Ms. Chie Helinski
Teacher of Japanese Langauge
Stuyvesant High School
New York, NY
Ms. Chie Helinski came to the US in 1986 and studied at Eugene Lang College/New School and at Bank Street College of Education in New York City. At these schools, she met four fiercely passionate and inventive teachers who took her under their wings and greatly influenced her thinking and her approach to education. They were very opinionated but taught from a breadth of knowledge. They loved teaching, for teaching was the way for them to learn their subjects in greatest depth. And they loved their students.
Ms. Helinski began teaching Japanese in 1991 when she started a program at IS 98 in the South Bronx. She soon found out how much she loved it and wanted to be like the teachers she so enjoyed. In 1995, She moved to Frederick Douglass Academy, a public high school in Harlem, and started a Japanese program there. Ms. Helinski was the foreign language department coordinator from 1999 to 2000. While at Frederick Douglass, she took students to her parents’ house in Tokyo for three summers to give them first-hand experience of Japan. In 2000, she moved to Stuyvesant High School in lower Manhattan, where she currently teaches.
In addition to teaching Japanese at Stuyvesant, Ms. Helinski is a faculty advisor of Japan Bowl, National Honor Society, anime club, Go club, Kendo club, Inspiration (the school’s literary and art publication), and Robocup club.
Ms. Helinski has been the coordinator for the New York City public school Japanese teachers since 2003. When the New York Japan Bowl regional competition started in 2001, she was one of the committee members and was the regional representative between 2003 and 2005. In 2004, Ms. Helinski received the New York Times “The Teachers Who Make a Difference Award.” In the fall of 2005, she helped found East-West School, a public school with an Asian theme. It will open this fall in Queens, NY.
Ms. Helinski plans to use the grant money to enrich the Japanese program at Stuyvesant High School and for prizes for an event to replace the terminated Japan Bowl regional competition. She envisions the event to be a fun, cooperative event to celebrate the accomplishment of the students learning Japanese and honor their teachers.