Humans of Stuy

“Throughout history, especially today, Americans have constantly grappled with which aspects of their lives remain under their control and which are subject to government authority. What is a right that you believe in and actively advocate for?”

Thank you to everyone who participated in our “What I Stand For” event.

“The best part of being a captain is getting to teach people. It gives you a sense of self worth and confidence when someone trusts you enough to teach them a whole new sport. Being able to watch somebody develop from not knowing a sport at all to starting to grasp the concepts, and watch them starting to get good and win, it gives me a sense of accomplishment and pride knowing that I helped them to become who they are now. The worst part is definitely trying to break a concept down to teach it to somebody who doesn’t grasp it. Stuff that comes naturally, that you’ve done for so long, that is just like second nature…other people have to learn those movements, and learn what you mean. They have to grasp how throwing someone works, or trying to take down, and it can be tough trying to break it down, and it stresses you out when they don’t get it the first or second time. And you just keep having to find new ways to explain it. Another issue that’s really hard is trying to work things out with the coaches and other captains. Everyone wants to do their own things, and it’s hard to try to work it out, and get everyone to cover their concepts within the time you have. I’m definitely a lot better than where I was at the start. The first day I was stressed out about tryouts. We had a phone call and a whole plan on what to do everyday of tryouts, but on the first day, everything derailed and I was just stressing out the whole time. But as it has gone on, I’ve gotten more comfortable giving orders, because before I used to be shy about speaking up and telling them what to do, because I felt bad. Practice has definitely started going smoothly and everybody is understanding what’s going on, and everybody has been able to teach what they want to teach. I’m excited to see kids get better. They’re moving better and they’re starting to take other kids down. It’s fun. I think that I still need to be more confident with giving orders. I don’t like raising my voice even though it’s okay for me to do it. I also want to work on my teaching skills. It has gotten better but I tend to rush things and have to go back and explain it.”

- Asan Ali, ‘26

“So I guess this was a really small incident, but it made me realize how much my parents care about me and what I do. Especially since I have two little brothers, and they always have a bunch of stuff going on. Usually my dad has to drive them everywhere: to soccer and a bunch of other things.

I don’t get to hang out with him that much over the weekends, and he’s busy during the week and whatever. And so this actually happened to me last week: I went to an art gallery with my dad, because I had a couple of art pieces at the art gallery. I went with my dad and one of my friends tagged along as well.

And my dad, he doesn’t really get art. Like, he doesn’t really understand it, but he tries, you know? He likes to learn things, he likes to know things. So he was looking at my art, and then he started asking questions about it.

“Oh, what’s this?” “What’s that?” “Why does she have a white dot on her face?” Stuff like that. And my friend kind of turned to me and went, “Wow. Your dad is so observant. My dad would have just been like, okay. Cool. And then left.” I was like, damn.

It kind of made me realize how much of an effort my dad was putting in to try and understand what I liked, and understand what I was doing. Because, again, he’s not an art guy, but he took time out of his Monday afternoon—like, he’s extremely busy—he took time and spent a good thirty minutes with me looking at three art pieces that I had made. He took photos and he sent them to everyone. I was like, “What are you doing?” But the comment that my friend made, it made me realize how much of an effort he was putting in, because he knows that we don’t hang out that much anymore. And, yeah. It just made me really appreciate my dad. I love my dad.”

- Carmen Gomez-Villalva, ‘26

“So one day, I got a text saying, ‘Oh, wait. Do you wanna know my crush?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, sure. Tell me.’ He responded, ‘No. I won’t tell you.’ I waited weeks and weeks until he finally told me who his crush is.

And then that’s when I started to help him with his crush. I found out that his crush somewhat likes him back. I was like, ‘Oh, wow.’ I really started trying to set them up together. Right? But oh, you don’t understand how oblivious they both are to each other. One knows that he has a crush on them, but then the thing is he can’t accept that they might like him back too. And then I was trying to wingman for weeks and weeks, telling them what they feel about each other. And he says that it’s not real. And I’m, like, saying that, ‘Yes, it is real. You have it in the bag.’ But he’s like, “No, no, no. It’s not gonna work out.’

His birthday is coming up soon, so I hope something happens. I’ve been waiting for so long—ever since October for this, and it’s finally happening.”

- Maymunah Rahman, ’28

“Okay. So this was a recent revelation. I found out that LaGuardia High School, which was a high school I applied to back in middle school, is actually in Manhattan.

This whole time, I thought it was in Queens because everything else named LaGuardia is in Queens. So I applied to LAG for fine arts, and I got in. My friend and classmate in middle school had a cousin who didn’t go to LaGuardia, but she did a lot of fine art stuff. She tutored us because you need a portfolio to apply to LAG. You just send in a bunch of artwork, and there was one specific question that asked, “What is your dream sandwich?”
It was a bunch of remote classes because, you know, it was COVID. So I did my whole portfolio, I drew my dream sandwich, which was [expletive], by the way, because it was basically every single food I loved on a waffle—because that’s better than white bread to me for some reason. And I drew twigs inside.

It was a bunch of remote classes because, you know, it was COVID. So I did my whole portfolio, I drew my dream sandwich, which was [expletive], by the way, because it was basically every single food I loved on a waffle—because that’s better than white bread to me for some reason. And I drew twigs inside.

I did all that, and I did not know that LaGuardia is in Manhattan. I got accepted into Stuy and into LaGuardia on myschools.com, and I was thinking about it. I questioned LaGuardia or Stuy?

Oh, and a funny thing—it came out on my birthday. We were having a barbecue outside, but it was raining. And we had this little patio, so we put the grill on that platform so it wouldn’t get rained on, and we just ate inside. It was so sad. So it was basically a Stuy acceptance and birthday celebration. I don’t remember when I got into LaGuardia. I assume it was on the same day, I guess.

The only reason I found out LAG is in Manhattan is because I was doing this other art program outside of school at the Whitney. It was a youth insight thing. And because it was an art program, LaGuardia students were going. So we were introducing ourselves, right?

[story continied below...]

“Okay. So this was a recent revelation. I found out that LaGuardia High School, which was a high school that I applied to back in middle school, is actually in Manhattan.

Even though this whole time, I thought it was in Queens. Because everything else named LaGuardia is in Queens. So I applied to LAG for fine arts, and I got in. My friend and classmate in middle school had a cousin who didn’t go to LaGuardia, but she did a lot of fine art stuff. And she tutored us, because you need a portfolio to apply to LAG. You just send in a bunch of artwork, and there was one specific question where it was, like, ‘what is your dream sandwich?’

So it was a bunch of remote classes because, you know, it was COVID. And so I did my whole portfolio, I drew my dream sandwich, which was [expletive], by the way, because it was basically every single food that I loved on a waffle, because that’s better than white bread to me for some reason. And I drew twigs inside.

I did all that, and I did not know that LaGuardia is in Manhattan. I got accepted into Stuy and into LaGuardia on myschools.com, and I was thinking about it. I was like, LaGuardia or Stuy?

Oh and a funny thing, it came out on my birthday. So we were having a barbecue outside, but it was raining. So we had like a little patio and we put the grill on that platform so it wouldn’t get rained on and we just ate inside. It was so sad. So it was basically a Stuy acceptance and birthday celebration. I don’t remember when I got into Laguardia. I assume it was on the same day, I guess.

The only reason I found out LAG is in Manhattan is because I was doing this other art program, outside of school, at the Whitney. It was like a youth insight thing. And because it was an art program, LaGuardia students were going. And so we’re introducing ourselves. Right?

[story continued below...]

“One time, I went to an outing with my church, and it was to an aquarium—a really nice aquarium. There was an iPad next to the shark tank, and I was looking at it in this really dark room. But when I looked back at the people I came with, they were not there anymore. I was like, “Where are they?” I started walking around the aquarium wondering, “What’s going on?” 

I visited all the areas of the Aquarium. I saw dolphins and other animals, so that was pretty cool. But then I started getting worried because what if they left without me? And the aquarium wasn’t in New York, so I was really nervous.

But then I realized I was wearing a name tag, and below the name tag, there was a phone number. I was like, “Yess.” Then I went up to a random lady and asked, “Can I have your phone?” She asked, “For what?” I explained that I was lost and showed her the phone number on my name tag. She was like, “Oh, sweetie,” and then she called the number. They ended up still being at the aquarium, but they were going to watch a 4D sea animal film. I almost missed it, but I didn’t. I started crying when I saw my pastor again, but then we high fived. And the 4D show was just really amazing because I really like bubbles and stuff like that.”

- Grace Jung, ‘26

“So, this is a story about when I was on top of a mountain. I was just kind of lying on top of the mountain with some friends, and I noticed–maybe somebody pointed out–that if you wait long enough, you can watch the stars setting in the west, as everything sets in the west and rises in the east. All of the stars are rising and setting because the earth is turning. First, you see all the stars, and you get used to the stars moving, as you’ve seen in a slow motion picture. But then gradually, you realize that the stars aren’t moving. And if you focus on the stars not moving, then you can feel the earth turning under you. And that’s what I felt. And it was kind of a magical moment of feeling there’s enough stars that I could see them, and I could, and I was patient enough to sit there for hours, doing nothing, just watching the stars–watching them set in the front and come on up from the trees, by the trees. You could kinda see where the north star was. It was kinda this magical moment.”

- Dr. Berman, social studies department

“If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, which food would it be?“

“Recently, I discovered I can’t eat avocados anymore. I love avocados with my entire heart. I have loved avocados since I was young. I love Mexican food, I’m vegetarian so I love avocado cucumber sushi, and recently I discovered that avocados are actually one of the reasons I get migraines, so I can’t have avocados anymore. And it is truly one of my favorite foods so if I can eat one food for the rest of my life, with no consequences, it would be avocados.“

- Sama Daga, ’26

“To start off my story, we have to go back to the very beginning. Let’s start with the Big Bang. So a long time ago, there was... I’m joking, I’m joking. Alright, so here’s the picture: freshman year. I’m a small and lost child. All I knew after having done all that COVID stuff was... programming–I’m pretty okay at it. So I was looking around school, I was thinking, okay hm.., well, where can I go now that I know said stuff? Of course, this was actually like early September, a little bit before the Clubs and Pubs fair. I saw these posters in the halls advertising the Student Union’s IT department. I was like, hey, IT, that’s computers, that’s me, I guess. So yeah, I ended up signing up. And after a couple of weeks, they gave me an interview. They just gave me an interview and they said, “hey, you’re good enough, welcome to the team.” So that’s my humble little start.

From there, over the years, I just kept sticking around the team, just kept practicing, trying to find places where I can make an improvement for what was StuyActivities back then. And yeah, as we worked on these things, I realized, one, how approachable, at least to me, this technology was, because I had the background already from those pandemic years. But at the same time, as I was on my way up and up–and eventually I became the director, given that I was one of the top contributors to the team–I realized that a lot of people just didn’t have the adventures I had, where they were out there practicing, looking things up on Google. Other people were out there playing Fortnite or watching Minecraft videos; I was coding. So I realized then that I had to contribute more to, you know, educating, being the change I want to see in the world in terms of what people know.

[story continued below...]

“In freshmen year I bumped into one of the Mando teachers. They said “对不起” to me, which means “Sorry”. But instead saying “It’s alright”, I said “是”, which means yes. And later on one of my friends told me that the way I said yes sounded like “Die” because in Mandarin, yes and die sounds very similar.”

- Charles Shen, ‘26