Ms. Emily Rothenberg, also known as Ms. Rothenberg, is one of the assistant principals at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School. She is the AP of Data and Testing and is the person behind all of the Regents, SATs, PSATs, Map Growth tests, and truly so much more. Ms. Rothenberg is a person who wears many hats here at Cardozo. However, she wasn’t always an AP.
Ms. Rothenberg began her career journey as an attorney. She said, “I worked as an attorney for about four years, and I really didn’t like it, it just wasn’t for me.”
“It was very lonely and isolating, but I really didn’t like the area I was practicing which was elder law a lot of people fighting over money,” she continued. “What happened was, I actually started running these learning workshops for the law firm. I was working for on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and that wound up becoming my favorite part of my day, when I spent two hours with groups of people and teaching them, and I really saw how grateful people were to learn something that could really impact their lives.”
Ms. Rothenberg shared that she knew then that she wanted to leave law. “I just didn’t know what my next step would be, so I joined the New York City teaching fellows, and that’s how I became a teacher,” she recalled.
Her sister, who was a teacher herself, actually helped jumpstart her career as an educator. “She was the one who told me about the program, she said ‘You have a lot of background in science and they’re always looking for science teachers. Why don’t you look at the teaching fellows?’”
Before becoming an AP at Cardozo, Ms. Rothenberg was a science teacher in the Bronx. “I was a teacher at DeWitt Clinton High School,” she explained. “I loved working in the Bronx, the experience was very different, as I felt like students in the Bronx, kind of like had to take care of themselves a little more.”
Now, Ms. Rothenberg is in her sixth year at Cardozo, spending three years as a teacher, and three years as an AP. “It is one of the best places. I absolutely love working at Cardozo,” she beamed.
“I know my emails, and everyone knows, my emails come off as very formal. But, every day I get to come into work and I’m happy because I get to work with the best group of people, and the best students, and I feel that every day when I walk in the building.”
Ms. Rothenberg shared some advice with the students of Cardozo. “Pace yourselves,” she said. “I think sometimes it’s easy for students to get caught up on what everyone else is doing. I think students do know themselves best, and they should focus on what works for them, rather than looking at what everyone else is doing.”
She continued to say that, as the AP of Data and Testing, she sees a lot of kids who stress about exams. “So my biggest advice is to pace yourself, everyone gets to where they’re going, no matter how long they drive there. That’s such an important thing to remember is that we’re all going to end up in the same place some people just may hit a little bit of traffic,” she said.
Everyone has their own story to tell, and Ms. Rothenberg is an amazing example. From being an attorney to a teacher, she became a successful AP who thrives in the Cardozo community. To contact Ms. Rothenberg, students may email her at: [email protected] for any questions about regents, upcoming exams, or just to say hi.
