Horace Mann - Summer 2016 - 28

West Point appointee Jenny Wang '16 and West Point Field Force Volunteer George Robertson C lass of 2016 graduate Jenny Wang '16 was appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point, selected from among nearly 14,000 applicants. Her appointment was announced to the HM community on June 1, 2016, at HM's annual Class Day assembly, by George Robertson, a parent of two West Point graduates and a volunteer with Field Force, an organization that supports the work of the West Point admissions office. Wang is the seventh HM graduate over the past decade to be appointed to one of the U.S. Military Academies, including the Army, Air Force, Marine and Naval Academies. She is the first HM woman appointee in recent times. At HM Jenny served as a Student Ambassador, a Middle Division Mentor and as Chair of the 2015 Social Entrepreneurship Conference. She was a member of HM's (science) TEAMS, wrote for HM's science publication Spectrum, and was active in HM's Model UN. A black belt in karate, in 2014 she was awarded funding from the Alexander Capelluto '06 Foundation to launch an after-school karate program for fifthand sixth-grade girls at the Bronx Global Learning Institute for Girls (BGLIG). Over the summer of 2015 Jenny Wang was selected by the National Institute on Aging to participate in its Intramural Research Summer Student Program, and conducted research on Parkinson's Disease in the NIA's Laboratory of Neurogenetics. $ class to making and working the sets of all of the theater plays. It's at Horace Mann where editors and writers will devote an entire night to producing an award-winning high school newspaper. It's at Horace Mann where students can raise over $40,000 for cancer treatment, research, and patient services. It's at Horace Mann where classmates can organize a New York City-wide scavenger hunt. It's at Horace Mann where students could be asked the night before an assembly to perform and then absolutely kill it. It's at Horace Mann where we are so proud to have someone dedicating years of her life in active duty. There are 189 reasons I am proud to go to Horace Mann, and those reasons are because of all of you. 28 Horace Mann Magazine Summer 2016 "While the Class of 2016 boasts an impressive roster of superstars, we certainly would not be here without our parents," Kim continued. "So as I stand up here today, I want to thank my parents and all of the parents out here for making sacrifices and dealing with all of us for 18 years. You are the people that put food on the table, put clothes on our backs, put a roof over our heads, and allowed us to graduate from an institution of higher learning. And to my parents, I have to thank you for everything you have done for me, for starting a new life coming to this country just for the benefit of me and Michelle," Kim said, thanking them in Korean, as well. Focusing on his classmates Kim continued: "Horace Mann, the politician and educator that our school is eponymously named after, once said, 'Doing nothing for others is the undoing of ourselves.' All 189 of the graduating Class of 2016 are lucky. We are all incredibly lucky and fortunate to have been able to attend Horace Mann School. No matter your background, where you came from, who you are, you are lucky to be sitting under this tent today ... With this understanding, it is our duty to use the tools we have learned here to help those who have not been as lucky as we have been. It is important to keep in mind all of the people that don't have the basic necessities of life-food, water, a caring community. "With this in mind, it is important to understand that we, the Class of 2016, should place an obligation on helping those who have not been as fortunate as we have been. It would be amazing to see all of you use your various talents to not only further your careers but the careers of others as well." As fortunate as the Class was to enjoy a Horace Mann School education Kim acknowledged that "it certainly has not been easy ... There were nights with no sleep, days of exhaustion, and hours upon hours of studying. You have all earned this moment because you pushed through. photo by Barry L. Mason photo by Barry L. Mason News of the School June 9, 2016 marked the year's "moving up" ceremony for 146 students in Horace Mann School's eighth grade. Known, traditionally, as Middle Memories, the event includes such beloved traditions as Advisory (HM's homeroom equivalent) representatives announcing what their classmates have selected to place in the grade's time capsule containing items significant to each group, and to be opened in the future. Vocal, instrumental and theatrical performances throughout the morning event highlighted some of the classes and activities the students were involved with during their Middle Division years. Class representatives Christopher Ha '20 and Ella Anthony '20 (pictured left to right above) addressed their classmates, teachers, HM administrators, and family members and friends at the graduation, recalling some of the adventures and misadventures the moving-up eighth graders had experienced in their sixththrough-eighth-grade years. The grade's trips to Williamsburg, Va. and the John Dorr Nature Laboratory, reading To Kill a Mockingbird and learning chemistry, "Middle Mania" and the Class' Service Learning efforts highlighted the speakers' accounts of the wonderful and enriching time the classmates had spent together, they said as they thanked their teachers, their Grade Dean Chris Lacopo '80 and HM Middle Division Head Robin Ingram, as well as their parents.

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