WHAT’S COOKING? Cooke Center For Learning and Development Newsletter S um m er 2 01 3 | V olu m e 9
IN THIS ISSUE Cooke Center Grammar School Finishes Its First Year at Stanton Street
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Congratulations to Our 2013 Classes!
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Thank You to Our Supporters
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More Cooke Stories Online
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FROM THE COOKE PRESIDENT Dear Friends, Summer gives us an opportunity to catch our breath a bit after a fast-paced and eventful school year. 2012-13 marked Cooke’s 26th year as a non-profit organization serving special education students across the five boroughs, and brought with it some major reasons for celebration. We had the significant milestone of opening a new site—the Cooke Center Grammar School—to bring all of our K-8 students under one roof. We also expanded programs (like Cooke Center Institute’s broadened impact in KIPP NYC charter schools), forged new partnerships to further enrich our curriculum (such as Child Mind Institute’s spring exhibition of our high schoolers’ artwork), and initiated new traditions to foster a sense of community (parents braved snow to attend the inaugural Founders Dinner). With such a talented and dedicated faculty, and supportive parents and partners, we are sure to have more events and outcomes to celebrate in the coming year. In the meantime, I hope you will continue to enjoy with your friends and families all of the good things summer brings. I look forward to seeing you in September. Sincerely, Michael Termini, PsyD
Cooke Center Grammar School Finishes Its First Year at Stanton Street Cooke Center Grammar School just completed a wonderful and busy first year. The school managed to cultivate a sense of warmth and camaraderie despite various challenges— Sandy, snow days, a bus strike—in addition to familiarizing itself with a new site! Head of School Dr. CCGS students celebrate during spring Family Fun Day Francis Tabone and Assistant Head Cynthia Surdi worked with Grammar School faculty to establish a welcoming environment from the very first day. Here are a few customs that give a sense of CCGS’s personality and spirit. THE HOUSES CCGS has split up - into houses! The four houses are named after the school’s surrounding streets: Pitt, Stanton, Ridge or Rivington Students. The houses are opportunities for socialization across grade levels, as they combine older and younger students, and also become teams in friendly schoolwide competitions. THE TOWN MEETING This weekly assembly allows classes to showcase work, faculty to identify exemplary students, and students to participate in other schoolwide activities. Most importantly, the meetings are a chance for the entire school to convene and engage as a bigger community that works, learns and grows together while having fun along the way. Town Meetings are held on Friday mornings and are open to parents. The 5 C’s Confidence, Courage, Clarity, Compassion and Creativity are important values at CCGS. At each Town Meeting, students and staff can give a bracelet inscribed with one of these values to a person they feel has exemplified the quality. Students and faculty alike look forward to the start of another amazing and supportive year! 1
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2013 CLASSES! Cooke’s 2013 Grammar School, Academy and SKILLS classes celebrated their graduations in June! We are proud of the milestones our students have reached and wish them further success in their transition to exciting new ventures. The first-ever CCGS graduation included words of appreciation and admiration from staff, student speeches and song performances. The teachers described the achievements of every graduate, and each student read a short piece about their feelings on leaving CCGS. A mother of one graduate read a moving speech about her search for an appropriate educational setting for her son and the joy she felt at discovering Cooke (read about it online on The Cooke Blog). The ceremonies recalled the hard work of both students and faculty on making the school’s first year a tremendous success. Congrats to this wonderful class!
Head Dr. Francis Tabone congratulates CCGS’s first class of graduates
CCA ceremonies were held at nearby St. Anthony's parish hall among a gathering of relatives and friends. Before the diplomas were awarded, each graduate had the opportunity to take the podium to share favorite memories, impart words of wisdom to underclassmen and thank faculty for providing guidance and dedication. After speaking, the graduates each presented a red rose to a family member to show appreciation for their love and support. Another highlight of the evening: the inspiring songs performed by graduates Veronica Hurvich and Bianca Walton. Congratulations to our 2013 CCA class!
SKILLS students celebrated their graduation with a sit-down style banquet at the Cooke Center headquarters on the Upper West Side. Students and their families enjoyed dinner and watching videos of student performances, including a student-produced rap! The graduates reminisced as they described their favorite memories and activities. Take a look at photos from all our graduation ceremonies online: www.cookecenter.org
TD Bank Customers Can Help Cooke! TD Bank will make a charitable donation to Cooke based on their customers’ account activity . For more information on Cooke Center’s Affinity Membership Program, visit any TD Bank branch and present code A1923 or go to
www.cookecenter.org/tdbank 2
SKILLS graduates celebrated with a banquet!
THANK YOU TO OUR SUPPORTERS Cooke would not be where it is at today without the generosity and long-term commitment of our corporate and foundation supporters. Support from the Bernard F. and Alva B. Gimbel Foundation, the Rose M. Badgeley Charitable Trust, and Stavros Niarchos Foundation has been instrumental in allowing Cooke to offer the highest quality preschool services and teacher training in Head Start programs and early childhood centers in Manhattan and Brooklyn. In fact, the Gimbel Foundation was one of the program’s earliest supporters, and has contributed more than $400,000 to the program since 2003. Since before Cooke Center Academy opened its doors in 2005, The Moody’s Foundation has been one of its staunchest supporters, contributing more than $1.5 million in grant funding, offering internships to Cooke students, bringing employees in for volunteer service days, and identifying two senior Moody’s executives who have brought their considerable skills and experiences to Cooke’s Board. Because such a large part of Cooke’s philosophy is in encouraging students to select their own career paths based on their individual interests, we are also grateful to the Heckscher Foundation for Children, which has for three years provided generous annual grants so that we can offer stipends to students who wish to intern at nonprofit organizations or other community partners that cannot afford to pay them.
When it comes to technology, Cooke, like all schools, knows it must stay current in order to give students the best advantage. Thanks to generous support from the Hyde and Watson Foundation and Tsunami Foundation, Cooke’s three campuses include state of the art technology labs, SMART Boards, and adaptive equipment. The American Express Foundation, Continental Grain Foundation, Marc Haas Foundation, HSBC, the Robert and Ardis James Foundation, the Robert and Kate Niehaus Foundation, the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation and the Starr Foundation have most generously supported Cooke in a variety of ways through the years, from general operating support to support for various capital needs, to specific program support. We are grateful, too, to new supporters, including BTIG, which included Cooke in its 11th Commissions for Charity Day, the Clarence and Anne Dillon Dunwalke Trust, Resorts World Casino, and the Spingold Foundation. Corporate support is critical, too, in helping us meet our special events goals. This year Cooke was fortunate to receive gala sponsorship from companies including BlackRock, Deloitte, Loeb & Loeb, Moody’s, and PricewaterhouseCoopers. These sponsorships frequently lead to closer ties with our students, and we were thrilled to be selected for Deloitte’s annual Impact Day, when employees came to Cooke Center Grammar School and helped our students and faculty construct a greenhouse garden onsite.
Deloitte volunteers didn’t let a rainy day stop them from coming to help our students build a greenhouse at Cooke Center Grammar School this past spring!
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SAVE THE DATE SEPTEMBER 9 CCGS 1st day of school CCA 9th grade orientation
SEPTEMBER 10 CCA & SKILLS 1st day of school
SEPTEMBER 19 CCA to host Gary Schulman of Resources for Children With Special Needs for a presentation on City resources for students with disabilities, 6:30pm, ALL COOKE FAMILIES WELCOME!
MORE COOKE STORIES ONLINE... Check out all of our Cooke news stories, and The Cooke Blog, an online forum where Cooke faculty share their knowledge and experience with parents and practitioners in the greater education community. Recent highlights include:
Common Core: Much Ado About Something Cooke Center Institute Consultant Beth Carr discusses the new Common Core Standards.
Preschool Students Dive Into Science Cooke Center Preschool Services Head Teacher Shavon Frasier shares how her West Harlem Head Start students studied seeds, plants and flowers, sparking curiosity, discovery, learning and critical thinking.
SEPTEMBER 20 Alumni Association kick-off party— details TBA
SEPTEMBER 25 CCA Back to School night, 6:30pm
SEPTEMBER 28 CCGS family picnic, time TBA
OCTOBER 1 CCGS curriculum night, 6pm
OCTOBER 2 SKILLS Back to School night, time TBA
Visit cookecenter.org for more events
Grammar School Parent Inspires the Community A moving speech about a Cooke family’s journey at CCGS's very first graduation ceremony, marking the end of the school's successful inaugural year at our Stanton Street location.
Library Arts Curriculum at CCGS Ian Toledo, Cooke’s Technology Specialist, shares progress on the new library arts curriculum for Grammar School students, and how it ties into the Academy’s internship program.
For more Cooke stories or to make an online contribution, visit
www.cookecenter.org