The Column

For the 10th year in a row, WHSAD hosted its annual Internship Interview Breakfast. Partner organizations, such as Silman Structural Engineers, The Park Avenue Armory, Heritage Equity Partners, and others, conducted over forty interviews with two dozen students who applied for summer internships. In the following narratives, students share their thoughts regarding the experience, including why they applied to specific internships, how they prepared for their interviews, and advice to future students who will be applying and interviewing for internships. I applied for the internship at Silman Structural Engineering and the World Monuments Fund. I applied to these internships mainly to gain working experience and skills in an office … [Read more...]

Thank you to The Park Avenue Armory for being a consistent partner of WHSAD's. Through trips, artist-in-residence partnerships, internships, and employment, WHSAD students have enjoyed tremendous opportunities due to the generosity of The Park Avenue Armory. In the following narratives, students who attended this most recent trip recount their experiences and the impressions those moments left. On Thursday, March 14, a group of WHSAD students visited The Park Avenue Armory. On this trip we did several activities. One of the activities was a scavenger hunt throughout the first floor of the Armory. We were able to freely roam throughout the rooms on the first floor. Inside these rooms, we were able to read about the history about the … [Read more...]

As a community-based school, WHSAD recognizes the need to develop lasting relationships with organizations in order to inspire and advocate for our students. Ms. Dana Rachlin and NYCTogether bring a crucial element to WHSAD, and we appreciate the organization’s continued support of our future leaders. The following narrative comes from the NYCTogether website. Ms. Rachlin and her team have been instrumental in bringing adolescents and New York City police officers together in creating a dialogue that promotes constructive relationships for the betterment of the city’s future. WHSAD’s students have enjoyed numerous opportunities to express their thoughts regarding personal and societal concerns. More information about NYCTogether's … [Read more...]

Makeville Studio is at 119 8th St. in the Gowanus section of Brooklyn. Part of Makeville’s mission is “ to educate, inspire and empower people to build and fix rather than consume and dispose. We do that by providing affordable access to shop space, the right tools for the job, and small classes led by craftspeople who love to teach.” WHSAD Guidance Counselor, Deborah Terraferma, provides her thoughts on what the Makeville program has to offer students. Makeville provides students with a hands on woodworking experience in a studio setting. Over the course of the 10 weeks students learned the fundamentals of creating a spoon from design, to fabrications and finishing. Students got to use various tools and machinery. In addition … [Read more...]

Thank you to Mr. Paul Stache and the employees of Smoke Jazz for hosting WHSAD students. The following narrative was written by WHSAD Junior, Johnathan Walker. The month of January we celebrate Black History Month. To honor this month WHSAD students did a collaboration project with the owner of Smoke Jazz Club, Paul Stache. The club can be found in Harlem, Manhattan, 2751 Broadway, New York, NY 10025. You can take the 1 train to 103st and walk a couple of blocks to get to the club. Smoke Jazz Club even has its own website showing performance times and information about the club. On February 27, 2019, Mr. Codio, WHSAD’s Senior Architecture teacher, took a few students who worked on the project on a trip during the school day to … [Read more...]

On Saturday February 16, 2019 I attended an African Dance class. Prior to attending this class I was skeptical about how I would feel trying out a new dance style. Once I walked in, it was a very welcoming environment. We stretched with the instructor to warm up our bodies. We also had a live drummer. Before dancing we were told that we would be dancing a mash up of two dance styles, Kuo Kuo and Dancza, which are welcoming dances in some countries in Africa. When we were taught the different moves, we started off on one side of the room and moved to the other side of the room while doing the dance moves taught to us. Once we finished learning all dance moves we got into windows (spots in which performers are placed so everyone is … [Read more...]

As one of WHSAD's original internship partners, Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn has long been a place where students have learned about history, preservation, and restoration. Since 2009, WHSAD students have participated in summer internships at the cemetery, learning how to restore monuments and working with different materials. In the summer of 2017, the WHSAD interns had the unique experience of helping to research and designate the Freedom Lots -- public lots that are the final resting places of a number of African-Americans, but about which little was known. Students not only helped unearth buried monuments and restore them, they also researched the individuals and came up with the new name for the previously-known "colored lots". … [Read more...]