Schools

A group of MTA students in Dr. Potocki’s Podcast elective were given the incredible opportunity to interview former New York Governor George Pataki. Basil Edelstein, Moshe Katz, Elie Husarsky, and Max Fellner-Dublin were recently tasked with creating a podcast story as part of MTA’s new elective program. The students worked diligently for several weeks and eventually secured an interview with former New York Governor George Pataki.

The Junior High School warmly welcomed Sam Fried (‘11) as he returned to speak to the students, this time after his experience in the IDF and in Gaza over the past few months. Sam had originally spoken immediately before heading to Israel to join his unit after October 7.

It has become a rite of passage for STEM students at the Yeshiva University High School for Girls (Central): the annual visit to the Dolan DNA Learning Center. Over the past month, Central’s AP Biology course, taught by Science Department Chair and Science Institute Director Mrs. Ruth Fried, and Central’s Forensics class, taught by faculty member Mrs. Shulamith Biderman, visited the Dolan Center to put skills used in their home labs to the test in the outer world. During their first visit, students focused on gel electrophoresis, a technique in which DNA is placed on a gel surface and run through an electrical current to separate the DNA into distinct pieces according to size, granting specific, banded patterns that enable specialists to compare and contrast the DNA of different people. “For molecular biology, this tactic is as crucial to experimental research as the microscope is for general biology,” said Mrs. Fried. “The significance of this lab isn’t just that it’s fun – it gives students the confidence needed to use these tools to continue their work in molecular biology.”

Do you get defensive in your friendships and love relationships? What triggers that response from you? Is it inescapable to be on the defensive at times? Did you stumble upon a part of his character that drives you bats? Let’s be honest. We all have annoying habits and at times we release overwhelming degrees of frustration to our loved ones. Sure, you’d love to put some people on mute. I get it. Yet if you venture to air your grievances, he may get upset and even angry.

TAL Academy proudly launched the TAL Resource Center with a well-attended lecture given by Dr. Lydia Soifer and Mrs. Brocha Kresch, entitled “Language-Based Learning Disabilities: What This Means for a Child.” Dr. Soifer, Language and Methodology Consultant at TAL Academy, is a language pathologist with over 50 years of experience in clinical and private practice. Dr. Soifer’s engaging presentation and humorous anecdotes kept the audience captivated as she described the experience of a child with language processing challenges both at home and at school.

October 7 continues. This past week, I had the privilege of joining 30 other students from my high school, Yeshiva University High School for Boys (MTA), on a mission to Israel. The purpose of the mission was to bear witness to the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7 as well as to do chesed for people affected by that day and the IDF chayalim. One of the hardest parts of the trip was going from the sites of horror and hearing the saddest stories, to dancing and smiling with children who were just allowed back home in Kfar Maimon. Normally, one would need several days or months to cope with hearing so much bad news or seeing something terrible; but here, in a matter of hours, we were experiencing a once-in-a-lifetime emotional roller coaster that I will attempt to describe.