Alumni News

Horace Mann School senior Brian Wu '20 was named a top 300 scholar in the 79^th Regeneron Science Talent Search, the Society for Science and the Public announced on January 8, 2020. Wu was recognized for his project "Tatooine Found! Discovery, Confirmation, and Characterization of the First-Ever Circumbinary Planet Detected Using Doppler Spectroscopy Applied in Conjunction with a Novel Synthetic Spectra-based Confirmation System and Machine Learning." This work expands upon research Wu began at age 14 that resulted in the discovery of nine giant planets, one brown dwarf, two binary stars, as well as the first-ever circumbinary planet (a planet that orbits two stars instead of one) to be detected using radial spectoscropy.

The holiday season is a time of tradition. A favorite tradition at Horace Mann School is the annual holiday dinner students host on behalf of children and parents served by Sanctuary for Families, an organization assisting victims of domestic violence and their children. The evening of December 11, 2019, marked this get-together's 27^th year. The dinner brought some 150 mothers and their children, babies through teens, to HM's Cohen Dining Commons for a party featuring craft-making, face-painting, games, and a delicious meal of turkey and all the trimmings, with holiday-themed cake for dessert. The evening began with each child invited to choose a book to take home, upon entering the festively decorated space. The children all left with a specially-packed present, while each mom received an Amazon gift card. In between, the children and parents practiced a line dance taught by members of HM's Upper Division Dance Company, and listened to holiday favorites performed by the UD's Jazz Combo.

Three Horace Mann School alumni were among the honorees in the "Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2020," announced on December 3, 2019. The Forbes list presents a selection of 30 honorees in 20 different categories, for a total of "600 young entrepreneurs, risk-takers and game changers who are redefining what it means to innovate and lead by example," according to Forbes.com. This year's honorees were selected from among 15,000 nominees, vetted by judges who included experts in each field, along with "the world's top investors and entrepreneurs."

For the Horace Mann School community, and its art students in particular, the first months of the academic year were enhanced by a special exhibit in the school's Art Gallery. The exhibit, titled "Ways of Seeing" presented deeply evocative paintings by artists from the legendary Blue Mountain Gallery, one of New York's oldest artist-run galleries, together with works by HM student artists.

The Horace Mann School community commemorated Veterans Day 2019 with two engaging initiatives. November 11, 2019 marked the publication of a special issue of The Horace Mann Record that focused on the HM alumni community's involvement in military service. The following day, November 12, 2019, the school's Upper Division participated in a special assembly that brought two HM graduates in military service, and one veteran to the Gross Theater stage to discuss their experiences with students.

Horace Mann School alumnus Lee Gelernt '80 leads the legal community's efforts to stop the separation of immigrant children and their parents at the U.S. border. He also successfully challenged the administration's January 2017 travel ban. Gelernt's involvement in these efforts is part of his career, since 1992, as a civil rights attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), where he serves as deputy director of the national Immigrants' Rights Project and director of the project's Access to the Courts Program. Gelernt is also an adjunct professor at Columbia Law School. For his groundbreaking legal achievements and his pursuit of civil rights, Gelernt was recognized with the Horace Mann School Alumni Association's 2019 Award for Distinguished Achievement.

From the U.S. Capital Building, to classrooms and conversations around the country, poet Richard Blanco contributes a powerful voice. Blanco brought his voice to Horace Mann School on October 29, 2019, sharing his poetry with HM's Upper and Middle Divisions in a day-long series of readings and discussions with students and faculty. The evening saw some 200 members of the greater Horace Mann School community, and HM's neighbors, coming to the school to hear Blanco's inspiring verse. Click to read more.

Horace Mann School's annual Homecoming, on Saturday, October 12, 2019, drew over 5,000 members of the HM community to the school's Bronx campus for athletic games, activities, a barbecue and family fun fair for the students, families, HM friends, and alumni attending the festivities. Later that Saturday night, over 400 HM alumni attended class reunions in Manhattan.

Horace Mann School alumni from across the decades have a new way to connect with their alma mater, and with one another. The HM Alumni Directory has migrated from the "HM Alumni App" that the school's Alumni and Development Office launched in January 2012, to a new platform that provides alums with numerous resources, including ways to find friends and classmates by location, profession, HM affiliations, and more. The new platform is available free of charge, and can be accessed on phones and other mobile devices, as well as via computer, making its use comfortable for a range of HM graduates from across the decades. The platform was introduced to the alumni community via email, and through a link posted on the HM website (https://www.horacemann.org/page.cfm?p=2286), on August 29, 2019. Over the Labor Day weekend that followed the launch, over 300 alumni had demonstrated their enthusiasm about the platform by signing up or requesting access. To date, over 500 alums have signed on. Click to read more.

Horace Mann School alum Chibuzo (Chichi) Ikwuazom, a former HM varsity volleyball team star who now plays at Columbia University, was named National Player of the Week for the week of September 24, 2019, by Sports Import/American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA). The honor marked the first time in the history of Columbia University's volleyball program that a player was recognized nationally.

The cloudless blue sky of September 3, 2019 spread over Horace Mann School's beautifully groomed Bronx campuses, as 1,603 new and returning Lower, Middle and Upper Division students began the 2019-2020 academic year. HM's faculty, staff members and administrators had been busy throughout the summer preparing the school, and their classroom curricula, for the new academic year, returning to campus in late August for a series of professional days. The past summer and weeks before school started saw HM's Maintenance Department engaged almost 24-7 to ready classrooms—and particularly, newly refurbished and reconstructed science classrooms and administrative offices in the Middle Division—for the students eagerly arriving to start their sixth-through-eighth-grade classes. Click to read more.

The summer of 2019 marks the premiere of several highly-anticipated blockbuster films in theaters nationwide. Equally anticipated, at Horace Mann School, was the premiere of films made by students in HM's Summer Film Institute (HMSFI). Held on Thursday evening July 11, 2019, the screening featured six short films made by each student in this four-week-long intensive film program. Taught by HM Middle and Upper Division Film, Video and Photography teacher Jordan Rathus, this was HMSFI's second year. Rathus, a noted filmmaker, initiated the program in summer 2018, after her first year of teaching at HM. The class is offered free of charge to any HM student, from beginning to more advanced filmmaking knowledge. "It's for any student interested in trying their hands at telling stories from behind the lens," Rathus told an audience of HM teachers, administrators, parents, family members and friends who gathered at HM for a barbecue and film showing.

Horace Mann School is pleased to announce the appointment of Marinés Arroyo as Head of its Nursery Division for the 2019-2020 academic year, HM Head of School Dr. Tom Kelly announced on Monday, July 15, 2019. "Ms. Arroyo will continue the great work fostered by Marcia Levy, who is retiring after leading our Nursery Division since 2010," said Dr. Kelly. "Marinés will also bring her teaching and leadership experience, most recently as the ND's Teacher in Charge, to the future direction of our work serving HM's youngest students. We are delighted that she has accepted this position."