Franny Hertz, top row third from right, with the 2013-14 Task Force

Franny Hertz has been involved with WISE for much of her life.

In 1978, Franny did her WISE project at Woodlands High School. She interned at Pleasantville Cottage School and was   assigned to work with “severely behaviorally challenged pre-pubescent boys.”

One of the main lessons Franny learned from her WISE project was to “always look for mentors”—and it is a lesson she has taken with her as she has grown from a WISE student into a WISE mentor, coordinator, and parent of WISE students.

Franny is currently the WISE coordinator at Rondout Valley High School, where both of her daughters, Emilia and Isabel Stern, completed WISE projects.