Principal Aimee Horowitz
e-mail: ahorowitz@schools.nyc.gov | bio

Visit the School Leadership Team webpage to access minutes from the monthly meetings. Learn about new programs, student community service work, and more.

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The following are Aimee Horowitz's remarks delivered at the States Institute on International Education in Washington, DC (December 8, 2005). On the topic of high school reform, Ms. Horowitz shared CSI High School for International Studies innovative programs as a model for other schools across the nation.

At College of Staten Island High School for International Studies as well as at other schools in Asia Society’s international school’s network, our curriculum prepares our students to be informed, ethical and active participants in a global society by infusing international content, issues and problem solving into all areas of study. Through this internationalized curriculum, using a project-based learning approach, by involving our students in their communities, and by having our students grapple with “real” global issues, we empower students to use global content to gain understandings about our world and as a vehicle for other learning.

For example, to teach our students about the global AIDS pandemic, students from two advisories collaborated to organize, plan and lead a school-wide World AIDS Day Memorial Program. To set the tone for the day, students distributed a packet of readings that they researched and put together. The packet included factual information about how AIDS affect families in South Africa as well as poems and articles by children from all over the world expressing how their lives have been devastated by AIDS. Students also created a protocol so that each advisory could have a structured, focused and deep discussion around the issues addressed in the readings. To raise AIDS awareness, dispel myths, and educate their peers about how AIDS is transmitted as well as to inform them about how they can stay safe, students arranged for guest speakers to participate in our program. Using panels of the International AIDS Quilt from South Africa and the Philippines as a focal point, students created and planned learning activities that incorporated reading, writing, speaking and listening. These activities included poetry readings by staff and students; toy, food and fundraising drives for those suffering with AIDS; a red ribbon ceremony; creating holiday hope cards to send to children with AIDS; and viewing a student-created DVD with music, images, and statistics about AIDS. Students also created a book to which each student in the school by illustrating and writing their reactions to the quilt and the day’s program. In their advisories students are currently discussing how they will follow up to help stop the spread of AIDS and to help people dealing with the disease. One advisory is preparing packages to send to children in South Africa.

To ensure that our students gain the skills, knowledge and perspective needed so that they can be productive global citizens, students in all network schools must study four years of foreign language, participate in Model United Nations and participate in community service and service learning activities. At CSI we offer Mandarin, Japanese and Spanish and hope one day to be able to offer Arabic. For service learning rather than have our 9th grade students simply go out into the community independently and rack up hours supported by notes from their parents, the CSI faculty has organized community service experiences so that students learn what community service is, participate in service learning, can eventually examine community service organizations to evaluate the extent to which they are achieving their mission and goals, and reflect on their individual experiences and the impact it has had on their learning and on them as a person.

CSI High School students recently completed their first community service project, “The Giving Project.” For this project students worked in collaborative groups. Each group self selected either a children’s book with an international theme or an international story. They then worked together to create a lesson and project related to the story. Each group visited a local elementary school where they read the story to 2nd grade children and taught their lesson. Examples include having children Venn diagram the similarities and differences between Egyptian Cinderella and the Cinderella stories; having students weave paper hummingbirds; having students design and build sugar cube pyramids; having students create banners about themselves and use the banners to introduce themselves; and teaching students colors in Japanese and having them create an origami figure that became part of a class mobile. This project not only helped to increase literacy for both the elementary and high school students, but gave the high school students an experience in which they “gave” and felt good about giving. We know this from their debriefing about the project. In fact, many of them were “less than excited” about having to do this project, but completely changed their opinions after having worked with the elementary school children. Many even asked if they could do it again. Discussions about giving and gratitude and this project have begun to show our students that community service is much more than just putting in hours somewhere so that you accumulate sufficient hours to graduate.

Another integral part of our program involves having our students participate in cultural exchanges with teens from other countries. Recently, a Danish basketball team visited our school and participated in conversations with our students about life in Denmark, teen and school issues they face, music they like, and feelings and ideas about world events and politics. Then they played basketball together. Our students are also involved in an international book club. Along with students from a school in Egypt, CSI students are reading a book by Naguib Mahfouz, a classic Egyptian author. Students communicate on a blog by posting responses to questions and by responding to one another’s postings. Upon completing the Egyptian classic, students will read an American classic to deepen their discussions about cultural similarities and differences. Our journalism students are almost ready to publish the first edition of our school’s newspaper, which is co-edited by our students and students in other countries and will include submissions from students in other countries about events in their schools as well as about world events.

Through iEARN, CSI students are facilitating an international teen scrapbook project. As part of this project, each student in our school will create a page about him or herself and each advisory group will create a section of the book. Sections will focus on world issues, current events and politics, pop culture, and teen issues. Students from other countries including India, Uganda, and Saudi Arabia will be participating in this CSI student-led project and will share their scrapbooks with all participants. Yesterday we finalized arrangements for a student and teacher delegation from Bahrain to visit our school and do home stays with our students during February. (Read Education Week article.)

Faculty at CSI High School work to extend learning beyond the four walls of the classroom. In biochemistry, while students were learning about ecosystem environments, they took virtual tours of salt marsh environments around the world, discussed how destruction of these ecosystems affects people, other living organisms, and the environment and how people can work to preserve these environments. Students then took a school trip to a salt marsh. When learning about the works of a Chinese artist, students visited a gallery displaying his art and then created their own works of art using the techniques the artist used. Students in our Mandarin classes had a roundtable with students from the college on contemporary politics and culture in China. In our Spanish classes students attended a performance of Ballet Folklorico de Mexico and were visited by a Peruvian drummer who performed and discussed with them the role of music in Peruvian culture and how Peru’s geography has influenced its music. When studying about the ancient Middle East in Global History, Global Humanities and Global Art, students saw and heard a performance of a form of ancient Iraqi music – maquam and interviewed the musician. On November 30th, the day prior to our World Aides Day Memorial, half of our school visited the African Museum while the other half visited the Brooklyn Museum of Art to learn about and experience African art and culture. In the afternoon, we all met in New York City for a performance of Drumstruck, an interactive African musical. Drumstruck is produced Amy Moore, a cultural activist, who goal is to humanize different cultures through entertainment. She reinvests the profits back into the local communities. Profits from Drumstruck will benefit Nkosi’s Haven for HIV mothers and children in South Africa. One of our advisories in now interested in working with Nkosi’s Haven to help those in South Africa suffering from AIDS.

Another key component of our students’ school experience is our advisory program. Each student is a member of a 15-student advisory group that will have the same advisor for their entire four years in school. Advisory has been described by students as “a group that’s like a family within the school.” Our advisory program gives students the opportunity to have one adult in the school that knows him or her very well and is a go to person for students and parents. Advisors maintain a relationship with students’ parents by speaking with them at least one time per month to discuss their child’s general academic and emotional progress. Our goals for advisory this year are to build a collaborative school culture and have students develop a sense of belonging to our school community, to help students develop life skills and habits of mind so that they can take responsibility for their own learning, and to empower students to organize their own community service/service learning projects. Advisory and small class size personalize students’ learning environment, allow teachers to know students’ strengths and weaknesses and work with them both individually and in groups to enhance their strengths and overcome their weaknesses, and provide students with a time and a place so that they can acquire the skills needed to manage their own learning.

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In just three short months our students already appreciate the learning community they have helped to develop and are thankful to be part of a small school that uses international content so that they can learn the learning standards they are required to and develop a disposition around global issues. Two letters written by our students truly convey their sentiments about CSI High School.

Dear Board of Education:

I am thankful to be a student at the College of Staten Island High School for International Studies. I am sure that this school will be a great opportunity. When I received my acceptance, I was very happy. Already in this school I have learned about many different cultures, in many different ways. I have learned about all different cultures in every subject. I think this school is a good experience for this class, and every future class. Students who are taught about every place in the world leave school with a much fuller education. I am thankful I received the opportunity.

Each class focuses in on a certain culture. We use material from that culture to further our education. It also helps that we have such capable teachers. For all of them, also, I am thankful. It also helps that we are a small community. Everyone knows everyone, and all the teachers know everyone. Everybody helps everybody out. Also we are able to interact with schools in other countries. There is a great deal of opportunity for everyone. As I said before, I’m very thankful for this opportunity. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Conor McGinn

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Dear Fellow Students:

When faced with the question – What are you thankful for? – I stopped to think for a moment about what I could write about. Immediately one thing in particular popped into my head and that one thing was this school. If I hadn’t been accepted to CSI High School of International Studies, I’d be attending Notre Dame this year, a place full of strangers and where I feel I wouldn’t belong.

This school was such a great opportunity that I feel lucky to have. CSI High School for International Studies is not only a school, but it’s almost like a second home. I spend so much time here each week and have grown to love this school.

This community that we have all been accepted into is a close-knit and loving community. CSI High School for International Studies is like one big family. Everyone knows everyone. There’s not a single person who you see in the hall and are not sure of who exactly they are. Not many other people have an opportunity like us to learn together with a small and close community of students. So this year, I say that without a doubt, I am thankful to have this school.

Thankfully yours,

Rachel Geissler

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Ms. Horowitz is herself an alumnus of the College of Staten Island, having earned an Advanced Certificate in Supervision and Administration. She also holds a Juris Doctorate from Southwestern University School of Law and a BA from Brooklyn College. She has been awarded Chancellor Harold O. Levy's Hero of Education Award, the United Federation of Teachers New Teacher Award, and the Thirteen/WNET New York Human Rights 101 grant. As a recipient of two travel study grants, she has studied in both Japan and Germany.