Waffles, Screaming Goats, and Soy Milk: How Stuyvesant Students Celebrate the Women in Their Lives on Mother’s Day and Beyond

In honor of Mother’s Day, Stuyvesant students shout out the important women in their lives and describe how they celebrate them.

“One important woman in my life is my aunt, and she is such a sweetie, because she has two sons, and I can tell that she wants a little girl, so I FaceTime her often and we talk about girl talk, how school is, my plans for the summer, and boys. I celebrate her by telling her I appreciate her and giving her my time to talk about girly things.” —Rachel Alvarez, sophomore 

“The woman who inspires me is Lucy Liu, because she graduated from Stuyvesant, and she’s a super famous and successful actress. And she’s an Asian woman, so she’s my inspiration. I celebrate her by watching her movies, and my favorite one is Charlie’s Angels (2000) because she’s fierce.” —Amaryllis Sun, sophomore

“I think of my grandma because she is the mother of my father. She’s a really good cook, and she’ll always drop off katsu and other Japanese food, so even if she’s not with us in person, she’s with us in spirit. She always tries to communicate with me and my siblings even though she can’t really speak English that well so I appreciate her efforts. I celebrate her by eating her food.” —Emi Shimada, freshman 

“My mom inspires me because in elementary school, my English wasn’t that good, but she helped me improve it. Even though her English wasn’t too good either, she learned English to help me with it. She would help me do my homework and check it to help me understand what I’m learning in class. I celebrate her by hugging her and kissing her on the cheek.” —Tiffany Qiu, freshman

“The most important woman in my life is Taylor Swift. She’s my idol and an inspiration. I celebrate her by going to The Eras Tour and spending more than half of my life listening to her music. I have also spent my life savings on her merch.” —Sophie Huang, freshman 

“The woman I love the most is Lana Del Rey. I celebrate her by streaming her music, and even though I’m broke, she can take my money. Live, laugh, Lana.” —Arianne Hinds, freshman 

“I’d like to thank my mom. I love cooking her breakfast, spending time with her, and talking to her.” —Kyle Hon Chan, junior 

“On Mother’s Day, I like to show my appreciation for my mom for all the things she does because she is one of many moms in the world.” —Nicole Alaeva, junior 

“My mom! I ask her about her day, compliment her, and thank her for things she does for me.” —Rachel Yuen, freshman 

“An important woman in my life is my mom. I always try to help around the house [and] cook with her. We hang out and keep each other company by watching movies and having lunch or dinner together often.” —Rebekah Abraham, freshman 

“One important woman in my life is my mother. I celebrate her by getting her gifts when I see things she’d like and spending time with her.” —Sofia Thornley, sophomore 

“I love Hedy Lamarr. She was talented and iconic in every way, from being a Hollywood actress to an engineer that developed frequency hopping. She knew her worth and never let men take credit for her success or inventions. I celebrate her every day since her frequency hopping is the foundation of Wi-Fi.” —Jenny Tan, sophomore 

“My mom. My mom and I both love shopping, so we spent the day together in Flushing eating food and shopping.” —Kelsey Pan, junior 

“I have two. One is my mom. The thing is that my mom doesn’t like when we do one-day things. I always celebrate her. She says herself that it is Mother’s Day and her birthday every day, so we might go out to eat, but it’s not a big deal because we always do it. The second person is Dr. Greenwald because I love her. To celebrate Dr. Greenwald, I would give her a screaming goat or a cuttlefish.” —Unique Zhang, junior  

“I always let [my girlfriend] know how amazing she is and how perfect she is and how much I love her! I love sharing with her and getting her food and things to enjoy while we’re spending time and enjoying each other, and it’s my life mission to make her happy and constantly give her the love and affection that she deserves for how incredible she is.” —Charles Li, sophomore 

“Olympe de Gouges—she was a prominent person in the French Revolution. She inspired me after learning about her in the AP Euro[pean History] curriculum.” —Fiona Chen, sophomore 

“My mom is super important to me. For Mother’s Day, my dad, sister, and I got her flowers and a cake. She really appreciated it.” —Kirill Vesialou, junior

“I celebrate my grandmother because without her my family and I would not be living in America. I love to go over to her house and eat traditional Russian food like olivye.” —Polina Maller, senior 

“An important female in my life is my dog. One way I celebrate her is every time I go to Trader Joe’s, I buy her a new snack, even though I’m pretty sure she has gingivitis and the little brat doesn’t like mint treats.” —Madelyn Li Nunez, freshman 

“My mother! One way that I celebrated her during Mother’s Day was by giving her a card, but because my mom doesn’t know English, and I don’t know Bengali, I wrote it down in Bengali. So I took some of my time just to put it in her native language.” —Fatiha Mia, junior 

“A very important person in my life is my oldest sister. There’s a large age gap between us and ever since I was born, she’s taken me under her wing. Even though we’re brother and sister, she treats me like one of her own. I do non-verbal things like washing her plate after [meals] and grabbing groceries. I also give her compliments.” —Bishesh Shah, junior

“An important woman in my life is my mom. I celebrate her by buying her food, doing chores, and being an amazing daughter.” —Anna Lau, sophomore 

“An important woman in my life is my mom. I celebrate my mom by buying her dinner.” —Nikkol Chen, sophomore 

“An important woman in my life is my mama. I celebrate my mom by giving her a lot of cards; I make the cards. Once when I was eight years old, I stole a box from her and then wrote everything I loved about her for each day of the week. Another time, I stole her favorite shirt, I cut it up, and sewed it into a teddy bear. She was super mad but still gave me hugs.” —Colyn Navales, freshman 

“To celebrate my mother, I cook waffles for her! We also watch Sherlock Holmes together while we eat vanilla [ice cream] and Magic Shell.” —Emily Young-Squire, senior 

“In honor of Mother’s Day, I would like to shout out my mom. I’m grateful for all her support, both material and emotional. On Mother’s Day, I made dinner for my mom, cooking her favorite shellfish dish, to show my appreciation for her.” —Kelly Liu, junior 

“I want to shout out my mom, and one way I support her is by making her favorite soy milk.” —Joyce Lin, freshman 

“My mom, who encourages me to pursue my interest in medicine and become a doctor someday.” —Arpita Saha, junior 

“I’d say Dr. Greenwald because she’s [really caring toward] me and my classmates, and even if she gives a lot of work, she pushes us to our limits and [we] ace tests as well, and I’ve learned a lot in her class.” —Aitya Firooz, sophomore 

“My mom because she always encourages me, but then also proceeds to scold me (out of love).” —Sara Shen, sophomore 

“On Mother’s Day, I obviously celebrate my incredible mom, [since] she does many things for our family with the problems that we have currently and I’m very proud of her for keeping everything together and [keeping] everyone safe—I mean we buy her presents and stuff that she likes, but obviously those material things will never amount to the [stuff] that she’s done.” —Ivan Gontchar, sophomore

“I don’t know if it’s specifically celebrating, but my grandmother I really hold dear to my heart, and ways I celebrate her day-to-day is that I tell stories about her and bring up stuff we’ve talked about or abided by the lessons she’s taught me. She’s still around, and I always make sure to visit her during the month and whenever I have time off school, but I think that’s one of the ways I celebrate her.” —Jowita Walkup, junior 

“I’m really grateful for my mom for coming to this country and sacrificing so much to come and give me and my sister a better life.” —Raaita Anwar, sophomore