Encompassed is an ongoing oral history-style podcast series and interactive timeline exploring nearly eight decades of 77 years of Bronx Science alumni’s experiences. The interviews revolve around “encompassing moments"–experiences that both immersed the young student in discovery and, like a compass, provided direction for the next steps of his or her life. Listen to the first thirty conversations now, and keep an eye out for new episodes every month.

Encompassed: Bronx Science Alumni Stories

“My sister was three years older than I am, so she had been in the country only a few minutes. We were going with someone from our housing project on a bus, and my sister asked her in yiddish, ‘What is that building? It looks different.’ And this woman said ‘that’s not for you. That’s a very special school, you can’t get in there because you’re an immigrant.’ My sister walked into that school with hardly any english and met Mr. Kopelman. He spoke yiddish to her and said, “you can come if in one month I can see that you can fit in here. If not, you have to go to another school.’ My sister, within one month, learned English, showed her ability in science. She’s the only student I know of who ever got into Bronx Science without taking the test. She was a brilliant student. But i think, when you ask me about Bronx Science, that school had a soul. It wasn’t just a technical entry exam–it had people there who had a kind of life experience, motivation, and a profundity about human beings, and that’s what made that school very special. It’s kind of the beauty and also the charisma of that school.”

Daniel Libeskind '65

“My creativity ended up in trying to solve problems. Principal Stanley Blumenthal used to have Lunch With the Principal once a month, where you could come to him with different things you wanted to fix. I would always come to as many of those as I could to suggest different things he could fix around the school and to this day I spend most of my time looking around the city for things I’d like to fix.”

Ben Kallos '94

“At Science I met other guys who were really into music. We ended up jamming close to every day. One of the bands I was in played at the Apollo Amateur Hour. I remember one of my English teachers came to watch me, which was amazing. We didn’t know what to call ourselves, and when we were auditioning one of the judges was like, “I got a name for you guys. You’re going to be called Chocolate Elvis.’ We were doing rockabilly music, and our lead singer was a Black guy who sounded like Elvis. We had called ourselves United Nations, but it wasn’t catchy enough, so we decided Chocolate Elvis had a nice ring to it. It was a melting pot of the city, and I remember just meeting people all the time. I was all over the place, just trying to experience new things. It was really fun.”

King Phojanakong '86

"I don’t know if this is okay, but I want to give a shout out to my best friend from high school Joshua Guitellman, who has now passed […] We had very different backgrounds but he was a great guy, always smiling and always happy, and we clicked […] Josh was the first person who passed away in my life that it took me a while to even get back to normal. My family was just like, “We don’t know what to do” […] It turned out to be his parents, who I had never met before he passed. Like I said, completely different backgrounds, but they opened their arms to everyone. Still to this day, around the time of his birthday, they’re always saying, ‘If you need to come over we are available.’ They always make time for us. They’re definitely the best remedy I’ve had since his passing and I’m so glad I got to know them [...] That's the great thing about a school like Bronx Science.  You take kids from all over the city, all different backgrounds, and you bring them into one place."

Mohammed Mahfuz '10

“My bag was already packed up before the end of the last period. You know, I spent a lot of time lamenting my commute, but in the end looking back on it, you learn a lot about yourself. You learn about your study habits, you make friendships on those commutes, and you form bonds. You form a bond with the city that I think no other New York City schoolkid does going to their zone schools […] I spent a lot of time writing on the train, and observing people. The most mundane things catch your eye, like a guy picking his nose or something, but then you notice the gnarled knuckles he has and you wonder how can such a thick finger enter such a small space […] I feel like to really encompass my Bronx Science experience, it was learning these efficiencies, where everyone else might take the longer route. I feel like these are the two forces that are grappling inside of me as a working writer–the inner Bronx Scienceite who craves efficiency, and then the writerly side."


Patricia Park '99

“Most of us were looking for a theoretical and political rationale for dealing with the world. Many of us came out conservative because as we argued our way through lots of facts and ideologies, […] it became clearer and clearer that The Great Society wasn’t working” […] By the time Reagan showed up, half the team had become Reaganite conservatives before the fact.”

Lisa Schiffren '77

Encompassed is an oral history-style podcast series and interactive timeline exploring nearly eight decades of 77 years of Bronx Science alumni’s experiences. The interviews revolve around “encompassing moments"–experiences that both immersed the young student in discovery and, like a compass, provided direction for the next steps of his or her life. Listen to the first thirty conversations now, and keep an eye out for new episodes every month.

Lisa Schiffren '77

Encompassed – Bronx Science Stories