Members of the Horace Mann School community will cheer on HM alum Marsha Hunt '34 as she receives the prestigious Mensch Award in a ceremony via Zoom on January 19, 2021 at 8 p.m. EST (5 p.m. in Los Angeles, where the award will be presented.) The 103-year-old actor and social activist will be recognized for her seven decades of humanitarian service.

The award is presented by the Mensch International Foundation, which focuses on developing values within society that respect minority rights and freedom of speech and worship, and promotes an educational curriculum aimed at stamping out stereotyping and racist and anti-Semitic thinking. Previous awardees include President George H. W. Bush, First Lady Barbara Bush, and Zubin Mehta. "The world 'mensch' is synonymous with Marsha Hunt," says Mensch International Foundation founder Steven Geiger. A mensch is a person who can be counted on to act with integrity and honor.

Beloved actor and social activist Marsha Hunt, who graduated from the Horace Mann High School for Girls in 1934, and celebrated her 103^rd birthday in October 2020, is still making news. As recently as Thanksgiving 2020 Hunt urged fellow citizens to practice "Thankful Giving" –asking those observing this national holiday to consider others going hungry – especially as the coronavirus crisis expands their ranks.

Horace Mann School alums Sabrina Hahn '10 and Justin Lubliner '08 were recognized among an outstanding group of young leaders by Forbes magazine, when it announced this year's Forbes 30 under 30 honorees, on December 1, 2020.

When Pfizer Inc. and Germany's BioNTech announced, on November 9, 2020, that they took a step closer to developing a COVID-19 vaccine, Horace Mann School alum Dr. Mace Rothenberg '74 illuminated the public on this internationally important breakthrough. "I am so proud of all the @pfizer and @BioNTech_Group colleagues, scientists, investigators, and volunteers who contributed to this OUTSTANDING achievement!#SuccessAchieveTogether" Dr. Rothenberg Tweeted the morning the news was announced. A video of Dr. Rothenberg explaining the careful process of developing the vaccine accompanied news stories about its recent data release.

Recent weeks have shown the world the masses of people gathered globally to protest the death, in police custody, of George Floyd, as together, demonstrators proclaim "Black Lives Matter." Thanks to the work of Horace Mann School alum Flo Ngala '13 we are also getting to know some of the individuals who make up these masses, as she documents the growing movement in evocative portraits and astute interviews. Ngala's chronicle of the protests are appearing online and in print in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, GQ, on Instagram, Facebook, and more.

Just after 10 a.m. on June 10, 2020 the iconic strains of "Pomp and Circumstance" sounded from computer and laptop screens watched by members the Horace Mann School Class of 2020 as their graduation got underway. The graduates, their families, friends, and HM faculty and staff viewing online caught a collective breath as sweeping aerial shots of the classrooms, science labs, performance stages, and athletic fields where the graduates had spent their last four academic years came into view.Rather, that's where the graduates had spent most of that time, save for the last eight weeks of the 2019-2020 school year, when COVID-19 forced them, along with students everywhere, to continue their classes remotely, as this commencement was similarly presented.

HM junior Nya Marshall has been recognized in the last few weeks for her efforts to create the Buddy Reading Program in partnership with Riley's Way. Marshall was initially working on a social justice project focusing on girls who are victims of human trafficking, but the COVID-19 pandemic put that project on hold. Marshall decided she still wanted to do something to help, so she created the Buddy Reading Program, matching high school readers with kindergarteners and first graders.