United Nations International School

Background

Many members of the United Nations staff arriving with young families found unexpected difficulties with the school system in New York. Among them was K. T. Behanan and his wife, who arrived from India in May 1947 with their five-year-old son to help the UN's Trusteeship Council with educational policy. The Behanans banded together with other UN families who were in a similar situation to establish the United Nations International School at Lake Success, with Dr. Behanan as chairman of its board. The school was founded to provide an international education for students, while preserving its students' diverse cultural heritages.

Curriculum

In the formative years, UNIS offers a school-designed curriculum, from Kindergarten (JA, in UNIS) to the 12th Grade (T4), in which elementary school (junior school, in UNIS), middle school and high school (tut house) students enroll for the International Baccalaureate Diploma (IBDP) or IB Courses, where a wide range of subjects are offered. Within the framework of IB requirements, students have the possibility to choose from over two-hundred course combinations.

Students are taught in relatively small classes, with averages of 17 children in Kindergarten, 17 in the 1st Grade (J1), 17 in the 2nd Grade (J2), 19 in Grades 34 (J3-J4) and 21 throughout middle and high school (M1-T4). Emphasis is placed on preparation for the IB exams during high school, for which virtually all seniors sit (full Diploma or Certificate). Children whose parents transfer from abroad to work for the United Nations, Missions to the United Nations, and Consulates enjoy priority in terms of admission, but admission is not automatic. All children are required to be interviewed and assessed in-person at UNIS, in addition to consideration of official school reports, if any.{{cite web |access-date= 18 May 2015

The main language used in the school is English, and all students study either French or Spanish from Kindergarten to the 12th Grade. Students are required to pursue a third language from the 7th Grade to the 12th Grade (Arabic, French, Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, or Spanish). Additional languages can be studied by students within and external to the school during the weekend or after school during the school week. The school's current executive director is Dr. Dan Brenner.

The AEFE categorizes this school as a French international school.

University and college attendance

Nearly all UNIS graduates matriculate at four-year colleges in the semester following graduation, with a small number choosing a gap-year program. A typical year will see 75% to 85% of graduates enrolling at colleges in the United States, with remaining graduates attending 20 different universities in thirteen countries outside the U.S.

Events and programs

Each year, the school organizes a conference in the General Assembly Hall of the United Nations in which high school students perform a Model United Nations. Other schools are also invited to this conference. This special activity allows students to improve their public speaking and diplomacy skills. It also allows students to engage with real world issues.

Campus history

UNIS was founded in 1947. It was previously located in a former school building at 1311 First Avenue, on East 70th Street, in Lenox Hill, Manhattan. In 1964, the Ford Foundation offered a conditional donation of $7 million for a new school building at the headquarters of the United Nations, near an existing playground; Sweden and Libya also contributed funds. UNIS had acquired a site at York Avenue and 89th Street in Yorkville, but sold it in 1965. Two years later, another alternate site south of the UN headquarters was proposed for UNIS. Under the headship of the Irishman Desmond Cole, UNIS moved around 1970 into two premises on 51st (the Junior School headed by Lea Rangel-Ribeiro) and the middle school 54th streets. The site on 51st Street previously housed Public School 135; the site at 418 East 54th Street previously had been used as showrooms and office space for furniture companies. The high school was housed on East 11th Street.

The main building on 25th Street opened in January 1973, marking the first permanent location for UNIS in its history. It was designed by the architecture firm of Harrison & Abramovitz. The building was constructed on a platform that had been previously built for the planned school with a $1-million grant from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The city had first proposed that the school be constructed on a platform at the site in August 1965. The location was formally occupied by Pier 73, to which was docked the SS John W. Brown, a former Liberty ship that was being used as an annex for the Food and Maritimes Vocational High School. To make way for construction of the platform, the ship was moved in January 1966 to Pier 42 on the Hudson River. On May 5, 1969, the deck of the future school site was used as the landing field for a Hawker Siddeley Harrier vertical take-off and landing jet operated by the Royal Air Force in the Daily Mail Trans-Atlantic Air Race.

Notable alumni

• Ishmael Beah, writer
• Byrdie Bell, actress
• Yasmine Bleeth, actress
• Kate Burton, actress
• Suleiman Braimoh (born 1989), Nigerian-American basketball player
• Andrea Brand, biologist
• Dorothy Bush, daughter of George H. W. Bush
• Pauline Chalamet, actress and producer.
• Vikram Chatwal, socialite and business tycoon Sant Singh Chatwal
• Gary Cohen, TV sports broadcaster
• Radhika Coomaraswamy, lawyer and former United Nations Under-Secretary-General
• Stéphane Dujarric de la Rivière, United Nations spokesperson
• Mohamed A. El-Erian, former CEO of PIMCO
• Will Gluck, writer-director
• Mike Greenberg, sports radio host
• Nicholas Guest, actor
• Stephen Hartke, composer{{cite web |access-date= 23 May 2015
• Sarah Jones, actress
• Morley (aka Morley Kamen), singer-songwriter
• Sarah Kay, poet{{cite web |access-date= 23 May 2015
• Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University professor{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/nyregion/31khalil.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink |title=Political Storm Finds a Columbia Professor |access-date=2 December 2008
• Richard Lachmann, sociologist and specialist in comparative historical sociology, professor at University at Albany, SUNY.
• Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados
• Joakim Noah, basketball player
• Atsushi Ogata, film maker
• Amanda Plummer, actress
• Elettra Rossellini Wiedemann, food editor and writer, fashion model, and socialite.
• Devon Scott, actress
• Sitapha Savané, Senegalese retired professional basketball player; member of the Senegal national basketball team.
• Andrea Sella, chemist, broadcaster and UCL professor.
• Qubilah Shabazz, daughter of Malcolm X
• Mina Sundwall, actress
• S. K. Thoth, performance artist
• Vasili Tsereteli, Russian artist, executive director of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art.
• Marius Vassiliou, scientist.
• John Zorn, musician

References

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