Where are they now?

New School Alumni 1996-2000

Caroline Gustke
K-5, 1993-1999

New School favorite memory:
In my earlier years going to the New School we took a field trip to "Joyce's Farm". I honestly don't remember everything we did when we went there, but I remember walking through the woods, playing near the "lake" which really was a small pond, and being amazed that this woman had chickens at her house. We only went two or three times while I was there, but it was really a great time. I also remember running to the bottom of the HUGE hill that was out front of the school and collecting chestnuts out of their spikey green shells for who knows what reason. Leyla and I would ALWAYS spend our outside time collecting chestnuts. It's so hard to pick just one or two things that are "favorite" memories, because there were so many. I remember when Leyla and I were in probably 4th grade, we were the only ones in our grade and a college student came to teach us about velocity and other math. We used computer software to plug in our numbers and test out our theories. He taught us so much and we were just having fun. That was a great thing about The New School.. we were always mixing learning with fun, and that's how things stuck with us.
What you will miss most about The New School:
I miss the small classes.. you certainly don't find that in high school or college. Everyone in the school was a tight knit group, older kids helping younger kids, and the teachers were always willing to help you no matter how stumped you were. I remember back in the day before The New School had the internet - we were SO excited when we finally were able to get online! Of course, the internet was nothing when we had Oregon Trail to play. I miss circle time, and singing with Naani's mom, Marne. I remember learning French with Kira and Tanner's mom, and listening to stories, chapter by chapter, every day. There were so many amazing things about The New School that I would have never been able to experience with a public school.
What are your plans now:
In mid-November I took an exam at Hutchings Psychiatric Center in hopes of finding a job there as a Mental Health Therapy Aide. I got a 100% on the exam and I am currently waiting on an interview, and, hopefully, finding a position there!
Anything else you would like to add:
I really enjoyed my years at The New School, and I remember when I was in 4th grade wondering if they would decide to teach 7th and 8th grade before I got out of the school, because I really didn't want to leave. The New School was the most wonderful school experience I could have ever had.

Benjamin Arthur Lee Metzler
1st – 6th Grades; 1992-1998

New School favorite memory:
Playing tag after school for hours, while waiting for the perpetually late school bus.
What you miss most about The New School:
Reading uninterrupted under the loft for literally the entire day. Debating with Dana if the word "because" is spelled "B-E-C-A-S-E" or "B-E-C-U-S-E". Playing tag with Ethan and Abe.
What are your plans now:
Upon graduation in May '08 from Cornell University I will work as an Investment Banking Analyst at Lehman Brothers in NYC. (I sold my soul)
Anything else you would like to add:
While I regret not being forced to memorize a few key pieces of information (multiplication tables, spelling, geography) overall I strongly believe that The New School did an amazing job in preparing me for the real world by encouraging me to think, not memorize.

Dana

I graduated from the New School in 1998 and am currently a sophomore at Union College.

Academically I went on from The New School to Levy Middle School and then Nottingham High. I graduated from there and was admitted to Union where I am now. I've always looked back fondly on The New School and I'm glad that things are still going strong there and more kids are getting the chance to have such a great education.

It didn't mean as much to me back then as it does now, but I think one of my fondest memories was creating a word game for some of the younger children when I was in 5th or 6th grade. I think Jen (who was the younger students' teacher that year) told me they were working on words that used the short A sound or something like that, and one of my projects was creating a board game that involved moving spaces based on succesfully pronouncing words off of cards. I don't think my game went any where, I'm not sure it even joined the (from what I can remember) massive archive of games, but I had a lot of fun playtesting it with the younger kids.

The other memory that came back to me is something I don't believe I've thought of in many years, maybe a decade or so. There were a couple of weeks back in, I don't know really, but maybe 1st or 2nd grade where I had to play this game called Math Rings with one of the older kids, Micah Smuckler. I remember getting kind of sick of playing it with him, but I finally realized just now what was going on there. Micah was 4 years ahead of me as I recall, and he's absolutely brilliant at math. Thinking back, each of us was captain of the Nottingham math team when we went through there. I think like me Micah also got onto the NYS math team and competed in the national ARML competition at Penn State. He got a 1600 on his SAT and went on to study at Harvey Mudd last time I heard anything about him. I'm not saying Math Rings is some extraordinary game, I can't even remember how it works, but I know now that what was going on was that the teachers recognized that we were both excelling at math and Micah was indirectly "tutoring" me through playing the game. It was done so subtly that it's taken me over a decade to realize I was being tutored, what a great concept.

Erky

Right now, I'm living in Harrington, Quebec, where I'm 12 years old and in my first year of high school. I live right in the country by lots of friends and family. I have two dogs, a cat and a fish. There's tons of things to do up here like sledding (we call it sliding up here), skating and eating some of Canada's most popular foods like poutine (french fries covered in cheese and gravy), and beaver tails (fried dough covered in butter and cinnamon). And of course there's places near here where you can go tubing, skiing and snowboarding. Right now I really like going snowboarding (although I fall alot!) with my friend Chelsey. I'm also speaking french! I'm still not perfect at it, but I'm getting better! I'm having alot of fun up here although I'll always miss the people in Syracuse and the New School.

There are so many great memories that I have at the New School that it's hard to choose just one. I guess it would be when we built mini rockets and then went to launch them in some park. We did that the both years I was there. I remember the first year we did it I was too scared to launch my rocket because I was afraid that it would come back down and hit me on the head! But the second year I did lauch my rocket and I was lucky because it didn't land in the trees so I was able to bring it home. I wonder if you guys still launch rockets there every
year.