THE RESILIENCE OF OUR COMMUNITY

ROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

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THE RESILIENCE OF OUR COMMUNITY

Adaptability, collaboration, creativity, communication, and preparation are the ideals the Brandeis administration, faculty, staff, and facilities team invoked when preparing for the 2020-2021 school year. As we made plans to bring our students back to campus, providing for their physical safety while addressing the emotional and spiritual impacts due to the pandemic, were at the forefront of our collective awareness and were paramount to maintaining the confidence of our community to ensure the return could be sustained.

With Martin Lipman at the helm of the facilities team, over $150,000 of health and safety improvements and upgrades were implemented across the campus. This included the construction and installation of hand washing stations by every door, touchless water dispensers in the gym, middle school and lower school buildings, and an outdoor tented teacher’s lounge, only to name a few. In conjunction with the physical upgrades, health protocols such as daily symptoms screening, temperature checks, school-wide testing and the hiring of a school nurse, all played an important role that sustained and secured a return to in-person learning.

Brandeis strove to address the ever-changing complexities of reopening with an eye towards holistically addressing the practical needs of making learning accessible, whether in the classroom or while learning from home. Providing iPads, laptop computers, learning apps, and distributing school supplies to every Brandeis student prior to the start of the school year were critical to implementing

an instructional model that was flexible and could take place on campus or from home. It also meant providing professional development for faculty on the use of virtual learning platforms and new ways to dynamically engage students in online learning, especially for our youngest learners. We also had to re-envision our curriculum in order to sustain stable cohorts in the classroom, and reconfigure our learning spaces so that students could eat and play safely together.

The return to the 2020-2021 school year looked nothing like the Brandeis so many of us know and upended what new families hoped to experience. However, finding ways to engage our families both from a school standpoint and a community perspective were critical to building and growing community at Brandeis. This meant families were invited to explore new virtual engagements from backto-school nights to lighting up their living rooms in a school-wide Hanukkah celebration, and then when it was safe, hosting outdoor events on campus to celebrate our volunteers and graduates to close out the school year.

Thank you to every member of our community who placed the school at the center of your lives with generous support. It made an incredible difference in how we were able to respond to the challenges of last year and we came out stronger because of the immeasurable ways you demonstrated your commitment and care for the school, our students, faculty and staff, and each other.

REINVENTING ARTS INTEGRATION IN THE TIME OF COVID

The pandemic era exercised the need and capacity for using creative and adaptive approaches to preserve the art and maker education programs for the lower school. To limit exposure on campus by maintaining stable cohorts and teaching teams, one specialist teacher was assigned to each grade to integrate art and maker education with literacy, social studies, math and science, in order to showcase the benefits and beauty of cross-curricular integration.

One highlight of the integrated curriculum was librarian, artist, and social justice advocate Bel Beeson who teamed up with the fourth grade to foster the love of literacy in students with a reading list that included books with themes of social justice

and LGBTQIA+ issues, such as Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and You by Jason Reynolds. Ms. Beeson opened the door to colorful literary experiences with graphic novel writing, research, and digital media education that culminated in students designing murals with a social justice issue theme. As part of the project, mural artist Sean Bullwen whose work is featured throughout the Bay Area, met and spoke with each student about their work.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION ARE CELEBRATED AT BRANDEIS

From the classroom to the dining room to the conference room, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) was at the forefront of Brandeis’ collective conscience in 2020-2021. In a year that was marked by an unprecedented and remarkable social awakening, the Brandeis community embraced the opportunity to dive in and make a difference. The existing faculty and staff DEI committee was joined by the newly formed Parents’ Association and Board of Trustees DEI committees to explore and develop a more comprehensive, informed, and activated leadership role in the school. As is often the case, our students were already leading this charge, asking questions that called for a broadening of our awareness, then transforming that awareness into action. Harkening to the Hebrew word shema, meaning to “obey“ or “listen,“ the intention of listening is inextricably linked to the words, obeying or doing. The unfolding partnership between leadership, faculty, and students saw this action played out in every classroom. The following initiatives, highlighted below, were celebrated throughout the 2020-2021 school year.

• The student-led Queer Straight Alliance (QSA) empowered students to explore, express, and celebrate their gender identities, and to thoughtfully consider how our community might integrate new pronouns into everyday life.

• The Lit Circles Program, offered to second through fourth grade, provided an opportunity for students to immerse themselves in stories focusing on DEI topics including gender, LGBTQIA+, race/ethnicity/culture, socioeconomics, and ableism.

• School booklists and library displays featured stories and voices from protagonists that have been traditionally underrepresented in literature.

• Teachers reshaped and expanded their curriculum to include creative thinking aimed at fostering a more equitable world.

• Middle school teachers integrated land acknowledgments at Brandeis into their practices, propelling conversations around land, ownership, and colonialism.

• Teachers revamped their books and materials to better answer to teaching DEI.

Thank you families, students, teachers, and staff. You continue to amaze and inspire change, locally and globally, by creating a more inclusive, embracing, and open society! Tikkun olam in action.

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BRANDEIS GRADUATES

BRANDEIS ALUMNI

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

This year, we were fortunate to welcome back two very special alumni in support of key Brandeis initiatives, Brandeis Giving Day, and the Fund-A-Need for tuition assistance which took place during our virtual spring fundraiser. San Francisco City Supervisor Rafael Mandelman ‘88 and Emmy-Award winning writer, television host, and radio personality, Teresa Strasser ‘82 stepped up to help Brandeis raise vital funds for our school.

STAY CONNECTED

Reed Archer Kaia Balin Jacob Barrett Maya Ben Shaanan Shayna Blum Maren Boigon Zoe Browdy Alex Cohen Lev Colvin Emmanuelle Davis Josie England Daniel Eybelman Noah Fernandez Ava Ginsberg

Dina Glazer Ava Gutierrez Hannah Harris Jordan Hessekiel Charlotte Hughes William Keller AJ Klein Isaac Koren Lola Label Dana Lakowsky Noah Lerman Jonah Lewis Wyatt Myers Victoria Nealey

Zachary Newman Andrew Ozhyndovskyy Sadelle Poulsen Emanuel Rapaport Rachel Rosenzweig Elisheva Samson Zoe Schauer Zachary Weinberg Michael Weinstein Ari Zatlin

CLASS OF 2021

The Bay School of San Francisco Burlingame High School Crystal Springs Uplands School Drew School Gateway High School Georgetown Day School International High School Jewish Community High School Lick Wilmerding High School

Lowell High School Menlo School Oceana High School Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory San Francisco University High School Tamalpais High School

Mr. Mandelman was passionate about his experience at Brandeis and how the generosity of our community supported him. “Tzedakah was one of the core Jewish values I learned about as a Brandeis student all those decades ago, along with the notion of transmitting our Jewish cultural heritage across the generations. I received financial aid and was able to afford my education at Brandeis only because of the generosity of others. Today we all have the opportunity to pay it forward to another generation.”

Ms. Strasser made a guest appearance at the spring fundraiser, ‘Here Comes the Sun,’ offering a direct appeal to support the tuition assistance program at Brandeis, a program that directly benefited her education. “You want students from different backgrounds to learn from each other and have difference socioeconomic backgrounds. That is one of the things that makes Brandeis so special. There is no way I could have gone to Brandeis without financial assistance. My life was forever changed.”

Thank you Rafael and Teresa, you make all of us at Brandeis proud.

BRANDEIS CONNECTS: Visit the alumni section of the Brandeis website at www.sfbrandeis.org/brandeisconnects to subscribe to the new quarterly communication tool that will make it easy to learn more about the Brandeis community present and past, stay connected with classmates, and learn about the many ways you can engage with our school.

UPDATE YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION: Go to www.sfbrandeis.org/stayconnected to enter your contact information so we can keep you posted on Brandeis news and special events.

SHARE YOUR NEWS: Alumni, please send news about personal updates and professional, service and educational, and leadership accomplishments you would like to share with the Brandeis community to alumni@sfbrandeis.org.

PLAN A REUNION: We love to see Brandeis alumni getting together! The development department will help plan class reunions. Email us at alumni@sfbrandeis.org.

Eve Andersen Eli Berkowitz Jack Boguszewski Isabella Caro Gabriel Castro-Root Maya Druch Reuben Ferris Rachel Freedman Ethan Goore Rachael Hymowitz Adi Jolish Daniel Karp Leo Katz Eli Leavitt Simona Lewis Ruth Lyons

Aaron Miller Drew Nerland Joseph Neyman Sylvie Olson-Dorf Jonathan Palash-Mizner Claire Rafferty Zachary Ravel Sophia Rose Shiraz Ross Max Sanz-Pastor Lola Schnaider Sofie Seitel Joshua Seligman Emma Shaw Julia Shaw Eli Sherman

Elijah Sigal Max Sod Aidan Swan Adina Sweet Elise Taubman Rachel Teich Ethan Ticktin Yotam Twersky Lucy Ugar Mila Werbach Jacob Young

CLASS OF 2017

American University Boston College Boston University California Polytechnic State University Chapman University College of

Performing Arts Columbia University Emory University George Washington University Harvey Mudd College New York University Pomona College Reed College Rice University Scripps College San Diego State University

San José State University Stanford University Texas A&M University Texas Christian University University of California, Berkeley University of California, Los Angeles University of Michigan University of Oregon University of Tennessee University of Toronto University of Wisconsin Vassar College Wake Forest University Washington University in St. Louis Wesleyan University Yale University

“My goal for the Tzedek Program is twofold. First is to raise awareness of the needs that exist in their community and the non-profit organizations that are working to help. Second is for the students to find their passion and to be inspired to actively engage with their community to make a difference.”

–Dr. Jody Bloom

THE SPIRIT OF TZEDAKAH BEGINS AT BRANDEIS

The nationally recognized Tzedek Program, a yearlong service learning curriculum focused on leadership and philanthropy, is one of the highlights of our seventh grade. Through this program, seventh grade students gain a deep understanding about their obligation to give tzedakah and learn about the different needs that exist in their community and the world, and how to make educated philanthropic choices. With the funds pooled together by seventh grade families, in lieu of bar/bat mitzvah gifts, seventh graders in 2021 were able to administer over $18,600 in grants to fourteen local and international organizations.

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