Harlem Academy is an independent school that drives equity of opportunity for promising students, guiding them to thrive at the highest academic levels and one day make a mark on the world.
We close the school's 21st year with immense pride in the students from the Class of 2025, who celebrated their graduation yesterday. They have been outstanding role models for younger students and lived the School Creed in inspiring ways. I have no doubt that they will take all they’ve learned to succeed at the top secondary schools they have chosen to attend.
At Harlem Academy, physical education is about more than fitness. It’s a chance to build confidence, teamwork, and perseverance – both on and off the field.
Ask Riverdale senior Micaela Gonzalez '21 what is most important to her, and she’ll say service. “I’ve always had a passion for giving back to my community.” It’s the reason she will study nursing when she heads to University of Pennsylvania this fall.
Eighth grader Rabi ’25 was on his way to school when he found out that he’d been accepted to Deerfield Academy. He immediately called his mother to tell her the good news.
In recent weeks, we welcomed two inspiring leaders to Harlem Academy as part of our Literary Speaker Series: Tony and Grammy Award-winning performer and bestselling author Leslie Odom Jr. and National Book Award-winning author and historian Dr. Ibram X. Kendi.
Earlier this year, we held an event to help guide young alumni on their career paths. On Monday, we had the pleasure of turning the tables and welcoming a panel of alumni to share their wisdom with current students and their families.
Last spring, Harlem Academy Trustee Carol Kenney established the Jerome P. Kenney Scholarship Fund in honor of her late husband. “I wanted to carry Jerry’s legacy forward in a way that would have been meaningful to him,” she says.
Last week, I was thrilled that Harlem Academy trustee and author Liz McHenry visited with our elementary and middle school students for a fascinating conversation.
At their recent Celebrations of Learning, our sixth and eighth graders took center stage to perform creative, inspiring, and sometimes vulnerable original poetry for an audience of family and friends – a culmination of weeks spent deeply engaged in an exploration of the craft.
Our alumni venture all over the country for college. They head north to Dartmouth, south to Morehouse and Spelman, and west to Northwestern and even Stanford. However, no one has set their sights so far east that they crossed the Atlantic until Lisa Lushtak '20 enrolled at University College London (UCL) this past fall.
We are proud to share Harlem Academy’s 2023-2024 Annual Report, which highlights our students’ outstanding achievements and the school’s impact over the past year. Thank you for your support.
MisaLove Smith ’17, a senior at Purchase College who is pursuing a bachelor of fine arts in acting, discovered her love of the craft at Harlem Academy – and it all started with Shakespeare and a love of reading. “I would read three books at a time,” she recalls. Teachers pushed MisaLove and her classmates to delve into texts, dissect authors' choices, interpret meanings, and back up their analyses. A class discussion of A Midsummer Night's Dream in sixth grade lit a spark. “It made me want to master Shakespeare.”
Harlem Academy is an independent school (grades K-8) that drives equity of opportunity for promising students, guiding them to thrive at the highest academic levels and one day make a mark on the world.