ALUMNI E-NEWS #4 • JANUARY 2014
Our fourth alumni e-newsetter is pretty great but the next one will be even better if you help us name it. The Lion Times? Something with a Rooooar? Help! Suggestions to bpalmer@rssnyc.org, pretty please. If we pick yours, you get a present. WHAT’S UP, MR. COREN? Mr. Coren taught at RSS for four years and left in 2011 to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology. He’s awesome, so we decided to find out what he’s been up to and whether he misses us (the answers are lots and yes). Read the full interview with Mr. Coren below, or online here. And feel free to post a link to the interview on Facebook for all your slacker alumni friends who aren’t reading our stupendous alumni e-newsletter just yet. Mr. Coren! We are excited to hear what you’ve been up to since leaving RSS in 2011. Thanks for chatting with us. Thanks for inviting me to participate in this interview. I miss teaching at Rodeph Sholom and feel honored to have the opportunity to reach out and stay connected to the community. So what have you been up to in the last 2+ years? Besides playing as much basketball as my knees will allow, I’ve been learning a lot about clinical psychology, myself, relationships, family dynamics, and how to engage people of all backgrounds and ages in meaningful ways. I am also trying to stay young and hip—I moved to Brooklyn with my fiancé Rachel a couple of years ago—and Brooklyn living is good. Great people, food, music, art, and a beautiful park for summer reading. That sounds super. What was it like going from being a teacher to being a student? It was a challenging transition in ways. Very simply, I enjoyed teaching and missed it. Also, at RSS, I tried to be a self-reflective teacher, to listen to and learn from my students—their guidance and reactions to my teaching really informed how I taught—but I also gained a self-confidence in front of the classroom that I am just beginning to feel in my new field. As a graduate student, I am much more aware of how much I don’t know, and coming into contact with that feeling has been humbling. Also, I love being a student. I’ve made great friends, I am getting to study exactly what I want where I want, and although I feel like I always have some work hanging over my head, my hours are flexible and my job is to learn.
We are big fans of learning. What’s been the best part of graduate school so far? Giving therapy. It is hard work, but I feel passionate about it, and am fortunate to have great guidance and mentorship from my teachers, and support from my classmates. Giving therapy can be stressful, and I get my stress out by being playful and trying not to take myself too seriously. You’ve always been good at that. How much longer will be you in school? And what’s your plan for when you’re done with the degree? I’ll be in school for 3 or 4 more years. I am currently a 2nd year doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Columbia University. I am training to be a clinician (therapist), academic/researcher, and teacher. I want to primarily be a therapist, hopefully in a number of different contexts, such as a private practice and a hospital or outpatient clinic. Teaching is in my blood, and I plan to teach a course on a clinical topic of interest each semester as an adjunct professor. I also plan to write about the process of psychotherapy (that’s what my current research is on). Most importantly, I need to win a 92nd Street YMCA championship…it’s been 7 years in the making and hasn’t happened yet. Speaking of championships, one of our favorite Mr. Coren memories is the buzzer-beating shot from the half court you made during the student/ faculty basketball game in 2009. What are some of your favorite memories from your time at RSS? Ha! That was a great moment; my only half court buzzer-beater ever. My best memories are of school trips to the South and Israel. Those were special times—getting to hang with students and teachers outside of a classroom setting—just a lot of fun. A particularly meaningful memory for me is the collaborative work and thought that came out of our preparations and performances during the March Madness Poetry contest. The experience of together exploring issues like identity formation, class and privilege, and racial inequality through poetry presented a shared challenge both for me as well as my students. I’ll never forget the zeal my students brought in the spring to our classroom and then the Rodeph Sholom School
auditorium as they engaged with and responded to the task of tackling poetry as an expressive form—and then of translating that enthusiasm into playful performances for their peers and community. Those were very prideful—and enriching—moments for me. I still look back on those interactions and appreciate them. I also loved playing basketball at recess on the 8-foot hoop in the yard. I’m pretty sure that if I weren’t so tall, between that and the backpack I carried around school, the other teachers may have confused me for an RSS student. Advising was probably my favorite overall experience at Rodeph Sholom…and it is what got me interested in the field of psychology! Very happy that your work at RSS influenced what you’re doing now. And we know your influence on so many of our students lives on. Any words of wisdom for some of your former students, particularly the Class of 2010, who are getting ready to finish high school and begin a new chapter of their lives? What an amazing time in your lives—a chance to enjoy life at the top of the high school food chain while looking forward to college adventures. Seek out difference and challenge yourselves to experience new things. Show your friends and family that you appreciate them. And have fun!
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CALENDAAARGH. (Say that like a pirate. You know, for fun.) We are planning in-person events for all of our alumni in high school some time later this spring. But when? March? April? May? If you’re a member of the RSS Class of 2010, 2011, 2012, or 2013, and have a good idea about the best time for an RSS reunion, send your thoughts to Mr. Palmer. He’ll send you a present in return. CALL YOUR PARENTS. And tell them to come to our party. It’s on Monday, February 24, in the Schafler Forum at CRS, and all parents of RSS alumni are invited. If your parents tell us they attended because you told them to, we’ll send you a present. #presents #itsatheme
WE’RE ON TV AND IN THE NEWSPAPER (RSS alumni are awesome and we’ve got proof. Also, we’d like to include you here next time. Send us news, people. Maybe you’ll get a present. #againwiththepresents) We found Michael Wilner ‘01 on television! He’s working as the Washington bureau chief for The Jerusalem Post, covering US foreign policy in the Middle East from the White House, State Department, Pentagon and Congress. Michael recently appeared on Al Jazeera America to discuss recent turbulence in US-Israel relations over the Middle East peace process. After finishing RSS in 2001, Michael attended Browning School, Claremont McKenna College and Columbia Journalism School. We are impressed. We were pleased to hear recently from Daniel Dolgicer ‘00, who tells us: “After graduating from college, I spent some time working on a kibbutz on Israel’s Mediterranean coast. Upon my return, I enrolled in law school and continued my career in real estate. I am now a top-producing broker with Douglas Elliman, specializing in rentals and sales in Manhattan. On August 13, 2013, I was quoted in a Daily News article about Harlem, stating, ‘There is a market for upscale here. The area is expensive. It will continue to get expensive. It hasn’t even reached its zenith yet.’ “ Again, we’re impressed.
For the first time in the history of Rodeph Sholom School, an alum has appeared halfnaked in the Huffington Post! Congrats to Pierce Levine ‘05, whose participation in Improv Everywhere’s 13th Annual No Pants Subway Ride is featured always and forever in photo #11 of this slide show. Photo #5 stars the legs of fellow alum Dan Safdie ‘05 (or so we are told). Way to represent, fellas!
So far, members of the Class of 2010 have been accepted to the Univeristy of Chicago, Colgate, Cornell, Duke, Emory, George Washington, Harvard, Middlebury, NYU, University of Pennsylvania, University of Rochester, and Wake Forest. Bravo! And best of luck to the rest of the fantastic Class of 2010 as they wait for adminssion news. Keep us posted, you lovely people! SHARING IS CARING We are so good at Instagram. Not bad at Facebook, either. A note on brevity: We produce one alumni e-newsletter each month. (You’re reading one of them now!) Except for an occasional invitation, that’s the only email you will ever receive from the RSS alumni program. We’re already looking forward to next month, when we’ll reveal the exciting details of a new alumni giving program that we hope will inspire you and your peers to make a genuine difference in the life of RSS. Stay tuned. In the meantime, be good and we love you!
Oh hey there, Instagram:
Rodeph Sholom School Office of Development Bryant Palmer Director of Alumni Relations 646.438.8657 www.rodephsholomschool.org