Dr. Horenstein: From the Stage to the Classroom and Back

Stuyvesant students know him as their Advanced Topics (AT) in Biology or Forensics teacher, but they probably do not know that biology teacher Dr. Jeffrey Horenstein finds passion in areas outside of biology. In fact, he spends his free time acting, reading, writing, and sampling delicious cuisines. As a child, he participated in competitive swimming and tennis. He explored several career options before becoming a teacher.

Dr. Horenstein grew up in a small, middle-class suburb in central New Jersey. Ever since he was a young child, he has had a strong interest in both the arts and sports. He joined the local swim team and played tennis, competing in both sports throughout high school.

Dr. Horenstein also began to dabble in the arts at a young age. “I wrote really bad poetry,” he said. “My fifth grade teacher always told me how wonderful it was, but I look back now and cringe.” He also experimented with music through his band, which he created with a few friends. He was the pianist, but admittedly, “we spent more time deciding what the name should be than we spent practicing, and we never had a gig,” he said. He had his first experience with acting when he was 12 years old at a summer camp for the performing and fine arts. There, he quickly developed a passion for acting that would remain with him through adulthood.

High school was a difficult time for Dr. Horenstein—his father had died when he was 12 years old. This loss was challenging for him to overcome and had a significant impact on his adolescence. “Before I was 12, school had been the center of my life; after I was 12, I lost some interest in school,” he said. However, Dr. Horenstein stayed active in his school community by joining his high school’s tennis and swim teams and participating in theater. He would only discover his interest in biology toward the end of college; chemistry was his passion in high school.

Dr. Horenstein initially attended college at The Juilliard School, a performing arts conservatory located in the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side. He was accepted to the acting program there, but quickly found that Juilliard was a “bad fit” for him and dropped out after his first year. After leaving Juilliard, he stopped acting altogether. He transferred to Sarah Lawrence College, which he fondly remembered as “a very special place [because] you could be yourself there.” At Sarah Lawrence, one of Dr. Horenstein’s favorite classes was an intensive fiction writing class, which he described as “an adventure,” he said. He also became interested in biology and biochemistry during his later years there.

After graduating from Sarah Lawrence, Dr. Horenstein took classes at Hunter College while working part-time as a waiter. The following year, he was a teacher’s assistant (TA) at Hunter College. Following his year as a TA, Dr. Horenstein briefly considered medical school, but decided against it because he could not stand the sight of blood. This led him to pursue a Ph.D. at Columbia. “During my postdoctoral work I had an epiphany, and the epiphany was, ‘I don’t think research is right for me,’” he recalled. Next, he explored biotechnology and business for four years, but these fields did not feel right to him, either. He asked himself, “What am I going to do?” and, recalling his time spent as a TA for a freshman biology class at Hunter College, decided that teaching was a good option. “I really loved those kids. Hunter was filled with ‘hungry’ kids. I was so impressed by their dedication, their eagerness, that I can’t believe that hasn’t affected me becoming a teacher,” he said.

Dr. Horenstein worked as a substitute teacher for one year and then spent three years teaching in other New York City schools before hearing about an opening at Stuyvesant. He applied for a position and has now been teaching at Stuyvesant for seven years. He currently teaches two sections of AT Biology (also known as “freshman bio”) and two sections of Forensics, a class comprised mostly of seniors. “It’s very interesting to teach seniors and freshmen and almost nothing in between. I see you coming in and leaving. And what a huge difference [between freshmen and seniors],” he observed.

Dr. Horenstein’s favorite part about teaching at Stuyvesant is his students. “I find students endlessly engaging. The changes they’re going through are so profound. I feel, almost, an honor to witness this, and to play a role in their education. It’s such a huge time of growth,” he explained. He noted that the teenagers at Stuyvesant are especially mature for their age group, a noticeable trait he has appreciated since he began working here. “These students tend to be very congenial, and they work hard, and they’re really smart, and there are so many lovely things about teaching here. It’s almost surreal. It’s quite an extraordinary place,” he noted.

In recent years, Dr. Horenstein has rekindled his love for theater and has begun to incorporate this interest into his work at Stuyvesant. Four or five years ago, he began taking acting classes for the first time in over 30 years. These classes inspired him to apply his favorite elements of theater to the school setting. He explained, “Improv, for me, is so liberating, like getting out of my own head, where I can get very trapped. Stuyvesant students, I have a feeling, are also trapped in their own heads.” This thought inspired Dr. Horenstein to write a grant and find an improv teacher, who now meets with Stuyvesant students every Monday for weekly improv classes.

Underneath Dr. Horenstein’s love for biology is a myriad of interests. Perhaps most admirable about Dr. Horenstein is not only his dedication to both his work and his favorite pastimes, but also his willingness to spread the joy he gets from acting to the students he sees every day.