"We prepare students to engage in the world that is and to help bring about a world that ought to be."
Student Life
Service Learning
Service Learning Mission
Service is integral to Friends Seminary’s educational mission, along with the disciplines of study and silence. Our Service Learning Program strives to instill a sense of stewardship of school community and respect for responsibility to our urban neighborhood and beyond. By providing opportunities within the curriculum and in other relevant activities for students to witness and understand the needs of others, we hope to prepare them for a life that includes service. Our goal is to integrate knowledge and undertaking with compassion and social responsibility. Only through reflection and understanding the need to put our values into practice will students be able to grasp the importance of the gift of caring for each other, for all humanity, and for the natural world.
S.H.OUT - Students Helping Out!
Each year, the students at Friends Seminary have opportunities to serve both locally and globally, through the school's service learning program. In keeping with our Quaker ideals, students' reflections are an integral part to these learning experiences. By sharing these reflections with others within our school community, we hope to forge deeper connections with one another and the world in which we live. Through the service blog, Friends S.H.OUT, members of the school are able to comment on each other’s posted reflections. Advisors are able to access just their advisees’ reflections, making it easy to learn more about the students under their care. Those interested in a particular social issue or organization can search posts to identify members from the school community who share their interests. Finally, though hyperlinks, these reflection posts help others within the community connect to the nonprofit organizations in which Friends volunteer. To protect the privacy of our students, the blog is accessible only to Friends Seminary community members. However, guests can click here to view a selection of student blog posts.
Public Purpose Partners
The GO Project shapes the futures of low-income NYC public school children by providing critical academic, social and emotional support starting in the early elementary years. Each summer, with the help of partners like Friends Seminary, GO provides educational programs that equip under-performing students with the confidence and skills they need.
The Friends Shelter, housed in the Common Room just off the 15th Street Meetinghouse, provides overnight lodging for 14 homeless men and women. Through Friends Seminary's food services, shelter clients receive hot weekday meals. Friends Seminary families volunteer for weekend meal services through Take Them A Meal.
The Friends Shelter, housed in the Common Room just off the 15th Street Meetinghouse, provides overnight lodging for 14 homeless men and women. Through Friends Seminary's food services, shelter clients receive hot weekday meals. Friends Seminary families volunteer for weekend meal services through Take Them A Meal.
Contact
Samantha Meltzer
Director of Support Services
School Psychologist K-8
Upper School Counselor
Director of Support Services
School Psychologist K-8
646-979-5130
Upper School Counselor
646-979-5132
Salvatora Barker
Lower and Middle School Learning Specialist
Hilary Berliner
Math Specialist K-6
979-5035-4308
Danielle "Dani" Epherson-Prabhu
Lower and Middle School Learning Specialist
Megan Fenstermaker
Middle and Upper School Learning Specialist
979-5035-4333
Paul Quatinetz
Lower and Middle School Learning Specialist
979-5035-4383
Ruthie Shaw
Lower and Middle School Learning Specialist
Monica Witt
Math Specialist K-6
979-5035-4412
Theresa Schmehl
School Nurse
646-979-5140
Friends Seminary — the oldest continuously operated, coeducational school in NYC — serves college-bound day students in Kindergarten-Grade 12.
