HANC nurtures the many different facets of life in each of our students- the academic and intellectual, the moral and spiritual, and the communal. As an academic institution, HANC provides an exceptional education for our students, serving each student according to his or her own individual talents and specific needs. We welcome the diversity in our student body.
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
Development of the intellectual lives of our students begins early at HANC. Our Early Childhood Centers, in both West Hempstead and Plainview, provide a robust early reading and writing readiness curriculum both in English and Hebrew. This is accomplished while providing a hands-on learning program which focuses on the development of each child in a stimulating, warm, and loving Jewish environment.
Dedication to learning continues at our elementary schools in Plainview and West Hempstead, where academic enrichment includes special science and math programs and where visiting authors promote a love of reading and writing. Installation of a new state-of-the-art science lab at our West Hempstead campus speaks to HANC's continuing commitment to utilizing the newest technologies and modern facilities to educate our students.
HANC's Middle School serves as a crucial and successful academic bridge between our elementary schools and high school. This year, the Middle School will be introducing the Neta program, which develops strong conversational Hebrew language skills and has been highly successful in our high school. Here, as well, a new science lab evidences HANC's continuing commitment to academic excellence.
This emphasis on academics continues at HANC's High School where numerous core and supplementary courses are offered, including a wide selection of AP courses. Our Bet Midrash Program provides our students with the opportunity for advanced Talmud study. An abundance of extracurricular activities, including debate, college bowl, mock trial, and a wide selection of sports for both boys and girls, add yet another vital dimension to the high school experience.
Additionally, the high school has added a broad new array of exciting electives for the 2007-2008 academic year. We also provide the resources necessary for the task. Our Mitchel Field library is the proud recipient of an advanced accreditation from the Association of Jewish Libraries that thus far has been extended to only a handful of schools, thereby demonstrating our library's standard of excellence in technology, quality of the collection, staffing, and other important metrics. Students have the resources to do extensive research in an attractive and inviting atmosphere that supports and promotes intellectual inquiry.
TORAH AND MIDOT
In concert with their academic life, our students also learn and incorporate a life of Torah and midot. At HANC, the building of character is equally important as the building of minds. These principles translate into friendship, a respect for values, humility, emphasis on hakarat hatov (i.e., gratefulness), a thirst for learning, and ruach-which manifests as an invigorating enthusiasm for the Jewish experience.
ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT IN THE COMMUNITY
While these are all essential components to the education of every student, a HANC education further emphasizes the importance of membership and active involvement in the community at large. Our youngest pre-schoolers begin learning about the communal aspect of life through tzedaka drives that raise money for the needy. Our elementary schools raise money to address different needs both in Eretz Yisrael and in the United States, and our students are involved with a plethora of chesed and community service projects. At our Mitchel Field campus, we are extremely proud of fifteen of our young men and women who traveled to New Orleans in Spring 2007, and assisted with the rebuilding of that city and its Jewish community.
Our high school students also initiated a program both to demonstrate solidarity with Israeli soldiers and support the beleaguered Israeli development town of Sderot. Our students excel in various leadership development programs such as Ematai and Achshav, and they have participated in special meetings with notable Jewish leaders such as Yeshiva University President Richard Joel and Malcolm Hoenlein, Vice-Chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations. We encourage our youth to strive toward leadership in their adult lives.
HANC'S CONTINUING MISSION
HANC is established upon the principle of responsibility to the Jewish community, as a school founded to provide an excellent Jewish education in Nassau County at a time when yeshiva education was simply unavailable here.
Today, HANC continues to fulfill its mission to nurture and support many communities across Long Island. Our students have always been and continue to be of the highest caliber. Enrollment at our Mitchel Field campus is at full capacity. Large numbers of HANC graduates pursue a year of study in Israel at high quality yeshivot, and HANC graduates are extremely well-represented at Ivy League schools, Yeshiva University, and colleges of our students' choice.
Among our Mitchel Field students, in 2006-2007, we are very proud to have educated 16 students as part of HANC's innovative and vital New Opportunities Program (NOP), which is HANC's unique gateway for public school students who want to enter yeshiva. These highly motivated students attend classes that have been specially tailored to teach them limudei kodesh so they can be quickly mainstreamed into HANC's rigorous religious studies curriculum. In the language of the Haggadah, HANC says, Kol Dichfin, Yaisay Vayaichal -- all who are hungry, come and be nourished. As has been the case for more than half a century, our doors are open to our neighbors in the Long Island Jewish community. All who seek a quality Jewish education, true to Torah and its values, you have a place at HANC…and we enthusiastically welcome you!
