and Principal-to-be) Ruth Jurgensen, has provided each Senior with as much structure as he or she has needed to select a paper topic and find an appropriate practicum/internship. This year's practicums will take students to Germany and France, and range from photography (studio and sports) to catering to working in a restaurant to early childhood school placement to film editing to theater to Middle Eastern politics to real estate, and on, and on. The Senior Project Presentation evening on May 31 truly is one of the highlights of the year.

The calendar for the next few weeks:

* Thursday, April 20 (tonight!): The next meeting of Parents of Children with Academic Needs, at 6:30 PM.

* Friday, April 21: Professional Development/Planning Day - No classes

* Saturday, April 22nd: Community Service Opportunity - National and Global Youth Service Day - Through this fun-filled day of service, Children for Children - an agency in NYC that plans service projects, hopes to make a lasting impact on New York communities and to encourage young people to become leaders and continue to give back to their own communities. The event will include live entertainment, hands-on service projects, refreshments and Children for Children t-shirts.
Saturday, April 22, 2006,
10am to 3pm
@ Riverside Park,
Riverside Drive at 103rd Street, Manhattan

For more information, email Nick Sullivan at nsullivan@lrei.org.

* Wednesday, April 26: Big Auction We hope you are planning on attending! If you do not have a ticket yet but want one, we need to know for sure by Monday, 10:00 AM. If you do need a ticket, or if you cannot attend but would like to bid on an item, please contact Pippa Gerard at 212-477-5316, ext. 236 or via email at pgerard@lrei.org. The auction catalog is available in the Sixth Avenue lobby or on our website at http://www.lrei.org/caleven/ba2006/index.html.
Many thanks for supporting LREI.

* Friday, April 28: LREI High School Arts Festival - stay tuned for more details ...

All the best,

Tony

CALENDAR
April
* Friday 21 School closed - High School Planning/Meetings Day - No classes
* Friday 28 High School Arts Festival

May
* Saturday 13 Coffeehouse!
* Tuesday 16 High School Parent Rep Meeting
* Thursday 18 Spring Concert; Day 40 of Trimester III classes
* Tuesday 23 High School Sports Award Evening
* Friday 26 Field Day - No Classes
* Monday 29 School closed - Memorial Day
* Wednesday 31 Senior Project Presentation Evening

June
* Monday 5 Last day of Trimester III classes
* Tuesday 6-Thursday 8 Trimester III Exams/Presentations; End of Trimester II
* Thursday 8 Senior Banquet
* Friday 9 Graduation
* Monday 12-Tuesday 13 Closing days
* Tuesday 13 School closes at noon for Summer Vacation



As always, please browse the web site at www.lrei.org. Also, note the links to the Middle and Lower School weekly emails on the right. Please take a look at what the students in the other two divisions are up to!

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