Horace Mann School senior Rachel Ha '13 is known at HM as a dancer, a fencer, a National Merit Scholarship finalist, and more. Now she can add United States Presidential Scholar to that list. On May 6, 2013 Ha was named one of 141 Presidential Scholars from across the country. She will travel to Washington D.C. in June to receive her award—one of the nation's highest honors for high school students—at a reception hosted by President Barak Obama.

Horace Mann School Lower Division art teacher Sheila Ferri was recognized this spring for her efforts in teaching ceramics and promoting her students' work with The National K-12 Ceramic Exhibition Foundation. Ferri was selected as the winner of the CeramicArtsDaily.org Teacher DVD Award at the K-12 National Ceramic Art Exhibition in Houston, Texas in March 2013.

On Friday evening, May 3rd, the Cohen Dining Commons was transformed in to a fashion wonderland complete with photo ops, runway, gorgeous designs, talented designers, and plenty of applause. HM's f.a.d. fashion-art-design Magazine Fundraiser Fashion show featured the work of ten student designers and twenty student models, showcasing the design theme of "Handle With Care." Half of the proceeds from the event ticket sales and raffle ticket sales went to the Children's Aid Society (CAS).

Horace Mann School senior Eugenia Frances Kronenberg '13 was named a bronze medalist in the U.S. Physics Olympiad, a national competition sponsored annually by the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) and the American Institute of Physics (AIP). The HM senior was one of the top 260 scorers on a physics exam given to 406 students from high schools throughout the U.S. in March 2013. Kronenberg and the other students qualified for that test as semifinalists in the Physics Olympiad competition following an exam taken in January 2013 by 4,435 students from across the country. Kronenberg's high score enabled her to go on to a second round of testing to qualify to become a member of the U.S. Physics Olympiad Team that will enter into international competition in Copenhagen, Denmark in July 2013.

Ever since it first began in April 2007 Horace Mann School's Service-Learning Day has logged increasingly-impressive statistics, from the number of people participating in the day's activities, to the tally of neighborhood centers and organizations involved, to the volume of items donated, sorted, packaged or hand-crafted for distribution to communities in need. This year was no different, with close to 1,000 Horace Mann School alumni, students, teachers and administrators, representatives from New York City social action agencies, as well as HM's service-learning partners in the surrounding neighborhood taking part in the April 27, 2013 event.

Each year the Northeast Council of Teachers of Japanese sponsors a Student Haiku Contest. According to the organization website, the purpose of the Northeast Council of Teachers of Japanese (NECTJ) is to broaden Japanese language education in the northeastern area of the country and assist educators in their professional work as teachers of Japanese language and culture. For the 2013 contest, more than 1000 poems were received from schools in the United States and abroad. Judges selected the top haiku in eight different entry categories as contest finalists. On June 8th, the poets and their teachers will be recognized at an Awards Assembly. For 2013, nine Horace Mann School students were named as finalists.

"The Horace Mann Revue" a musical about the first 125 years of Horace Mann School's history, was performed in Gross Theater this weekend. Almost entirely student-written, the play presents portraits of personalities and accounts of activities from HM's founding in 1887 to today, stories from throughout its history, and about how life outside impacted the school. The legacy left by graduates of the past for students of subsequent generations are portrayed in scenes of alumni from different eras crossing paths on stage, in the way that historical legacy is able to do. The script is simultaneously serious and sardonic, humble and hilarious, celebratory and skeptical, slyly tart and impossibly sweet. In a tone of respect for the past, tempered the reality check of today so accurately in a young person's voice "The Horace Mann Revue" is, above all, astonishingly honest, for it leaves no emotional stone unturned. Over the three days, from April 25 through April 27, 2013 when "The Horace Mann Revue" was performed it was clear that those emotions hit home with the audiences of HM alumni, students, teachers, parents, families and friends. Each performance stirred laughter, awe, stunned silence, and more than a few tears. Finally, after all of the quips, the soliloquies, the inspired singing and dancing, came resounding cheers.