Bank Street School for Children has announced its 2024 Alumni Class Delegates!
Alumni Class Delegates feel a sense of pride in their alma mater for its powerful approach to education and its focus on community that has laid a strong foundation for the rest of their journey in school and in life. Our delegates will help organize an unforgettable reunion experience during Bank Street Alumni Weekend 2024, which will run from May 16-18, and they’ll help keep former classmates connected to the Bank Street community throughout the year.
If you are interested in becoming an Alumni Class Delegate or would like to connect with any of the alumni below, please email sfcalumni@bankstreet.edu. All Bank Street alumni are welcome to attend Alumni Weekend. To learn more, visit our webpage
Occupation:
Documentary filmmaker
What are your favorite School for Children memories?
Taking apart typewriters & other random things in David Wolkenberg’s class. Movement, Gym & Writer’s Workshop. Tape Ball on the deck.
Why is the 2024 milestone important to you?
It would be great to see many fellow graduates from 1994. Rarely is there a big turnout from our year for the Bank Street reunions and it would be so wonderful to see folks from that time.
Occupation:
Physician
What are your favorite School for Children memories?
So many… The Music Man, Washington, DC trip, gym, French, Math, Mock Congress… on and on.
Why is the 2024 milestone important to you?
I believe that so many foundations were laid while in our formative years at Bank Street. I would love to hear what life has had in store for all the people I knew and loved.
Occupation:
Co-founder and creative director of Team, an independent strategy and design studio
What are your favorite School for Children memories?
My early experiences at Bank Street helped shape me into an entrepreneur and an artist. Instead of being heads-down in textbooks, every day was an adventure. I remember my favorite experiences in my class with Michael Snow, watching chrysalis transform into monarch butterflies and jumping into hands-on projects like chick-rearing or papyrus-making. We learned to engage in subjects like art, science, and history through a different lens, seeing the past as a blueprint for future possibilities. This kind of exposure and encouragement sparked my curiosity and solidified a passion within me to dig deep, discover, and experiment—a perspective that continues to shape my outlook to this day.
Why is the 2024 milestone important to you?
The 2024 milestone marks 35 years of continued growth. Throughout my career, I’ve carried the values of discovery I learned at Bank Street. As an artist, I take inspiration from nature and human experience, studying octopi in my piece “Electric Sheep” with the same awe and wonder from my early school years. As a co-founder and creative director at my studio, Team, I practice creative thinking in building brands that deliver lasting impact.
I’m grateful for the guidance I had at Bank Street. My teachers were more than just instructors—their support pushed me forward and opened up new possibilities. I look forward to the next milestone and the next generation of Bank Street alumni.
Occupation:
Founder/CEO, Immortal Strategies; award-winning strategy, public policy and management professional; board member; public speaker
What are your favorite School for Children memories?
There are so many to choose from—the friendships that lasted a lifetime and the incredible accomplishments my classmates have made, playing on the deck and the roof, and the teachers who inspired me not only to be ambitious but to always be community-minded. But, two specific memories come to mind: (1) a group of us would always sneak down to the mysterious 10th floor during roof time. It was a storage space but we felt it was our secret hideout and we would imagine we were in an exclusive club plotting adventures and careers; and (2) the treatment of my closest friend, David Walsh. Dave had muscular dystrophy and was in a wheelchair by the age of 11. The school did everything it could to make him feel comfortable and my incredible classmates made sure Dave was involved in everything, including gym class where he impressed us all with his defensive talents on the basketball court.
Why is the 2024 milestone important to you?
It is important because it has been 20 years since Dave passed away from muscular dystrophy. It still stings, but the Bank Street community was always there for him and his family in profound ways. Dave was an extraordinary person whose love of life, sense of humor, and assertiveness in stating his opinions were unparalleled. After his passing, we organized a fundraiser for the newly formed David Walsh Fund to raise money for resources that children with physical disabilities needed to attend the school. At the fundraiser, Rudy Jordan told me he had a special announcement. During his remarks, he announced that an anonymous donor wrote a $250,000 check to support the David Walsh Fund. We were all floored, and I get emotional just thinking about that moment. I never learned who the donor is (if you are reading this, from the bottom of my heart, thank you) but it just goes to show the generosity and love people have for Bank Street.
Occupation:
Director, University of Michigan Museum of Art
What are your favorite School for Children memories?
My favorite memories are of square-dancing in the hallway, which I utterly adored. The exuberance of dancing, the hope that I might get to hold hands with the boy I had a crush on, the pleasure in learning the steps—that has all stayed with me. I also loved assembly on Monday mornings when the whole school would gather and sing. Was it really the whole school, or is that just how I remember it? In any case, we’d sing 60s and 70s songs—500 Miles, If I had a Hammer, Erie Canal. I wonder what they sing now? There was a kerfuffle one year when the school (or perhaps the parents?) decided we should no longer sing Bottle of Wine because it treated alcoholism with a light, humorous touch. What I took away from all that singing and dancing was that these pleasures that had nothing to do with expertise—I wasn’t (and still am not) an especially good singer or dancer, but I still love to do both.
My other profound memory was from the school musical we put on when I was 10-ish. It was about McCarthyism, and the Red Scare. Under the guidance of our teacher, Drew, we made the whole thing: wrote the script and songs, choreographed them, designed the sets, and acted in it. I was overwhelmed with excitement and curiosity by the entire experience—both the subject and also the stagecraft. It was the first time I truly created something as a collective, and the thrill of that—and the difficulty—has stayed with me all of these years. There are so many more memories I could point to: learning to cook in the kitchen as a kindergartner; playing on the jungle gym of the playdeck; watching chicks hatch in Sue’s class, which was next door to mine; making pots and clay figures in the fantastic art room that Edith ran. A wondrous place, Bank Street was, and hopefully still is.
Why is the 2024 milestone important to you?
45 years is a big number. Almost half a century. The mission and values of Bank Street—that learning is rooted in experience; that we learn from peers and people younger than us as well as teachers; that we have a responsibility and ability to improve the world, and make it more just; and that art plays a powerful role in understanding and experiencing the world—those couldn’t be more important today as we grapple with the implications of artificial intelligence, climate change, authoritarianism, and more. Bank Street was a respite for me as a child, at a time when my parents were going through a bitter divorce, and New York City was bankrupt. Children need respites like Bank Street now more than ever. My own children are now almost grown, and the 45 year milestone gives me a chance to see how far I’ve come, and also how far the school has come, and to celebrate its remarkable legacy.
Occupation:
Author, social activist, mother
What are your favorite School for Children memories?
The friendships are what I remember most about my time at Bank Street. Some people I’ve stayed in touch with over the decades and some I have not, but what I always rely on is the experience of community. I never doubt the power of collaboration. I learned at Bank Street that it is smarter to work in conjunction with others than to fly solo.
Why is the 2024 milestone important to you?
Celebrating my 40th graduation year with the School for Children is my way of continuing the path forward. The world is on fire and Bank Street is a great place for our children to learn to be solutions to the problem at hand.
Occupation:
Entrepreneur and fundraiser
What are your favorite School for Children memories?
Peter Richard’s Storytelling
Why is the 2024 milestone important to you?
I’m feeling especially nostalgic!
Occupation:
Preschool teacher in Bedford, New York
What are your favorite School for Children memories?
Having snack up in the library while a member of the 13/14s class read a story to us. In addition, I loved performing in the Revels, wearing a colorful felt tunic. I also very much enjoyed teaching and acting in “Mini” with Samara while in the 11/12s. When we could not find appropriate scenes for the kids to act out, we wrote them!
Why is the 2024 milestone important to you?
It is the 40th anniversary of my graduation from Bank Street. Also, I have just published my first children’s book, and Bank Street encouraged and promoted my love of writing.
Occupation:
Student
What are your favorite School for Children memories?
My memories of being at Bank Street are endless but dramatic play holds a special place in my heart. I will forever remember coming into school every morning and immediately running to the mat area where all my peers and I would play!
Why is the 2024 milestone important to you?
The School for Children is important to me because it taught me how to comfortably and confidently express myself. Being a Bank Street student taught me how to find/tap into the creativity and excitement of learning collaboratively.
Occupation:
Student
What are your favorite School for Children memories?
My favorite Bank Street memory was the debates we would have in humanities class. We were able to have meaningful conversations but we also would say jokes and make each other laugh. I loved every moment that I had at Bank Street!
Why is the 2024 milestone important to you?
I believe celebrating with my graduation class is important because it is a way to catch up with each other. We can update each other on what we have been doing at our new schools and see how much we have all changed. As we see each other after a couple months, I see how we are growing up to become responsible and reliable young adults.
Occupation:
Student
What are your favorite School for Children memories?
I could go on and on about my favorite Bank Street memories, but the first that come to mind are field days, the Egypt play, MASHD classes, and connections with teachers like Ali, Dave, Saara, Nikki, Coy, Ricky… the best! Lifelong friends!
Why is the 2024 milestone important to you?
Bank Street is my home, it is my place of academic and social maturation. It is where I learned to learn, and learned to love to learn. Another place could not replicate what Bank Street can do for a child. Another place can’t make an individual love to learn. That ideal has stayed with me consistently after my decade as a Bulldog, as I credit my academic and professional success so far to Bank Street.