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Fall season academics are underway at Row New York! Three times a week at our Long Island City office, varsity, novice, and middle school teams gather on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, respectively, to enhance the depth and breadth of their educational abilities.

Row New York’s rowers join fifteen tutors and our rowing program directors in academic efforts. Tutors interact with rowers in one-on-one and small group settings to boost math, science, and writing skills. Tutoring activities focus on each girl’s academic needs established at the beginning of the semester using Row New York’s internal Basic Skills Assessments. Rowing and academics have been integrated by having the directors of the varsity, novice, and middle school programs supervise the academic sessions for their girls and closely track the progress of each rower.

Darise JeanBaptiste, Row New York’s dedicated College Counselor, is performing the invaluable role of helping the girls obtain college admission. Darise meets weekly with each rower nearing the college application process. Together, the girls and Darise formulate a list of colleges or universities that suit the girls’ wants and needs. Darise is also instrumental in helping the girls navigate their way through the process of standardized testing, essay-writing, and application completion, and she is in close touch with our 2011 graduates, helping them find success in their freshmen years of college.

Why does Row New York focus on academic success and college guidance? Academic success is the most important measure of the positive effects of rowing on the lives of our rowers. Our girls find greater academic achievement a ticket to a more successful future, and for many girls, Row New York fills in the gaps that would otherwise make this achievement harder. In America’s urban high schools, the average ratio of college guidance counselors to students is 740:1, and New York City’s public schools are no exception. Many Row New Yorkers are the first in their family to have college prospects and many attend high schools that experience overcrowding and low academic expectations. But at Row New York, high expectations and individualized attention mean the girls’ self-confidence, along with their concrete academic skills, grow steadily each week, leading them towards a more optimistic and expansive vision of their futures.

 

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