Riverdale Country School Admission Viewbook 2017

What will you find at Riverdale?

Riverdale Country School

Will you find what you are looking for?

Riverdale students receive a well-balanced education that prepares them for future opportunities and challenges.

Students participate in their classes and many co-curricular activities; they develop both individual skills and the ability to relate to others within and outside of their community.

Riverdale emphasizes balance.

We focus on the academic program but we know that students need an engaging co-curricular program to accompany their classroom experience. We teach our students to develop mastery in many different disciplines but also help them make connections across the

disciplines through our interdisciplinary program. We want students to learn about the past while developing the skills they will need in the future.

Our students learn how to think and how to express themselves both orally and in writing. Our students develop as individuals while they learn to work as team members.

Outside of the classroom, Riverdale students participate in a wide range of arts, athletics, and community service activities. We encourage our students to pursue the many opportunities we offer, and push them to branch out and create their own courses, clubs,

publications, and activities as well.

Students spend most of their time pursuing their own interests and passions, but are encouraged to interact with the wider community by participating in community service projects.

We have incredible space and facilities on our campus but we also take advantage of our access to the city and the many cultural opportunities it offers. Our goal is for our students to become motivated and empowered citizens.

Will you find that you can do anything?

Will you find bugs and worms?

“Working with math, being outside, playing a wonderful game of soccer, looking for worms: These are passions that children totally enjoy, and you can really build on them at a school like this.”

–Lorraine Mahony, Kindergarten teacher

Will you find your way across eight acres?

How about 19.5?

Will you find your balance?

Since Riverdale’s founding in 1907, we have recognized that students learn best in an environment where nature and human relationships support the development of healthy bodies and minds. By paying attention to how students learn as well as how they develop, we help students make positive choices as they learn to explore their identities, manage stress, and find outlets for their energy, individuality, and personal voice.

A girls varsity track competition.

You will find 1,155 enrolled students.

There are 385 in our Lower School, 260 in our Middle School, and 510 in our Upper School.

Will you find yourself in China?

Upper School students and faculty visit China in spring 2017.

Will you find your classes interesting?

You will find Riverdale is inclusive and diverse.

We believe that we all live better and think better when we are inspired and challenged by others who have different opinions and life experiences.

You will not find any AP courses.

Kindergarten students study the Hudson River and enjoy constructing models of the George Washington Bridge.

To thrive in college and in life, students must learn how to think, how to ask good questions, how to read, analyze, and construct effective arguments. With these goals in mind, we have eliminated advanced placement programs and their emphasis on rote subject knowledge.

Will you learn a new language?

Will you find you can change the world?

At the heart of Riverdale’s mission statement is the goal to “change our world for the good.” Sometimes we initiate change, and sometimes our lives change unexpectedly,

demanding resourcefulness and testing our resilience.

Riverdale students learn to be comfortable with the idea of change and their own abilities to support others, face challenges, and navigate new situations. Through Riverdale’s relationship with other schools, organizations, and communities nationwide, students learn that they are part of a larger world, and that they can work alongside others to make a difference.

In 2017, Upper School students conducted research in northern Alaska to investigate the effects of climate change on native species.

First graders take part in a year-long project at Wave Hill, making close observations of seasonal changes that occur in one small square.Â

Will you find your purpose?

Will you find that you don’t like sitting still in a classroom and would rather be outside?

Will you find our new Aquatics Center?

One of our student swimmers completes a lap in our new Aquatics Center.

What will you find at the Middle and Upper School?

At the Middle and Upper School campus, playing fields and open spaces provide students with room to play pick-up basketball or soccer during their free periods, or read quietly on a park bench under a leafy tree. Middle and Upper School students can participate in a wide variety of individual and team sports. Physical

education classes offer many options including swimming, yoga, and fitness training.

A health curriculum addresses physiology, sexuality, stress, and substance abuse. The deans, the counseling office, and the Learning Research Team provide safe places for students to get advice and support. We actively seek information from

students about academic and social pressure so that these concerns can be addressed through individual conversations as well as events for the grade and the entire division.

The Community Engagement Team works to create a culture of belonging, where students can feel accepted for who they are.

2,000 pounds of clay used in the art classes?

Will you find yourself volunteering at a farm?

Upper School students volunteer at the urban farm operated by the Bed Stuy Campaign Against Hunger.

Will you find yourself building musical instruments?

Middle School student plays an instrument he built and designed.

During Project Learning Week, a group of Middle School students imagined, designed, and engineered their own musical instruments under the supervision of Josh Merrow, the STEM integrator and a Middle and Upper School art teacher, and Jason Curry, the head of the Middle and Upper School music department and director of the Riverdale Jazz Ensemble.

For three days, students sawed, hammered, ground, screwed, and torqued wood, metal, and plastic. The result: drums, guitars, didgeridoos, a banjo, a harp, a clarinet, an

electric cello, as well as other improvised sound machines.

Some elements—like the pickups for the guitars, banjo, harp, and cello—were harvested from defunct audio equipment.

Students had to cut the repurposed components from the original housing using a jigsaw. Others used everyday building materials, like a layer of vinyl stretched across a plastic bucket to create a drum.

Golf balls attached to dowels served as the drumsticks. At the end of the week, the DIY musicians put it all together.

Will you find jazz?

Will you find one of the

Will you find that you like the egg-and-cheese sandwiches made by our Hill Campus chef?

Will you find our research program?

You will find that we plan to lower our carbon footprint by 50% by 2020.

You will find that our financial aid office provides close to

$9m to 20% of the student body.

The Summer Science Research Program gives Riverdale students an opportunity to do cuttingedge biomedical, genetic, and engineering research right on campus. Students spend five weeks during the summer working in the Lisman Research Laboratories under the guidance of RCS faculty members with advanced degrees and extensive research experience.

In Riverdale’s Lisman Research Laboratories, students develop questions that focus on the health status of a nearby watershed, the heavily impacted Bronx River estuary. Studentdirected experimental work seeks to analyze the impact of

environmental contamination on organisms native to the estuary.

Students learn to develop projects by reading scientific literature, designing and carrying out experiments, analyzing data, and preparing for public presentation in local and national venues. Studentdirected research recently culminated with publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

Middle School students learn fascinating uses for plants in the Lisman Research Laboratories.

Will you find peace?

The peace and protected quiet of our campus is rare in New York. Parents marvel at it and children love it. Our students become comfortable venturing indoors and out, bringing a world of learning with them.

Spanish teacher CristiĂĄn Baidal and his students enjoy a class outdoors on the Hill Campus.

Will you find yourself in Alaska…

or New Zealand…

In 2017, students from both schools began their trip in Punahou School in Honolulu, and then went to New Zealand together to learn about how a city recovers from natural disaster.

or New Orleans?

A group of Riverdale Upper School students has been on a back-country, sea kayaking adventure in Glacier Bay National Park this month. Led

by Marshall Nicoloff, Riverdale’s outdoor educator, Dr. Elizabeth Pillsbury, a history teacher, and Alaska Mountain Guides,

the students learned wilderness and kayaking skills and experienced this vast natural preserve.

A reflective moment for a Riverdale student during his trip to Alaska.

Will you find you can design an experiment?

Will you find you can train service dogs?

Brayan Lozano ’16 created an experiment to identify successful drone pilots.

Jenn Berger ’15 trained service dogs to screen out distractions.

Riverdale students have been going to New Orleans every year for a decade to work alongside community groups that continue to rebuild neighborhoods devastated

by Hurricane Katrina.

Will you find you can write for Sports Illustrated?

Andrew Zeidel ’21 is a kid reporter for Sports Illustrated for Kids.

Will you find your next class?

Will you find yourself trying something new?

Will you find a buddy?

Will you find you should design your next class?

At Riverdale, you will take hold of your education.

You will find a community that is driven by creativity and rigor, and a faculty that is receptive to new ideas.

You will meet students who make active choices about their learning and who think proactively about their future. You will find activities that you love to do outside of school: athletics, arts, research, travel.

Thinking, creating, doing, helping others. Empowered to make a difference.

That’s Riverdale.

Will you find our 70+ sports?

You will find students from 104 zip codes.

Lower School students with their buddies during the Buddy Relay event.

You will find 43,500 books in our Lower and Middle/ Upper School Libraries.

What will you find at the Lower School?

At the Lower School, Riverdale offers a spacious natural setting for instruction, sports, and imaginative play. Lunch is nutritious, and students have time built into their day for physical activity, play, and reflection. Riverdale’s character strengths provide a framework for learning as students learn how to be focused, resilient, respectful of others, and open to instruction and feedback. Mindfulness techniques help students and faculty refresh and refocus their energy. Physical education introduces students to a variety of activities that develop gross motor skills, cardiovascular endurance, hand-eye coordination, flexibility, muscular strength, and good character.

Will you find the nine garden beds on the River Campus, including three themed gardens?

You will find that the Middle and Upper School are located on 19.5 verdant acres with sweeping views of Van Cortlandt Park.

Will you find a fifth grader teaching classmates about the systems of the body?

In the 5th grade project based learning unit entitled Code Blue, each student’s goal is to become a specialist in one human body system. Students research their chosen system, build a

3-D model of one important structure, teach their colleagues what they learned, and then work collaboratively to address common health issues.

Will you find a dinosaur?

Students went to the American Museum of Natural History to study the skeletons of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, including the new Titanosaur, the largest creature to ever walk the earth. They started to think big, really big.

Then they spent two days assembling the life-sized woolly mammoth out of more than 70 plywood parts that their art teachers had prepared using the ShopBot, CNC router and a schematic from makecnc.com.

The original plans were intended for a nine-inch model, so considerable

redesigning and engineering were needed to create a 13-foot-tall structure.

Working from illustrations, the students assembled the parts and affixed them with glue and metal L brackets secured with screws.

In the process, they learned how to use the laser cutter and ShopBot. A custom steel frame had to be built to support the weight of the mammoth as it was being built, so they learned the basics of welding.

During Middle School Project Week, a group of students built a replica of a woolly mammoth.

What will you find at Riverdale?

Middle and Upper School

The school was founded in 1907.

This building is named for the founder: Frank S. Hackett.

You will find a fivewall mural by a group of middle schoolers.

83% of our students are involved in 70+ sports.

Frank S. Hackett Hall You will find a brand new swimming facility.

You will find a newly renovated athletic center.

You will find a bridge.

Aquatics Center

Mark A. Zambetti ’80 Athletic Center

Frank J. Bertino Memorial Field

You will find solar panels.

You will find our admissions building.

William C. W. Mow Hall

Vinik Hall

It’s about a seven-minute car ride between the campuses.

Lower School

You will find entire walls are writable, and can also serve as projection surfaces.

You will find our new building for grades 3–5.

You will find a catwalk.

You will find drawing, painting, and sculpture classes are in this building.

Senior Building

Upper Learning Building

You will find some second graders learning about “mad science.”

You will find two teachers in every classroom.

You will find learning will not be constrained by walls.

You will find that every day we are doing something different.

You will find Pre-K and Kindergarten students learning to make their own paper.

Early Learning Building

You will find students learning to play various instruments.

You will find students playing and learning outdoors.

You will find four different tennis teams practicing at both the Lower School tennis courts and the Middle/ Upper School courts.

Tennis Courts

You will find our brand new Learning Commons and Maker Space.

Junior Building You will find a sound booth.

Riverdale Country School is a Pre-K through Grade 12 independent school in New York City committed to empowering lifelong learners by developing minds, building character, and creating community in order to change our world for the good.

design: Open (notclosed.com) ¡ revised 2017

Will you find us online? riverdale.edu