Guiding values and voices fortify community as EWSIS prepares to officially unveil school banners with local leaders
As EWSIS students climb the stairs every morning to go to their first class, Gandhi reminds them to “be the change they wish to see in the world”. Gandhi’s wisdom is one of the nine voices, including those of Mother Teresa, Max Ehrmann, and Akio Morita, which are featured on the new school banners that hang prominently over every stairwell. Each quote is bound by the words honor, excellence, curiosity, and celebration, the four guiding values of East-West.
Students crossing Stairwell E to get to their language classes know that Martin Luther King Jr. said it best: “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” The glossy professionally-made banners reflect a small ambitious school that has come a long way since taking its first step. The number of students has tripled to 600 since the school opened in 2006, but EWSIS received the highest grade of an A for both middle and high school, the only 6-12 school in Queens to do so, in NYC school progress reports for the past two years. Last year EWSIS held its first high school graduation. With sixty-five students graduating, sixty-four continued on to college and one joined the Navy.
EWSIS and Flushing community leaders will officially unveil the banners in a brief ceremony on January 13, 2011 at 3 pm, preceding a meeting of the East-West School Community Advisory Board.
The East-West School of International Studies is designed to provide students with an optimal learning environment, consisting of a rigorous academic program of reading and writing in English, a deep understanding of math and science, and the aptitude to employ sophisticated technology, where students prepare for entrance to college. In addition, EWSIS believes that our next generation must be primed for Asia, a region with growing importance and influence. All EWSIS students are therefore required to study one East Asian language for at least four years.
