Maya Angelou’s words couldn’t be more adequate to start our last newsletter of the school year 2022/2023. The final result, or the beauty of a changing process, is what is normally highlighted when we want to celebrate achievements, results, or  a closing cycle. And during the J4 Graduation we were able to witness the “beauty of the butterfly” as written by Angelou. The J4 students prepared very thoughtful videos that were shared with the audience. With their words we could see that the stude...

In the bustling and ever-energetic heart of our school, a place filled with curious minds and open hearts, there was a beautiful convergence of yesterday and today. Our lively school corridors, usually echoing with the present dreams and future aspirations, found themselves greeting a face from their past. A joyous occasion, indeed, as we welcomed back Kanako Wada, an esteemed alumna from the class of 2006, who once had walked these very halls from Kindergarten to 12th grade. Her visit last T...

Alexandrine is a poetic form that originated in Old French poetry around the 12th century. Named for the Roman d'Alexandre, the Alexandrine is a line of poetry that has twelve syllables. In French, the Alexandrine is usually divided into two hemistiches (half-lines) of six syllables each, typically with a caesura (pause) after the sixth syllable. The most common metrical structure is syllabic, with a pattern of two groups of six syllables each (6+6). In English, the Alexandrine is less common...

In the year 1947, under a sky glittering with twinkling stars over Verona, the air was thick with suspense at the ancient amphitheater. A full house of eager spectators, their faces a mosaic of anticipation, were ready for the night's show. La Gioconda was the highlight promised on the evening's program. Yet, the star performer, Renata Tebaldi, was unexpectedly absent. Instead, the spotlight would shine on an unassuming Greek-American soprano, a mere understudy who had to fill the shoes of a ...

Every year, I find in one of Blaise Pascal's quotes, the famous French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and philosopher, the justification to write a short newsletter. "The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter" has always been one of my favorite quotes for that reason. Today it's Mother's Day, a day I should not stay too long on the computer to inform you and share with you the past week's experiences of our students. But after using...

On Monday, May 1, 2023, I was the JS principal. I was not really the principal, but I spent most of the day with Mr. Vallet and learned some of the things he does and what he likes about his job. I met several UNIS teams that have important roles. For example, the director of security explained to me that keeping us safe is the most important aspect of his job. In addition to spending time with Mr. Vallet; I met Dr. Brenner; the team in charge of campus security; the IT team; and Paco, the he...

In August 2014, our family embarked on an exciting new journey as we moved to New York from South Korea, embracing the vibrant community at UNIS, the United Nations International School. I vividly remember the pride and admiration expressed in my mother's eyes when I told her about my new position at the school of the United Nations. With a heart filled with hope, she believed that UNIS, embodying the core values of peace, equity, and diversity, would be the perfect nurturing ground for her m...

We hope you are all enjoying a great weekend, and for our Muslim community, we hope you have enjoyed celebrating Eid: the end of Ramadan. Historically, May is a busy month, and we are preparing for eventful and engaging weeks ahead! This month is filled with celebrations, learning opportunities, and memorable experiences for our students, and we are excited to share these important updates and reminders with you. Firstly, May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, a wonderful opportunity t...

"In the turquoise lagoons of Vanuatu, an archipelago of dreams, there lived a boy. He was born on an island where the tales of his ancestors echoed in the rustling leaves and the sighing waves. His name was Tamati, and his heart was as bright as the sun that rose each morning over the coral reefs. Tamati spent his days wandering the islands. He discovered the hidden caves where the spirits of the ancestors whispered secrets of a time long past. He ventured into the lush jungles, where he woul...

As we approach the end of Spring Break, I want to take a moment to reflect on the powerful experience that our Junior School students had before the break. The opportunity to meet with students from Kenya, supported by the Kenya Education Fund, was truly transformative for our students and for all of us as well. Through this experience, our students gained a deeper understanding of the importance of education, not just for themselves, but for children around the world who face immense challen...

Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, popularly known as Rumi, was a 13th-century Persian poet, Islamic jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic. He was born on September 30, 1207, in Balkh, which is in present-day Afghanistan, and died on December 17, 1273, in Konya, now located in modern-day Turkey. Rumi's family fled the Mongol invasions, eventually settling in Konya, where Rumi spent most of his life. Rumi's father, Baha' al-Din Walad, was a well-respected theologian, jurist, and spiritual teacher. Rumi......

In his speech on Monday, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres expressed concern over the disappearing progress towards gender equality and estimated that it could take as long as 300 years to achieve full equality. He highlighted the alarming decline in sexual and reproductive rights, as well as the exclusion of women from public life in Afghanistan. Around the world, rallies and protests marked International Women’s Day, with many focusing on issues in Iran, Afghanistan, and oth...

The Student-Led Conferences for our PK to J4 students are approaching. They were implemented in the Junior School in 2016 and have been through a few iterations since then. The goal of these conferences is "to celebrate the Learning Experience and Successes of the school year, in connection with the IB attitudes and attributes". To reach this goal, as in the past, parents have a fundamental role to play as the main interlocutor with our students, your children. You will find below important i...

Women have played an integral role in shaping history and March, Women's History Month, is a time to honor their contributions and celebrate their social, cultural, economic, and political achievements throughout history. Women's History Month originated in the United States and began as a single day celebration. In 1981, Congress passed a resolution proclaiming Women's History Week, and in 1987 Congress declared March as Women's History Month. The celebration of Women's History Month has exp...

We were overjoyed to welcome Joseph Barnes, the global Chief of Monitoring for UNICEF, and J2 parent, to our school this week. Mr. Barnes shared with our students the incredible work that UNICEF is doing to improve the lives of children around the world, and we were amazed and inspired by their mission. During his presentation, Mr. Barnes showed us the School-in-a-Box kit, which is a vital part of UNICEF's emergency response efforts, providing essential educational resources to children affec...

An earthquake can shake the foundations of a community, causing destruction and chaos. Yet, in the aftermath, earthquakes can also bring out the best in humanity. Strangers come together to lend a helping hand, comfort those in need, and rebuild what was lost. In the middle of the rubble, stories of bravery and selflessness emerge, reminding us of the beauty that lies within each and every one of us. The pain and loss are intertwined with a sense of hope and resilience that prevails as people...

Pedagogical theories have been discussed among educators and researchers for centuries, and many of those theories are led by very different perspectives on what successful learning is. While at college in France, I learned (and was exposed to!) many different styles of teaching. For example, I remember being puzzled by Ivan Petrovich Pavlov's theory. Pavlov was Russian, and a Soviet experimental neurologist, psychologist and physiologist known for his discovery of classical conditioning thro...

Black History Month is a time to recognize and celebrate the contributions and accomplishments of Black people throughout history. It began as "Negro History Week" in the United States in February 1926 and was expanded to a month-long observance in 1976. The purpose of the observance is to educate people about the history and experiences of Black people and to raise awareness about the ongoing struggle for racial equality. During Black History Month, many educational institutions and other or...

This week, the Junior School honored and celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. with moving and thoughtful assemblies led by our students. Junior School students of the Equity and Inclusion Board shared important speeches and quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. and, with the support of high school students, explored the origin of Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday" song. The song was a tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., released in 1981 as a single from the album "Hotter Than July," and it was written...

Remembering is a gift from the past, a way to hold on to important moments in our life. Remembering is a journey through time and a chance to relive the memories of those we hold dear. Remembering is joyful, a celebration of life, a way to hold on to the love and happiness that is meaningful to us. Remembering is also a responsibility no one should dismiss. Remembering events of the past that make today and tomorrow's humanity feel shame is a moral imperative. It is a call to action, a remind...

Semester 1 Report Cards for Junior School students will be published on Friday, February 3 at 5:00pm on the Veracross Parent Portal. We encourage you to review this report card with your child to celebrate his/her achievements during this past semester and engage in conversation about their potential growth. Your child’s academic achievement for each individual subject is reported separately from his/her learning skills. The descriptors for academic achievement levels ensure a greater JA to T...

For this first Newsletter of 2023, I would like to reflect with you on the right of girls to education. There have been many women throughout history who have stood up for women's rights and worked to promote gender equality. Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906) was a pioneer in the women's suffrage movement in the United States. She was a key leader in the fight for women's right to vote, and played a central role in the passage of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution, which granted women the r...

"Do you want to be the MC for the Junior School Talent Show?” my mom asked me after-school one day. “What is a MC?” I asked. My mom explained, “Well, MC stands for Master of Ceremonies.  This person is the host of the show.  You introduce each performer and will be responsible for keeping the audience entertained and the show moving.” “Hmm,” I thought. “That sounds interesting.” “Ok, I’ll do it!” I exclaimed. As the day of the Talent Show approached, I started to have some doubts. What if I ca...

"My journey takes place on the eve of an international meeting where the destiny of humanity may turn either towards misfortune or towards peace. This shows the importance I attach to the talks I have just had with the President and the government of the United States. So gentlemen senators and gentlemen representatives, in the contact that I have with you at the Capitol in Washington, I do not, in fact, believe that, at any time, the human species has been so threatened: the machine has taken...

In this week's Newsletter we highlight important messages from UNIS Parents as we head towards December events organized by parents for our students. We hope that many of you will be able to attend the Junior School Talent Show this coming Saturday, December 3! We invite and encourage everyone to join us so that the talented students on stage have an enthusiastic audience to support and celebrate them! On December 13 we re-launch the annual Toy Sale that our students have missed over the past...

Every year, I take the opportunity of a short week ahead of us to quote Blaise Pascal, the famous French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer, and philosopher whose contribution to the research in Mathematics and Epistemology is outstanding. Not because Pascal, one of our JAW students, and I share the same name, but because he wrote in 1656 in The Provincial Letter, Letter XVI: “The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter." It has always bee...

Parent Teacher Conferences are an important and very well attended bi-annual event. They are days when the concept of parent and teacher partnership, shared with you in last week’s JS newsletter, takes on its full meaning. As we did last year, we would like to share some informative data with you: During the three days of fall 2022 conferences, UNIS parents will meet 195 teachers for a total of 8,007 conferences, to give feedback and share information about 1,452 students. We note that 68 stu...

While we head into a very important week for our students, the week of Parent Teacher Conferences, I went back to the Newsletter we sent to JS parents the week prior to those conferences in 2018, exploring the etymology of the word PARTNERSHIP. Etymology is a word composed from the ancient Greek word, ἐτυμολογία / etumología, which finds its root in two ancient Greek words: τὸ ἔτυμov, «real meaning», and λόγος / logos, "discourse, reason". The etymology of the word etymology defines it as the...xxx

On Friday, October 21, I celebrated my 9th UN Day at UNIS. Alessandra Camilo, her 4th. My first UN Day in 2014, with Leila, my first daughter, in 3rd grade, was unforgettable. Walking into Mr. O's 3rd grade classroom and realizing that 19 countries were represented by his students made me feel at home. I remember Leila's true feeling of belonging. In 2017 I remember my second daughter Lucy's first parade when she was graciously invited by Marissa Kane to join her PreK students. Before being a...

On Saturday night, Chef de Cabinet of the Secretary General, his Excellency Mr. E. Courtenay Rattray of Jamaica, and his Excellency Dr. Mohamed Al Hassan, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Sultanate of Oman to the United Nations, inaugurated the Oman Assembly Hall, which will now be used by our Junior School Students for their lunch. On Monday, the J1s and J4s will be the first two grades to be able to use it, after eating their lunch in their classrooms since the beginning of th...

On 24 October 1945, the United Nations was established after World War II in order to prevent another similar conflict, and with the mission to maintain international peace and security. The UNIS community will be celebrating the 77nd birthday of ...

It was wonderful to welcome so many of you for our Back to School Night last Wednesday, a great opportunity to come together as a community.  And as Ms. Zammarano shared in her presentation with the Science and Design Engineering Team, Ms. Mourlot and Mr. Alvez... "if we are not failing we are not learning!" We have learned that it is not easy to find our way around our Manhattan campus! The maps were not enough and parents had difficulties finding their child's language teachers. Next year w...

"Nothing replaces being in the same room, face-to-face, breathing the same air and reading and feeling each other's micro-expressions." Last Tuesday, for our first JS assembly of the year, and the first face-to-face assembly after 2 and a half years of social distancing and virtual gatherings, reading the expressions on our students' faces, while Ms. Camilo read a story or when Ms. Boekholt and Ms. Andrews sang and played piano with our students, was a warm and joyful experience. Dancing with...

UNIS invites you to our 8th Annual Cardboard Challenge. This is a family event that takes place on the UNIS campus on Saturday morning, October 8th from 10:00am-1:00pm. Please talk with your kids and help them to think about ways they might incorporate the UN Sustainable Development Goals into their cardboard creations as: garbage trucks for picking up recycling, solar panels that power their homes,, computers, electric cars, garbage eating robots, recycling stations and signs, and many more ...

Her way of looking at us, as if her lips were eyes, this slight, mocking fold like a comma on the left commissure, this pleasure taken in posing and letting it be known via this subtle movement of her mouth: Mona Lisa's smile has fascinating the world for more than 500 years. Leonardo Da Vinci's masterpiece is not the first portrait to introduce "the incipient smile as an indication of the inner life of the sitter". Antonello di Giovanni d'Antonio, around 1470 with his Portrait of a Young Man...

A few years ago I came across a fascinating lecture concerning educational systems in France. Although the speaker was addressing the French educational system, the tale he shared with his audience applies to any system of education. This is the entertaining story of Niels Henrik David Bohr, the Danish physicist, philosopher and promoter of scientific research, known for his contribution to our understanding of the atomic structure and quantum theory and Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. But th...