10 Things I Want You to Know about Autism

Self-advocate Paul Morris will talk about his experience growing up on the autism spectrum, feeling different as a child, and how he now has several jobs and lives independently. This presentation will be co-led with Dr. Peter Faustino, School Psychologist at SHS. Together, they will share a list of things that every student should know about Autism.

Asian Hate and Situational Awareness (Self-Defense)

Brianna Cea, the president of the OCA chapter in New York, will give a short presentation on Asian hate in New York and how to spread awareness. In addition, she will teach students basic self-defense moves.

ASL Interpreting the Pledge of Allegiance

We will be teaching the ASL interpretation of the Pledge of Allegiance and the ASL alphabet.

Breast Cancer Lesson

In this session, you will learn about breast cancer: what it is, risk factors, and how it can be prevented and treated. We will then prepare gift bags to donate to breast cancer patients in hospitals.

Brook Clean Up

We will meet outside the Brewster entrance and do a short presentation on the effect of plastic on the environment. We will then go around the brook with grabbers, gloves, and bags to pick up the trash in and around the brook.

Building Birdhouses

We are going to be painting birdhouses out of recycled materials (mainly jugs and milk cartons) during the Non Sibi Day event. We will construct the birdhouses out of the recycled materials prior to Non Sibi Day with Ms. Colleary.

Candle Decorating for Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day

In honor of Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, we will be decorating purple candles with either purple forget-me-nots, which symbolize the recognition and condemnation of the genocide, or any other creative design. Each student will have the opportunity to take home their own unique candle.

Centro Hispano

Centro Hispano works to help Hispanic families in Westchester. Staff from Centro Hispano will explain what they do and who they help, and have you make bracelets and write letters for their program. The bracelets will go to 6th graders who are part of their afterschool program called Mi Hermano/Mi Hermana Mayor (My Older Brother/Sister). You will create a bracelet with an inspirational word and a letter explaining the reason behind their choice of word. This will inspire younger generations to get involved in volunteer opportunities that could benefit the community in any way.

ChatGPT, High School, and the Future

In this workshop, the Model UN club will present the most recent developments regarding ChatGPT and other forms of AI specifically within the academic world and for high schoolers. Then student participants will be coached and asked to debate whether they would recommend schools resist and combat the new technology or embrace and embed it. The session will conclude with potential solutions that address many aspects and will hopefully resemble the diplomacy and compromise that the club roleplays throughout the year.

Comics & Social Justice + Sketching Characters

A presentation on the representation of social justice in comics with their societal impact as well as learning how to draw comic book characters.

Cookies for a Cause

The Jewish Culture Club is hosting a fun and interactive activity for students to make cookies and cards for residents of The New Jewish Home, Sarah Neuman, a nursing home in Mamaroneck. We aim to bring joy to students at SHS and senior citizens in the nursing home by continuing to spread support for each other throughout Westchester.

Creating/Curating Art to Support Incarcerated Individual Adults

The Promise We Share will provide a brief, holistic overview of NYC's criminal justice system with specific attention to the intersection of incarceration and mental health. After learning about the lack of access to meaningful programming for incarcerated adults, students will have the opportunity to create their own "creativity kits" to donate to New York City jails. Students may develop writing prompts, curate a collection of art print-outs and reflection questions, put together a drawing activity, design a meditation session, or create something else they are excited about! Through this activity, students will have a chance to harness their own passions to directly help address one of the most pressing failures of NYC's present-day detention centers.

Cupcake Decorating and Donation

We will be decorating cupcakes and then donating them to a food organization.

De-Mystifying Dyslexia

Do you know someone who has challenges with reading, spelling, or writing? Do you know someone who has dyslexia? Have you ever wondered why a fellow student gets extra time to take tests and you don’t? Come join Dr. Joanne Pierson of the University of Michigan’s DyslexiaHelp to learn the ins and outs about dyslexia. You may even win a prize. Go Blue!

DIY Survival Kit Challenge

Students will try to create a survival kit for different disaster situations and will only be able to choose 3 out of 6 tools per situation. They will learn how challenging it can be to get supplies quickly during a disaster as well as which tools are necessary during a disaster/emergency. Afterward, they will have an opportunity to revise their kits and take photos together! We hope to start a conversation and teach the significance of being prepared in a disaster!

Domestic Violence Awareness

The Girl Up Club will be hosting a domestic violence awareness and education activity for Non-Sibi day. Joined by facilitators from My Sister's Place, we will delve into topic areas related to prevention, stigmatization, and recurring stereotypes that are harmful to survivors and their journey to seek justice. This activity will begin with an information session, include a facilitated discussion, and conclude with a letter-writing activity.

Get to Know LiNK (Liberty in North Korea)

With speaker, Esther Park Chun, Senior Growth Coordinator at LiNK, this activity will introduce and inform students about LiNK and all the work they do to help North Koreans escape, relocate, and assimilate back into society.

Guiding Eyes for the Blind—Service Dogs

The Help Animals Club will be hosting Guiding Eyes for the Blind for Non-Sibi day. Guiding Eyes will be bringing in a few of their experienced handlers to teach about the vitality of service/guide dogs for those who have disabilities. They will also be bringing in a few of their guide dogs to interact with students and further their message of importance and value. We will also be running an activity that involves making felt chew toys for dogs.

Habitat for Humanity Sandwich Making

In an effort to combat the growing issue of hunger in Westchester County, the Habitat for Humanity Club will lead students in packaging meal kits for the hungry to be distributed to Community Service Associates in Mount Vernon and Hope Community Services – HOPE’s Soup Kitchen in New Rochelle. This includes making sandwiches and bundling them with a beverage, treat, and a note of encouragement, written by the students.

Harnessing AI

In this session, we will be demystifying some of the uncertainties about AI, talking about AI Ethics (eg. bias within AI), and various applications of AI that can specifically benefit the Scarsdale High School community. This session will also include an interactive coding that showcases some of the basics of machine learning.

Headlines: Selling Stories & Pushing Narratives

Being read to is one of the best ways to build a lifelong love of reading. Most of us have a favorite book or group of books that we remember fondly from childhood. Listening to a book and following along is a fun, low-stress way to engage in early literature…What if you could use SHS’ Non-Sibi day to build a library of ‘memories' for our Scarsdale K-2 kids? You can! During Read2Me you (with or without a buddy) can record a video as you read a book of your choice, upload it to our shared drive, and help build the elementary school's digital library. We supply the books…you supply the positive energy!

Healing Tree

The Healing Tree is an interactive art installation that would be made from students who are willing to participate. Notes would be written on colored plastic sheets of paper and placed into a clear envelope to be hang up on the tree by the Brewster entrance.

Help Fight Period Poverty and Clothing Insecurity with 914 Cares

Ms. Rosewater will lead a PowerPoint discussion briefly giving an overview of the real state of our county – that is, for example, one in which 40% of newborns are born to mothers on Medicaid – versus the stereotype that wealth abounds here. She will then discuss clothing insecurity and period poverty, and how addressing those issues with tangible items can have a positive impact. She will also touch upon pending federal legislation to make period products available for free in schools, and she will discuss other efforts by students to destigmatize this basic health/human rights issue. After the discussion and Q and A session, the group will help make packets of Bombas socks, laundry detergent sheets, and Flow Kits, which 914 Cares will distribute to its recipients.

Hudson Link

Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison provides college education, life skills, and reentry support to incarcerated people, so they can make a positive impact on their own lives, their families, and communities, resulting in lower rates of recidivism and higher rates of employment, community regeneration, cohesiveness, and reciprocity. Our organization provide post-secondary educational opportunities for incarcerated students enrolled in programs at five correctional facilities in the greater New York area. Students will meet alums of the program to discuss topics such as Turn on the TAP, The Clean Slate Act, and DVSJA (Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act). We will ask students to bring school supplies for the current and future students enrolled in Hudson Link's educational program.

Invisible Threads: Small Acts, Big Impacts

Small acts of kindness can result in much bigger impacts. The White Plains Hospital Club is thrilled to be hosting Laura Schroff, a #1 bestselling author, to discuss her book, An Invisible Thread. The book tells the story of how the lives of a busy sales executive and a disadvantaged young boy were shaped by what began as one small gesture of kindness. Please join us to hear about this special story, and spend time brainstorming and performing your own act of kindness by writing letters of gratitude to SHS community members as well as to healthcare workers at our local hospital.

Kindness Rocks Event

The Kindness Rocks event, in collaboration with the SAVE Promise club (Students Against Violence Everywhere), will promote kindness and joy within our community. Students will be able to paint rocks and come together to discuss resources/ways to prevent violence and connect with one another!

Learn Interviewing Skills from Sleepy Coffee, Too

This new nonprofit cafe in Sleepy Hollow is staffed by adults with disabilities. The unemployment rate for this population is as much as 80%. The cafe is operated with first-rate training and service. Let these amazing individuals teach you some interviewing skills. This is a valuable skill and students will leave inspired and wanting to put their talents in service of the greater good.

Letters of Love

Join the SHS Muslim club in writing "Letters of Love" for patients in children's hospitals all around the world.

Making Salad Kits

Join the SHS Garden Club in harvesting, washing, and packaging salad greens for distribution to those working at and receiving services from the White Plains Hospital.

Marketing and Consumer Behavior

The DECA Club officers will present on marketing and consumer behavior. Everyone who attends will get to learn about techniques of marketing, mediums, behavior patterns, and more. We will end the period with a fun game, where we will split the group into teams, and they will get to use their recently acquired knowledge to help run advertisements for a company.

Mental Health Lesson with UNICEF Club

We will teach a lesson about mental health including statistics, coping mechanisms, indicators that someone is struggling, and support systems.

NAMI Ending the Silence Presentation

NAMI Ending the Silence is a free mental health presentation designed to give students, families, and school staff an opportunity to learn the warning signs of a mental health condition, how to get help, and how to help someone. The presentation includes an informative PowerPoint and short videos as well as a personal testimony from a young adult living with a mental health diagnosis, about their journey to recovery. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer period.

Narcan Certification with STAY Club (16+ ONLY)

Learn how to recognize and prevent an overdose and get trained in the use of Narcan. Each participant will receive a free Narcan kit at the end of the training. (Must be 16 years or older to participate. In order to be certified, you must have a signed permission slip from a guardian).

One Can Food Packing

We will teach students about Bread of Life, a local food pantry, and about what goes into food packing. We will then have them pack cans collected by other students in a separate can drive to donate locally to Bread of Life.

Phones as a Part of our Lives

An informative and interactive workshop designed to bring awareness to students about the impact of our phones, and how we can learn to live with them in moderation.

Public Systems Trivia

Students will learn about the jarring realities behind NYC's child welfare and food distribution systems. Through news headlines and research reports, we will briefly demonstrate how the public's general lack of knowledge of their rights acts as a safeguard to protect the Administration of Children's Services from accountability. Through a high-energy game of Jeopardy, students will test their own knowledge and hear about activism strategies to support reform movements.

Read2Me

Being read to is one of the best ways to build a lifelong love of reading. Most of us have a favorite book or group of books that we remember fondly from childhood. Listening to a book and following along is a fun, low-stress way to engage in early literature…What if you could use SHS’ Non-Sibi day to build a library of ‘memories' for our Scarsdale K-2 kids? You can! During Read2Me you (with or without a buddy) can record a video as you read a book of your choice, upload it to our shared drive, and help build the elementary school's digital library. We supply the books…you supply the positive energy!

Refugee Camp Simulation

Students in Ms. Thompson’s Race & Ethnicity class and members of the Hearts & Homes for Refugees Club will guide visitors through eight stations that will give them a glimpse of the conditions that refugees across the world suffer. A guest speaker from Hearts and Homes for Refugees will discuss the work that the organization has been doing in Westchester since 2015.

Self-Defense Workshop

Our sessions will consist of safety awareness, basic self-defense techniques, fast, effective, and efficient striking, and basic escapes.

SHS Non-Sibi Community Mural

In this activity, each student will receive a puzzle piece to draw/illustrate on. As they finish, the pieces will slowly be connected into one large mural.

Sparks & Rec: Straight-Up Coloring Edition

Burned out? Feel like your fire is cooling? Down to your last embers? In this edition of Sparks & Rec, we'll be doing some straight-up coloring (mandalas and similar templates)! Side effects may include: focus, meditation, relaxation, laughter, and more! You might be saying, "But isn't Non-Sibi Day supposed to be in the service of others?" That's true, but it's hard to be good to others if we're not good to ourselves. Join us for a session of healthy zoning out, taking a brain break, and thinking about something other than school.

Sustainable Shark Tank

Students will be split up into small groups and each group will be assigned the same problem impacting a large community. They will have to create a business plan to solve any aspect of the problem whether their idea helps a small community or the whole world. After, each group will present their idea and product to their classmates and the “sharks”/ leaders of the session will choose the best sustainable plan.

The Legacy of Housing Discrimination in Westchester County

This presentation will explore the history of housing discrimination in Westchester County, and how efforts to build new housing could help to mitigate the county’s de-facto segregation. In this workshop, students will be given the opportunity to write a letter to local officials in support of building affordable housing, if they would like to do so.

The Rise of Deepfakes

Deepfake creators are new and increasingly promising yet dangerous tools that can be used to create stunning visuals or to impersonate people. Learn how deepfakes work, how to detect them, and how they will impact our world.

Voter Suppression

This is an interactive presentation where students will learn about voter suppression, voter rights, and the importance of voting.

We Broke Up But Stayed Friends: Breaking Your Phone Addiction

Overwhelmed by your phone? Losing time in your day to the rabbit hole of TikTok, YouTube, Insta? Staring at your screen when you should be asleep? Not sure how to talk to people IRL? Feeling phantom vibrations in your pocket when your phone isn't there? If you are experiencing these or a multitude of other symptoms, you may be suffering from phone addiction. Find out to to break it and create a healthy relationship with your phone while also giving your time and attention to every other part of your life. Learn how to prioritize, manage your time, bring back your passions and hobbies and find joy off screen.

Witness Stones Project: Slavery in Scarsdale

Dennis Culliton, Founder and Executive Director of the Witness Stones Project and Theresa Vega, Family Historian and Genealogist, who are both working with Wayside Cottage on their Witness Stones Project, will give a presentation about their work and the plans that are underway for continued work with SHS teachers. We will be working together in preparation for the May 2024 placement of Witness Stones at Wayside Cottage, honoring the lives and contributions of the enslaved people who lived there.

Women's Sports Foundation Walk-A-Thon

Our activity is going to be a walkathon where you walk laps around the track to get exercise and have the option to raise money (not required) for the Women's Sports Foundation.

woof, woof—Therapy Dogs!

Yoga

Come stretch your mind and body! We will focus on deep breathing, resting and clearing the mind, and moving the body to feel open and relaxed.