BPY has five students who are participating in a prestigious program of middle school students across the country. Tikvah Online Academy invited students from BPY to apply for this enrichment opportunity. As part of the application process, BPY’s administration and faculty chose five outstanding essays written by Adi Bieler, Collin Goldstein, Avigayil Mallin-Holtz, Victor Moche and Nava Papir. These exceptional students chose to participate in the following courses: American Civilization: Lincoln’s God and What Is Philosophy? and An Introduction to Socrates and Plato.
The BPY students join middle schoolers from around the country participating in Tikvah Academy’s high-level seminars. The advantage of taking the class online is the geographical diversity of the student body. Bieler, Goldstein, Mallin-Holtz, Moche and Papir committed to the seminars, one session per week for five consecutive weeks. Through this experience, Avigayil realized that an extracurricular activity doesn’t have to be “fun” in a conventional sense. This series of seminars is engaging and inspiring.
Collin commented, “you never know when the teacher will call on you, so you need to always be prepared!” Adi added, “It’s not stressful, but rather a nice opportunity to learn something new.” All five students agreed that their vocabulary has improved and reading and deciphering a historical text has gotten easier. With only one class left in the series, the group unanimously agreed that over the span of four weeks, they have a new level of understanding and ease in their learning.
“It’s an opportunity to learn more about history,” Nava said, “which will help us next year for eighth-grade U.S. history.”
Victor is now aware that the issues from long ago in history are still pertinent to what is going on in the world today. He enjoys the debates, arguments and different interpretations.
“The ability for our students to participate in this exciting pilot program is amazing,” said Rabbi Saul Zucker, BPY’s head of school. “The view of American history within the overall context of a Torah outlook—a great talent and characteristic of Tikvah’s program—is central to our view of general studies as Limudei Chochmah—emanating from the wisdom of the Creator. We are thrilled to be part of this trailblazing program.”
The depth and breadth of the course material is that of a college course and these students have this experience in middle school! Kol hakavod to Adi, Avigayil, Collin, Nava and Victor for taking on this academic challenge.
By Sharona Grossberg
