Spring break opportunity: Trip to China

Dear Families,

As you can imagine, with new community members come new programming opportunities.  Amy Chang, our new Mandarin Chinese instructor, has worked tirelessly the past few months to put together an exciting opportunity for LREI.  We are thrilled to announce that this Spring Break we are offering a cultural trip to China for 10-14 exemplary members of the community in grades 9-12 with priority going to students who are participating in our Mandarin Chinese program.  This trip, which will be chaperoned by several of our own LREI faculty include Amy Chang and Mark Bledstein, who has visited the country several times to inform his Asian studies curriculum for our history department, would run from March 18 or 19 to March 28 or 29.  The ten-day trip would include excursions to Beijing and Shanghai and visit the great sites such as The Temple of Heaven, The Great Wall of China, and Tiananmen Square, in order to introduce the group to Chinese language, culture and history.

This trip is bound to be a popular one but limited to 10-14 students. Therefore, those interested students already in solid academic and social standing will be required to complete two essay questions in order to help the faculty and administration determine the students who would get the most out of this opportunity.  Essays are due to me (via email only, rjurgensen@lrei.org) by January 4, 2011 at 3PM. Students will be notified if they have been chosen to participate on or before January 7, 2011.  There will be at least two mandatory meetings with selected students and families in January/February to prepare for this trip.

The good news is that there is financial aid for this trip in order to be able to offer the opportunity to all students. The cost of the trip will be between $1500-2500, depending on airline ticket costs.  Additional costs not included are for a passport, if students are in need of one, visa costs for the group, about $130 per person and additional spending money.   If your child is interested and is accepted, and in need of aid, we will direct you to Michel DeKonkoly Thege, Associate Director of the school, to make financial arrangements.  Please do let me know if you think your child/ren will be interested in this opportunity, and let me urge you to consider getting a passport for your student if they express any interest in this trip.  It can take several weeks to get a passport, so that process would have to begin now, before we can confirm an individual’s participation.

Students will be considered for this opportunity on the basis of:

  • Sustained commitment to being a positive member of the high school community both in and out of the classroom
  • Commitment to the travel experience as expressed in the essay and the timeliness of the essay
  • their current interest and understanding of Chinese language, culture and history

Interested students, please answer the following two questions to be considered for the opportunity to travel to China, March 18-29, 2011:

1-Please tell us why you are a good candidate for this travel opportunity.  Describe your most memorable journey or personal experience that has made a transformative impact in your life.  What does this experience tell us about you?

2-Please describe your desire for wanting to go to China, your knowledge and/or experience about Chinese history and culture, and expectations for the experience.  How will you bring your experience back to the classroom, back to the community?

I hope you are as excited by this opportunity as I am.

All the best, Ruth

Updates and Announcements:

Honors Project Proposals for Trimester II are due to Ruth by December 16, 2010, no later.  Students can be considered for an honors project if the student is in good academic standing at school and have permission from a teacher who would work with that student for the duration of the trimester on a specific project.

Grades and Comments for Trimester I will be available on Podium on Wednesday, Dec. 22.  More details in next week’s blog.

1.  Join us for our annual Alumni College Panel.  This is a terrific opportunity to hear recent LREI grads discuss their transition from high school to college and how their time at LREI prepared them for success. Thursday, January 6th, 6:30PM, PAC 40 Charlton Street. Moderated by our new Director of College Guidance Carey Socol. RSVP to Liza Sacks at (212) 477-5316 ext. 291 or lsacks@lrei.org.

2.  From the Sports Committee:  Get out of the cold and come and join the fun at one of our Knights home games next week!

Monday 13th December 4pm  Varsity Girls vs Churchill

Tuesday 14th December 4pm  JV Boys vs Churchill

Wednesday 15th Dec    3:30pm MS boys vs Friends, 4:30pm MS Girls vs Friends

Thursday 16th December 4pm Varsity Girls vs Steiner, 5:15 JV Boys vs Steiner

All games are held at Thompson Street Athletic Center, 145 Thompson Street

We will also be having the last Spirit Super Fan Club of the year before the double-header on Wednesday from 3pm until game time.  Spirit Club is open to all – come hang out and have a snack, do your homework and have some fun while the teams warm up.

So come ready to scream, yell, wave your flags and MAKE SOME NOISE!!

LET’S GO KNIGHTS!

3.  LREI Winter Concert: Join us on Tuesday, December 14th, to see LREI students at their musical best. The concert will start at 6:30PM in the Eisner & Lubin Auditorium, which is located on the 4th floor of NYU’s Kimmel Center located at 60 Washington Square South. This wonderful annual event features performances by all three divisional choruses, the middle and high school jazz bands and the high school brass ensemble.

4.  The Middle School is proud to present William Shakespeare’s much-loved, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This vibrant and colorful production, which features thirty middle school students, is ideal for the whole family. Join us as we enter a world in which fairies are mischievous and interfere with mortals lives and where love, revenge, jealousy and magic entangle the human world with the fairy kingdom. This is a “must see” production, with many strong performances from our cast of sixth through eighth graders. Tickets are on sale in the Sixth Avenue lobby starting on Friday, December 3rd and on the days leading up to the shows. Performances are scheduled for Friday Dec 10th at 7:00PM, and Saturday, Dec 11th at 2:00PM and 7:00pPM. Tickets are $12 adults and $10 students, children and senior citizens.

5.  WINTER CONCERT:  CAROLS AND CARMINA.  The Glass Menagerie Chorus, LREI’s resident adult chorus, conducted by Susan Glass, will perform its winter concert on Saturday, December 11th, at 8pm, at St. Joseph’s Church, 6th Ave. and Washington Place.  See attached for more details.

6.  There is still time to sign up for the second two terms of Adult r(ED).  Don’t miss out!  Click here for details!

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