A new drum line at the East Village Community School in Manhattan allows students to grow and explore through music.

What started two years ago as a club for LGBTQ students at IS 187 in Borough Park, Brooklyn, has quickly evolved into a group devoted to self-awareness and social advocacy that promotes tolerance and acceptance of difference.

Lourdes Ventura was sworn in as a judge of the Civil Court of the City of New York on Dec. 18 at Queens Borough Hall, the same venue where, as a child, she accompanied her mother to translate at a housing court proceeding. The eldest of three children, Ventura was born in Queens to immigrants from the Dominican Republic. She was educated in public schools in Corona and Elmhurst.

While the debate rages across the city about whether scoring high on a single test is the fairest way to win a coveted seat in one of the city’s specialized high schools, students at the HS for American Studies at Lehman College are tutoring local middle school students to prepare them to meet the test challenge and ensure more diversity at the specialized school in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx.

Cupcakes on the first day of school, a door-decorating contest, a Secret Santa and a free snack cart with water, soda and potato chips. These are among the morale-boosting activities devised by Catherine Sarlo, the chapter leader of IS 10 in Astoria

What began as an early-grades literacy event has turned into a schoolwide project to design a  mural for the outside of PS/IS 184, a UFT community learning school in Brownsville, Brooklyn.