The Wessex Wire The Student Newspaper of West Essex Regional High School
Vol. XLVI No. 2
West Essex High School, 65 West Greenbrook Road, North Caldwell, N.J.
November 2013
Common App causes senior stress by Andie Silverstein ’14
added after its release. As changes were made, some who had started their This year’s Common Application, applications early found themselves also known as the Common App, was locked out of the system.” released on Aug. 1 and has created “When I was done with a section, issues for students when trying to the green checkmark that means apply to the colleges of their choice ‘complete’ would not show up,” seusing the system. The Common App nior Anthony Tornatore said. is a nonprofit organization that has Common App users have faced difallowed students to apply to over 500 ficulty linking to Naviance, a system that West Essex uses to colleges and unisend transcripts versities from and recommendaone website tions to colleges. for the past 35 The site has also years. It conhad payment sists of four Photo courtesy of Mrs. Blanchard processing probdifferent seclems where aptions of inforplicants have mation about b e e n c h a rg e d an applicant’s multiple times personal, eduper application. cational, fam The Comily and testing mon App is also information, as experiencing well as a section formatting issues Photo courtesy of commonapp.org for extracurricular associated with the esactivities and the colsay. This year, the essay word count lege essay. The 2013 version of the applica- was changed from 500 to 650 words. tion was completely revamped; the Students who have been previewing website is new in design and content. their finished products on the webSince the launch of the new site, site have been frustrated with words problems with site access, submis- that have been smashed together, randomly spaced or missing. sion and payment have occurred. On Oct. 14, the website was com- “When I was done with my essay and pletely inaccessible. Students and I tried to preview it, the PDF file would counselors alike could not log on to not open. I refreshed the page about 50 times. I finally got it to open after I tried the site. With approaching deadlines, these on three different computers,” senior glitches are causing anxiety and Mark Richardella said. strain on students who only have a Colleges are aware of these issues that few months to determine their col- have been occurring and have reached out to applicants to apologize for the lege plans. “When I try to log on, the site is website malfunctions. often unavailable. These issues are “Most schools have been pushing making the college process slower back their deadlines at least a week and more frustrating than it needs to more because the common application has been having complications. I think be,” senior Nicole Castiglia said. According to the New York Times, that it’s really nice that the schools are “Students who thought they had fin- understanding of that, and the extension ished the application found that it was has been very helpful,” senior Daniela incomplete because questions had been Forte said.
Inside This Issue:
3-4
Opinion
Head to head: Junior vs. senior year
Photo by Sydelle Barreto 5K participants begin running at the start of the race in front of the Fairfield pool.
Giaimo Run raises scholarship money
5-8
by Monica Onorata ’15
Students ran for a cause at the Giaimo Run on Oct. 26 in Fairfield. A 5K run and mile-long “trick or treat” run were offered to participants. The annual event commemorates the death of former West Essex student Robert P. Giaimo who passed away in a car accident on May 25, 2004 at the age of 20. Giaimo’s mother coordinates the event every year with the help of volunteers from St. Thomas Moore Church. The run has been held every fall for the past nine years to raise money for scholarships given to students of West Essex and Ramapo College, both of which Giaimo attended. Upon arrival, runners registered and received a t-shirt along with gift bags filled with snacks and coupons from a variety of sponsors. Corrado’s supermarket, 360 Fitness and many other local businesses supported the event. Three hundred and one runners and walkers participated in this year’s run, including the West Essex cross country team and other West Essex students. Senior Daniel Kenny won the 5K for the second year in a row with a time of 17:03, while junior Bryan Gallion came in third with a time of 18:24.
Features
Seeing double: Twins at West Essex
“I was proud to see that all the members of the cross country team participated in the run to show support for their community. They ran for a great cause,” cross country coach Mr. Samuels said. After the run, participants were offered dessert, coffee and water at the Fairfield pool where Mrs. Giaimo thanked runners for their participation. Massages were offered for sore runners and trophies were given to each winner within their age bracket. In past years there have been two different scholarships given in honor of Giaimo. One is the 24’s Award: Robert P. Giaimo’s ice hockey scholarship. This award is given to a member of the West Essex Ice Hockey team on which Giaimo formerly played. According to the scholarship description, the award is given to the player with the most dedication to the sport. The second scholarship is given to either a West Essex student or a student of Ramapo College. This scholarship is given to a student who is interested in pursuing a career in the technical theater field like Giaimo. In the past two years West Essex graduates Maxine Taylor and Matthew Liotti have both received this scholarship. This year’s winners of the scholarship will be announced in the coming months.
11-12 Sports
Fall sports review