What Did You Do Over The Summer?

Audra Parris (Guidance Counselor)

I taught sixth graders in Flatbush. I taught math and engineering for summer in the city. I stayed in the city; I did not get a chance to go away anywhere. But the city is always really fun in the summer.

Eric Contreras (Principal)

I was busy here because I was running a civil engineering program, the science research program, and the discovery program. We had summer school where we hosted other schools, but I got a little bit over a week off. So I did some kayaking—I like to kayak up at the Peconic Bay—and some bird watching. A lot of the work I do is inspired by Stuyvesant. There is a new behavioral science class that I was talking [about] with Dr. Tu. And just the idea of watching animals in their natural environment is intriguing to me. For the remainder of the walk I went to Montreal and did a tour of all the museums I love. They have the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and it had an exhibit called "From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-Face Picasso, Past and Present," which juxtaposed Picasso's paintings with the African art that he had seen. It is unbelievable. They had never done this before—they actually brought together Picasso's work with the African art. I also went to three other museums. I really like Montreal because it is truly a bilingual society and I am bilingual. I speak Spanish in addition to English. It is a city that lives in this biliterate society. I have grown up listening to two languages all my life. In Montreal, they transition with such fluid ease, and I always find it comforting because I've grown up like that.

Dr. Lisa Greenwald (Social Studies)

On the day school ended last June I was on a plane with my husband and daughters headed to France, where I spent some of the most memorable times of my life. We stayed in Paris, visiting new exhibits and old haunts, seeing old friends, and eating incredibly well. We went to Normandy and stayed with a friend who lives in a manor with a moat. We then went to Berlin, Germany, a city still pulsing with the history of the past century and has transformed itself in the past 20 years into a thriving, growing city. I hadn't been there since 1985 when the city was still divided during the Cold War so it was amazing to see its transformation; it was largely unrecognizable to me from before.

Much of the old city (with museums and cultural sites) had been on the Eastern side during the division and closed to visitors, but now they are beautifully renovated (sometimes half reconstructed because of the extensive WWII bombing). We visited the Pergamon Museum, the German Historical Museum (we viewed hundreds of years of paintings and many other printed and material artifacts), the Stasi Museum, which is in the old headquarters of the German Secret Police, the Topography of Terror museum, which is built on the ruins of the Gestapo's headquarters, the Jewish Museum, where the building itself is meant to help visitors experience what it meant to be Jewish through the ages, and the moving memorial to the victims of war with a sculpture by the famous artist Käthe Kollwitz. I list these off just to show how many amazing cultural sites there are to visit in Berlin, and this is only a fraction of what is there. But history feels heavy for me in that city. Though my direct ancestors arrived in the U.S. decades before the Holocaust as far as I know, the legacy of what the Nazis did and what the German nation eventually suffered is always present, from the hull of the once magnificent Oranienburger Synagogue firebombed during Kristallnacht to so many buildings that still bear the pockmark scars of high-powered bullets and shells. The city is a reminder of the horrors intolerance, fanaticism, and jingoism ultimately bring. I encourage all of you to visit Berlin but also to visit any place with a history book in your hand. Like NYC, every place has layers upon layers of history, and understanding it makes visiting any place that much more rich and interesting!

Katherine Kincaid (English)

It was my first time back after an 11 year break from Stuyvesant and my first time teaching having had kids, so when I got settled into the summer, I first spent all of July at the pool or at the beach with my four kids, and they had swimming lessons and sailing camp. I spent a lot of time playing with them, hanging out with them, and just relaxing. Also, I played a lot of tennis. The women’s tennis team that I’m on, where I play singles, ended up winning Long Island, so in August we went upstate to Schenectady and competed in the Eastern Sectional. We came in third. Then, I went to Woodstock, New York with my family. My brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and all her kids stayed in a house with a pool inside a fun, artsy town.

Joel Winston (Drafting)

I got some personal work done, and I did some traveling. I went to visit my family in Florida and went upstate. I got to the beach four or five times and that was great. Basically, for me, it’s balancing out relaxation with trying to get projects done. That’s always a big conflict that I go through. I feel guilty if I relax too much, and I feel guilty if I don’t get things done. That’s my conflict, but it’s an enjoyable one.

Jia Zhou (Mandarin)

I spent my summer with my mom because my mom came here from China. She stayed here for a month. I took her out to see the city; we went shopping and relaxed together. Then, I started to prepare for the school year.

Linda Weissman (Social Studies)

I was very fortunate this summer to have many wonderful opportunities for both personal and professional enrichment. I took a few exciting vacations to Seattle for a few weeks and then to New Orleans to enjoy the incredible culture. During my travels, I got to enjoy time with family and friends while listening to great music and eating delicious food. In between, and occasionally during, these jaunts, I also continued to work on my favorite personal hobby, running. In addition to having a few adventures, I attended events at historical societies and museums around the city. I was able to analyze and enjoy very special primary documents, including the first draft of the Constitution, letters from Susan B. Anthony discussing women's suffrage, and documents related to the 1963 March on Washington. I even managed, through all of these exciting events, to squeeze in a reading of a few biographies of Abraham Lincoln. Needless to say, this summer, I hit the ground running.

Jessica Chock-Goldman (School Social Worker)

I wanted to take an adventure trip this summer, and China felt like the perfect destination because of the population I work with. I’ve gone to lots of trainings about working with Chinese-American kids and families and thought it would be great to see China in person, not just to read about it! I have never been there before. I stayed for two and a half weeks. My trip started in Beijing; then, we zigzagged down to Hong Kong.

There were six of us and a Chinese tour guide who spoke Mandarin and Cantonese. I thought going with a tour would be the best way to see China the first time, especially since I don’t speak any Mando or Canto!

[Compared to Chinese food we have in restaurants in America,] the food in China is so much better! Much less greasy and fried. The food was spicier in some places and had lots of vegetables in others. And the Peking duck in Beijing was incredible. There are a few places in Chinatown where I’ve been that [have food] similar [to the Chinese food in America], but overall, I say the Chinese food is very American here. [As for cultural discrepancies], first off, everyone wanted to have their kids to either speak English with me or have their pictures taken with me. There seems to be a curiosity of Western culture. I definitely want to explore that more, but I was only there for two and a half weeks.

The cities [in China] are so packed! It’s like being in Times Square. But then you go to the countryside, and it’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen in my life! I love the mountains and the rice paddies. And my favorite city was Xi’an. I definitely want to go back!

Victor Greez (Social Studies)

Well, this summer we went to a resort in Pennsylvania—I have two kids—and the resort is called Woodloch. What was fun about Woodloch was that it’s very family oriented, family centered. It had all these fun games like The Amazing Race, the Olympics, and so forth. And my kids loved it. But I also took them to Amish Country and exposed them to the Amish and the Amish ways, which was actually very exciting. We were in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Ellen Siegel (Social Studies)

I traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina, Santiago and Valparaiso in Chile, and Montgomery, Alabama. Argentina is truly the Paris of South America, with wide boulevards, cafes, and Beaux Arts buildings. It was exciting to be there to watch Argentina play France in the World Cup until they lost! Santiago was especially meaningful to me as I had worked with Chileans fighting oppression at the NY offices of Amnesty International during the Dirty War in the 80's. Visiting their museum in remembrance of these events was especially moving given the events happening in our own country today.

Valparaiso is a UNESCO World Heritage site and a beautiful, very hilly, seaside city. It is best known for being the home of poet and diplomat Pablo Neruda. But what makes Valparaiso an incredible city to visit is the street art. All over the city, artists have painted buildings, pedestrian steps, retaining walls, etc. with murals large and small. It is truly astounding. It is also constantly changing.

My summer ended with a trip to Montgomery, Alabama. A new museum and public monument opened to memorialize the victims of lynching in the post-Reconstruction Era and to highlight the continued fight for full equality. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice was a powerful work of public art. We visited The Rosa Parks Museum, the parish home of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Freedom Riders Museum and the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where Dr. King was pastor. The church is a stone's throw away from Montgomery's majestic, slave-built capitol building and is on the same road that the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights marchers stood to assert their voting rights. To stand in the place where so many committed or gave their lives and to see people who continue to work tirelessly for justice and equality in those places was humbling.

Vincent Miller (Physical Education)

My 2018 summer was very low-key. It mostly consisted of rest and relaxation. Having the summer off allowed me to recharge after coaching three different sports all school year. It also gave me a chance to spend a great amount of time with my five-year-old daughter, Lila. She and I did a number of things such as going to the Brooklyn Aquarium, the Children's Museum, the library, and the movies, and having many, many, many park days. Watching Lila grow up over the summer and prepare for kindergarten was lots of fun. I enjoyed my restful and relaxed summer, and I am prepared for another school year and coaching.

Matthew Polazzo (Social Studies)

This summer, I did two things; I took a two-week-long vacation to Ireland and the United Kingdom. In Ireland, I stayed in Kilcolgan, a little village outside of Galway, with my cousin. My wife, my three kids, and I traveled all over the island. The most fun part was probably driving on the left-hand side of the road down these narrow twisting Irish roads while tour buses come barrelling at you. It was a really good experience. We saw a lot of amazing, beautiful scenery. We were there for about a week, and then we flew over to London. There, we went on the London Eye, we went to the Tower of London, and we did all the touristy things like that. We took a sleeper train up to Edinburgh, where I studied abroad, and I visited my old college dorm. Then, we flew back to the States. A couple of weeks later, we went down to Delaware and camped there.