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Corporate and Foundation Sponsors
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 State-wide exams for Elementary and Middle School are over and there have been a lot of extra-curricular activities going on, including advisory community service trips and school dances. HS students have been taking AP Exams and are busy prepping for the Regents, but are also preparing end of year arts exhibitions and curricular projects. Spring sports are kicking into high gear and everyone is busy fund-raising in preparation for year-end trips, graduation and stepping-up ceremonies. We also had a very exciting visit from the NYC Schools Chancellor! Read on! |
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TRCS Receives a Visit from the Chancellor!
| Renaissance was honored to receive a visit from NYC Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariņa on Tuesday, May 20th, one of the first charter schools she has visited since becoming chancellor. She was joined by Deborah Dillingham, the Queens representative to the Panel for Educational Policy, and Stacey invited our District 75 colleague, Principal Richard Marowitz to join us,as evidence of one of the school's most successful partnerships.
Our school looked beautiful, and the Chancellor commented that she liked the feel of the building immediately upon entering. She liked the noise of happy kids! Ms. Fariņa asked a lot of questions about our successful integration of District 75 students, Global Humanities and our dissemination project with Truman High School, our emphasis on geography education, Rensizzle Week, Advisory and College Bound. She loved that we teach Art and Spanish K-12 and that we use the FOSS program and focused on inquiry-based science. She made many positive comments about our roof top garden and the programs that support it.
In stressing how important it is to continue to have project-based, interdisciplinary learning in all grades and subjects, the Chancellor
noted that the design of our building (with its open classrooms and common areas) is perfect for the kind of work she is looking for.
At the end of the tour she turned to Stacey and told her she liked that "students run the building". We are clearly a student-centered and student-focused school, and that is precisely the kind of community-centered school Chancellor Fariņa is promoting.
Our teaching staff and support staff, governing board, parent leadership and administration should all feel proud of the great work we are doing! It was a wonderful day.
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TRCS Student wins Gates Millennium Award!
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 We are so pleased to announce that graduating senior Tenzin Dechen has been awarded a Gates Millennium Scholarship Award. The Gates Millennium Scholars Program is funded by a $1.6 billion grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Each year 1,000 talented students receive a full scholarship to cover all college expenses including tuition, housing, books and supplies through graduate school to use at any college or university of their choice. This year, 52,000 applicants applied for the Gates Millennium Scholarship.
Besides the challenging competition for this award, Tenzin has also faced personal challenges, which she has met head-on. Born and raised in a Tibetan refugee camp, Tenzin moved to America when she was 6 years old. Her transition to a new setting across the world was hard. She struggled as an immigrant and underprivileged student having to adapt to a completely different cultural environment and a new language.
In high school, her extracurricular activities became a strong facet in her leadership career. She joined various programs such as Sadie Nash Leadership Project, Breakthrough NY, and Students for a Free Tibet. Tenzin helped to start a chapter, Lhakar NY, promoting the growth of Tibetan culture and dialogue among youth. Juggling school work and extracurriculars, she holds true to her passion in Education and Outreach, believing that everyone should have access to a quality education.
We are sure that the next step of going to college will be yet another success story for Tenzin. We wish her luck when she heads off to Cornell University this August!
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TRCS Student Off To National Youth Leadership Forum!
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 10th grader Jonathan Jones has had many great experiences at TRCS. The College Bound Program has provided Jonathan with many opportunities to gain leadership experience. Among his extra-curricular activities, he is an alumnus of the 2013 Junior Scholar Program at the Schomburg Center in Harlem, he is an active member of TRCS' After-School program TREA (Teens for Racial and Ethnic Awakening), and he was recently inducted into TRCS' National Honor Society.
Jonathan has now been accepted into the National Youth Leadership Forum (NYLF): Careers in Business & Innovation Envision Program. Jonathan will be going to Babson College in Boston for 8 days in July, during which time he will be paired with a team of students from across the globe to come up with Apple Inc.'s next new product.
"In addition to recognizing students as future business leaders, this eight-day program provides students with a choice of four exciting campus experiences," said Andrew Potter, the Vice President of Education for the National Youth Leadership Forum on Business & Innovation. "They will be challenged by real-world business issues and, along the way, will be able to better define themselves as they prepare for college and careers."
Jonathan has always been interested in business, and he has no doubt this unique experience will afford him an opportunity to further explore his career choices. We wish him the best!
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First Grade Holds 2nd Book Publishing Party
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Our 1st grade class and teacher SuhJin played host to family and school staff who attended their 2nd Book Publishing Party. Students read out loud to the audience and afterwards celebrated with juice and other snacks brought in by the proud family members.
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Middle School Spring Fling
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The Middle School student council organized a great dance for this year's 7th & 8th graders. With the help of their adviser Amanda Scott, the students transformed her room into a "photo booth" with a great Hawaiian theme.
Pierre (PJ) was the DJ and Ram provided lights and video (and, of course, dancing). There was lots of pizza and snacks and it was a great way to celebrate a busy year for our middle school students!
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Dance Students Make Trip to Broadway
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 As part of the PEP physical education grant, students in the after-school dance classes had an opportunity to attend a matinee performance of the Broadway show "After Midnight". Here is a review by 7th grader Luc Papineau:
"After Midnight" was an extraordinary musical that brought the Cotton Club to life! This musical is dazzling, with Tony nominated choreography and Tony nominated lighting design! The show gave an amazing feel of the 1920's especially with the costumes. Fantasia Barrino is an amazing singer and actress! Dule Hill as the MC helped to give the feel of being in a real nightclub as he introduced the different performers. Having the orchestra on stage also added to the feel of 'The Cotton Club'.
After the show, the students had a chance to do a Q&A with the cast. Some of kids asked questions like: How long have you danced for? Is it hard to dance and sing at the same time? Will you go on tour?" In my opinion, the cast was fantastic and the kids had a ton of fun".
Renaissance looks forward to adding additional physical education opportunities for our students next year and were happy to offer this opportunity to our students.
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Renaissance Rocks! Students Inducted into the National Honor Society
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 According to the NHS National Constitution, all members must meet the follow  ing eligibility requirements: - attending school in grades 10 through 12
- maintaining a cumulative grade point average of 85 percent, B, 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale), or equivalent standard of excellence
- demonstrating volunteer or service hours
- preserving an excellent record of behavior in and out of school
- participating in leadership roles in school and/or community activities.
The following Renaissance students were recently inducted into the National Honor Society: 10th Grade 11th Grade
Nia Daniels Larissa BobbinMary Degante Peter Carrion Julia Francione Emmy Liang Leslie-Ann Jerez Michelle Martinez Jonathan Jones Karen Perea Julia Krutel Tenzin K. Ukyab Jessica Paucar Ayana Vega Brianna Rodriguez Nusrat Uddin Tamia Wright  Congratulations to everyone on your accomplishment!
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Spotlight On... Community Service
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7th-12th grade advisories have been traveling all over the city, doing volunteer work and learning about what the service industry does for our city.
Robert's 7th grade advisory had two volunteers who went to the Child Center of New York pre-school to work with the students.
Matteo and Tenzin helped the children to build buildings with cereal boxes and they taught them how to play fun games like rock, paper, scissors. 
Ram's advisory went to the Florence Smith Community Center in Corona to pack lunch for senior citizens. They did an assembly line to produce the final product, a pack containing milk, bread and butter, an orange and apple and juice. They had a fun time helping out the community and watched Spiderman 3 after their community service.  Christina's 4th graders learned about community and their place in it by taking part in painting a mural for the new Rory Staunton Field across from Travers Park. Upon completion of a city expansion project, this former athletic field of The Garden School will become an extension of Travers Park. The mural was designed by Carlo Nieva, father of 4th grade student Elliot. Your can read all about the children's work and their thoughts on community in this great article!  VIncent's 7th grade advisory helped out in our kindergarten class. Here they are working at the math station....
..... and here they are at the reading station. This is a great way to teach our young students about service, by letting them see it in action.
Good job all!
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TRCS Sports Desk
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HS Baseball finished the season with a four-game winning streak, with recent wins over Info Tech and Frank Sinatra. They ended the season with a record 7W - 9 L.
4-6 Grade Girls Basketball is currently 3-1. In a recent win over Harriet Tubman Charter 17-2 , Remay Pemba had 13 pts.
Recently members of the Lady Knight Basketball team attended the Annual School Day WNBA Liberty game at the world famous arena Madison Square Garden. At halftime Angela Simmons spoke about bullying. Also, Jonathan Jones and Remay Pemba got be on the jumbo screen alongside coach Alex , as he was getting honored as season ticket holder of the game.
Upcoming Games :
MS Soccer Vs Democracy Prep 5/20 @ 515pm @ Wagner Park
MS Soccer Vs Inwood 5/23 @ 515pm @ Macombs Dam Park
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The PTA hopes you can attend the May 21st meeting, which will be the last TRCS PTA meeting. The Executive Board, staff and parents will discuss how best Renaissance families can be involved in their children's education in the coming years.
Please join us for the informal meeting, where you will have a chance to vote for your parent reps. Light refreshments will be served, raffles given away and, as always, childcare is available. Please come and share your ideas of what you think family engagement at TRCS should look like next year! |
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Alumni Corner
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 Daniel Laverde, class of 2010, paid a visit to Renaissance with his wife Melina, before hitting the road for California. Daniel, who joined the Navy after graduation, is now a petty Officer 3rd Class. He has reenlisted for another four years and is stationed at Camp Pendleton, CA.
Camp Pendleton is a Marine base, and Daniel is part of a Special Operations Naval Command stationed on the base, working with the assault unit hovercraft used to move troops from the big ships to land. Camp Pendleton operates the training base in order to promote combat readiness of the Operating Forces.
Daniel's wife Melina has been finishing up her degree in Marine Biology here in New York, and will be joining Daniel on base for the next phase of their lives together. Congratulations to both--and we are so proud of Daniel. Thanks for stopping by!
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Upcoming Events:
5/19-22, Mon.-Thurs. - Nature's Classroom Trip (4th-6th grades)
5/21, Wednesday - PTA Meeting 6:30
5/26, Monday, Memorial Day - No School
5/28-30, Wed.-Friday - Middle School Trip
5/29-30, Thursday-Friday - H.S. Arts Exhibition
6/02, Monday - Grades 4 & 8 Science Written exam
6/03, Tuesday - Common Core Regents Exam
6/04, Wednesday, BOT Meeting 6:45PM
6/05, Thursday - Brooklyn/Queens Day, no classes
Senior Prom
6/12-13, Thursday-Friday - 5th Grade Play
6/14, Saturday - Spanish Play
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Helpful Hints and Cool Links
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Check out the new link on the Parents page of our website called "Supporting Your Child."
(http://www.renaissancecharter.org/parents.html/support_child.com)
This page includes many helpful documents and resources to support your child both academically and emotionally, from experts in the field and our own staff. Currently, there are several documents that will help you help your child, by understanding our discipline code, our commitment to an anti-bullying culture, and by understanding what our communication protocols and our philosophy of student counseling. Here are some additional resources:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/people-skills/201008/cyber-bullying-defenses
http://eyeguardian.com/
Read the following document for tips on internet safety:
Internet Safety
Elementary Math:
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Make an investment in children, education and the future of our world. Safer, better-educated communities are great for business; they improve the quality of life for everyone. Renaissance's hard-working, high-achieving students strive to make that happen and with your help that goal is closer to being a reality: Please visit our website for more information, and lick on the red DONATE button on the bottom of each page: http://www.renaissancecharter.org/. Thank you!
Sincerely,
The Renaissance Charter School
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