Press Room

Brooklyn principal wins top award

New York Daily News, June 22, 2005
By Elizabeth Hays

NEW YORK — Just two years after opening a public school in a struggling Brooklyn neighborhood, one of the city's youngest principals won national acclaim yesterday for his accomplishments.

Harvard graduate Benjamin Shuldiner was named the winner of the prestigious Jefferson Award for Public Service, created by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in 1972.

Only four of the national awards are given each year. Shuldiner won in a category for leaders younger than 35.

"There's no better way to change the world than through education," said Shuldiner, 28, who is considering running for Congress in Westchester.

Shuldiner started the High School for Public Service in East Flatbush when he was 26.

The Kingston Ave. school enrolled about 200 students in ninth and 10th grades this year. More than 92% of the students passed the Regents math exam and attendance hovers over 90%, he said.

"Ben is an extraordinary leader whose wisdom and talents are well beyond his years," said Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, who traveled to Washington for the awards ceremony.

Shuldiner, who grew up in Manhattan, spent a year teaching at an elite private school in England after graduating from Harvard in 1999. He then taught at Erasmus Hall high School in Brooklyn for three years before founding the East Flatbush school after Wingate High was broken up.

"The moment you become a teacher, you realize that if you really want to make a difference in a school you have to become the principal," he said.

Shuldiner's students were impressed by his award.

"You hear Harvard degree and you'd think he'd be in some suburban place or somewhere important," said Yomaira Segura, 15. "But he's not. He's here in Brooklyn paying attention to students."

"It shows us that we can do anything," student President Ashley Morant said. "It doesn't matter how young we are."