Our Partnerships

NYHS's three Founding Partners are uniquely equipped to support our ambitious mission based on their organizational expertise. Since 1997, The Urban Assembly, led by Richard Kahan, has provided high school students who would otherwise attend under-resourced and failing schools with schools that provide the rigorous education, meaningful professional connections, and personal motivation necessary to succeed in college and beyond.

Over the past seven years, the Urban Assembly, in partnership with the Department of Education and New Visions for Public Schools, has opened fourteen schools. Over the next two years, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, they will open six more. By combining a rigorous course of study with authentic learning experiences and interaction with outside partners, UA schools offer students an academic experience that is challenging and relevant. UA has created a family of outstanding small schools led by accomplished principals and supported through partnerships with the public, private, and non-profit sectors. This unique approach has consistently resulted in student success.

Our second Founding Partner, the South Street Seaport Museum was founded in 1967, and is a highly respected, innovative example of how the past can teach the future. SSSM has a long and proud history as New York's premier maritime museum and the city's authority for providing educational and interpretive programs regarding the Port of New York's historical, commercial and cultural impacts on the city, the state and the nation. SSSM provides NYHS the following maritime-related programming:
1. The Lettie G. Howard as the school's full-time education vessel for the sailing season;
2. Space in Schermerhorn Row for Marine Science and Harbor Humanities classes;
3. Galleries for studying the art and literature of New York Harbor;
4. Access to the waterfront for water quality testing and oyster gardening;
5. Venues for boat-building, marine surveying, and vessel technology classes;
6. Locations for Harbor School events and festivals.

Our third Founding Partner, Waterkeeper Alliance, is led by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and has quickly become the leading national organization devoted to the protection of the world's waterways. The Waterkeeper philosophy is that everyone has a right to use a waterbody; nobody has a right to use it in a way that diminishes or damages its value to anyone else. Our students act as informal Waterkeepers, developing affection for and knowledge about New York Harbor, so that they can ensure its long-term value for all uses: industry, government, recreation, travel, commerce and fishing. The stewardship philosophy behind Waterkeeper Alliance has helped form our school's academic and cultural norms, from conducting course related research and inquiry, to choosing to stop littering, to taking an active interest in a leading projects cleaning up the neighborhood and waterways.

In addition to these three Founding Partners, the Harbor School has collaborated with over 60 outside organizations to offer original theme related programming. Several of these partnerships are listed below:

• American Museum of Natural History
• Brooklyn Academy of Music
• Brooklyn College
• The Coach House Gallery
• Cornell Cooperative Extension
• College Summit
• The Coney Island Museum
• CUNY - The Graduate Center
• East River Apprenticeshop
• Floating the Apple
• Friends of Hudson River Park
• Governors Island Alliance
• Hudson River Sloop Clearwater
• Kings Point Merchant Marine Academy
• Manhattan Sailing School
• Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance
• The Nature Conservancy
• New York Aquarium
• New York Water Taxi
• NY/NJ Baykeeper
• NY/NJ Harbor Estuary Program
• NYC DEP
• NYS DEC
• Scientific American
• Park Slope YMCA
• The Producers Project
• Police Athletic League
• The River Project
• Riverkeeper
• Rocking the Boat
• Regional Plan Association
• Seafarers Union
• Seaman's Church Institute
• SUNY Maritime
• The Urban Divers Estuary Conservancy
• NYU's Wallerstein Collaborative
• Working Waterfront Committee

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