The Scholarly Newsletter

Spring 2026 Edition

The Scholarly Archive

It's 2026 and we are ready for it!

Our Scholars 25-26 Academic year is half way complete! Scholars are embarking on new adventures in the performing arts, in-person debate tournaments and will begin their Personal Finance Class in March.

Welcome New Personal Finance Teacher, Ayana Field-Ridley

Ayana Field-Ridley holds a Master of Business Administration from DePaul University, with a concentration in Finance and International Business. She also earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Central Florida, where she studied Finance and Management Information Systems. Her academic background combines strong financial analysis, global business knowledge, and technology-driven problem-solving skills, forming a solid foundation for her work in financial services and regulatory environments. We are so excited for her to join the Scholars Family!

Student Life

Our scholars engage in plenty of other enrichment programs outside of the classroom, gaining hands-on experience and prepping for life in college.

A Look back at Fall

Gotham Scholars were honored to visit the historic Town Hall on Broadway in NYC last fall. They took a tour to learn the history of this iconic place and stayed for a special viewing of Disney's COCO with a live orchestra. Students reflected with their College Seminar teachers on how this movie serves as an example of art and cultural beauty in response to death. As part of their course entitled, The Psychology of Fear and the Art of Resilience, this film displayed a beautiful cultural renaissance to celebrate the day of the dead.

This past October, our Performing Arts teacher, Ciaran, flew to NY from the UK to spend the day with our students. Together they performed acting exercises and learned techniques that students will carry with them into any leadership role they take.

Students ran scenes together, laughed and learned how to bring their authentic voice to any given situation.

Scholar Spotlight: Juan & Ejden

This semester we want to highlight Juan & Ejden for bringing students of Manhattan Hunter Science into the Scholars orbit. Together, they led a multi-day recruiting effort representing scholars and speaking of their experience in the program to over 120 9th graders! They brought together a group of Scholars from other schools to join them in a meet & greet that drew over 100 kids to learn more about our program.

We are so proud of their effort to lift their community and cannot wait to meet the Hunter applicants!

Whole Student Support

As part of our mission of supporting the whole student, we are grateful for our partnerships with Home Power Yoga and City Center Psychotherapy. We spent the afternoon at Home Power Yoga last October to reset after a day of networking and community service. We look forward to another mindful session this spring!

A Look Into the Classroom

College Seminar

Our Seminar class will continue to build on the fall focus on understanding the psychology and traditions of horror by analyzing and presenting on a short story in Jordan Peele's, Out there Screaming. Students will begin to analyze horror-tropes and examples of monsters in fiction and non-fiction.

This semester will delve into historical analysis, survivor voices, and research to build their final project of the eyar.

Academics at Scholars

Debate Class

Our debate class is in full swing with online scrimmages and preparation for the March Regional Tournament. Scholars are learning the art of argumentation, questioning, remaining poised and confident when delivering their stance and for many, trying something very new!

Congrats to our very own Jayla Johnson that won 1st place in her most recent scrimmage.

Academics at Scholars

Leadership Class

Students completed their resumes and participated in our first ever Speed Networking event with professionals from diverse industries ranging from Finance to Civil Rights Law this past January.

This semester, students will be focusing on getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, developing their active note taking skills, and learning new tools to manage their rigorous schedules.

Academics at Scholars

What's Coming Next

TOURNAMENTS, WORKSHOPS & OUR FIRST EVER SHOWCASE!

March 14th - Catch our Gotham Scholars team at the NY Regional Debate Tournament!

March 28th - Scholars will head to NJ for a Personal Finance Workshop with guest speaker, Mona Mahajan (Principal & Head of Investing at Edward Jones)

April 11th - Scholars will be performing at our first ever Showcase in NYC!

Personal Finance Begins this March

Students will be completing their Debate course and entering into the world of Personal Finance. This 9 week course will divide the cohort by year to continue their education in understanding money, budgeting, saving, and investing.

We are excited to have our new teacher, Ayana, and 2 TA's from The Pingry School joining us this spring.

Support Gotham Scholars

Gotham Scholars does not charge tuition or program fees. Your gift is critical to the programming we provide our students from technology to teachers and college visits to extracurricular activities. From the bottom of our hearts, we appreciate you belief in what we do, your passion for equity in education and most importantly our scholars!

Make a Donation

95% of your donation will go directly to student impact programming. Every dollar counts!