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