Back to School by Rickshaw

It’s here: first day of school for New York City students, and TASC staffers are still sharing their favorite back-to-school memories.

Senior Vice President for ExpandED Schools Chris Caruso (pictured below) remembers the words of wisdom his parents would pass on every school year: “First impressions are lasting. I repeat the same advice to my kids on their first day of school,” he said.

Chief Development Officer Jama Toung loved to ride the yellow school bus owned by her grandfather and driven by her aunt. We thought that was pretty cool until Senior Director of Fiscal Operations Charles Shah shared this photo of the way he got to elementary school in India.

Grants Analyst Mark Diekmann recalls being overwhelmed by the “size and complexity” of his new junior high school. “I remember hanging out with my friends at the loading platform near the cafeteria before school started, and sharing stories about how we were managing to cope.”

Research Program Assistant Rebecca Forbes also recalls her school sanctuary. “My elementary school was vast, or at least it seemed so to tiny me. The one thing that anchored it (literally, it was front and center), was the library.”

More about books: “I loved the feeling of coming home with my backpack newly weighted down with all my books,” Nina Agrawal, CBASS Policy and Communications Coordinator, told us.

Charissa Fernandez, our Chief Financial Officer, looked forward to cutting up brown paper bags and folding them into perfect book covers. Human Resources & Administration Specialist Zhen Ma – our resident origami expert – was also an expert recycler. She made her book covers out of Chinese meat market calendars.