Our alma mater, Martin Van Buren High School, is at a crossroads. Back in 2003, the NYC Dept. of Education ended zoning restrictions, leading to a massive exodus of students to Francis Lewis, Bayside, and Cardozo and effectively gutting MVB’s student population to fewer than 2200 students with a 45% graduation rate. In recent years, other Queens schools facing similar circumstances—including Andrew Jackson and Jamaica—have been shut down and carved up into multiple-use facilities.
A group of us has joined together to form the MVB Alumni Alliance. We recognized that we had over forty thousand fellow graduates who, working in concert with the school's staff, could help end this downward spiral and assist in the turnaround of the school. Our goal is to introduce a number of efforts designed to improve student engagement, offer guidance and leadership, extend a comprehensive community outreach program, and broaden the base of support for the academic, vocational, and extracurricular programs for the students.
We know many of you have given generously to your college alma maters over the years. We are asking you now to join us in this effort to support the High School that helped all of us achieve our goals. We recognize that this is just a start of what we as an alumni base of over 40,000 people are capable of accomplishing. It is our hope that, as we spread the word, we can tap into this vast and powerful network. We believe this is the first step in having a good number of us re-engage and collectively commit to working together to help the students, and the school, make progress.
We are reaching out to each of you in the hopes that many of you will contribute money to continue this process. We have made considerable progress to date and now in our second year we are aiming to do even more. Our objective is to double the funds raised versus last year when we received nearly $50,000 of financial support. In the current school year we have targeted raising $100,000, which will allow us to impact many more students in a variety of ways. Fortunately, we are already well on our way having raised nearly $60,000 from our Hall of Fame members, fellow alumni, and a number of our key corporate supporters. Now the rest is up to us, the alumni of the school, to make a real difference at MVB.
While money alone won’t meet all the school's needs it is essential to provide the enriching programming the Alumni Alliance has introduced into the school. Your contribution can help bring MVB back to where it was when we all walked the halls: a thriving, vibrant, academically-challenging school—among the best in NYC.
The time is NOW, and we believe essential, that we begin this process together. Anything you can do WILL make a difference. We hope to hear from all of you, and we very much appreciate any capacity in which you might support our efforts.
Please join with us to make MVB better.
Stephanie Hochman ’81
Adrienne Simons ’77
Brian Greenspan ’89
Al Roth ‘69
Barry Coogan ’59
Kirby Lindell ’73
Steve Wilson ’77
Jeanette Silver- teacher 1971-2001
Lori Rolleri ‘85
Anthony Pla ’98
Owen Rumelt ’77
Lloyd Fishman ’69
Frank Wilczek '67
Julian Philips '73
A group of us has joined together to form the MVB Alumni Alliance. We recognized that we had over forty thousand fellow graduates who, working in concert with the school's staff, could help end this downward spiral and assist in the turnaround of the school. Our goal is to introduce a number of efforts designed to improve student engagement, offer guidance and leadership, extend a comprehensive community outreach program, and broaden the base of support for the academic, vocational, and extracurricular programs for the students.
We know many of you have given generously to your college alma maters over the years. We are asking you now to join us in this effort to support the High School that helped all of us achieve our goals. We recognize that this is just a start of what we as an alumni base of over 40,000 people are capable of accomplishing. It is our hope that, as we spread the word, we can tap into this vast and powerful network. We believe this is the first step in having a good number of us re-engage and collectively commit to working together to help the students, and the school, make progress.
We are reaching out to each of you in the hopes that many of you will contribute money to continue this process. We have made considerable progress to date and now in our second year we are aiming to do even more. Our objective is to double the funds raised versus last year when we received nearly $50,000 of financial support. In the current school year we have targeted raising $100,000, which will allow us to impact many more students in a variety of ways. Fortunately, we are already well on our way having raised nearly $60,000 from our Hall of Fame members, fellow alumni, and a number of our key corporate supporters. Now the rest is up to us, the alumni of the school, to make a real difference at MVB.
While money alone won’t meet all the school's needs it is essential to provide the enriching programming the Alumni Alliance has introduced into the school. Your contribution can help bring MVB back to where it was when we all walked the halls: a thriving, vibrant, academically-challenging school—among the best in NYC.
The time is NOW, and we believe essential, that we begin this process together. Anything you can do WILL make a difference. We hope to hear from all of you, and we very much appreciate any capacity in which you might support our efforts.
Please join with us to make MVB better.
Stephanie Hochman ’81
Adrienne Simons ’77
Brian Greenspan ’89
Al Roth ‘69
Barry Coogan ’59
Kirby Lindell ’73
Steve Wilson ’77
Jeanette Silver- teacher 1971-2001
Lori Rolleri ‘85
Anthony Pla ’98
Owen Rumelt ’77
Lloyd Fishman ’69
Frank Wilczek '67
Julian Philips '73
Martin van Buren High School-We are A NOBEL Institution