Scholarship Opportunity for High School Juniors

The Richard and Mica Hadar Foundation, established in 1993, offers college scholarships to high school students who demonstrate talent in any of the creative arts. 

By providing scholarships, seminars and a mentoring program, the foundation supports young scholars who might not otherwise be able to attend college. The scholarship amount varies depending on financial need.

We invite you to nominate students for our 2015 Class by May 15, 2014.

WE ARE ONLY LOOKING FOR JUNIORS—meaning, we are asking you to nominate students who are currently juniors in their spring semester. These students will then be seniors in September 2014.

We have created an ONLINE NOMINATION PORTAL atwww.hadarfoundation.org where you can nominate students. You will be receiving the username and password to this portal this week in a separate email. Once you have received your username and password, please go towww.hadarfoundation.org and enter it in the upper right hand corner; on the bottom of the screen the nominator forms will appear. Please fill out one nomination form per student. All nominator forms must be submitted digitally by May 15, 2014 through this new submission process. Once you have submitted your nomination per student, that student will receive a username and password on the Hadar Foundation website to submit their application which is due by June 30, 2014. We’ve gone completely digital! 

Any questions, please email: beth@hadarfoundation.org

The selection criteria for the scholarship is:

· FINANCIAL NEED: Students who do not have the satisfactory means to attend college may apply. Please email our Finance Director, Ann Feminella with any questions about financial aid: ann@hadarfoundation.org.

· RESPONSIBLE/INTELLIGENT & INTERESTING STUDENTS: Students who have passed all their regents and who have a good high school transcript along with a demonstrated interest in their particular creative discipline.

· DEMONSTRATED TALENT IN EITHER THE PERFORMING, LITERARY, OR THE VISUAL ARTS: Students must be proficient in their art discipline—i.e. if they want to be an actor; they must be working toward that goal in school/out-of-school time. No samples of work needed except from writers; writers must submit up to 5 pages. We are counting on the nominators to select the most talented students.

If you know of any other organizations with strong art programs that might be interested in nominating talented young artists to us, please let us know and we will contact them directly.

What are your kids doing for SPRING BREAK??

What are your kids doing for SPRING BREAK??

They are invited to join us for the ART EXCEL Program (Ages 8-13) or YES! Youth Empowerment Seminar (14-18). Both are dynamic programs that interactively engage kids to do something fun, educational,  extremely valuable, and potentially life-changing at the same time.  

Over 40,000 kids from all across the country (and more around the world) have gone through these programs, and we're still growing!!

When:

Spring Break: Mon-Thurs April 14-17: 10am-3pm each day.

Where:

Our venue is currently set to be at 30th and 5th Ave in Manhattan.
However, if substantial registrations come from Brooklyn families, we will have a Park Slope venue (TBA)!

About the Course:

These initial 20-hour seminars are comprehensive. They include practical tools for stress management, relaxation, problem solving strategies, leadership training, social skills development, and creative projects. 

Courses will provide:
Breathing techniques
Games
Fun yoga
Socially engaging processes
A take-home daily practice 

Free follow up sessions for participants
Group of close friends

Such vital skills enable children (people) to nurture greater inner strength for managing negative emotions, conflict, peer pressure and criticism, while fostering better child-parent relationships, friendships, and academic achievement.

For more info about ART EXCEL, including a VIDEO, visit: http://www.artofliving.org/art-excel
Direct link to video: http://youtu.be/Rv6dr0JGFMs

Recently published study about the effect of the YES! course on teen impulsivity: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23601502

About Us:

The Youth Empowerment Seminar and the ART Excel courses are projects of IAHV (International Association for Human Values), a humanitarian NGO and The Art of Living Foundation.

____________________________________________________________________
Click below for registration:*

Ages 8-13: aoljgd.org/artexcelspringbreak

Ages 14-18: aoljgd.org/yes!springbreak 

*Register by March 31 and get the Early Bird Discount!
If you have any questions at all, please contact:
Angela Hanna: 610-762-0822 or angela.hanna@iahv.org.

______________________________________________________________________

We are looking forward to two wonderful courses!

The YES! and ART EXCEL Teams 

Art Excel - All Round Training in Excellence - Art of Living

Edna In The Desert - Taking on Teen Tech-Addiction

Taking on Teen Tech-Addiction

By Maddy Lederman

Brooklyn writer Maddy Lederman’s debut novel, EDNA IN THE DESERT, chronicles a technology addicted, Los Angeles teen stranded at her grandparents' cabin in the Mojave Desert without cell phone service, Internet or television.

I worry that kids are spending too much time looking at screens. So many kids are permanently attached to their phones, they don’t look up to say hello or even acknowledge people when they’re speaking to them. Sound familiar? This behavior is so prevalent; it’s become a stereotype. Our human brain evolved in the natural world over many thousands of years. Can staring at a screen for hours on end be good for teenagers who are in such a pivotal period of their brain’s development?

I started writing about this topic in 2009 after I did an interview with a man in Wonder Valley, CA, about thirty miles east of Joshua Tree: a funky, shallow basin on the outer edge of civilization. I lived in the Mojave Desert for several years, and writing for a local magazine, I got to know the region. There are people out there who want nothing to do with the outside world. They don't know what Facebook or Twitter is, and they don’t want to be told about it. This guy had no cell phone service or Internet. It was frustrating to try to set up a meeting, leaving messages on an answering machine and waiting days for a response. I couldn’t help but wonder how a modern, city kid might function if they had to live out there. Some kids are so sophisticated, and every moment of their life is documented, tracked and planned. I became interested in exploring how technology’s changing our culture, and this evolved into a story about a spoiled, Los Angeles thirteen-year-old girl, a girl who had a cell phone to play with before she knew the alphabet. I wanted to take a kid like that and see how she fares without technology, and then combine it with the calming effect of the Mojave Desert's mysterious landscape.

So, who is Edna? She’s a precocious terror with an attitude problem. At thirteen, she’s already been kicked out of a private school. Her status-seeking parents have had a hand in what she’s turned out like, but knowing that doesn’t make Edna any more tolerable to be around. Ineffective therapy leads them to come up with an alternative cure: Edna will spend the summer with her grandparents. Their remote cabin has no cell phone service, Internet, or TV. Edna's determined to rebel, and shortly after she’s dropped off she runs away. This is very dangerous in the desert, and facing the possibility of her own death shakes Edna to the core. Later in the story, she tries to get to know a boy without the help of messaging or social media. It seems impossible, and she wonders what people did in past centuries when they liked each other.

Over the course of a summer without screens, Edna has a slow awakening. What ensues is a modern, coming of age story, as if The Little House on The Prairie met The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.While there are many books about technology and its misuse in an imaginary dystopia or the near future, in some ways this realistic story is more eerie than a fantasy. Having no cell phone is definitely like being on another planet for Edna.

EDNA IN THE DESERT is available at Community Bookstore (143 Seventh Ave. in Park Slope) and online at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes. It’s appropriate for ages 12 and up. Reviews can be found here.

Please review your child's current High School

We are collecting reviews of NYC High Schools. 

Please take a moment and Click Here https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2014HighSchoolReview  and take the survey.  Parents of kids currently in HIGH school and those who have graduated in June of 2013 can participate.

Your responses will be posted anonymously to the Parents of NY Teens blog  AND to insideschools.org  (with your permission)  and will help many parents & teens with the difficult decision of what schools to consider.

Please begin the survey when you have a few extra minutes to jot down your review of you and your child's experience at the school.


Please repost the link to the survey far and wide (https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2014HighSchoolReview). You can share it with any friends who send their kids to HIGH schools in the five boroughs.


Thanks for your participation!

Rachel

2014 Annual Global Kids Youth Conference

Dear Educators and Youth Advocates, You and your students are cordially invited to attend Global Kids' Annual Youth Conference, focusing on Youth Activism, taking place:   Friday, April 4th, 2014 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM Baruch College - Mason Hall 17 Lexington Avenue, 1st Floor  (Corner of 23rd St.) New York, New York Global Kids, Inc. is an educational nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming urban youth into successful students and global and community leaders by engaging them in socially dynamic, content-rich learning experiences. This youth-organized and youth-led event will bring together over 600 young people from public schools across New York City and beyond to examine local and global examples of youth activism on such issues as climate justice, immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights, educational justice, and many others. Participants will also develop strategies to create change on these important issues in their communities and beyond. Plenary sessions will feature speakers and creative performances designed to familiarize students with the critical issues facing our world.   Agenda: 8:00 AM    Breakfast and Registration 9:00 AM    Opening Plenary 10:30 AM  Morning Workshops  12:00 PM  Lunch 1:00 PM    Afternoon Plenary 2:00 PM    Afternoon Workshops 3:30 PM    Closing Plenary              3 Steps to Registration: Click the link below to begin registration. Once your registration is submitted, you will receive an e-mail with the youth registration and photo consent form to be filled out. Please select up to 10 students and at least one chaperone. Participants will be accepted on a first come, first served basis.  Wait for a confirmation email. (Please note: You are not officially registered until you have received a confirmation from Global Kids via e-mail.) We request that all registered students attend both morning and afternoon sessions and remain for the closing events. Every student attending the conference must submit a photo consent form. Registration ends on March 21st, 2014 If you have any questions about the conference, please call Tené Howard and Kevin Murungi at 212.226.0130 ext 122/124 or email conference@globalkids.org. We look forward to seeing you on April 4th!   CLICK TO REGISTER