Student voices

Great with numbers

/ Julie Nariman / 1 Comment

Zulma* and I sat at a round table in my office. The principal’s office– I assured her she wasn’t in trouble. She had just turned 17. She looked dull. Resigned. 

Our journey with Zulma started two years ago in January when my assistant principal and I drove to the West Bronx on a quest to find her, our car doors scraping the snow as we stepped out.

Zulma had been absent for weeks. We were in remote learning. It was her first year in high school, and her second year in New York since arriving from El Salvador.  We found her apartment building and through the intercom, a sibling told us Zulma was at the laundromat a block away. So there we went, finding her in a hoodie and flip flops, taking a load out of the washer. 

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Hanging out

/ Julie Nariman / 1 Comment

The other day, I found two boys hanging out in a small alcove in front of our school health clinic. I can always relate when I see kids hanging out and not wanting to be bothered– as a teenager, this was all I wanted. But now is now, and I have a job to do. “Hi gentlemen, nice to see you both. I’ll need you to go back to your classes now.” 

“We have passes,” they said politely. Each handed me an official pass to the health clinic, waiting for me to profusely apologize to them and allow them to keep hanging out.

“Great, thanks,” I said. “The health clinic doesn’t open for 10 minutes. You can come wait in my office while I work so you’re not in the hallway.” 

There was an awkward silence. “Oh, OK. Thanks.” I had taken away their privacy. 

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Taking a risk

/ Julie Nariman / 1 Comment
Oumou with a framed copy of her Times piece.

In the last unit of 12th grade English, our students write “100-word stories,” modeled after the New York Times column “Modern Love Stories.” At the end of the unit, each student submits their best story to the New York Times. 

This year, one of our students, Oumou Sow, was published by the Times. Her piece was “Sprinting in Senior Spring.” Here is her story.

How it all started

To be honest, I never took the assignment that seriously. I never thought I’d be the one to get published. 

It all started with my class’s science fair. We were outside in the field for one of the science experiments. My friend and I were hungry and we wanted to eat burek, an Albanian food you can get at the pizzeria. We asked our teacher and of course she said no. I knew we shouldn’t leave in the middle of the science fair, and I had never cut class, but it seemed like such an adventurous thing to do. We were outside, there were lots of kids, no one would notice, and it was the end of our senior year. 

So we still snuck out and ate burek. I felt a little guilty, but we didn’t get caught and I ended up winning the science fair. 

A few days later in English class, I thought, why not write about that experience? I finished the story in 5 minutes. 

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