Annual Trip to Syracuse!

The CHAH Boys Basketball Team made their annual trip to Syracuse this past weekend, January 22-24.

On the trip, the boys saw Syracuse University, went to Destiny USA and played a basketball game against the state ranked Westhill Warriors.

The players were graciously hosted by Westhill community members and at the homes of several Westhill players.

As always, everyone handled themselves with grace and respect and were lauded for both their basketball skill and behavior.

We all look forward to next year's trip!

CHAH Boy's Basketball Team Celebrates Senior Night

January 27th was Senior night for the CHAH Boys Basketball Team. CHAH's four seniors, Chris Tejada, Erick Valdez, Jorge Pereya and Derick Geronimo were honored for their achievements on and off the court.

This group of seniors have led the team to a third consecutive play-off appearance and have handled themselves with class throughout their entire career.

The parents of the four boys were very proud and happy to be able to watch them play.  The family members were honored with flowers and hugs from the players. 

The underclassmen and coaching staff are grateful for their leadership!

Urban Studies at Columbia University

11th and 12th graders attended an 8-week program with Columbia University's Urban Studies graduate workshop.

The Urban Studies Workshop engages students with a studio-based approach to the issues and discourse of the contemporary city by exploring a variety of conceptual, analytical and design tools for understanding and operating within urban contexts through focused individual or collective research and design projects.

Basically, CHAH students studied ways in which public spaces in New York City could be opened up to foster community gathering and engagement. 

Britney Quezada, an 11th grader in the program, said "We were paired up with graduate students and made a video about Inwood Hill Park and how we could potentially remove some parking lot space and put a greenhouse in.  Or hold some after-school activity in the parking lot in the short term."

She added, "Now when I walk around my city, I think about ways it could be improved.  I'm trying to raise our village up here in Washington Heights!"

This year the Urban Studies workshop focused on Inwood, and came up with policy and urban design suggestions on how to improve the area, based on things like improving health, or increasing accessibility to the waterfront, or increasing available jobs in the area. Our students met with the graduate students from Columbia, most of whom were international students, and our students gave their thoughts, critiques and suggestions on the policies and designs the grad students were creating. Our students then helped film in certain sections of inwood to add to the grad students presentations. Finally, our students went to Columbia university this past Friday to see the final presentations and give their final thoughts.

Middle Schoolers attend "The Hip Hop Nutcraker" at United Palace Theatre

This past weekend, many of our 7th and 8th grade students got to watch “The Hip Hop Nutcraker” at United Palace Theatre here in Washington Heights. 

A student who attended, Linet Mercedes, was pleasantly surprised.  She said "You'd think that going to school on a Saturday would be dreadful. To be completely honest it completely is, but this trip was fun. We watched as "The Nutcracker" was portrayed in a modern version. Actors danced to classic music, and instruments such as the piano and violin. The play itself was fascinating, and it was as if the 20th century merged with this era. The play completely changed my perspective on "The Nutcracker".

The show is a contemporary take on the popular ballet The Nutcraker.  Eighth grader Yhara Ozuna said, "To be honest, showing up to school at 12:45 seemed to be the worst thing that could ever happen. That is, until I found out that it was one of the best Saturdays of my life. The Hip-Hop Nutcracker has to be one of the best performance I've ever seen. It mixed the typical Nutcracker with one of the most common genre of music in this generation. The least that could be said is that "The Hip-Hop Nutcraker" should be seen by everyone. I'm so glad to have had this opportunity" 

Students were chaperoned by their teachers, Ms. Lazala, Ms. Mayberry, and Ms. Werner.  Everyone had a wonderful time at this cultural event in the community!

Reading Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales' in AP Literature

Most CHAH students have heard about, and probably read, works by William Shakespeare.  Geoffrey Chaucer, however, was relatively unknown in Mr. Dickhudt’s senior Advanced Placement Literature class.  Chaucer’s influential, epic narrative poem The Canterbury Tales was written in 1390 and solidified Chaucer as “The Father of English Literature” some 200 years before Shakespeare was born. 

AP Literature student Cindy Gonzalez describes The Canterbury Tales as “…an interesting book that we haven’t done before here at CHAH.  It’s a classic that was written in Middle English, which is something that we don’t really understand.  It’s not about reading it so much as it is about analyzing it and breaking it down.  That’s making us better critical thinkers and analyzers of literature.”

Chaucer wrote in Middle English, a now dead language that was spoken in Medieval England from about 1100 – 1400 AD.  Shakespeare wrote in what scholars actually consider to be Modern English.  Beowulf was written in about 900 AD in Old English and requires a translation.  Chaucer’s Middle English can be read relatively well without a translation, as the CHAH AP Literature students are doing.  Contemporary versions, however, are much easier to navigate.

Monica Franco, a student in the class, says about the original version, “I need to use the translation, but the Middle English is really nice to hear.  It’s really pretty.   The Knight’s Tale is very plot heavy and it’s fascinating how everything seems random but it all connects in the end.”

Her classmate, Jan Michael Guzman says “I like discussing it in class.  Chaucer really understood his society.  He described how life was back in his time and, what’s really amazing, is that a lot of the things he wrote about still apply today.”

“At first it was difficult, but now I’m getting used to the Middle English language,” says Eddie Santana.  “It makes more sense now.  The Miller’s Tale is one of the funniest stories I’ve ever read!”

Mr. Dickhudt explains the reason he includes The Canterbury Tales on his AP Literature syllabus saying, “By the time the class reads Shakespearean English in the comedic play Twelfth Night, they’ll think its really easy compared to Chaucer.” 

In the meantime, Marcos Cortez clearly states, “I like the difficulty of it.”