NOVEMBER 18 • 2021 | 15

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definitely needed to happen
after the past two years with
the pandemic, agreed Shana
Kantor, FJA
’s director of
advancement.
“These houses were an
opportunity to jumpstart and
rebuild those networks and
communities in new, fun and
interesting ways for the stu-
dents,
” Kantor said.
Throughout the year, stu-
dents can earn house points for
mensch-like behavior like pick-
ing up a piece of trash, offer-
ing to help with something,
having a really well thought-
out, insightful response to
something in class, looking
especially nice in their Shabbat
attire and more. Two monitors
in the school allow students
to real-time track the status of
the house points at any given
moment.
“For all things that benefit
our school community, you can
earn points for it throughout
the year,
” said Nicole Kahn,
English department chair and
head of Mercaz House.
At the end of the year, the
overall winning house will
receive a small prize, which FJA
is keeping secret for now, along
with bragging rights.

While only a few months into
its first year, Taylor-Abt believes
the system has gone really well,
even if it took a short while
for the students to understand
what it was all about.
“Initially, they didn’t really
know what to make of it, but
my office is right in the middle
of the school next to their lock-
ers, and outside my office is one
of these enormous monitors
that keeps track of the points
in real time. What happened
was, my door was open, and I
started hearing the kids go, ‘Oh,
look at that, we’ve got the lead!
Wait, how is that possible, we
were just winning!’ It was funny
because almost despite them-
selves, they became excited
about the concept,
” Taylor-Abt
said.
The feedback from parents
for the concept has been over-
whelmingly positive. Taylor-Abt
received an email from a partic-
ular parent saying how excited
they were because their daugh-
ter and daughter’s cousin were
in the same house, and their
son who will be coming up
from Hillel is also excited about
the fact he’ll end up in the same
house, too.
“Not only did we ensure sib-

“THESE HOUSES WERE AN
OPPORTUNITY TO JUMPSTART AND
REBUILD THOSE NETWORKS AND
COMMUNITIES IN NEW WAYS FOR

THE STUDENTS”

— SHANA KANTOR

Grace Kleinfeldt
’25 and Sarah
Krivichkin ’25