CARENEVALE COMING TO POUGHKEEPSIE DAY SCHOOL on APRIL 1

February 27, 2006
Contact: Sandra Moore, Director of Development and Communications (extension 110; smoore@poughkeepsieday.org)

Poughkeepsie, NY-The Poughkeepsie Day School annual spring benefit auction will be held at the Poughkeepsie Tennis Club on Saturday April 1, 2006 starting at 6:00 p.m. "Carnivale-A Benefit Auction" will be a fun-filled evening featuring a wide array of food and drink, dancing and entertainment and both a silent and live auction of items from the affordable to the priceless. A sampling of auction items includes: a custom acrylic portrait of you or a loved one by renowned artist Nestor Madalengoita, sponsorship for Mercantile Exchange membership, a signed T-shirt from the rock band, Green Day, a signed 1994 limited edition bat released by the National Baseball Hall of Fame, a sunset sail on the Hudson River, items for the home both large and small, jewelry, dinner and entertainment at local venues and many other desirable goods and services.

Tickets are $75.00 each. Tickets and winning auction items are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law. For information on the auction and tickets, please call 462-7600, ext. 108. Proceeds support the programs at Poughkeepsie Day School.

Founded in 1934, Poughkeepsie Day School enrolls 345 students in pre-kindergarten through grade12 from 50 communities in the mid-Hudson Valley. It is distinguished by its interactive and interdisciplinary approach to learning and emphasis on the development of creative and critical thinking skills. For more information on the school and its programs, call 845-462-7600, ext. 110 or visit www.poughkeepsieday.org.

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POUGHKEEPSIE DAY SCHOOL STUDENTS TACKLE THE
GLOBAL CHALLENGE OF POVERTY

February 15, 2006
Contact: Sandra Moore, Director of Development and Communications (extension 110; smoore@poughkeepsieday.org)

Poughkeepsie, NY-After completing a semester-long project addressing the world-wide issue of poverty, five Poughkeepsie Day School eleventh-grade students and their two teachers will participate in the Institute for Student Leaders, a premier forum for developing global leadership, at the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) annual conference in Boston from March 1-4 in Boston. The students are: Chrisso Babcock and Jake Horsey of Woodstock; Toafa Cattell, Hyde Park; Evan Crane, Poughkeepsie; and Jesse Meisler-Abramson, Shady. The two faculty members, Geetha Holdsworth '86, middle school humanities teacher, and Bernadette DePaz, upper school history teacher, have been invited to teach in the institute during the conference, which will draw student teams from around the world.

The Challenge 20/20 project formed the basis of an interdisciplinary academic course within Poughkeepsie Day School's unique central study program, meeting for an extended time each week and serving to link more than a dozen middle and upper school PDS students with students at the American School of Bombay, India. The students collaborated on how they might address a global problem drawn from Jean-François Rischard's book, High Noon: Twenty Global Problems, Twenty Years to Solve Them. The result, Poverty 101: A Global Poverty Awareness and Action Curriculum, which the students wrote, is now online at www.globalchallenges.info. Mr. Rischard, former vice president of the World Bank, will be a featured speaker at the conference.

The students' curriculum on poverty addresses the problem through five topic areas: food, health, housing, education and work and economic security. Ms. Holdsworth noted that the students' initial thinking on how best to address poverty locally resulted in a number of community-based fundraisers. "But the more students learned, the more they realized they wanted to create a comprenhensive plan, including both information and action steps, that could be shared with others and extended nationally and internationally," she said. Students at PDS and the American School are planning to continue collaborating in order to further expand their curriculum.

Founded in 1934, Poughkeepsie Day School enrolls 320 students in grades pre-kindergarten through grade 12 from 48 communities in the mid-Hudson Valley. It is distinguished by its interactive and interdisciplinary approach to learning and emphasis on the development of creative and critical thinking skills. Typically, 100% of graduating seniors are admitted to colleges and universities each year.

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