On a Friday last month, Microsoft executive John O’Sullivan led MS 80 as Principal for a Day for the sixth straight year. O’Sullivan not only got to be in charge again, he continued to learn more about the school and explored ways to improve it.
O’Sullivan grew up in Norwood around MS 80 on Decatur Avenue. He went to Mount St. Michael’s Academy for high school, then graduated from Manhattan College. O’Sullivan is now a sales account executive for Microsoft advertising.
He comes back to MS 80 every year to help the school and make a point.
“You don’t have to cut your ties with your community to make something of yourself,” O’Sullivan says. “[Students] need to remember where they came from and help their community.”
PENCIL (Public Education Needs Civic Involvement in Learning), a non-profit organization, established the Principal for a Day program in 1995. Each year PENCIL gathers together business leaders from the five boroughs to involve them in public schools, gain firsthand knowledge of their problems and come up with solutions to help them.
O’Sullivan comes to MS 80 and sees problems that still need to be addressed.
“We have to fix the gang issue around here and protect the students,” O’Sullivan says.
O’Sullivan says he tells students to think out of the box and do something that is important to them. He thinks some of it might be sinking in.
“I am amazed at what these kids remember from the last time I was here,” O’Sullivan says. “It means something.”
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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.