Where are they now?

Corey

Corey graduated from The New School in 2005 and moved on to the Ithaca school systems where he continues to do well. Following is a note as well as photos; then and now:

Things have been going well here in Ithaca. I have a band now our name is Makeshift. We've already played a couple shows. We've played at my schools Variety show and we got paid to play one of my friends birthday parties. The best show was the Variety show. We played all three days and people loved us. If you guys are still studying art you should check out Mc Escher. He's one of my favorites. If you guys want to hear our music you can go to www.purevolume.com/makeshiftny. You can find all our songs, pictures bio, etc.

Jasmine

Jasmine moved on from The New School in 2004 and into Huntington Middle School within the Syracuse City School District. She dealt with the transition very well last year, and is continuing to make honor roll every marking period. She also played on both the soccer and volleyball teams this year, and with Eastside Soccer. Coming up this spring is the school musical, Into the Woods, which Jasmine has one of the lead roles in. The play will probably be put up in April-ish, and Jasmine will be playing the Witch. In her spare time, she's still doing chores,taking care of pets, and helping with her little brother Mica (15 mos), and little sis Dakota (4 1/2 yrs.). Stacy's favorite memory: Jasmine's 1st highland forest campout. I stayed the night in the cabins, with Baby Dakota in tow. As we were all settling in for the night she started making her little squeaky sounds and within seconds the whole bunk area was shaking with giggles. The kids were so good natured about always including everyone, even stinky, noisy babies! Jasmine's favorite memory: Bringing my snake to school to do my report and presentation.

Josh

Josh moved on from The New School in 2004 and into Levy Middle School within the Syracuse City School District. From there, he went onto Nottingham High School were he became involved in soccer (both indoor and outdoor) and LaCrosse.

The photo of Josh and his mother participating in an election in Syracuse, New York.

Lachezar

Lachezar was with The New School for his kindergarten year, 2004-2005. He moved on to Tecumseh Elementary School in Syracuse, New York and is doing well. The photo to the right is of Lachezar the New School taking part in an investigation activity (cat's cradle). The photo below is of Lachezar at Tecumseh at a school performance in 2005.

Sarena

Sarena was with The New School for several years and moved on following her sixth grade year to the Oneida School System. She takes flute and dance lessons. Her mother shares that, "I am truly blessed to have such a great kid, and a owe a huge part of her attitute to the New School. It's amazing to see the difference of the kids who stayed in the system to her." Her little sister, Marta is also doing well. Her mother adds that the traditional school setting is a change they all needed to get used to. They miss The New School and all that it has to offer.

Sophie

Sophie was with The New School for her kindergarten year and moved onto Ed Smith within the Syracuse City School System. She is doing great. Her favorite books to read to herself are Frindle and anything about Junie B. Jones; Her favorite books to listen to are The Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter books, and the Hermux Tantamoq series. She is learning Hebrew and taking piano lessons and doing all kinds of crafts and creative projects around the house. Her teacher emphasizes scientific subjects and methods, and Sophie has a detailed plan for studying whether the Loch Ness monster exists (complete with a field trip to Scotland, of course). She has given up, or at least de-emphasized her former ambitions to be a prima ballerina or a bride, and now she wants to be a mathematician or an opera singer.

Here is a poem she wrote for Hanukkah:

Puff Puff Puff

Puff puff
puff what
a lot of
stuff,
my mom
is in a teather
my dad is
busy and
I am left
whith my little
feather.

A favorite memory: "My favorite part of the New School was when I made my ice cream book."

TJ Raferty

• New School favorite memory:
  Building model rockets with Hugh, rolling down the enormous hill at Highland Forest, that awful outhouse that was there, reading in the loft, Jesse's comics, carving soapstone.
• What you miss most about The New School:
  I miss the open-ended structure, the stress-free work, and the very few, few students around me.
• What you plans are now:
  After graduating high school, I plan on enrolling in a school for recording arts, following community college.
• Anything else you would like to add:
  Right now, my life is predominated by any and all forms of music. I'm working on being able to jump on any instrument i want and be somewhat fluent about it. So far, I've covered percussion (after all, i do have experience with it since i was 8) and bass guitar. I'm working on piano (hope to be taking jazz and theory lessons shortly) and guitar. I've also gained an expansive knowlege of audio engineering and technique, and a good thing, seeing how that's what i want to do for a career.
  
  Of course, all this is funded my job at Surf City IGA, the little grocery store i work at on the barrier island not far from where I live.

Tommy

Tommy moved on from The New School following his fifth grade year in 2004-2005 to enroll in the Baldwinsville School Systems. He receives high honors and mentions that the biggest change was the taming the homework monster. He participates in Open Hand Theater and continues to love to take part in dramatic performances.