The Beacon S e m p e r a d L u c e m

April 2010, Issue 15 Special Points of Interest

Baseball Spring Training

Spring Break Trip to Spain and France

Alumni Regional Reunions

Assistant Head of School

Deans Corner

Poetry Out Loud State Champion

Parents’ Association

Light from the Shore

Golf Classic—Save the Date

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April 2010

Dear Friends, The month of March came in as a lion and did not leave like a lamb! Instead we had an abundance of snow and the wettest March in history. Over 10.65 inches of rain! Laura White and four students from Knox’s Model United Nations (MUN) Club will be heading to Istanbul, Turkey on April 2 and returning to campus on April 11. Knox’s Parents Association was pleased to give some financial assistance to make the trip possible. This is a trip of a “life time” for Knox’s MUN students. I know Mrs. White is very excited about the trip! The Class of 2010 has done extremely well in their college placement for next September and will be attending colleges/universities such as: Bates, Uni-versity of Richmond (VA), Dickinson, Wake Forest, Emery, Mercer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University of California at Santa Barbara, University of Massachusetts (Amherst), Cabrini, Case Western Reserve University, Pratt, Uni-versity of Wisconsin, Brandeis, Boston University and Babson. We all are proud of Taylour Dickinson (Class of 2012) for winning New York State's Poetry Out Loud competition which was held in Albany, New York last month. Taylour and her family along with English Department Chair, Mrs. Linda Pack Butler, will be in Washington, D.C. on April 26, where Taylour will be competing in the National Poetry Out Loud Competition at George Washington University. Janice Zingale and members of the cast of the musical "Spitfire Grill" are hard at work to get ready for their performances on Friday, April 30 and Saturday, April 31 at 8pm in Bancroft-Phinney Hall. We look forward to seeing you at the performance. I am pleased to announce that Stephen Chu will be Chairman of the Mathematics Department next fall. Stephen has a B.A. in Mathematics from Co-lumbia University and a M.S. in Mathematics from New York University. Stephen, along with math teacher Sylvie Aristilde, recently received notification that they were selected to participate in the Klingenstein Summer Institute at Teacher's College (Columbia University). Klingenstein is the Center for Independent School Leadership and the Center is known as one of premier leadership programs in the world.

Sincerely,

School Knox 541 Long Beach Road

St. James, New York 11780

April 2010 The Beacon

The team warms up before a hard day of practice! Team Meeting

Matt Kim ‘10 Melshawn Taylor ‘13 Angel Valdes ‘13 Michael Coppedge ‘10

Bucky Dent Spring Training was Impressed by Hardworking Knox Baseball Players

Eight boys of the school’s base-ball team went to Florida for spring training, during the school’s spring break. On Saturday, February 27th the group departed cold Long Island for cold Florida! We arrived at Bucky Dent School of Baseball to an unseasonably cold Delray Beach, Florida. Our boys had a once in a life time experience: eight boys under the instruction of four former professional baseball players for six days. Seven hours a day they were instructed, chal-lenged, and encouraged to go beyond their own expectations. They did not disappoint themselves or their instruc-tors. They stretched, ran, jumped, shagged flies and fielded ground balls with enthusiasm for hours a day. They learned how to turn double plays, even

those who will not be playing in the in-field took the time to practice these skills. They were instructed in the cor-rect way of throwing a baseball, catching a ground ball, fielding a fly ball and be-ing accurate in their throwing. They bring these skills back to Knox for the regular season, and the rest of their team. Two of the boys, Jun Kang ‘12 and Jason Kim ‘13, had never played baseball until this spring break trip. Jun and Jason both proved themselves to be excellent athletes and good baseball players. Matt Kim ’10 was elected by our professional instructor as the most valu-able player of the camp while Angel Valdes ‘13 was selected as most im-proved player of the camp. Edward Zhang ‘10 stayed for a second week of training while the other seven, Matt Kim

‘10 , Angel Valdes ‘13, Jun Kang ‘12, Ja-son Kim ’13, Michael Coppedge ‘10, Frank Cassata ’14 and Melshawn Taylor ‘13 returned to New York. We are grateful to Don Thomsen, Rafael Rodriquez, Jeff King, and Larry Hoskins for their instruction and encouragement. They collectively played in the Chicago Cubs, Texas Rang-ers, and the Minnesota Twins organiza-tions. Of course Bucky Dent played for and managed the New York Yankees, being named the Most Valuable Player of the 1978 World Series. This is the beginning of a long term relationship between the Bucky Dent School of Baseball and the Knox Falcon’s baseball team!

- Jack Hundley, Head Baseball Coach

Semper ad Lucem

Spain and France… Meet Knox!

Grace Fairclough ‘12, Ju Yeob Kim ‘10, Rachel Kim ‘11 and Rachel Fox ‘11 at Versailles

Henry Tao ‘11 plays with the Louvre’s Pyramid

The group visits Notre Dame The group patiently waits in the airport.

Trevor Henderson ‘14 and Tiffany Ye ‘13

"You make your memories," Janice Zingale, director of Alumni Relations, frequently tells Knox students at morning meeting - it is true! Such words of wisdom defined the Knox School's Spring Break tour of Paris and Barcelona: The best parts are the memories the travelers made together. In early March, Knox Math teacher Sylvie Aristilde, and Knox English Dept. Chair Linda Pack Butler, chaperoned 17 Knox students through a tour of the beautiful cities of Paris, France and Barcelona, Spain. Students included David Cho’11, Ju Yeob Choi ‘10, Sherry Cui ‘12, Grace Fairclough ‘12, Rachel Fox ‘11, Trevor Henderson ‘14, Tomas Icaza ‘14, Lauren Kang ‘12, Rachel Kim ‘11, Sarang Koo ‘13, Kelvin Lee ‘10, Paul Lee ‘13, Theo Morgan ‘10, Henry Tao ‘11, Andy Tsche ‘11, Cecelia Wang ‘11, and Tif-fany Ye ’13. The tour covered a lot of territory in a week (mainly by foot!) and served to whet appetites for more. In Paris, students visited Notre Dame, Musee D'Orsay, and the Louvre. Kelvin Lee, who has been wanting to visit D'Orsay for three years, left the museum already planning his return. There was a trip up the Eiffel Tower at night as well as an evening boat ride along the Seine. Students were led on a guided tour of Versailles in an hour. The Champs-Élysées was hit hard by expert shoppers, Made-moiselles Wang and Cui while Henry Tao, Ms. Aristilde and Mr. and Ms. Butler made a valiant attempt to see Napoleon's grave. They were stopped short by the French habit of closing ticket sales prior to the actual hours of a site's closing. Confused? So were the students. David Cho's 18th birthday was spent at a Paris brasserrie. Students tried escargots, foie gras, and a melted blue cheese over raw egg custard that tour guide Leonore, impressed with students' gustatory curiosity, described as "very French." Stu-dents also enjoyed hot crepes and roasted chestnuts from Paris street vendors as they traversed the left and right banks of the Seine. The group arrived in Barcelona via a night train through the Pyrennees and were then taken on a bus tour of that city. The architecture of Antoni Gaudí dominates this city with its intensely organic and eclectic beauty, leaving a similarly dramatic impression on Knox students. Barcelona, with its beauty, its culture, its food, its friendliness and its accessibility proved to be the tour favorite. No trip would be complete without its share of rueful moments such as the 8-hour weather delay in Zurich's airport that included: Andy Tshe being "detained" by Swiss police, Ms. Fox and Ms. Butler being frisked by Swiss security, and Rachel Kim meeting with undercover Swiss police to give details about her computer which went missing while the Knox jet lagged group of 20 napped "en famille" in the airport. The Swiss are nothing if not thorough and efficient! The trip was organ-ized by World Language Dept. Chair Brenda Pigou.

- Linda Butler, English Department Chair

A group picture in the Paris subway

April 2010 The Beacon

As Knox students were preparing for second term exams, Headmaster George Allison H’81, Lucy Allison, and Director of Alumni Affairs Janice Zingale H ’83 made their way West to Califor-nia. George and Lucy headed to San Francisco for two conferences, National Association of Principals of Girls’ Schools and the National Association of Independent Schools, where they also visited with Trustee Susan Hambrecht ’84. Janice spent a week at the Brent-wood home of Michael Schenker ’85, his wife Robbin and their chil-dren Kailah and Benjamen. While there, she also visited with David Portal ’93, Jacqueline Walrath ’94 and her husband Maceo Oliver who were unable to attend the planned reunions. After their con-ferences, the Allison’s traveled to LA in time for Saturday evening cocktails at the West Lounge at the Hotel Angeleno and a wonder-ful Sunday Brunch at the Schenker home. Knox is grateful to Mi-chael and Robbin for sponsoring our “Alumni Brunch in Brent-wood.” It was gratifying seeing California alumni across several decades finding common ground, connecting and planning for future gatherings. Shortly after returning from California, the Allisons and the Zingales packed their bags for a whirlwind tour of Florida where events were held in Coral Gables, Palm Beach Gardens, Fort Meyers and Orlando. The Palm Beach Gardens gathering, at Vic & Angelo’s for the second year, was an evening of great food and wine. At Ft Myers Beach, the Allisons and Zingales were joined by Associate Headmaster Jack Hundley, Sandra Hundley, Trustees Jay and Sheri McNulty for an ocean front dinner at The Gulfshore Grill. At events in both California and Florida, Knox alumni ex-pressed their joy and gratitude for the School’s recent outreach activities on their behalf.

- Janice Zingale, Director of Alumni Affairs

Regional Reunions in California and Florida

Cariera’s Cucina Italian in Orlando which was recommended by ’85 alumni Tanya Sherman Nicholls and her husband Andy. Pictured are Tanya Sherman Nicholls, Rebecca Weisz ‘02, Frank Zingale, George Alli-son H ‘81, Janice Zingale H ’83, Emir Yildiz ‘02, Lucy Allison, Amy Rippel Connolly, Kevin Connolly and their son Patrick.

Vic & Angelo’s in Palm Beach Gardens Back Row: Laura Sighinolfi Souza ’81 and Trustee Sara Coen ’83 Front Row: Frank Zingale, Janice Zingale H’83, Lucy Allison, Lisa Ceparano Stokes ‘84, George Allison H ‘81, Lillah Cruce ‘96, and Bar-bara Borg ‘72

Alumni Brunch in Brentwood Back Row: Chris Stompolo ‘89, Chie Ku-akabe, Hitoshi Kusakabe ‘95, Janice Zingale H’83, George Allison H’81, Peter Grossmon ’85, Lucy Allison, Micheal Schenker ’85 (holding Ben-jemon) Front Row: Kailah Schenker, Diana Stronpolos, Robin Schenker, Khin Zar Phyn ’00, Jodi Exton Heath ’69 and Adam Gunn ’85 Not Pic-tured: Mari Gunn, Joseph Nassizadeh ’80 with his wife Sherry and their daughter Celine and Calette

The Coral Gables event at Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar Back Row: Teresa Carey, Ben Erikson '90, Carolina Cemborain '92, Raul Gongalez '96, Nikole Gonzalez, Christina Pfeifer Mattig '88 Middle Row: Janice Zingale H '83, Frank Zingale, Maggie Baczkowski Seated: Mariela Amon '79 and Lucy Allison

Spring is finally here! It seems like winter would never end, especially after the end of term snowstorm which caused flight delays and anxiety for the students on the Europe and Florida trips. March roared in like a lion, knocking out power lines and shutting off the campus from the rest of Long Island for three long days! We are now ready for the first Knox baseball and softball games and tennis matches of the year. Students are starting to practice for the spring musical, which the entire school looks forward to! Other events are catching the student’s attentions, such as the senior prom and ring and blazer ceremony! The school will be open during the Spring Long Weekend, April 1 – 5, for students who cannot arrange for an off cam-pus weekend stay. Since the weekend falls during Easter and it is a religious holiday weekend for many of our faculty and stu-dents, we will not be planning many weekend activities for students remaining on campus, so that our residential staff can spend a portion of the holiday with family and friends. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

- George Naron, Dean of Students

Dear parents and guardians,

The February 27, 2010 issue of The Economist features a special report on managing information. Our ability to generate and record information through tech-nology is growing exponentially as is the ability of com-puters to process and generate additional information. The work on the human genome which took ten years in 2003 can now be completed in a week. Although the arti-cle focused on how managing information is affecting how businesses are run, the shear abundance of data and information has significant consequences for how we teach. If we define knowledge in scientific terms as proc-essing, understanding, and being able to use information received, then teachers must be able help students evalu-ate and manage the superabundance of data and infor-mation that they are bombarded with every day. As parents and educators, we are also faced with epistemological questions: What is knowledge in the 21st century? What do we want our students to know at the end of a secondary school education? How has our ability to acquire knowledge changed and how does this affect how we teach and how we learn? These questions are being batted around in academic circles across the globe; the answers offered are often diverse. I leave you to pon-der these questions and invite you to share your thoughts.

Regards,

Sharon L. Lawrence Assistant Head of School

Assistant Head of School Knox Student Wins NY POL Last year, Knox held their own Poetry Out Loud com-petition but this year Knox was able to join the “official” Poetry Out Loud competition! There were two winners from the re-gional competition, which moved on to the New York State competition—both were from Knox! Kat Barry ‘10 and Taylour Dickerson ‘12 traveled to Albany, New York with Mrs. Linda But-ler and their family to compete in the state wide competition. Both students were wonderful! Reciting Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's "Psalm of Life," Samuel Taylor Colerige's "Kubla Khan," and Alice Walker's "Caged Bird" Taylor Dickerson won the statewide POL! The state winners will meet for the national competition in April! As the winner for New York state, she will receive $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to DC for the nationals! Knox will receive a $500 stipend for the sole purchase of poetry books. Singer/ songwriter Natalie Merchant, poets Paul Elisha and Ber-tha Roberts, and last year's NY POL winner, Catherine Woodard were scheduled to judge. A total of $50,000 in awards is given out as prizes at the national competition in Washington, DC. The national com-petition will be held on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium (730 21st Street, NW) in Washington, DC. Knox certainly wishes Taylour the best as she works hard practicing and during her competition in Washington, DC!

To the right, Taylour Dickerson ‘12 poses

for a picture with the second place winner

of the New York State competition.

Semper ad Lucem

Dean of Students’ Corner

April 2010 The Beacon

A Letter from The Parents’ Association

Please join us Friday, April 9th, 2010 from 5pm - 8pm for an opening artist reception. The visiting artist, Kristin Rufo is a native of Atlanta and received her BFA at Georgia Southwestern State University. She relocated to Long Island to earn her Masters degree. Kristin works with traditional materials, like oil paint, to explore social and political ideas concerning the media and other information technol-ogy. Her work reflects a global perspective and deals mostly with issues of social change. Along with her art-making, Kristin has worked with Habitat for Humanity houses in Romania, studied abroad in Tuscany, and has visited numerous other European and Cen-tral American countries. She values the continued support she receives from friends and family of her ideas to offer awareness of hope for social change through her art. Cur-rently, Kristin is an adjunct Professor at Long Island Univer-sity, C.W. Post Campus. She exhibits her work primarily in the New York area. Kristin’s work can be seen at: www.kristinrufo.com.

- Susanne Johnson, Photography Teacher

Light From the Shore Artist: Kristin Rufo

As Co-Presidents of your Association, we've decided that there will be no April showers on our campus this month. We are far too busy with so many activities to put up with any type of poor weather! Please reference the calendar in The Beacon, to be sure you don’t miss anything. Our Visiting Artist Series, Light from the Shore, will have a reception by a rising local artist on Friday, April 9th from 5:00pm to 8:00pm. Please join students and faculty at this reception, as these shows are turning out to be very successful. The spring musical, “Spitfire Grill," will be staged on Friday, April 30th and Saturday, May 1st on the William Turner Shoemaker Stage. If the past is any indication, the show will be a great success! Baseball and softball games, crew races and tennis matches will give our Falcon Athletes plenty of opportunity to show their competitive spirit. We hope you will join us at the court and field to support our athletes during the upcoming season. Check the sports calendar on our “new and improved” web site for game dates and times. We look forward to seeing you there!! Lastly, we urge you to join us on Friday, June 11th for our 4th Annual Knox Golf Classic. A formal invitation will be fourth coming; in the meantime this will serve as a “Save the Date.” Even if golf is not your game, the dinner, raffle drawings and silent auction prizes will be enjoyable for all in attendance. Whether you are golfing, enjoying a nice dinner or spending a night among friends, we would really appreciate your support and company. Keep in mind that all proceeds help our school by serv-ing as another revenue source to provide support for our students. As always, you are invited to join us for our monthly meeting, the next meeting will be held on Thursday, April 22nd at 7pm at MacKenzie House. The attendance last month was the best yet, and John and I feel that a parents association is impera-tive to the success of any school. We hope that the attendance at future meetings will continue to grow, and feel that you will reap the reward of being part of the Knox community. Happy Spring and we will see you around the campus! John and Leslie Hardy Co-Presidents of the Parents’ Association

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We hope that many of our parents will join alumni and other friends of Knox as we kick off the summer with a day of golf and fun! All proceeds from the event provide financial support for the School and its programs, just like the Annual Fund does. In fact, if you haven't made an Annual Fund gift yet, here's another opportu-nity to support the School and have fun as well! If golf isn't your game, please join us for cocktails, dinner, gift raffles, and a silent auc-tion. Watch for your formal invitation in early April. please call the Development Office at 686-1600 ext 410 if you have ques-tions. See you on the course!

- Duncan Marshall, Asst. Head for External Affairs and Enrollment

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School Knox 541 Long Beach Road

St. James, New York 11780

Admission Open House

Saturday, April 24, 2010 Registration - 9:45am

Program - 10:00am

Please contact The Knox School Admission Office to RSVP to this

event. If you are unable to make it to the Open House, please contact the Admission Office to schedule your

tour of The Knox School.

We are embarking on our 8th year providing safe, educational and fun activities for your children on our beautiful Campus. Our committed staff is dedi-

cated to providing our Campers with a summer filled with memories that will last a lifetime.

You can pick the days and weeks!

Visit our website at www.knoxschool.org and go to the upper right tab that reads “SUMMER.” Call the Camp Office at (631) 686.1600 ext 420; we will be

happy to talk to you and answer any questions you may have.

Semper ad Lucem