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.