On Saturday, May 4^th, over 120 CitySquash students, families, mentors and staff got together for the 7^th annual CitySquash Reads. This year’s book was Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The attendees spent the morning discussing the book, creating their own candy for Willy Wonka’s factory and, of course, eating chocolate! One group made up “ICandy,” an app for your IPhone, which would allow you to download any type of candy to eat and even stretch to as big or little as you wanted! Other invented candies included “Extreme Squash Pop,” designed to give you incredible speed and strength on the squash court, and “Opera Gum,” which would give the chewer instant opera singing ability. Thank you to all of our wonderful mentors and volunteers who came to the event!

Four CitySquash high school seniors won awards at the end of their squash seasons for their impressive contributions to their respective squash teams. Andrew Cadienhead from Taft won the Taft Squash Award for the second year in a row! Andrew played #2 on Taft’s ladder and finished 19-4 on the season, winning integral matches against Brunswick, Choate and Hotchkiss. Andrew also served as the team captain for the second year in a row. Felipe Pantle won the Millbrook School’s Most Valuable Player Award for helping lead his team to a 13-4 season. Felipe played #1 for the majority of the season. Fernando Flores won the Annual Squash Award at Trinity-Pawling for his strong play at #1 and his exemplary sportsmanship. Kingsley Amoako won the MVP award for his impressive 11-6 record playing #1. Kingsley has played in Canterbury’s top three throughout high school and amassed an overall record of 57-27 during his tenure. Kingsley also led his team as a captain in his senior year. All four seniors will be heading off to colleges where they will play on the Varsity Squash teams! Kingsley will be going to St. Lawrence University, Fernando and Felipe both to Hobart College, and Andrew to Middlebury College.

On Saturday, March 16th, 76 team members from third through tenth grade gathered at Fordham University for the annual Project Sunshine community service project. Joined by mentors and staff members, the CitySquashers made encouraging cards (SunnyGrams) and craft kits to send to children with medical challenges. Project Sunshine, a nonprofit, provides the materials to make the cards and kits, and facilitates their distribution. Students decorated the SunnyGrams with stickers, artwork, and silly jokes. The craft kits included hand-made journals (for the children to write in), crayons, stickers, and a personal note. This two-hour community service event was equal parts a fun and creative outlet for our team members as well as a lesson in compassion and helping others. If you’d like to learn more about Project Sunshine, please visit http://www.projectsunshine.org/

From February 22-24, 13 of CitySquash’s boarding school students competed with their high school teams at the New England Interscholastic Squash Championships, held at various boarding schools. The tournament was the culmination of the season’s hard work and dedication. In the New England Tournament “A” Division, senior captain at the Taft School Andrew Cadienhead came in 3^rd place in his draw while junior Andreina Benedith from the Brooks School came in 8^th in her draw. Andreina also won Independent School All-League Honors for her competitive season. In the “B” Division of the tournament, first year Jeremy Carrasquillo won his draw for Suffield Academy. Gabriel Garcia, also from the Brooks School, played in the same draw and won the consolations, helping his team win the “B” Division! In the “C” Division, senior captain Kingsley Amoako of the Canterbury School won his draw while his first year teammate, Bryson Grant, got 3^rd place in his own draw. Their efforts helped Canterbury become the “C” Division Champions! We congratulate all of our boarding school students on another great squash season!

Bundled up against the cold, 59 CitySquashers headed to Central Park on Thursday, February 7^th, to ice skate on Trump Rink. Joined by 20 mentors, the team spent two hours on the rink with few or no breaks! For many of our students, this was only the first or second time ice skating, and so there was plenty of learning to be done. But these athletes were up to the task, and were zipping around the ice before too long. Many thanks to the mentors who came out to skate with us, and to the Trump Rink!

After finishing the novel Number the Stars, the CitySquash fifth graders went on a cultural outing to the Museum of Jewish Heritage on Sunday, January 27th, which also happened to be the 68^th anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation. During their guided tour entitled “Meeting Hate with Humanity,” students learned about the Holocaust, as well as about Jewish heritage. Following their tour, the students were lucky enough to hear 45 minutes of testimony from Mr. Sami Steigmann, a holocaust survivor. Thank you MJH and Mr. Steigmann for enriching our students and teaching them tolerance!

Fifty team members and eleven staff members headed to Boston on Friday, January 18th for the NUSEA Urban Team Championships, hosted at Harvard University and Northeastern University. The twelve NUSEA member organizations faced off in an exciting weekend of squash and academic competition. CitySquash came away from the weekend with two squash titles, and one academic title! All programs submitted pieces for the essay contest, responses to the prompt “What is one thing that you hope never changes about you and why?” Alyssa Garcia, CitySquash 5th grader, won the U13 category for her moving essay on her compassion for the elderly. Congratulations, Alyssa!

On the court, CitySquash teams reached four finals out of the six divisions entered. In the Boys U13, CitySquash took home both the first and second place trophies! The Girls U15 division was also won by CitySquash, in a close 3-2 match against the New Haven-based SquashHaven. CitySquash GU13 team made it to the finals against fellow New York program StreetSquash. The closest match of the weekend was the BU15 final between CitySquash and Squash Haven. CitySquash took an early lead, winning the #5 and #3 spots, but then fell in the #4 and #2 spots. In a thrilling five-game match between the #1 players, Squash Haven took the title. It was a fantastic weekend of squash, and a treat for new and experienced players alike. Congratulations to all of the players from all twelve NUSEA programs for a great showing!

CitySquash kicked off the New Year with our first ever Career Week during the first week of January. Programming consisted of individual meetings and group workshops designed to support our college students with career exploration and internship and job placement. During their winter breaks, CitySquash college students met with the Director of College Prep to discuss career interests and create action plans regarding summer internships and opportunities. Then on Thursday, January 4^th, 16 college students traveled to the midtown offices of Maverick Capital for a Career Night Panel. Team members received advice and engaged with four young professionals on everything from the transition from college to the working world to the importance of networking. Special thanks to Zach Kubin (OnSwipe Media), Mali Locke (Maverick Capital Foundation), Sam Routhier (KIPP College Prep) and Kristin Wadhwa (Goldman Sachs) for donating their time and making the night a success. CitySquash also hosted a Mock Interview workshop the following Saturday, January 5^th. Supporter Buzz Doherty and Board Chair and Founder Sandy Schwartz offered valuable interview tips and gave practice interviews and feedback to our attending team members. We are hopeful that all of the work our college students put in during their winter breaks will pay dividends come the summer and college graduation.

If you are interested in learning more about our Career Support program, please contact Peter Feldman at peter.feldman@citysquash.org

CitySquash celebrated the holiday season with a program-wide talent show on Thursday, December 20^th, just before breaking for the holidays. Students, parents, mentors and volunteers packed into the Middle School 45 auditorium for an evening of singing, dancing, and incredible performances! CitySquash college students Alija Hogans and Ana Kelly MC’ed the event, which consisted of 14 acts and 21 performers. Highlights of the night included two a capella performances from fourth graders Caleb Boateng and Jesse Brew–that took courage! The CitySquash staff took to the stage as well in a dance-off between the squash staff and academic staff. While the academic staff garnered the most crowd support in a cheering contest, both sides were equally amusing. It was an impressive show of our students’ skills outside of the classroom and off the squash court, and a fun night for all! Thank you to all of the performers and all who attended!

Eight CitySquashers headed to Boston for a long weekend from December 15th – 18th to play in the U.S. Junior Open Squash tournament, the largest junior squash tournament in the world. The U.S. Junior Open draws squash players from around the globe, and accommodates approximately 800 squash players. Matches were played at Harvard University, Belmont Hill School, Northwestern University, and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Given the high level and different styles of international players, this is one of the more difficult tournaments that our students play in. All of our players had impressive matches throughout the weekend, including a hard fought 5-game win over an Egyptian player by Darrius Campbell. Darrius made it to the quarterfinals of the BU19 consolation draw, as did Andrew Cadienhead. Katiria Sanchez, home from Trinity College, made it to the finals of the GU19 plate draw. Billy Fleurima also played in the plate finals in the BU15 draw. Andreina Benedith and Eric Molina made it to the semifinals of the consolation in their respective draws, GU17 and BU13. Congratulations to all of these players for a successful weekend!