Project Description
Julie Nariman, Fellow
High School of Language and Innovation
The Bronx, NY
Julie Nariman has been an educator in New York City public schools since 2000, when she started as a middle school English teacher. Over the years she worked in middle school, high school, and transfer high schools for over-age, under-credited students across Brooklyn and Manhattan, ultimately becoming an assistant principal of English as a Second Language in Queens. In 2011, she founded the High School of Language and Innovation, a school for newcomer English Language Learners in the Bronx. She is passionate about building leadership in her staff and students, supporting other school leaders, and creating an environment in which Multilingual Learners thrive.
Shira Wrightman, Ally
Assistant Principal
High School of Language and Innovation
The Bronx, NY
Shira Wrightman is an Assistant Principal at the High School of Language and Innovation, a school for newcomer English Language Learners in the Bronx, NY. She was on the founding team of the school in 2011, and has had a leadership role in collaboratively developing and scaling the school’s mission, instructional vision, and culture. In line with her holistic approach to schooling, including a robust vision for student activities and after school programming, she founded the Columbus Campus Girls’ Lacrosse program in 2012. This program has since served over 210 athletes, led to three college scholarships, and yielded five playoff berths. Before she made the transition to high school, Shira was an ENL teacher and ELL Coordinator at P.S. 230, an elementary school in the Bronx. Shira deeply values multiculturalism, and brings this value to the forefront of her work as a leader. She believes that the many forms of diversity in her school community are a treasured resource that fuels powerful learning and relationship building. Shira sees the cross-cultural understandings and friendships that are built in her school as a lever for creating a more tolerant, cooperative, and just society in New York City and beyond.