AC Mexico Trip Builds Connections and Global Mindset
Posted on May 31st, 2019 by Allendale Columbia SchoolBy Rodrigo Gutierrez and Maiyen Sulera Frere
There’s nothing like traveling to a different part of the world to develop a new perspective. Through the Allendale Columbia Center for Global Engagement, a group of 11 students and two teachers traveled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on a cultural immersion trip during AC’s 2019 May Term.
The following notes and photos are taken from a series of emails sent to parents of the students on our AC Mexico trip. (Check back for updates.) (more…)
Global Scholars Lead Workshops on Empathy, Compassion at Naz
Posted on March 21st, 2019 by Allendale Columbia SchoolAllendale Columbia Global Engagement Scholars participated in the 9th Annual Global Citizenship Conference: The Next Generation Living in a Pluralistic World held at Nazareth College on Wednesday, March 13th, 2019.
This conference for high school students is designed to give the future leaders of our world the tools to respond to intolerance, improve religious literacy, and show the etiquette required to work in a pluralistic world. Participants become more aware of cultural and religious diversity, gain understanding and dispel stereotypes about various religions, and learn effective skills of discourse based on respect, plurality, and conflict resolution. (more…)
Posted in: Authentic Learning, Centers for Impact, Eleventh Grade, Global Engagement, Highlights, Ninth Grade, Tenth Grade, Twelfth Grade, Upper School
AC’s Younger Students Becoming Global Citizens, Too
Posted on March 1st, 2019 by Allendale Columbia SchoolStudents throughout Allendale Columbia School don’t just learn about other parts of the world, they become global citizens, learning alongside their peers in other parts of the world. That’s just as true in Lower School.
Last year, AC first-graders explored the Amazon rainforest and ran a successful fundraising campaign to become stewards of a section of the rainforest equal to the size of AC’s campus. Building on that experience, AC’s Head of Lower School, Michelle Feiss, brought in Paul Hurteau, Executive Director of OneWorld Classrooms and a former Upstate New York teacher, who thrilled current first- and second-graders with stories of his experiences teaching students in Ecuador, complete with photos of the people and wildlife, poems, and artifacts from that rainforest community.
Posted in: Authentic Learning, Centers for Impact, Eighth Grade, Eleventh Grade, Fifth Grade, First Grade, Fourth Grade, Global Engagement, Highlights, Lower School, Middle School, Ninth Grade, Partnerships, Second Grade, Seventh Grade, Sixth Grade, Tenth Grade, Third Grade, Twelfth Grade, Upper School
Practicing What I Teach: Challenges and Rewards in Ecuador
Posted on March 1st, 2019 by Allendale Columbia SchoolWhat do a school psychologist from New York, a boy named Ken from the Dominican Republic, a girl named Jazmin, and a boy named Jared all have in common? During the summer of 2018, they all found themselves at Fundación Niños de María in Quito, Ecuador.
Fundación Niños de María is a private Catholic school in Ecuador. Students who attend come from public schools where they used to experience academic failure and where the ratio was often one teacher to 45 students. Niños provided a safe and often year-round educational experience for some of Quito’s most vulnerable students. For a student like Ken, whose family had recently relocated from the Dominican Republic, much about Niños, and Ecuador in general, was new. Jazmin had gone unnoticed at her last school and was quite shy, and Jared’s teacher shared that, while domestic violence was a part of his home life, he was usually upbeat and talkative.
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- Starmeshia and Jared pose for a selfie in the courtyard on the last day of the program at Fundación Niños de María.
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- Third-grader Ken shares how he completed his given place value problem.
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- Jazmin proudly displays her completed whiteboard assignment.
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- Jared poses for an impromptu photo in between class work. In the background, his brother completes an assessment.
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- Starmeshia is seated next to her Spanish teacher Maria. She is joined by two other bilingual immersion students and one of their Spanish teachers.
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- Adult participants of the bilingual immersion program assigned to Fundación Niños de María pose with several students on the last day of the program.
Posted in: Global Engagement, Highlights
Change Provides Car for Afghan Hero
Posted on January 15th, 2019 by Allendale Columbia School
Ellen Smith (NOLB Rochester Chapter Head) and Abdul Wali Akrami receive a ceremonial check from Change We Can Believe In leader Elina Natarajan ’22.
Abdul Wali Akrami, a humble hero who helped U.S. Armed Forces in Afghanistan, received a car and insurance to help him resettle in Rochester as a result of AC ninth-grader, Elina Natarajan’s inspired “Change You Can Count On” fundraiser at Allendale Columbia School.
Natarajan rallied the Community Service Club to help with the project, in which students in each grade and faculty sought to fill 2-liter bottles with loose change. All those coins added up to $743.00 to support No One Left Behind (NOLB), an organization that helps resettle the Afghan and Iraqi heroes who assisted the U.S. as drivers, interpreters, and special assistants.
“I was inspired when I met Matt Zeller and Janis Shinwari after a discussion at school,” Natarajan explained. AC alumnus and 2018 CNN Hero, Matt Zeller ’00, is a co-founder of NOLB with his Afghan translator Janis Shinwari. “I heard Ellen Smith (the Rochester Chapter Head) talk in the evening forum about raising money to help provide vehicles to these relocated helpers, and I thought, we can do that!”
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- Ellen Smith, Rochester Chapter Head for No One Left Behind, explains the organization’s work and describes the background of fundraising recipient Abdul Wali Akrami to a full Curtis Performance Center at Allendale Columbia School.
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- Aleem Akrami tells his father’s story of the difficulties encountered as an aide to U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
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- Abdul Wali Akrami receives the title and insurance for a car provided by funding from AC’s Change We Can Believe In fundraising campaign, with Ellen Smith (NOLB) and Elina Natarajan AC ’22.
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- Ellen Smith (NOLB Rochester Chapter Head) and Abdul Wali Akrami receive a ceremonial check from Change We Can Believe In leader Elina Natarajan ’22.
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- Abdul Wali Akrami expresses his thanks for AC’s fundraising efforts, with Ellen Smith (NOLB Rochester Chapter Head), Jawad Tawakali, and his son Aleem Akrami.
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- Poster board describing No One Left Behind.
“Wali” and his family fled his home country of Afghanistan to go to Pakistan when it became too dangerous under the Taliban. He returned when U.S. forces arrived to, as he put it, “help restore our country”. He became the trusted driver and special assistant to Fulton Jones, DynCorp International’s Deputy Program Manager for the Ministry of Interior’s Mentoring Program working with the Afghan National Police. Jones is the one who sponsored Wali’s visa. “On two occasions while we were traveling in my vehicle around Kabul, nearby coalition military bases or Afghan governmental institutions were attacked by Taliban insurgents. Wali quickly assessed the situation and realized that we were in danger of being hit,” Jones wrote in his letter of recommendation, and related how Wali got them to safety. “Wali risks his life daily just coming to work…but firmly believes what he is doing is right and worth the risk.”
Wali’s son, Aleem, related some of his father’s story to the packed Curtis Performance Center at AC, while tears of gratitude streamed down Wali’s face. A family friend, Jawad Tawakali, who moved here as a child, translated Wali’s thanks to the group. “It feels good to know we could help,” said Natarajan, who also noticed the tears. “It was a very emotional moment.”
Interested in supporting No One Left Behind? Send donations to:
No One Left Behind, Inc.
888 Pittsford Mendon Center Road
Pittsford, NY 14534
You can also email Irwin Solomon at irsolnolb@gmail.com.
Posted in: Alumni News, Centers for Impact, Eleventh Grade, Global Engagement, Highlights, Ninth Grade, Tenth Grade, Twelfth Grade, Upper School
Nicaraguan Partners Visit AC Spanish Classes
Posted on December 20th, 2018 by Allendale Columbia School
by Kate Western
On Tuesday, visitors from Rochester’s sister city of El Sauce, Nicaragua, met with Middle and Upper School Spanish classes to raise awareness of the existing needs of Nicaraguan children. Marta Rojas and Ashley Sullivan, a Hilton native, both live in El Sauce, and they have dedicated their lives to making an impact on children of need in their community through the Ciudad Hermana (Sister City) Scholarship Project. (more…)
Posted in: Centers for Impact, Global Engagement, Highlights, Middle School, Upper School
AC Alum Recognized as 2018 CNN Hero
Posted on November 9th, 2018 by cnickelsVeterans Day celebrates our soldiers and marines who served this country or, in some cases, made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. But what about all those people who help our troops? The people who live in the country that is being torn apart by war. The people who risk their lives to help our soldiers communicate, navigate, and survive. What about them?
Matt Zeller, an AC Class of 2000 alum, left our campus with ideas of being a lawyer or a politician and went on to earn degrees from Hamilton College and Syracuse University before joining the U.S. Army.
In 2008 his life, and his future, changed forever. (more…)
Posted in: AC in the News, Alumni News, Authentic Learning, Entrepreneurship, Global Engagement, Highlights
Is Your Child Starting From Behind? Why Others Look to AC for Early STEM Education
Posted on October 26th, 2018 by Allendale Columbia School
A delegation of educators from Belarus, seeking ways to boost innovation and economic development and cultivate a competitive workforce, visited Allendale Columbia School because of its reputation as the best school to visit for its “bottom-up” approach to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), which formally begins in Kindergarten. (more…)
Posted in: Centers for Impact, Eighth Grade, Eleventh Grade, Fifth Grade, First Grade, Fourth Grade, Global Engagement, Highlights, Invent, Kindergarten, Lower School, Middle School, Ninth Grade, Partnerships, Second Grade, Seventh Grade, Sixth Grade, Tenth Grade, Third Grade, Twelfth Grade, Upper School