SUMMER 2016 FALL 2017
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THE PINGRY REVIEW
Visual Arts Teacher, Gallery Co-Coordinator, and Experiential Education Coordinator Rebecca Sullivan in Iceland this summer. Read more on page 44.
The Women of Pingry
52 Pingry Teachers Return to School
Page 8 Over 40 years ago, Pingry graduated its first class with female students. In recognition, we present the stories and experiences of five alumnae, one from each decade that the School has been coeducational.
60 An Art Educator and Integrator
On the cover: A trip back in time—the Winter 1976 issue of The Pingry Review, two years after the School began welcoming girls.
Departments
From the Headmaster . . . . . 3 Scene Around Campus . . . . 4 Philanthropy . . . . . . . . . 20 School News . . . . . . . . . 27 Athletics News . . . . . . . . 70
Alumni News . . . . . . . . . 74 Ask the Archivist . . . . . . . 84 Class Notes . . . . . . . . . . 86 In Memoriam . . . . . . . . . 94 Closing Word . . . . . . . . . 96
As part of its commitment to professional growth, the School supports—now more than ever—faculty members’ pursuit of higher education. Three teachers reflect on their experiences hitting the books, and what it means for their Pingry students. Visual arts teacher Mrs. Jennifer Mack-Watkins balances teaching and exhibiting. She also connects the School’s curricula to exhibits in the Hostetter Arts Center Gallery, revealing to students a whole new dimension of learning.
62 Strength Program Grows Stronger
First, a relatively small weight room. Then, the first Greig Center. Now, a new era: the expanded Greig Family Strength and Conditioning Center in the BAC rivals a college athletics facility.
76 At Home on Stage
Rebecca Mozo ’00 is captivated by theater and has made a name for herself as an actress—not only on stage, but in other areas as well. Find out what draws her to this art form. FALL 2017
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Opening Shot
Fall 2017 | Vol. 74 | No. 1
Lower School students share an excited look as they prepare to head into class on their first day of school. Editor Greg Waxberg ’96
Communications Writer
Editorial Staff Kate Whitman Annis P ’23, ’23, ’28
Associate Director of Institutional Advancement
Allison C. Brunhouse ’00
Director of Admission and Enrollment
Andrea Dawson Senior Writer
Holland Sunyak Francisco ’02
Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving
Melanie P. Hoffmann P ’20, ’27
Director of Institutional Advancement
Edward Lisovicz
Advancement Writer
Dale V. Seabury
Director of Strategic Communications and Marketing
Design and Layout Ruby Window Creative Group, Inc. www.rubywindow.com
Photography Camille Bonds Peter Chollick Bruce Morrison ’64 Cherilyn Reynolds Debbie Weisman The Pingry Review is the official magazine of The Pingry School, with the primary purpose of disseminating news and information about the School, alumni, students, faculty, and staff. Contact the editor with comments and story ideas: The Pingry School 131 Martinsville Road Basking Ridge, NJ 07920 gwaxberg@pingry.org 908-647-5555, ext. 1296
The Honor Code
Pingry believes that students should understand and live by standards of honorable behavior, which are essentially a matter of attitude and spirit rather than a system of rules and regulations. Decent, self-respecting behavior must be based on personal integrity and genuine concern for others and on the ethical principles which are the basis of civilized society. The members of the Pingry community should conduct themselves in a trustworthy manner that will further the best interests of the school, their class, and any teams or clubs to which they belong. They should act as responsible members of the community, working for the common good rather than solely for personal advantage. They should honor the rights of others, conducting themselves at all times in a moral and decent manner while at Pingry and throughout their lives as citizens of and contributors to the larger community of the world.
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THE PINGRY REVIEW
A LETTER FROM THE HEADMASTER
Dear Members of the Pingry Community In the October 1974 issue of The Pingry Review—one month after Pingry welcomed its first female students, and following the school’s 113-year history as an all-boys’ institution—an editor noted: “Pingry’s 114th year opened with a ‘something added’ quantity (and quality). Girls arrived on the Hillside campus in great numbers—101 enrollees, to be exact. Due to the tremendous pre-work, which had gone into the planning for the addition of these young ladies, the confusion was kept to a bare minimum.” With the advantage of hindsight, perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Pingry becoming coeducational in 1974 was how unremarkable an event it appeared to be, at least within the—predominantly male—community itself. The Review gave it cursory coverage. With the exception of publishing a few words from then-Headmaster H. Westcott Cunningham ’38, noting how well things were going, even students largely avoided the discussion in the Record. If “tremendous pre-work” was involved—that is, really giving thought to the ways in which the century-old, all-male culture of the school should welcome and begin to accept and embrace a female student body—it wasn’t readily apparent. And while outward confusion may well have been kept to a bare minimum, one can only imagine the impact those early years of coeducation had on Pingry’s longstanding male faculty, administrators, and students, to say nothing of the 189 brave girls in Pre-K* through Form VI who put an “end to an era” (a phrase that was, incidentally, the title of the June 1974 issue of the Review, marking the 113th commencement exercises).
“The women who came to Pingry in those early years deserve a great deal of credit and admiration . . . they were pioneers. And Pingry is a stronger school for all of our students because of their commitment.”
At the time, Pingry may have oversimplified the adjustment required, but I do believe we have made, and continue to make, progress when it comes to giving all of our students equal voice and opportunity. When Pingry first went coeducational with the start of the 1974-75 school year, of the 620 students enrolled in Forms I through V, 101 were girls (88 girls enrolled in Pre-K through Grade 6). Forty-two years later, with the start of the 2017-18 school year, of the 612 students enrolled in those same classes, 296 are girls. In the Lower School, exactly half of its 288 students are girls. But neither figures nor the words of the dominant culture, as expressed in the Review in 1974, are as compelling as the stories of individuals themselves. So, I encourage you to read the experiences of the five alumnae shared in this issue’s feature article, who span the decades that our school has been coed and who so generously reflected on their Pingry journeys. The women who came to Pingry in those early years deserve a great deal of credit and admiration. Like so many women of their time, who had the courage and conviction to break through the ranks of single-sex institutions—both secondary schools and institutions of higher education—they were pioneers. And Pingry is a stronger school for all of our students because of their commitment. As you will read in a Q&A with four current senior girls, they set the stage for all that our female students are engaged in today. As Rachel Chen ’18, the 2016 and 2017 winner of the Dr. Robert H. LeBow ’58 Memorial Oratorical Competition, proudly points out, last year, all six finalists—in a talent-stacked field of more than 30—were girls. Sincerely,
Nathaniel E. Conard P ’09, ’11 * Coeducation came to Pingry thanks to a merger with the already coeducational Short Hills Country Day School, which offered a Pre-K program at the time. The additional campus provided the space needed to move the primary grades from the Hillside campus to Short Hills, making room for women to join the Hillside campus. FALL 2017
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Scene Around Campus
Cum Laude Society: Fall Inductions Pingry welcomed nine new members of The Cum Laude Society during the Upper School Fall Awards Assembly. Established in 1906 as the secondary school equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa, the country’s oldest collegiate honor society, The Cum Laude Society honors academic excellence and superior scholarship among its 382 member schools. It also recognizes individuals who—in all areas of their lives—love to learn, share their knowledge with others, and demonstrate scholarship, honor, integrity, and good character. The Society also hopes that all of its members will continue their cooperative and selfless pursuit of knowledge while serving as lifelong examples of The Cum Laude Society motto: Aréte (Excellence), Diké (Justice), Timé (Honor). Membership is limited to 20 percent of the Senior Class. A second ceremony will be held in the spring for members of the Senior Class who are elected during the 2017-18 school year.
Happy Birthday, Dr. Pingry! September 26, 2017, was Dr. John F. Pingry’s 199th birthday. To celebrate, the Lower School held a brief morning assembly in which students recounted highlights of Dr. Pingry’s career and his founding of the School. They adapted their comments from Pat Brisson’s children’s book, The Pingry Story: The Dream Continues, written in honor of the School’s 150th Anniversary in 2011. “We think he would be very proud of the school that he established,” one student said. With music teacher Mr. Tom Berdos at the piano, all of the Lower School students and teachers sang “Old John Pingry,” by late English teacher and Director of Admission C. Brett Boocock. On the Basking Ridge Campus, Middle and Upper School students celebrated Dr. Pingry’s birthday with lunchtime cupcakes. 4
THE PINGRY REVIEW
Above: Cum Laude inductees from the Class of 2018, elected at the end of their junior year: Jackson Proudfoot, Alexandra Pyne, Clyde Leef, Josephine Cummings, Rachel Chen, Alyssa Chen, Megan Pan, and Jennifer Coyne. Not pictured: Naiyah Atulomah.
Fall Art Exhibit: “What Have We Done?”
Lessons from the Bayeux Tapestry Middle School students taking Latin 2 tackled a hands-on project when they made transcriptions and translations of medieval Latin as it was used in the renowned Bayeux Tapestry. This miniature version, reproduced on paper at a 1:7 scale to the original, filled the length of The Wilf Family Commons—students saw the entire tapestry, but groups focused on specific sections to make their transcriptions. “Students saw a document that was written in Latin when it was an active language, and learned about history and culture as depicted in the tapestry,” says Latin teacher Dr. Theresa O’Byrne. “They also had practice with figuring out abbreviations, which are common in medieval Latin.”
Hoboken native Tim Daly displayed his acrylic paintings and charcoal drawings in the Hostetter Arts Center Gallery in an exhibit whose themes included oil, aviation, war, and consequences of climate change. Pingry visual arts teacher Rebecca Sullivan describes him as “a planet super-hero, painting works about important contemporary issues.” His paintings, usually based on photographs, are often mistaken for photographs, about which he comments, “I have always tried to achieve a believable, if painterly, realism.” During his gallery talks with students in the visual arts courses, such as Art Fundamentals, Drawing & Painting, Architecture, and Portfolio Development, Mr. Daly said he hopes that viewers develop an awareness for the context of each of his paintings, but the meanings can be subtle. When asked about his inspiration, he named the artists Edgar Degas, Diego Velázquez, and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, as well as photojournalists and current events. Among Mr. Daly’s credentials, he has won four New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship Grants for painting; and he painted a 200-foot-long mural for the South Mezzanine of the Secaucus Train Station. The U.S. Department of State is among those who own his work. “I am attracted to spectacle,” says artist Tim Daly, visiting with students in the Hostetter Arts Center Gallery.
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Welcome Asja, Pingry’s 2017-18 AFS Student By Ethan Malzberg ’19 Asja Alispahic ’19, Pingry’s AFS (American Field Service) student for the 2017-18 school year, hails from nearly 4,500 miles away in Tuzla, Bosnia and is living with the Jan Family (Nabeel ’19 and Alina ’16). Asja continues the tradition of Pingry’s nearly six decade-long partnership with AFS. Throughout the years, Pingry has hosted AFS students from many countries, with the goal of allowing both the AFS student and the Pingry community as a whole to learn about the cultures and traditions of countries around the world. One of Asja’s goals for her year in the United States, she says, is to meet everyone in the Junior Class, and, of course, to make as many new friends as possible. She joined the Girls’ Cross Country Team for the fall season, and plans to join both the Girls’ Swim and outdoor Track & Field Teams. An older sister to two younger brothers in Bosnia, Asja enjoys the adventure of having an older sibling in her American host sister, Alina ’16, a sophomore at Oberlin College. She is also enjoying getting to know her host brother and fellow junior, Nabeel ’19. Coming from Bosnia, which is approximately the size of West Virginia, the sheer scope of the United States is an adjustment for her. So far, though, she is loving her new home for the year. “I really love the United States, I can see myself living here in the future and maybe attending college here, too! All of the people are so kind.” The school she attends in Bosnia is Gimnazija “Ismet Mujezinovic.” (Ismet Mujezinovic [1907-1984] was a well-known Bosnian and Yugoslav artist.) There, students take 13 classes per year with seven 45-minute classes per day. In contrast, Asja appreciates how Pingry students take only seven classes per year, with a schedule of four 65-minute classes per day. Asja is
Asja Alispahic ’19, second from right, with AFS Club leaders Alison Lee ’20, Alisa Chokshi ’19, Aashiya Jaggi ’19, and Ouarida Benatia ’18. They are joined by Director of Global Education and AFS Advisor Jeff Jewett. A welcome ceremony in the Upper School Faculty Lounge in October included “Bosnian Bingo” as a way for students to learn about Asja and her native country.
happy to take a break from studying geography for the first time in six years (at her school in Bosnia, a huge emphasis is placed on geography), and, at Pingry, her favorite class is AP Psychology with Dr. Fisher. Asja also enjoys art and is taking Drawing & Painting with Rebecca Sullivan. “I found the language barrier a little bit difficult during the first week of classes, but, now, it isn’t stopping me at all!” In addition to English and Bosnian, Asja can speak German, Croatian, and Serbian.
Unsung Heroes in Science • Rosalind Franklin (British chemist whose X-ray diffraction contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure) • Mae Jemison (African American engineer, physician, and NASA astronaut—first African American woman in space)
Growth mindset and the unrecognized accomplishments of women in science were parts of an eighth-grade science lesson in September. First, students watched two videos: one described current scientists’ accomplishments and their impact on the world, and the other was a TEDx talk about growth mindset. Second, the students were asked to differentiate between the concepts of “fixed mindset” (focusing on a project’s end result or a person’s seemingly innate ability) and “growth mindset” (focusing on a project’s process or a person’s effort). Third, the students examined posters of six female scientists whose accomplishments have largely gone unrecognized, and were asked to consider why these women are not as well-known as a male scientist such as Albert Einstein: 6
THE PINGRY REVIEW
• Katherine Johnson (African American mathematician who calculated the trajectories for many NASA missions) • Maryam Mirzakhani (Iranian mathematician; only female winner of the Fields Medal [2014], the most prestigious honor in mathematics) • May-Britt Moser (Norwegian psychologist and neuroscientist; co-winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize for Medicine) • Chien-Shiung Wu (Chinese American experimental physicist, known as the “First Lady of Physics,” who contributed to the field of nuclear physics)
Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Visits Pingry
Kiowa Indian Dr. N. Scott Momaday, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the novel House Made of Dawn, addressed the community in early October, after Middle and Upper School students, faculty, and staff read his book, poetry, and short stories over the summer and in the early fall. The English, Professional Growth, and Diversity and Inclusion Departments collaborated to introduce his literature to Pingry and coordinate his visit. He wove together several themes: the wonders of language (as an invention of the mind); identity; Native American history, culture, and legends; and saving one’s self and improving the human condition through purpose, humility, hope, and prayer. Dr. Momaday posited that the most important question we can ask ourselves is “Who am I?” In his case, one identity is “Scott Momaday, writer, painter, speaker.” A second identity is his
Indian name, “Rock Tree Boy” (inspired by his visit, as an infant, to Wyoming’s Devils Tower, which is sacred to the Kiowa people and named “Rock Tree” by Native Americans). A third identity is his tribal history. He explained that the earliest evidence of the Kiowas places them in western Montana, but they migrated, eventually formed an alliance with the Comanche tribe in southwestern Oklahoma, and became buffalo hunters and warriors (living by the principles of bravery, steadfastness, generosity, and truth). Sadly, however, the Kiowa culture came to an end in the 1800s for three main reasons: buffalo were killed off; the federal government prohibited the Kiowas’ religious Sun Dance, declaring it an act of barbarism; and Native Americans were outnumbered in the Indian Wars. “We were a conquered, dispirited people,” Dr. Momaday reflected. “We are just now beginning to overcome it.” His foundation, the Buffalo Trust, helps Native Americans, especially children, retain their identity and pride. Inviting student questions, Dr. Momaday was asked about his inspiration to become a writer, and he named three sources: his mother (she was a writer, while his father painted), reading, and the power of imagination. During writing workshops for Middle and Upper School students, Dr. Momaday addressed a range of topics, including writer’s block (it is a normal part of the process and requires patience); poets who inspire him (Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens, Seamus Heaney); literary works that inspire him (Out of Africa for its mastery of the English language; The Old Man and the Sea as a powerful work that relies on simple use of language); his writing process (revising as he progresses); and the importance of storytelling as an oral tradition (a story is always one generation away from becoming extinct).
Upper School Musicians Visit the Lower School Lower School students eagerly anticipate this annual assembly, with performances by the Balladeers (directed by music teacher Mr. Jay Winston), Buttondowns (directed by Music Department Chair Dr. Andrew Moore), and Jazz Ensemble (directed by music teacher Mr. Sean McAnally). Vocal selections included Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Over the Rainbow (Balladeers and Buttondowns); Fireflies, featuring glow sticks for the singers and audience (Balladeers); and Just the Way You Are (Buttondowns). Following an introduction by Mr. McAnally, who explained that jazz consists of multiple genres, sub-styles, and improvisations, the Jazz Ensemble offered Freddie Hubbard’s Red Clay, Blue Sriracha (a Pingry title), and Charles Mingus’s Better Get It In Your Soul.
Music teacher Mr. Jay Winston directing the Balladeers and Buttondowns, with Music Department Chair Dr. Andrew Moore at the piano.
Music teacher Mr. Sean McAnally directing the Jazz Ensemble.
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The Women of Pingry
} Celebrating Five Decades of Coeducation Illustrations by Ariel Li ’21 8
THE PINGRY REVIEW
Orientation Day for Pingry’s first classes of girls, September 5, 1974.
In this, Pingry’s 157th year, look no further than the old class photographs lining the Upper School hallways—from the Bowler hats and woolen overcoats worn by the Class of 1893 to the pompadour hairstyles of the Class of 1968—and you will be reminded of the School’s long and distinguished history. Unarguably, it is a history marked by men, beginning with Dr. John Francis Pingry himself, the 15 male headmasters who would follow him, and 113 years of only-male students. For nearly the last half-century, however, since the School became coeducational in the fall of 1974*, women have been every bit as visible in the hallways of Pingry as men. From the student body, faculty, and staff, to members of the Board of Trustees, the PSPA, and the Pingry Alumni Association, the now natural—indeed, essential—roles of women within the School community belie their relatively short presence on campus. In the spring of 2026, the first class of alumnae to receive Pingry diplomas—the Class of 1976—will be inducted into the “50-Year Club,” a milestone marked every year over Reunion Weekend. Well in advance of that celebration, we devote this issue of The Pingry Review to the women of Pingry, exploring their experiences as females at a once all-male institution, how those experiences shaped them, and, in turn, how they influenced the School. We present the voices of five different women, one from each decade that the School has been coeducational, from the 1970s through today. Conveyed as first-person accounts, their stories are very much their own—personal, compelling, candid, and, in some cases, critical. They are also merely five stories, not in any way intended to encompass the full experience of all Pingry alumnae. In fact, in seeking to highlight the female experience, we were reminded that all Pingry students experience the School through many different lenses. As the stories of these women reveal, their gender is but one identity. * While the School officially began admitting girls in the 1974-75 school year, an academic exchange with Kent Place students had been underway for the preceding two years. Beginning in 1970, an affiliation with the all-girls’ school was even considered; however, co-education was ultimately brought to Pingry when it merged with Short Hills Country Day School in early 1974.
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Title IX, the Women’s Movement, and the early Balladeers. . . I had an excellent education. Did Pingry anticipate absolutely everything that the female student body could want or need? Well, no. That would be asking a lot. But they were very responsive, and, as a strong group of women, we advocated for ourselves. We couldn’t have a soccer or lacrosse team because we didn’t have enough fields. But other than that, programs were just as strong for girls as they were for boys. My junior year, several of us asked to start a singing group for women, and administrators were fine with it. I sang all four years. We weren’t the Balladeers, but I can’t remember what we called ourselves—it was 40-plus years ago! You have to remember that Title IX came about in 1972. We came to Pingry in ’74. The Women’s Movement was fairly young at that point, too. Women were just starting to advocate for themselves and ask for what they wanted. So really, you can’t judge any institution based on today’s norms; you have to base them on the norms of the time. Quite frankly, Pingry was probably ahead of most places.
On adjustment and friendship. . .
Gabrielle Jervey Bolarakis ’78 The fall of 1974. . . I arrived at Pingry in the fall of 1974, as a freshman, the first year that Pingry went coed. It just so happened that, when I was looking at private schools, Pingry was opening its doors to girls. It was very fortuitous. My father and uncle were both Pingry graduates, and I had attended Reunions with my dad, so I knew about the school. As soon as I knew that the school was available to me, I didn’t look anywhere else. Obviously, those of us who came those first couple of years, we were a pretty strong group of women. You didn’t want to apply to a school that was all-boys and not be prepared. If you were a shy child, you could go elsewhere. We didn’t have any problem advocating for ourselves. The girls who came were all well prepared. 10
THE PINGRY REVIEW
Pingry becoming coed was probably most difficult for the junior and senior men because they were giving up their space. Boys will be boys anywhere. Considering that we took over their locker rooms and bathrooms, I didn’t feel any animosity or anything like that. And I don’t remember the classroom dynamics bothering me that much. There were only about three to four female teachers at the time, but the school treated us all the same academically. Still, it was an adjustment for the male professors. I didn’t want to be treated as a woman. I wanted to be treated fairly, and I always thought I was at Pingry. Could they have been more sensitive to certain things? Sure, but that was true everywhere. I was one of 74 girls in that first freshman class. We didn’t huddle together like it was you and me against the world. One of the great things about Pingry, even today, is that it’s an institution that encourages academics as well as extracurricular activities. With such small classes, we all did everything together—we played sports, wrote for the newspaper, took classes together. That’s an incredible opportunity for students. You go to a big college or university today to play football, and you can’t even play another sport. We had great friendships, especially the kids who sang together. We hung out together all the time. The boys were totally open to having women there. I’m not saying everything that was said all the time was appropriate, but that probably isn’t the case now, either. It was no different than anywhere else. The only difference was that there were more of them than there were of us.
Lessons from school, and life. . . The Class of ’78 was supposed to be the first class to graduate from the new Martinsville Campus, but construction was delayed. I spent the whole time on the Hillside Campus. Pingry is really where I learned how to learn. The school had an incredible number of things to be involved in besides academics; the opportunity to have all those experiences in the arts, in sports, and more. It was a wonderfully rounding experience. Truthfully, Pingry taught me more than college did. Learning how to write, how to learn, how to budget your time. . . those are the hardest lessons. If you’ve learned how to do those things before you get to college, college isn’t such a big deal. Pingry prepared us so well. I didn’t know that recreation was a profession when I was at Pingry. What works for me about this career is that I have interests in sports and theater, and recreation brings both together. When I was just starting out, it also brought the flexibility that I needed as a mother of young children to raise a family and have a career. It’s always a compromise, no matter what. That’s the fallacy of the Women’s Movement. We were a small group of girls at Pingry, but we worked hard. We didn’t take any guff. We were willing to walk into an institution that was all men and be fine with it. And we’re stronger for it. We learned how to stand up for ourselves at an early age, which put us in good stead when we went on to careers. No one was welcoming us with open arms. But the school was much more receptive to our opinions than anyone in the outside world was going to be. It was an exciting time. And it was fun.
Gabrielle Jervey Bolarakis ’78 received a B.A. from Manhattanville College. She has worked in adult education, nonprofit operations, and recreation for nearly 20 years, currently as Director of Recreation in Readington Township.
Dani Shapiro ’80 From Hebrew day school to Pingry. . . I came to Pingry in seventh grade; it was 1974. I ended up at Pingry because my family lived not far from the old campus in Hillside. I grew up in an orthodox Jewish home and had gone to a small Hebrew day school, which my father was involved in founding, from Kindergarten through sixth grade. My mother came to understand that it was not the right school for me to remain in. So, one day my parents sat me down at the dining room table and said, “How would you like to go to Pingry?”
I had always thought of it as a boys’ school, and I might not have even been aware that they had begun to accept girls, but my mother knew it and thought it would be a good switch for me. We lived near Masters Square, so I was close enough to be able to walk there. It felt like it was in my backyard. I was excited for a change, and it was presented to me as the only change. Because the school was merging with Short Hills Country Day School [SHCDS] at the time as well as bringing in girls, I think my parents felt it would be a lot of new people at once and that would make it an easier transition. Of the girls in my class, it felt to me that most were coming from Short Hills Country Day. There were ways I felt at ease with the transition and ways I didn’t. The complexity of my particular transition was not only about being female, but it was also about being Jewish. There was a culture of antisemitism at the school at the time, and I went from thinking that the entire world was Jewish to not only is it not all Jewish, but it’s complicated. That was pretty formative. Though I certainly didn’t feel that it was difficult to make friends. I think the SHCDS group kind of stuck together the way kids that age who already know each other do, but, over the years, as more women came in and it became a more diverse environment, that changed. FALL 2017
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“It absolutely felt like a boys’ school that had just admitted girls. . .” When I arrived, it absolutely felt like a boys’ school that had just admitted girls and hadn’t quite figured out how to do that and integrate girls in a way that would feel comfortable or inclusive. At the time, you stayed with your class, which moved from subject to subject over the course of the day. There were 12 to 15 students in my seventh-grade class, and only a couple of us were girls. So, you would go into a class and travel with that class with maybe one or two other girls in it. We felt very much in the minority. My sense was that quite a lot of the people—administrators and faculty—were not so excited by the admission of girls. They had liked single-sex education. When girls were admitted, for example, they did away with the Dress Code; some of the longstanding faculty didn’t love change so much. Pingry wasn’t warm and fuzzy. There was a coolness to the whole endeavor [of becoming coeducational]. That was just the culture of the school at the time. Here you are, sink or swim. Girls came into that and we all handled it in our own way. I remember an English class in seventh grade— I think I was one of two girls in the class—and there was a boy who was roughhousing in some way. We were in a first-floor classroom, it was winter, and the [male] teacher opened the window and threw him out. That was just the kind of we’re-going-to-teach-you-the-consequences, toughlove mentality that existed. Nobody thought anything of it. To me, sitting there as a girl, who had just come from Hebrew day school, my jaw was probably on the floor. The teacher wouldn’t have done that to a girl. I did not feel that I got special treatment because I was a girl. I didn’t feel anyone was easier on me or treated me in a different manner. I think that it was harder to speak up and, to be fair, that may have been the case for me wherever I went. I was someone who thought a whole lot about what I was saying before I said it, and was afraid of being wrong. But that feeling would be very much exacerbated by being in a classroom where the faculty were generally more comfortable with boys. The boys, too, were accustomed to a single-sex education, and they struggled a bit to accept us. There was definitely some ribbing and ganging up. Was it more than it would have been elsewhere? I don’t know. One of the things that Pingry didn’t handle well psychologically was placing students in those small class groups. Your section was your section, and there weren’t opportunities other than gym class or athletics for the girls to mix it up with each other more. When we girls finally were all together as a group, it was in a competitive, sports environment. I think today, a school deciding to go co-ed would bring in all sorts of educational psychologists and do it very differently. But it’s so easy to be a presentist. In 1974, Pingry wasn’t forwardthinking, but they weren’t doing anything that wasn’t all that surprising given the thinking of the day. 12
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Searching for mentors. . . I recall very few female teachers. The teacher who was lifealtering for me was Peter Cowen ’66 [Upper School English teacher]. I’m still friends with him. He was one of those great English teachers, young, newly married, and he and his wife lived in my neighborhood. I loved being around them. He was someone who taught books he loved in a way that made me love them, too. He was hugely important to me. When I think of female teachers who were similarly transformative, though, I can’t think of a single one. I didn’t feel that Mrs. [Susan] Hollister [Dean of Girls] was warm and fuzzy. It was not her manner to extend herself. She wasn’t a den mother. She came from SHCDS and she almost absorbed the culture of Pingry rather than creating a new culture for the girls who were there. In terms of finding that sense of mentoring, I don’t think that existed. It certainly did not exist for me.
Choosing a primarily women’s college. . . I graduated from Pingry early, after my junior year—it was possible back then—and went to Sarah Lawrence, a women’s college that had some men in the way that Pingry was a boys’ school that had some girls. [Sarah Lawrence began admitting men in 1968.] I was choosing between Sarah Lawrence and Barnard [a women’s college], so there must have been something in me, even though I wasn’t conscious of it, that wanted to shift that gender balance. H. Westcott Cunningham ’38 [former Headmaster, 1970-80] called me into his office when I had been accepted to both colleges and urged me strongly to go to Barnard, probably because it’s Ivy League, a sister school to Columbia. It would have looked good for the school. But I knew that Sarah Lawrence was going to be a kinder, softer safer place for me. I was not confident intellectually when I left Pingry. I was well educated, but I was not confident. I don’t think being among the first group of females at the school was insignificant. It had something to do with it. Not everything, but something.
Reflecting on Pingry’s influence, and its culture today. . . I’ve been back to Pingry once or twice to speak at Career Day. It’s interesting to have been on the old campus and now, to see the new one...it’s like being at a totally different school. It feels so radically different from when I was there, both physically and in terms of its culture. I definitely felt when I visited the new campus [Basking Ridge] that it wasn’t a school that was stuck in time. It had grown with the times. Though I will say that I was taken aback, when first invited, to find that being a writer was considered an “alternative” career. Pingry was a very different place then than it is today, in a million different ways. The arts were very much secondary then. As a female and an artist, I was someone who lived inside of a world that wasn’t quite available to me. Artists
are people who, in some way or another, have that feeling of their nose being pressed to the grass, of not being a member of the club, being on the outside. But that’s usually where the best work comes from. In that way, Pingry was formative for me. So many things that are formative aren’t positive in the moment. So, I don’t regret anything about it. It was just a complicated experience. Pingry absolutely influenced the path of my life. A lot of that came from having to work hard to be heard, to be seen, to have confidence. None of that was handed to any of us.
Dani Shapiro ’80 is the bestselling author of five novels and the memoirs Still Writing, Devotion, Slow Motion, and, most recently, Hourglass. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, One Story, Elle, The New York Times Book Review, the op-ed pages of The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and has been broadcast on “This American Life.” She is also a contributing editor at Condé Nast Traveler. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, where she also earned an M.F.A. in Fiction, Ms. Shapiro has taught in the writing programs at Columbia, NYU, The New School, and Wesleyan University, and is co-founder of the Sirenland Writers Conference in Positano, Italy.
Jennifer Lee Koss ’96
Creating Pingry’s Honor Board. . . I am sure that my experience with Pingry’s Honor Code has informed my life as an adult. Having to write it out at the end of every school document was a constant, daily reminder of our conscious choices and behavior. There is something about that very act of writing out the Honor Code that forces you to think about how your actions have an impact, on a daily basis. You’re thoughtful about what you’re doing and how you’re doing it and if you’re living honorably. In this day and age, that’s something I take away with me. Was this a good day? How did I do at work? How was I with my kids? My husband? I can still recite it [the Honor Code], which I think is a testament to the School. I was always actively involved with Student Government from my Middle School days all the way up to my junior year, when I ran for Student Body President. Now that I think of it, I was the only female candidate! That same year, Eli Weinberg ’95 and I co-chaired a committee that researched the concept of an Honor Board at other schools. We wanted to reconnect students with Pingry’s Honor Code and felt an Honor Board would help them to become more conscious of it. I recall working very closely with Eli and going through iterations and drafts of how it would function. [The school eventually adopted an Honor Board
Joining the Pingry community. . . Because my birthday is in December, I ended up repeating fourth grade when I started at Pingry, and I was learning things I had never learned before. I really embraced being in the Lower School, everything about the environment. I felt like I immediately belonged. In sixth grade, when I graduated, I won the Headmaster’s Principal’s Prize. Mr. Hanly was headmaster at the time and gave me a plaque. I remember feeling so proud that I represented the qualities that the school wanted to uphold. I felt a lot of pride in the school and my experience there. When I went back about 10 years ago to visit, the plaque was still on the wall with my name on it as the 1990 winner!
Being female at Pingry. . . I really don’t think I was very conscious of gender issues while I was at Pingry. I don’t think it even played into my psyche. I always felt like I was on par with my male counterparts in every instance. But now that I look back, I was a member of the Balladeers [Pingry’s female a cappella group], I played on the Girls’ Varsity Lacrosse Team, and, in college, I took that sport with me. It defined who I was when I was at school. These were definitely special experiences, being part of something that was clearly gender specific. Today, the gender dialogue has exploded. More and more people are conscious of equality and having the same rights. But, at least in my mind, it didn’t shade anything I did at Pingry. FALL 2017
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based on a model developed at Haverford College, and Mrs. Lee Koss became one of the Board’s first chairs.] The creation of the Honor Board was so critical in demonstrating trust among the students, administration, and faculty. That sense of having a voice at the table left an indelible impact on me.
Pivotal Pingry figure. . . If I look back with broad brushstrokes at my time at Pingry, it was [former Headmaster, from 1987-2000] Mr. Hanly who was most pivotal. I didn’t have a lot of daily interaction with him, but there was a way in which he carried himself that led to a sort of silent respect. He had a lot of dignity; I felt that and admired it as a student.
Pingry informing life. . . No doubt, Pingry had an influence vis-à-vis my new business [BRIKA, a curated retailer with three standalone stores in addition to an online business that sells works by various artisans and designers]. At Pingry, I felt like I could do anything. If I wanted to do something, all I had to do was find the right resources or talk to the right people. I had no inhibitions about raising my hand and wanting to be involved, and I wasn’t shut out or shut down for that. Pingry is an environment that fosters a can-do environment. And that, for sure, had an impact on how I functioned at college and in life. The beauty of a school like Pingry is that you have everything right there. You really do. There is so much at your disposal. The onus is on the student to really seek it out and not be afraid to ask for it. And that has probably only accelerated more since my time there. That fostering environment, an environment in which you never feel alienated, that’s pretty special.
Jennifer Lee Koss ’96, a Juilliard-trained cellist, earned a B.A. at Harvard University, a master’s in Philosophy at Oxford University, and an M.B.A. at Harvard Business School. She spent over a decade working in management, consulting, investment banking, and private equity before becoming a co-founder and business lead at BRIKA (www.brika.com), a curated online shopping boutique.
I entered Pingry in Grade 9 as part of a program called NJ SEEDS, which helps financially-limited, but academicallytalented, youth to get into private school. I had an older cousin who went to Pingry and also did the program.
Being female—and an African American—at Pingry. . .
Being a student at Pingry. . .
As a female going to Pingry, I definitely became more conscious of the appearance that students were going for— I asked my mom for certain sandals or UGGS. There was more of an expensive taste. That was a lot of pressure. I know that I was obsessed with weight; a lot of girls there were obsessed with that. Being one of a few black females in my class, I was more conscious of my weight. I didn’t really have to deal with eating disorders, but a lot of girls went through it.
I always did well in school, so, when I first got to Pingry, academics weren’t a problem for me. It was hard academically, but it wasn’t unbearable. I was able to get straight As, maybe three Bs. I was very focused. I needed As, not for the status, but for me. I enjoyed the feeling of succeeding and excelling. Teachers were very open to giving me advice, and I would go to class and say “Hey, I really want to get an A. What can I do?”
My experience at Pingry was more about being an African American than about being a woman. A lot of my experience were things that I felt racially—like making friends with young white males who had not experienced too many African American females in their lives. They would have conversations with me and ask questions. The narrative was that we were intimidating, curvy. A big part of my experience at Pingry was trying to interpret things and help people learn. And I learned a lot as well.
Yaadira Brown ’09
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THE PINGRY REVIEW
Not long after I started at Pingry, I talked to my mother about transferring because I didn’t feel comfortable socially at first. I was talked out of leaving Pingry by Dr. Artis. . . she told me that sometimes you can use tough experiences as learning experiences. While it’s not my duty to teach people, I can help to make a difference. There were some situations where I was like, that’s ignorant. But I had to understand that they might not have known that what they were saying was inappropriate, and I used that as a lesson. I made very substantial relationships with the males at Pingry, more than the females. I helped to change the minds of a lot of men, to open their eyes to the reality of the world. I helped them to understand what’s appropriate and what’s not. Even some things like talking to parents. . . I would overhear my peers talking to their parents and I would say, “You shouldn’t talk to your mom that way!” I think I was a source of reason. A lot of the guys did take my opinion. We would talk about it and they would get it. They were open to learning. Walking out of Pingry, I was like, “Wow, I may have had to sacrifice and feel like I had to sit through and accept some of the things that were said, but now they’re going to leave Pingry more prepared, and I appreciate that.” I didn’t just come to Pingry teaching others about my experiences; I walked out with a lot, too. I was almost ready to give up on the situation, but I was encouraged not to. It was real life. Everyone in the real world is not going to be like you whether you’re black, white, Asian, or any other race. I had to get used to it. I couldn’t just be comfortable. By the end, I was comfortable being uncomfortable. I had one friend—we did African dance together outside of Pingry—who was acclimating way better than me. She was more open to the differences. I was closed off. A lot of that was me. But then I talked to Dr. Artis and realized the opportunity, and I was able to appreciate it more. I’m very happy that I stayed.
Memories of Peer Leadership. . . I was a Peer Leader [Peer Leaders are seniors paired together, mentoring a group of freshmen], and my co-Peer Leader was someone I was very close to, who lost a sibling while we were in school together. I really bonded with him. I think about all the moments we shared, the moments of vulnerability. I thank Pingry for that. I could not have picked a better person to partner with. I never ever thought in my life I would be close to a white male, but I got really close to a lot of young white men at Pingry.
The college application process. . . I was only going to apply to HBCUs [historically black colleges and universities], but my college counselor encouraged me to look at a variety of schools. “Let’s look at Ivies,” she said. I was like, no, I’m not doing this again. I was looking for something different. I didn’t want to teach people again. But she talked to my mom and said that, with my grades, I had a chance. I wasn’t getting good grades to get into somewhere. I liked As because it was a personal thing.
I needed As not for the status, but for me. So I thought, Ivies are great, but no. Then, NJ SEEDS took us on a college tour. They took us to all the Ivies, all the top 10 schools. Penn stood out for me. I liked being in a city, the hustle and bustle. Columbia was gated and I didn’t feel a part of the community, but, at Penn, there was no definition, no straight-cut line that separated the community from the campus. It just seemed more natural. This place is kind of ok, I thought.
Taking Pingry to Penn. . . I had to take everything I learned from Pingry to Penn [University of Pennsylvania]. I went in not expecting people to automatically understand my life history. I went in with the notion that I may have to explain things to certain people. I might have to help people understand where I’m coming from. People may look like you, but they may come from a totally different background—other African Americans might not relate to anything I’ve been through. I had to realize that, no matter what color you are, sometimes you may have to help people understand. I had to bring some of those tools with me from Pingry. I’m a big believer that everything happens for a reason. There’s a lesson to be learned in everything. I look back at the Pingry community that was my class—we experienced death together, so many losses, so many joys, and I never thought that I would be close to such a group of people.
A 2013 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Yaadira Brown ’09 worked for four years as a clinical research assistant at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute. In 2016, she earned an M.P.H. at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health. She is currently applying to medical schools.
Courtney Hulse ’10 On being a female at Pingry. . . I didn’t really think about the fact that the school was once all-boys when I was there. I considered Kent Place when applying to schools, but I chose Pingry because it was coeducational. I didn’t think girls were treated any differently than our male classmates. A Pingry friend of mine, who, like me, went to college in the South, echoed the thought that the school was definitely more progressive than the southern universities we attended. Most Pingry students were high-achieving and competitive, but supportive of each other. I took AP Chemistry with several of my best girlfriends. It wasn’t like the girls only took humanities classes. During my sophomore year, I took a film class with Mr. Delman for my art credit, and I was the only girl in the class. That was harder than I expected it to be. In a film class, there’s a certain social dynamic because you can’t do the work by yourself. Since the boys from my year were all friends, it was a little bit difficult to navigate. It ended up FALL 2017
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being an opportunity to become friends with students from other years; three of the seniors were sweet and took me under their wing. I still see them socially on occasion.
Running for class president. . . Jess Westerman ’08 [Student Body President, who initiated the tradition of students signing an Honor Code pledge at Convocation] was two years ahead of me, and Eileen Roach ’09 was one year ahead of me. Both of them were very involved in Student Government and made it more approachable for me. They did a lot of logistical work for the students, which I learned when I joined Student Government during my junior and senior years. Though the boys often held the titles—we only had titles for class president, vice president, and study body president—the girls did a lot of the behind-the-scenes work, like meeting with potential venues for the Snowball Dance. I don’t mean to minimize the contributions that the boys made, because they also contributed a lot. I think they often had more confidence than the girls to put themselves out there and campaign. My junior year, I decided to run for class president, and I was super-nervous about giving the speech. I spoke so softly that my friends said no one past the second row could hear me!
Athletics at Pingry. . . I competed in team sports all four years—tennis in the fall, ice hockey in the winter, and lacrosse in the spring. The boys’ ice hockey team had a much bigger following than the girls’ team did. Admittedly, our games weren’t as exciting to watch. We were one of only four teams in the entire state and barely had enough girls to fill a team. Some of the players on the boys’ team made a point to come to some of our games after their practices to show their support, which we appreciated. Then-Director of Athletics Gerry Vanasse was also one of our biggest fans.
Girls Learn International. . . My freshman year, I was part of a great club— mostly seniors, and all girls except for the club president’s boyfriend—called Girls Learn International, which advocates for universal girls’ education and human rights. We had a partnership with a school in Kenya, wrote letters back and forth, and held fundraisers to sponsor scholarships. It was a cool concept, and I liked that, not only were we doing concrete things, but we also heard about the impact of our contributions on the girls’ dayto-day lives from their letters. I remember learning that $300—essentially one bake sale—could fund a student’s education for an entire year. It reinforced the massive privilege of a Pingry education. The exchange sparked an interest in education, which I pursued during summer internships in college.
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THE PINGRY REVIEW
Looking back at Pingry. . . I can’t say there is anything I would have changed about my Pingry education. I really value my experiences at the school, academic, social, and otherwise. Pingry gave me a strong foundation of research and writing skills, which have been invaluable in each of my academic and professional experiences—even now in grad school, where I’m studying international security and conflict negotiation. One of the best things about Pingry is how accessible the teachers are—learning to use conference periods to meet with faculty prepared me well for taking advantage of office hours in college and graduate school. A lot of my close friends from Pingry are still my close friends. In fact, a friend [and fellow alumna], whom I met at Pingry in the seventh grade, recently pointed out to me that we’ve known each other for more years than we haven’t known each other.
A Political Science/Anthropology double major at Vanderbilt University, Courtney Hulse ’10 worked for three years in Manhattan as a Program Associate for the United Nations Foundation. She recently began a graduate program in Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University’s Fletcher School.
Q&A with Seniors Myla Stovall, Namita Davey, Kassidy Peterson, and Rachel Chen In addition to being girls on campus, what identities are most important to you at Pingry, and why? Rachel: Definitely being a squash player has been a big thing for me at Pingry. I started playing squash because I came to Pingry. I wasn’t athletic before that. I didn’t think of myself as athletic before that. But I really wanted a team sport because Pingry is an athletics-oriented school. Now, this is my second year as captain [of the Girls’ Varsity Squash Team], I play outside of school, too, and I’m nationally ranked. It has been a big focal point of my life and has brought me a lot of confidence, for sure. Myla: My most important identity is my African American identity. I don’t give a second thought to the fact that Pingry is coed, but I take into consideration my race on a daily basis. Gender kind of takes a second seat. Coming from my previous school, with only 20 kids in a graduating class, I was one of only four African American girls in my class. Coming to Pingry, where the class sizes are bigger and it is more diverse—although it is not quite as diverse as some other schools might be—I do feel like my confidence with my African American identity has blossomed here. I have friends and administrators I can trust and talk to about things I feel are important to my identity, things I might be struggling with. I really feel more connected to that identity. The African American affinity group has also been really helpful—it’s such a safe space. Kassidy: Definitely being an athlete. Freshman year, I ran cross country and played softball. Sophomore year, I decided to swim as well as play softball. A lot of my really close friends are on the [Girls’ Varsity] Swim Team, so that’s part of why I decided to join. We were all challenging ourselves academically and taking a lot of the same classes, and also had the common experience of swimming after school every day, and maybe then even going on to another swim practice. It’s felt good to be with friends who didn’t only play one sport, who had hectic schedules after school like I do. Academicallyspeaking, my junior year, I feel like I really hit my stride. I took AP Chemistry with Mr. Grant. It was my favorite class last year. The first week of class I was like, “Wow, this is my thing!” I finally felt like I had found my passion. Namita: My racial identity has been a big part of my experience at Pingry. Especially growing up at Pingry [Namita began in Grade 4], hitting phases when you sometimes doubt yourself and your culture. I would be embarrassed in Middle School sometimes and try to hide some parts of it. But now, I’ve kind of found my place. All of the new students—the larger and more diverse populations—who came in sixth and ninth grades helped me to figure out my own place and my own identity. Race is something that the Diversity & Inclusion Department at Pingry really emphasizes, probably more than gender. A lot more. But it’s also because race is more obvious.
Myla Stovall ’18, Namita Davey ’18, Kassidy Peterson ’18, and Rachel Chen ’18.
Compared to your male counterparts, do you feel you have equal opportunities at Pingry to lead and stand in the spotlight? Namita: I really don’t think [leadership opportunities] are a problem. If you just look at the girls in this room, we’re all captains, we all hold leadership roles—Student Government, club presidents—we’re all doing these amazing things. It’s not made harder here because of our gender. The administration does a good job making us feel comfortable and making us feel like our gender doesn’t really make us any different. I’m the student leader of the Girls Affinity Group—it’s a really good space for people to come and talk and support one another. One specific instance I recall was last year, when a male student commented during an assembly, “I’m not a feminist by any means, but. . .” and then he continued on. At the next affinity group meeting, we were all talking about it. We had a really good conversation FALL 2017
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about how sometimes people, for some reason, are embarrassed to admit that they’re a feminist or that they believe in equality. Rachel: People don’t love to talk about gender diversity and feminism at all. It’s just a discussion that people don’t enjoy having. I don’t think he meant his words as an attack, but the way they came off was perceived as insensitive, and maybe reveals some things about our leadership. But I don’t see it necessarily as a big problem so much as an isolated issue. Namita: He came back and made an apology at a Morning Meeting. There was a response to his remark—it didn’t just go ignored. That was good.
Do you feel that girls at Pingry, in general, are supportive of one another? Rachel: I think so. We’re lucky enough to be at a school with so many opportunities and resources that we’re not usually competing for them. We’re so close and such a small grade, we have to support each other because we have common goals. We’re working with each other—if not in this class, then another club or another committee. It’s circular; everyone gets their chance to contribute to the group. We celebrate each other. For example, last year, all the contestants in the LeBow competition [the Dr. Robert H. LeBow ’58 Memorial Oratorical Competition] were girls—six girls! It was so heartening. I was just really proud to be on the stage with them—every single speech was so relevant and so powerful. Even though we were competing against each other, we all became much closer. [Rachel won the 2016 and 2017 competitions.] Myla: I agree with Rachel. The girls are supportive, yes. Obviously, there’s some degree of competitiveness—you can’t go to school and not have some degree of competitiveness, regardless of gender. But, for the most part, we’re all in it together, more so this year than in years past. Kassidy: Yeah, even now in our senior year, we are all at the point where we want our classmates to go to great schools and do great things. Go you, go do it! That’s a common feeling in our grade. Rachel: There’s no resentment because, as a class, we’ve seen each other earn everything we have. It would be different if we went to a school that didn’t require so much of us, because then it would be easy to collect titles or AP classes without the work involved. But having seen my friends struggle through classes, tests, teachers, working for that championship or performance, everything has been earned. At this point, we can’t even feel competitive. Namita: I can tell you a specific example that popped into my head while we were talking about this . . . my sophomore year, I applied for a club position and didn’t get it. I was crying in the bathroom, and one of my best friends came in and comforted me. She happened to be good friends with the faculty adviser of that club. She approached the teacher and asked why I didn’t get in. She went out of her way to get that information for me. It was just one of those moments . . . it’s a good community. 18
THE PINGRY REVIEW
If you could share something about the school today with the Pingry women who preceded you, what would you most like them to know? Namita: I would want to share with them the image of my history class this morning. It’s evenly split between girls and boys, and we had a super-intense debate about the end of World War II and the dropping of the atomic bombs. One of my friends was getting really fired up. And a boy across from her was making the counterargument. We were all together, debating, discussing, being passionate, being inclusive. Also, I would share about my computer science class . . . STEM and especially comp sci are fields where girls are very much underrepresented. But, in my class, there are just as many, if not more, girls than boys. Even my teacher [Ms. Aye Thuzar] is a female computer scientist! Kassidy: I would share our Math 6 class, which I take with Rachel and Namita. Half the time, I don’t know what Trem [Upper School math teacher Manny Tramontana] is writing on the board. But, after class, we all huddle around a table, trying to figure out a problem. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from, it’s, “Ok, you solved it, great! So, how did you get there? What are your ideas? Explain!” In that moment, anyone can be the leader. Myla: I would hand them a list of all the girls who have leadership or prominent positions in the Pingry community today, whether students, faculty, or administrators, just because it’s always so heartwarming and inspiring to see how many females have those positions. We have women who are class presidents, the head of diversity [Pingry’s Diversity & Inclusion Department Chair, Dr. Diana Artis], peer leaders, and people in Student Government, for example—females who have voices in such places of power. That can be very inspiring for girls who didn’t feel they had a voice when they first came to Pingry. Rachel: Mostly, I’d want to say “thank you,” because they came first. And because we wouldn’t be here if they didn’t first suffer through having only two other girls in their classes. My iRT [Independent Research Team] happens to be all girls. It’s a research team, in a STEM field, and we’re led by a woman, [Upper School science teacher and Journal Club advisor] Dr. [Colleen] Kirkhart. It’s awesome. We call ourselves “ladies of the lateral line” because that’s what we’re researching (we’re studying zebrafish, who have a sensory organ on the side of their bodies called the lateral line). I’m also in an advisory with Myla that is all girls. Myla, I don’t think you know this, but I was kind of skeptical at first. You and the other girls were all on the field hockey or lacrosse teams together. You were already very close. But it turned out to be such a warm space. It’s just another example of what wouldn’t exist without the women who came before us.
Former Pingry Trustee Allie Rooke P ’02, ’04: KPS Exchange Student I was an exchange student from Kent Place School (KPS) for one term during the 1973-74 school year. It was my junior year, and several of my good friends applied for the exchange program with me. Having been at KPS since the sixth grade, it was an opportunity to challenge myself with a different educational environment and experience something new. For several terms, Pingry and KPS exchanged a few students in anticipation of their possible merger. This exchange assisted in evaluating the curricular and facility issues that would be involved with becoming a co-ed institution. (In the end, the merger with KPS was never realized and Pingry went co-ed on its own in the fall in 1974, while KPS remained all female.) The exchange program was common knowledge among students. Vicki King preceded us as the first student from KPS who went to Pingry in order to
benefit from the science curriculum. Others followed, and, as I recall, there were four of us the term I attended Pingry. It was a trifle stunning, at first, to walk down the halls and be surrounded by 500 male students. We were definitely a novelty and a bit under the microscope in and out of the classroom. I particularly remember taking Latin IV with Albie Booth, already a legend at Pingry. I was one of only three students in the class. After many rather calm and uneventful rides on the KPS bus, the activity level and antics on the Pingry bus were most entertaining. Dare I mention the water fights between buses traveling side-byside on our way home from school? The students were great. As exchange students, we had a lot of freedoms and were treated with respect. The seniors invited us to the “senior garden,” a place where no other underclassmen were allowed. There had always been
interaction between KPS and Pingry students in joint choral performances, mixer dances, and the like, so many of us knew each other. It seemed more of an adjustment for some of the faculty, who, at times, did not seem to know what to make of us. They had to be aware there were “ladies” in the classroom and consider their comments accordingly. Some were more successful than others. I have only the fondest memories of my student days at Pingry. After all, I met my future husband and wonderful lifelong friends. My experience gave me the confidence to try new things. I later studied abroad in college and have continually challenged my own expectations. Pingry will always have a special place in my heart. It is one of the reasons that we chose to send our sons Thomas ’02 and Matthew ’04, that I participated in the PSPA, and that I served as a trustee.
Shari (Pollack) Holtzman ’77: Family Ties This is an anecdote that connects three Pingry alumni: Mark Holtzman ’76, Mary Beth Kelman ’76, and me, Shari (Pollack) Holtzman ’77. It is an unusual story that brought together a family, which, 35 years after graduation, was unaware of each other’s lives. The common thread that brought my sister Robin Pollack ’80, Mary Beth, and me to Pingry was our parents’ love and respect for education. I spent nine years at Vail-Deane, an allgirls school in Elizabeth, NJ. It offered a fine education in a small environment. When news came that Pingry was opening its doors to women, my parents were thrilled with being able to give my sister and me the opportunity to attend such a venerable institution. The idea of entering a population of all-male students was exciting and unnerving at the same time. However, as I transitioned into Pingry, the close-knit friendships at Vail-Deane kept me feeling secure in what could have been an intimidating atmosphere. The academics were challenging, but I was able to find my comfort level in the arts, becoming a member of The Drama
Club and acting in several productions. The most memorable was Bye-Bye Birdie. Other favorite classes were art with Mrs. Archibald and French with Mr. Feder. I learned many skills that served me well in various aspects of my life. Mary Beth’s background was a bit different, having been grounded in a public school education. As an educator, her mother felt that she was floundering intellectually and academically at Union High School. When she found out that Pingry was going co-ed, she had her take the test and was happy to learn that she was accepted. A whole new world opened up, exposing her to literature, Soviet history, and the Russian and German languages. Pingry represented an entirely different way of learning as opposed to the cookie-cutter regiment of public school. Pingry gave us the foundation to succeed in college. After graduating, Pingry friend Mark Holtzman and I reconnected on NJ Transit and, ultimately, married. It was our joint Pingry memories that bonded our relationship after many years of losing touch.
Mary Beth and I were friendly during school, but, being in separate grades, our lives naturally diverged. Moreover, Mary Beth and Mark were cousins who had lost touch as well after leaving Pingry. Unbeknownst to Mary Beth and me, we lived and raised our families in close proximity. It was not until our 17-year-old daughters attended college orientation at The University of Texas at Austin that they met one another and discovered that they had this inexplicable connection—that both their mothers had graduated from Pingry. When the story was relayed to me, I remembered that Mary Beth was Mark’s cousin, which meant that the two girls were cousins as well. Bottom line: Pingry is the common thread in the discovery of a lost part of our family. Forty years later, we both look back at Pingry with pride and affection, knowing that we were the first women to attend one of the best private day schools in the country. When we speak about our Pingry years, it invokes respect and admiration. Indeed, Pingry continues to resonate in all our lives. FALL 2017
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Philanthropy
Pingry Sports Don’t “Fall” Behind Following the opening of the Miller A. Bugliari ’52 Athletics Center, winter sports such as fencing, wrestling, and squash flourished in their own dedicated spaces. Spring sports made excellent use of the Greig Family Strength and Conditioning Center and Lovett Gym, training and practicing as planned, regardless of the unpredictable weather conditions. As the school year began, fall sports took center stage—and they, too, have received an upgrade courtesy of Pingry donors. The venerable Parsons Field has seen a major overhaul with a turf field, new stadium seating, and a renovated E. Murray Todd Track now installed and in use by our teams. The football team
has also been practicing with MVP (Mobile Virtual Player) robotic tackling dummies, making practice more productive, efficient, and safer. The tennis team has 12 brand-new courts to play on as well, giving our SCIAA Co-Champion Girls’ team an edge. Softball fields are being renovated well ahead of the spring season, and are slated to be finished in the coming weeks. Finally, the addition of another ball wall will give Pingry lacrosse players more space to practice passing, catching, and stick-handling skills. There’s a lot to look forward to in the coming year. Go Big Blue!
The venerable Parsons Field has seen a major overhaul with a turf field, new stadium seating, and a renovated E. Murray Todd Track.
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Athletics Facilities Dedicated During Homecoming Over 700 people attended Homecoming on October 7, celebrating our fall athletes and cheering for Big Blue in the balmy autumn weather. It was the perfect day to celebrate the dedication of two outdoor Pingry spaces—the Temares Family Stadium and Tennis Court No. 4 Given by Audrey and Zygi Wilf and Family. After meeting in the Athletics Hall of Fame in the Miller A. Bugliari ’52 Athletics Center, Headmaster Nat Conard P ’09, ’11 led representatives from both the Temares and Wilf families to Parsons Field and the tennis courts for brief remarks and ribbon-cutting ceremonies. Temares Family Stadium, which has already seen several seasons of use by Pingry spectators, received its proper signage this year, acknowledging the generosity of Steven and Amy Temares P ’10, ’13, ’16. Working together with the administrative team at Pingry, Steven and Amy determined that a new stadium for football, lacrosse, and track would be ideal to replace the older structure, which had grown “long in 22
THE PINGRY REVIEW
the tooth,” according to Headmaster Conard. Jacklyn Temares ’13 was on hand to cut the ribbon hanging between the banisters of the ramp leading up to the stands. Tennis Court No. 4 Given by Audrey and Zygi Wilf and Family was only a short walk away, and Pingry’s Girls’ Varsity Tennis Team attended the dedication. Trustee Jonathan Wilf ’02 and
Steven and Amy Temares P ’10, ’13, ’16 with their daughter Jacklyn ’13.
his daughter Claire cut the ribbon to their tennis court, just one in an impressive complex of 12 brand-new courts. After thanking the Wilf family for their contribution, the girls wasted no time in making use of the complex, jumping into practice by hitting volleys back and forth. “The Wilf family, the Temares family, and so many other families have completely transformed Pingry via the Blueprint for the Future Campaign,” said Headmaster Conard. “We are so grateful to have you continue to support our School, our mission, and our students by helping us to build facilities that reflect the competitive spirit and winning focus of Pingry athletes.”
Temares Family Stadium
Tennis Court 4 Given by Audrey and Zygi Wilf and Family
Steven Temares and his wife, former Trustee Amy Temares, have given Pingry’s football stadium to complement the new synthetic turf and new track to supplement Pingry’s venerable Parsons Field. For the Temares family, it was all about giving back to a school that they felt had enhanced the lives of their daughters Jacklyn ’10, Dani ’13, and Madeline ’16. “We’re very appreciative of everything Pingry did for our family,” Steven says. “Each of our daughters had a great experience, and Pingry prepared them extremely well for college and for life.”
With Pingry’s athletics spaces being revitalized across the Basking Ridge Campus, it was only fitting that one of the tennis courts should be renovated by the Wilf family—Stephanie ’13 was a tennis player, in addition to squash, winter track, and skiing. With sister Elana ’04 running track and field and cross country, and brother Jonathan ’02 playing golf, the Wilf family has seen athletic success across a gamut of sports at Pingry.
So strong is the Temares’ affinity for Pingry that, during the Blueprint for the Future Campaign, they sought to make a gift that responded to the needs of the School. “The main thing is that we wanted our gift to benefit the School,” Steven says. “We asked what they were looking for, and we learned that Pingry wanted to have the stadium redone. The existing structure was made of wood and had seen plenty of wear over the years. We felt that, since the School had it as a priority, it would do very well with a new one.” Jacklyn, Dani, and Madeline were all Pingry athletes in addition to their accomplishments as scholars—Jacklyn played tennis and golf, while Dani and Madeline were soccer and basketball players. “We were thrilled to contribute in any way the School thought was beneficial,” Steven says. “Since this was a need for the School, we were very happy to do it.”
However, it’s much more than this athletics legacy that motivates the Wilf family. “Pingry is an institution that changed my perspective on education, and how meaningful it can be to young people,” Jonathan says. “The name is synonymous with integrity, honor, and a tradition of great education. The mission of the School has been integral in my life, shaping who I am today.” Jonathan’s feelings are echoed by his family, including parents Audrey and Zygi; the family’s support provided for several crucial objectives of the Blueprint for the Future Campaign, including the new tennis court. “I’m proud that not only was I able to have the experience I did at Pingry,” Jonathan says, “but that my family and I can pay it forward and make that experience even better for a new generation of students.” –––––––––––––
“We are so grateful to have you continue to support our School, our mission, and our students by helping us to build facilities that reflect the competitive spirit and winning focus of Pingry athletes.”
b
Headmaster Nat Conard P ’09, ’11
––––––––––––– Trustee Jonathan Wilf ’02 and his daughter Claire with the Girls’ Varsity Tennis Team and Head Coach Marion Weber.
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Financial Aid Scholarship Fund Named for Al Romano This year, Pingry’s Drama Department and the Office of Institutional Advancement are proud to establish a fund in honor of Albert C. Romano, retired Magistri faculty member and longtime Drama Department Chair. Mr. Romano worked tirelessly to build Pingry’s Drama Department from the ground up, and nothing was more important to him than his students. For this reason, The Albert C. Romano Scholarship Endowment Fund for Drama has been established to support financial aid at Pingry. A minimum of $100,000 is needed to fully realize this fund, with an ideal goal of $250,000 in order to maximize its financial impact for qualified students and families. An exciting challenge grant has been established for this fund: for every
two dollars donated, our challenge donor will give one dollar, up to $25,000.
confidence and interpersonal skills that the dramatic arts teach have aided so many Pingry students: “We need creative thinkers,” Mr. Romano has said. “Kids who take drama bring those skills into whatever they do—by really listening, by being present with the people they’re working with, by reading people. We are proud of [artists who have graduated from Pingry], but we don’t do arts to create artists—we do arts to create interesting people.”
This fund, which will directly benefit students actively interested or engaged in the dramatic arts at Pingry, means so much to Mr. Romano; although we miss seeing him around campus now that he has retired, this scholarship will allow us to continue his mission of attracting talented students to Pingry. The
Please consider making a gift to the Albert C. Romano Scholarship Endowment Fund for Drama in honor of Mr. Romano and in support of the arts at Pingry. For more information, please contact Laura Der in the Office of Institutional Advancement at 908-6475555, ext. 1264 or lder@pingry.org.
1861 Leadership Society Reception Celebrates the Arts
Katie Procter P ’22, ’26, Don Mullins P ’15, ’20, Andres Choussy P ’19, and Aida Choussy P ’19.
Actors and volunteers from the Fall Play Antigone performing an improvisation and character exercise. Pictured are Sara Donovan ’18, Lucas Vazquez ’19, Kenna Baudin P ’25, ’28, Calvary Dominique ’18, Giancarlo Castillo ’18, Assistant Headmaster Dr. Delvin Dinkins, Megan Pan ’18, Jonathan Wilf ’02, Brian Szepkouski P ’23, Meghan Salamon ’18, and Alison Verdesca ’18.
Pingry hosted a reception for members of the 1861 Leadership Society, the C.B. Newton Society, and Pingry Fund volunteers on October 11 in the Amos and Leola Hostetter Arts Center in a night celebrating all of Pingry’s arts programs, as well as the generous support of a community that makes them all possible. The 1861 Society recognizes those who support Pingry with an especially generous Pingry Fund gift, providing the School with a strong financial foundation. Leadership-level giving to The Pingry Fund is critical to furthering the 24
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mission of the School, and, by designating a Pingry Fund gift to the Arts, it supports our musical, theater, and fine arts programs. As one of the six designations within The Pingry Fund, these gifts have an immediate impact on our current students, providing them the opportunity to pursue a myriad of creative and artistic disciplines at Pingry. For more information about the 1861 Leadership Society, or to make a gift to The Pingry Fund, please visit pingry.org/ thepingryfund.
Gwen Li P ’27, ’30, Kelly Lu P ’20, ’22, Becky Jin P ’25, ’26, Vivian Wu P ’20, Jason Wu P ’20, Daniel Chen P ’25, ’26, and Yan Gu P ’20, ’22.
Karen Stewart-Ramos P ’23, Edward Ramos P ’23, Kenna Baudin P ’25, ’28, and Elizabeth Houghton P ’22, ’22, ’25.
Family Gifts Support Athletics Morriello Family Encourages a Team Effort It seemed to be serendipity that brought Rosa and Ronald Morriello P ’21, ’22 to Pingry. “Ronald grew up in Hillside, near the Pingry campus,” Rosa explains. “He would see the facilities, the sports teams, and everything that the students were doing, and he wanted his children to someday go to Pingry. Our daughter Kayla met a Pingry representative during a school fair at Far Hills Country Day School, which she was attending. She came home that day and said ‘Mom, I’m going to Pingry.’ Our children feel like it’s where they belong, and we couldn’t be happier.” Rosa coaches Middle School water polo with Steve Droste P ’25 and spring track with Nancy Romano, so it was only fitting that their Campaign gift be designated by the School to athletics priorities. “We’re an active family,” Rosa says, “and we really see the benefit of athletics in a child’s life.” Kayla ’21 plays softball at Pingry and is a competitive equestrian outside of Pingry; Cole ’22 plays soccer, basketball, and baseball. “In sports, success is achieved through
Rosa and Ronald Morriello P ’21, ’22 with their children Kayla ’21 and Cole ’22.
a team effort,” says Rosa, “and it’s that same effort and mindset that provide for the School. Giving back is so important for the growth of the School, and
if everyone gets involved—either through volunteering or giving—we can accomplish so much more as a unit than we do individually.”
Wood Family Helps Renovate E. Murray Todd Track As parents of a Pingry alumnus and two current Pingry students, Mary Anne and Ray Wood P ’14, ’18, ’21 have supported Pingry for over 15 years through the annual fund and, recently, by supporting the newly-renovated E. Murray Todd Track on Parsons Field. “All three of our children—Stewart, Anna, and Henry— started in Kindergarten,” Mary Anne says. “We were initially attracted to Pingry by the Lower School and everything it had to offer. All three have had a positive experience through the Middle and Upper Schools as well, and it’s worked out well for them to have a continuous education at Pingry.” Mary Anne calls their decision to give to the track renovation a “no-brainer.” “All of our kids embraced cross-country and track at Pingry, and Stewart ran at Dartmouth as well,” she says. “They have all had such a positive experience and gave their best to running at Pingry—it made sense to use our Campaign gift to support their passion and renovate the track.” Mary Anne and Ray Wood P ’14, ’18, ’21.
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PINGRY’S 2016-2017
ANNUAL REPORT ON GIVING is available online!
Inside you’ll find stories, videos, and photos of what we’ve been able to accomplish together; from the digital scenery in Macrae Theater, to the Mobile Virtual Players on the football field, to the experiential learning opportunities on campus and off—and so much more—there’s something for everyone. Of course, there’s also a complete list of Pingry donors, who have made all of this possible. Log on to pingry.org/annualreport and input the password “Pingry1861” to learn all about the exciting things Pingry was able to accomplish last year thanks to your help and support.
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Convocation Emphasizes the Importance of Community At Convocation, the official opening of Pingry’s school year, Middle and Upper School students reaffirm their commitment to the Honor Code in the presence of trustees, administrators, and faculty, and the entire assemblage sings C. Brett Boocock’s “Old John Pingry.” Each speaker’s remarks help to set the tone for the year. Inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem Song of the Open Road, Student Body President Michael Weber ’18 used the concept of the “open road” as a metaphor for the school year—a road filled with caution, conviction, and courage. Along the way, he said, “you will discover much about yourself,” such as knowledge, joy, strength, or passion for a subject. He pointed out that Pingry students are surrounded by hundreds of people who can provide guidance along the way. Honor Board Chair Ally Pyne ’18 posed the questions, “What is the Honor Code? How does it shape our community?” Her answer: trust, support, and accountability. She does not want to see perfection—rather, we should make mistakes and learn from them under an Honor Code that emphasizes accountability and kindness. Instead of falling into the trap of not holding people accountable for their mistakes, which can ultimately make certain behaviors become
accepted, Ally encouraged everyone to “buy in” to the Honor Code. Board of Trustees Chair Jeff Edwards ’78, P ’12, ’14, ’18 reflected on the perceived degrees of success of the band U2, baseball teams, and golfers based on their rankings and salaries—for example, does the baseball team with the largest payroll advance to the World Series? Perhaps not. Or do highly-ranked band members translate to a highly-ranked band? Perhaps not. Mr. Edwards’s conclusion: “Individual talent is not enough” because maximum success results from blending individual talents. “Develop your talents, but don’t lose sight of helping the larger community.” Headmaster Nat Conard P ’09, ’11 recognized the Magistri, faculty members who have taught at Pingry for at least 25 years. Collectively, the 25 Magistri on the 2017-18 faculty (with individual service spanning from 28 to 59 years) have served Pingry for nearly 1,000 years. In his remarks, Mr. Conard related two stories of self-interest, one about free throws in basketball and the other about cookies. For basketball, he spoke of Wilt Chamberlain’s poor career record with free throws, contrasted with the success rate of the underhand-throwing Rick Barry. For the 1961-62 season, Mr. Chamberlain switched to underhand and improved to a career-best
Honor Board Chair Ally Pyne ’18 encouraging students to make mistakes and learn from them in a culture of accountability and kindness.
61 percent success, but, thinking he looked foolish, he reverted to overhand, and his success rate dropped again; some of the free throws he missed in championship games might have cost his team victories. On the cookie front: in an experiment, researchers split students into groups of three to work on a project, with one student randomly selected to be the group’s leader. The group was presented with five cookies—after each person ate one, two remained, but who would eat the second-to-last cookie? The “leaders” did, and happily, as if their leadership earned them the right. Relating these stories—in the case of Mr. Chamberlain, “working for the common good might be uncomfortable”; in the case of the cookies, all Pingry students are fortunate to be members of the Pingry community—Mr. Conard noted that the Honor Code unites the Pingry community, guiding our choices. So, he asked the students to reflect on each situation…would they revert to overhand, knowing it could disadvantage their team? Would they take the fourth cookie? Honor Board Chair Ally Pyne ’18 and Student Body President Michael Weber ’18 collecting signed Honor Code pledges.
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Board of Trustees Welcomes New Members
Anthe Angelides P ’16, ’20 is President of the Pingry School Parents’ Association (PSPA) for the 2017-18 school year, after serving on the Executive Board for the past two years. She is Executive Operations Manager at Top One Road Markings Corp. Originally from Toronto, Canada, Mrs. Angelides attended York University, where she majored in Child Psychology and minored in Philosophy. She and her husband James have three children: Yanni ’16, Georgie, and Stamati ’20.
b Stephanie A. Link P ’25, who has 25 years of investment experience, is
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Global Asset Management Managing Director and Equities Portfolio Manager for TIAA Investments, managing largecap equities. Previously, Mrs. Link was Chief Investment Officer for TheStreet. com and was Co-Portfolio Manager and Director of Research for Action Alerts PLUS, Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust—she was responsible for all premium content at TheStreet.com and the daily management of the charitable trust. Mrs. Link has also been Managing Director of Institutional Sales and Director of Research for Prudential Equity Group. In addition, she appears regularly as a contributor on CNBC. Mrs. Link earned a B.S. in Finance at Boston College. She and her husband James are the parents of Georgia ’25.
b Maggie O’Toole ’05 is a set designer and producer for print, film, television, events, and web content in New York City. She has worked with top designers such as Mary Howard, Tom Lenz, and John Yeck, and with top photographers and directors such as Annie Leibovitz, Steven Meisel, and Sebastien Mader, for clients that include MTV, CBS, AOL, Vogue, Vanity Fair, Prada, and Louis Vuitton. Ms. O’Toole received a B.A. in Art History and a certificate in Painting from Princeton University. While at Princeton, she played on the Women’s Varsity Squash Team, which won three
consecutive national championships and two Ivy League titles, and she served as a captain her senior year. She later received an A.A.S. (Associate in Applied Science) in Interior Design from Parsons The New School for Design. Ms. O’Toole is President of Pingry’s Second Century Leadership Council, and a mentor for CitySquash, a notfor-profit after-school enrichment program based at Fordham University and Poly Prep Country Day School.
b Laura Overdeck P ’21, ’23, ’26 is Founder of Bedtime Math, a non-profit that aims to help children love math. Over a quarter-million people have downloaded her app of playful, nightly math problems, and more than 90,000 children have enjoyed Bedtime Math’s after-school Crazy 8s Club. Mrs. Overdeck is also Chair of the Overdeck Family Foundation, Vice Chair of the Board of Liberty Science Center, and a trustee at Princeton University. In addition, she serves on the advisory boards of Khan Academy and Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth. Mrs. Overdeck received a B.A. in Astrophysics from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. She and her husband John have three children, all of whom attend Pingry.
The Board of Trustees, 2017-18
Standing, center: Chair Jeffrey N. Edwards ’78, P ’12, ’14, ’18. Front row: Dev C. Ittycheria P ’19, ’22, Julian H. Scurci ’99, Denise M. Grant P ’23, Anne DeLaney ’79, P ’09, ’11, ’14, ’14, Anthe Angelides P ’16, ’20, Norbert “Woody” Weldon ’91, P ’23, Jonathan Z. Wilf ’02, Katharine Wyman Procter P ’22, ’26, Todd C. Builione P ’24, ’26, ’28, Amy B. Saunders P ’19, Kevin D. Eng P ’24, ’26, and Maggie O’Toole ’05. Back row: Jonathan Peacock P ’17, Arlyn Davich ’99, Ian S. Shrank ’71, Stephanie Link P ’25, Donald C. Mullins, Jr. P ’15, ’20, Laura Overdeck P ’21, ’23, ’26, Stuart M. Lederman ’78, Janice C. Beckmen P ’15, ’19, ’19, Craig A. Larson P ’18, ’20, John W. Holman III ’79, P ’09, ’11, ’14, Steven M. Lipper ’79, P ’09, ’12, ’14, Gwen Li P ’27, ’30, Stephen M. Barral P ’14, ’18, ’22, and Holly R. Hegener P ’14, ’16, ’18, ’20.
Honorary Trustees Thank You, Retired Trustees Deborah J. Barker P ’12, ’16 (Trustee, 2008-2017) Vice Chair, Chair, and Co-Chair of Finance Committee; Vice Chair of Committee on Trustees; Treasurer; Member of Development, Strategic Planning, Campaign Steering, Planning, and Employee Benefits Committees Genesia Perlmutter Kamen ’79, P ’11, ’13 (Trustee, 2011-2017) Member of Building & Grounds, Planning, and Strategic Planning Committees; Community Task Force Robin Oxendine P ’17, ’19 (PSPA President, 2016-17) Building & Grounds Committee
Edward S. “Ned” Atwater IV ’63 Fred Bartenstein, Jr. P ’68, ’70, ’72, ’75 William S. Beinecke ’31, P ’61, ’64 John B. Brescher, Jr. ’65, P ’99 Victoria Brooks, P ’02, ’04 William V. Engel ’67 John W. Holman, Jr. ’55, P ’79, GP ’09, ’11, ’14 Kathleen M. Hugin P ’11, ’13 Stephan F. Newhouse ’65, P ’95, ’97, ’99 Park B. Smith ’50, GP ’06, ’08, ’09, ’10 Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. ’44 F. Helmut Weymar ’54
Alison C. Malin Zoellner ’83 (Trustee, 2011-2017) Chair of Committee on Trustees; Secretary; Member of Finance, Compensation, Employee Benefits, and Planning Committees
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Pingry Welcomes New Faculty and Staff
Ms. Anne Becker, Grade 5 Social Studies teacher, is excited to return to the classroom. Prior to Pingry, she worked for several years as a freelance writer for Scholastic.com and as a lead curriculum developer at Amplify, where she created digital education products for students. In addition to her work with these companies, Ms. Becker has more than 10 years of teaching experience with Grades 2-6. She received a B.A. in Fine Arts from Chatham University and an M.S. in Education from Duquesne University. Ms. Lynne Cattafi, Middle School English teacher, joins Pingry from the Little Red School House & Elisabeth Irwin High School (LREI) in New York. At LREI, she taught humanities for Grades 6-8 and served as Dean of Students for Grades 5 and 6. Prior to her roles in academia, she served as an assistant editor at Longman Publishers, where she reviewed manuscripts and evaluated proposals. Ms. Cattafi graduated magna cum laude from Rutgers University, earning a B.A. in English, and received an M.A. in English Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. 30
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Karim Del Pozo, Dr. Delvin Dinkins, Dr. Marie-Pierre Jolly, Stephanie Mygas, Jamie Nanfara, Jeffrey Cohen P ’21, ’24, Emily Glatter, Matthew DuCharme, Dr. Theresa O’Byrne, Mike Saraceno, Sade Jack, Lynne Cattafi, Alan Van Antwerp, Christina Lee, Annie Sher, Keara Gordon, Jeffrey Feinberg, Audrey Enriquez, Olivia Tandon, Anne Becker, Dr. Brandyn Fisher, Mary Drabich, and Susan Conklin. Mike Saraceno’s and Mary Drabich’s positions were covered in the Winter 2016-17 issue.
Mr. Jeffrey Cohen P ’21, ’24, Grade 5 science teacher, previously served as Technology Integration Specialist and a math teacher at the All Saints Episcopal Day School in Hoboken, where he was responsible for integrating STEM initiatives. Before that, he worked at the Red Oaks School in multiple roles, including as a science and math teacher and as Director of Academic Technology for Grades K-8. No stranger to Pingry, Mr. Cohen is the parent of current students Harper and Talia Cohen. He earned a B.A. in Asian Studies and Japanese at Colgate University and received his certification in Graduate Administration and Supervision from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Technology in Education. Ms. Susan Conklin, Academic Support Coordinator and Learning Specialist in
the Middle and Upper Schools, is a therapist, coach, teacher, administrator, and lifelong learner. Her most recent roles include serving as a learning specialist at the Knox School in New York and the Buxton School in Massachusetts. Ms. Conklin taught reading comprehension strategies and other important skills to overcome learning challenges. Prior to working as an education specialist, she began her career as a social worker, helping children achieve emotional balance in their lives. Her blended background as both a clinician and educator aligns with her desire to help students develop competence and perform better in school. Ms. Conklin received a B.A. in Sociology from City College of New York, a Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) degree from Hunter College, and an Education Specialist (Ed.S.) degree in Language and Literacy from Simmons College.
Ms. Karim Del Pozo, Middle School Spanish teacher, is a native of Peru and brings her love of teaching and the Spanish language to Pingry. Previously, she was in Missoula, Montana, where she had been teaching Spanish and was the Middle School Coordinator at the Missoula International School. She brings over 15 years of teaching experience to Pingry, and, prior to working in the U.S., Ms. Del Pozo taught English as a Second Language and trained ESL teachers in Lima, Peru. She earned a B.A. in Spanish and Latin American Literature at Shippensburg University. Mr. Matthew DuCharme, Middle School science teacher and Form II Team Leader, comes to Pingry from the Brunswick School in Connecticut, where he taught physics, chemistry, biology, and general sciences to students in Grades 5-8. He also coached soccer, basketball, and lacrosse and will assume coaching responsibilities for several of Pingry’s Middle School teams. Apart from teaching science, Mr. DuCharme served as the lead teacher in a Shark Tank-inspired summer program, where students created and presented innovative business plans. He received a B.S. in Biology and Environmental Studies from St. Lawrence University and an M.A.T. in Biology from Manhattanville College. Ms. Audrey Enriquez, Middle and Upper School English teacher, has taught English at several New York schools, including the Kew Forest School and the Dwight School, as well as at multiple international schools in Manila, Philippines. She enjoys bringing the outside world into the classroom and has worked with her students to initiate humanitarian projects that help support children in her native country, the Philippines. Ms. Enriquez graduated cum laude and received an A.B. in Humanities from the University of Asia and the Pacific, and an M.A.T. in English from Bard College. Mr. Jeffrey Feinberg, Middle School math and Outdoor Education teacher, is happy to return to a full-time teaching role this year after recently serving as Upper School division head at Tuxedo Park School. In prior roles, he has served
as Mathematics Department Chair, mathematics teacher, and a coach. He has also supervised and taught junior sailing programs. Mr. Feinberg received a B.Ed. in Secondary Mathematics Education from McGill University and earned an M.Ed. in Mathematics Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Dr. Brandyn Fisher, AP Psychology teacher and Mental Performance Coach, brings a practical perspective to the classroom based on his expertise in performance psychology with competitive athletes. He led and developed training and conditioning programs for student-athletes at various tennis training centers, including the Junior Tennis Champions Center in Maryland and Centercourt Sports Academy in Morristown. Dr. Fisher has taught sports psychology courses at West Virginia University and has published numerous articles on sports psychology-related topics. He received multiple degrees from West Virginia University, including a B.A. in Psychology, an M.A. in Community Counseling, and both an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Sport and Exercise Psychology. Ms. Emily Glatter, Middle School history teacher, also joins Pingry from the Tuxedo Park School in New York. In addition to her prior experience teaching history and English, Ms. Glatter also taught Latin and served as Dean of Academic Administration at the Pacific Boychoir Academy in California. She received a B.A. in Latin and Classical Civilizations from Wellesley College. Mrs. Keara Gordon, Lower School drama teacher, was a performing arts teacher for 11 years at Chatham Day School, where she encouraged theatrical and musical creativity. In addition to teaching drama and producing and directing school performances, she has taught dance and vocal performance. Mrs. Gordon is a certified Teacher of Theater. She graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in Fine Arts from Rider University, where she was one of two theater scholarship recipients. Ms. Sade Jack, Upper School French teacher, most recently taught French
at Phillips Academy. She also taught yoga, with an emphasis on breathing techniques and mindfulness to reduce stress. In addition to teaching, she is an assistant coach for the Girls’ JV Tennis Team. Ms. Jack received a B.A. in the College of Letters (European literature, history, and philosophy) and in French from Wesleyan University and an M.A. in French Civilization from Middlebury College. Dr. Marie-Pierre Jolly, Upper School computer science teacher, worked at Siemens for more than 20 years, focusing on medical image analysis research and development. Most recently, she was the Senior Expert R&D for Siemens Healthineers. Dr. Jolly has won numerous awards for her work and has authored a long list of articles for peerreviewed journals. She received an M.S. and a Ph.D., both in Computer Science, from Michigan State University, where she also taught undergraduates in the Computer Science Department. Dr. Jolly received a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Université de Technologie de Compiègne in France. Ms. Christina Lee, Middle School computer science teacher, joins Pingry from the Warren Township School District, where she taught physical sciences. She has also taught STEM enrichment classes at the Liberty Science Center. Ms. Lee received a B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering with a minor in Computer Science from Rowan University, and she is a candidate at Rowan for an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Danielle Mirliss P ’26, Educational Technology and Innovation Coordinator, continues Pingry’s commitment to integrating innovative technology in the classroom. She most recently worked at Seton Hall University, where she served as Director of Instructional Design at the Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center. Dr. Mirliss received a B.A. in Psychology from Rutgers University, an M.A. in Psychology from New York University, and an M.Ed. and FALL 2017
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Ed.D. in Instructional Technology and Media from Teachers College, Columbia University. Ms. Stephanie Mygas, biology and chemistry teacher, comes from Prendergast High School in Pennsylvania, where she taught chemistry and environmental sciences. She has extensive hands-on experience working in research labs. At the University of Massachusetts, where she was a teaching assistant, Ms. Mygas was responsible for maintaining the invertebrate ecology lab. She received a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Rowan University and an M.S. in Marine Biology from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Ms. Mygas is also an alumna of Sea Education Association (SEA). Mrs. Jamie Nanfara, Grade 2 teacher, spent the last six years teaching Grades 1 and 2 at the Charles H. Bullock School in Montclair. She enjoys sharing her love of children’s literature and is a contributing writer for the website KidLit TV. Mrs. Nanfara received both a B.A. in Human Ecology and an M.A.T. in Elementary Education from Montclair State University. Dr. Theresa O’Byrne, Middle School Latin teacher while Margaret Kelleher ’01 was on maternity leave, has been teaching at Rutgers University, and, prior to that, she taught Latin at Colorado State University, where she also organized events for the Latin Club. She received a B.A. in History and Anthropology and an M.A. in Classics, all from the University of Colorado. She also earned a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Medieval Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Miss Annie Sher, Upper School math teacher for one year, was employed by the Math and Science Resource Center at Williams College, where she tutored fellow college students in multivariate calculus and chemistry. At Pingry, she will also be an assistant coach for the Girls’ JV Basketball Team. Miss Sher graduated from Williams College with a B.A. in Mathematics and History. Ms. Olivia Tandon, biology and AP biology teacher, will also help to oversee sustainability initiatives on the 32
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Basking Ridge Campus, including caring for Pingry’s new flock of chickens. Before Pingry, she worked at Poly Prep Country Day School, where she taught science, coached squash, and chaired the school’s Strategic Plan Subcommittee for Sustainability. She also coached a Science Olympiad team to a top-10 finish in the New York City region. An avid squash player and the former captain of Columbia University’s Squash Team, Ms. Tandon will be an assistant coach for the Girls’ Varsity Squash Team at Pingry. She graduated with a B.A. in Environmental Biology and Creative Writing from Columbia University and an M.A. in Education from Brooklyn College. She recently earned an M.Ed. in Private School Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University. Mr. Alan Van Antwerp, Middle and Upper School drama teacher, is happy to return to directing youth theater after stage managing a professional Broadway cabaret for several years. He has directed more than 20 productions, and has been a cast member in a number of professional and community performances. He received a B.A. from Montclair State University and is continuing his studies there to earn an M.A. in Theatrical Studies.
Administrators Dr. Delvin Dinkins, Assistant Headmaster, has been an educator and administrator for nearly 25 years, most recently as Head of the Upper School at The Episcopal Academy in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania for four years. His experiences in both public and private institutions are wide-ranging, from elementary and high school to the university level. In addition to overseeing the day-to-day operation of Episcopal Academy, he taught English, served as a student advisor, and supervised department chairs. Prior to Episcopal, Dr. Dinkins held numerous roles in the Tredyffrin/ Easttown School District in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, including Director of
Assessment and Accountability, Curriculum Supervisor, and Director of Electronic Learning. He also held a number of principal and assistant principal positions at schools in the same district, and has taught American and world literature, in addition to AP English Language & Composition. On topics as diverse as social consciousness in school leadership, electronic learning trends, the No Child Left Behind Act, and mentoring African American youth, Dr. Dinkins has spoken as both an invited guest and presenter at many national and regional meetings, including at the American Educational Research Association and the American Council on Education. Among many honors and awards, he received an “Outstanding Educator Award” from both Hillsdale College (2003) and The University of Richmond (2002), was awarded a merit scholarship to the Inquiry Program at Teachers College, Columbia University (2002), was the recipient of a Rockefeller Brothers Fund Post-Graduate Fellowship for Leadership (1997-2000), and was named the 2000 “Track Coach of the Year” by the Philadelphia Inquirer (for several years, he was the head boys’ and girls’ track & field coach at Conestoga High School). He was also a 2017 inductee into the Delaware County Hall of Fame as a recipient of the Humanitarian Award. A graduate of Swarthmore College, Dr. Dinkins served as Vice President of the school’s Alumni Council from 2006-2011, joined the Board of Managers in 2012, and was appointed to Swarthmore’s Council on Presidential Initiatives. He received a B.A. in English from Swarthmore College, an M.A. in Educational Studies from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in Educational and Organizational Leadership from the University of Pennsylvania. Ms. Laurie Piette, Middle School Director, joined Pingry after 15 years at the Rodeph Sholom School (RSS)—a coeducational nursery
through Grade 8 Reform Jewish independent school in New York City— where she served as teacher, Chair of the Humanities Department, Chair of the English Department, and, most recently, Director of Studies. In this role, she oversaw and developed the school’s academic program, including the implementation of the Middle School’s 1-to-1 iPad initiative, a review of their K-4 math curriculum, a coordination of the institution’s integrated academic technology efforts, and the implementation of a school-wide service learning program. While at Rodeph Sholom, she also chaired its NYSAIS (New York State Association of Independent Schools) five- and 10-year reaccreditation reviews as well as the committee to review its mission statement, and produced the school’s self-study. Prior to RSS, Ms. Piette served for 10 years as co-founder of and consultant for the Washington Heights Higher Education Project, tutoring New York City public school students in standardized test preparation and guiding them through the college application process. From 1994-2002, she taught Upper School English, World Civilizations, and Latin to Grades 9-12 and Middle School English and history at New York’s Friends Seminary. She has also served as a substitute teacher for Grades 4-12 in a variety of New York City independent schools, and taught academically-challenged students for a year at Cumberland High School in Rhode Island. A member of a number of professional and academic organizations, including the Klingenstein Leadership Academy, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, and the National Council of Teachers of English, Ms. Piette is a regular panelist, presenter, and attendee at educational conferences and workshops. She earned a B.A. in English and Classical Civilization at Wellesley College, magna cum laude, and an M.A. in Creative Writing at City College, and is completing an M.Ed. in Private School Leadership in the Klingenstein Program at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Newly-Created Positions Mrs. Mary McNaugher, Assistant Director of Summer and Auxilary Programs, joined Pingry in October 2016 after enjoying a long career as a costume designer and stylist for dance, theatre, and film, most recently for Sesame Street’s “Mr. Noodle.” She began her career at The Juilliard School, where for nine years she worked as a costume designer for the Dance Division’s Senior Production. Years working with universities and higher learning institutions as a designer, mentor, and guest lecturer led to her current career path. She earned a B.A. in Theatre and Art at Bucknell University and studied abroad at SACI (Studio Arts College International) College of Art & Design in Florence, Italy. She serves on the board of Tiffany Mills Company and is a member of IATSE 829 (United Scenic Artists). Mrs. Tina Rix-Stout, Director of Squash, is leading Pingry’s new Big Blue Squash Programs in addition to serving as Head Coach of the Girls’ Varsity Squash Team and new Middle School Squash Team— programs all made possible by the new courts in the Miller A. Bugliari ’52 Athletics Center. In particular, the goal of Big Blue Squash Programs is to bring the sport to the Pingry community and the public with recreational play, clinics, summer camp and school enrichment offerings, and lessons offered throughout the year. Mrs. Rix-Stout joined Pingry from The Episcopal Academy in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, where she spent five years as Assistant Squash Director, then as Director. She managed the school’s interscholastic and club squash programs, and worked to develop a squash program for their lower school. Under her leadership, their boys’ and girls’ varsity teams became regular fixtures at the national high school championship. Prior to Episcopal, she worked as an assistant
pro at the Philadelphia Squash Club, running US SQUASH events and serving as assistant coach of the girls’ varsity and Middle School teams at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. Mrs. Rix-Stout also serves as Head Regional Coach for US SQUASH, directing and coordinating training squads for elite junior players throughout the Pennsylvania region. At the Team Regional Championships each summer at Yale University, she serves as a Head Coach. A successful player, Mrs. Rix-Stout was just 15 years old when she began playing professionally. She rose in the ranks to become a member of the English National Team as well as England’s U19 team, which won the 2001 World Championships in Malaysia. At the peak of her singles career, she earned a world-ranking high of #69. Currently, she plays on the WSA (Women’s Squash Association) and WDSA (Women’s Doubles Squash Association) world circuits, and was recently ranked as high as #7 worldwide in doubles. She received a B.Sc. in Sports Studies from the University of Southampton (UK). Ms. Nan Ring, who filled in during Jennifer Mack-Watkins’s maternity leave last fall, has joined Pingry full-time as an Upper School visual arts teacher and the Gallery Co-Coordinator. She is a professional visual artist and author with 12 years of classroom experience, most recently at National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C. and at Far Brook School in Short Hills. The recipient of numerous grants, awards, and artist-in-residence fellowships for her paintings and installations, Ms. Ring has an art studio in East Orange and regularly exhibits her work both regionally and nationally. She received an M.F.A. in Painting from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia and a B.F.A in Studio Art from Syracuse University School of Visual and Performing Arts.
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Faculty and Staff in New Roles Mr. Steve Benoit
Dr. Alyssa Johns
Mr. Benoit joined Pingry in 2014 as an Upper School French teacher and assumes this administrative position, which he previously held at Solebury School. His past administrative roles have also included Director of Studies. He is continuing to teach French and serves as the ISP Independent Senior Project) Co-Coordinator.
Dr. Johns joined Pingry’s Counseling Department in 2015 and, when academic support expanded to the Short Hills Campus last year, divided her time between the Lower and Middle Schools. She is now at the Lower School full-time, providing academic support and counseling, and co-teaching the Decisions class.
World Languages Department Chair
Ms. Ananya Chatterji P ’25 Upper School Director
Ms. Chatterji, Interim Upper School Director last year, previously served as Upper School Academic Dean and Assistant Dean of Students, among many other roles since joining Pingry in 1996. She is continuing in her roles of Upper School math teacher and college counselor.
Dr. Reid Cottingham
Upper School Academic Dean
Dr. Cottingham, an Upper School English teacher at Pingry since 2015, served in several administrative capacities at her previous school, including Department Chair and Grade Dean, which enabled her to be involved with curriculum, faculty development, and student life.
Mr. Peter Delman P ’97, ’98 Sustainability Coordinator
Mr. Delman, who retired in June after teaching visual arts for 41 years, transitioned to this new role to continue working on Pingry’s green initiatives and outdoor education. As mentioned in his farewell profile (page 36), sustainability at Pingry has been his passion for the past decade. 34
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Lower School Counselor
Dr. Megan Jones
History Department Chair
Dr. Jones has been teaching Upper School history at Pingry since 2010. Before arriving at Pingry, she taught at the University of Delaware, where she earned a Ph.D. in American History, and at Kent Place School. Dr. Jones has also worked at the National Civil War Museum and served as a reader of AP U.S. History exams for The College Board.
Dr. Mikaela Kilker Upper School Counselor
Dr. Kilker has been a member of Pingry’s Counseling Department since 2013 and has transitioned from working with Middle School students to working with Upper School students.
Mr. Norman LaValette P ’04 Instructional Guide
Mr. LaValette, who served as World Languages Department Chair for 21 years, is stepping into a new position wherein he will work collaboratively with
faculty members to provide guidance and assistance. He brings to this role over 30 years as Co-Leader of the annual NJAIS (New Jersey Association of Independent Schools) Instructional Skills Workshop, which demonstrates effective teaching skills. Mr. LaValette is continuing to teach Middle and Upper School German.
Ms. Carol Mahida
Form III/IV Dean of Student Life
Ms. Mahida joined the Middle School English department in 2015 and has served as English Coordinator and Middle School Multicultural Team Co-Leader. Prior to Pingry, she was the English Department Team Leader and Diversity Coordinator at AllenStevenson School. She is now teaching Upper School English.
Mrs. Eva Ostrowsky Middle School Counselor
Mrs. Ostrowsky has been with Pingry since 2011 as a Middle School history teacher and, after earning a master’s degree in Social Work at Columbia University, as Middle School Dean for Student Culture. In addition to her role as Counselor, she is co-teaching the Grade 6 Emotional Intelligence/Cultural Competency course and overseeing the Upper School Peer Leadership program.
Mrs. Stephanie Romankow Drama Department Chair
Mrs. Romankow has been teaching Middle and Upper School drama at Pingry since 1996, and directing the Winter Musical since 2000. An actress since age 12, she has taught drama to nearly every grade level at Pingry and has also taught beginning acting at the university level.
Mr. Jake Ross
Form V/VI Dean of Student Life
Mr. Ross, formerly the Upper School Dean of Student Life, is now focusing on Grades 11 and 12. He is continuing to teach Upper School history, work with the Peer Leadership program, and coach.
Mr. David Szelingowski Middle School Dean of Students
Mr. Szelingowski, who earned an M.A. in Educational Leadership, Management, and Policy at Seton Hall University, had taught fourth- and fifth-grade science at Pingry since 2006. He is teaching the Middle School’s new Outdoor Research course and is an assistant coach for Middle School football.
Mr. Allen Thomas
Middle School Academic Dean
Mr. Thomas, who earned a B.A. in History at Brown University and an M.S. Ed. in Childhood Education at Hunter College, and spent a year in Spain on a Fulbright grant, is excited to focus on student growth. He has taught Middle School Spanish at Pingry since 2014 and will continue in that role.
Mr. Jeff Jewett, Director of Global Programs, is the new AFS Advisor, succeeding Kelly Jordan P ’04, ’06. Dr. Colleen Kirkhart, Upper School science teacher, is the new Journal Club advisor, succeeding Alexandra Logerfo ’11. Ms. Hannah Decatur, Upper School history teacher, is the new Blue Book advisor, succeeding Colleen Kent.
Head Coach Transitions VARSITY WRESTLING
George Sullivan, assistant coach since 2014, has been a coach and competitive wrestler for many years and will draw on both experiences to lead Big Blue. As an eighth-grade student at Belmont Hill School, he made the varsity wrestling team. His senior year, he and his co-captain were the school’s first wrestlers to be named First Prep All-Americans at the Prep National Tournament. In the midst of his high school success, he took time to help coach his middle school team. At Williams College, a series of concussions disrupted his collegiate career (he was able to compete his freshman and junior years), so he is pleased to continue giving back to the sport at Pingry. Mr. Sullivan also coaches Middle School Boys’ Lacrosse and Freshman Boys’ Lacrosse.
VARSITY WINTER TRACK AND FIELD
Chris Shilts P ’17, ’19, ’21, ’24, a coach for Pingry’s track program since 2001, succeeds Tim Grant P ’03, ’06 as head coach. Mr. Shilts’s involvement with track has included serving as an assistant coach for Boys’ and Girls’ Varsity Spring Track and Field since 2001 (hurdle and pole vault, at various times) and Interim Head Coach for Boys’ Varsity Spring Track and Field in 2010 (while continuing to coach hurdles for girls). In 2014, he became the sprint coach for boys and girls, and he currently is the sprint and hurdle coach for both. Mr. Shilts ran track in college and was head coach at The Bullis School and The Hill School for about 10 years prior to coming to Pingry. He is continuing as Head Coach of the Varsity Football Team.
Farewell to Faculty and Staff Julia Allain, AP Psychology teacher and assistant coach for Girls’ Varsity Soccer, left after one year to pursue another opportunity. Ms. Shelby Bartlett ’08, AP Psychology teacher who was on leave in 2016-17 to earn a master’s degree, is teaching on the west coast. She joined Pingry in 2012. Dr. Perry Bell, Upper School Counselor for four years, is now a full-time child psychologist at the Center for Child & Family Development in Morristown. Along with serving as a counselor at Pingry and helping to define a formal
counseling department, Dr. Bell created the stress management curriculum for freshmen. His colleague Dr. Mikaela Kilker says he displayed “strong, unwavering values” and praises his emphasis on social and emotional programming. Dr. Bell thanks the members of the Upper School Support Team for all of their hard work on behalf of the students. Ms. Sara Berg, second-grade teacher for four years, is pursuing an M.A. as a Literacy Specialist at Teachers College, Columbia University, and hopes to resume teaching in the future. In a Pingry Record profile, she says her goal “is to have even young children be able to learn what it means to be a ‘real’ reader and writer even though they may need to approach concepts at a different level compared to older students.” FALL 2017
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Mr. Tom Boyer P ’96, ’98 retired from teaching after 35 years, but will continue to coach football and tutor math (he was Honorary Coach at the Basilone Bowl in June—read more on page 73). Best known as a Middle School math teacher and football coach, Mr. Boyer directed the health and P.E. programs when he joined Pingry in 1982. An assistant coach for the Varsity Football Team for two years, under Gordon Rode, he became Head Coach in 1984 (serving through the 2000 season). In 1988, he began to teach Middle School math. Since stepping down as Head Coach in 2000, Mr. Boyer has remained active with the football program as a head or assistant coach for the Middle School team and assistant coach for the varsity team, sharing these roles with his good friend Mike Webster P ’24, ’27, ’27, who describes him as “a great man. He always makes decisions with the best interests of the student and the School first. His principles of what is right and wrong have not wavered. He has molded many boys into men on the football field and in the classroom.” Among Mr. Boyer’s numerous accomplishments and honors as a coach, his 1986 and 1995 Football Teams were inducted into Pingry’s Athletics Hall of Fame, he was inducted as a coach in 2012, and The Tom Boyer Football Award is named for him (established in 2007, the year of his Magistri induction). Along the way, he coached several other sports in the Middle School, including girls’ basketball, boys’ lacrosse, boys’ and girls’ swimming, boys’ tennis, and wrestling. Along with teaching and coaching, Mr. Boyer was a Form advisor for the Community Service program from 1992 to 2014 and coordinated the Middle School’s Cycle for Survival fundraiser since 2009. He also ran a summer trip program (Kodiak Expeditions) from 1991 to 1997, organizing about 30 camping expeditions for Pingry students with destinations such as the bottom of the Grand Canyon, the top of Mount Rainier, 36
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and most national parks throughout the country.
or should be doing, so he used the opportunity to promote sustainability.
Mr. Boyer received the Herbert F. Hahn Junior Faculty Award (1994), Woodruff J. English Faculty Award (2000), and Edward G. Engel Chair for Mathematics and Science (2002). “I always wanted to be a teacher-coach because of the powerful combination of being influential in the classroom and on the athletics field,” he says. “When I reflect on my career, I am proud of being a teachercoach.”
The results, which have unfolded over a number of years, include the founding of the Green Group (he was faculty advisor; the group has expanded from a few students to over 100) and the creation of the Basking Ridge Campus garden and campsite. Representing a combination of art and nature, Mr. Delman was also responsible for the addition of two courses to the curriculum (Environmental Art in the Upper School; Art and Nature in the Middle School), and other departments are incorporating nature into their curricula as well. He also coordinated Earth Day Assemblies. “Peter Delman greened the School, with other teachers joining the effort. We wouldn’t be where we are if it weren’t for him,” says Visual Arts Department Chair Miles Boyd. “In art and nature, he thinks big and is always willing to take a chance and to volunteer.”
Mr. Peter Delman P ’97, ’98 retired from teaching visual arts after 41 years, but is continuing to focus on green initiatives and outdoor education as the School’s first Sustainability Coordinator (parttime). In fact, this summer, he oversaw a new course on Pingry’s Basking Ridge Campus, “Excursions in a Green World” (read more on page 50). Beginning in 1976, Mr. Delman taught Middle School art. He later added Drawing & Painting to his schedule and launched the School’s filmmaking program in the early 1980s, a program that has led many students to top collegiate film programs. In the filmmaking industry, he observed huge technological advances with cameras and editing systems, which he then introduced to Pingry, “bringing the course from the dark ages into a world where you could do anything that others were doing.” Over the years, he also constructed sets for drama productions, was the AV coordinator, and coached football and winter track. Notably, Mr. Delman has contributed to school life in both visual arts and environmentalism, sometimes combining them (fun fact: he loved nature so much as a child that his parents nicknamed him “nature boy”). On the arts side, he curated more than 100 exhibits for the Hostetter Arts Center Gallery. On the environmental side, about eight years ago, then-Upper School Director Dr. Denise Brown-Allen P ’13, in her conversations with faculty, encouraged teachers to think of things that Pingry could
A recipient of the Albert W. Booth Master Chair (2011), Mr. Delman says the strongest memories of his classroom career are of finding his own voice as a teacher and developing ideas to make art classes exciting and to help students become more open-minded. He taught students that one of the most important aspects of art is to branch out into the unknown and make something beautiful from a discovery. Some alumni even fondly refer to Mr. Delman as their “Art Dad.” Mrs. Cathy Everett, who taught Grade 5 social studies for the past two decades, retired after 45 years. Originally a Grade 5 homeroom advisor who taught all academic subjects, Mrs. Everett was also the Lower School’s Language Arts Coordinator for many years and taught Grade 5 math before assuming her most recent position teaching social studies. “Over the past four decades,” she says, “I have had the privilege of viewing the world through the eyes of children, the privilege of watching their minds grow day by day, and the privilege of being
surrounded by love, laughter, and mischief. I have also had the privilege of working side-by-side with the most extraordinary faculty and staff whose dedication and commitment to the children will always remain etched in my heart. Pingry has always been a very warm and exciting place to be. I deeply value my colleagues’ eagerness to collaborate. This created a rich and vibrant learning atmosphere for both the students and me. I had so much fun teaching ancient history and set up my classroom to resemble a museum with numerous artifacts for the children to see, touch, and experience. For 44 years, I served as Community Service Coordinator for the Short Hills Campus, and I learned about the eagerness of children wanting to help, the generosity of the Pingry family, and the courage and determination of those people in the trenches who are making the world a better place, one person at a time. Through letter writing and various other projects, having the children remain closely connected to the men and women who bravely serve our country has always been dear to my heart. For 40 years, I have served as Student Council Advisor, and I was always amazed to see, first-hand, the leadership qualities of nine- and 10-year-old children. I will forever cherish my days at Pingry.” Mrs. Everett created what the community considers the legendary trip to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which she led for over 20 years—a trip based upon a three-week course that she developed to expose students to many aspects of the museum. “I was always struck by how much of an impact this trip had on the students,” says former Middle School history teacher Mark Facciani. “You know that experiences truly resonate when students can vividly recall and reflect on an experience years later—every year, students in my class would organically make a connection to that trip at some point. The Met trip truly was a special experience for the students, and they have Mrs. Everett to thank for that. She will be missed!” Second, Mrs. Everett initiated the Team China unit, which brought together 18 teachers from both the Basking Ridge and Short Hills Campuses. Basking
Ridge students visited Short Hills and conducted classes all day, touching upon various aspects of Chinese culture. This unit was followed by a visit from Pingry’s sister school in China and a Skype session connecting Pingry students with their peers in China. “In the past nine years, Mrs. Everett truly put her heart and soul into the fifth-grade China unit, an innovative, cross-division, cross-discipline program,” says Chinese teacher Yi Hao P ’11, ’13. “Thank you so very much for your leadership in this amazing program, which has given our Pingry students a much broader global perspective and is making a significant impact on their potential to become the leaders of our global community.” Third, Mrs. Everett recalls her work with the Student Council, which conducted several assemblies, including the Honor Code assembly. Representatives gathered their homerooms’ thoughts on how to incorporate the Honor Code into their daily lives and formally presented these ideas at an all-school assembly. Student Council also initiated Spirit Day and helped with numerous community service endeavors. Fourth, for all 45 years, Mrs. Everett served as the Lower School’s liaison to the AFS program, conducting a yearly assembly that introduced Pingry’s AFS student to Lower School students. She also served on the AFS Home Visitation Team to choose a Pingry host family, as well as on the Americans Abroad Home Visitation Team, which chose a Pingry student to study abroad. In 2010, Mrs. Everett received the Woodruff J. English Faculty Award, nominated by her fellow faculty members. Mr. Mark Facciani, best known for teaching Middle School history and coaching varsity wrestling during his 15-year Pingry career, is now an analyst for The Conti Group. Mr. Facciani joined the Lower School in 2002 to teach sixth-grade social studies and language arts in collaboration with (and supported by) Lower School Director Ted Corvino P ’94, ’97, ’02 and then-Assistant Lower School
Director Carolyn Gibson P ’03. “Ted never made me feel as though I were a rookie teacher—I felt successful and developed confidence,” Mr. Facciani says. For his part, Mr. Corvino says that Mr. Facciani “brought a lot of ideas to the table, to enliven the learning experience. He was such a hard worker…I’ve never really met anyone who worked harder than Mark at perfecting the craft.” When Grade 6 moved to Basking Ridge, Mr. Facciani served as Co-Chair of the Middle School Steering Committee and helped write the sixth-grade curriculum for history and English. At the same time, he decided to focus on teaching history (his college major) and began to pursue a master’s degree in Educational Leadership. Come 2012, attracted by a leadership position, the chance to build a new skill set, and the freedom to develop a program without a blueprint, he transitioned to the Business Office a s Pingry’s first Director of Summer and Auxiliary Programs. Two years later, having missed working with students, he returned to teaching history. “At that point, the program was off the ground —laying the foundation had been the most critical work. It’s really important for the School’s financial sustainability, and it’s great seeing it thrive under Cindy [McArthur’s] leadership,” he says. Simultaneous to these experiences in Lower and Middle School classrooms and the Business Office, Mr. Facciani coached. In the 2003-04 season, he became an assistant coach for the Varsity Wrestling Team, under Joe Forte, then began a 13-year tenure as Head Coach in the 2004-05 season. Although the wrestling program was struggling, Mr. Facciani encouraged a supportive, positive atmosphere. When he came to Basking Ridge with Grade 6, having daily interaction with Middle and Upper School wrestlers (and seeing them all year, not just in the winter) made a huge difference. “The feeder program became stronger. His enthusiasm, his expertise about the technical side of wrestling, and his mentorship of assistant coaches and the wrestlers painted a picture that the program would grow—in numbers and performance level,” says then-Director of Athletics Gerry Vanasse P ’14, ’20. The team had FALL 2017
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successful showings at county, district, and regional tournaments, two wrestlers qualified for the NJSIAA State Championship in Atlantic City, and, in 2012, his coaching peers named him “District 18 Wrestling Coach of the Year.” The recipient of the Herbert F. Hahn Junior Faculty Award (2007), The Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. Chair for History and Literature (2008), and The David B. Buffum Faculty Chair (2016), Mr. Facciani says he tried to bring energy and enthusiasm to everything he did at Pingry. “As a teacher, I loved seeing the students’ intellectual growth in the classroom and their maturation by the time they left Middle School. As a coach, I hope these young men walk away with a sense of greater resilience in life and a vision of their goals and what they’re capable of.” Mr. Barry Fulton, Middle School Dean of Students and English teacher, left after six years to become Middle School Director at North Shore Country Day School in Illinois. After teaching English his first three years at Pingry, Mr. Fulton took a sabbatical for the 2014-15 school year to pursue a master’s degree in Educational Leadership. He then returned to Pingry to serve as Middle School Dean while continuing to teach English. Over the last six years, Mr. Fulton was involved in various aspects of school life: he developed and taught the Grade 6 co-curricular “Learning to Lead,” which exposes students to various types of leadership; served on the Steering Committee of Pingry’s Accreditation Self-Study Team; was Grade 6 Team Leader prior to his sabbatical; was Middle School English Coordinator (a position that works collaboratively with the Department Chair); and advised the Upper School’s Hip-Hop Dance Club and ran a similar group for the Middle School. “I am most proud of my work with the Middle School students surrounding our Honor Code and its application to the way they interact with and respect one another at all times, not just when 38
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there are adults around,” Mr. Fulton says. “Being able to have conversations with students about holding themselves accountable for their behavior, and still being able to maintain positive relationships with them—despite being the ‘face of the consequence’—was particularly important to me.” Middle School Office Coordinator Pat Egan describes Mr. Fulton as “the kindest, most decent person whom I have ever had the pleasure of knowing and working with. His respect for the Middle School student body and the lessons he taught through his actions and words struck a chord with me each and every day. He is a man of great integrity.” Another colleague who worked with him as a Middle School dean, Eva Ostrowsky, says, “He held our students to a high standard, and they rose to the occasion each year. He never shied away from the challenging conversations and always looked to find the teachable moment.” Ms. Brenda Hamm P ’09, ’11, Interim Middle School Director for one year, worked on enhancing the experience and schedule for Grades 6 to 8 (this included additions to physical education, athletics, outdoor education, and co-curricular courses) so that the Middle School was prepared for its new director. Now, Ms. Hamm is participating in her own outdoor education by devoting time to hiking. Mrs. Alicia Harabin ’02, Lower School drama teacher for nine years, has left the classroom to have more time with her family and to pursue artistic endeavors. Along with her classroom work, she directed two musicals each year for Grades 3 through 5. “In the beginning, I was looking for things that wouldn’t be off-putting or overwhelming to boys, like ‘princess shows,’ which don’t have the best stories and are not very inclusive,” she says. “When I started,
many boys resisted engaging in drama. Now, there’s no issue. The culture around drama has changed.” Productions such as Willy Wonka, Alice in Wonderland, Mulan, The Wizard of Oz, The Lion King, Honk!, and The Phantom Tollbooth graced the stage under Mrs. Harabin’s direction, usually with main characters double or triple cast so that students shared a role through the story, for an ensemble focus. Mrs. Harabin joined Pingry when the Lower School created its drama program, made possible by Grade 6 moving to Basking Ridge, which freed up time and space in the schedule (prior to that, Upper School drama teacher Stephanie Romankow had been visiting the Short Hills Campus for two years to teach some classes). “I’m grateful to Ted Corvino for seeing a need for the drama program,” Mrs. Harabin says. “Not many schools have drama in the lower grades, and most programs only involve putting on a show. He made space for Pingry to become a place for inquiry and introduction to an art form. If it weren’t for him, none of this would be here.” Why does Mr. Corvino value drama? “It builds confidence, especially speaking in front of a large group,” he says. “We didn’t want drama to be only performance-based, but also part of the curriculum as theater education. With a drama class that works on skills, students aren’t walking into a performance ‘cold.’ Alicia designed the course to parallel our classroom work—collaborative, small-scale problem solving.” In recognition of her efforts, she received the Herbert F. Hahn Junior Faculty Award in 2015. When working with her young actors and actresses, Mrs. Harabin emphasized personal choices. “I never tell an actor how to say a line. For younger students who lack experience, I find a ‘kid equivalent’ for a situation. I would rather let them make a weaker acting choice that makes sense to them, than mimic me and do something that doesn’t make sense to them. It’s more important to learn acting than to have a ‘stellar’ performance. For many, Lower School musicals were their first productions, so the quality of the rehearsal experience
is far more important than the performance experience.” The culture change in the Lower School has been evident to Mrs. Harabin, who observes that students are more comfortable with inquiry and open-ended questions, more willing to use their bodies to explore the art of drama, and supportive of their friends and classmates who perform. Mrs. Kelly Jordan P ’04, ’06, Upper School French teacher and AFS (American Field Service) Advisor, retired after 29 years. Although she focused on Upper School courses after the Middle School opened, she also taught Middle School French earlier in her Pingry career. An AFS Advisor for 23 years who ended up relishing that part of her job, Mrs. Jordan was initially reluctant to take over the program because of the time commitment. “I discovered that it is one of the most rewarding and enjoyable responsibilities I have had here. I met students from all different countries and worked with Pingry families I would never have met. Those families were role models for me—their selfless acts of generosity, such as opening their homes to a teenager for a year—I don’t even know if I could do what they did. It made me aware of what you can do for people.” Pingry was one of only 81 schools across the country to be honored in 2013 as a “Top AFS School” for exemplifying AFS’s values. Along with her work in the classroom and with AFS, Mrs. Jordan advised the French Club and AFS Club, oversaw the French articles in Polyglot, supervised Spring Break trips to France and Middle School trips to Quebec, and coordinated Pingry’s hosting of students from Senegal at various times over the years. As many in the community are aware, Mrs. Jordan dealt with a health crisis. “I am amazed at her courage, resilience, and steadfastness,” says then-World Languages Department Chair Norman LaValette P ’04. “I saw her strength as she battled it, endured, and got herself back to where she could teach at the
level of excellence that had been emblematic for her. I see it as a model for all of us—I don’t know if I could be as gracious or as tenacious.” She returned to Pingry because she missed the students. “I loved teaching and sharing my passion for language with them. It’s wonderful to hear that students have continued with French… in college, subscribing to magazines, watching movies…it’s gratifying to have touched their lives, even in small ways.” She especially thanks Director of Studies and French teacher Lydia Geacintov P ’84, ’88, “my mentor and role model from the beginning.” Ms. Misa Lawrence, Middle School Spanish and French teacher for six years, was also Middle School yearbook advisor. In addition, she coordinated sixth-grade community service, the Middle and Upper School participation in the annual William Paterson University Foreign Language Poetry Recitation Contest, and Middle School trips to Quebec. Mr. Jon Leef P ’15, ’18, Assistant Headmaster of the Basking Ridge Campus, is looking forward to exploring new opportunities after 13 years as a Pingry administrator and Upper School math teacher, while he continues as an assistant coach for varsity football. He served as Upper School Director (2004-2007), Upper School Director and Assistant Headmaster (2007-08, during preparations for the Curriculum Review), and Assistant Headmaster (2008-2017), helping to manage the campus’s daily operations, assisting with Middle and Upper School programming, and overseeing the hiring process for new teachers, which he called “one of the great joys of my role.” He adds, “It is joyful to talk to teaching candidates and teachers who want to positively shape the future through their students. This is a very hopeful profession, so to have
conversations about education and impacting young people…what could be better than that?” Also on the administrative side, one of Mr. Leef’s greatest accomplishments at Pingry was to serve as Co-Chair of the extensive, seven subcommittee-strong, three-year Curriculum Review, whose results have already impacted Pingry and will continue to do so. “That is a tribute to all the work by faculty and staff—great work and great thought from the faculty have led to some incredible changes, including program development.” For his efforts, he was a recipient of The Cyril and Beatrice Baldwin Pingry Family Citizen of the Year Award (2013). Another major project for him, which was guided by the results of the Curriculum Review, was helping to design a new master schedule that features longer class periods and a rotation of course meeting days and times. In the classroom, Mr. Leef taught Advanced Algebra & Trigonometry, Pre-Calculus, and Analysis. He became an assistant coach for the Varsity Football Team when English teacher Chris Shilts P ’17, ’19, ’21, ’24 took over as Head Coach in 2008 and asked Mr. Leef to coordinate the defense. “The key player in that was my wife Heather,” Mr. Leef says, “who graciously accommodated my coaching schedule.” And all current students, families, faculty, and staff anticipated hearing Mr. Leef’s voice when the phone rang to announce a Snow Day. “That is the closest I could get to being a superhero!” he says, with a huge smile. “‘What’s your power?’ I can close school!” Looking to the future (his other superpower…?), he will miss being on the front lines with colleagues he admires and respects, and says he will always be an educator because “I can’t see myself doing anything else.” Ms. Alexandra Logerfo ’11, Upper School biology teacher and winter track coach for two years, is working in a biomedical research lab and plans to resume FALL 2017
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graduate school next fall to study molecular biology. At Pingry, she also mentored iRT (Independent Research Team) projects and advised Journal Club. For the latter, she extended the preparation process for students’ presentations from four to six weeks and encouraged students to focus more on the importance of and motivation for particular research, rather than solely focusing on the content of the article, “to help everyone get the most out of the presentation.” Ms. Logerfo was gratified to contribute to a research program that has expanded greatly since her time as a Pingry student. Dr. Trish Lowery, Middle School science teacher, retired after 17 years—bittersweetly, she says, since “I love the Middle School because of the energy and enthusiasm.” Having taught Grades 7 and 8, she spent her entire tenure on the Basking Ridge Campus and witnessed the transition when the Middle School became a distinct entity. “I had been teaching from a cart. Once the Middle School opened, we had space and flexibility with furniture in the classroom. I could teach science the way I wanted to, with more focus on student activities and working in groups, more hands-on—moving away from ‘chalk and talk,’” she recalls. Evolving technology made a big difference in how Dr. Lowery taught. “Pingry’s library has phenomenal resources. There has been a bigger shift toward students researching, and then sharing with and teaching their peers. Free online science simulations offer access to more abstract concepts.” At a more basic level, Dr. Lowery worked hard to make the topics interesting for the students. “Science has to make a connection to their lives, so I constantly put it into context and explained why it matters.” A fun way for students to understand that connection is through the Middle School’s Science Olympiad team, of which she was a mentor. In addition, Dr. Lowery was Middle School Science Coordinator, working with the 40
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Department Chairs on curriculum. She received two faculty awards: The James P. Whitlock, Jr. ’60 Faculty Award for the Sciences, Mathematics, and Technology (2009) and the Edward G. Engel Chair for Mathematics and Science (2011). Also contributing to the “fabric” of Pingry life, Dr. Lowery was a seamstress for the Drama Department and, each year for seven years, sewed together eighth-grade Legacy Quilts, which are inspired by the annual class trip to Washington, D.C. Overall, she will miss the collegiality among her Middle School colleagues and the fun times she shared with her students. “We laughed a lot in my classes—I like to think they were laughing with me!” Mr. Al Romano, Drama Department Chair, retired after 29 years. A profile of Mr. Romano, encompassing his background and the creation and evolution of Pingry drama during his tenure, appeared in the Winter 2016-17 issue of The Pingry Review. To summarize, he made invaluable contributions to the arts at Pingry. Under his leadership, Pingry progressed from sporadic productions to an official drama program with a curriculum, the extra-curricular DramaFest, and an annual schedule of productions that are frequently performed for sold-out audiences. The community’s appreciation was evident when the School honored him at Commencement this past June with The Cyril and Beatrice Baldwin Pingry Family Citizen of the Year Award. Previously, he received the Albert W. Booth Master Chair (2000) and The Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. Chair for History and Literature (2011). When Mr. Romano announced his retirement in the spring, word spread throughout the alumni community, and he was happy to hear from many graduates. “The stuff we thought we were teaching, we actually taught—life lessons of the drama program were successfully communicated. It’s been joyful to look back and reconnect,” he says. “I have a great deal of gratitude to Pingry
for giving me the freedom and support to develop the program over the years, to be the teacher I wanted to be. I’m also grateful for the generosity of the parent body and other community supporters to give us these incredible spaces— what a gift! I think of the Macraes every time I go into the theater.” In retirement, Mr. Romano plans to design and run workshops with Bill Williams (a retired colleague from the Trinity School, where Mr. Romano taught prior to Pingry), focusing on creative dramatics. “It’s central to the notion of creative literacy,” Mr. Romano says. A passionate advocate for how teachers educate students—specifically, questioning traditional strategies and techniques— he wants to devote some of his energy to finding different ways of looking at the core subjects and how they are taught. “I love schools, classrooms, and teaching…I will always be in education.” Mrs. Meaghan Singer, Upper School English teacher and yearbook advisor for two years prior to going on maternity leave, is a full-time mother of twins. But she did return to direct this year’s Fall Play after being an assistant director with Al Romano in previous years. She also helped to plan a student trip to Ireland and England for Spring Break 2016. Dr. Martha Torres P ’03, ’10, Director of Academic Support Services for 10 years, is developing a private academic support office in Warren to assist families who are seeking insight into how to find the best schools for their children. A member of the Pingry community for nearly 30 years as a parent and staff member, Dr. Torres started to consult part-time in academic support in 2006. A year later, she joined the School full-time, seeking to add professionalism to academic support and working with families and teachers to help students succeed.
Faculty and Staff News
An article by Archivist Peter Blasevick was published in the July/August 2017 issue of Archival Outlook (Society of American Archivists). Mr. Blasevick takes readers behind the scenes of preparations for Pingry’s digital Athletics Hall of Fame in the Miller A. Bugliari ’52 Athletics Center—a process that included scanning more than 1,200 photographs, entering data for 40,000 people, and co-designing the displays. Biology and chemistry teacher Helen Huang-Hobbs, who joined Pingry last year, received a five-year Knowles Teaching Fellowship from the Knowles Teacher Initiative. Out of nearly 200 applicants nationally for the 2017
Cohort, Ms. Huang-Hobbs is one of 37 to be selected. These Fellowships are intended to support high school mathematics and science teachers who are starting their first or second year of teaching. Fellowships are awarded based on an applicant’s potential to develop: the content knowledge needed for teaching, exemplary teaching practices, and the qualities of a teacher leader. “The Fellowship is massively impactful in just giving me time, space, and community to talk about teaching,” Ms. Huang-Hobbs says. “I have a great base at Pingry, but, because Fellows are from all over the U.S.A., are working at all types of schools, and have different perspectives on teaching and learning, I really get to push my thinking about what practices I am using and how they could be improved.” The story Fire Built by Upper School English teacher Chris Shilts P ’17, ’19, ’21, ’24 was published in the Canadian online magazine The Danforth Review in June (thedanforthreview.blogspot. com). He wrote the story at the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop, in response to a writing prompt. “Teenagers say that prompts limit their creativity. Writing prompts enhance creativity,” Mr. Shilts says. “The prompt was, ‘Create two characters who have a problem and then run into a third character who has
a bigger problem.’ I also had to include a ‘found sentence,’ something that I see every day. I saw a truck with the line, ‘Coffee is a family business,’ so that line got thrown into my story as well.” Middle and Upper School music teacher Jay Winston sang The Star-Spangled Banner at the Somerset Patriots game on July 27. His opportunity resulted from an unexpected chance to participate in a Patriots competition this spring to find National Anthem singers for the upcoming season. “I have sung the National Anthem a lot in my life, but not in that sort of venue and not recently,” he says. Mr. Winston chose to sing the anthem traditionally, without any ornamentation, because he has always appreciated hearing it sung as written. Mr. Davidson Barr, Upper School math teacher, is on leave for the 2017-18 school year, pursuing a master’s degree in Mathematics Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Mr. John Crowley-Delman ’97, Upper School history teacher, is also on leave for the 2017-18 school year, pursuing a Master of Arts in Eastern Classics at St. John’s College in Santa Fe. He is studying works that are central to the philosophical, literary, and religious traditions of China, India, and Japan.
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Faculty Awards and Chairs Knowing that a strong faculty is key to the School’s reputation for excellence and honor, Pingry places a high value on the professional growth of its teachers. The School enables its faculty to attend conferences and workshops, make educational trips, pursue advanced degrees, conduct research, and learn skills to enhance current courses or develop new ones, among other opportunities. With the following endowed award funds, generous donors seek to encourage excellent teaching and recognize teachers’ contributions to the School. Albert W. Booth Master Chair
Edward G. Engel Chair for Mathematics and Science
ESTABLISHED IN 1993 BY A GROUP OF DONORS AND FIRST AWARDED IN 1995 TO HONOR ONE OF PINGRY’S BELOVED MASTER TEACHERS, ALBERT “ALBIE” BOOTH, WHOSE PINGRY CAREER SPANNED 64 YEARS. A REVERED LATIN TEACHER, HE WAS KNOWN FOR DOING ANYTHING THAT WOULD HELP HIS STUDENTS.
PINGRY’S FIRST ENDOWED CHAIR, ESTABLISHED IN 1984 BY PAT AND ED ENGEL ’33 AND FIRST AWARDED IN 1989. A LIFELONG STUDENT OF MATH AND SCIENCE, MR. ENGEL WAS KNOWN FOR BEING PRECISE, ANALYTICAL, AND CURIOUS.
This chair is awarded to a faculty member from any department who has taught at Pingry for at least five years and who reflects those qualities of honor, integrity, idealism, dedication to students, and reverence for scholarship that defined Mr. Booth’s life and work.
This chair is awarded to a faculty member in the Mathematics or Science Department who has taught at Pingry for at least five years and who has made a significant contribution to the life of the School outside the classroom.
2017 – 2018 2017 – 2018
MRS. PATRICIA FINN
Music (Lower School)
2017 – 2020
MS. LILIANA TORRES
DR. MORGAN D’AUSILIO
Science (Upper School)
Science (Upper School)
The David B. Buffum Faculty Chair
The Woodruff J. English Faculty Endowment Fund
ESTABLISHED IN 1998 BY THE LATE HENRY H. HOYT, JR. ’45 AND FIRST AWARDED IN 2005 TO HONOR MR. BUFFUM, WHO TAUGHT AT PINGRY FOR 34 YEARS AND WHOM MR. HOYT CALLED “THE BEST TEACHER I HAD IN SCHOOL OR COLLEGE.”
ESTABLISHED IN 1996 BY THE ENGLISH FAMILY AND FIRST AWARDED IN 1997. MR. ENGLISH ’27 WAS KNOWN FOR MAINTAINING A HIGH LEVEL OF INTEGRITY IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION.
This chair is awarded to an outstanding faculty member in the History Department who embodies Mr. Buffum’s dedication to and love of education and history at Pingry.
In addition to embodying the spirit of the Honor Code personally and professionally and reflecting and instilling the Code’s ideals in his or her interaction with others, the recipient should be a teacher who instills the love of learning for learning’s sake and has a commitment to living the Honor Code’s ideals for their intrinsic worth and not for his or her own personal gain.
2017 – 2020
MR. MATTHEW HORESTA History (Upper School)
2017 – 2018
MS. SHELLEY HARTZ
Community Service (Middle and Upper Schools)
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2017 – 2018
MS. DONNA THAU Math (Middle School)
Herbert F. Hahn Junior Faculty Award ESTABLISHED IN 1992 BY A GROUP OF DONORS AND FIRST AWARDED IN 1993. AUTHOR OF THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM, A HISTORY OF THE SCHOOL, DR. HAHN TAUGHT ENGLISH, PHILOSOPHY, AND RELIGION AT PINGRY FOR 37 YEARS. This award is given to encourage young, experienced teachers to stay in teaching. It recognizes good teaching, the successful performance of multiple extracurricular responsibilities, and other informal efforts with Pingry students. The intent is to reward those young teachers who best personify the Country Day School philosophy.
2017 – 2018
MS. JULIA DUNBAR History (Upper School)
The James P. Whitlock, Jr. ’60 Faculty Development Fund for the Sciences, Mathematics, and Technology ESTABLISHED IN 2005 BY DR. WHITLOCK AND FIRST AWARDED IN 2007, TO SHOW APPRECIATION FOR TEACHERS WHO FOSTER SCIENTIFIC LITERACY AND WHO CREATIVELY INTEGRATE MATH, NATURAL SCIENCE, AND TECHNOLOGY IN THEIR CLASSROOMS. DR. WHITLOCK BELIEVES THAT UNDERSTANDING SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IS CRITICAL TO MAKING INFORMED DECISIONS THAT AFFECT OUR FUTURE. This award recognizes outstanding teachers in the disciplines of natural sciences, mathematics, and technology.
2017 – 2018
MR. JASON HABER
Grade 4 (Lower School)
2017 – 2018
MR. ALEX JOUJAN
Mathematics (Middle School)
E. Murray Todd Faculty Chair ESTABLISHED IN 1986 BY A GIFT FROM THE ESTATE OF MR. TODD, CLASS OF 1916, AND FIRST AWARDED IN 1989. PINGRY’S FIRST TRACK AND THE E. MURRAY TODD MILE WERE ALSO NAMED FOR HIM.
Senior Class Faculty Chair ESTABLISHED IN 2000 BY A GROUP OF DONORS AND FIRST AWARDED IN 2007.
This chair is awarded to a faculty member from any department who has taught at Pingry for at least five years and who has shown extraordinary dedication to our students.
This chair is awarded to honor a distinguished teacher and provide a stipend to provide professional and curricular development in his/her discipline.
2016 – 2019
MRS. SUSAN MAROTTO
MS. STEPHANIE ROMANKOW Drama (Middle and Upper Schools)
The Norman B. Tomlinson, Jr. Chair for History and Literature ESTABLISHED IN 1989 BY MR. TOMLINSON ’44 AND FIRST AWARDED IN 1989. BY ENDOWING THIS CHAIR, HE ACKNOWLEDGED HIS INDEBTEDNESS TO GREAT TEACHERS. This chair is awarded to a faculty member in the humanities who has taught at Pingry for at least five years and who has made a significant contribution to the life of the School outside the classroom.
2017 – 2018
Health (Middle and Upper Schools)
The Greig Family Endowed Faculty Chair ESTABLISHED IN 2011 BY THE GREIG FAMILY AND FIRST AWARDED IN JUNE 2015. SOME OF THEIR BEST MEMORIES INVOLVE TEACHERS WHO ALSO COACHED THEM IN A SPORT. This chair is awarded to a faculty member who has been at Pingry for at least five years in recognition of his/her excellence in both teaching and coaching. The intent is to honor those teachers who best exemplify the Pingry philosophy of educating students both in and out of the classroom. The award should not only recognize exceptional teaching, but also reward those teachers who dedicate themselves as a coach in the Upper School, with a preference for a head coach, but who may coach in any capacity, including as the head coach of a sport in the Middle School.
2017 – 2020
MS. CHRISTINE TAYLOR
English (Middle and Upper Schools)
2017 – 2018
MR. CHRISTOPHER SHILTS Upper School English and Varsity Football
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World History, University Libraries, Sustainability, and Animal Adaptation in Summer Fellowships Summer fellowships are one way that Pingry supports professional growth opportunities among its faculty, which translate to enhanced learning experiences for students. The School remains grateful to the donors whose generous funding helps make these fellowships possible. Upper School history teacher Mr. Ted Corvino ’94, who teaches World History 9 (spanning the beginning of civilization through the early 16th century), sought to immerse himself in that course’s history and culture. He was eager to see the sights for himself, instead of having to rely on books. Mr. Corvino chose to visit Athens and the island of Cyprus because “many of the groups we study in the ninth-grade course—ancient Egyptians, ancient Greeks, ancient Romans, Crusaders, Franks, the Muslim world, and the British—staked claim to Cyprus and left their mark. You can find yourself in a preserved, Neolithic village or a Byzantine church, or you can see Roman mosaics. Cyprus is a patchwork
quilt of various cultures, much like the course is.” For those unfamiliar with the Corvino family’s history at Pingry, Mr. Corvino is in his 20th year teaching history. He is following in the footsteps of his father, Assistant Headmaster–Short Hills Campus and Lower School Director Ted Corvino P ’94, ’97, ’02, who taught sixthgrade social studies for over 30 years until Grade 6 moved to Basking Ridge. When Mr. Corvino Sr. received a summer fellowship for 1991, the family traveled to Colonial Williamsburg, giving Mr. Corvino Jr. a memorable glimpse of what he considered (at that time of his life) “old” history. But having traveled overseas and seen ancient history, he says, “I have a new appreciation for ‘old’ now!”
What sites left the greatest impressions on him? “The Acropolis in Athens represents such advancement in civilization, relative to the rest of the world at the time—the details of the architecture, the engineering to make it happen. Beautiful Roman mosaics in Paphos [on the southwest coast of Cyprus] are so well-preserved. I gained a sense of Roman opulence—again, advanced civilization when others weren’t as far ahead. At the Church of Saint Lazarus in Larnaca [on the southern coast of Cyprus], Byzantine icons that fill this really old church [late 9th century] are remarkable.” Back at Pingry, Mr. Corvino has additional perspective on the content of the World History 9 course, as well as the cumulative takeaway of what he calls “layers” of history. “I saw a medieval fortress next to an ancient Roman villa, which reinforces the idea that no civilization should be studied in isolation. Students need to be aware of one civilization’s influences on another.”
-------------C.B. Newton Library Director Mrs. Eileen Hymas followed up on her 2010 fellowship by participating in the second half of Columbia University’s Oxbridge Teacher Seminars. “Oxbridge,” a collective reference to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, offers librarians the chance to explore libraries in the university system, view historical books and manuscripts, listen to lectures by professors, and network with other educators. “I love old books, so seeing these items in person lets you see details that you would miss in photos,” she says. “The preservation is amazing.” Seven years ago, Mrs. Hymas toured Oxford. This summer, she toured Cambridge, where each of the university’s Upper School history teacher Mr. Ted Corvino ’94 in front of one of the many large, elaborate mosaics built by ancient Romans in the fourth century in Paphos, on the island of Cyprus.
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eight colleges has its own library; Faculty Libraries cater to various disciplines (such as an English Faculty Library consisting of world literature, biographies, and criticisms); and the main University Library contains every book printed in the United Kingdom. The University Library also has an area where visitors can learn about the history of printing and see vintage printing presses. When asked how her fellowship will impact her work at Pingry, Mrs. Hymas names three ways. First, helping students identify topics for research. “Our students are dynamic thinkers with extraordinary ideas. My greatest pleasure from my work is helping them find what they need to fulfill their goals— there’s information out there to support all of their ideas.” Second, enhancing her library management skills. “I spend a good amount of time deciding what is needed in our collections to support faculty and student learning. Visiting libraries, especially libraries of excellence like Cambridge, offers an opportunity to compare resources and learn about trends in collection development and management. This is helpful in filling gaps in our content.” Third, her fellowship may have been a catalyst for a guest speaker. As mentioned, Mrs. Hymas’s seminar included lectures. One of them was given by James Basker, Professor of Literary History at Barnard College, Columbia University and President of The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, who spoke about his work with abolitionist literature and the publication of anthologies that he has curated on the topic. “In speaking with Professor Basker,” she relates, “I mentioned Pingry’s Humanities research projects [in six groups, each guided by different teachers, students are delving into various English and history topics], and he expressed an interest in sharing his expertise with our Pingry community.” Returning to Pingry after her second fellowship, Mrs. Hymas remains “forever grateful for the endorsement of my work here and for my continued professional growth.”
C.B. Newton Library Director Mrs. Eileen Hymas in Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, part of the University of Cambridge. The library is named for Archbishop Matthew Parker, who donated more than 400 manuscripts to the college.
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Upper School visual arts teacher Ms. Rebecca Sullivan, who also co-advises Pingry’s Green Group and Outing Club and serves as the School’s Experiential Education Coordinator, traveled to Iceland to conduct field research for place-based education, take landscape photographs to inform her own artwork, and study the country’s sustainability initiatives. “They are able to harness a Upper School visual arts teacher Rebecca Sullivan standing atop Eldfell volcano on the island Vestmannaeyjar. The volcano erupted in 1973, and the lava flow was halted by island residents, saving the town.
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dramatic landscape by using their land in innovative ways, such as using volcanoes to create geothermal heat,” she says. “It’s remarkable how Iceland has succumbed to nature, at times, and overcome nature at other times.” While art and sustainability were the main focus of her trip, Ms. Sullivan was also scouting for a potential Pingry trip with students and studying glaciers and icebergs as “icons of climate change.” Among her adventures were hiking on and between glaciers and taking a Zodiac boat tour across a glacial lagoon,
Upper School visual arts teacher Rebecca Sullivan visiting Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon. Jökulsárlón is a large, glacial lake in southeast Iceland on the edge of Vatnajökull National Park and at the mouth of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier. The lagoon formed when the glacier started receding in the 1970s and continues to grow as the glacier melts. It is considered one of Iceland’s natural wonders.
which formed several decades ago when the glacier started melting. So, how will her study of Iceland influence her work at Pingry? “We can learn from Iceland. They’ve tapped the earth’s natural resources to supply 100 percent renewable geothermal and hydropower energy, all while dealing with extreme climate and landscape. While we may not have the same resources here in New Jersey, we can look to Iceland to learn how a community can best use and harness its landscape.” Ms. Sullivan also projects that the trip will deepen her understanding of experiential learning and place-based education, further inform her back-country wilderness skills with the Outing Club, broaden her understanding of sustainable energy systems, and provide new paintings and photographs to talk about with environmental art students who are interested in these concepts.
Darwinian theories of evolution inspired Middle School science teacher Ms. Debra Tambor’s fellowship. The Grade 7 science curriculum examines the characteristics of living things, origins of their bodily structures, and similarities and differences among organisms. Knowing that Darwin visited the Galapagos Islands, where he observed that animals had adapted to their environment, Ms. Tambor decided to visit the islands to explore the region’s flora and fauna. “When people hear ‘Galapagos,’ they usually think of evolution and Darwin,” she says. “From the organism perspective, I wanted to get real-life examples of the characteristics that Darwin observed. For example, there is an orange and red Sally Lightfoot Crab— you would think those colors would make the crab a target for a predator, so it makes you wonder why it has this adaptive coloration. There’s also a difference between the marine iguana and the land iguana—the marine iguana is black, while the land iguana is gray with sections of yellow and orange, and, again, it makes you wonder ‘why those colors?’” she says.
birds’ beaks are directly related to their food sources,” she reports. Ms. Tambor also observed unique geological features caused by volcanos, and many kinds of plants, such as cacti growing from volcanic rock.
Ms. Debra Tambor at the equator in Quito. She has one foot in the Northern Hemisphere and one foot in the Southern Hemisphere.
To get answers, Ms. Tambor spoke with nine naturalists who accompanied her group (tourists are not permitted to explore the islands by themselves, nor are they allowed to touch or remove anything). “Some of the characteristics are for camouflage, others are for scaring away predators, and many are for mating rituals. The shapes and sizes of
“A big takeaway is the unspoiled nature of the islands—a large-scale example of sustainability, because researchers are trying to preserve the untarnished landscape and actively maintain certain species,” she says. The region’s biodiversity also left an impression on her, such as multiple species of organisms co-existing on one rock formation. So, Pingry students will benefit from her newfound knowledge of organisms’ adaptations, and Ms. Tambor has a new perspective on experiential learning. “We need to take more advantage of Pingry’s campus to see living creatures in person, instead of relying on pictures. So much learning can take place outside of the classroom.” Ms. Debra Tambor with the Giant Galapagos Tortoise, a species ideally adapted to the Galapagos Islands, which accounts for their advanced ages of up to 120 years. Males can reach 500 pounds, but, surprisingly, the shell only weighs about 40 pounds.
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Global Programs Summer Wrap-Up Shortly after school ended in June, 50 wide-eyed Pingry students spread themselves over three continents in four unique travel experiences, all culturally engaging, all comfort-zone pushing, and all organized by Pingry Global Programs. Here, the highlights.
enjoyed an overnight stay at a Buddhist monastery, visited the Royal Palace, traveled to the demilitarized zone (DMZ), met with North Korean defectors, and even managed to sneak in some karaoke and a popular K-Pop class. When asked what surprised him during the trip, Jack Myers ’20 commented, “I found it surprising that much of Korea didn’t seem like it was in a war-like state with the North. Despite traveling to the DMZ and hearing about radical decisions and actions being made by the U.S., North Korea, and South Korea, we saw the military once the entire trip. During our time in Seoul, there was no military or negative political presence.”
-------------China: Journey to the East June 13–24, 17 Upper School students Faculty Leaders: Ms. Yi Hao P ’11, ’13, Dr. Diana Artis P ’09, ’16, and Mr. Jay Winston
Greece and Italy Ancient Controversies: Who Decides the History We Remember? June 19–29, 12 Upper School students Faculty Leaders: Ms. Kat Smith and Mr. George Sullivan Braving the mid-summer heat (remedy: nightly gelato), Pingry travelers compared the architectural and cultural highlights of Rome (including the Forum, Coliseum, Palatine Hill, and Museo Palazzo), Naples (Herculaneum and Pompeii), and Athens (the Acropolis and Parthenon). They also wrestled with the complexities of historical representation. Why are some layers of history presented and others hidden? What constitutes an accurate restoration? And in what country should artifacts reside?
-------------South Korea June 21–30, 14 Upper School students Faculty Leader: Mr. Mike Webster P ’24, ’27, ’27 Organized through Pingry’s membership in the Global Education Benchmark Group, Pingry’s trip to South Korea was 48
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Students and trip leaders pose before the Roman Forum.
a collaborative one, including two other independent schools, The Hotchkiss School and Head-Royce School. The underlying purpose? To better understand “divided Korea,” South Korea’s recent economic and cultural explosion, and its impact on the country’s traditional culture. Students attended a Global Citizenship meeting at UNESCO,
Cultural immersion—including, as much as possible, taking public transportation, like the country’s subways and high-speed trains—was a focus of this 10-day tour through China. The group began in Shanghai, where they saw the Qing An Temple, People’s Square, and a bustling marketplace before heading southwest, to Quzhou, the location of Pingry’s sister school, Quzhou No. 2. There, they stayed with Touring Seoul. Front row, holding brochures: Ben Polaski ’21 and Megan Pan ’18. Back row: Mia Shum ’21 and Jack Myers ’20.
At Quzhou No. 2 High School, a Chinese student helps Jordan Mandel ’21 and Kathryn Jones ’19 learn the art of calligraphy. What are they writing? A Confucius saying, “Isn’t it delightful to have friends visit from afar?”
the campground, they spent three days weeding out invasive species in the Ahwahnee Meadow. Interspersed with these service days, the group also visited the Hetch Hetchy reservoir and learned about stewardship and conservation, hiked the famous Mist Trail, took in breathtaking views of El Capitan and Yosemite Falls, saw a one-man play with a John Muir impersonator, enjoyed swims in icy creeks, and helped to cook campside meals (pesto pasta and veggie quesadillas were among the favorites). host families from the school—some stayed with the same students they hosted at Pingry last February. Among other outings and activities, they learned the art of dumpling making. From Quzhou, they traveled to Beijing and visited the Great Wall, the Olympic Park, and the Forgotten City before hitting their final stop, Chengdu, host to an important panda research and breeding facility.
-------------Trailblazers: Yosemite National Park: Serve, Learn, Sweat, Smile June 17–27, 7 Middle School students Faculty Leaders: Mr. Jeff Jewett and Ms. Shelley Hartz Pingry Middle School students have been asking for more travel opportunities, and Global Programs delivered! In Yosemite National Park over the summer, seven eager students took part in a service learning outdoor adventure, organized in conjunction with the Student Conservation Association (SCA).
locally—clearing stones and invasive plants from the wooded trails of Pingry’s campus, planting trees, forging new sections of trail, and spending the night at the school’s campsite—students became more aware of service needs at home, not to mention their own ability to help, before heading to Yosemite. One additional aspect of the trip: cell phones had to stay home. At Yosemite, students volunteered their elbow grease alongside two SCA guides. Due to record snowfall last winter followed by blazing summer heat, many areas of the park were flooded, including the campground where they were scheduled to stay. They had their work cut out for them. After helping to relocate picnic tables to dry land and clean
Jordan Miller ’23 reported that engaging in service work with her peers was far more meaningful than simply seeing the sights as a tourist. “I felt like we were brought closer together by doing service,” she said. “And I learned that there are beautiful things in our metaphorical backyard—our 2,700-miles-away backyard—and that, if we don’t do anything to sustain it, we won’t have these beautiful things and this amazing wildlife to study.” Check out pingry.org/global to read more first-person accounts from Pingry travelers. Jordan Miller ’23 and Cai O’Brien ’23 remove invasive cheatgrass from the Ahwanhee Meadow in Yosemite National Park, with the iconic Half Dome in the background.
Their adventure began not out West, but right at Pingry. Why? Director of Global Programs Mr. Jeff Jewett and Director of Community Service Ms. Shelley Hartz recognize the need for service on a local level, and have also noticed that students who engage in service trips often have trouble connecting the experience to their own communities. So, this particular trip presented an innovative model: By starting FALL 2017
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Excursions in a Green World By Sustainability Coordinator Peter Delman P ’97, ’98
For much of the 2016-17 school year, licensed architect Scott Loikits ’90 worked with Mr. Delman to develop a green campus design plan that would harness the School’s natural woodland resources while helping to teach students about sustainability. In April, Mr. Loikits visited Pingry to lead workshops with both students and faculty/staff to collect ideas. Additionally, Mr. Delman envisioned offering a summer course as a way to further explore questions of campus sustainability. The original plan for this one-week summer course was to offer an outdoor education course led by a team hired from the Student Conservation Association. As the project evolved, we found that we could do more for less with in-house talent. The leadership team: new Upper School science teacher Olivia Tandon, Environmental Studies minor Emily Kamen ’13, “naturalist extraordinaire” Isabel DeVito ’19, and me. We exceeded early expectations with 10 Middle and Upper School students signing up. We wanted them to experience the natural world and to actively participate in the green campus design plan by designing and building elements of that plan. Mission accomplished! On the first morning, students studied the green campus site design created by Scott Loikits ’90. Armed with the information from his site plan—which includes an energy-independent Outdoor Learning Center and a tree canopy walk—students toured the campus. The first stop was a tour of the green energy systems of Beinecke House [the Headmaster’s residence], led by Director of Facilities Mike Waelz. He had already gone above and beyond for this project, spending the prior weekend building a chicken coop, and then driving to Brooklyn in the wee hours of July 10 to pick up seven chickens and a rooster. The chicken coop was the next stop. We found happy chickens, excited students, and one green egg. Ms. Tandon, surrogate “chicken mom,” introduced her charges to us. Soon, the students 50
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were building perches for the chickens and learning how to care for them. Later, Isabel introduced the team to Pingry’s Kitchen Garden, where we watered and weeded plants and dealt with a swarm of uninvited beetles. Isabel has a well-earned reputation as “snake girl” and added to her legend by pulling a small, but feisty, garter snake out of the grass and teaching the mesmerized students about its anatomy and habits. The highlight of Tuesday morning was a tour of the School’s beehives, led by Pingry music teacher and beekeeper Sean McAnally who helped students and staff don bee suits. At lunch, we enjoyed the fruits of our labor with honey direct from the comb. In the afternoon, Emily led the team on another community-building project: clearing new trails to bypass flooded sections of
the loop trail leading to our campsite. At the end of the day, the group discussed ideas for creating Pingry’s green campus. The emphasis was on designing a Pingry farm. Wednesday, we visited English Farm in Liberty Corner, where students enjoyed the goats, rabbits, chickens, and pigs. Farmer Carol English answered every question about how to create a farming program at Pingry. After much subsequent discussion, students decided that goats and fruit trees should be top priorities in building our program. Thursday morning, we hiked in the Great Swamp and visited the nearby Raptor Trust. Several students recorded the ravens, which were apparently mimicking woodpecker hammering and owl calls. Friday morning, we made ceramic trail signs, then continued trail building in the afternoon rain. One goal is to make a trail suitable for training runs by the cross country team. We had a special lunch at which the students enjoyed making guacamole. Emily contributed zucchini pancakes; the students had harvested the zucchini from the School garden the day before. I baked peanut strips for dessert. We realized that there is nowhere in the School to heat up the zucchini pancakes, which were still delicious cold. So, the closing lunch inspired yet another goal—to design a student kitchen! Emily Kamen ’13 at English Farm in Liberty Corner.
Sports Medicine Takes to the Classroom Ms. Erin Rose and Mr. Steve Spezio in the Athletic Training Room.
Ms. Rose, asked them to design a new course. “We’re filling a need for students who may want to pursue a career in the healthcare field—nurse, physician, physician assistant, physical therapist, athletic trainer,” Mrs. Marotto says.
“This is what we do every day. We try to educate our student-athletes as we are treating them. We want them to understand their injuries because that’s going to help them recover,” says Athletic Trainer and Health Teacher Mr. Steve Spezio. This daily education in the Athletic Training Room has expanded to the classroom with “Foundations of Sports Medicine,” a new elective trimester course for Grades 10-12. It is taught by Mr. Spezio and Ms. Erin Rose, fellow Athletic Trainer and Health Teacher, and Assistant Director of Athletics. Part of the health curriculum and designed for any student, this course builds off the freshman course Introduction to Physical Fitness and delves into sports medicine: what a sprain or fracture looks like; prevention and treatment of injuries; how the body reacts to common injuries, such as a rolled ankle, sprained wrist, or shoulder injury; and environmental factors that can contribute to injuries, such as a wet playing field. Students will also be able to observe how athletic trainers cover the sidelines during a game. If this type of course sounds familiar to alumni, there’s a reason. In the 1970s and 1980s, former Athletic Trainer and Athletics Hall of Fame inductee J. Michael Lalley P ’86 taught a class that included athletic training (taping, bandaging, splinting, CPR) and field trips to college athletic training rooms.
Then the course disappeared. Recently, Health Department Chair Mrs. Sue Marotto, knowing that more students are completing EMT certification, noticing that young alumni are entering the sports medicine field, and wanting to tap the expertise of Mr. Spezio and
Compared to Mr. Lalley’s course, Mr. Spezio and Ms. Rose decided to take a broader approach. “Rather than it being strictly about athletic training, we figured sports medicine would be better. This way, it’s more introductory,” Ms. Rose says, noting that students are more likely to want to work in healthcare than work specifically as athletic trainers. Referring to Pingry’s fitness classes, Mr. Spezio remarks, “We’re teaching students how to be fit, so we also want to teach them how to take care of their bodies.”
New Offerings in the Middle School One of the major, but, perhaps, less-visible benefits of the Miller A. Bugliari ’52 Athletics Center has been the addition of space that enabled Grade 6 to join Middle School athletics. This also means that Grades 6, 7, and 8 are now on the same daily schedule, and the entire Middle School participates in a Monday-Thursday “Athletics and Activity Block.” Grade 6’s former Co-Curricular subjects have been incorporated into the schedule, with additional time for some of them on Fridays. The Athletics and Activity Block is a time for interested students to play interscholastic sports and take advantage of the new athletics center. However, sports are not the only option. For students who wish to try other types of team-oriented or physical activities, the offerings are varied, including Dance Rhythms (learning dances from around the world), the Middle School Musical, Outdoor Education (using Pingry’s campus to learn about camping, hiking, teamwork, and leadership), Sports Academy (a non-competitive sampling of Pingry’s interscholastic sports), Theater Tech (working behind-thescenes on the Middle School Musical), and Yoga. Some offerings are based on student interest. Friday courses include Emotional Intelligence/Cultural Competency, robotics, and specialized music (Grade 6), health, Emotional Intelligence/Cultural Competency, and specialized music (Grade 7), and Civic Engagement, Leadership, Outdoor Research, and specialized music (Grade 8). Highlights of the eighth-grade courses will be hands-on activities and guest speakers who are leaders in their communities. The first speaker in October was Christine Neely ’79, Vice President, Internal Auditing Services for PSEG (read more on page 78).
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Pingry Teachers Return to School “If it makes for better learning in the classroom, Pingry will support it,” says Dr. Reid Prichett, Dean of Faculty for Teaching and Learning. He is referring to Pingry’s support—indeed, encouragement— of professional growth opportunities for its faculty, from conferences, workshops, and summer fellowships to the pursuit of advanced degrees. “The School is very clear about the high expectations it sets for its faculty,” Dr. Prichett adds. “And when I talk with teachers, they’re very eager to engage in conversation about their development, and about becoming the best teacher that they can be.” The ethos of intellectual engagement, inquiry, and personal empowerment that Pingry cultivates among its student body can also be seen, quite visibly, among its faculty. The arrival two years ago of a dean (Dr. Prichett) whose job it is to facilitate teacher growth and development, in addition to a simultaneous expansion of Pingry’s requirements for and financial support of graduate and doctorate degrees, are two cases in point. This fall marks the third school year of a policy that requires newly-hired faculty to seek a master’s or other advanced degree within four years of their start of employment. In turn, Pingry provides full financial support, or a loan-forgiveness rate of 20 percent per year for a five-year period (faculty who remain at the School for the full five years receive 100 percent forgiveness). Why the new policy? “A master’s degree is seen as an indicator of depth of knowledge in a particular field,” explains Dr. Prichett. “In private education, where teachers are not required to be certified, the advanced degree is seen as a proxy for certification or expected expertise. Not to mention, a master’s degree symbolically demonstrates that the teacher is a learner who has mastery in his or her respective field.” Pingry teachers are, by nature, enthusiastic learners, and this new policy illustrates just how committed the School is to helping them improve their craft. Pingry students, in turn, are reaping the benefits.
Upper School history teacher Mr. Matt Horesta, Upper School English teacher Mr. Graig Peterson, and Upper School history teacher Ms. Colleen Kent.
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Upper School English teacher Mr. Graig Peterson and Upper School history teachers Ms. Colleen Kent and Mr. Matt Horesta are just three examples of Pingry teachers who are taking advantage of the School’s generous support and earning graduate degrees in their respective fields.
When he arrived at Pingry in the spring of 2016, Mr. Peterson was already two summers into a five-summer master’s in English program at Middlebury College’s Bread Loaf School of English (or, as he calls it, “summer camp in the Green Mountains for book nerds”). A 2005 graduate of Dartmouth College, he became a first-time teacher at Pingry. As he considered where to launch his career, Pingry’s commitment to professional growth elevated the school above all others, he says. “The loan forgiveness policy was a huge draw for me. The amount of reimbursement funds available to invest in the faculty was four times greater than any other school I was looking at.” He was also attracted to the model of mutual improvement that such a policy engenders: a school that invests in its faculty generates teachers who invest in the school. “It’s a win-win,” he adds. –––––––––––––
“I can empathize with what it feels like to struggle with the ambiguity of text or to try to bring meaning and significance to something that isn’t readily apparent.”
in after submitting his final Pingry grades in mid-June and before he left for Bread Loaf two weeks later. But, as he points out, the onerous reading load has brought him closer to his own students. “Being able to utilize the skills that I teach my students—Harkness discussion and unpacking text, for example—puts me in their shoes. I can empathize with what it feels like to struggle with the ambiguity of text or to try to bring meaning and significance to something that isn’t readily apparent. Those are the same lessons we put our students through.” Learning how to manage a class and analyze text from professors who are international heavyweights in their fields has also been enlightening. Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Wakefield are two examples of texts that Mr. Peterson scrutinized this summer, which, now back at Pingry, he is also teaching to his English 9 and 10 students. He can’t help but try certain approaches and exercises that his Bread Loaf professors have used on him. This school year, he also plans to use several Bread Loaf texts in the Humanities iRT (independent research team) that he is leading, which mashes cognitive science, evolutionary biology, and literature to pose the following questions: Is human imagination inherently moral? Why do fiction and storytelling exist as an evolutionary adaptation?
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Upper School English teacher Mr. Graig Peterson
Heady questions, and questions that only a teacher confident in his practice could ask. “I’m really grateful that I’m able to attend Bread Loaf,” Mr. Peterson says, “and that Pingry is able to help me.”
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This past summer—his third at Bread Loaf—Mr. Peterson and his classmates, 80 percent of whom are also English teachers in secondary education, covered a semester’s worth of material in just six weeks. Translation: he read 10 books, or about 4,000 pages, over the course of the summer. And that doesn’t account for the 20 books he had to read in preparation for the start of the program, much of which he squeezed
One of the first questions Ms. Kent asked during her Pingry interview four years ago had to do with the school’s professional growth opportunities. A 2011 Princeton graduate who majored in History and
minored in Education, she had come off a one-year leave replacement at Princeton Day School and, before that, a one-year teaching fellowship in England. As a newer teacher, having access to professional support was important to her. “I was definitely looking for a school that I could stay at for the foreseeable future, where I could grow and develop skills as an educator. And Pingry has been incredibly generous,” she remarks. –––––––––––––
“A master’s in Liberal Studies will allow me to look at a lot of different topics—history, English, literature, film—which aligns well with my interdisciplinary approach to teaching.”
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Upper School history teacher Ms. Colleen Kent
––––––––––––– Since joining the faculty in 2014, Ms. Kent has taken two week-long, intensive summer seminars—offered through The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History—on a variety of related topics. Two summers ago, she took a seminar on the Gilded Age at Stanford University with the field’s foremost professor, Dr. Richard White. At Columbia University the following summer, she immersed herself in a seminar on immigration. In her own Pingry classes, she has drawn on resources from both programs. All of these experiences, financially supported by Pingry, helped to inform her recent decision to pursue a master’s degree in Liberal Studies (she was recently accepted into the University of Pennsylvania’s program). After talking through her options with Dr. Prichett, and consulting with fellow Pingry teacher Ms. Hannah Decatur, who was finishing her master’s in liberal arts at Wesleyan, Ms. Kent arrived at her decision. FALL 2017
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“Curriculum-wise, a master’s in Liberal Studies will allow me to look at a lot of different topics—history, English, literature, film—which aligns well with my interdisciplinary approach to teaching,” she explains. “I also like that not all the students in my classes will be history teachers, so I’ll get different perspectives. That’s important to me.” Indeed, hearing different perspectives hints at an aspect of professional growth that Dr. Prichett feels is critical: building relationships with faculty outside of Pingry. The content of the programs—whether advanced degrees or seminars—is important, but equally important, he argues, is who you are going to meet during that time and who you are going to form meaningful relationships with, reach out to later for advice, and share ideas with. “Get outside of Pingry and learn from others,” he urges. Ms. Kent agrees. During her “seminar circuit” over the last few years, she cites as invaluable the relationships she has formed with teachers from both public and private schools across the country. “I became good friends with a woman in Houston, and we have talked a lot about the different challenges we face, given the different demographic climates that we’re teaching in. She and I text every so often to exchange ideas and ask each other, ‘How are you teaching this?’” Now in the midst of pursuing a master’s degree, Ms. Kent is expanding her content knowledge, gaining exposure to source material that she can share with her students, and taking courses that will help to provide an interdisciplinary framework for her own classes. In fact, to cite one example, she is taking a
PINGRY FACT: Newly-hired faculty must seek a master’s or other advanced degree within four years.
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course called The Art of Oral History and is excited to replicate it on a smaller scale in her Pingry classroom. ––––––––––––– Over the summer, Mr. Horesta, who joined Pingry in 2007, wrapped up a master’s degree in Social Studies Education. Why now, 10 years into his tenure? “Without question, the new loan forgiveness plan incentivized a graduate degree in a way that the old one did not, in my eyes,” he says. He is also complimentary of the School’s support of his somewhat unconventional proposal: Head Coach of the Boys’ Varsity Cross Country Team, he did not want to miss the fall sports season (an auspicious decision, since the team won the Prep A Championship last October). So, in addition to taking classes this summer and last, he asked to take a leave of absence during the spring semester in order to be a full-time graduate student. “I imagine it is harder to fill a halfyear teacher vacancy than a full-year, but Pingry supported my plan the whole way,” he says. –––––––––––––
“My decision to go back to school to earn a graduate degree was rooted in wanting to be a better history teacher. It was pretty straightforward.”
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Upper School history teacher Mr. Matt Horesta
––––––––––––– It is a plan, and overall graduate degree experience, that Mr. Horesta has been very pleased with. His program allowed him to take graduate-level history classes at Columbia as well as education classes at Teachers College, an effective combination of both content (what to teach) and pedagogy (how to teach it).
Last spring, for example, he took a course on colonial cities, which examined how 19th-century empires used architecture and urban planning to impose their will and power. The same semester, he studied the ideas of contemporary philosopher Michel Foucault in a class titled “Memory, History, and Curriculum,” exploring how—and through what lenses— history is produced, read, and taught. “My decision to go back to school to earn a graduate degree was rooted in wanting to be a better history teacher. It was pretty straightforward,” he explains. “Pingry students are sharp and curious, and I think it’s important that a history teacher at our School really know the content and readings that would excite and challenge them.” He equates teaching at Pingry to teaching at a college, where professors aren’t beholden to a strict curriculum; instead, they enjoy the flexibility to try new approaches and respond to the intellectual demands of their students (“No one reads a textbook if they don’t have to!” he jokes). His graduate experience has equipped him with the tools to do just that. “In my various reading assignments for my master’s, I’ve definitely stopped at times and thought, ‘Here’s a five-page section that I could assign in my own class, or here’s an image that could serve as a point of discussion.’” For the first time, he says, he’s thinking about assignments in relation to his own learning. That, alone, opens the door to many teaching possibilities. No matter what kind of professional growth opportunity a Pingry faculty member engages in, a single, common thread exists: a desire among them all to improve their connection to their students. Indeed, that connection is at the heart of what is most meaningful and memorable about education, says Dr. Prichett. “When I talk to Colleen and Graig and Matt, there’s a spark in their eyes and an excitement about what they’re doing,” he observes. “Maybe it is something unpredictable in what they learned that has changed the way they see the world and the way they think about their teaching. . . They light up, and that spark is so inspiring.”
Student News
Jared Lefkort ’18 on Winning Team in Scientific Challenge
collaboration, and, most importantly, the fact that anyone can have a positive impact on the world. Since Challenge 2030, I have become very interested in learning more about the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the positive impact that these goals will have around the world. I am participating in the Fall 2017 Sustainable Development Challenge, and hope to one day collaborate on similar, globallysignificant projects as a professional.
By Jared Lefkort ’18
The amazing and rewarding experience of being part of the winning team of an international scientific competition would not have been possible without Pingry. My journey began in freshman year biology class, which sparked my interest in scientific research. As a result, I applied to the Junior Academy of The New York Academy of Sciences, which is comprised of a select group of students from around the world who all want to make the world a better place through STEM. The Junior Academy’s “Challenges” are designed to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Last fall, I chose to participate in the Micronutrient Deficiency Challenge, in which students were challenged to design a noninvasive, nonintrusive, technology-based method of evaluating a micronutrient deficiency in people living in areas with the highest rates of malnutrition. The first step was to form an online team. My team consisted of students from Argentina, Finland, Thailand, and California. We had to select a specific vitamin or micronutrient. We honed in on vitamin B12 after identifying a detectable marker: a lack of vitamin B12 leads to increased methylmalonic acid in a patient’s urine. We adapted a urine strip test, adding an antibody and a few more steps. The testing does not require laboratory analysis, and therefore is a practical solution for identifying vitamin B12 deficiency in the Third World. Our team submitted the project for review by three judges: an executive from PepsiCo (the company that sponsored the challenge), and professors from Tufts and Emory. During Spring Break, I learned that my team won the
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Jared Lefkort ’18 at The New York Academy of Sciences.
Challenge! We were invited to two meetings. The first, in May, was Challenge 2030, a two-day program in New York, where we spoke with and attended workshops led by political and business leaders, Nobel laureates, and world-renowned scientists who reviewed and critiqued our project presentations. This was truly an amazing experience that increased my confidence and changed my outlook on the world and the problems we face as a global community. Challenge 2030 was great preparation for the three-day Global STEM Alliance Summit in July. Approximately 100 members of The Junior Academy from all around the world, as well as winners of other Junior Academy Challenges, attended. PepsiCo, the sponsor of the Micronutrient Deficiency Challenge, gave us a guided tour of their design studios in SoHo, where we learned about healthy food initiatives that PepsiCo is launching. The highlight of the Summit was when my team presented our project on the third day. I think we did a great job! I credit Pingry with teaching me the research, biology, and written and oral communication skills to succeed in this project. The Junior Academy is an incredible experience that has taught and continues to teach me about scientific research, project development, global
Alisa Chokshi ’19 Receives U.S. State Department Scholarship to Study Chinese A student of Spanish and French whom her teachers describe as possessing an extraordinary ability for languages, Alisa studied Mandarin in Chengdu, China over the summer, thanks to a meritbased National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) Scholarship from the U.S. Department of State. Her six weeks abroad included staying with a host family, intensive language study at The Experimental School of Shuangliu Middle School, exploring
Alisa Chokshi ’19 helping at a children’s summer camp in China. The children, ages 3-10, were teaching American students how to do Chinese calligraphy.
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Chinese culture in numerous cities, and community service. “I’m an aspiring polyglot,” Alisa says proudly. “It gives me such a good feeling when I can speak and understand a language and fully converse with someone. Then we share a commonality that we would never have had before.” Spanish field trips in Grades 8 and 9 to Spanishspeaking cities in New Jersey gave Alisa her first tastes of cultural immersion. Then, she joined Pingry’s trip to Spain in 2016, which convinced her to learn Chinese. During a discussion about the importance of learning foreign languages, her Spanish host mother voiced her belief that a native English speaker should learn Chinese because of the country’s growing economy, worldwide influence, and rich culture. “So, when I found out about NSLI-Y [through my brother Kiran’s college friend], I did not hesitate to select Mandarin when applying to the program.” Coming from an environment at Pingry where she is encouraged to make mistakes in language classes, Alisa was not afraid to make mistakes as she learned Mandarin. Having never before spoken the language, how did she handle a homestay with a family that included Chinese-speaking parents and their 15-year-old daughter and Alisa Chokshi ’19 playing the guzheng, a Chinese instrument that dates back more than 2,500 years.
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nine-month-old son? “It was really hard, especially the first two weeks when I felt awkward as a stranger coming into their home,” Alisa says. “But they tried to make me feel at home, and my host sister studies English in middle school. They take language there much more seriously than [Americans] do. So, at first, I spoke English with her, then conversed in Chinese.” Another challenge she faced while adapting to Chinese culture: people stared at her and took her picture, which made her a little bit uncomfortable. As might be expected, the unique learning experience outweighed the challenges: Alisa can now converse easily in Chinese and is continuing to study and practice the language; was pleasantly surprised by how much she loved Chinese food prepared in China; observed the diversity among the country’s ethnic groups (“a common stereotype in America is that all Chinese people look the same”); met talented artists and developed new friendships; and gained “a deep appreciation for Chinese culture.” To this last point, she adds, “I was a global ambassador, representing America. I answered questions about America for the Chinese, and, with my knowledge of Chinese culture, I can raise awareness of their culture here. I can break stereotypes for both of our countries.” Upon returning to New Jersey, Alisa missed China. With that
sentiment in mind, her advice for Pingry students who are considering a similar program is, “Apply—if you don’t, you have no chance of going. Expand your horizons by seeing the world and learning a new language.”
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Mariam Trichas ’18 Publishes Her First Book An award-winning poet, photographer, and journalist, Mariam self-published her first book, Find Your Happy Place: A Guide to Mindfulness and Fulfillment. Its inspiration? The Pingry Record and tennis. “I had written a couple of mindfulnessrelated articles in the newspaper starting my freshman year, which kind of first exposed me to the topic,” she says. As a former Pingry tennis player, Mariam has experienced first-hand the power of the mind-body connection and the mind’s positive and negative impact on an athlete. Additional research further piqued her interest in the mind, and she became certified in mindfulness through a free online course offered by the University of Leiden (the certification does not constitute a formal qualification to teach, but it does qualify Mariam to start the formal teaching trajectory). The book also contains her
I remember that Diana would always be organizing supplies for her Middle School students at East Newark, and this piqued my interest. As I grew older, I took more interest in her work and asked Diana if I could tutor students during their 2016 Summer Program. My offer to volunteer was met with approval from the school’s superintendent, Dr. Patrick Martin, and I began my work at the school, tutoring rising fifthgrade students in math and English.
photographs, including many for which she has won awards and many from her international travels; the photos are intended to relate to topics in the book. Mariam made other literary news this fall. She won first place for poetry (division: ages 15-18) in the Bernards Township Library’s Suzanne Cutler Teen Writing Contest, named in memory of Suzanne Cutler, who loved literature and teaching. In addition, the 2017 issue of The Apprentice Writer (an annual magazine from the Writers Institute at Susquehanna University that publishes high school students’ prose, poetry, and photography) published her poem Grandma’s House and photograph Endless Spiral; and The Live Poets Society of New Jersey’s anthology My World includes her poem The First Time.
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Isabella Drzala ’19 Adds Technology to the East Newark School By Isabella Drzala ’19 As I excitedly walk through the doors of East Newark School [a public, K-8 school], I know that I will be greeted by smiling and eager young faces. The highlight of my day begins when I start tutoring basic math to my students. This opportunity to work at the school has been a gift of a lifetime, and I am extremely grateful to my family friend, Diana Bras, without whom I would not have been given this life-changing experience. When I was younger,
East Newark School is located in one of the lowest-paid school districts in New Jersey. The school is in a predominantly Latino/Hispanic neighborhood, and many of the students learn English as a second language through an immersion program at the school. Due to the varying levels of English spoken by students in the classroom, students must learn as best they can, given their level of language comprehension. Tutoring was a new experience for me, and I was very excited to begin my work. Throughout the month of June, the students gradually opened up to me, sharing personal stories about their family and friends and their plans for the summer. As the month came to a close, I decided that I could not abandon these students after seeing the progress they were making, and decided to continue tutoring them twice a week after school during the 2016-17 school year. East Newark became an integral part of my life. I was always questioning: How could I help these students understand this concept better? Or, what method would help them most to accomplish this task? It was very obvious that the differences between a Pingry education and an education at East Newark were numerous. Over time, I began to think more about how I could make a real impact on the education of students at East Newark, and the lack of technology stood out to me. We live in a world where technology skills are needed for success, and these students were given few opportunities to use technology in the classroom. Technology plays an important role at Pingry as it is often required for many classes. Because the laptops at East Newark were outdated and, consequently, not frequently used,
my goal was to bring updated technology into their classrooms. As I began my summer tutoring again in June 2017, I became even more determined to find a way to bring technology to the students. I set a personal goal for myself and decided to provide iPads for the school. I established an online fundraiser and, within five days, I had raised over $3,500, which I used to purchase 10 iPads at the Apple Store. I remember the day vividly when I walked into the classroom and presented the iPads to the middle school students. The excitement was overwhelming. Every day, the students used the iPads to develop their mathematical skills. Oftentimes, I would work one-onone with students using the iPads to show them new ways to master their proficiency in mathematics. My experience at the East Newark School has made a colossal impact on my life. It has taught me to fully appreciate the resources given to me by both Pingry and my parents. The opportunities and experiences that I have been given have helped me to shape my own future and achieve my goals. I am thankful for having been given the chance to succeed. Education is a powerful tool, and I know that the students with whom I worked at East Newark have gained new skills to help them become successful in life. I look forward to continuing my adventure with them this year and being greeted by new smiling faces as I walk through the doors of their classroom. FALL 2017
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The Alchemy of Pottery So many choices, and so much experimentation! To understand the glazes and processes that are involved in creating pottery, The Pingry Review spoke with Clyde Leef ’18 and Alex Briones ’19. Guided by visual arts teacher Mr. Rich Freiwald, Clyde is in his third year with the art form, following in the footsteps of his brother Max ’15, who also took pottery. Alex is in his second year, inspired by his sister Sofia ’17. How does glaze affect the color of pottery? Alex: Over the years, Mr. Freiwald has developed a base glaze that produces a clear, crystalline piece of pottery [crystalline glazes are made primarily of zinc oxide and silica, which form crystals], and he has experimented with colorants like cobalt, copper, iron, and many more. If we add cobalt to the glaze, it’ll turn the crystals blue. If we add copper, it’ll give a green color. So we can manipulate the base glaze to get different colors in the glaze firing [prior to the application of glaze, the first firing is called bisque]. Once the piece comes out of that second firing, another optional technique, called reduction firing—which strips all of the oxygen and changes the background color, or crystal color—can also be applied to the piece. With copper in the glaze, reduction firing changes it from green to red. Or, if we use silver in the glaze, it changes to gold. When we used cobalt and copper, one piece was blue originally, and reduction firing changed it to bright red.
Above: “Fiery Red” by Alex Briones ’19. Left: Crystalline reduction on porcelain, by Clyde Leef ’18. 58
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How long does it take to make a glaze from scratch? What is the process?
crystalline glaze forums. I took little bits of information from people and combined them with Mr. Freiwald’s base glaze to make a new glaze. It comes out of the kiln really dark, because we oversaturate it with copper. Then we use muriatic acid to eat away at the pot’s enamel—we soak the pot in the acid for half-an-hour to an hour—which drastically changes the background colors and makes the overall piece pop.
Alex: Half-an-hour to 45 minutes. Clyde: It takes a while to mix everything. Alex: You have to weigh each component of the glaze to make sure it’s exactly the amount you need. If you add a little more of one component or a little less of another, it can completely change the glaze and make the final piece look completely different—for either better or worse. For two of my pieces, I used the same recipe for the glaze, but there were huge differences [in how the final pieces look]. I could have made an error in measuring, or I could have applied the glaze thicker on one piece or thinner on another piece.
When you make glazes, do you have an idea of what the final piece will look like, or do you focus more on which colorants you want to include? Clyde: It’s trial and error. We have a bunch of test tiles, scraps of clay that we fire. Before we put glazes on a pot, we make variations in little increments and try them on test tiles to see which ones work the best.
What is another design technique you have used?
When you’re creating a glaze, do you ask Mr. Freiwald what he recommends adding to it to produce the desired effect? Clyde: Yes. Glaze chemistry is pretty intense. He has spent years and years trying to perfect glazes. Alex: Last year, I became really interested in glaze chemistry, so I started doing my own online research outside of class— Googling different recipes and reading
Clyde: We did a raku firing last year, very different from a crystal glaze. Instead of glazing the pots after we bisque fire them [the first firing], we coat them with terra sigillata clay, much like Greek pottery from antiquity. Then we shine the pots to give them a smooth finish. We put them in the outside kiln, heat it to 1,200 degrees, then take them out of the kiln while it’s still 1,200 degrees. At that point, anything you put on the pots will burn. We used horse hairs, peacock feathers . . . anything carbon-based that we could burn. It was really fun, and I like the simple black and white [these effects can be seen in the image below]. Alex: We have to be careful when we’re applying the peacock feathers or the horse hairs because they burn on to the pieces, so they can catch on fire. It was definitely fun.
When you look at the finished products, were there surprises? Clyde: With reduction firing, there are always surprises—it’s 50/50 how it could turn out. Where the pot is located in the kiln even has an impact because different parts of the kiln get hotter than others. One area of my piece [far left] got more heat than the rest, so it has more flashing [color change]. Alex: For the new glaze I made last year, I had no idea how it would turn out. When I was applying it to the pot, the glaze was cracking, usually a bad sign because it means the glaze will fall off during the firing. When it came out of the kiln, Mr. Freiwald and I were shocked that it worked. It looked awesome! When you put the pots in the kiln, you never know what’s going to happen. Top: “Aurora Blues” by Alex Briones ’19. Left: Horse hair raku on porcelain, by Clyde Leef ’18.
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An Art Educator and Integrator
She has been a woman on a mission. “I want to make sure that every student’s talent never goes unnoticed and that they are recognized as artists,” says Mrs. Jennifer Mack-Watkins, in her third year as a Middle and Upper School visual arts teacher at Pingry. Coming from a family of educators, Mrs. MackWatkins decided in high school that she wanted to become an art teacher, and she also has an extensive background as an exhibiting artist.
Afrohawk by Jennifer Mack-Watkins, Silkscreen, 24 x 36, 2011.
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“I like the challenge of balancing the worlds of teaching and exhibiting, so that students understand that art happens outside of school,” she says. “I need to be an example—I couldn’t ‘talk the talk’ if I can’t ‘walk the walk.’ I’m happy if I’m in a couple of shows each year, whether by invitation or application.” Outside of Pingry, Mrs. Mack-Watkins focuses on printmaking, whose forms include woodblock and silkscreen. At Pingry, she brings her artistic expertise to Grade 8 Digital Filmmaking and the freshman course
Art Fundamentals (her background includes a B.A. in Studio Arts from Morris Brown College, an M.A.T. in Art Education from Tufts University and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and an M.F.A. in Printmaking from Pratt Institute). Mrs. Mack-Watkins, who has been teaching art for over a decade, seeks to create an environment in which students feel comfortable to take risks and make mistakes. “It’s okay to not know everything—just enjoy the journey. The artistic way of thinking is a process. You learn from your mistakes, and a mistake could turn into a masterpiece,” she says. Students should also understand that every work of art exists for a reason. “I show real-world examples of what artists go through, or I show a controversial piece and tell students what the artist meant, what the critics said, and what the audience thought.” One area in which her worlds as a practicing artist and teacher intersect is her Art Fundamentals printmaking unit on
Japanese Woodblocks in Hawaii Earlier this fall, Mrs. Mack-Watkins attended the International Mokuhanga Conference in Hawaii, where artists from around the world promoted the art of Japanese woodblocks. She exhibited her woodblocks and spoke about her experiences leading printmaking workshops in public spaces.
Vanity I, Japanese woodblock by Jennifer Mack-Watkins, 8.5 x 10.5, 2015.
the museum’s education gallery. This experience in Brooklyn is significant to Pingry because, in her role of Gallery Education Coordinator, she is tasked with connecting exhibits in the Hostetter Arts Center Gallery to the curriculum by collaborating with other teachers on lesson plans. “This integration is all about getting teachers out of the classroom and utilizing the gallery,” Mrs. Mack-Watkins says. “Teaching doesn’t always have to happen in the classroom—it can happen outdoors or in the art gallery.” As students, faculty, and staff are also aware, last year Mrs. Mack-Watkins enticed people to visit the gallery by initiating “Hostetter on the Five,” consisting of five-minute student performances inspired by a piece in the gallery. “Responding to a work of art doesn’t always involve writing about it, looking at it, or talking about it,” she says. These performances are intended to transform the gallery into a space for reflection and encourage attendees to spend more time there. But there’s even more to it than that: “Everyone is in the routine of classes, meetings, practices…I want to interrupt the day for art and bring people together.”
Mrs. Mack-Watkins pulling a screen with ink, using a squeegee.
Printmaking’s Appeal Mrs. Mack-Watkins is fascinated by the repetitive process of printmaking. “I hope that every addition [to the series of prints] looks the same, but that’s not always the case. There might not be enough ink, or you could carve too much wood. It’s really meticulous, and you have to almost be like a scientist, taking notes of what happened.”
social justice, a unit that begins with the question, “What is a social issue?” Using current events as a launching point, Mrs. Mack-Watkins asks students to consider an issue of importance to them, then choose colors and symbols to represent those ideas in the final print. Social issues close to her own heart (and common themes in her work) include the perception of beauty, empowerment of women, and gender stereotypes. Some of Mrs. Mack-Watkins’s teaching has taken place with the Brooklyn Museum’s Gallery Studio Program, whose courses use works in the museum’s permanent and current exhibits to inspire students. The resulting artwork, created by elementary, middle, and high school students, is exhibited in Annie Smith ’20 carving a woodblock to prepare her print.
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Strength Program Grows Stronger The Pingry community is enamored, and rightly so, with the new Greig Family Strength and Conditioning Center in the Miller A. Bugliari ’52 Athletics Center. It has more space, more equipment, more athletes training at the same time, a larger staff, and longer hours than its previous incarnation.
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Pingry has come a long way since the relatively small weight room (across from the Upper School Faculty Lounge) and its successor, the first Greig Center (upstairs in the main Upper School building). The strength and conditioning program now has fantastic resources to deliver on its mission of developing students’ bodies for the rigors of sports, preventing injuries, and encouraging a healthy lifestyle. As Director of Strength and Conditioning Mr. Doug Scott puts it, “When parents send their children to school in the morning, they want them to be safe. Our job is to keep students safe when they are playing sports.”
took advantage of the strength program—mainly the football and boys’ lacrosse teams. Within about three years, through word-of-mouth and Coach Scott’s encouragement, more athletes became interested in strength training, especially girls, as the field hockey team became regular visitors to the strength and conditioning center. As the years passed, participation continued to increase. Numbers are only part of this growth story, though, because the strength program is now utilized equally by both genders, which he describes as “a significant accomplishment in any strength and conditioning program.”
Coach Scott, whose arrival in the Physical Education Department coincided with the opening of the first Greig Center (1999), recalls the program’s slow beginnings, when a relatively small number of student-athletes
But now Pingry’s strength program has entered a new era with the relocated, expanded Greig Center, which is available even during the summer months. A major benefit is that, for the first time, multiple teams can work out together
at the same time (three to five, compared with one at a time in the previous Greig Center), so Coach Scott and his staff introduced something new for 2017-18: he scheduled nearly every fall team for daily pre-season strength and conditioning. Last winter and spring, there was also an influx of female distance runners. “Historically, we have not had many distance runners in the program because coaches tend to shy away from lower-body strength building for fear of the athletes running slower,” Coach Scott says. “Now, distance runners are doing just as much training as sprinters, jumpers, and throwers, with great improvements in times and reductions in injuries.” Expansion of the Greig Center isn’t only about square footage. Coach Scott acknowledges that he had a “once-in-acareer opportunity” to develop the space into the facility that the community sees today. To select the new equipment that would support the program’s goals, he spoke with colleagues at Colgate, Villanova, and Princeton—all universities, but all similar to Pingry in that their student-athletes, both male and female, participate in multiple sports, and priority is given to achieving a balance between athletics and academics. “To do this [room and program] justice for Pingry, I had to talk to other people. I’ve discussed other avenues of training –––––––––––––
“The flexibility of the Greig Center’s schedule really helps me. During finals week last year, I was struggling to find time to work out because of studying and extracurricular activities. I wound up working out during my free period or lunch, and Coach Scott posted short work-outs that I could follow...The coaching staff and the high level of the space hold me to a higher standard and make me want to represent Pingry well.”
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Ally Pyne ’18 soccer captain; basketball
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“We make sure that athletes are not only striving to improve, but also understand why they are doing what they are doing.”
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Director of Strength and Conditioning Mr. Doug Scott
––––––––––––– with these college strength coaches over the years, but never in the sense of building a high school preparatory program for their athletes.” Coach Scott’s question: In which areas do high school athletes need to improve before entering college? The answers he received: basic barbell and dumbbell exercises, and hip, hamstring, neck, and lower back strength. The third element of expansion, along with space and equipment, is personnel, with Coach Scott joined by two new colleagues who are helping to develop the program: Assistant Director of Strength and Conditioning Mr. Mike Saraceno, as well as Morning Wellness Coordinator Ms. Mary Drabich, who works primarily with faculty and staff (she is also a three-season coach). All three are committed to effective communication, according to Coach Scott. “We make sure that athletes are not only striving to improve, but also understand why they are doing what they are doing. We don’t stop when we’re tired—we stop when the job is done.” Coming to Pingry from Villanova, Coach Saraceno brings experience as a strength trainer with high-level athletes; he is
CSCCa-certified (Collegiate Strength & Conditioning Coaches Association) and has trained over 3,000 Division I athletes. So, he is a resource to help student-athletes bridge the gap between Pingry and collegiate sports. “As a college strength coach, you go through very rudimentary training with freshmen—back to basics. It always makes you say, ‘I wish I had this kid in high school.’ Well, now I have them in high school, and I get to be a part of producing that collegiate athlete,” he says. Director of Athletics Mrs. Carter Abbott praises Coach Saraceno’s “own innovative programming that is accessible to a wide range of kids. Together, Coach Scott and Coach Saraceno have created a space that a female freshman tennis player can enter just as easily as a varsity football player. They are a great team.” With more space and a second, fulltime strength and conditioning coach, athletes no longer have to be scheduled in small—and different—blocks of time. Now, the Greig Center can accommodate individual students when their schedules permit, multiple groups can train in multiple areas simultaneously (one group can focus on muscular strength using free weights, while another can perform agility exercises –––––––––––––
“I used to be a gymnast, and I was constantly reminded of my body’s power and strength as I hurled myself through the air. However, once I stopped gymnastics, I had no strength training, and my conception of female strength waned. The School’s commitment to empowering all athletes is amazing, and I feel so blessed that Pingry has the resources to help girls become fitter, faster, and stronger. The coaching staff is receptive to the training that athletes think they need, and personalized feedback transforms the exercises.”
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Jenny Coyne ’18 field hockey, swimming, lacrosse
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“The Greig Center is a new environment, so a lot of people are inspired to go there and work out. Now that it’s bigger, it brings the team together, and we can all train at the same time. The trainers are so supportive and available. You can walk in anytime to ask for help.”
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Patrick Birotte ’20, football
––––––––––––– in a different area), and not only can entire teams work out together, but they can also work out in smaller groups, cultivating leadership opportunities when multiple players oversee various aspects of the workout. So, what exactly are athletes working on when they train, and how do Coaches Scott and Saraceno know what exercises they need? Part of the answer lies in observing the patterns of previous student-athletes, and part lies in accurately evaluating every current athlete. “For the most part,” Coach Scott says, “students tend to be deficient in muscular strength. Historically, they are weak in the posterior chain muscles—upper and lower back, hips, hamstrings. They also have rudimentary ability in key movements—proper squatting, ankle flexibility.” Each fall, athletes are assessed to determine which exercises they need.
Ringing the Bell In the spirit of “Ring the bell for Old John Pingry . . . for whose glory we all shall fight.” Students on every team—usually a captain or a player delegated by a captain—experience the pride and excitement of ringing the bell when starting and finishing a workout. If coming to the center individually, students ring in and out on their own. Only students can ring the bell, symbolic of their contributions to improving themselves, their team, and the School. 64
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“The brain moves inside the skull, which is held up by muscles of the neck and head. When you’re playing sports, forces are coming at you from all directions. If you get hit in the head, those forces have to dissipate, so the muscles act as shock absorbers, to lower the magnitude of impact.” Improving neck strength is just one component of a larger concussion management program that is implemented in collaboration with Pingry’s athletic trainers and nursing staff, but it’s in line with the overarching strength and conditioning philosophy: to do everything possible to prepare athletes to be safe in competition. “The strength and conditioning program helps our kids get on the field and stay on the field longer, and, when injured, be able to come back more quickly than they otherwise would,” Mrs. Abbott says. “We combine aspects of agility and flexibility, as well as strength—all to make our athletes more prepared to step on the field. In addition to maximizing our athletes’ safety, our strength program is geared to making us bigger, faster, and stronger competitors at a high level.”
One necessity for all athletes is neck strengthening, to prevent concussions and brain injuries, a risk in every sport. Coach Scott explains the mechanics:
Five Pillars of the Strength and Conditioning Program Neck, to protect the brain Lower body Upper body pushing Upper body pulling Mid-section stability
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“With this program, I can stay in shape all the time, whether I am in the off-season or training for the current season. The facility is right at school and it’s so good that I don’t have to go to a gym or find a separate trainer. I enjoy working out at the new Greig Center because it has everything I need. One thing I’ve relied on so much is [Coach Scott’s] Introduction to Fitness class from freshman year. That class not only taught me about all of the machines in the weight room and how to use them, but also what types of workouts we should do in order to be at peak performance.”
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Alexis Elliot ’18, soccer captain; spring track and field
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Recovery from an ACL Tear Soccer goalie Abby Beckmen ’19 tore her ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) in August 2016, during a pre-season game. After she dove for a ball, her leg stayed in position and twisted when she tried to get up and move in another direction. “I heard it pop. It was bad luck and my first major injury,” she says. Abby underwent surgery a month later and eventually combined physical therapy (outside of Pingry) with strength training at Pingry, guided by Coach Saraceno, who has seven years of experience helping athletes recover from surgery and return to play following ACL tears. “I had to find out what exercising she had done between our sessions, so I wasn’t doubling up on anything,” Coach Saraceno says. “I went through the pool [of possible exercises] to figure out what was needed. We also had testing during the process, so we knew where Abby was in her recovery.” Grateful for his motivation, Abby focused on weights, building the muscles around her knee, and jumping. She fully recovered after about nine months and resumed sports this past July.
A Motivating Culture
“P” and “Pingry” are always right-side-up to show Pingry pride.
Motivational messages surround athletes while they are exercising, emphasizing that they need to give encouragement, earn what they get, never quit, and respect everyone.
Summer Preparation for College Athletics Next summer, Coach Saraceno will introduce the College Athlete Preparatory Course. His goal is to prepare Big Blue athletes, mentally and physically, for the transition to college sports, to help them avoid injury and burnout. “The number one skill we’re going to focus on is movement quality,” he explains. “Can your body move the way the coaching staff needs your body to move to prevent injury and optimize performance, from moving laterally to catching a ball correctly? Can you do the five basic lifts that are the foundation of any sport? All of these underlying movements will transfer to your sport, no matter what you play, and they are going to tell a Strength & Conditioning coach a lot about your physical strength, weaknesses, and potential for future pathology.” While ample strength training modalities will be covered, so, too, will the myriad intangibles of college athletics— what are my responsibilities as a college athlete? How can I develop and maintain a good relationship with my coach? How can I take advantage of a rapport with a Strength & Conditioning coach? What are realistic sleep habits I should adopt? What can I do to improve my work ethic in the eyes of my coach? What should I focus on in terms of nutrition? How do I balance it all? Guest speakers will include Division I coaches and strength & conditioning professionals, to offer a real-world perspective. FALL 2017
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HOMECOMING 2017 Fall foliage decorating sunny skies, five different varsity games contested on campus—in addition to the Alumni Soccer Game—a BBQ lunch beneath the tent, face painting and games for children, and plenty of Big Blue spirit marked Pingry’s Homecoming festivities on Saturday, October 7. Over 700 current students, parents, and alumni spanning several decades gathered to celebrate the past, present, and future of Pingry athletics. The occasion also provided a chance to dedicate new athletics spaces (read more on page 22), and the Varsity Football Team played the inaugural game on its new turf field.
[ 1 ] Alex Strasser ’19, Hannah Gruber ’19, Rajeev Doraswamy ’19, Nia Phillips ’19, Big Blue, Annie Leithead ’19, and Rashida Mohammed ’19. [ 2 ] Alexis Elliot ’18 and Nick Ladino ’18. [ 3 ] Monica Chan ’21, Noah Bergam ’21, Francesca Rainuzzo ’21, Mia Shum ’21, Ajuné Richardson ’21, Callie Mahoney ’21, Helen Ma ’21, Ariel Li ’21, and Josie Alston ’21.
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[ 4 ] Christopher Watson P ’24, ’30, ’30, Roz Billups P ’22, ’25, Thomas Diemar ’96, P ’24, and Alexander Billups P ’22, ’25. [ 5 ] Director of College Counseling Tim Lear ’92, P ’25, ’27, ’30, Julia Robinson ’17, Sofia Briones ’17, and Emily Tung ’17. [ 6 ] Front row: Maddie Massey ’20, Natalie Ladino ’20, Caitlyn Foley ’20, and Mia Simon ’20. Back row: Jack Younghans ’20, Burke Pagano ’20, Amir Arnold ’20, Julius Smith ’20, and Shane Shannon ’20. [ 7 ] Dylan Anidjar ’20, Caroline Dannenbaum ’20, and Margot Present ’19. [ 8 ] Mariah Smith ’19 and Ethan Malzberg ’19. [ 9 ] Theresa Korth P ’16, ’20, ’21, Margaret Smith P ’18, ’20, ’20, PSPA President Anthe Angelides P ’16, ’20, Anne Wargo P ’20, and Jill Dispenza P ’20. [ 10 ] Sarah Parker ’22, Ainsley Ellison ’22, Martine Bigos ’22, and Lailah Berry ’22. [ 11 ] Patrick Birotte ’20, Ryan Smith ’20, and Burke Pagano ’20. [ 12 ] The Varsity Football Team on its way to the first game on the new turf field. [ 13 ] A standing ovation for Homecoming 2017!
More photos can be found at pingry.org/photos.
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Athletics Baseball: 15-10 Boys’ Golf: 13-3 Somerset County Tournament: Champions Somerset County Tournament Individual Champion: Jake Mayer ’17 (3rd consecutive year) Skyland Conference Tournament Individual Champion: Jake Mayer ’17 NJSIAA Non-Public B, North Jersey: 2nd place NJSIAA Non-Public B, North Jersey Individual Champion: Jake Mayer ’17 (2nd consecutive year) Courier News “Boys Golfer of the Year”: Jake Mayer ’17
Girls’ Golf: 10-4 Somerset County Tournament: Champions Somerset County Tournament Individual Champion: Ami Gianchandani ’18. Christine Shao ’19 placed 3rd.
BIG BLUE ROUNDUP Spring 2017 Season NJSIAA Tournament of Champions: 2nd place NJSIAA Tournament of Champions Individual Winner: Ami Gianchandani ’18
Boys’ Lacrosse: 14-7 NJSIAA Non-Public B: State Champions (3rd consecutive year)
Girls’ Lacrosse: 12-7 Softball: 3-19 Boys’ Tennis: 9-5
The Somerset County Champion Boys’ and Girls’ Golf Teams.
Somerset County Tournament: 2nd place. Andrew Lee ’19 was a finalist in 2nd singles. Neel Sambamurthy ’17 was a finalist in 3rd singles.
A few weeks after winning the county title, and for the first time in Rob Mauer’s three years as Head Coach of the Girls’ Varsity Golf Team, the entire team qualified for the Tournament of Champions, and Ami Gianchandani ’18 emerged the state-wide victor. “I was overjoyed to have the team join me at states this year, the first time in my high school career that I was not there just as an individual competitor,” Ami says. “I am extremely proud of each of my teammates, whose hard work propelled us to not only qualify for states, but place second by only one stroke! We are all grateful to [Head] Coach Mauer and Coach [Sean] McAnally for all their dedication in helping us to improve and lead the team further than ever before, at least in recent school history.” Coach Mauer echoes Ami’s sentiments. “I am so proud of these girls. Their synergy and enthusiasm have carried us a long way. This was an amazing year for the girls’ golf team, to say the least.”
NJSIAA Non-Public B Tournament: 2nd place
Boys’ Track & Field: 2-2 Girls’ Track & Field: 3-1
Big Blue baseball retains ownership of The Headmasters’ Trophy. 70
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Boys’ and Girls’ Golf Teams Win County Championships
The Headmasters’ Trophy In a friendly baseball rivalry three years in the making, Pingry and Morristown-Beard squared off on April 19 at home. The outcome? Big Blue defeated the Bears, 8-3, to retain ownership of The Headmasters’ Trophy. Clyde Leef ’18 was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored. Nate Hefner ’19 and Max Scherzer ’18 both had two runs and an RBI. Winning pitcher Joe Possumato ’17 (2-1) struck out five, allowing two earned runs, five hits, and two walks. Zach Keller ’17 was 1-for-4 with a run and an RBI.
Record-Breaking Track & Field Performances in Somerset County Championships Boys • High jump: Zach Aanstoots ’18 broke his own school record and won the event (6’ 4”) • Javelin: Austin Parsons ’18 won the event (183-10") • Long jump: Obi Nnaeto ’18 placed 2nd (20-10" • 3200-meter run: Thomas Tarantino ’17 placed 3rd (9:53.77)
Girls • 800-meter run: Nicole Vanasse ’20 broke a nearly 10-year-old school record to place 2nd (2:16.8). Avery Schiffman ’18 placed 3rd (2:19.46). • High jump: Sophia Weldon ’18 broke the record and placed 3rd (5' 6"). She also won the triple jump (36' 9"). • Pole vault: Julia Dannenbaum ’17 placed 1st (11' 6")
Track & Field Records in NJSIAA Non-Public A Championships Boys • Long jump: Zach Aanstoots ’18 placed 2nd (21' 9-1/4"). He also placed 3rd in the high jump (6'). • Javelin: Austin Parsons ’18 placed 2nd (180' 6") Girls (3rd-place finish overall) • 800-meter run: Nicole Vanasse ’20 broke her own school record to place 2nd (2:14.52) • 1600-meter run: Nicole Vanasse ’20 broke the school record to place 2nd (5:00.69) • Triple jump: Sophia Weldon ’18 broke the school record and won the event (38’ 1-1/2”). She also won the high jump (5' 4"). • Pole vault: Julia Dannenbaum ’18 placed 1st (11' 10") • Discus: Grace O’Mara ’19 placed 3rd (103’00) Based on their performances during the spring season, Nicole Vanasse, Zach Aanstoots, Julia Dannenbaum, and Sophia Weldon all qualified to compete on the national stage, at New Balance Nationals Outdoor, held in Greensborough, NC from June 16-18.
Pingry record-holders Sophia Weldon ’18, Zach Aanstoots ’18, and Nicole Vanasse ’20.
The NJSIAA Non-Public B State Champion Boys’ Lacrosse Team.
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The 300th victory for Head Coach Mike Webster P ’24, ’27, ’27. The players in front of the scoreboard are holding open the game scorebook.
Boys’ Lacrosse and Head Coach Mike Webster Reach Milestone Wins With a 9-4 victory over Christian Brothers Academy on May 16, just two weeks before their state title win, Pingry’s boys’ lacrosse program reached its 500th career win. The varsity program began in 1956, making Pingry among the oldest high school teams in the state. A week later, Head Coach Mike Webster P ’24, ’27, ’27, who has guided the team for nearly half of its 61-year history, marked his 300th career win. On May 23, in a home game against Oratory Prep, the quarterfinal round of the NJSIAA state tournament, Big Blue won, 7-4. Since 1989, Coach Webster—a New Jersey Lacrosse Hall of Fame inductee—has led the team to four state championships (1993, 2006, 2015, and 2016), in addition to four state finals appearances. In the spring of 2016, after the team made it all the way to the heralded Tournament of Champions finals, defeating #1 ranked, undefeated Bridgewater-Raritan along the way, he was named Courier News “Coach of the Year.”
Jake Mayer ’17 Places 6th in the NJSGA Open In the opening round of the 97th New Jersey State Golf Association Open Championship—his first State Open appearance—which gathered 109 of the state’s best golfers, Jake shot a par-72 to find himself just one stroke behind the leader, a 45-year-old head professional from Brooklake Country Club, Dave McGovern. Jake went on to tie for a sixthplace finish. According to The Star-Ledger, “The story of the [opening] day belonged to Mayer, who had only played two practice rounds at the formidable Metedeconk National, yet he nearly tied for the lead, missing a six-foot birdie putt on his next-to-last hole.”
the match of 32 and the match of 16, defeating the #2-ranked player from Thailand, who was considered by many the best in the field. Her blitz ended in the quarterfinals, when she fell to Elizabeth Moon of Arkansas. It was Ami’s third consecutive appearance in the event, and her best performance. “My main goal going into the tournament was to better my last two performances by making the cut after two days,” Ami says. “During the match play, I knew that if I kept my head in it and played steady golf, I would be able to defeat several players seeded better than me. I am thrilled about how I performed, but I intend to back up my results by continuing to play and compete with the best girls in the world.”
Ami Gianchandani ’18 Advances to Quarterfinals of USGA Girls’ Junior Championship
Tina Rix-Stout Advances to Semifinals in 2017 World Squash Doubles Championships
This summer was a momentous one for two members of the Girls’ Varsity Golf Team: Christine Shao ’19 and Ami Gianchandani ’18. By turning in great scores in a qualifier in mid-July, the two Big Blue athletes joined the world’s top 155 junior golfers to compete in the 69th USGA Girls’ Junior Championship. Both executed impressive performances.
Pingry’s Director of Squash and new Head Coach of the Girls’ Varsity Squash Team Tina Rix-Stout reaffirmed her talent as a player at the World Squash Doubles Championships in St. Louis at the end of September. One of only four players representing England invited to compete in the championship, she and her partner Victoria Simmonds advanced to the Women’s Doubles Semifinals, where they fell in a close match to Georgina Stoker and Suzie Pierrepont, who, coincidentally, is Mrs. Rix-Stout’s best friend, ranked #1 in the world in doubles! That pair went on to win the event title.
Christine, who won the 63rd NJSGA Junior Girls Championship in early July, did well in stroke play, the first two days of the tournament. Match play followed, and, while Christine did not make the cut of 64, her teammate Ami, who was seeded #50, won the match. Ami also won 72
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She was equally successful in the Mixed Doubles Championship, advancing to the semifinals with partner (and former colleague, with whom she directed the squash program at Episcopal Academy) John Russell. “Funny story about the mixed doubles championship,” Mrs. Rix-Stout says. “Suzie played with my husband James. They, too, lost in the semifinals, but, if we had both won, it would have been a husband-versus-wife final!” Mrs. Rix-Stout plays on the WSA (Women’s Squash Association) and WDSA (Women’s Doubles Squash Association) world circuits, and is ranked #26 in doubles worldwide (as recently as last spring, she was ranked #7).
Football Coach Tom Boyer Is Honored at Basilone Bowl
most important lesson young men could learn was working together toward a common goal. Sportsmanship and teamwork were the hallmarks of his coaching. Nine of Mr. Boyer’s varsity teams qualified for the NJSIAA play-offs. The 1986 team (6-2), inducted into the Hall of Fame, earned the State Prep Championship title and was ranked #1 by The Star-Ledger among all prep schools in New Jersey. His 1995 team (8-1), also inducted into the Hall of Fame, won the Colonial Hills Conference and was a semifinalist in the NJSIAA State Tournament. In 1998, he was named Star-Ledger Somerset County “Coach of the Year” and was selected by the New Jersey Football Coaches Association to coach the New Jersey All-State Football Team in 1999. Since 2000, he has remained involved with Pingry’s Middle School and Varsity Football Teams. Chris Shilts, current Head Coach of the Varsity Football Team, joined the Pingry faculty during Mr. Boyer’s final season with the team. “Prior to coming to Pingry, I had decided not to coach anymore. I was having a miserable experience, and it was a huge time chunk. Tom helped me recommit myself to football and rediscover my love of the game and of coaching it. He is the consummate coach. He asked questions all the time, and he’d want answers. He always delivered a great game plan, he always anticipated what our opponents might do, and a lot of this came from intense film study. Mostly, Tom was a much-loved coach.”
Honorary Coach Tom Boyer P ’96, ’98 with Chris Shilts P ’17, ’19, ’21, ’24, who helped coach the game. Coach Boyer is holding a jersey signed by all of the players.
The Head Coach of Pingry’s Varsity Football Team from 1984-2000, who retired from teaching at Pingry after 35 years, Mr. Tom Boyer P ’96, ’98 was selected to be this year’s Honorary Coach at the Somerset County All-Star Football Game—the Basilone Bowl—which took place in June at Bridgewater-Raritan High School. Chris Shilts P ’17, ’19, ’21, ’24, current Head Coach of Pingry’s Varsity Football Team, nominated him, and the other Somerset County coaches agreed. “The goal is to honor the past of Somerset County football,” Mr. Shilts says. “The schools, or the coaches of the schools, tend to nominate a long-time coach and figure who has served the position of head coach well—a revered member of the program and the community.”
Sponsored by the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and the Somerset County Football Coaches Association, the Basilone Bowl is a tribute to Raritan borough’s Gunnery Sgt. John Basilone, the only enlisted Marine to receive the Medal of Honor and Navy Cross in World War II. He was killed in combat on Iwo Jima in February 1945. In recognition of his heroism, players in the Bowl are chosen by the Coaches Association for their athletic ability, scholastic performance, and content of character. In addition to Mr. Boyer’s honor, Pingry was proud to showcase three of its players in the game: Jason Resnick ’17, Ryan Boylan ’17, and Spencer Spellman ’17. (Ryan and Spencer were this year’s recipients of the Tom Boyer Football Award, established in 2008 by Ms. Jane Andrews and Mr. and Mrs. C. Rory Corrigan, to recognize the Pingry football player as exemplified by Coach Tom Boyer, who demonstrates strength of character, courage on the field, and devotion to his teammates.)
As his 2012 Pingry Athletics Hall of Fame citation notes, Mr. Boyer was known for producing teams that had, in his words, “a powerful ground game and aggressive defense.” He also believed that the
Honorary Coach Tom Boyer P ’96, ’98 with the winning team, the Leather Necks (they defeated the Devil Dogs, 20-7).
College Athlete News Women’s Golf Jason Resnick ’17, Ryan Boylan ’17, Honorary Coach Tom Boyer P ’96, ’98 with the Basilone Bowl Champions Trophy, Spencer Spellman ’17, and Chris Shilts P ’17, ’19, ’21, ’24.
Kiara Smith ’17 (Dickinson College) scored 114 to help the Red Devils place second at the McDaniel College Fall Invitational.
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Front row: Julia Masch, Obi Ikoro, Oliver Martin, Amanda Celli, Charlotte Curnin, Julia Dannenbaum, David Metzger, Mary Pagano, Thomas Tarantino, Cece Lesnick, Jeffrey Zucker, and Jake Mayer. Back row: Owen Gaynor, Daniel Hutt, Mackinley Taylor, Matthew Peacock, Henry Kraham, Jake Simon, Claire O’Mara, Rich LeGrand, Sarah Moseson, Sam Scherl, Spencer Duryee, Amanda Van Orden, and Frankie Dillon. Not pictured: Jake Moss.
Class of 2017 Student-Athletes Head to College Teams Twenty-six members of the Class of 2017 brought their athletic skills to college teams—representing 11 sports on 24 different campuses. Three of these athletes are playing at Division I schools, which required signed national letters of intent, but many more are also playing for other top Division I and III athletics programs. Big Blue’s 2017 graduates represent the following sports in college: cross country (2), football (1), lacrosse (8), squash (3), soccer (4), swimming (1), track & field (3), field hockey (3), tennis (2), and golf (1). Go Big Blue student-athletes! Amanda Celli The College of New Jersey, field hockey Charlotte Curnin Wesleyan University, lacrosse Julia Dannenbaum Washington University in St. Louis, track & field Frankie Dillon Swarthmore College, lacrosse Spencer Duryee Vassar College, lacrosse 74
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Owen Gaynor Elon College, soccer Daniel Hutt Tufts University, squash Obi Ikoro Gettysburg College, soccer Henry Kraham Claremont McKenna College, soccer Rich LeGrand Washington & Lee University, football
Cece Lesnick* Lafayette College, tennis Oliver Martin Kenyon College, lacrosse Julia Masch Columbia University, squash Jake Mayer Princeton University, golf David Metzger Vassar College, lacrosse Sarah Moseson Massachusetts Institute of Technology, soccer Jake Moss University of Notre Dame, lacrosse Claire O’Mara Yale University, swimming Mary Pagano* Georgetown University, lacrosse
Matthew Peacock Williams College, cross country and track & field Sam Scherl Harvard University, squash Jake Simon Connecticut College, lacrosse Thomas Tarantino Middlebury College, cross country and track & field Mackinley Taylor Johns Hopkins University, field hockey Amanda Van Orden* Georgetown University, field hockey Jeffrey Zucker University of Pennsylvania, tennis * Division 1 Letter of Intent signee
Colleges and Universities Attended by the Class of 2017 Barnard College (1) Boston University (1) Bowdoin College (1) Brown University (4) Bucknell University (4) Carnegie Mellon University (1) Centenary University (1) Claremont McKenna College (1) Colby College (1) Colgate University (3) The College of New Jersey (1) College of William and Mary (4) Columbia University (2) Connecticut College (1) Cornell University (8) Dartmouth College (3) Dickinson College (1) Duke University (2) Elon University (2) Emory University-Oxford College (1) Fordham University (1) The George Washington University (1)
Georgetown University (5) Georgia Institute of Technology (1) Gettysburg College (2) Harvard University (3) Johns Hopkins University (1) Kenyon College (2) Lafayette College (1) Lehigh University (3) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1) Middlebury College (2) New York University (3) Northeastern University (2) Northwestern University (2) Pennsylvania State University (1) Queen Mary University of London (1) Princeton University (5) Rhodes College (1) Rice University (1) Rutgers University-New Brunswick (4) Savannah College of Art and Design (1) Seton Hall University (1) Skidmore College (1)
Swarthmore College (1) Syracuse University (3) Tufts University (4) Tulane University (2) University of Chicago (3) University of Miami (1) University of Michigan (3) University of Notre Dame (6) University of Pennsylvania (4) University of Southern California (1) University of St Andrews (1) University of Virginia (1) Vanderbilt University (4) Vassar College (2) Villanova University (1) Wake Forest University (1) Washington and Lee University (1) Washington University in St. Louis (2) Wesleyan University (3) Williams College (1) Yale University (3) Xavier University (1) FALL 2017
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Where Are They Now?
At Home on Stage “I must have theater in my life. Telling stories has always made me feel alive because stories can change people and change their hearts. I love the fact that theater has such a direct relationship with the audience,” says award-winning actress Rebecca Mozo ’00, who has been flourishing in theater for over a decade.
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Bitten by the theater bug in high school, thanks to a childhood friend who convinced her to audition for a neighborhood musical, Ms. Mozo joined Pingry’s drama program as a sophomore. She graced the stage in Fall Plays, Winter Musicals, and the Drama IV Spring Play, then used her Independent Senior Project to write and perform her own play. She capped her senior year by receiving the Director’s Prize for Drama, which she speculates was given to recognize her desire to attend an acting conservatory and pursue a career in theater. “Al Romano, Trish Wheeler, and Stephanie Romankow made my experience at Pingry so incredibly valuable,” she says. “Mr. Romano really gave me a life—a community that I forever cherish and thrive in today.” Rebecca Mozo ’00 in Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya with Antaeus Theatre Company.
The acting conservatory she chose was Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts, through which Ms. Mozo had the opportunity to study in London at Shakespeare’s Globe, an educational complex that includes the famed, openair Globe Theatre. “It was an incredible experience, studying with master teachers and learning Shakespeare, the Alexander Technique, speech techniques, and breathing techniques,” she says. How does she describe performing in the Globe Theatre itself? “A dream-come-true and other-worldly, with the sky visible.” –––––––––––––
“We need many more female voices out there, creating theater.”
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––––––––––––– With formal education under her belt, Ms. Mozo assumed she would become a professional actress in the New York area. Instead, she secured representation with a Los Angeles-based agent and moved West. “I remember friends in New York telling me I’d never do a play again. But I’ve done over 20 plays in the past decade,” she says. “In fact, most of my career has been in theater [with Antaeus Theatre Company and South Coast Repertory], which is rare for an L.A.based actress.” She has dabbled in television and film as well, with appearances on Medium, Cold Case, Modern Family, and The Young and the Restless, and roles in Zerophilia, Headless Horseman, and The Waterhole, among other films. “With cameras, I’m not as nervous [as being on stage] because I can do another take. But there’s so much waiting around before you actually work—it feels like ‘hurry up and wait’—so the hardest part is keeping my energy up. I try to be as quiet
as possible with more solo time in the trailer, going over my lines. Being calm keeps me focused.” Ms. Mozo’s theatrical career has also led to audiobook narrations for The Vampire Diaries (seven books), Defy (three books), and The Summer Prince. Although some people believe that books are only for reading, she sees value in the spoken version. “I’m a big reader, too, but it’s an amazing experience to have a skilled actor deliver that story to you, especially in an age when we are constantly on the go. You can enjoy a story when you otherwise wouldn’t have time.” When stepping into the recording booth, Ms. Mozo must rely on her imagination and voice acting to bring the words to life. “My voice is the only thing I can illuminate the story with. I use texture in my voice to differentiate between characters. I see the scene myself so that the audience can see every detail I’m talking about.” When considering roles, Ms. Mozo constantly seeks to challenge herself, such as with Ellie in Going to a Place Where You Already Are (“a girl who is good at heart, but beats herself up—it taught me to
Rebecca Mozo ’00 in the world premiere of Beau Willimon’s The Parisian Woman at South Coast Repertory, opposite Dana Delany.
be kinder to myself”). She also fulfilled a lifelong dream by playing Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (“a woman who is seemingly self-possessed, but is so needy and wants to be cared for”). A Los Angeles Times review of that production opens with, “Somebody should write a dissertation on Rebecca Mozo’s facial expressions . . . Her left eyebrow demands a chapter all its own: Its slightest quirk can reset the temperature from sultry to glacial.” Not only did Ms. Mozo realize her dream, but she also considers that production to be one of her best moments on stage because she sensed that everything clicked between her and the audience. And that connection, plus a desire to tell stories, continues to excite her every time she steps on stage. “Once I’m out there,” she says, “I don’t want to leave.” Rebecca Mozo ’00 met Matt Caplan while performing in South Coast Repertory’s 2013 production of Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles. They married in October 2016.
Career Highlights • Ovation Award* nominations for “Best Lead Actress in a Play”: American premiere of I Capture the Castle and L.A. premiere of Trying • Ovation Award for “Featured Actress in a Play”— L.A. premiere of Cock • World Premieres of four plays at South Coast Repertory: The Parisian Woman, Emilie, Five Mile Lake, and Going to a Place Where You Already Are * The peer-evaluated Ovation Awards celebrate excellence in theater in the Greater Los Angeles area.
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Christine Neely ’79 of PSEG Speaks about Community Engagement “It’s really great to work for a company whose product gives us ‘modern society.’ It is in the company’s DNA to make sure that people have the energy needed to power our lives,” said Christine Neely ’79, speaking to eighth-grade students in the Civic Engagement, Leadership, and Outdoor Research classes (background on page 51). As Vice President, Internal Auditing Services for PSEG, Ms. Neely gave the students some insights into how her company engages with the public and supports its employees. PSEG helps to fund a lengthy list of community initiatives—especially those that pertain to veterans, sustainable neighborhoods, the environment, and STEM education programs for children (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math). The PSEG Foundation recently partnered with Sesame Street to help families learn how to prepare for emergencies, such as a natural disaster. Much of the company’s corporate philanthropy is aimed at sustainability. In addition, she said PSEG focuses on its employees by supporting causes that are important to them. “Every single one of our employees is an ambassador [of PSEG’s values], so we support them.” Environmental concerns are equally important to PSEG: the company is a national leader in renewable energy, creating solar farms and installing solar panels on New Jersey’s landfills, and is committed to energy efficiency. While taking questions from her audience, Ms. Neely was asked about the challenges of being a woman in a leadership role. “I have often been the only woman in the room.” Her strategy for overcoming those challenges? “I make sure my voice is always heard and that I know my material better than anyone else.” As her final thought, she challenged the students to consider how they can make a difference in the future when it comes to the environment and to promoting equality in business. 78
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Christine Neely ’79 telling students how PSEG supports the community.
Pingry in Print The Brain Atlas: A Visual Guide to the Human Central Nervous System (4th Edition)
The General: A History of the Montreal General Hospital
Dr. Joseph Hanaway ’51, co-author
Offering a retrospective that spans two centuries, the book relates the hospital’s story from its origins to the transition and aftermath of its incorporation into the McGill University Health Centre in 1997. It includes contributions from clinicians, nurses, surgeons, professors, and administrators.
Wiley-Blackwell
This book illustrates brain anatomy in detail to help explain the anatomical basis for neurologic diseases. Text includes clearly-labeled details of all parts of the brain, color illustrations and diagrams of nerve pathways, and easy navigation with color coding and brain-section markers on each page.
Dr. Joseph Hanaway ’51, co-editor McGill-Queen’s University Press
Pingry Events
Golf Outing [ 1 ] The rolling hills of Hamilton Farm Golf Club. [ 2 ] Bryan Seavey, Gene Yenari, Sapan Shah P ’28, ’28, and Dr. Darren Blumberg ’88, P ’26, ’28. [ 3 ] Lower School P.E. teacher Brian La Fontaine P ’10, ’14, Tom Rooke ’02, and Joel Gedroic P ’26, ’28, ’29. [ 4 ] Ellen Baker, Brenda Curnin P ’17, and Yvette Long. [ 5 ] Lower School Spanish teacher Diana Fiore and her Hamilton Farm caddy reacting to the moment when Tammye Jones P ’16, ’19 holed out from the fairway for a birdie! [ 6 ] Upper School faculty and staff members Sean McAnally, Joe Forte, Al Romano, Tim Grant P ’03, ’06, Bill Bourne P ’08, and Jeff Tamn.
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London Reception [ 7 ] Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving Holland Sunyak Francisco ’02, Mark Tilden ’68, Richard Lowish ’70, Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, Dr. Richard Schonberg P ’05, ’08, Gordon Seabright ’84, Michael Prior ’67, and Peter Rosenbauer ’89. Nantucket Reception [ 8 ] Chip Carver, Jr. ’77, P ’09, ’11, ’14, ’14, Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving Holland Sunyak Francisco ’02, Judy Newhouse P ’95, ’97, ’99, Greg Mankiw ’76, Elizabeth Bugliari P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, Caroline Weymar, Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, Helmut Weymar ’54, Deborah Mankiw, Anne DeLaney ’79, P ’09, ’11, ’14, ’14, Reeve Carver ’14, and Steve Newhouse ’65, P ’95, ’97, ’99. Jersey Shore Reception [ 9 ] Attendees included Connie and Dave Allan P ’75, ’77, ’79, ’83, Amy Waterbury Bagliani ’82, Peter Benton ’53, Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, Cynthia Campbell P ’81, ’85, ’87, ’90, Ruth and Karl Chen P ’19, Brooke Conti Trousdale ’09, Joan and Jubb Corbet, Jr. ’50, P ’77, ’78, Maggie Corbet ’78, Barbara and George Donohue P ’83, ’86, ’90, Mark Donohue ’90, Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving Holland Sunyak Francisco ’02, Guido and Martha Graff ’84, P ’15, ’17, ’20, Lily Graff ’15, Bradley Hall ’79, Jane Hoffman ’94 and Christian Hoffman ’94, Kathy and Bob Hugin P ’11, ’13, Robbie Hugin ’11, Mac Hugin ’13, Michelle and Reed Kean ’86, P ’29, Laura (Yorke) Kulkarni ’98, Bill Ledder ’52, Beth and Vinny Lima P ’13, ’19, John Lucciola ’17, Natalie Lucciola ’17, Bob Meszar ’57, Jack O’Brien ’55, Ruth Ann O’Brien, Katharine (Campbell) Outcalt ’87, Helen and Dave Patterson ’64, Bob Pyle ’56, P ’91, Heather and Brad Pyne P ’18, ’23, Jon Robustelli ’90, Nancy Priest and Dave Rogers ’61, Day Rosenberg ’90, Melissa and Doug Rotatori P ’10, ’13, ’16, Carly Rotatori ’13, Parish and Dudley Ryan ’83, Missy Ryan P ’83, ’84, GP ’15, ’17, ’20, Grant Smith ’77, Bob Sweeney ’61, Megs and Corby Thomas ’92, Mary Lee (Donahue) Trousdale ’78, P ’08, ’13, Patrick Trousdale ’08, Justin Trousdale ’13, Rob Tulloch ’93, Betsy Lucas Vreeland ’84, P ’11, ’12, ’15, Cynthia and David Waterbury ’85, Pat and Steve Waterbury ’49, P ’82, ’85, Dick Welch ’55, Mary Weldon P ’23, Woody Weldon ’91, P ’23, Susan and Rob Williams ’76, P ’06, ’08, ’12, Kimo and Elizabeth Kellogg Winterbottom ’87, P ’21, ’23, Don Wiss ’68, and Jon Younghans ’79, P ’20.
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Alumni Soccer Game [ 10 ] Front row: Lance Gould ’83, Jeff Boyer ’96, Peter Martin ’10, Ollie Martin ’17, Roberto De Almeida ’15, Joe Padula ’15, Brad Fechter ’05, Anthony Tripicchio ’02, Tom Strackhouse ’06, Sam Jurist ’06, Kim Kimber III ’76, P ’07, Mark Zashin ’75, David M. Fahey ’99, and Peter Hiscano ’75. Back row: Trustee Stuart Lederman ’78, Mike Roberts ’99, James Corbett ’69, Kevin Schmidt ’98, Nick Ross ’97, Chris Franklin ’96, Eric Hynes ’08, KC Eboh ’12, Tyler Smith ’10, Skot Koenig ’77, Amadi Thiam ’03, Matt Sheeleigh ’11, John Rhodes ’02, Mike Coughlin ’90, Josh Levine ’83, Tom Rusen ’88, Trustee Steve Lipper ’79, P ’09, ’12, ’14, PAA President Woody Weldon ’91, P ’23, John Geddes ’62, P ’95, Bill Maass ’70, and Boys’ Varsity Soccer Head Coach Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24.
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10 College Counseling Visits Northeastern and Tufts Universities [ 11 ] College Counselor Amy (Gibson) Cooperman ’90, P’23, Lauryn Rodney ’17, and College Counselor and Office Coordinator Cherilyn Reynolds at Northeastern. [ 12 ] Hannah Curtis ’16 and College Counselor Amy (Gibson) Cooperman ’90, P’23 at Northeastern. [ 13 ] Daniel Hutt ’17, Neel Sambamurthy ’17, and Amy Kaplan ’17 at Tufts.
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Pingry History Memories from Pingry Veteran Ernest C. Shawcross In observance of Veterans Day on November 11, 2017, and in honor of all servicemen and women past and present, we offer this selection from Pingry’s history.
The late Pingry teacher and administrator Ernest C. Shawcross, a veteran of World War II, served in New Guinea and the Philippines from l942 to 1945 and joined the Pingry faculty upon his return (he taught at Pingry from 1946 to 1985). I was one of his students that first year, 1946. Recently, his son Steven Shawcross ’67 discovered a speech among his father’s papers and sent it to me, thinking it would interest the Pingry community. Ernest Shawcross was chosen to address the Pingry student body and teaching staff on Memorial Day l947. He began by referring to Armistice Day after World War I as a memorial to all American servicemen of all wars. - Robin Porter ’51 82
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“The seeds of World War II were sown at Versailles. When the guns subsided in November l918, there was actually less chance of a safe and democratic earth than when the slaughter started, four years earlier. But in 1939, virtually the whole world would be at war. Once started, it would quickly become the worst war in history. It lasted six years and produced the biggest armies, the longest battle lines, the most devastating weapons of any war. It inflicted more suffering, destroyed more, and cost more than any other war. It put over 70 million people in Ernie Shawcross with students in his classroom.
uniform and killed more than 35 million, including many millions who were never in uniform, among them six million Jews in the Holocaust. In every war before it, the fighting was done largely by men who knew little about why it had started, who was to blame, or what sort of world it would leave when it was over. There was never much doubt about what we in the United States were fighting for, or whether victory was worth the price. Few wars have had such a clear-cut purpose or conclusion. We fought to win, and win we did. We fought to destroy a monstrous evil that threatened all civilization, and in that we definitely succeeded. But when peace came, the world was very different than it had been before, and it would never be the same. Joe Bugliari ’49 asked me to give some of my personal experiences in the war. Let me share some of them with you. I was sworn into the Navy exactly one month after Pearl Harbor, on January 7, l942. But before that, I must tell you about the people in the country and the spirit they exhibited. They sacrificed, worked day and night in war plants, and put up with ration stamps and shortages of butter, gasoline, meat, and hundreds of other things. From Hollywood stars down to little old ladies, they poured out their energies to help the war effort and the servicemen. I cannot forget the cookies, coffee, dinners, mittens, socks, and sweaters and all the help you got if you wore a uniform. Front lawns were turned into Victory Gardens. Everybody was collecting junk metal. There were USO dances and shows—I saw Bob Hope’s show in the rain in New Guinea. The sacrifices the people made at that time were tremendous, and I often wonder why it takes a war to bring out the best in people. Why can’t that kind of energy and those sacrifices bring about a better society? Well, let’s go on to just a few personal experiences. I was allowed to finish the college year and entered Midshipmen’s School in August. I was a so-called ‘90 Day Wonder,’ commissioned as an Ensign in November l942. I was full of patriotic zeal and volunteered for ‘extra hazardous,
prolonged, distant duty’ as a member of Beach Jumper Unit Six. A Beach Jumper Unit consisted of scouts and raiders, demolition, radar, and camouflage experts, and was involved in special operations during an invasion. We operated from PT boats [Patrol Torpedo, also known as motor torpedo]. –––––––––––––
“I believe each one of us can be an instrument for peace.”
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Ernie Shawcross P ’64, ’67
––––––––––––– I will never know why I was selected to be an aide to Rear Admiral Charles Andrews, Class of l925 at the Naval Academy, the man in charge of all Beach Jumper Units. For four months, I served with the Admiral and could tell you many interesting stories. But rather than that, let me recall for you just some of the days of the three years and five months I was in the Navy. On my first day in combat, we were moving in convoy from Manus Island to Mindoro Island in the Philippines. We were under constant air attack for eight days and nights. On the second day, a kamikaze hit a Liberty ship carrying ammunition. I was on an LCI [Landing Craft Infantry] about a mile away when I saw the percussion wave coming across the water. I knew I was going to die. I cannot find words to describe that feeling, and I was to feel it a number of times again before the war was over. I was scared, I mean scared. I was scared all of the time we were in combat. On the Island of Mindoro, we were strafed by a Japanese plane while we were on the beach. I dove into the sand and got a mouthful of sand, and an officer four feet away from me was hit. I was so scared I was shaking, I mean really shaking, and yelling for help. While going from Mindoro to Luzon, the mother ship for our PT boats, the Orestes, a converted LST [Landing Ship, Tank], was hit by a Kamikaze plane and burst into flame, 59 men killed and missing. The skipper of the ship I was on went alongside to help fight the fire. All I could think of was that that ship, loaded with torpedo warheads and
high-octane gas, was going to blow up and that we were all going to die. But somehow or other, we put out the fire. But even today, I do not know how I was able to move and help man that fire hose. In that particular action, my commander of Unit Six suffered a badlybroken foot, but, despite great pain, he picked up a 180-pound fellow officer who was badly injured and lifted him over the side where he was picked up by one of the ships alongside. Commander Jones received the Silver Star for his leadership and bravery, but his foot had to be amputated. Brave men! I saw dozens of brave men during the war—they are among all of the veterans we are honoring today. War is horrible. I pray that you and the rest of the world will never see another. But is that possible? I believe it is, and I believe each one of us can be an instrument for peace. Franklin D. Roosevelt wrote the following words three weeks before his death in April l945: ‘Today we are faced with the preeminent fact that, if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships—the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together and work together, in the same world, at peace.’ How can you help peace break out, rather than have war break out? I will tell you: Be kind to one another, be helpful and loving to your family, be helpful to your neighbors. Make sacrifices, small and large, for your school, your community, your country. Be tolerant of other races and religions, and work for accord, not discord. You can make a difference! There is a song which is sung today as a hymn in many churches. The first lines of that song are: Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me. Let there be peace on earth, the peace that was meant to be.” Editor’s Note: For readers who would like to learn more about the Battle of Mindoro, Robin Porter '51 recommends Samuel Eliot Morison's series History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, Volume XIII, The Liberation of the Philippines, Chapter 2 (Little, Brown and Company). FALL 2017
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Ask the Archivist
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Debating Club, circa 1923. If you recognize any of the students in this picture, please contact Greg Waxberg ’96 at gwaxberg@pingry.org or 908-647-5555, ext. 1296.
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The Summer 2017 issue's Archivist photo was a challenge for our Pingry history fans. So, look again, get sharp, tune up your memories, and help identify our past Pingry musicians pictured above. Can you measure up to the challenge?
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Operational Efficiency This series unveils the behind-the-scenes work that Pingry undertakes to ensure that the School runs efficiently and effectively. The first article, about Pingry’s highly-skilled Facilities Team, appeared in the Summer 2017 issue.
Proactive Maintenance: Strategic Planning for the Future It has thousands more parts, but Pingry is similar to a car. Just as a car should be properly maintained on a regular schedule, to avoid unnecessary expenditures, the School proactively maintains its facilities. By doing so, Pingry guards against the financial headaches faced by schools and other non-profit organizations across the country—a problem referred to as “deferred maintenance” because many institutions do not have funds allocated to repair or replace their facilities when needed. Their maintenance must wait, often resulting in unpleasant surprises. “Part of our stewardship responsibility is to have sufficient resources to repair or replace the assets we already have. Each year, we set aside reserves from our operating budget so that the needed
maintenance funds are available without our having to rely on a fundraising campaign or targeted fundraising effort just for maintenance. Fundraising is intended for additions. We will never need a campaign to fix what we currently have,” says Chief Financial Officer and Director of Operations Olaf Weckesser P ’25, who made capital replacement budgeting a priority after joining Pingry five years ago. So, how does Pingry keep track of and budget for the massive number of significant “parts” that will someday need replacing? Mr. Weckesser’s wide-ranging, detailed capital planning spreadsheet includes estimated replacement years and costs for the School’s diverse assets (water heaters, classroom décor, musical instruments, science and
photography equipment, kilns, elevators, snow plows, and the list goes on). “A lot of our recent investments in improvements on both campuses have been made possible by our increased certainty about future capital repair and replacement costs,” he says. New and future facilities, as well as technology, are also taken into account with budgeting. For example, all Pingry employees received new computers this past summer (until now, employees were on several different schedules for receiving new computers, which made it more difficult to maintain multiple generations of Macs and PCs). “We will have a bulk refresh every three years,” Mr. Weckesser says, “both because technology changes so quickly and because it is less expensive to buy in bulk.”
The Business of Doing Business with Pingry Mr. Weckesser summarizes Pingry’s approach to working with outside business partners by saying, “If you do business with The Pingry School, you need to be prepared to provide an excellent product at a lower price than you thought you would be able to charge.” He adds, “When we first meet a new partner, they often assume that, because we are a school, we are a ‘soft touch’ when it comes to expectations of service quality and costs. We spend a lot of time making sure that companies understand that Excellence & Honor applies to our vendor relationships as well, and that ‘We want what we want,’ and not some partial approximation thereof.” Pingry pays a great deal of attention to companies’ reputations and the price and quality of their products and services. For companies wanting to do business with Pingry, persistence can pay off
because the School always keeps an eye on who could do the same job even better or for a lower price. Significantly, Pingry is specific about its standards and expectations (the final cost is what was quoted; the company does what it said it would do when it said it would do it), and does not pay price increases without justification, based on the premise that services should continue to cost the same or become less expensive. If a business partner wants to charge more, the School expects something better. “The world becoming more expensive isn’t Pingry’s problem,” Mr. Weckesser says. “That doesn’t mean we won’t pay more, but we might shop around before agreeing. We might also ask the company if we can lock in our rates. Often, a company will ask, ‘What can we do to keep you?’” On the topic of avoiding higher prices, Mr. Weckesser points out that, “For
schools, construction projects—such as the recently-completed Miller A. Bugliari ’52 Athletics Center—can present a significant financial risk. As an organization, we focus very closely on delivering such projects on time and on budget, a priority which is shared at all levels of the organization, right up to the Board of Trustees.” Building projects involve construction companies, engineering firms, and architects, so these large-scale endeavors require a detailed vetting process. “Having knowledge of our expectations prior to the bidding of projects makes the bidding process easier,” says Director of Facilities Mike Waelz. “Many of the companies we work with, such as plumbing and fire alarm contractors, have been our partners for many years and have earned Pingry’s trust through consistent, superior performance over the years.” FALL 2017
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Class Notes Share all your news!
Submit your Class Note at pingry.org/classnotes, or mail it to Holland Sunyak Francisco ‘02, Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving, The Pingry School, 131 Martinsville Road, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920.
1959 DAVID GELBER, Executive Producer of the Emmy Awardwinning climate change series Years of Living Dangerously, is coproducer of Boiling the Frog with Senator Al Franken, a digital series that tackles climate change humorously, featuring conversations with Senator Franken and David Letterman. A collaboration with Funny Or Die, the six fiveminute episodes were released on Facebook this summer and are available on funnyordie.com. In a press release, David explained the title: “If you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it’ll jump right out. It’s a shock to the system. But if you
put a frog in a pot of cold water, place it on a stove, and slowing start heating it up, it turns out the frog will stay in the pot and let itself get boiled. We’re living in a time where politicians are more like the frog in the heating pot. Despite climate change staring them right in the face, they’re not taking life-saving action.” Years of Living Dangerously is preparing for its third season on the National Geographic channel.
1962 RICH KORALEK writes, “On July 8, the Maine contingent of the Class of ’62 held a 55th reunion
Bob Porter ’62, Tom Curtiss ’62, and Rich Koralek ’62.
The Corbet Family at the Jersey Shore Party: Carolyn Corbet, Maggie Corbet ’78, Joan Corbet P ’77, ’78, Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, and Jubb Corbet, Jr. ’50, P ’77, ’78. 86
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celebration at the home of Tom Curtiss in Madison, Maine. The picture shows the attendees—Bob Porter, Tom Curtiss, and me. We try to get together at least once a year and have for several years.”
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Greg Hewitt ’72, John Maher ’72, Eric Fowler ’72, Dr. Steve Naughton ’72, and Bobby Cunningham ’72.
freshman year without ever having taken an economics class, so they are curious to find out about it. He also believes that economics is a “great gateway” into many careers and a great way “to learn how the world works.” TED TALBOT writes, “No, not Glastonbury—but the Altstadtfest [“Old City” festival] in Saarbrücken (Germany), where I live with my wife Angelika and work as a selfemployed translator.”
1972 DR. STEVE NAUGHTON writes, “After reuniting for our 45th in May, we once again committed to sharing more memories over dinner and drinks at McLoone’s Boat House in West Orange. Another fabulous night that seemed to pass by in minutes. We intend to continue these experiences, and would love any of you to join us. I am easily contacted through Pingry or social media.”
1977 CHARLIE STILLITANO, JR. was profiled in The New York Times on July 28. The story, “The Soccer Power Broker You’ve Never Heard Of,” describes his work as Chairman of Relevent Sports, which promotes soccer worldwide.
Frank DeLaney ’77, P ’12, Kip Haselton ’77, P ’12, and Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24.
1976 GREG MANKIW, an economist and Economics Professor at Harvard University, was profiled by Business Insider to explain why Harvard’s “Principles of Economics” course was the most popular course this fall (nearly 630 undergraduates enrolled) and has been for the past few semesters. He says that many students begin their
Class of 1972 attendees on a tour of the Hillside Campus at our 45th Reunion! From left to right: Dave Zenker, Jr., Dr. Steve Naughton, John Maher, Rick Becker III, Dr. Ian Alexander, Paul Ciszak, Dr. Bobby Cunningham P ’22, and John Bartenstein. Not pictured, but also present for various Reunion activities, were Chris Benbow, John Boffa, Jr., Greg Hewett, Jack Van Wagner, Jr., and Eric Fowler. FALL 2017
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Credit: Surf photographer Erik Schwab
Lisa duBusc Miller ’87, Chuck Patterson, and Russ Scully ’87. Former Pingry English teacher Dean Sluyter P ’90, ’98, Todd Eisenbud ’80, and Michael Ames ’98.
1980 TODD EISENBUD writes, “Spent a great afternoon meditating with [former Pingry English teacher] Dean Sluyter and Michael Ames ’98.”
1981 DR. ELIZABETH H. SIMMONS is the new Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of California San Diego, overseeing all academic programs and recruitment and professional development of faculty. According to a news release, she is “a highlydistinguished physicist who focuses on particle theory and is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement
of Science.” Since 2003, she was a member of the Michigan State University Department of Physics and Astronomy and, since 2013, held the rank of University Distinguished Professor. She also held two leadership roles at the university—Dean of Lyman Briggs College (since 2007) and Associate Provost for Faculty and Academic Staff Development (since 2016). For the 2014-15 school year, she also served as Acting Dean of the College of Arts & Letters.
1982 JONATHAN KARP, President and Publisher of Simon & Schuster, oversaw the September release of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s book The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance.
From Pingry Days at the Jersey Shore to Tanker Waves in Texas: Surfing Reunites Pingry Alumni By Lisa duBusc Miller ’87
On May 21, Russ Scully ’87 and I met up in Galveston, TX. This is not on most people’s surf destination “short lists.” The plan was to surf some unusual waves with legendary waterman Chuck Patterson. Chuck flew in from surfing the world’s longest lefts (waves that surfers ride in the left direction) on Namibia’s Skeleton Coast and in Peru’s Chicama to join forces with Russ, who owns a stand-up paddleboard (SUP) and surf shop in Burlington, VT with his wife Roxanne. They also own several other surf-themed entities, including two restaurants in Burlington and a stunning resort in the most primo surf spot in Rincon, Puerto Rico, called Villa Playa Maria. Russ and Chuck arrived in Texas in “full stoke mode,” sporting shortboards, paddleboards, and two- to three-foot foils, to pioneer a few variations of this burgeoning sport of foil surfing, in a setting made famous by the 2003 surf documentary Step Into Liquid. They ventured into the choppy waters of Galveston Bay with expert surfer and surf charter Captain James Fulbright (tankersurfcharters.com), who helps surfers catch waves that are produced by tanker ships crossing the Houston Ship Channel. The day was a wild one, and, in the end, they successfully shortboarded and SUPsurfed some epic, endless waves—produced as container ships and oil tankers create wakes that grow as they cross over the shallow shoals of the Texas Oil Refinery channel. As a freelance travel writer, I was along on the trip to write the story for Whalebone magazine, along with talented surf photographer Erik Schwab. Both writer and photographer surfed the epic Texan waves as well. The group also spent time surfing some intense freshwater waves in a wave park that opened in 2016 in Austin. They were fortunate enough to have some one-on-one time with Doug Coors (yes, the beer guy), who built the park NLand (NLandsurfpark.com) as a passion project.
Jimmy Gensch ’83, P ’13, Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20 ,’24, Sander Friedman ’83, and Dr. Mark McLaughlin ’83. 88
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So, to sum up, yes, the adventurous and pioneering spirit is alive and well among Pingry alumni.
Thomas Logio ’89, Tom Rusen ’89, Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90 ’97, GP ’20, ’24, and Scott Aimetti ’89.
1991 WOODY WELDON writes, “I played golf with Andrea Pirlo on October 4. He is considered one of the greatest visionaries in the history of the game of soccer. He
knew four or five steps ahead of the play where the ball was going. He was effectively playing 3-dimensional chess on the field. He is also known for being a key, if not the key, player on the Italian National team when they won the 2006 FIFA World Cup.”
Jackie Henke ’93 and Kyle Wolff celebrated their five-year wedding anniversary this past April by renewing their vows in Turks and Caicos. The ceremony included their sons Graeme and Teddy, as well as family and friends.
1992 ANDREW GOLDSTEIN, a federal prosecutor in Manhattan, joined the team of Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election. KYLE HAGLER is an inaugural recipient of the HBCU Power Awards, held at Morehouse College on October 20. The award was created to recognize esteemed alumni of HBCUs who
Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, professional soccer player Andrea Pirlo, and Woody Weldon ’91, P ’23.
have positively influenced their industries. Kyle is President of Next New York, a division of Next Model Management, a new position. Prior to that, he was Senior Manager at IMG Models.
1993 KRISTIN SOSTOWSKI, a Director in the Employment department of Gibbons P.C., was elected Vice President of the National Association of Women Lawyers for 2017-18.
Dr. Rob Siegelbaum ’94, Joe Siegelbaum P ’91, ’94, ’98, Eli Manning, and Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24 at a March of Dimes charity event. FALL 2017
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September. Given the heritage of the Speedway, having the opportunity to race an open wheel car at the Brickyard is extra fitting.”
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Peter Blanchard ’95, Miller Bugliari ’52, P ’86, ’90, ’97, GP ’20, ’24, and Stuart Alford ’95 at the Tewksbury Inn.
1996 MICHAEL OCCHIPINTI writes, “After acquiring season-long points titles driving an oval track Modified in two of the last three years (2014—Springport (MI) Speedway and 2016—Top Speed Modified Northern Division (across MI, IN, OH)), I undertook a different challenge for 2017—one that requires me to turn right as well. I have been piloting a Formula
Michael Occhipinti ’96. 90
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Continental out of the Team Wrenchaholics stable, racing in the Sports Car Club of America. I successfully qualified for the SCCA Runoffs, which is the annual National Championships for amateur racers. It was held for the first time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, on much of the same course that was previously used for Formula 1 events. It was livestreamed with over 1,000 competitors racing in 28 different classes during the last week of
MELANIE NAKAGAWA received the 2017 Truman Center Policy Leadership Award from the Truman National Security Project, described on its website as “a nationwide membership of leaders inspired to serve in the aftermath of 9/11 and committed to shaping and advocating for tough, smart national security solutions.” The award, established in 2016 and given by the Truman Board of Advisors, honors significant contributions made by men and women under 45 to U.S. foreign policy— Melanie was recognized for addressing energy security and elevating climate change as a foreign policy issue. She is Head of Climate Initiative with Princeville Global, an investment firm focused on backing rapidly-growing, technology-enabled companies around the world. “In this role,” the news announcement reads, “she is leading an effort to launch a new initiative to invest in global com-
panies delivering transformative solutions to climate change with strong investor returns.” Prior to Princeville Global, Melanie served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Transformation at the U.S. State Department; served on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff as a strategic advisor to John Kerry, advancing efforts to elevate climate change as a foreign policy priority; served as the Senior Energy and Environment Counsel for the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee; and served as an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.
1999 DR. ALEXA GALE and MICHAEL RENDA ’00 welcomed Michael Ruthven Gale Renda into the world on January 26. They reside in Arlington, VA, where Alexa is an Emergency Room Physician and Michael works as an electricity trader.
2000 STEVEN ASKIN married Heather (Dolgin) Askin over Memorial Day Weekend in Santa Fe.
2001 MARGARET KELLEHER, Gavin Millard, and big brother Declan welcomed Gideon Kai Millard on June 28. Everyone is happy and healthy, and the brothers adore one another.
James Gregson, Daniel Gittes ’00, Steven Askin ’00, Heather (Dolgin) Askin, Nick Caiella ’00, Jason Mortimer ’00, and Neil Singh ’00.
PAUL W. DOWNS was profiled in Esquire in June for co-writing the movie Rough Night. The film was his motion picture debut, co-written with Lucia Aniello (who also directed). REBECCA MOZO is an awardwinning actress in Los Angeles. Read more on page 76. DR. PURVI PARIKH was named to the Emory Alumni Association’s
inaugural class of “40 under Forty,” which it describes as “a selected group of outstanding young alumni with impressive track records and sparkling futures.” No. 4 on the list, Purvi is recognized for being “an allergist and immunologist with Allergy and Asthma Associates of Murray Hill in New York. A spokesperson for shot@life, the vaccine initiative for the UN
Rachel Askin ’03 and Steven Askin ’00.
Foundation, she founded the Share and Care Foundation’s Young Professional Committee, which raises money for women and children in India. Parikh also is a faculty member at the New York University School of Medicine and a medical news correspondent on behalf of the allergy and asthma network who has been featured on CBS, NBC, Fox, and CNN.”
Gideon Kai Millard.
2002 ERIC DAVICH married Julie Brener on May 14 at Cedar Lakes Estate in Port Jervis, NY.
Jenna Watson ’00, Arlyn Davich ’99, Anthony Tripicchio ’02, Julie Brener Davich, John Rhodes ’02, Eric Davich ’02, Buzzy Cohen ’03, Michael Dee ’68, P ’99, ’02, Andrew Horowitz ’01, and Liz Dee ’02. FALL 2017
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Jennifer (Lang) Sullivan ’09 married Patrick Sullivan in Palm Beach on April 22. Pictured are Conor Starr ’09, Andrew Babbitt ’09, Katie Parsels ’09, Darragh Egan ’09, Henry Burchenal ’08, Pamela Golding ’05, Jack Fields, Jr. ’76, Elise Lang ’12, Emily Lang ’07, Patrick Sullivan, Jennifer (Lang) Sullivan ’09, Martin O’Connor ’77, P ’11, ’14, Andrew Weinstock ’09, Hillary Densen ’09, Katie Salvaggio ’09, Brendan Burgdorf ’09, Cory Babcock ’09, Jordan Shelby ’08, Caroline Albanese ’09, Giancarlo Riotto ’09, and Jane Sarkin O’Connor ’77, P ’11, ’14.
2006 PETER CIPRIANO and James Stout—husband of Tina Rix-Stout, Pingry’s new Director of Squash and Head Coach of the Girls’ Varsity Squash Team—won the British Open Rackets Doubles Championship at The Queen’s Club, London, in April. The equivalent of Wimbledon for tennis, the British Open is “the pinnacle of elite competition for the sport of rackets,” according to Peter’s father Guy Cipriano ’74, P ’06, ’08. No American had ever before won a British Open rackets title, making the victory a historic one.
2008 BRITTANI BARTOK, who played soccer at Pingry for four years before continuing her soccer career at the University of North Carolina, is Marketing and Social Media Coordinator for the UNC women’s soccer team and has 92
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started a company called SoccerSocial. She writes, “A branch of my company (SoccerSocial Academy Tours) is dedicated to putting on very unique and impactful clinics with renowned soccer stars and coaches. Even though my business is primarily about video content, I have always wanted to stay involved with youth development and follow in my grandfather’s footsteps (former USA Men’s National Team coach Manfred Schellscheidt).” ANDREW GROSS was awarded a J.D. in May from the UC Berkeley/ Boalt Hall School of Law. In September, he became an Associate Attorney at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati in their Palo Alto office.
2013 MICHAEL ARROM was featured in Keyboard magazine (keyboardmag.com) on September 6 as the
Andrew La Fontaine ’10, Gary Baum ’63, and Lower School P.E. teacher Brian La Fontaine P ’10, ’14 at Merion Golf Club.
magazine’s “TALENT SCOUT Artist of the Week.” The profile includes his musical training (USC Thornton Popular Music Program, 12 years of classical music training, and learning rock tunes by ear); musical influences (Billy Joel, the Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, and others); first gigs (at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ); big break (the Grammy Foundation’s invitation to perform on live television, with Keith Urban, at the 2012 American Country Awards); favorite keyboards (“If I could detach myself from reality, I would always go on the road with a Steinway D and a Hammond B3 organ,” for their character and versatility); and advice for the next generation (“build a great foundation, and be open-minded to many different kinds of music”). JAMES GROSS received a B.A. (Honors) in Archaeology and Classics from Stanford University in June. He is a Fulbright Scholar in Turkey, researching the Romanera wine trade. In 2018, he will begin Ph.D. studies in the University of Pennsylvania’s Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World program.
all-gun cruisers, four-stacker destroyers, and diesel-electric submarines faced a number of the same logistical and strategic dilemmas that we grapple with today in the age of supercarriers and precision-guided missiles.”
2017 JAKE MAYER was named the inaugural MGA (Metropolitan Golf Association) “Junior Player of the Year” and will be recognized for this accomplishment at the MGA’s annual dinner on December 6. The award was established to recognize excellence among the highlytalented junior competitors in the Metro Area, with an emphasis on the region’s top junior events. A season-long points race helps determine the recipient.
Natalie Gilbert ’14, music teacher Jay Winston, and Camille Vanasse ’14 at TD Bank Ballpark, home of the Somerset Patriots in Bridgewater, NJ. Mr. Winston sang The Star-Spangled Banner prior to the July 27 game. Read more on page 41.
2015 HUNTER STIRES published an article in Proceedings Magazine, published by the U.S. Naval Institute. He writes, “It centers on what the experience of the Asiatic Fleet in 1941 and 1942 can teach the modern U.S. Navy as we consider potential contingencies with peer adversaries in the Western Pacific. As America’s forwarddeployed naval force in the region between the First and Second World Wars, the Asiatic Fleet’s
Thomas Tarantino ’17 and Matthew Peacock ’17.
KEILEH ATULOMAH (Williams College) and BRENDAN KELLY (Georgetown University), recommended by Pingry’s Chinese teachers, participated in the Asia Society’s initial Zhi-Xing China Fellowship program this summer. Asia Society selected 20 U.S. student leaders from top colleges and universities for the inaugural class of the Zhi-Xing China: China–U.S. University Student Leaders Academy, to give the future leaders of China and the United States an opportunity to build personal connections in the other country and develop a better understanding of Chinese society. THOMAS TARANTINO and MATTHEW PEACOCK, captains of Pingry's 2016 Cross Country Team, met up at the Purple Valley Classic hosted by Williams College.
CLASSNOTES Share all your news!
Submit your Class Note at pingry.org/classnotes, or mail it to Holland Sunyak Francisco ‘02, Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving, The Pingry School, 131 Martinsville Road, Basking Ridge, NJ 07920.
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In Memoriam Dr. Laurence C. Griesemer ’36 July 6, 2017, age 98, Longmeadow, MA
Dr. Griesemer, a Pingry trustee from 1961 to 1966, received a B.A. from Amherst College and an M.D. from the Temple University School of Medicine. During World War II, he served as a Captain and physician in the U.S. Army during the invasion of Okinawa in 1945. Dr. Griesemer was an ophthalmologist for over 45 years with his practice in Elizabeth, NJ, and he was on staff at Elizabeth General Medical Center (now Trinitas Regional Medical Center). Dave Fletcher, former President and CEO of Elizabeth General, said, “I didn’t know anyone who didn’t hold Larry in high regard. A quiet leader.” In 1999, Dr. Griesemer named a Pingry biology classroom/lab in honor of former teacher C. Elliot Knoke, his science teacher and a mentor who inspired him to study medicine. He was predeceased by his first wife Joan. Survivors include his loving second wife Ottilie; children John ’65 (Faith), Jeffrey ’68, Sara (Erin), O. Robin (Tom), Stephanie (John), Bertie (David), and Sarah (Raymond); 13 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren. Dr. Griesemer’s late cousin Wallace Kendall ’37 attended Pingry, as did Ottilie’s brothers Dr. George Knauer, Jr. ’37 and Dr. Warren Knauer ’40.
Hugh Gybbon Spilsbury, Jr. ’43 July 24, 2017, age 92, Irvine, CA
Mr. Spilsbury attended Lehigh University and served as a Lieutenant in the 8th Air Force Bomber Command during World War II. He came from a family of renowned metallurgical engineers and worked in the aerospace industry for 50 years—he began his career with Lukens Steel, was named West Coast Sales Manager for Steel Improvement and Forge Company (SIFCO Industries), and ended his career with WB Hill and Associates. He was predeceased by his first
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wife Anne and second wife Betty, as well as his siblings Marguerite and Walter. Survivors include his beloved wife Ruth; children Gyb (Jennifer), Ned (Lauren), Chris (Rick), Peter (Donna), Lisa (Ray Brow), Mark (Mary), and Andrea (Doug); grandchildren Ryan (Mallory), Matthew (Laura), Alexa (Zach), Neal, Stewart, Quinlan, Annie, Julia, Grant, Krista, and Kris; great-grandchildren; step-children; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Albert G. Bauer ’45
July 30, 2017, age 89, Union, NJ
Mr. Bauer, a veteran of the U.S. Army, received a B.S. from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. He owned the A.F. Bauer Bus Company in Union; according to Troupe Noonan’s The Greatest Respect: Pingry at 150 Years, Mr. Bauer was the “architect and impresario of Pingry’s bus system from 1955 to 1998” (shortly after Pingry moved to Hillside, then-faculty member Elliot Knoke asked Mr. Bauer if his company could take over Pingry’s busing.). Survivors include his longtime companion Joan and several nieces and nephews.
William H. “Red” Alley, Jr. ’48 August 7, 2017, age 86, Jupiter, FL
Mr. Alley was inducted into Pingry’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2002. He had earned 10 varsity letters in football, basketball, and baseball and was renowned for multiple touchdowns in football, being a top scorer in basketball, serving as baseball captain, and maintaining incredible control as a pitcher. Upon graduating from Pingry, Mr. Alley received the Graham Churchill Award. His late brothers Alvan ’45 and Ted ’48 also attended Pingry.
Marshall James Foster ’48 August 14, 2017, age 87, Madison, NJ
Mr. Foster graduated from Haverford University and pursued his graduate studies at New York University. He had a 50-year career in the financial services industry in New York City, starting at Spencer Trask and ending with Citicorp. Survivors include his sister Louise; nephews John, Marshall, Peter, and David; and late wife Kathleen’s daughters Eileen, Kathleen (Dennis), and Mary-Claire (Bill).
The Honorable William H. Gindin ’49 May 24, 2017, age 85, Redding, CT
Judge Gindin graduated from Brown University and received a J.D. from Yale University School of Law. He left private practice with Gindin & Gindin to become an Administrative Law Judge for the State of New Jersey and then a Judge and Chief Judge on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. He retired in 2004 after 19 years on the federal bench. Judge Gindin was very active in the Inns of Bankruptcy and The New Jersey State Bankruptcy Law Section. He advocated for understanding the increase in rates of bankruptcy as a consequence of underlying social problems. The Bankruptcy Law Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association named its annual bench-bar conference in his honor. Survivors include his beloved wife Emily; children Thomas Gindin and Suzanne Hinsdale; step-children Janine Gordon and Geoffrey Drucker; eight grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
John MacGregor Orr ’52
August 25, 2017, age 82, Sarasota, FL
Mr. Orr majored in Distribution at Babson College, completed a tour in the Navy as a Lieutenant, and spent his career with the Gillette Company. His first wife Nancy predeceased him. Survivors include his second wife Carol; children Cheryl (Ron), William (Beth), and Jennifer (John); and grandchildren Lauren, Colin, Melissa, Jimmy (Ashley), Emily (Kyle), Sara, JC, and Bret.
Robert Harry Frank ’53
Barry Scott Sturm ’85
Mr. Frank attended the University of Miami and Seton Hall University, and worked for American Health Associates. He was inducted into Pingry’s Athletics Hall of Fame as a member of the 1953 Basketball Team. Survivors include his stepmother Doris, sister Nancy, and beloved nieces Kaitlyn and Taylor.
Mr. Sturm graduated from Rider University and was Director of Real Estate for clothing retailer Guess? Inc. Survivors include his devoted wife Angela; beloved daughter Kylie; mother Arlene; brother Neal (Bonnie); sister Elyse (Paul); sister-in-law Joann (Paul); brother-in-law Ralph (JuliAnne); brother-in-law Michael (Dan); many nieces and nephews; four great-nieces; and a great-nephew. Mr. Sturm died from a lifelong battle with Crohn’s disease.
July 10, 2017, age 82, Miami Lakes, FL
Christopher P. “Kip” Hall ’72 October 23, 2017, age 63, Darien, CT
Mr. Hall attended Dartmouth College, Oxford University (Exeter College, Rhodes Scholar), and The University of Chicago Law School. A natural litigator, he started his law career in New York as an associate of Donovan Leisure. As his career developed, he specialized in securities and corporate litigation, and was featured as one of five lawyers on Lawdragon’s “Securities Litigation Dream Team.” Mr. Hall concluded his law career as a partner, then Senior Counsel, of DLA Piper in New York City. He taught Mergers and Acquisitions and Securities Litigation at University of Connecticut Law School for four years. Mr. Hall also served as a Darien Selectman (2014-2015) and co-chaired the Connecticut commission for business law modification and development (2014-2016). Mr. Hall was also an avid racer on skis and in boats, and a certified ski instructor. Survivors include his wife Britt, children Justin and Victoria, and brother Jim.
July 8, 2017, age 49, Freehold, NJ
Mary A. DelliSanti ’87
May 6, 2017, age 47, Budd Lake, NJ
Ms. DelliSanti attended Northwestern University. She is survived by her loving parents Anh and Joseph Delli Santi, sister Joanne, brother Nicholas, nephew Henry, niece Greta, and many other loved ones and friends.
Faculty/Staff
Diane Cytacki
June 26, 2017, age 64, Somerset, NJ
Ms. Cytacki was Assistant Business Manager and Comptroller at Pingry from 1987 to 2000. She received a B.A. and M.B.A. from Rutgers University of Newark and also worked as an accountant for Johnson & Johnson. Survivors include her husband of 41 years, Michael Brundage; niece Nicole (Sohrab); great-nephews Aydin and Kamran; brothers-in-law Thomas, Joseph, and Robert; sisters-in-law Kathleen, Anne, and Eileen; and longtime family friend Melinda Winstead.
Janet M. Mauro
August 19, 2017, age 68, Chatham, NJ
Mrs. Mauro worked at Pingry for 20 years (1996-2016) as Administrative Assistant for the Lower School, where her daughter Jill Driscoll P ’30 taught Grade 2 and is now Educational Technology Specialist. Survivors include her beloved husband, Michael; loving children Brian (Susie), Alissa (Casey), and Jill (Sean); grandchildren Corey, Ella, Ryan, Brody, Jack ’30, Ava, and Samantha; brother John; and sister Mary. Mrs. Mauro died after a long and courageous battle with cancer.
Jean Ellen Serafin Meriwether May 28, 2017, age 70, Smyrna, GA
Dr. Meriwether taught biology at Pingry during the 1974-75 school year. She received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Emory University and was one of the first women admitted to Emory’s Ph.D. program in Biology. During her career, she taught biology and chemistry at numerous independent schools across the country and consulted for the College Board. Survivors include her husband of 47 years, David; sons David and Steven; brother Donald; and sister Eleanor.
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Closing Word
Charlottesville, Taking a Knee, and the Influence of Politics By Headmaster Nat Conard P ’09, ’11 This article is adapted from Mr. Conard’s remarks to the Upper School on October 10. He began by reading three statements that are intended to guide and govern our lives: the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and Pingry’s Honor Code. Politics has made the conversation that I want to have with you more difficult. As an educator, I feel an obligation not to share my political views with you. To do so would be akin to telling you what to think, politically, rather than teaching you how to think. For educators, this has always been a challenge. This challenge has begun to affect everyday conversation. We are living in a time and in a political climate in which basic issues of equity and justice, human and civil rights, and even patriotism have been co-opted by politics, so to speak out about injustice or basic rights is perceived as political or unpatriotic. But these conversations are important, and we need to work hard to separate them from partisan politics. I believe that the opinions of the white supremacists who organized the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in August are abhorrent, and are both unacceptable and un-American. They violate the very essence of the foundational documents of this country and, closer to home, they are clearly against the spirit of the Honor Code. Thankfully, many politicians on both sides of the aisle were swift and unequivocal in their condemnation of these voices of evil. While there are many things that might be weighed in a moral balance and found to be equivalent, I do not believe 96
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that violence in support of evil ends has any moral equivalent. Now, I also believe that the white supremacists have a right to voice their opinions. Having already heard those despicable opinions, I have no interest in honoring them or hearing them again, but the Constitution, which I believe in very strongly, protects that right. Which leads me to the issue, without implying equivalence, of taking a knee during the Pledge of Allegiance or the singing of the national anthem. There is a good deal of public attention being paid to this gesture of protest on the part of professional athletes. This topic, too, has become highly politicized in a very interesting way that seems divorced from the founding principles of this country. If the flag is a symbol of our freedom, and is emblematic of the beliefs and rights articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, then one of those rights is the freedom to kneel in front of the flag. In a 1943 Supreme Court case (West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette) that dealt with a student being expelled from school for refusing to say the Pledge of Allegiance, the Court held that the student could not be required to recite the pledge. Justice Robert Jackson, writing for the majority
—and I will preface this quotation by reminding you that this was written at the height of World War II—said, “Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters.” He went on to say, “To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous, instead of a compulsory routine, is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds.” And he concluded that thought by saying, “…freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much. That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that 1 touch the heart of the existing order.” I encourage you to engage in respectful dialogue about these issues—they are not going to go away, just as the underlying issues that led to Colin Kaepernick’s first taking a knee over a year ago are with us still. The preamble of the Declaration of Independence is powerful and aspirational, but its full realization is not yet upon us. And it is not unpatriotic to talk about that. 319 U.S. 624, West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (No. 591); Argued: March 11, 1943; Decided: June 14, 1943. 47 F.Supp. 251, affirmed. At https://www.law. cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/319/624
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CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS Thursday, November 23
Turkey Bowl Soccer Game Basking Ridge Campus -- 9:00 a.m.
Friday, November 24
Alumni Squash Event
Basking Ridge Campus -- 4:00 p.m.
Friday, November 24
Alumni Class Notes Send us your latest news! Do you have a new job? New baby? Just married? Recently moved? Or any updates to share with your classmates? We are collecting class notes and photos for the next issue of The Pingry Review. Visit pingry.org/classnotes, or mail your note to Holland Sunyak Francisco ’02 The Pingry School 131 Martinsville Road Basking Ridge, NJ 07920
Alumni Hockey Game Beacon Hill Club -- 6:00 p.m.
Thursday, November 30
Young Alumni Holiday Party New York Athletic Club -- 6:30 p.m.
Wednesday, January 10
Back-from-College Lunch
Basking Ridge Campus -- 12:00 p.m.
Friday, January 26
Career Day
Basking Ridge Campus
Wednesday, January 31
New York City Reception
The Racquet and Tennis Club -- 6:30 p.m.
Friday, May 4
Grandparents & Special Friends Day Short Hills Campus -- 9:00 a.m.
Friday, May 18 and Saturday, May 19
Reunion Weekend Basking Ridge Campus
Check Pingry.org/Calendar and watch your email for information about upcoming events.
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For volunteer opportunities or any additional questions, please contact:
Holland Sunyak Francisco ’02 Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving hfrancisco@pingry.org 908-647-5555, ext. 1284
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