Alumnus: James

JAE

THIrD GRADE at AF NORTH BROOKLYN PREP ELEMENTARY

To talk to Jae is to hear from someone who wants to embrace the whole world. He’s hungry for the knowledge it has to offer. If you ask him his favorite subject in school, he names four. There is too much for him to learn in math, writing, humanities and science for him to choose a single preference.

He’s focused on showing empathy and love to everyone he knows, and on treating others the right way. His favorite thing about himself is that he’s kind to other people, and, he adds, that is something he will never change about himself as he gets older.

Jae is a kid who cares about people he knows, and about people he hasn’t yet met. He cares about his community, about identifying what it needs and how he can help the people around him. As a third grader, he already knows the kind of father and co-worker he wants to be someday—one who is fair, honest, and kind. He cares about his AF North Brooklyn Prep Elementary school community, a caring group of people who helped him to continue to love his classes throughout a year of remote learning.

And he cares about making an impact on the world by continuing to be a good person, and one day by pursuing a career he loves. As he dives into extra math studies – he especially loves subtraction—he’s thinking about future work in coding video games, fixing bugs to improve gameplay. That’s just one more way Jae plans to make the world around him better.

CHOOSE JOY

When our instruction went online, our joyful, vibrant school communities did too. There were community circles and check-ins. You could almost taste the frosted cookies shared during the remote baking club. You could feel the anticipation as scholars were “knighted” during a middle school honors ceremony. And on any given day, you could see smiling AF students engaging in martial arts, drama, chess, music or physical education—all online. Our teachers dressed up as anchors for their own daily newscasts, co-taught elementary math lessons alongside puppet assistants, and went all out for school spirit days that have become annual traditions. And when our schools went back in-person, those traditions picked right back up in COVID-safe, face-to-face ways. It is no easy feat to make pandemic-era school a joyful, engaging place. And our teachers are incredible people.

The schools feel like family. The staff go to kids' events that aren’t even related to the school. My kids love every single one of the teachers from the past until now. It’s amazing. The schools are so happy and safe, I could go on and on.