After a long year, my senior year is finally ending. As my final days slowly come to an end, I find that my feelings about leaving this school are mixed.
    At times I feel a tremendous amount of excitement about leaving the school. Despite what may be said, the Academy is not a perfect institution and at times, I have found my experience here at
the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy less than ideal and there have certainly been policies at the Academy that I have disagreed with.
    At the same time I do feel a sense of apprehension. I have walked these halls for thirteen years. In that time I have become familiar with the rooms and little quirks associated with the bathrooms and fountains. Many of the students and the faculty I have seen nearly everyday for years. I have even parked in the same spot for the bulk of the past four years.
    Although these little quirks may seem monotonous, they have been a bit comforting over the years. I know where things are here. I know how things work. When I go off to college next fall I would have to rediscover everything about my new surroundings. There will be new faces; new buildings and I will be thrust into the unknown.
 Even though I don’t know exactly what will happen next fall I know that I cannot stay here. Being human means that we cannot cling to our past forever and at some point we all must leave the comfort of our surroundings and venture out beyond the safe waters of the harbor to grow and discover who we truly are.
 Although at times I will miss the safety and familiarity that the Academy provides, I look forward to the uncertainty and adventure the future provides. As the sun sets on my days at the Academy, it is time to say goodbye to those who have helped me through the past thirteen years, and in the words of Edward R. Murrow, “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

HBHA Students Take AP Exams
Sarah Herman/Special to the Academy Voice

    Its that time of the year again, time for AP testing. On Mon. May 2 the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy advanced placement students took their first AP test of the year. Advanced placement, or AP, is a program where students around the world can learn and achieve at the highest level. Taking an advanced placement test is the equivalent of  college-level courses and exams. By doing this, you can earn college credit, stand out in the admissions process, and learn from exceptional teachers. However, some teachers feel differently about the AP exams.
    "Personally, I think that the AP exams are losing the prestige that they used to have. More and more colleges are not excepting the AP scores and of lot of what the teachers are suppose to teach are not relative to what the students should be learning for college. This is why I give my students the chance to get UMKC credit for their English courses.", said English Department Chair, Cynthia Knight.
    There are over 30 different AP courses offered all over the world and the AP courses offered this year were AP United States government, AP statistics, and AP English Literature and Composition. The AP US government test was on Mon. May 2, it started around eight a. m. and lasted until twelve p.m. The AP statistics exam was Tues. May 3, which started at twelve p.m and ended around four p.m. The AP English Literature and Composition exam was on Thurs. May. 5, it started at eight a.m. and lasted until twelve p.m. 
    "The AP government test was very challenging, mentally adn physically. The test was four hours long and by the end my brain was fried and my hand was in grueling pain.", said junior Maggie Herman.

HBHA Students Face Two Weeks of Finals
Rachel Oberman/Special to the Academy Voice

    Finals for Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy upper school students will be spread over two weeks this year.  The final for Hebrew will be taken in class on May 27th, the other exams start on May 28th and go to June 2nd. Between May 28th and June 1st the students have a three day weekend, which doesn't normally happen.
    "Uh, NO! this is not a good thing!" said freshman Emma Reynolds "it's going to be really hard for me to get back in the right mind set for finals after being gone and doing nothing for three days, its just weird."
    "This is so stupid! Finals should only be in one week, like they normally are so that we can get them done and over with, and then leave." said junior Jonathan Edelman
    This three day weekend gives students two options, to sit and do nothing all weekend and not think a single second about finals, or to use the time to cram in some more studying.
    "I really don't like that it's spread over two weeks." said junior Shandra Haner "I wish that it was just in one week because having it like this is just too long of a time period to be worried about finals."
    "I think that this is a great idea!" said Judaic Studies teacher Michal Calhon "This gives us to benefits, one it saves us from having an even longer school year, and it gives the students a long weekend for some more studying."
    "I think that it's great" said freshman Avery Parkhurst "Finals are normally more stressful than the rest of the year, so having a weekend in between will give me time to relax and get ready for the next set of tests."

Eight-Grade Heads to Chicago
Nathan Mendel/Special to the Academy Voice

    On May 10, 2010, the Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy eighth-graders left for Chicago to tour the city. Every year the middle school students leave school to go on an educational trip. The sixth-graders go to Camp Sabra, the seventh-graders go to Arizona, and the eighth-graders get to go to Chicago. Although the place is usually the same, the schedule is updated every year when some new fun opportunity is available to students.
    “[This year] we are spending a day in Skokie because the holocaust museum [is there] and moving the scavenger hunt to the second evening,” said Danny Altshull excitedly. 
    According to ilholocaustmuseum.org, the Holocaust Memorial foundation was created in the 1970s after a threat that neo-Nazis would march in Skokie. After 1981, the museum was created to educate people about the holocaust and why we can’t let it happen again.
    Eighth-grader Ricardo Zepeda was looking forward to the trip and said, “[I am exited to] miss a couple days of school, hang out with friends, be in the big city, and [go to] Skokie…”
    Freshman Michel Azbel had this to say about his 8th grade trip, “I liked that I got to walk on water in an illusion, and also the ESPN Zone was cool.” 
    The water illusion was in a fountain in millennium park and ESPN Zone is a sports bar/ arcade that the eighth-graders went to last year. Hopefully the eighth-graders this year will have a good of a time as Azbel had on their upcoming trip.

 Seventh-Graders Off to the Grand Canyon
Cameron Burns/Special to the Academy Voice

    The Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy seventh-grade class left for Arizona on May 10, 2010 and will return on May 14, 2010. The class will go to Flag Staff, the Grand Canyon, Sunset Crater and will go hiking. They will also be sleeping in tents for three days and then will return on the fourth day. Middle School Science teacher Cody Welton and Director of Student Services Netta Krashin and Rabbi Schulgasser will be supervising the trip.
    “I’m thrilled, exited and anticipating something far beyond what I have seen before,” Krashin said.
    “I’m exited because I get to camp out with friends and I get to see a national landmark,” seventh-grader David Robinow said.
    Seventh-grader Ezra Smith said, “ I’m hoping that I don’t get bit by a squirrel, like my friendly 9th grader who got bit by a squirrel two years ago.”

The 37th Annual HBHA Civic Service Awards Dinner
Sam Abrams/Special to the Academy Voice

    The Hyman Brand’s celebratory dinner and fund-raiser at the Hyatt Regency Crown Center at 6 p.m. on Sunday, May 2 had everyone excited. 
    Howard Hass, headmaster of Hyman Brand, said, “We have had an extraordinary year, and this event is the cherry and the icing on top of it all.”
    The Business attire affair began with cocktails, and continued with a live auction led by the Hyman Brand senior class, a jazz concert, the presentation of the Civic Service Award, and finally, dessert and coffee. 
    HBHA senior Joel Mann said, “Honestly, the most anticipated part of the whole night was the desserts. The chocolate and coffee didn’t disappoint.”
    Perhaps the most coveted on the list of auction items was the posibility of choosing a name for the HBHA’s circle drive, among other items.
    Freshman Rachel Kaseff said, “The auction was awesome because my dad won a lunch with Bill Self, the men’s basketball coach at Kansas University. My dad has had season tickets to KU for a while now, and is a big fan of the head coach.”
    The two award honorees were Rosalyn and Howard Jacobson, grandparents of HBHA students, who have long been leaders in the Kansas City Jewish community.
    Mr. Jacobson, is a Kansas CIty native, and a graduate of Southwest High School, and Missouri University, in Columbia, Missouri. Jacobson’s career as a financial advisor has not kept him from holding many important community positions, including being the former chairman of the board of the Jewish Community Center, past president of the Jewish Federation, board member of Jewish Vocational Services, and many others. Jacobson is also prominent in other aspects of the greater Kansas City area, participating on the boards of the City of Fountains, Starlight Theatre, and FBI Citizens Program, among others. 
    Martha Atlas, a Hyman Brand staff member, said of the Jacobsons, “They have been so influential in the community and although they have been offered honorary awards at many area functions, this is the first that they have accepted.”
    Although the civic service award has been given for decades, the Kochvei Shavit, Rising Stars for emerging leadership award, is in its inaugural year. The four honorees are Joe Loeffler, Erika Feingold Velasquez, Renee Reynolds, and Joe Zwillenberg, all either HBHA parents or former students. 
    This year’s occasion carried the theme “We are Family”, and the Aretha Franklin song of the same name introduced the beginning of the festivities sunday night. Two seniors, Ben White and Elana Goldberg, were honored with the task of doing the birkat which began the dinner.  After the meal, a jazz concert was held by the famed Minne Edwards and Friends band, who were accompanied by a dancing performance by selected middle school HBHA students.
    Seniors Ethan Kassef and Rebecca Berger prepared speeches about HBHA experiences, and the whole senior class attended the event to enjoy the completion of their high school academic careers. 
    Berger said, “This was one of my last chances to express in words the way that Hyman Brand has changed the vast majority of my youth. I know that tonight will remain a really important and lasting moment in my academic career and in life.”

The Generations Project
Jonathan Edelman/The Academy Voice

    The attendees of the 2010 Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy Civic Service Award Dinner were treated to the sites and sounds of The Generations Project. The photographs featured at the Civic Service Award Dinner were a photographic look into the lives of members of the HBHA family.
    In January, Paul Lerner and HBHA Principle Gayle Gray approached me to discuss an opportunity for me to take some pictures. I love photography and immediately accepted. They told me about an amazing opportunity I would have to photograph some twenty families from HBHA. What I did not realize was how much work I had ahead of me. Over the next two months, I traveled around the Greater Kansas City area, meeting and photographing these twenty amazing families. My experiences with all of them were incredible. I met students, parents and even future students from our school. This project really shows the diversity of the HBHA. While most of the families engaged in similar activities, they all did them in their own unique way. Ninety hours of editing and some 10,000 pictures later, I had the final shots for The Generations Project.
    It was a very meaningful experience for me because it gave me the opportunity to meet new people and make new friendships. When I see the kids that I photographed in the hall, I always receive the biggest smiles. That was truly the best part of this whole project.
    At the dinner itself, there were fourteen blown up pictures of the families from the Generations project and some sixty other photographs in a slide show presentation.

Hall Pass Hysteria
Daniel Goldberg/Special to the Academy Voice

    How are a block of wood, pom-poms, a floppy disk, a wooden cube, a couple bricks, and a clipboard similar? Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy students know that answer. After the removal of the written hall pass system used until the 2006-2007 school year, teachers used a “passport” found in the back of the student’s planners. Once planners weren’t given at the beginning of each year, teachers began to get creative with their hall passes.
    “I chose a brick to be my hall pass because it was very obnoxious. The bothersome task of carrying a brick to the toilet is enough to keep my students in class,” said upper school science teacher Lois Cohen.
    Students argue about which teacher has the most creative hall pass. After conducting a poll of 54 high school and middle school students, there is a clear winner of the Pom-Pom, but the debate scontinues.
No pass 12 votes
Wooden Block 3 votes
Pom-Pom 21 votes
Floppy Disk 4 votes
Block Of Wood 2 votes
Brick 8 votes
Clipboard 4 votes
    “I’m a big fan of the raise your hand and go policy. The thought that every kid takes the pass into the bathroom and touches it really grosses me out. I am all for cleanliness and would encourage all teachers to adopt the invisible pass,” said freshman Sam Abrams.
    “Mrs. Pellman’s block (of wood) has to be the best. I can swing it on the string and toss it down the hallway en-route to the bathroom. It allows for maximum enjoyment to and from the hallway,” said junior Justin Rose.
    “Ms. Cohen’s brick is the worst of them all. This is especially truthful when you are in a hurry as you have to lug that thing around,” said senior Turner Sousley.
    “I want to applaud Ms. Knight her pass is extraordinary. I have always wanted to be a cheerleader and her hall pass (Pom-Pom) allows that even if it is just for a little while,” said freshman Avery Pankhurst.
    As the year dwindles to an end and a new year is on the horizon, students and teachers alike can only image the creativity of the hall passes the 2010-2012 school year.