Upper School News Archive

In honor of Veteran’s Day, community members from all three divisions voluntarily took the time to write heartfelt letters of gratitude to veterans in honor of Veteran’s Day.

Hackley’s Independent Research students and Advanced Bio students were lucky enough to take a field trip to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals on Tuesday 11/5/2019.

Both the Hackley debate programs saw great success this last week.

Congratulations to Adam Tannenbaum (Bass Vocalist), who performed this past weekend in Orlando, Florida with the National Honors Ensembles Mixed Choir.

Upper School students and faculty gathered for the annual celebration of literary and visual arts as we open the door to submissions for the 2020 Vision magazine.

On Tuesday, October 29th, the AP Art Studio seniors and Advanced Studio Art juniors traveled to Manhattan together for their annual Chelsea Gallery tour.

At the November 2 APDA Parliamentary debate tournament at Vassar College, Hackley was represented by Daniel Zhang and Arushi Chandra, who debated four resolutions in four rounds with just 15 minutes of preparation before every round.

On November 3, the Hackley Angling Club ventured out on Long Island Sound for a truly epic day of fishing. The students, ranging in age from 5th to 10th grade, were able to boat over 80 striped bass and blue fish! This was one for the record books!

Hackley Boys Cross Country won their first ever NYSAIS Championship on November 3 with a dominating performance.

Hackley Football won the Metropolitan Independent Football League Bowl Championship game on 11/2 over Poly Prep, 27-21.  Go Hack!

Congratulations to Hackley Varsity Field Hockey for their 3-1 win in todays's semi-final round competition over Chapin.  The team advances to the championship game on Sunday 11/3 at 12 PM, Manhattanville College.

Hackley's Upper School Literary and Art magazine, Vision, has been been named a 2020 Crown Finalist by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.  All finalists will receive either "silver" or "gold" Crown recognition upon final judging in the spring.  Congratulations to the 2019 editorial team!

The Dial has recently been awarded a Gold Medal from the Columbia University Scholastic Press Association for its 2018-2019 edition. The Dial entered the competition as a “hybrid” publication, meaning that it was judged and recognized for excellence in both print and online coverage.

Five Hackley Upper School students will perform at SUNY Purchase on Thursday, November 7th as part of the Area All-State Festival for band, orchestra, and chorus.

Congratulations to Hackley Girls Varsity Soccer, the athletes and coaches, for their quarterfinal victory 1-0.  The team advances to the semifinals vs. Riverdale, at Riverdale, Friday, 11/1 at 2:30 PM. Go Hack!

On October 29, ten Hackley students, including the members of the Upper School "Civic Engagement for Advanced Spanish Speakers" class volunteered along with their teacher, Emily Washington, at the Abbott House Loving Arms Dinner, the annual fundraiser.  In addition, Hackley tenth grader Mira Zaslow was honored by Abbot House for her service to the organization.

Senior Josh Saha attended and presented his work on “Neutral gas and resonant magnetic perturbations as seen by optical and magnetic sensors on HBT-EP” at the 61st Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society - Division of Plasma Physics on Tuesday Oct 22, 2019.

By tradition, October 27 is "Founder's Day," a Hackley celebration recognizing our founder, Frances Hackley, on her birthday. Our campus celebration took place on Friday, complete with "Selfies with Mrs. Hackley," a black and grey spirit Dress Down Day, and birthday cake! ​Check out the "Did You Know?" photos on Instagram.

On Sunday, October 20, the Community Service Hackley Abilis Club participated in the annual Walk/Run for Abilis at Tod’s Point in Greenwich, CT.

On Saturday, October 19 about 30 Hackley volunteers arrived at Pierson Park in Tarrytown to help clean up the Scenic Hudson RiverWalk. Friends of the RiverWalk supplied trash bags and gloves and Hackley Community Service provided a delicious brown bag lunch. The weather was gorgeous and the volunteers collected 14 bags of trash.

On Saturday, October 19th, the Hackley Boys’ Cross Country team won the Division I race at the Brown Northeast Cross Country Invitational up at Goddard State Park in Rhode Island.

The US Public Forum team continues to move through its fall season with a strong showing by our Varsity team at the NYC Invitational this past weekend.

On October 18, students in Hackley’s Upper School Course “Food and Power: The Science and Politics Behind What we Eat” visited Stone Barns Center For Food and Agriculture.

On October 7, 2019, Kiegan Lenihan ’15 returned to the Hilltop to speak to the Independent Research students about his research experiences at Duke University.

On Friday, October 25, the Hackley School Community will celebrate Founder's Day -- a Hackley tradition recognizing the birthday of our Founder, Frances Hackley. Read about Mrs. Hackley's extraordinary leadership at Hackley and beyond.

On Saturday, October 5th, 20 MS debaters, including 10 brand new 5th graders, attended the novice scrimmage at the West End Secondary school to kick off the 2019-20 MS debate season. Over 90 debaters from 10 schools engaged in workshops, training sessions, and two rounds of practice debate on the topic “Schools should be year-round.”

Adam Tannenbaum (Bass Vocalist) has been selected along with some of the finest choral students in the country for the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) 2019 All-National Honor Ensembles November 7–10, 2019, at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

Senior Enzi Teacher was profiled recently in The Hudson Independent, highlighting his strong comeback from last year's surgery.

The Hudson Independent recently featured Amy Chalan '19 and her great work on behalf of the local Tarrytown community, an extension of her work with Hudson Scholars.

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"  Andy King suggests it's the wrong question to ask. Read about it here in Hackley Perspectives.

Head of School Michael Wirtz opened the 2019-20 Hackley School year challenging students to face the "blank page" of the year ahead as a chance to create their own paths forward.

Five Hackley Public Forum teams and two Hackley Parliamentary teams competed in over forty rounds of debate from Friday, September 13th through Sunday, September 15th at the Yale Invitational, one of the first major national debate tournaments of the season.

On Friday, September 13th, Hackley Middle and Upper school Chinese students celebrated Zhong Qiu Jie, China’s Mid-Autumn Festival.

In her Convocation address, Community Council President Taylor Robin '20 inspired the Hackley community to listen, learn, and expand their perspectives.

Challenged to tell what they read this summer (and rewarded for reporting with a Tootsie Pop!), nearly 100 Hackley students reported back about their summer adventures in reading.

The Hackley Upper School Public Forum team started their fall season with a strong showing at their first tournament this past weekend.

Leah Holmes '20 and the United States U19 Lacrosse Team dominated the World Championship competition, defeating 2nd place Canada 13-3. Leah led the team in scoring, with four goals, including the team's first goal, about 8 minutes into the game. Read about it here.

Saturday, July 27th, the Hudson Scholars program will run three exciting Service-Learning projects based in Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow. Please stop by, say hi, join in, buy some lemonade or cheer on our Scholars, Hudson Scholars faculty and amazing Upper School Mentors.

Hackley History teacher Jared Fishman and Dillon Schaevitz '19 ran a one hour seminar and game at Historicon 2019, talking about Hackley’s gaming program, how it evolved, its impact on student well being, and presenting Dillon’s senior project which focused on games.

The Spring 2019 Casten Trip to Israel and Palestine.  Steele Sternberg shares the lessons gained across varying perspectives in a place where there's no getting away from difference of opinion.

Valentina Castro '19 is among local students profiled in The Hudson Independent, In the story, she talks of her desire to study medicine, inspired in part by her Hackley Senior Project experience.

Dribbling a field hockey ball around pylons.  Eating a bowl of popcorn without hands. Translate a Spanish passage. Correctly tie a necktie. These are among the challenges students accomplished as part of the first ever Hackley Hilltop Relay competition between student "houses." Check out video highlights here!

The Performing Arts Department recently debuted its yearlong video project, featuring the K-12 community in a moving and poignant video. Showcasing students, instrumentalists, vocalists, faculty, and staff members, the inspiration came from the virtual choir performance of “You Will Be Found,” from Dear Evan Hanson.

On June 2 at the Eastern Track & Field Championships Ismene Germanakos broke her own school record in the Javelin by over 5’, throwing 124’5” to qualify for Nationals in Greensboro NC on June 14th. Several other Hackley athletes brought in exceptional performances as well.

Steele Sternberg’s “History of the Middle East” class skyped with Felicia Schwartz ’10, The Wall Street Journal's Israel and Palestinian Territories correspondent, based in Tel Aviv.

Charles Segal '20, Jared Rosenberg '22, Maddie White '19, and Charlie Hite '19 are the final Athletes of the Week for the 2018-19 school year. Congratuations to all our athletes!

Hackley Spanish teacher Diane Remenar writes about her work with her AP Spanish students on the new "Distinction in Service-Learning" commendation and the learning beyond boundaries it supports. Read her story here.

As we turn the corner into summer, not only do we look back at wonderful 2018-19 Global Journeys to Ireland, Canada, Israel, Peru, & the United Kingdom, but we also look forward to upcoming summer journeys that head off from the hilltop right after Commencement!

Anastasia Popova and Ardsley teammate Isha Brahmbahtt presented their work at ISEF last week. Congrats to both girls for their incredible work that won them a spot to present at the world’s largest venue for science projects.

Check out these highlights from the US Spring Chamber Concert.

Hackley Girls Track & Field captured second place in the NYSAIS meet, led by several individual event champions. Boys Track & Field finished fourth, just five points out of the top three, with several outstanding individual finsihes. Together, they concluded another outstanding season for HackleyTrack and Field.

Hackley Softball and the Hackley Girls and Boys Lacrosse teams all delivered resounding victories in the semi-final round of the NYSAIS tournament on Monday, May 20, and advance to the Championship round on Wednesday, May 22 at Manhattanville College.  Hackley Golf and Track & Field teams also have NYSAIS competitions on Wednesday.

The weather may not have been very spring-like recently, but it is spring, nevertheless--proven by the arrival of Hackley's ducklings!

On May 3, 2019, Dr. Vin Sandhu, who specializes in minimally invasive spine surgery, came to visit the students in the Independent Research program.

Check out all that our students accomplished in the spring Hack Gives Back effort!

At the Somers invitational on May 4 Josh Saha '20 won the 400m hurdles event, setting a new school record time (56.84), surpassing the record set by Ian Parnell '13 in 2012.(57.7).

Hackley Advanced Physics students conducted a study on the theory and design of truss, arch, and suspension bridges, seeking to design the most efficient bridge using only spaghetti, fishing line, and hot glue.

Congratulations to Chiara Kaufman, who won a Superior rating and the Critics’ Choice Award at the 2019 New York State Thespian Competition for Costume Design.

Hackley's Post-AP Advanced French Literature class went to the Vietnamese restaurant Saigonese, located in Hartsdale. The class had been discussing for weeks the politics of food in various French-speaking countries, and it was time to continue the conversation in an actual restaurant!

Two Hackley relay teams traveled to Penn Relays to compete in the world's most widely recognized relay-only competition.

Seniors Philip Bonanno and Tucker Wilke were among just 119 high school debaters in the country to qualify for the Tournament of Champions in Lexington, KY.

If you really want to celebrate this weekend, please come out and join your fellow students
as the Hacktors present The NYC -Acting 4 Showcase.

Episode 2, part 2 of Dr. Lauren' Rgby's  "Sound and Stage" podcast series, featuring Hackley Upper School theater students, is now online -- check it out!

Dr. Adrianne Pierce and Dr. Richard Robinson offer our latest addition to Hackley Perspectives, an exploration of roots, sources, inspirations and meanings in Shakespeare's The Tempest.  Enjoy the fruits of their collaboration here.

On Saturday morning, April 27th, over 30 Hackley community members, spanning across all three divisions, came together to help clean up the riverbanks down by the water at Pierson Park in Tarrytown.

On Thursday, May 2, Hackley students who participated in the recent Casten Trip to Israel and Palestine hosted a lunchtime panel conversation about their experience. They also shared impressions of their visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust Museum in recognition of Yom HaShoah, also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, which was observed on the same day.

On Monday, April 29th, Upper School French students had the exciting opportunity to visit 2H to teach mini-lessons about France, connected to the second grade Social Studies curriculum.

In honor of Earth Day, Lower School and Upper School students have created this terrific set of public service announcements to remind students –and adults -- in every division about the proper ways to recycle.

Athletes of the Week for the week of April 22nd are Tahryam Toure ’20 (Track and Field), Jimin Jung ’20 (Boys Golf), Zoe Naughton ’19 (Track and Field) and Jason Mark ’19 (Baseball).

Congratulations to Willie Ezratty '19, Nina Mital '21 and Ryan Chen '21, whose were named 2018-19 All Americans in Squash.

The week of July 22-25, Revolution Field Hockey, GameBreaker Boys & Girls Lacrosse, & Revolution Softball Camp will be held at the HACK.

During the week of April 15, students in 4th, 6th and 10th-12th grades had the opportunity to learn about water resource accessibility in an unusually powerful way and in conjunction with Earth Day.

On Friday, April 12th, Hackley's upper school Chinese language students traveled to Flushing, Queens to explore Chinese culture close to home.

The Hudson Scholars reunion on April 13th, in honor of Earth Day, consisted of a variety of outdoor activities that exposed the Scholars to the wonderful outdoors while also providing stimulating and fun activities for them.

On Saturday, April 14, senior William Crainer presented his work on “a statistical analysis of cutaneous and environmental microbial communities of pre-and post-metamorphic North American frogs” at the Northeast Natural History Conference (NENHC).

Television producer Scott Weinberger P ’23 shared the unexpected joys of a career that led him from working in law enforcement to becoming an Emmy-winning TV news reporter and producer at a lunchtime conversation hosted by the History Department on Wednesday, April 16.

On Thursday, April 11, 2019, Anastasia Popova attended the WESEF (Westchester Science and Engineering Fair) Finalist Celebration Dinner and presented a brief summary of the work her and Ardsley teammate Isha Brahmbaht completed to win their trip to ISEF (International Science and Engineering Fair), the most prestigious science fair in the world.

Dana Van Buren, Ameera Shaban, Jordan Johnson, Leah Holmes, and Henry Jones have earned Athlete of the Week honors for their performance in last week's games

On April 8, the AFER trip took their annual trip to the Bronx Zoo to take a class on predators and prey.

On Wednesday, April 17, Hackley History teacher Chris Loomis will be part of a panel discussion alongside other local educators talking about the meaning, origins, and practice of democracy in the U.S. and around the globe at the Warner Library in Tarrytown, 7:15 PM. All welcome: read about it here. Sponsored by the Warner Library and The Hudson Independent.

Adam Tannenbaum '20 has been selected to participate in the 2019 NAFME All-Eastern Honors Mixed Chorus.

Hackley golf standout junior Jimin Jung was recognized in 2019 season preview by LoHud as one of the top local high school players.

On Saturday, March 16th, seniors Anastasia Popova and Josh Zhang (IRP) were among the 670+ students from the region that participated in the Westchester Science and Engineering Fair (WESEF).

On March 12, Tony Award-winner LaChanze Sapp-Gooding P' 18,'19 offered this year's W.E.B. DuBois Lecture, an annual tradition honoring Black history and culture.  Originally scheduled for February but postponed due to snow, Ms. Sapp-Gooding's talk shared experiences and insights ranging from growing up in th segregated South to making it as an actor on stage and screen. Here are excerpts form her talk.

The Advanced Forest Ecology Research class continues to capture great images of Hackley forest life -- from songbirds to predators!

On Saturday, March 9th, Hackley School, in conjunction with HMGS (Historical Miniature Gaming Society), ran its second annual Mega-Game in the Chapel.

Adam Tannenbaum '20 has been selected to participate in the 2019 NAFME All-Eastern Honors Mixed Chorus.

One of the joys of being at a K-12 school is the many opportunities for cross-divisional partnerships -- most recently seen when our 11th grade English students visited Hackley third graders to coach them in the craft of writing!

This production, done in the round, will consist of eight-10 minute scenes around love, life and all the strangeness in between the beginning and the end. Come see it in the PAC, Friday and Saturday at 7:00 pm.

Dr. Adrianne Pierce, Hackley Classics Department Chair, shares this story in Hackley Perspectives about deepening connection with ancient history through archeology in our own back yard.

Congratuations to the athletes and coaches of the Hackley Boys Squash team, which defeated Horace Mann 5-2 on Sunday, 2/24 to win the boys NYSAIS squash championship.

Upper School students were treated to a little puppy love in the middle of their exam review.

Hackley Girls Squash vs. St. Ann's at Hackley, Sunday, 2/24, 2PM.
Hackley Boys Squash vs. Masters at Hackley, Sunday, 2/24, 4 PM.

Hackley fencers brought home first and second place tournament finishes and a Team Tournament win for Boys' Foil.

Hackley Girls Basketball defeats RCDS to advance; Girls squash advances. Boys Squash advances.

At the NYSAIS Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Armory in New York City on February 21, Princess Ohia-Enyia '20 finished first in the Girls 600 Yard Dash and Gracelynn Green '21 out-threw all other competitors in winning the Girls Weight Throw.

Director of Upper School Andy King explores what it means to "learn beyond boundaries" in our latest edition of Hackley Perspectives.

Merideth Maddox and Bettie-Ann Candelora presented a workshop titled “Setting the Stage for Success: The Role of Theatrical Improvisation in Shaping Strong, Successful, and Supportive Young Women” at the NCGS-NYSAIS Educating Girls Symposium at the Nightingale-Bamford School on February 20th.

Check out the latest installment of Dr. Rigby's podcast series, "Sound and Stage."

Congratulations to Lara Schechter ’21 and Hadassah Henderson ’21 for their strong performances at the Girls State Wrestling Championships at Truman High School (Bronx) this past weekend.

We would like to congratulate many of our athletics teams for making the NYSAIS championships and moving on to the post season.

The Hackley Wrestling Team took home 4th place overall at the NYSAIS Championship this week at Long Island Lutheran. Three individual Hackley wrestlers won their respective weight classes.

Athletes of the Week for the week of February 4th are Aidan Wilson ’20 (Swimming), Mary Rotenberg ’21 (Swimming),
Jack Bosco ’20 (Wrestling) and Tyler Wyman ’21 (Wrestling).

Monday was a very exciting day for the fencing program. Heading into their last regular season matches the Foil and Epee Teams had perfection looming in front of them.

On Saturday, Feb 9, 2019, Hackley US students William Catalano, William Crainer, Varun Krishna, Yingshyan Ku, and Josh Saha joined over 350 students from the region to present their science research projects at the Westchester Rockland Science and Humanities Symposium.

The Advanced Forest Ecology Research class set up five camera traps in the Hackley forest.

The Hackley Boys Squash Team has enjoyed an incredible year finishing the season a perfect 10-0.

Twelve Hackley seniors are participating in the Katonah Museum of Art’s annual Young Artists Exhibition.

Hackley gave beck through several student led initiatives from January 22 to February 1.

Hackley's Round Square visitor from Romania, Sergiu Ciavoi, visited Hackley's 1st grade classes on 2/7, and led an interactive presentation on his home country of Romania.

The Independent Research Program had a special visitor on Tuesday Feb 5, 2019: Dr. Louis Catalano III (P ’19), who came to talk about surgical techniques on distal radius fractures, and presented results from his past clinical research and more current anatomical research.

Eleven Hackley HS Parli debaters competed this past weekend as Hackley hosted it’s 3rd annual HS Public Debate Program parliamentary debate tournament.

On Saturday, January 12th, 30 Upper School mentors, under the leadership of computer science teachers Melissa Tranchida and Jed Dioguardi, worked with 25 Hudson Scholars in what was a fun day of engaging STEM/tech activities

From the department of “when life gives you lemons...” Our intrepid Latin 4 crew, in the midst of their Archeology study, were gifted a gorgeous digging day, albeit in February, and battled ice deposits, mud, and accumulated leaves to have a great class experience.

Upper and Middle School students enjoyed an inspiring and engaging performance by -- and with, since students stood, knelt, and chanted along -- visiting artists performing the powerful "Prayers for the People," based on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s important "Letter from Birmingham Jail." Our students have been learning about the letter this week -- for those less familiar, here is History Department Chair Bill Davies' eloquent lesson on the topic.