I attended Craig Elementary for kindergarten and up until third grade. My parents wanted me to be in a more nurturing environment, and I benefited from the nurturing environment at the Jewish day school, Epstein Hebrew Academy - now known as Kadimah. A major thing was the difference in the amount of students and how close i got to know people. Epstein was a serious learning environment where I could grow up in school.
I was an average student, mostly B's. I enjoyed Music class. I also got my dose of Judaism. Every week was pizza and parsha on Fridays, and that was so much fun. I got to learn a lot at both North and Epstein/Block. I learned more about my heritage and learned to care for it more and I think that I mean that to grow up with that foundation helped me attain it through life. I felt more of a connection with my peers going to a jewish school than i did otherwise. Having the structure of Jewish studies and English helped me become more well rounded and more successful. The heavy workload prepared me for trying to have a good work ethic, although i didn't take it very seriously then, it still helped me see how dedication can be an important foundation throughout life.
Looking back I didn't take it as seriously then but now i realize its important that i grew up with the background i did because of all the anti-semitism going on. I didn't experience the middle school issues while at Epstein that North students may have experienced, like drugs, alcohol and bullying. The general difference of going to North was that I did not have the judaic studies any longer.
Today, I try to go to as many young adult Jewish activities to keep me involved in Judaism, learning with people my age. For instance, Next Dor, Moishe House, JGrads, YPD , and other outreach.
For Moishe House, I went to an Ethiopian night, and that was fun too. There was a sukkot dinner at next Dor, there were also some that were Friday nights, and that was fun too. There was also a Halloween night at Moishe House, also a mental health awareness also meant for the community outreach.
Also, YPD had shabbats at diffferent synagogues, that encourages young people people to go to synagogue.