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2015 Perelstein Scholar: An Update from Emma Yang
Hi Liz,How are you? Hope you are well. I would like to let you know that my Alzheimer's app - Timeless has won the "Dream it. Code it. Win it. Contest" (organized by MIT Enterprise Forum of NYC, Fiverr and Trading Screen) Best Biomimetics Award in High School Division (although I am in 7th grade, I entered the high school division because there isn't a middle school division in this contest). Here please find my submission deck and video:DCW Submission DeckDCW Submission Video Thank you very much for all of your support. It wouldn't have been possible without the Michael Perelstein Memorial Scholarship Fund. Since this is only a working prototype, I will continue to develop it and will give you an update as I progress. I hope to eventually implement all of the functionalities and put it on the Apple App store.Please find my picture in the attached :-)Thank you very much and have a great weekend! Emma
The School Choice Group announces the Michael Perelstein Discover Your Passion Competition 2016
The School Choice Group announces The Michael Perelstein Memorial Scholarship Fund 2016 $25,000 Scholarship fund created to support New York City students in grades 2-12 to pursue their unique passions and talents (White Plains, NY- May 3, 2016) The School Choice Group, the global education consulting firm headquartered in White Plains, New York, in partnership with The Parents of Accelerated Learners, NYC [PALNYC], just announced the third annual Michael Perelstein Memorial Scholarship Fund “TheDiscover Your Passion Competition”for New York City based students from second through 12th grade. The scholarship awards children who show exceptional promise and passion for their unique individual interests and passions to include academic fields, sports, music, the arts, community service, entrepreneurship, technology, etc. This year the fund has increased to $25,000 and the awards extended through the high school grades. The focus on individual passion and the personal story behind the fund are what make this scholarship unique. Elizabeth Perelstein, the Chair and Founder for the School Choice Group, established this scholarship fund in 2013 to honor her late husband, Michael Perelstein. Michael died at the age of 56, while he was riding with the Westchester Cycle Club, one of his personal passions. A child of Holocaust survivors, Michael was directed by his parents to consider career and life choices based on practical or financial reasons, and not by his personal interests and unique talents. The Perelstein children followed a different path, pursuing their own passions. Michael then realized the true importance of nurturing passion and talent and even changed careers to support his own. As a result, supporting the passions and talents of children is the mission of The Michael Perelstein Memorial Scholarship Fund. “I know Michael would have wanted to create opportunity for young people and, in our third year, I can say that the children who have benefited from the scholarship keep Michael's memory alive through their hard work, dedication, and success. I am pleased to be able to affect the educational paths of talented youngsters as a result of Mike's tragic death,” said Elizabeth Perelstein. The Discover Your Passion™ Competition will award the grand prize winner $5000 toward his or her pursuit; there will be up to 9 more awardees, to receive appropriate support for their projects, for a total of $25,000. Finalists will be selected from each of three age categories: 2-5th grade; 6-8th grade; 9-12thgrade. The scholarship winners will be announced on October 11, 2016. For complete information about the scholarship and to apply, see www.schoolchoicegroup.com To read about the previous 2013, 2014 and 2015 Perelstein Scholars, please click below: 2013: http://www.schoolchoiceintl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Scholarship-winnerspress-release-3.pdf 2014: http://www.schoolchoiceintl.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/The-Michael- Perelstein-Memorial-Scholarship-Fund-Discover-Your-Passion-press-release.pdf 2015: http://www.schoolchoiceintl.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Press-Release-2015-DYP-Finalists.pdf The School Choice Group, is the leading global education consulting firm, specializing in school placement for private, public, specialized and international schools, from preschool through college. With over 140 experienced consultants, including Special Educators in 77 locations globally, the SCG works to help find the right schools for children, anywhere in the world. An industry leader, The School Choice Group Founder and Chair, Elizabeth Perelstein, co-founded the British International School of New York. Its business division, School Choice International, also conducts research, provides survey data and policy analysis for corporations, schools and governments setting or re-evaluating education policy. School Choice International innovated the only web-based resource to compare education across the globe, Global Education Explorer. Its consumer division, School Search Solutions, developed the first school-child matching tool, LEAP that considers both subjective and objective criteria between the child and school. For more information see www.schoolchoicegroup.com Parents of Accelerated Learners, NYC [PALNYC] & The P.A.L. Workshops support NYCbased parents and their children by offering educational workshops, talent developmentbased resources and programs, mentorships and a discovery platform for web and app-based learning tools for kids. PALNYC connects experts with parents to support the cognitive, social and emotional needs of their children. PALNYC is passionate about closing the education gap in NYC by providing access to events at low or no cost to make sure that every parent who wants to pursue quality education for their child has that opportunity. PALNYC is a founding sponsor of the NYC Gifted and Talented Symposium, a one day event to support high potential youth. For more information or sponsorship see www.palworkshopsnyc.org.
Olivia Kelly (2014 recipient of the Discover your Passion)
Here's an update on Olivia Kelly, one of the 2014 scholarship award winners. She just completed a great gymnastics season. "We are thankful for the scholarship Olivia was awarded and believe it has had a continuing role in her success. "Olivia is the level 8 NYS All Around Champion and has qualified for the NYS Super Team for regionals. (A team of the top 7 kids in the state from all ages). They will represent NY and compete with the super teams from Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Mass., and CT in two weeks."Thank you again for everything." Olivia Kelly (School: PS 121, the Bronx, grade 2). In 2014 Olivia received $1,500 to attend an International Gymnastics Competition winter camp to prepare her for the Junior Olympics.
Less free play time linked to increased incidence of mental illness in school children
One theory suggests that mental illness is more prevalent when people feel that they are being acted upon. They have limited control of outcomes. Extrinsic forces exert more impact than intrinsic powers. Parallels have been drawn to the situation facing America’s schoolchildren who are more classroom-bound now than ever. Overall more youths are in school now than they were in the 1970s. Notably, fewer teenagers hold after-school jobs. (In the 1970s, 60% of teens held after-school jobs. Today only 20% are employed.) This adds up to more time in a supervised, teacher-driven setting with little opportunity for self-determination. Could this contribute to a rise in children’s mental health disorders? Is free play the key to keeping children mentally fit? Certainly kids get to exercise much more autonomy when they are “left to their own devices.” However, children have no control over selection of classmates or neighbors. Also, these groups may be small, offering limited opportunity to find like-minded chums. There may be no escape from the bully. Kids cannot just change neighborhoods or classrooms looking for a “better fit.” In short, there are still considerable extrinsic forces at work even at recess! Is free play an American tradition about which we are simply waxing nostalgic? Consider other countries where children have long been consigned to a grueling school schedule. China and Japan have notably low levels of mental health disorders among school children. Overall, Americans feel torn. We yearn for the “good old days” with plenty of recess and time to careen around the neighborhood largely unsupervised. Yet we feel keenly the pressure to keep up with global competitors. So parents demand more rigorous academics. That requires plenty of time in school. Considering that this is unlikely to change any time soon, we need to assure that our school children remain mentally healthy in this environment. In what ways can we build in more opportunities for kids, themselves, to exercise control of outcomes as a tactic to promote good mental health? Sara R. SchmidtGlobal Field Supervisorsara@schoolchoiceintl.com
Your College Decisions are In: What Now?
After two or more years of college planning, taking tests, attending college fairs, visiting campuses, writing essays, participating in interviews, applying to colleges, you have finally heard from all your colleges and universities. Hopefully, you have received lots of good news. However, if you are like most high school seniors, you have received some acceptances, a few rejections, and perhaps you are on a waitlist or two. Outlined below are some suggestions and recommendations on how to cope with those decisions and notifications.Celebrate Your Success! – There is nothing like that feeling of being accepted by one or more colleges or universities. This is true, even if those colleges were not at the top of your lists. It is just nice to feel wanted. So, enjoy the moment and give yourself a pat on the back. You deserve it!Too Much Good News? – A high school counselor once asked his student about how he had made out in the college application process. He was surprised when the student said, “Well, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that I was accepted at eight of my nine colleges.” When the counselor said, “Sounds great, so what’s the bad news,” the student replied, “I was accepted at eight of my nine colleges.” While it is great to feel valued and appreciated, there might be a downside. Now, you have to decide which of those colleges you will attend and which you will not. Surprise, surprise, the tables are now turned. You are the one in the driver’s seat and will have to send denial notices to seven of those eight colleges.Put any Disappointments Behind You – Think positive! You have every reason to be proud of your accomplishments, both in high school and in the college admission process. So, focus on your successes not your disappointments. Some of the colleges you may have applied to admit fewer than five or ten percent of their applicants. Their admissions officers will be the first to admit that you and most of the other students they denied are fully qualified and would undoubtedly succeed academically, had you been admitted. You know what you are made of and you know you could have succeeded at that college or those universities. When you are a sophomore or junior in college, you will no longer care about those schools and may even find it difficult to remember where you applied and what the outcome was. You will be so invested in the college or university you are then attending that you will no longer care about the others. So, hold your head up high and prepare to move on.What About Waitlists? – You may or may not find yourself on a waitlist at one or more colleges. If you are waitlisted, and if you are still interested in that institution, you will need to follow the instructions on how to confirm that you want to remain on the waitlist. If you are no longer interested, you can either notify them of that decision or take no action at all. If no action is taken, the college will probably remove you from the waitlist on their own. Students and parents often ask about what they can do to get off the waitlist and onto the admitted list. The truth is that, typically, only a few students are admitted from the waitlist. One thing that might help is to let the admissions officers know if there is any significant new information about you which was not known when your application was evaluated. Perhaps, after applying, you won a major award or you were recognized for a special accomplishment. That kind of information should certainly be shared with admissions. One possible downside of being admitted from a waitlist is that it may not come with a scholarship offer. Often, colleges have used up all of their merit scholarship money by the time they go to their waitlists. As a result, you may be expected to pay full tuition unless you qualify for financial aid from the federal government. What do college admissions officers tell their own children who apply to college and find themselves on a waitlist? One admissions officer said, “I told my high school senior to fall in love with a college that loves you!” Regardless of how you feel about being on a waitlist and whatever you decided to tell them about staying on the list or not, it is best to move on with other plans. Choose another college and send them a deposit so you are guaranteed a seat in college in the fall.Assessing Net Cost – The average college student today graduates with approximately $28,000 in debt. Keep in mind that this is an average. It means that there are students who graduate with no debt and others who may graduate with debt much greater than $28K. High school seniors sometimes think little about college debt until they receive their acceptance notifications and their financial packages. Suddenly, they realize that colleges and universities vary widely in terms of the financial assistance they offer. They also vary widely in terms of their costs for tuition, room, and board. If college cost is suddenly a major driver of your decision on where to enroll, you will want to analyze your offers and determine the net cost of each. Set up a spreadsheet on your laptop or create a chart on paper. List your colleges across the top and under each, itemize the cost of tuition, room, board, and student fees (the gross cost). Lower on your chart, add up any scholarships or financial aid grants you have been offered. Do not include loans as they must be paid back and become part of your student debt. Now, subtract your total “gift aid” from the total cost of each college or university. This will give you the approximate net cost of each institution. It is approximate because there are other costs to be considered. For example, if most of your colleges are within 300 miles of your home, but one is 3000 miles away, there will be considerable transportation expense when you need to fly home and back from that institution. Now that you know the approximate net cost of each of the schools you are considering, you can evaluate them on their potential return on investment (ROI) once you graduate and look for employment or pursue graduate school.Don’t Postpone the Inevitable – Many students find it very difficult to make the final decision on which college to attend by May 1st of their senior year. Some will actually pay deposits to hold places in two or more colleges. This may be a necessary step for some who have special circumstances. However, it is not a good financial strategy for most, and it is not really fair to the institutions involved or to other students who may be hoping to get into one of those schools to which you have double deposited. Double depositing is likely to be a waste of money which would be better spent on those expensive textbooks you will be purchasing in August or September. So, develop a strategy for making your decision and follow through with that plan in time to meet your May 1st deadline.Congratulations on your acceptances and for all the work you invested over the past four years in order to achieve those positive admission decisions. You obviously have a successful future ahead of you and you are to be commended for all your accomplishments to date. You have four great years ahead in the pursuit of your bachelor’s degree. So work hard and enjoy the ride. The best years are yet to come.William F. Yarwood, Ed. D. Director of College ConsultingFor more information about college planning, contact School Choice International at clientservices@schoolchoiceintl.com or (914) 574 – 2117.