Tag: NYC News

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2016-2017 Archives by Janielle D '19 Features students

The Face Behind BSGE’s Favorite Deli

BSGE students see her every day as she hands them their iced coffee, BLT, or change. Though she seems to just be the face behind the cash register for most, but there is much more to her and the deli than its french fries and bagels.

Holly, whom people may know as “Mimi” or “the deli lady,” owns the family-run Mimi 36 Deli Grocery, which is also known as the deli across the street from BSGE. She moved to America from South Korea in 1986 and notes the differences between the two countries. “There are a lot of jobs,” she said, referring to America. “And Korea is very fancy, but over here it’s a little regular.” Even though she observes that there is much more litter in America compared to South Korea, she still enjoys being here, saying that it is very nice to live in the States.

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by Chloe H '20 by Moshan G '17

Cell Phone Thief Gets into Accident, Delays Hundreds of Commuters

A thief snatched a BSGE student’s iPhone on a train in Woodside and then tried to run away by escaping onto the subway tracks, only to be struck by another train. The entire ordeal delayed many rush hour commuters across Queens and into Manhattan. At around 7:40 a.m. on Tuesday, April 5th, the man approached the 13 year-old student, an 8th grader at BSGE, and took his phone. As he was trying to leave the car, several people tried to stop him. In order to get away, the 33 year-old culprit punched a man in the face then jumped onto the express train tracks, where he tried to run away. Although police were unable to pursue him, moments later he was sideswiped by a Manhattan-bound F train and mildly electrocuted by the third rail.

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by Chloe H '20

NYC Public Schools Celebrate Lunar New Year

On February 8th 2016, all NYC students had a day off from school to celebrate the longest and most important holiday in Chinese culture: Lunar New Year, more commonly known as Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is celebrated to honor ancestors and to bring families together to feast.

2016 is the first year that the day was recognized as a school holiday. In the past decade, city, state, and federal officials and community groups had been fighting for Chinese New Year to be added as a school holiday in NYC where one in six of the 1.1 million students are Asian. “Under the prior city (Bloomberg) administration, there was a real lack of willingness to consider this issue,” State Senator Daniel Squadron, a supporter of a legislation in 2009 to recognize Chinese New Year as a school holiday, told NBC News.

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by Annie C '18

Avonte’s Law: How Does It Affect Us?

Avonte Oquendo was a special needs student who died in October 2013 because he wandered outside of school through a side door that had been left open. Although this was quite a sad event for all of New York, there is now a new law enacted to avert similar incidents in the future. Avonte’s law was officially put into effect on August 7, 2014 and because of it, all but 34 schools in New York City will receive alarms so that students cannot leave undetected. Alarms must be installed on doors that do not have a guard which is why they are generally installed on the back/side doors and not on the main doors of school buildings. The installation of all 21,000 alarms in New York City cost approximately $5.55 million.

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by Annie C '18 Emma K' 18

Comic Con 2015!

Source: fuse.tv
Source: fuse.tv

The race to get tickets for Comic Con 2015 commenced on September 20th. People lined the streets of Downtown Manhattan just to have the chance to get a ticket. According to the NYCC Twitter account, the first people arrived at the store at 3:56pm the previous day as the tickets were being sold at 10am. People showed up in everything from unique cosplay outfits to pajamas. The anticipation was raving. By the end of the day, 4 day and Saturday tickets were completely sold out. All that was left was Sunday and Thursday tickets that sold out around Friday of the next week. With that, all the tickets to Comic Con were sold out and the fates of poor souls who had not had the chance to get tickets were sealed. The only hope left would be scalpers who this year in particular, were being cracked down on. (This year and the previous year, a new type of Comic Con tickets that require a check-in system were implemented. They are magnetic and are able to be scanned by the staff even without a bar code. They ensure that counterfeit tickets are be rejected.)

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by Samantha V '18

Pope Francis: “The People’s Pope”

The Pope in NYC (PC: wsj.com)
The Pope in NYC (PC: wsj.com)

Pope Francis is considered one of the most humble and caring popes. From declining dinner with politicians so that he could have dinner with the homeless, to the acceptance he has displayed for people from all different walks of life, Pope Francis doesn’t fail to impress people with his acts of love and kindness. Quite recently, Pope Francis stopped his car so he could kiss and bless a young boy he saw who had cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is a disorder that causes difficulty in muscle movement. The boy, his parents, and his siblings were some of the many who waited to see Pope Francis that day, and luckily enough, it was Pope Francis who spotted them. As soon as Pope Francis saw the boy in the wheelchair, he asked for his driver to stop the car, got out, kissed the boy on the forehead, and said a blessing for him. Pope Francis also shook his parents’ and siblings’ hands. Moments like these show that Pope Francis just wants happiness amongst all individuals simply because everyone deserves to be happy.

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by Samantha V '18

New Police Brutality Subcommittee

Recently, police brutality has been a major issue throughout New York City and the United States. These cases and many others involving police brutality caused protests all over America, as most recently seen from the riots in Baltimore. There was a mixture of violent and peaceful protesting against the death of Freddie Gray at the hands of the police.  Being such a significant and controversial topic, BSGE’s Helping Hands decided that students should be allowed to take a stand. A police brutality subcommittee was created to help BSGE students be better informed on what is actually happening.

Members of this new subcommittee feel very strongly about this topic and are willing to do as much as possible to get people to understand how serious of a topic this is. After watching the movie Fruitvale Station, Natalia Blagic ‘18 was deeply affected. She noticed how it related to current cases such as the Eric Garner. After seeing all of this unfairness, she decided to join the police brutality subcommittee. Ramisa Bashar ‘18 joined because she wanted to help advertise how police brutality doesn’t just affect specific races, it affects all people whether they be minorities or not. Another member I talked to, Rayna Barua ‘18, said, “I wanted to join the police brutality committee because there were many recent cases such as the Michael Brown case and the Eric Garner case. It just really intrigued me how police were abusing their power and authority”.

This committee has many plans for the future and they are all looking really well. A future plan is to sell buttons relating to recent, controversial police brutality cases. This will raise awareness towards police brutality and will also help raise money for different charities that help families who have been affected by police brutality. This committee has a lot of potential and we must do our best to help support it. This subcommittee is open to all members of Helping Hands, so if you feel very strongly about this topic, it would be a great idea to join. Be on the look out for new events that will be hosted by the Police Brutality Subcommittee.

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by Camilla K '18

Gender Gaps In BSGE and Other NYC Public Schools

The number of female students versus male students in high schools varies over New York City. BSGE’s population consists of more female students than male students. Like BSGE, Townsend Harris High School and Forest Hills High School also have a majority of girls attending these schools. On the other hand, Specialized High Schools like Bronx Science and Stuyvesant High School have a majority of boys attending the school.

School Name Female Students (%) Male Students (%)
Baccalaureate School for Global Education 56.49 43.51
Townsend Harris High School 70.57 29.43
Forest Hills High School 52.01 47.99
Bronx Science High School 43.46 56.54
Stuyvesant High School 41.13 58.87 

Why is this? Males score higher on the SHSAT, the test required for attending Specialized High Schools. Along with this, there are more adolescent males in New York City than females. In the US, the ratio of males to females is 105:100. This could obviously contribute to having more boys than girls in high schools.

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by Anokha V '19 Uncategorized

10 Things I Learned When I Went to Buzzfeed

A few weeks ago, I had the chance to visit Buzzfeed’s New York headquarters. Here’s a few things I discovered when I went to this virtual sanctuary.

  1. Each conference room is named after a celebrity, including each member of Destiny’s Child.
  2. Outside each conference/celebrity room is a cardboard cutout of the aforementioned celebrities. I got a picture taken next to 2-dimensional Harry Potter.
  3. On the structural pillars in the building are random celebrity heads, such as Ryan Gosling and Kanye West that watch you ominously.
  4. There are bagels every Friday. EVERY. FRIDAY. It would be the perfect place for Mr. Mehan.
  5. There is a cornucopia of food! There are seven types of cereal, and bins filled with pretzels, welch fruit snacks, etc. There are coffee and hot-chocolate machines. For free. The liquids are dispensed into large Buzzfeed mugs.
  6. There’s a British telephone booth that may or may not work. However it did not double as an elevator that went into the subway station (you go Arthur Weasley).
  7. The heating system in the building is apparently terrible, so all the Buzzfeeders(?) go around wearing hats and blankets.
  8. Everyone there is pretty much in their 20s, so kudos to Generation Y.
  9. The walls are decorated with huge circular “OMG” and “LOL” posters. Oh my god!
  10. They gave me free memorabilia in the form of Buzzfeed pens, stickers, notebooks, and notepads. The one time I actually support shameless promotion.
  11. Bonus: I got featured in a Buzzfeed article! It’s called 28 People Share Why They Love Their “Flaws”. I mentioned the itty bitty dot on my nose, that never fails to give me symmetry. Check it out here! www.buzzfeed.com/kirstenking/people-share-why-they-love-their-flaws
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by Lydia S '15

Know Before You Judge: BSGE’s College Acceptance Board

Each year the very same process occurs beginning in January and ending in late June when passerby hover around the blue bulletin board that inhabits the lobby. The list of seniors and their accompanying college acceptances, paired with the amount of financial aid they received from each university are stapled on the wall so that students, staff, parents and virtually anyone walking into BSGE can see and comment. These displayed words and numbers are frequently met with either admiring acclaims, “Wow, she got into Stanford AND Columbia!” or critical remarks such as, “This person only got into CUNYs… This person didn’t receive any money from this school…”

Overall, it creates a very controversial environment, which was not intended when the idea of posting seniors’ acceptances on the wall, was born. The purpose of the college board was to glorify and congratulate Seniors on all the amazing schools they were gaining acceptance to, and to show how much money they received to attend these schools – an especially important factor in our current economy. It was a way to bring positive light to BSGE, and also a way for prospective students and parents to get an idea of what kind of schools BSGE’s seniors were gaining acceptance to.

But as most ideas with good intentions evolve, this board has received such negative connotations that many Seniors experience discomfort at the thought of having their name and college acceptances on the board.

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by Daleelah S '19 Uncategorized

Extra Day Off! Hooray! (Or, Not So Much?)

A few weeks ago, Mayor de Blasio announced that New York City public schools would be closed for Eid holidays, starting in the 2015-2016 school year. This year, we’ll be having September 26th off.

After years of fighting for this, many Muslims across the city rejoiced.  “When these holidays are recognized, it’s a sign that Muslims have a role in the political and social fabric of America,” said Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group. This is especially important because of the post-9/11 state of mind that many people still tend to hold tight to.

What is Eid, anyways?

There are two Eids, both at different times at the year and celebrated for different reasons. The first is Eid Al-Fitr, celebrated at the end of Ramadan, the holiest month of the year for Muslims, in which they fast for approximately 30 days in a row, from sunrise to sunset each day.  Eid Al-Fitr marks the end of the month, being the first day out of the past thirty that they’re allowed to eat and drink during the day. Muslims start the day off by praying, then tend to go join in festivities with family and friends. Depending on the culture, children may also receive money and or gifts from family members.

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by Luke M '18

Knicks: Setting Records

The Knicks? Setting records? Most basketball fans are well aware of the Knicks’ inability to win games and rise through NBA standings. So how are they setting records? The Knicks have set a team record for most consecutive losses. Outdoing their previous 12 loss streak in 1984-85, the Knicks suffered their 13th loss recently to the Wizards. Although this was just a small part of the NBA season, it is still quite clear that the Knicks are unable to secure any significant amount of wins. Many Knicks fans wonder how this could possibly be happening with their current roster. But analysis from different experts as well as stats, attribute the Knicks’ lack of success to major flaws in their defense.

Another one of the Knicks most damaging attributes include their abysmal free throw stats. Their current 18.8 and previously 15.4 free throw attempts (FTA) average per game nears some of the worst averages in NBA history. Coach Derek Fisher comments on his teams’ lackluster FTA average by saying, “If we can do a better job of defending without fouling, which would put us into the open floor more, into more transition situations, now we can get some guys that are really good for us in those moments to the front of the basket. And also just as they get more comfortable understanding within the offense where the opportunities are to attack and get downhill and be aggressive as opposed to thinking, ‘OK, let’s just stay in the offense.’” He is clearly singling out the Knicks defense as their main setback, linking it to fatal offensive problems as well.

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