6 minute read
From the Head of School
DEAR PINGRY COMMUNITY,
Whenever I think about Pingry’s history, I am always struck by movement. The School has never stood still in its 161-year history. Beginning in 1861 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Pingry has branched out across the state, with campuses in Hillside (1953), Short Hills (1974), Basking Ridge (1983), and now Pottersville (2021). At each turn, Pingry has made bold moves to deepen and enrich the student experience. The decision to acquire the Pottersville Campus is no different.
Pottersville is quite unique in that it is situated among three townships: Bedminster, Tewksbury, and Washington. On a recent Saturday morning, I had the opportunity to meet with members of the Pottersville community, including Bedminster Mayor Larry Jacobs, along with members of the local volunteer fire department, and neighbors. Several Pingry staff and trustees were in attendance. It was a wonderful opportunity to begin new relationships and help Pingry establish a positive presence in the community. We were glad to make new friends.
Just a few days later, we held our first all-facultyand-staff gathering on the Pottersville Campus, with the Lower School spending the full day on campus for their professional development day, and with other divisions and departments joining later in the day for an interactive campus tour and social gathering. The campus could not have looked more stunning with fall foliage on full display, adorning the edges of the landscape. Having been on the campus multiple times over the last several months, it was most exciting to see the inspired reaction of those community members for whom this was their first time stepping foot at Pottersville. Several of you have inquired about what we plan to do at Pottersville. We view an opportunity to create immersive learning experiences for our students to deepen experiential education so that students walk away with enduring understandings and memorable learning. We have many exciting events planned, including an Explorer-In-Residence Trade Simulation with the Form III students, athletic team building overnights, PSPA book clubs with College Counseling and CAST (Counseling and Academic Support Team), Peer Leadership retreats, and more to come. Our goal this year is to enable students and the community to experience and learn about the Pottersville Campus.
We are writing a new chapter in Pingry’s history and we are excited to invite you along for the journey with us. I know you will enjoy reading the feature story about Pottersville in this issue of The Pingry Review.
Matt Levinson Head of School
A Tribute to Science Teacher Drew Burns’ 31-Year Pingry Career
Magistri member Drew Burns, who taught Chemistry and Physics, has ended his Pingry career after being diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease. A member of the faculty from 1990–2021, he also served as Head of the Science Department in the mid1990s and coached Co-ed JV Ice Hockey and JV Softball. He always looked forward to getting students excited about learning.
“Teaching and learning is more than information retrieval,” he once wrote. “It is curiosity, passion, energy, compassion, fun and laughter, frustrations, and successes. It’s about establishing relationships, building confidences, and developing skills and talents that last far longer than the actual content of the courses you teach.” Students have described him as caring, creative, humble, supportive, patient, and understanding.
“Mr. Burns belonged in the classroom,” says Katie Sienko ’05. “Perhaps my fondest memory is of him during our freshman year as he demonstrated what happens when electrons become excited, boosting to an orbital with higher energy. All of a sudden, he leapt from the ground to the chair to the desk to the counter to showcase these different orbitals, without losing a single beat in his lecture as our class looked on in complete awe. I remember thinking: this is why I came to Pingry.”
Chris Cuneo ’96 remembers some of his free time as a senior that involved Mr. Burns. “He taught a new course called Advanced Physics, in which we covered exciting topics like quantum mechanics and the Theory of Relativity. Mr. Burns always welcomed questions, and I often spent my free period at the end of the day hanging out in his office, asking off-the-wall questions. The Science Department under Mr. Burns was serious about giving us an advanced education—and it did—but it made the process fun.”
Teachers have also benefited from his caring and supportive ways, such as Anatomy and Physiology Teacher/ Health Teacher Liliana Torres, in her 21st year on the faculty. Originally a Health Teacher, she joined the Science Department as a Biology Teacher in 2002, then added Anatomy in 2006. Several years after she started teaching science, the School split Biology and Chemistry into two semesters each, spread over freshmen and sophomore years. Ms. Torres didn’t feel prepared to teach Chemistry.
“I had not done Chemistry since college, so I went back to school and shadowed Drew Burns and [then–Chemistry Teacher] Amy Greenleaf on alternating days. I took their classes for a year, in addition to teaching my own,” she recalls. “Drew was very passionate about Chemistry and made it fun and less intimidating. He was all about discovery and trying new things, and looking for that ‘hook’ to grab you and keep you engaged. He gave me confidence to teach freshmen, used his free periods to observe my classes and experiments, and always respected my questions and took the time to answer them.” As part of his mentoring, Mr. Burns shared his class materials—notes, quizzes, tests, presentations—and demonstrated the experiments so Ms. Torres could anticipate students’ questions. “He is a teacher’s teacher.” Mr. Burns’ colleagues treasured their collaborations with him, including Chemistry Teacher Tim Grant P ’03, ’06, who created many labs with him. “We took a lab [about molar mass] that would get about 95 percent correct results and improved it to 99 percent while also scaling it down to make it a microlab. We even changed the equipment so that its cost was greatly reduced and it could be used by schools with minimal budgets. We presented this lab at a few schools, and they loved the simplicity.”
One of his former softball players vividly recalls Mr. Burns’ impact on her. “Nearly 20 years later, I clearly remember the kindness, enthusiasm, and patience of Coach Burns on my first day of JV softball practice,” says Allison Seebald ’05. “It is a memory that has been reinforced by the countless other moments I have witnessed Coach Burns model this behavior—whether on a playing field or in a school hallway, whether engaging with a student, colleague, or perfect stranger. He is one of the finest people I know.”
Although Mr. Burns taught in the Upper School, he was a friendly and familiar face in the Middle School, too. Teachers in the Middle School Science Department report that he always took an interest in their activities and was excited to help Middle School students review the details of their science projects.
Among his many teaching awards, he received Pingry’s Woodruff J. English Faculty Award (2004) and Edward G. Engel Chair for Mathematics and Science (2008).
