Another proof that Sinai is more than just a school; it’s more like an extended family. Someone once said: “Happiness shared is happiness doubled; sorrow shared is sorrow halved.” – a mathematical formula that everyone can appreciate.
This year’s Skylines – an annual ‘Chinese’ auction benefiting Sinai Academy – will take place on January 21, 2012 at King’s Terrace.
This year’s event saw an increased amount of prizes sponsored by Sinai alumni – a truly heartwarming phenomenon. There is no private school out there that is able to maintain all of its varied curricular and extra-curricular activities strictly with tuition funds. Jewish schools in particular carry a heavier financial burden as a result of the dual curriculum. External sources of funding are always necessary and extremely beneficial to the continued growth of the school. Each new year we see an increase in the financial involvement of Sinai’s students of the past in helping us build Sinai’s future.
We express deep and sincere thanks to the following alumni (and their wives) for helping make this year’s auction possible:
Mr. Avrohon Zavulunov
Mr. and Mrs. Mike Biberman
Mr. and Mrs. Aryeh Leib Grinberg
Dr. Daniel Feldman
Artie and Michelle Shaykevich
Mr. Eddie Beylin
Oleg and Olya Saitsky
Dr. Dovid Shtrambrand
Mr. Moshe Borukhov
Mr. Andrei Khaimov
Mr. Eddie Dzhurinskiy
Mr. Andrei Dzhurinskiy
Mr. Ben Kanaev
Mr. Yitzchak Mizrahi
Mr. Jonathan Gavrilov
Mr. Albert Davydov
Mr. Doni Rybakov
The annual Chanukah celebration was loads of fun and excitement sprinkled with the usual speeches and words of wisdom from the Rabbis. There was dancing, jumping, fire juggling and good food (which went pretty fast and needed to be reordered). Current students and past students dropped in to say hello and share the holiday celebration with their school.
After the class trip to the Intrepid, a group of Sinai students sat down for a meeting with one of Sinai’s alumni. Alex Raytberg, class of 1996, is now a senior analyst at Amber Capital hedge fund. Alex has been eager to give back to his old school; he wanted to share some of his knowledge and financial insight with the current Sinaians. It wasn’t simple to set up this meeting, which everyone hopes can be repeated on some semi-regular basis, but after some schedule shifting and planning, the class met up with Alex in the city right after his day at the office and the classes tour of the Intrepid.
The intro to present value analysis and the shwarma were well received by the students. They also bombarded him with all sorts of questions on many topics such as the current economic crisis and politics.
With the help of an alumnus – Roman Shukhman, derivatives trader at JP Morgan Chase, an enrichment program for Economic and Financial studies began at Sinai. Roman provided not just financial support to get the program started but served as an inspiration and a role model for it.
Roman attributes his success on Wall St. to discovering early in his career what he wanted to do. While still in high school, Roman knew that he wanted to be involved in financial markets. His then still naive and superficial understanding of what the markets are all about did, however, develop into a successful career in the industry. The new program aims to expand the financial erudition of our high-schoolers by introducing them to basics of personal finance, financial markets, economics, and business.
We continue to seek new ways to broaden our students’ horizons in the fields of finance and economics. Thus far the program includes the Stock Market Club, where students trade equities using NtionalSMS.com – an online trading simulation software, a class in entrepreneurship, where students are introduced to financial statements and where they are working in groups to put together a professional business plan, and a course in AP Macroeconomics. We are looking forward to inviting a number of influential guest speakers to share their experiences in the world of business, finance and economics.
The subject of money is one that most students find engaging, and as such the progress in this area has been quite excellent.