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.
He was utterly disappointed when he didn’t win the prized iPAD on the first try (and almost gave up trying), but as all good things that come to those who wait, the coveted piece of gadgetry did become his on the second try. David Koyenov was the winner of the our second marking period extra credit iPAD raffle.
{The iPAD raffle works like this: You work extra hard, you get raffle tickets. More tickets – more chances to win. Every two months Sinai Academy raffles off an iPAD.}
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.
The Band – an untitled group of Sinai students – finally set up the room for practice. First performance, this Saturday night, December 10th.
Education, as pretty much any other field, continuously becomes ever more competitive. Students are expected to take more and more standardized tests, score higher and higher, and be involved in more extra-curricular activities. And even then, admission to a top school is not guaranteed. It is with this in mind that Sinai Academy started the Sinai Scholars program. Sinai Scholars is a new program for a select group of high achieving students with a stronger emphasis on Math and Science as well as a more rigorous curriculum in all subjects. The 9th Grade schedule includes an additional math class which will prepare students for the SAT II Subject tests in Mathematics. It will also offer a deeper, more mature appreciation of the math concepts covered as part of the standard high school curriculum.