Rachel Weiss, Social Worker, Lower Division
As a social worker with many years of experience, Rachel is passionate about working with students and their parents, building community and providing students with opportunities for self-reflection. She became a social worker out of a desire to help others but also to be in a profession where she would have opportunities to work creatively, learn and grow throughout her career-- in line with the Q300 values of Inclusion, Inquiry and Responsibility.
Rachel came to Q300 in January 2019 after 7 ½ years at the Opportunity Charter School in Manhattan, where she worked in both the Middle School and the High School. In that position, Rachel counseled students, participated in the IEP process and helped to launch and develop curriculum for Advisory Programs in both schools. It was in this job that she fell in love with working in schools. It is rewarding to work with children in the place where they do so much of their important learning, growing and social development.
Prior to her time at OCS, Rachel worked in outpatient mental health for seven years at St. Luke’s--Roosevelt Hospital Child and Family Institute (now a part of Mt. Sinai) and at the Bushwick Mental Health Center in Brooklyn. St. Luke’s is a teaching hospital and Rachel was fortunate there to work and learn alongside a group of gifted and dedicated social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists. She also taught in the training program and supervised trainees.
Rachel studied English Literature at the University of Michigan, where she earned her BA. After a few detours, including a stint behind the bar of a London pub, Rachel worked in book publishing, holding marketing positions at several literary and university presses.
Change beckoned and Rachel went on to complete her MSW at Hunter College School of Social Work. After graduating, Rachel spent several months engaged in intensive study at the Proyecto Lingüistico Quetzalteco in Guatemala, fulfilling a longtime goal of learning to speak Spanish. Working as a Spanish-speaking social worker cemented her passion for working with immigrant and first-generation students and their families. Because of her interest in developing her skills as a therapist, Rachel completed two post-masters training programs, one at NYU and the other at the New York Institute for Psychotherapy Training.
Rachel lives in Manhattan with her husband, Ivan Stoler (a proud Queens native and DOE alum), and their son, Frank, a middle school student in District 3.
