This afternoon, a group of Gateway sophomores hosted a holiday party for the fifth grade students at Sarah Greenwood K-8 School in Dorchester. The Greenwood and Gateway students enjoyed decorating sugar cookies, sparkly snowflakes, and snazzy New Year's party hats for the holiday season. Thank you to Ms. Washington for allowing us to celebrate the holidays with your Grade 5 students and teachers!
(You might be wondering, "Where are the Greenwood students?" We do not post any student's photo online without written permission from a parent or guardian. This explains why the fourth photo above is of our Gateway group's "cookie afterparty"!)
12/21 Holiday Party at Sarah Greenwood K-8
Trip to Tufts University 12/8
On Wednesday, 33 Gateway sophomores and juniors were hosted by the admissions office of Tufts University in Medford, MA. Upon our arrival, our group engaged in a college admissions discussion with Mr. Walker Coppedge, the Tufts admissions officer in charge of the Boston region. Two Tufts undergraduate students then led us on a brisk tour of some of the main campus buildings, before leading us to our free dinner in one of Tufts' undergraduate dining halls.
Despite the seasonably low temperatures, we enjoyed a very warm welcome by Tufts University. Thanks to Ms. Style and Mr. Coppedge for arranging this special opportunity for our students!
Good Luck Charms for our Seniors
At today's Gateway Honors Assembly and Thanksgiving Celebration, our sophomores honored our senior students who have submitted early college applications, by presenting them with good-luck gifts consisting of handmade college pennants and smiley-face stress balls.
I am especially grateful to our cheerful crew of sophomores who crafted the pennants with great care and creativity - all 34 of them! Don't they look amazing?
Making Blackberry-Powered Solar Cells
On November 18, Mrs. Drurey's Chemistry Honors class participated in a daylong visit by scientists from Beyond Benign, a green chemistry education nonprofit based in Wilmington, MA. Our Gateway 10th grade students undertook an experiment in which they built small solar cells sensitized by the dye of blackberry juice. And they worked (albeit on a small scale)!
Thank you to Mrs. Drurey and the staff of Beyond Benign for providing our students with such a cool laboratory experience!
Addressing Current Events in SAT Prep - Turtle Edition
In another SAT Prep weekly foray into current events, we learned about ordinary citizens who have invested extraordinary efforts into protecting the breeding grounds of sea turtles. The creative wrap-up to this reading activity was a timed challenge for our students to master a moderately difficult origami turtle design. It was not so easy, but a number of our students successfully hatched their origami turtles!
Addressing Current Events in SAT Prep
In this year's Gateway 10 SAT Prep experience, we are interspersing our Princeton Review classes with selected readings of current events articles from the New York Times and creative responses to those articles.
This week, we read about the "bacha posh" children of Afghanistan and explored the medium of political cartooning. Here are two of the finalist entries in our quick-draw political cartoon competition, submitted by the teams of Patrick Joseph and John Paul (above) and Candice Gonzales and Lom Thaing (below).
Grasshoppers, Great-Horned Owls, and other Mystery Animals - Oh My!
Here are some opening scenes from this year's Gateway 10 Orientation, in which our students are gamely participating in our "Gateway Creatures" icebreaker activity. Many thanks to Headmaster Sullivan for joining us in our opening fun and games (see the very distinguished-looking Great-Horned Owl in the third photo below).
A Math/Art Retrospective
Here's a look back at the final exhibition of our Spring 2010 Math/Art partnership with the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Thank you to Ms. Ali Nebel for all the hard work, caring, enthusiasm that you invested in our students!
Visit from Dr. Woodson
On Saturday, May 1, we had a great turnout of Gateway students from all three classes to meet with Dr. Jonathan Woodson of the Boston University School of Medicine. Dr. Woodson is an Associate Professor of Surgery and Associate Dean for Diversity and Multicultural Affairs at BUSM. He has recently been nominated by President Obama to assume the post of Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, which oversees the entire U.S. military health system.
Dr. Woodson shared with us some valuable nuggets of advice about choosing careers, seeking help from multiple mentors in different areas of life, and always keeping an open mind about what possibilities might lie around the corner.
Following Dr. Woodson's visit, his BUSM students Laura, Sasha and Osa gave our students some hands-on experience in taking blood pressure readings. Fortunately, our students were found to have excellent, healthy blood pressures!
We owe tremendous thanks to Dr. Woodson, Laura, Sasha and Osa for taking time to be with us on a very busy day at the BU School of Medicine. All students are welcome back on Saturday, May 15 for the final meeting of our Gateway/BU HPREP program for the year!
Celebrating our G9 Community of Writers
On Friday, April 16, Mr. Marotta's Gateway 9 Writing Workshop classes came together to recognize the excellent work created by both classes in their original short story project. In the final recitation of work, the two homeroom sections were each represented by one finalist selected by his or her homeroom classmates. Both finalists wrote ambitious multigenerational narratives, but in the very different settings of international warfare and family life.
Fittingly, the vote between these two finalists produced an exact tie, and thus we were pleased to declare both finalists as the co-winners of the Gateway 9 Short Story Competition.
Thanks to Mr. Marotta, Mrs. Shields, and the entire Gateway 9 cohort for supporting this celebration of excellence in our students' work.
G9 Math/Art Visit to MassArt
On Monday, March 8, our Gateway 9 afterschool Math/Art group took a field trip to the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, the home institution of our course instructor Ms. Ali Nebel. We were treated to a guided "Looking to Learn" interactive tour of the exhibition "Selections 10," featuring the artwork of MassArt faculty members.
Thank you to Ms. Ali and Ms. Sandy Weisman, Director of Education at MassArt, for providing us with this unique experience in interacting with the artwork!
Upcoming Medical/Biomedical Student Opportunities
As I recently emailed to all Gateway students and parents, there are some exciting opportunities coming up soon for students who are interested in exploring medicine and/or biomedical science:
Gateway summer hospital placements: As in past years, our Gateway program will have access to a limited number of summer hospital job placements for current ninth and tenth grade students. All G9 and G10 students will receive informational packets in their homerooms this Tuesday, March 16. Students must nominate themselves for consideration by returning the parent/student signature form to Ms. Style by Friday, March 19.
Current juniors have the opportunity to pursue all of the same summer job programs - at Dana-Farber, Beth Israel Deaconess, Children's Hospital, and Brigham and Women's Hospital - through our school's Private Industry Council program organized by Ms. Terry Alleyne.
Gateway/BUSM HPREP: Our HPREP program (Health Professions Recruitment and Exposure Program) returns this Saturday, March 20 with a visit from Boston University School of Medicine psychiatry professor Dr. Doug Hughes. All Gateway students are invited to join the spring series of our pre-medical club!
Free biomedical/pediatrics program at MIT: All Gateway students who enjoy biology or who are interested in pediatrics should consider signing up for the April vacation program at MIT's renowned Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. The theme of this year's program is "The ABC's of Childhood Disease." Registration is first-come, first-served, and the application may be downloaded from this website.
Afterschool Artmaking
Following last year's successful pilot, our Gateway 9 afterschool program has welcomed back Ms. Ali Nebel from Massachusetts College of Art and Design to lead our math enrichment group in various adventures in math-themed artmaking. This past week, our students delved into charcoal drawing techniques, using as their common subject a landscape of 3-D geometrical figures that they had built the previous week. After the vacation, the class will explore life figure drawing.
Stay tuned for our end-of-the-year exhibition of the students' work!
All Gateway students who are interested in exploring the visual arts are encouraged to check out MassArt's spring Saturday Studios program, which is accepting registrations right now for the eight-week session starting March 6. Program information and application materials are available here. Partial scholarships may be available, depending upon your family's financial need.
Medical Science on Campus and in the Workplace
On February 2, several Gateway students took advantage of great opportunities to learn about medical and scientific careers, by visiting local workplaces and institutions of higher education.
Five Gateway freshmen and sixteen Gateway juniors participated in the annual PIC Job Shadow Day, in which each student was matched with a host professional at workplaces throughout the city.
Later on the same day, an enterprising group of (mostly) Gateway sophomores led by Meghan Comeau traveled to Boston University to meet with Dean Glen Zamansky, who directs undergraduate premedical advising at BU.
Special thanks to Ms. Style for accompanying our students on both of these career explorations!
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
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2/2 Pre-Med Meeting at BU
Calling all Gateway pre-med students:
Thanks to the efforts of Gateway sophomore Meghan Comeau, Gateway students who are interested in medicine have been invited to meet with Dean Glen Zamansky, Assistant Dean of Premedical Studies at Boston University. Dean Zamansky's title indicates that he is the person at BU who oversees all advising of students who would like to apply to medical school after college.
This meeting will take place on Tuesday, February 2 at 4:30 PM at Boston University. [Please read your email for information about the specific meeting location.] We estimate that this meeting will run until approximately 6:00 PM.
Gateway students who are interested in participating in this meeting are responsible for their own transportation to and from the meeting. Parents are very welcome to attend as well. Although we are not able to provide transportation nor chaperoning to and from this meeting, Ms. Style will be attending this meeting to support participating Gateway students.
For all students who think that they might be interested in pursuing a career in medicine or another health profession in the future, we strongly encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to learn about how to prepare yourself for this path in college.
Students or parents who have any questions about this meeting may contact me prior to Tuesday.
1/14 G10 College Panel
On January 14, our sophomore class attended a panel discussion featuring six successful college students with ties to our O'Bryant Gateway program. On this occasion, we welcomed back with great pride two recent alumni of the O'Bryant School, Olaniyi Ogunbodede (Class of 2008) and Massiel De los Santos (Class of 2009). They were joined by Tonia Smith, an alumna of the Clara Barton Gateway program in Brooklyn who currently attends Wellesley College; Janice Mathew, an MIT senior who tutors in our program; and Dennis Guadarrama and Javier Rios, both senior undergraduate students in BU's Early Medical School Selection Program, whose students have volunteered in our program for the past three years.
After listening to our panelists describe their strategies for academic success, our students had the opportunity to ask our college volunteers more general questions about college life, in small-group discussions that were organized by gender.
Many thanks to our amazing panelists, our student facilitator Christelle Salomon, and our video production crew of Manny Rios Alers, Anthony Antonelli and Andrew Sepulveda, for helping put together this great event for our sophomore class.
Gateway Honors, Term 2
Congratulations to the following Gateway students who have earned recognition for their academic achievements in the second term of this school year:
Amazing Aces (highest course grades):
Amy Chen (ELA 10 and Chemistry Honors), Sara Cifuentes (Advanced Algebra), Jie Hao Liang (Advanced Algebra Honors), Cuong Linh (ELA 9), Iryelis Lopez (Biology and History 9), Kerlie Merizier (Geometry), Josie Valcin (History 10)
Busy Beavers (highest homework average across four core courses):
Bianca Bertrand, Amy Chen, Judy Le, Melissa Lopes, Genesis Pena, Victoria Tanis, Jemmie Tejeda, Josie Valcin, Rachael White
P.R.I.D.E. of Gateway Awards (“Golden Duckies”):
Kwaku Afari, Melissa Lopes, Iryelis Lopez, Tan Nguyen, Victoria Tanis, Jemmie Tejeda, Rachael White, Jeremy Wong
Cum Laude (3.00—3.49 GPA)
Kwaku Afari, Barry Bhagwandeen, Alfredo Brea, Bianca Brito, Zenubia Cameron, Terence Coston, Candice Gonzales, Ayana Green, Kamela Hysa, Melissa Jean, Sayyida Jean-Charles, Judy Le, Melissa Lopes, Samuel Martin, Johnny Mejia, Michael Mejia, Samantha Michel, Kristen O’Brien, Deidra Oruma, Jelissa Pimentel, Cristian Polanco, Mary Jo Raei, Queenie Rigaud, Yaritza Sanchez, Biruk Sirmollo, Lomorng Thaing, Jeremy Wong
Magna Cum Laude (3.50–3.89)
Bianca Bertrand, Amy Chen, Meghan Comeau, Xiomara Garcia, Jie Hao Liang, Cuong Linh, Iryelis Lopez, Frankline Mardi, Kerlie Merizier, Christina Nguyen, Christian Peguero, Genesis Pena, Patricia Rosa, Jemmie Tejeda, Josie Valcin
Thanks to all Gateway 9 and 10 students, families and staff for helping celebrate these accomplishments of your classmates at our recent Gateway Academic Night!
