Ben Shuldiner

Ben Shuldiner is an American social activist and educator. Upon founding the High School for Public Service: Heroes of Tomorrow in Brooklyn, New York, he became the youngest high school Principal in New York state history. In 2005, he received the Jefferson Award for "Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 or Younger."

Early life and education

Shuldiner (b. April 19, 1977) was raised in New York, though his family moved considerably when he was a child due to his father Joseph Shuldiner's involvement in the movement to improve public housing (Joseph Shuldiner eventually became an undersecretary of housing in the Clinton Administration).^[1] When Ben Shuldiner attended Harvard University as an undergraduate, he became involved in labor activism and was selected to join the inaugural class of the AFL-CIO’s Union Summer, where he worked organizing day care workers in urban Chicago. On campus, he co-founded Harvard’s Progressive Student Labor Movement to fight for living wages for university employees and also served as a sports writer for The Harvard Crimson.^[2] In addition to his primary study of History of Science, he took graduate-level education courses to earn his teaching credentials and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1999. Shuldiner began his teaching career in England teaching history and poetry after winning the Stowe-Harvard Fellowship. He soon returned to New York and began teaching history at Erasmus Hall, a troubled inner-city high school, and doubled the passing rate of his students on the Regents Examinations. His experience at Erasmus solidified his belief that New York CIty students deserved a better education than the public school system was providing.

Foundation of HSPS

In 2002, Shuldiner and co-founder Marisa Boan received a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to build a high school that better reflected their vision of a fair public education system, and the High School for Public Service: Heroes of Tomorrow opened on the George W. Wingate High School campus in Crown Heights, Brooklyn in the fall of 2003. The school was founded as one of eight New Visions schools opened in Brooklyn that year in an effort to replace failing high schools with smaller, more successful ones. When the school opened, Shuldiner became the youngest public high school principal in the history of the state of New York.^[3] The school enjoyed rapid success and today boasts extraordinary passing rates on the Regents Exams, a 98% graduation rate in 2010, and a unique on-campus urban farm program.^[4]

Political aspirations

Shuldiner was one of six Democratic candidates in the 2006 election to defeat incumbent Republican Sue Kelly for the 19th Congressional District of New York. His campaign was focused on ending No Child Left Behind and creating a single payer national health care program. Shuldiner lost the nomination to fellow Democrat John Hall, who went on to beat Kelly in a close election.

Awards and honors

Shuldiner has received national recognition for his public service achievements. A lifelong hemophiliac, he was selected as the keynote speaker for the 2003 annual conference of the National Hemophilia Foundation.^[5] In 2005, he was chosen from a nationwide pool as the recipient of the prestigious Jefferson Awards for Public Service, “Greatest Public Service by an Individual 35 Years or Under.”^[6] In 2011, he was an Honoree in the Outstanding Young Educator program by ASCD.^[7] Shuldiner is also an adjunct professor at Baruch College.

References

External links

• High School for Public Service website
• Shuldiner discussing the problem of student homelessness
• Shuldiner talks to City Limits Magazine about education reform