Lion's Share - February 2017

College School Counselors

Curriculum College Readiness February 2017 | Shevat-Adar 5777

Community Radio-Frequency Engineer

Juda and Maria Diener Lower School | Samuel and Henrietta Scheck Middle School | Ben Lipson Upper School

LION’S SHARE

Welcome to Lion’s Share: Scheck Hillel Community School’s Grade 6-12 bulletin covering news about curriculum, college counseling and our community.

Connect with the names, faces and initiatives that make Scheck Hillel a college preparatory school that develops global citizens with enduring Jewish identity and values. For more school information, please visit eHillel.org.

Curriculum

Road to College Built On Comprehensive Readiness Program A robust college preparatory curriculum, an individualized college guidance process beginning in Grade 8 and exam practice courses are some elements of a comprehensive approach to readying Scheck Hillel students for college and career. Meaningfully, graduating Lions are also equipped with the character tools and values inspired by their enduring Jewish identity and love for Israel.

Below are images from the 2017 annual Florida campus tour led by college counselors, which included five diverse universities: University of Florida, Eckerd College, University of Central Florida, University of Tampa and Full Sail University.

Strategic Individualized Family Meetings Grades 8-12 Family College Planning Kick-Off Grades 9-10, Semester 1

College Countdown Night Grade 11, Semester 1 College & Gap Year Recruiter Visits Grades 11-12

Psat Preparation Class Grade 10, Semester 1

College Application Bootcamp Grade 12, Semester 1

Psat/Sat Preparation Class Grade 11, Semester 1

College Planning and Financial Aid Seminars Grade 12, Semester 1

College Readiness Class Grade 11, Semester 2 Florida College Campus Tour Grade 11, Semester 2

Capstone Seminar College Readiness Week Grade 12, Semester 2

“Our three day college campus tour allowed us to experience college life in a variety of excellent academic and cultural environments. Our students are now better prepared to make informed decisions about the next stages of their educational careers.”

-Rabbi Elie Ganz, Upper School Judaic Studies Teacher

Please check the school calendar regularly for family meetings focused on the college readiness process, and contact Director of College Counseling Vanessa Donaher or Dennis Eller, Associate Director, with any questions. (eHillel.org/college guidance)

College Counseling School Counselors Enhance Student Success School counselors wear many hats at Scheck Hillel. They teach, support, advise, console, encourage and celebrate students on a daily basis. Counselors are highly-trained educators who design and implement a curriculum that grows with students and targets their developmental needs proactively. Counselors also provide academic guidance, individual and group counseling, parent education, and crisis intervention.

Students had a chance to salute their counselors (listed below) during National School Counseling Week, sharing thoughts about the role these amazing professionals play in their school experience.

Scheck Hillel School Counselors: College Counselors Middle School Vanessa Donaher Nili Davis Dennis Eller Daniela Gelbspan High School Lauren Berley Linda Feigenbaum Lois Perlman

Lower School Laurie Parker Esther Poler

Community

Standing, l to r: Dennis Eller, Lois Perlman, Linda Feigenbaum Seated, l to r: Laurie Parker, Daniela Gelbspan, Esther Poler, Nili Davis (Not shown: Lauren Berley, Vanessa Donaher)

“Comprehensive school counseling programs help to increase student achievement and provide a much-needed resource for students, parents, teachers and administrators. School counselors are integral to student success.”

-American School Counselor Association

Meet Eli Soffer, ‘12, Test Engineer Higher Education & Career I graduated from The Cooper Union in 2016 with a bachelor’s in electrical engineering. I am currently pursuing my master’s in electrical engineering there.

I worked at Consolidated Edison for two years while studying. In college, I took a communication electronics course in which we learned about the hardware used in today’s communication systems.

That course put me on track to becoming an RF (radio frequency) engineer.

I currently work at Mini-Circuits as a test engineer. My function is to ensure components being delivered to customers are meeting requirements set forth by our specifications. As a test engineer, I learn about a wide variety of components, and along with quality testing I am training to become an applications engineer.

Background I was born in Miami and grew up in Aventura. I learned how to speak Hebrew, Spanish and English at a young age, since my mom is from Panama and my dad is from Israel, and I was raised as an Orthodox Jew. At Scheck Hillel, I played soccer on the varsity team, and our competitors were always surprised to hear a Jewish team speaking multiple languages on the field.

Last summer I taught a digital electronics class to high school students and helped them learn about logic gates, timing circuits and the arduino microcontroller.

Rewards & Challenges The most rewarding part of my work is to know I’m contributing to the forefront of technology. Mini-Circuits’ components are found in Jet Blue aircraft TVs, space shuttle communications, and cellular networks.

The challenge in the field of microwave engineering is debugging. When working with small components, everything matters. A combination of all types of engineers are put on projects just to ensure everything is working according to plan. Any small error can be the difference from a device working or not.

Scheck Hillel Legacy At Scheck Hillel, I got involved in many different clubs, programs and advanced classes. The freedom I was offered led me to pursue my own interests and enabled me to mold those before my college and professional career. I learned how to manage my time and learn effectively, and these are skills that are useful across all disciplines.

Advice to Scheck Hillel Students My advice is to enjoy the material you learn - if you don’t enjoy your work, you are likely to experience burn-out.

Last Book Read

A Letter for the Ages, written by the Ramban to his son to inspire him to act with humility. The book reminded me that while I might be doing hard work and earning my salary, the reality of the matter is that Hashem is the one who is in control.