Today for Mensch Monday, we’re shining a light on Drew Kaplan, a DJDS junior — and our Student Council Vice President and Managing Editor of The Paw — whose reporting on rising Jewish day school enrollment nationwide was published through the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s Teen Journalism Fellowship and later picked up by The Forward and outlets around the world. The idea for the article began in a DJDS Judaics class, where a video about a major day school conference highlighted a national surge in enrollment and a renewed commitment to Jewish education and community after October 7. Seeing the same trend here at DJDS, Drew set out to understand whether our school’s growth reflected a broader pattern. He dug into national data, connected it to DJDS’s own enrollment increases, and explored why so many families are turning — or returning — to Jewish day school education. Drew offered thoughtful insight into what the process revealed: On writing for a national audience: Drew learned qui...