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Urban Academy
A group of students in flower crowns standing arm in arm with their backs to the camera, lit by deep blue light at a school event

Photo Gallery

Three students standing behind their research posters at a science fair, presenting projects on whether machine-learning models can predict an election, whether computers and humans categorise colour the same way, and whether a model can detect lying from images
Three students at joined desks discussing a worksheet, with a chalkboard behind them showing notes on the definition of solipsism
A student writing up observations in a lab notebook beside a rack of test tubes holding seedlings, in a science room with tall windows
A student in the printmaking studio holding up her nine-panel print, the same portrait repeated in blue, red, yellow, green and pink
Ten students working around a large round table, some writing in notebooks and others on laptops, in a shared study space
Cut-out excerpts from community service placement evaluations, in a mix of handwriting and print, in which supervisors describe an Urban Academy volunteer taking initiative, mentoring other volunteers and being welcomed back next year
The Urban Academy faculty gathered for a group portrait in their shared staff room, standing and sitting among desks piled with books, papers and potted plants, with student artwork covering the walls behind them
A wall of student work mounted on black paper: relief prints in Cyrillic lettering, charcoal and pencil studies of a kettle, black-and-white photographs of New York bridges, and watercolour flower studies annotated by hand
Close-up of a student's hands connecting jumper wires to a small circuit board resting on a laptop keyboard, while another student works at a second laptop across the table
A student smiling and holding a basketball in a purple JREC warm-up jacket, photographed against a purple backdrop
Students gathered around a long restaurant table piled with naan, orange rice and stews in small cast iron pots, several smiling for the camera and one flashing a peace sign, during a food-tasting trip
A student athlete smiling and pointing to the number 12 on the back of her white JREC jersey, her braided hair swept over one shoulder
JREC girls soccer players in white and navy jerseys converging on the ball during a match on a turf field, a large steel arch bridge rising behind the trees along the water
Students and a teacher in matching science-fair T-shirts standing together in front of a research poster asking whether a machine learning model can detect lying from images
Graduates in blue caps and gowns seated on tiered steps beside a lectern and an Urban Academy sign, with a staff member speaking at the podium
A student dicing raw meat on a cutting board in the school kitchen during a cooking class
A class of students posing together on a trip, standing in front of the Gothic revival stone arch at the entrance to Green-Wood Cemetery
Six students' hands reaching in from around a table, sorting small blank paper tiles into groups during a sorting activity
A student pinning black-and-white photographs of New York City buildings onto a large dark display board, with boxes of photographic paper stacked beside them
Students working around a table on a design-build task with craft sticks and a pegboard, a teacher leaning in to help, beside a handwritten prompt asking how many people a design affects, in a bright room overlooking a city skyline
A student wearing a virtual reality headset and holding a controller, reaching out towards a wooden model topped with bright green rods
A workshop leader working at a laptop while a student in a VR headset handles the physical model beside them, seen from above
A teacher talking with two students across a table, a laptop open between them and worksheets and books spread out in front of the lockers
Urban Academy students helping run a Drag Queen Story Hour in a library, with young children sitting on the floor raising their hands to answer the reader's question
A class of students gathered in an artist's studio listening to two artists talk about a large yellow and blue abstract canvas
Students visiting a printmaking studio, listening to the printers beside a table of brushes and inks with a grid of finished prints on the wall behind
A student holding out a round wooden board arranged with handmade clay miniatures of food, including a burger, a slice of cake, a doughnut, a croissant and a wedge of watermelon
Four students walking away from the camera along a path across a college campus on a clear autumn day, with trees turning orange overhead
A student feeding patterned fabric through a Singer sewing machine, surrounded by fabric scraps and materials
Students gathered around a table in an art room playing a star-shaped board game together, one gesturing as he explains a move
A teacher standing beside students at their desks while one reads aloud from a printed handout, in a classroom with Japanese hiragana charts on the wall
Two students holding a paired acro-yoga pose on a blanket in Central Park, with classmates sitting on the grass behind them
Two students working through an equation on a green chalkboard, one writing while the other holds an open notebook and checks her working
A row of students standing at a green chalkboard, each working through a different calculus problem
Students looking at a wall of black-and-white photographs pinned to a dark board during a class exhibition
A student ringing a small brass bell overhead while wearing a hand-lettered sandwich board reading "I am proficient, I can actually do something", on a school landing lined with framed photographs
A class of students posing beside a life-size gold figurative sculpture in a bright white gallery on a museum trip
Students in an art space looking at a salon-style wall hung edge to edge with paintings, prints and framed work, with graffiti-tagged vinyl records suspended from the ceiling above them
Two students photographing framed black-and-white portraits on a blue-grey gallery wall with their phones
A group of students in flower crowns standing arm in arm with their backs to the camera, lit by deep blue light at a school event
Students silhouetted in front of a large illuminated art installation of a wooden ferris wheel hung with painted panels
Two students working through systems of linear equations on a green chalkboard, one writing on the board while the other checks her notes
Close-up of a student's hands painting a tiny clay sculpture of a potted plant with a fine brush
A student raising a 35mm film camera to her eye to take a photograph, sitting in front of a bank of green lockers covered in stickers
Students sitting on rocks beside a pond on a park trip, watching goldfish in the water below
A student taking a selfie with classmates and a teacher on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Two students working at laptops behind a large handwritten lab plan setting out the question, variables, materials and procedure for an experiment on how water affects cucumber seed germination
A student on a ladder hanging a large pale pink paper work on a wall for an exhibition, with two more already installed alongside
A student's hands wiring an Arduino board and breadboard next to a laptop, with an LCD module and jumper wires spread across the desk
A student pressing a button on a breadboard to light a red LED, wired to an Arduino board on the desk
Two students standing in a darkroom, looking down at a developing tray they are holding between them
A student holding up a finished sheet of red block prints of flowers in the printmaking studio, drying racks behind them
Graduating students in caps and gowns seated together on tiered wooden steps at a graduation ceremony, viewed from a balcony, with a speaker at a podium beside an Urban Academy sign and families watching from the seats below
Students studying contact sheets and prints pinned to a dark photography studio wall, below posters of jazz and fashion photographs
Students following a guide along a path through a college campus on an autumn visit, brick halls to one side and fallen leaves on the grass
A student sitting on a studio floor surrounded by dozens of black-and-white prints spread out around them, holding one up to examine it
A student crouching to photograph a classmate seated on a chair in the school lobby, setting up a portrait shot
Four students leaning over a railing on the East River esplanade, lowering a sampling line into the water with orange buckets beside them and the Queensboro Bridge behind
A student laying out nine mounted charcoal portrait studies on a cutting mat, arranging the series for presentation
A student grinning as he holds up a hand-lettered sign reading "I am proficient, I can actually do something", with a teacher cheering behind him in the staff room
A pair of photographs of students standing in a park, several wearing blindfolds while classmates guide them during a trust exercise
Students standing along a green chalkboard hung with lettered artworks, adding sticky notes as they move down the row in a gallery-walk critique
Students and staff serving themselves from a long buffet table set up in a school corridor lined with framed photographs and student paintings
Two students seen from behind working at a table while a classmate opposite leafs through a large book of images
A student using a cordless drill to fasten together a wooden frame on a paper-covered worktable
Two students in matching purple bandanas standing arm in arm on a sunny lawn during a field day, their legs tied together for a three-legged race
A student pinning her black-and-white prints to a dark studio wall already covered with photographs, beneath a row of exhibition posters
A student standing at a microphone on a small stage, presenting to classmates who sit along the front row following printed copies of the work
Two students pulling a squeegee of green ink across a screen-printing frame on a studio table, the wall behind them covered in prints and posters
Graduates in blue caps and gowns seated on tiered steps while a student speaks at the lectern beside an Urban Academy sign, families watching from the floor below
Two students standing on a park path, one holding up a small mirror while the other lines up a photograph through it
A student wearing a hand-lettered sandwich board reading "I am proficient, I can actually do something" walking down a school corridor, a teacher smiling behind her
Three students in winter coats standing on East 67th Street, each with a 35mm film camera hung around their neck, ready for a photography assignment in the city
Four students standing in front of a blue Lehman College banner during a campus visit, one holding a Lehman College tote bag
A packed room of students standing with their backpacks, listening to a classmate speaking at the front beneath a chalkboard and a wall covered in photographs
Two students carefully balancing playing cards into a row of standing triangles on a table
Students standing in front of a black display wall pinned with dozens of black-and-white photographs, studying the work on show
Students working in pairs at tables in a science room, one examining a small wired component while a teacher helps another group by the windows
A classroom chalkboard filled with a worked exponent-rules puzzle in a teacher's handwriting, asking students to explain how three ideas relate to each other
Six labelled sample tubes with orange caps lined up in a tray, each holding a different pale mixture for an experiment
A student's hands running jumper wires between a breadboard, a sensor module and an Arduino board on a desk
A student laughing behind her hand as she walks a corridor hung with student paintings, wearing a hand-lettered sandwich board reading "I am proficient, I can actually do something", while a teacher rings a brass bell overhead beside her
The red-brick facade of the Julia Richman Education Complex, with a blue sign beside the columned entrance and the words "Knowledge is Power" carved into the stone pediment above the doors
A student smiling as she waters a potted bean seedling with a large plastic syringe, classmates working at laptops around the classroom behind her
The Urban Academy staff seated in rows for a group portrait on the auditorium steps at graduation
Two graduates in caps and gowns laughing together while classmates applaud around them at the graduation ceremony
Six students and a teacher sitting in a circle of chairs in the library, each holding an open book, surrounded by full bookshelves
A student in the foreground raising her hand in a discussion-style classroom, with classmates and a teacher seated around tables and a chalkboard headed economic, personal and political
Four students of different ages sitting in a row, listening intently during a class discussion
A student leaning over a laptop to program a small sensor circuit, with a tub of jumper wires on the desk beside them
A student painting a canvas in bright orange and blue while a classmate in a painting apron looks on, in a busy art studio with a paint-spattered sink behind them
Two students painting at a shared studio table covered in acrylic tubes and mixed paint, one working on a tree silhouette and the other on a soft red abstract canvas
Two students at a cutting mat covered in paint tubes and brushes, looking together at a pencil drawing, with a canvas on an easel behind them
A student reading at a long table in the school library, laptop open in front of her and a stack of bound Urban Academy project books beside her
Three students walking down a school corridor, laughing, one carrying a hand-lettered sign reading "I am proficient, I can actually do something"
Two students in the horticulture room examining a leaf cutting propagating in a glass jar, with seedlings and grow lights on the shelves behind them
Two students bent over notebooks writing at a sunlit table, a teacher helping another student at a laptop showing a highlighted document in front of a chalkboard behind them
Students seated around a table from above, annotating printed readings and marking up a text together
Four students working quietly around a table in a sunlit classroom with tall windows, high ceilings and paper lanterns strung overhead
Four students and a teacher sitting around a round table in the library, each holding an open book during a seminar discussion