Riverdale Country school

student spotlights

Kaitlyn Helf, ‘25

Kaitlyn resides in New York City and is passionate about animals, child development, and art. She is an Ambassador for Drawing For The Planet (DftP), a global art environmental education and conservation charity, and aided their expansion to the East Coast. Kaitlyn's responsibilities include assisting with research and planning and executing workshops. Kaitlyn brings a diverse experience to her role as an Ambassador having worked with children as a tutor and mentor at the Riverdale Neighborhood House, as well as working as a counselor at Hayground Day Camp. She is an active volunteer in animal welfare programs including Animal Rescue Fund (ARF). Having been raised in a city, Kaitlyn is aware of the negative impacts of urbanization on endangered animals. Kaitlyn's ultimate goal is to help DftP expand to other cities on the East Coast and continue raising awareness and empowering communities to help reverse the biodiversity crisis and take responsibility for Earth's invaluable ecosystem.

Jacob Darringer, ‘25

During the Summer of 2023, his passion for sustainability led him to attend the Island School in Eleuthera, Bahamas, for six weeks. While there, he studied marine ecology and sustainability. Jacob brought the lessons he learned back home and created his own hydroponics system at Riverdale as part of his coursework. He hopes to inspire other students to join his fight against the climate crisis. He is currently creating a website to help educate younger students about hydroponics and the importance of sustainable systems and is developing a curriculum to bring it into Riverdale’s community partnership schools. He is an Ambassador for Grassroots Grocery and Billion Oyster Project and will be the leader of Riverdale’s Sustainability Club during the 2024-2025 school year.

Joel Grayson, ‘24

Joel Grayson has worked to help Riverdale Country School move toward a solar installation, consider the possibility of electric school buses, and also support New York City’s street vendors gain access to grid electricity. He has been involved with the local government, serving as the youngest-ever member of Manhattan Community Board 1 and collaborating with the Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice. He has also created software thousands of people use daily (Buseroo, Homework Checker, and Focus for Google Docs) and built a vending machine that sold hundreds of snacks at school. After graduating from Riverdale, Joel intends to study mechanical engineering at Stanford.