RUBEN • ARTS CENTER • TUITION • AND MORE

MARTINSVILLE ROAD, MARTINSVILLE, NJ 08836VOL. CXXIX, NO. 4 MAY 2003

The Pingry Record

BY DAVID SPETT (V)Stress, anxiety, cramming,

all-nighters, grades, pressure… it’s all coming with nextyear’s midterms! Just kid-ding.

In actuality, Mr.Neiswender hopes that thedecision to add midterms nextyear will reduce studentstress. Instead of dealing withinformation in a big, year-long clump, he explains thatit will be easier for studentsto study for midterm exams.“The old system just didn’tmake a lot of sense,” he says.“We had to wait until June totest material from Septem-ber.”

Mr. Neiswender notes thatmost schools and universitiestest on a semester basis. Hesays that more frequent ex-ams on less material make theinformation more distinct,helping students “get a betterhandle on it.” Furthermore, headds that “the more you get

MIDTERMS ARE COMING!used to taking tests, the betteryou become at taking them.”

Junior and senior Englishclasses formerly without ex-ams will now have both mid-terms and finals. The head-master explains that “there areEnglish exams in college, andsome of our alumni claim tohave a hard time preparing forthem because we don’t havethose exams here.”

Although the exact examstructure has not yet been de-cided, Mr. Neiswender saysthat the new midterms and fi-nals will probably be 90 min-utes in length. They will takeplace over three days, withtwo exams on Wednesday, twoexams on Thursday, and oneexam on Friday. An optional“Review Day” to see teachersand ask questions will takeplace on Tuesday.

The midterms will be heldfrom January 21-23 and thefinals from June 2-4.

Make-up exams will be

scheduled for Friday after-noon. Students not taking anexam that afternoon will befree to go home early.

Midterms will be followedby a four-day “SemesterBreak,” with no school fromSaturday, January 24 until thefollowing Tuesday, January27. “This is very much a col-lege model,” explains Mr.Neiswender.

Material taught in the firstsemester, the headmasternotes, will not be included inthe second semester exams.The only exception is “year-long themes” presented byteachers at the beginning ofthe year. “Those themes willbe made clear to everyone,”Mr. Neiswender says. He addsthat each class’s midterm andfinal will essentially followthe same format.

The headmaster explainsthat “only themes and secondsemester material will be in-cluded on the final exams.” He

gives an example that in En-glish class, first semester nov-els might be included on thefinal exam, though specificgrammar included on the firstsemester exam would not.“It’s up to each individualteacher and department head,”he says.

Some students have ex-pressed concern that the newmidterms will be too close tothe return from Winter Break.In fact, they will take placeonly two weeks after vacationends. Mr. Neiswender feels,though, that “it should beplenty of time to prepare.We’ll come back from breakand have plenty of time to startour review. It works for mostschools.”

The headmaster explainsthat to hold the exams beforeWinter Break, the entireschool schedule would have tobe altered so that the middleof the year would land in De-

Iraq War Teach-inIgnites Controversy

BY ELIZABETH SEBESKY (IV)Members of the 2003 Drama

IV class created a moment of Pin-gry history with their productionof Thornton Wilder ’s “OurTown,” staged in the new MacraeTheater on April 24, 25, and 26.As the first performance in thenew state-of-the-art wing, it wasdedicated to “all those drama stu-dents present and past, whosecreativity and commitment havemade this wonderful space pos-sible.”

Mr. Al Romano, director of“Our Town” and head of thedrama department, explains, “Ithought this would be a wonder-ful way to open the new theaterwith an American play that reas-serts traditional American values

‘Our Town’ OpensMacrae Theater

Continued on page 14

and that requires the audienceand actors to create the realityon the stage.”

Seating about 230 people,the theater was appropriate forthe small-town setting of “OurTown.” John Kissel, whoplayed George Gibbs, said,“Acting in front of a full audi-ence really helped me to feelthe character I’m playingmuch more than in practice. Itjust forced me to commit110%.”

The relationship betweenthe actor and audience was fa-cilitated by the intimacy of

Continued on page 13

continued on page 13

BY CHIP SHAFFER (IV)The war in Iraq has affected

everyone in some way. Peoplehave watched friends and fam-ily members go off to fight or,at the very least, noticed thenonstop news coverage on TV.

When the U.S. invaded,some were shocked and angrywhile others supported the ac-tion. Many continue to holdstrong opinions both for andagainst the war. Because somePingry students and facultywanted to voice their feelingsagainst the war, Seniors AaronSussman, Rebecca Liven-good, Sarah Saxton Frump,Jon Mangin, Anne Kroeger,Jane Sawyer, and Sonia Alamoriginally planned an anti-warrally for Saturday, March 29.

The rally was canceled,however, because it wouldhave required the presence ofpolice. While the rally wasinitially open to anyone insideor outside the school, the ad-ministration decided to turnthe event into a forum exclu-sively for the Pingry commu-nity. Anyone could sign up tospeak and express views onthe war.

After the change in planswas announced, AaronSussman sent a letter to all ofthe seniors in which he ex-

pressed his “support and an-ticipation” for the forum. Healso stressed that though theassembly was not mandatory,“this forum is being run bystudents, not the administra-tion.” As such, he hoped ev-eryone would attend to heardifferent opinions on the war

and support fellow classmates.Almost everyone attended

the forum, which took placeon Wednesday, April 2. Justbefore it began RebeccaLivengood reminded every-

one that the forum was indeedjust that, a forum, and was nottrying to impose one viewover another. She concludedby saying that “knowledge isgood and understanding ofimportant affairs necessary.”Neither in favor of nor againstthe war, the forum was a way

for ideas to be shared and be-liefs to be expressed. And in-deed, many ideas were ex-pressed. From adamantly prowar to pro peace, all partici-

Courtesy of Pingry.org

Susannah Bragg (V)

Dr. Susan Dineen

This picture on the Pingry Web site blends por-traits of actors from the teaser.

Seniors Lauren Miller, Denise LaForgia, and JohnKissel eat a healthy breakfast to start the day.

Alex Levey (VI) and Aaron Sussman (VI) close up after a dayof peace reading outside the school.

Rebecca Speiser (V)

Students will have to hit the books next January!

THE PINGRY RECORD • MAY 2003

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The Pingry Record

All rights reserved. All contents © 2003 The Pingry Record. Printed on recycled paper. Please recycle after use.

Editor in Chief Clare KellyAssistant Editors Susannah Bragg, David SpettSenior Editor Kristin KicenuikCopy Editors Rita Biagioli, Rebecca Speiser, Dana ZolliPhotographers Nelson Lee, Maggie Oberrender, Andy SchlesingerArtist Melissa TysonStaff Sonia Alam, Ed Barsamian, Samantha Bailye,

Elyse Feldman,Andrew Heyman, Christine Hsu,Denise LaForgia, Kathryn Levine, Danielle Peretore,

Caroline Savello, Jane Sawyer, Sumeet Shah,Katie Suchow, Aaron Sussman, Robert Zacharias,

Jenna Whiteley

Faculty Advisor Dr. Susan DineenTechnical Advisor Mr. Dean Sluyter

Recently, when pressed for a definition of “senior cut day,” I was chal-lenged to explain this momentous event in the life of all Pingry seniors.What are the origins of cut day? What is the purpose? What does it mean?

Unless you are a senior, cut day has no meaning, no relevance and, infact no significance. However, for a senior, cut day represents a turningpoint, a milestone, a right of passage, the beginning of the end of highschool life, and the first tentative steps toward college and adulthood. It’sa day for celebration, a day for reflection, and a day for contemplation.

Celebrate the past four years – we made it through the good times andbad; we grew older and wiser, experienced the joys of victory and the painof defeat; we endured the homework, rose to the SAT challenge, embracedthe college application process, drove an automobile for the first time andnow the end of high school is in sight.

It feels good, it feels sad, and just plain exciting! What a journey thishas been and now we stand at one of the major crossroads of our lives. Theon-ramp to adulthood and independence.

Reflect on all the friendships made, the knowledge gained and the ex-periences that will last a lifetime. Think about the trips abroad, visits togalleries, concerts, performances, games, homecomings, bonfires, assem-blies; a rich and colorful tapestry of Pingry experiences that have shapedour characters and defined who we are and what we may become. Will weever forget these days and will the memories ever fade?

Contemplate the future and the aspirations and dreams that lie ahead.The road in front of us will be both exciting and challenging.

There will be periods of optimism, pessimism, anxiety, exuberance, cel-ebration, joy and occasionally despair. But the Pingry character is stead-fast and we have the self-assurance to weather the storms and realize ourdreams.

We have learned the core values and ethics that will help us to succeedand make a positive contribution to society. We have ambitions and noware truly ready to make our mark on the unsuspecting world. We are thefuture.

Cut day is therefore not just a day to skip classes, sleep late, and havefun. It’s a day with real meaning to seniors – a day for celebrating, reflect-ing and contemplating. A day to be proud that our graduation from Pingryis imminent and that we will soon be embarking on the next phase of ourlives. It’s a day to feel good and a day to treasure.

For those who have just celebrated cut day – good luck and don’t forgetyour Pingry values. For those yet to experience cut day – enrich your-selves with the Pingry values. And let all of us be thankful that Pingry hasprepared us so well.

— Clare Kelly

Time to ReflectAnd Cut Loose

Two similar assemblies have been presented this year, one by the Susan G.Komen Breast Cancer Foundation on October 11 and the other by the AIDSResource Foundation for Children on March 7. Both days were Jeans Days, andstudents were required to make a charitable donation to dress down. Each char-ity was then asked to make a presentation during the assembly period.

While these assemblies were well-intentioned and included moving presen-tations from survivors of the diseases, I found both to be less educational thanthey might have been. With all due respect to the Pingry parents who sharedtheir traumatic experiences with us — as well as to the organizers, who spentmuch time and effort in preparation — these assemblies could have been moreeffective if they had advertised less and taught more. My issue is certainly notwith the people involved, but with the advertising.

At the breast cancer assembly early in the year, a lengthy video was shown,with various people pictured on camera saying “thank you” to the Susan G.Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. A few women also presented, talking aboutthe charity’s activities and describing what they do.

The presenters also spent time sharing their personal experiences with breastcancer. Though these firsthand accounts were valuable, moving, and certainlytook courage, I believe the surrounding advertising prevented them from receiv-ing the emphasis they deserved.

Another educational aspect of the assembly was part of a pamphlet that wasgiven to all students. It included a small insert that explained how to perform abreast self-examination. Once again, however, the pamphlet mostly encour-aged us to donate to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

A more recent assembly by the AIDS Resource Foundation posed similarproblems. The presenter, Mrs. Faye Zealand, gave us a history of the charity andtold us numerous stories from her past. She thanked us for donating but ex-plained little about the severity of HIV and AIDS in our world.

The educational aspect of this assembly came when Yahya, a teenage boywith AIDS, shared his experiences and life story with us. Yahya’s story did pro-vide insight into what it’s like to live with such a life-threatening and life-alter-ing disease, but he had less time to speak than Mrs. Zealand.

Yahya’s speech also didn’t fully convey how dangerous AIDS truly is. Hesaid at one point that he wasn’t too worried about the disease because of themedicines that are available to help it. As some members of my History classastutely noted, Yahya was probably only trying to keep a positive attitude, but itworries me that such a statement could give the impression that AIDS isn’t verydangerous because of the medicines available for it.

In truth, AIDS remains an uncured pandemic. UNAIDS estimates that over20 million people have died from it, with 40 million others forced to live with itfor the rest of their lives. In South Africa, as Marissa Drell reported in a recentVital Signs article, one in every nine people is HIV positive.

Mrs. Childs and Mrs. Marotto, co-coordinators of the breast cancer assembly,strongly disagree with me. They say that the purpose of their assembly was notto “teach about the diseases,” because we already do that in health classes. Byinviting representatives from the charities, they were more interested in helpingstudents identify with the traumas associated with these diseases. They wantedto demonstrate that fundraising for research can lead to hope and a cure.

They also feel that my opinion “is not shared by the majority of the studentsand faculty who attended.”

Perhaps that is so. I know that these assemblies had good intentions, and Icertainly think that Jeans Days for charity should continue. Nevertheless, wemay be making a mistake by simply asking charities to make presentations. Itseems as though they are unable to present the kind of valuable, educationalinformation that I, at least, would prefer. Since it is important for us to knowwhere our money is going, perhaps the charities could instead give us sheets orpamphlets that describe what they do.

—David Spett

A PerspectiveOn Assemblies

Hit: “Sound of Music” sounded greatHit: Flip Flops are finally legalHit: Pingry Flip Flops are here!Miss: We had to wait until May 1Hit: Snow day hits in AprilMiss: Shovelling snow in AprilHit: Arts Wing opensHit: New Expanded Bookstore/Snack ShackHit: Spring Sports!Miss: “Our Town” inaugurates Macrae TheaterHit: Dress-down day raises thousands for F.O.P.

researchHit: Prom coming up on May 23Miss: Checks are overdueHit: Seniors are on ISPMiss: Seniors are on ISPMiss: APs & Finals are upon usHit: School’s almost over

HITS &MISSES

E D I T O R I A L S

THE PINGRY RECORD • MAY 2003

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SHORT AND SWEETBY DENISE LAFORGIA (VI)

DARE TO KNOWBY AARON SUSSMAN (VI)

OP-ED

When I was younger, Icouldn’t wait to drive the Jeep.Most of you probably remem-ber it. It was a 1986 whiteWrangler with a V6 engine. Ithad a few dents from my olderbrother’s minor accidents.Next to Tomo’s bug, it wasprobably the most senior carin the student parking lot. Butit had class.

It was the Jeep and I droveall over the state of NJ-to fenc-ing tournaments, friends’ andrelatives’ houses, and gas sta-tions when I got lost drivingto the aforementioned places.In the summer, with the top

down, it took me to countlessultimate Frisbee games, and inthe winter, the 4-wheel drivegot me through the snow-storms.

My Jeep did have someflaws that got me very frus-trated. It stalled atthe most inoppor-tune times, like atthe top of the Pin-gry driveway whenthere was a line ofcars behind me. It didn’t liketo start when the weather wascold and/or rainy. Electricalproblems caused the dash-board lights and taillights toshort a couple of times. Bothtimes were when I was driv-

ing at night. The gas gaugewasn’t set correctly. Theneedle stayed at the halfwaymark until one morning, usu-ally when I was running latefor school, when it would dropto empty.

This past winter, which I’mconvinced caused hell tofreeze over, really tried mypatience with my car. As thetemperature plummeted, I be-came increasingly aware ofthe gaps in my car that allowed

frigid air, rain and snow toenter. Every morning Idreaded my commute, for Iknew even once I got toschool, I’d be only slightlywarmer than I was in my car.

One night this past winter,

I was driving back from myfencing club along one ofWhitehouse Station’s many“country roads.” The road wasicy because it had been flur-rying all day. I was drivingslowly, but as I braked com-

ing around a turn, the Jeepwent off the road, ran over ahuge rock, and hit a sapling.

I was “shocked and awed”and luckily unharmed. I actu-ally didn’t stop to considerwhether I was injured. My be-

loved Jeep couldn’tbe resuscitated. Itwas rushed to thecar hospital, andthe prognosis wasthat it only had a

few weeks left to live.I was oppressed with the

guilt that I’d killed my car.Yes, my Jeep made me irateevery time it wouldn’t start,but I loved the car nonethelessand I felt completely respon-

sible for its demise. It wasprobably best that I wasn’thome when Whitey was towedaway to car heaven.

I had some resentment to-ward my current car. Incred-ibly mature and grateful, Iknow. As adorable as a blueVW Bug is, it’s not the Jeep.But I quickly became a big fanof the efficient heating system,as well as the standard trans-mission, CD player and trade-mark flower on the dashboard.It also has yet to pay a visit tothe repair shop. I think itturned out to be a good fit. Asmy astute friend remarked,“Hey Denise, your car’s small,just like you.”

I cursed violently as Iswung the towel towards thelight bulb on which he stood.His wings beat rhythmicallyand his stinger stood poised ashe darted from the light to thevent. I grabbed a random bookfrom my shelf to accompanythe towel, my primaryweapon. The book happenedto be “The Life and Times ofGoethe,” which I took outfrom the Pingry library duringmy sophomore year for someinexplicable reason.

Now fully armed, I engagedin hand-to-hand combat withThe Wasp for roughly ten min-utes. My room became abattlefield. A family of Trollsand a teddy bear named Wallyserved as collateral damage asthe towel struck them off oftheir respective homes on mybureau. My rage blinded me;I paid no attention to my slaincomrades and instead pursuedthat wasp to his grim death.

Each slash of the towel rep-resented a twenty-minuteblock spent staring at the com-puter screen waiting for a col-umn to appear. Each launch-ing of Goethe toward thedoomed wasp reflected thefrustration of having a whitespace and nothing worth fill-ing it with. Furiously, I at-tacked that wasp; furiously, Iattacked abandoned goals,complacency, and regret. I at-tacked plans that would nevercome to fruition and ideas thatwould fizzle away like trendyphilosophy.

That wasp is what waskeeping me from creatingsomething new, from writingsomething I could be proud of.His looming threat preventedme from being honest and,most unfortunately, from tak-ing risks. I hated this waspbecause he didn’t want to holdme accountable; he didn’twant to express himself, en-gage in healthy discussion,explore the situation intellec-tually. He didn’t want a syn-thesis of ideas; he didn’t wantmature and productive dis-course. No, he wanted reper-cussions; he wanted to stinganonymously and escape.

By allowing the wasp todictate my actions and impedemy creative attempts, I turnedhim into an authority. His au-thority was attained throughmy fear, not through any le-gitimate means that would jus-tify his power. After disablinghis flight capabilities, Iwatched as he crawled desper-ately around my floor, ponder-ing a last-ditch effort of eithervictory or escape.

I could have helped him. Icould have outstretched myarm, taken him by the wing,and become his merciful sav-ior. Instead I looked into hiseyes, lifted Goethe above my

head, and crushed the oppres-sive beast against the woodenfloor. After giving his corpseone more glance, I went down-stairs and called my mother topick him up and flush him, outof fear that he might start buzz-ing around again when Itouched him. That was the endof my valiant embroilmentwith The Wasp.

The wasp had to die. Hewas old; he was obsolete. Hisstruggle for power was basedon his manipulation throughfear and his control throughintimidation. We cannot allowourselves to be stifled bystingers; we cannot allow our-

selves to let power go un-checked. At the beginning ofthe year, I wrote a letter fromthe Student Body Presidentthat was put into the handbookand the directory. In it, I wrote,“Ideally, an academic institu-tion should foster the free ex-change of ideas and encouragediscussion and divergingviewpoints. Unfortunately,that goal of true learning isoften severely hindered byrigid tradition and narrow per-ception. . . . Students are theones who need to call for newways of thinking and demandthat their ideas not be sculptedby a given authority in order

to conform to conventionalthought.”

In this quote lies a some-what embarrassing irony.Originally, my letter includedsome innocuous (read: blandlyunfunny) jokes which I hadhoped would set a moderatelylighthearted tone. While thisletter was being read over byseveral sources for approval,I was told that the jokes wereinappropriate. Sorry, that ismisleading; the jokes weren’tinappropriate, the concept of“humor” in the student gov-ernment letter was inappropri-ate. I hadn’t realized that somethings are just too sacred for

humor. So, I removed thejokes. Bzzzz, bzzzz.

Fast forward to March,when I and other students or-ganized a rally to protest thewar in Iraq. After the rally wascanceled, it was announced tostudents that the problem wasthat I had publicized the rallyon a Web site. I thought thismatter had been discussed andwe had agreed upon that Iwould alter the message on thesite; I wasn’t even asked totake it down completely. Thedecision to cancel the rally oc-curred after all this had beensettled. Yet, the students weretold it was my fault. Bzzzz,

Eulogy to My Jeep

Raiding the Hive bzzzz.During the all-day forum

on the war that I held the weekafter the rally was supposed totake place, I had made flyersto alert students about it thatgave the information, encour-aged attendance, supportedthe “teach-in” assembly, andasked for people to come out-side for the purpose of “beinginformed and to support therally that was canceled.” I wasmade to cut off the bottom ofthe signs that mentioned therally. Bzzzz, bzzzz.

After the “teach-in” assem-bly in which I participated, Iwas told by two students in

two different classes that theirrespective teachers not onlydisliked my speech, but de-cided to “persuade” their stu-dents to adopt that same view-point. Bzzzz, bzzzz.

Now, I mention these thingsbecause they are my own ex-periences. All of you havethese experiences; all of youhave felt scared to take risks,scared to be honest, scared toexpress yourselves in certainways. All of you have seenauthority make decisions youdisagreed with and have feltthe need to declare those de-cisions as unjust. All of youhave felt the pressure to be si-

lent out of fear of those whodisagree or, even worse, willbe offended.

Do not be intimidated.When you offend those whoare certan they are right, whenyou make people who don’twant to feel uncomfortablefeel uncomfortable, when youplace intellectual and creativehonesty above fear of reaction,you will evoke not just rancorfrom a certain contingent, but,much more importantly, re-spect from many. Instead ofbuzzing around, stingers vi-brating with eagerness, whenwe don’t agree with some-thing, why do we never holdthe person accountable? Let’smake that person defend hisposition, let’s test his intellect,let’s challenge him instead ofintimidating him.

We should be ashamed thatstudents sometimes feelscared to disagree with ateacher because of thatteacher’s attempt to have theclass conform to the teacher’sopinion, as was the case whenthe aforementioned studentswanted to say that they likedmy speech. “Students are theones who need to call for newways of thinking.” This is truewhen arguing for a studentgovernment proposal and thisis true when overthrowing anoppressive regime. It has tostart with youth, with students.Be skeptical of authority, beaware that things don’t alwayshave to be this way, and beready, when the time is right,to pick up that Goethe bookand make a difference.

Students are the ones who needto call for new ways of thinking.

I was shocked and awed.

O P - E D

THE PINGRY RECORD • MAY 2003

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BY KATHRYN LEVINE (V)On Friday, March 28, stu-

dents flocked to the audito-rium to listen to readings froma number of guest writers.

At the start of the assembly,Dr. Susan Dineen spoke aboutthe Justin Society and itsfounder, Dr. George Ring,who funds the Society inhonor of his son, Pingrygraduate Justin Ring.

She mentioned her newnickname, “Dr. Dove,” and thenascent war in Iraq. In keep-ing with this tone, many au-thors stressed the political un-dertones in the work they readthroughout the day.

Dr. Dineen then introducedDr. Jeffrey Levine, Pingry’sformer poet in residence, whois editor-in-chief of TupeloPress and teaches at theKingswood-Oxford School.He is largely responsible forgathering many of the poetswho attend the annual festival.

First to read her poetry wasMs. Veronica Golos, poet in

Poet Matthew Zapruder and the participants in hisMarch 28 writing workshop produced the poem belowcollaboratively. Students were directed to start a poemwith the line, “There is a nude siren in the jelly” andwrite for five minutes. According to Mr. Zapruder,“Then we went around the room and they read theirpoems, and we picked out the coolest lines together.Then I went home and typed them up, doing not toomuch sorting, adding none of my own, and changingonly one word (“breast” to “breath,” because I mis-heard it that way when the girl who wrote that lineoriginally read it).

“I don’t know what to make of this except to thinkthat it’s very strange and wise,” he adds.

The Mystery of Transmission

Remember the picnic when time was young and free?Clothes are unimportant.You feel transparent.Too much motion but the goal is unclear.Seeds black and small, but round.In the dreaded world of nutritionist mothersand hardly there fathers they cannot be linked.There are colors and fruits and purple leaves.Do they just look purple to me?I think, or maybe not.There is a bather by the desert.There are trees, but no wind.A single leaf falls upon her breath,they were meant to be together,they just are.Everything passes by not knowingor understanding what goes on around themreflecting a lighthe has only visited in his dreams.She swims deeper into the unknown.Light shines in.A large silver bladepenetrates the surfacealmost like a hovering cloudbut not quite as definitively still.It’s calling my name in an unknown language.The mystery of transmission.The mystery of the blond possum

TEAM EFFORT

Festival Inspires Student Writers

residence at the 14th Street Y.Ms. Golos explained that shewas going to start with a poemthat applied to the current warsituation more than the oneshe had originally chosen.“We all have to break ourhearts as artists in the mo-ments in which we live,” shesaid. Playing off the openingline from T. S. Eliot’s “TheWaste Land” (“April is thecruelest month”), her poembegan, “No, not April.”

Ms. Golos read three morepoems: “Helen of Troy” and“Warrior,” both written in thevoices of fictional characters,and “A Bell Buried Deep,”which shares the title of herfirst book.

The next poet, MatthewZapruder, who teaches in NewYork City at the New School,immediately engaged the au-dience with his droll sense ofhumor. “I’ve gotta be honestwith you,” he began. “I’mpretty excited for the fire drillthis afternoon. I don’t get

things like that anymore in mylife.”

Mr. Zapruder then invitedthe audience to close their eyesand imagine “someone theydesire” while he read “SweetJesus,” a love poem. His fol-lowing poems were “SchoolStreet,” “Arcadia,” and“Gramercy,” all from his firstbook, “American Linden.”Coincidentally, “Gramercy”was also based on the same T.S. Eliot quote “April is the cru-elest month.”

Jennifer Michael Hecht,Professor of the History ofScience at Nassau CommunityCollege, read two prose poemscalled “September” and“Swamp Thing” from herbook, “The Next AncientWorld.”

John Brehm read “WhenMy Car Broke Down,” and“Race,” from his book “TheWay Water Moves.”

Although fiction writerPatricia Eakins did not readduring the assembly, she con-

Z STANDS FOR POORLY WRITTENBY ROBERT ZACHARIAS (V)

Procrastina.........................................tion

Procrastination is a badhabit and a good habit, a bless-ing and a curse, but mostly itis fodder for a column that Iwas supposed to write a whileago. You see, this column youare now reading was “due”something like two or threemonths ago, but yet I findmyself writing it in its entiretystarting at 11:34 p.m. on aweeknight.

Why, you may ask, am I sostupid? Well, the answer tothat question would take farmore space than I have beenallotted, but I will attempt toexplain my stupidity that is thebane of so many other stu-dents’ lives: sweet, sweet pro-

crastination.Procrastination and I first

really became acquainted inmy Lower School years. I re-member a major project duefor sixth grade math, and sinceI am me (some would considerthat repetitive, but they’rewrong) I was stuck at the lastminute with a lot of work todo. After staying up late try-ing to work on the project, Idecided to wake up early andfinish it. This was logical, es-pecially since I used to wakeup early to do homework. Butit is not something I will neverdo again; for me, waking upearly is like not waking up atall, or waking up and beinghigh on morphine (or whatI’ve heard it’s like).

Back then, I had no alarm

clock and had to use my watchto wake me up. I set the watchalarm and then taped it to theside of my head to be abso-lutely sure it would wake meup.

Being rudely awakened at3:30 a.m. with a terrible beep-ing in my ear, I began work-ing on the project. I failed mis-erably and took a day off fromschool to finish, which Ihaven’t done ever since. (I’msuch a good person.)

I finished the project andwent to school only to find outthat we could have requestedextensions if we wanted, andthat was pitiful; if I had knownit, I could have spent my timemore reasonably. Is there a les-son here? Possibly. (Actually,I just enjoy remembering the

time I taped a watch to myhead. I think that’s prettyfunny.)

In high school, I routinelywrite papers the night beforethey’re due. Well, more thanroutinely, actually: I probablyhaven’t started a paper earlythis whole year. Literally.

This is simply a bad habit;it’s the way I work. The funnypart, though, is that I do it con-sciously. I say, “Well, I’ve gotfree time now that I could usewisely. No, that’s a bad idea.I’ll surf the web for threehours.”

At Pingry we get punishedfor tardiness, and that’s thegrand motivation. The schooljustifies its tardiness policiesby saying that they’re prepar-ing us for higher-level work

environments. Deadlines aredeadlines, they say; if youdon’t meet deadlines, you willbe summarily assassinated.

To those justifiers, I proudlyuse a friend of mine as an ex-ample. He’s a post-graduatestudent who has to write longpapers (40, 50, 60 pages rou-tinely), and he often hands themin months late with no penalty!Why doesn’t he get penalizedfor grossly late work?

At the Lower School, latework was severely penalized.At the Upper Campus, it’s rea-sonably penalized, and ingraduate school it’s apparentlyno big deal. So, you see, thewhole concept of worldlypreparation and the sense ofresponsibility that Pingry is sohappy to instill in us may be

falsely placed.Besides, even if you do get

to a place with non-negotiabledeadlines, you’ll probablyhave much more free timethan we do as high school stu-dents. You’ll also have theability to set your own hours.In other words, won’t thosedeadlines be more reasonable?

To conclude, I love makingridiculously garish claims thatI falsely support with oneflimsy piece of evidence. Pro-crastination should be re-warded with higher, not lower,grades on assignments, sinceprocrastination is a sign of realworldliness and humanity.

And by the way: never, everread my column or use it forany other purpose thankindling.

Dr. Susan Dineen

ducted readings and work-shops in the faculty loungeduring periods 3, 4, and 6.

In addition to the fictionworkshop running, two poetryworkshops were held duringsixth period and conferenceperiod. Some students tunedalready written poems.

In Matthew Zapruder’sworkshop, students wereasked to imagine a memorythey would like to write aboutor to respond to a line frompoem and then write their ownpoems from the given line.

In addition to the work-shops, students had a chanceto share their poetry at an openmic in the library. As prom-ised, there were cookiesserved.

To celebrate National Po-etry Month, the poetry festi-val is now culminating in thewriting contest that is held bythe Justin Society each year.

As Mike Stuzynski (IV)says of the Poetry Festival, “Itrocked.”

Relaxing after a long day of poeticizing.

THE PINGRY RECORD • MAY 2003

5

BY ELYSE FELDMAN (IV)Record: How long have

you been working at Pingry?Nancy: Well, this is my

twentieth year here. Yup, I’vebeen here for a loooong time.

Record: What positionshave you held here?

Nancy: I worked at thebookstore and then I startedgetting involved with bustransportation. Then I workedin the office handling ac-counts. But, now I’m doingtransportation and the book-store.

Record: Wow, so you’vebeen involved with Pingry inseveral fields. What’s the mostenjoyable aspect about yourjob?

Nancy: I love the kids, thefaculty, and staff. I find Pingrystudents to be so friendly andsociable. One thing I pridemyself with is that I know al-most everyone’s name. Whenthe kids walk by, I try to makeeye contact and give them allhellos. Everyone alwayssmiles or at least stops by for

a pretzel (laughing)Record: I know you have

been offering pretzels, lolli-pops, or other snacks outsidethe bookstore for students.How long have you been do-ing that?

Nancy: I had a snack barwhen the bookstore was in thearea, so I’ve been doing thatfor a while. I just think it is anice thing to do. It is great aslong as the kids take snacksaccordingly (laughing). In thenew bookstore, we fortunatelyhave the snack shack again.

Record: The book storeyou had for the past five yearswas so small. Was it difficultto adjust to being in such asmall room?

Nancy: Truthfully, it wastough. Most people didn’t ex-actly realize how much stuffwe had in there; there wasn’ttoo much activity. The smellof the food from the cafeteriaand the faint sound of foot-steps made it feel like a hos-pital, but I still got to see thestudents, which was great.

Record: Are you still ex-cited about the the new store?

Nancy: I love it! It’s somuch larger with lots of win-dows.

Record: I also know thatyou post the Star-Ledger onyour bulletin board every daywith Pingry students’ sportsachievements highlighted.When did that tradition start?

Nancy: I think it’s nice forstudents to see other students’accomplishments. I actuallyhad those posted in the oldbookstore too.

Record: How long does ittake you to highlight all thatanyway?

Nancy: (Laughing). Itdoesn’t take me too long.About 10-15 minutes in themornings.

Record: Are you a bigsports fan yourself?

Nancy: I am. I love theMets—huge Mets fan. I alsolike the Jets, but I am very dis-appointed in how their seasonwent. I love golf, whether itinvolves being a spectator or

Q&A: Queen of the BookstoreAn Interview with Nancy Wojnar

player. I also enjoy walkingearly in the morning for acouple miles. I love watchingPingry swimming and waterpolo—very difficult sports.

Record: I understandyou’ve been involved in sev-eral charities?

Nancy: Yes, I did the walkfor breast cancer. I went witha friend whose husband is asurvivor. It was three days and58 miles. I was happy to re-ceive donations ranging from$5 to $500. In total, I endedup raising $7,900. It was verydifficult to prepare for, though,because I had to train by walk-ing eleven to twelve miles. Itwas worth every step though;it was a great experience.

Record: What do you feelis your greatest accomplish-ment?

Nancy: I would have to saymy children and my grand-children are my greatest ac-complishments.

Record: Any last words?Nancy: I love Pingry- I

won’t be retiring soon.

ALL ABOUT ROBERTBY DAVID SPETT (V)

On February 10, we elected bongo playerextraordinaire Robert Zacharias the next presi-dent of the student body. The Record set outto interview Robert, soon to be the most pow-erful student in the school, on what he envi-sions for the year to come.

Record: What is your experience on stu-dent government?

Robert: I’ve been on student council atPingry ever since sixth grade, when I waspresident of Señora Carr ’s illustrioushomeroom. I was class president last year andthis year, and I’ve been class treasurer for twoyears as well.

Record: And what changes did you af-fect in those years?

Rob: Last year, I proposed a bill to amendthe student government Constitution to allowtime for questions after the student body presi-dential candidates’ speeches. I organized ouradvisor recycling program at the beginning oflast year, though it wasn’t a big deal. I workedearly this year to have the Student NetworkAgreement modified so that it was fairer tothe students. What I’ve spent the most timeon, though, is making your student ID’s.

Record: What was your campaign plat-form?

Rob: I didn’t want to have an official plat-form. Overall, I think I had a few main ideas.The first was to institute referenda to estab-lish more contact between students and theadministration. I think our administration canbe kind of secretive, and I want to change that.I don’t mean to be offensive—I think that’sthe natural tendency of people in power, and Idon’t blame them for it. But all the same, stu-dents and teachers need to resist that tendencyand make the administration show their cards.We need better communication to get better

results. I also want to encourage greater coor-dination between the middle school and upperschool student governments to give the middleschoolers a greater voice in the school.

Record: Why do you think you won theelection?

Rob: Probably a miscount. I actually don’tknow, to answer your question. I think I in-creased my own school-wide visibility in myweirdo campaign. That helped a lot, I think,because it probably kept me on people’s minds.

Record: So explain your posters to me.Rob: Yeah, they were weird. I guess wanted

to give the impression of being able to go tostupid lengths to do things. I kind of tauntedmyself and the whole process with them. Halfthe point of those posters was to make people

laugh, but I also obviously wanted to encour-age people to vote for me. Every candidate hashis own way of doing stuff, and it’s all valid.Some are serious, others joke around. It’s apersonal decision, and I guess my posters sort

of express my personality more or less.Record: Everyone seems to have goals for

SAC. Do you?Rob: Of course I’d love to get SAC back to

the place it used to be, but there are obviouslysome major problems with the way it was put“back on track” this year (but not really). Iguess more emphasis on all-school meetingscould help that, but the key, I think, lies morein advertising SAC to encourage more partici-pation.

Record: What do you think about the roleof student government in the community?

Rob: Student government has become sortof a shadow organization. I’d like us to havegreater visibility. I wish I could get morepeople interested in it, because it seems thatmost people think of us now as a dance orga-nizer—and we are. But we do other things too,and I wish there were more student interest inthose other things because that would improveour results as well as students’ satisfaction withus. At one of my friend’s schools, they calltheir student government “self-government,”which I think is really cool because that is,after all, the purpose of student government—to elect representatives to serve and governthemselves. I would be very happy if we couldbe seen as an organization for and of the stu-dents, rather than one that’s sort of a foreignentity, which I think is what we are

Record: Okay, now tell me this: what’sup with the bongos?

Rob: I hope people took them as a joke. Iguess I just wanted to stand out. I wanted toplay a musical instrument and the bongos werethe only thing I could carry and the only thingI’m any good at, not that I’m a great bongoplayer or anything. But yeah, that was fun. Atleast for me—maybe not as much fun for thepeople who had to listen.

OP-EDS C H O O L N E W S

THE PINGRY RECORD • MAY 2003

6

BY DAVID SPETT (V)Some parents were probably sur-

prised to see that next year’s tuitionis increasing by a larger margin thanusual. Upper School tuition is cur-rently $19,405, but next year it willbe $21,100. Only one year ago, itwas $18,215. “We haven’t had a tu-ition increase like this since 1991,”Headmaster John Neiswender says.

The Headmaster feels that the in-crease is necessary because theschool’s income is projected to besignificantly lower next year. “Aneconomy affects a school just like itaffects people’s own pocketbooks,”he explains.

Mr. Neiswender notes that therewill also be higher expenses nextyear for insurance, maintenance, andother fixed items. Some of thosecosts are due to the opening of thenew Academic Arts Center.

“I can’t get into exactly whatthose are, but any time you add42,000 square feet of space, there aregoing to be additional costs,” hesays. According to the headmaster,the average tuition increase next yearwill be about 9.5%. The high schoolincrease is approximately 8.7%, andthe kindergarten through second

grade increase is approxi-mately13.4%.

“Rather than a flat, across-the-board tuition increase, we’re tryingto bridge the gaps between thegrades,” he says. “We don’t wantsuch a big spread between kindergar-

ten tuition and high school tuition.”Although the school now has fivetuition levels, Mr. Neiswender envi-sions only three levels in futureyears.

According to the headmaster, thelost revenue and increased expenses

account for about 5% of the tuitionincreases. The rest of the increasewill result from faculty salary in-creases. “Next year we will finish ourinitiative to make faculty salaries thehighest of any independent dayschool in New Jersey,” Mr.Neiswender says. “Our salaries willalso be competitive with local pub-lic schools’.”

The headmaster stresses the im-portance of high faculty salaries, say-ing, “A commitment to the faculty isa commitment to our students.” Headds that departmental budgets willbe kept flat next year, with a fewdepartments possibly seeing cuts. Noadditional personnel will be hired,either.

Despite last year’s rather sizeable6.5% tuition increase, Mr.Neiswender hopes that future in-creases will be smaller. “We decidedto make one big tuition increase andthen return to normal rather thanhave three years of higher than nor-mal increases.”

This year, the headmaster says,our tuition is fifth highest among in-dependent schools in the state. Nextyear, he predicts it will be the thirdor fourth highest.

Tuition on the Rise Again

DISCOVERY CHANNELDISCOVERS PINGRY

When asked if any students mightwithdraw from Pingry because of thetuition increases, Mr. Neiswendersaid, “I hope not!”

He notes that, as always, financialaid will be available on a “need ba-sis. We want anyone able to benefitfrom a Pingry education to have one,and we’d like to reach out to peoplewho need help.” He encourages par-ents in need of financial aid to con-tact Business Manager John Pratt.

He is confident that despite in-creased costs there is adequatemoney put aside for the financial aidprogram. In fact, he says, “we arevery generous but we never com-pletely use up our financial aidmoney every year.” Although someapplications are rejected, rejectionsonly occur because people do notmeet the “need basis.”

Mr. Neiswender believes that “theBoard will be happy to increase fi-nancial aid money should we everneed more. At this stage, we don’tneed it.”

On a happier note, the headmasteradds, “It’s been 12 years since we’vehad this big an increase, and I hope itwon’t happen again for another 12years. But don’t hold me to it!”

Kristin Kicenuik (VI)

Susannah Bragg (V)

BY DAVID SPETT (V)If you’ve kept your eyes open

lately, you’ve probably noticed a lotof film crews lurking in the hallsduring Conference Period and afterschool. The crews are filming a newtelevision show called “AssignmentDiscovery” that will air on the Dis-covery Channel this September.

Students have been invited to takepart in a variety of roles on the edu-cational show, and a meeting washeld on March 25 for all those inter-ested. Ms. Jill Alexander, director ofcommunications, explains that par-ticipation in the filming is entirelyvoluntary.

Each episode of “Assignment Dis-covery” will focus on an educationalsubject. Interested students will ex-plain, on camera, what activities aregoing on in class, and they will beasked to relate what they learn toeveryday life.

The company producing the pro-gram, Tapestry International, givesnumerous hypothetical examples ofepisodes. One episode on polymers,it says, might feature middle schoolstudents testing physical and chemi-cal properties of various objects.Then the students would be inter-viewed and asked if they could “putwhat they learned into action.”

Melissa Tyson (V)

Students practice throwing paper airplanes at thecamera.

Film crews have been interviewing a number of studentsaround the school.

The episodes will focus mainly onworld history, geography, and middleschool science. According to Ms.Alexander, “Some students will bein a classroom situation, some willbe given scripted reactions to the ma-terial, and some will be narrating thevarious segments.”

Tapestry International won anAcademy Award in 2000 for a docu-mentary entitled “King Gimp.” Thecompany says its shows feature a“unique blend of marketing savvyand production creativity,” and addsthat “Assignment Discovery” willreceive “high profile national expo-sure in both the educational commu-

nity and the television industry.”The show will be filmed entirely

at Pingry, and the process is expectedto take until the end of the year. Tap-estry explains that it was looking fora school with “technology, teachingexcellence, and a diverse studentbody. Immediately, Pingry Schoolcame to mind.”

Although the administration origi-nally hoped that the filming wouldtake place after school to prevent anydisruption, it turned out that moretime during the school day would beneeded. Ms. Alexander notes,though, that students may not missclasses for the filming. “We are still

treating this as an after-school club,”she explains.

She mentions that the school wentahead with Tapestry’s proposal be-cause it “offered a very advantageouspackage, including working aroundour schedule and involving our stu-dents and faculty in the productionand development of the show.” Sheadds that Tapestry “will be making adonation to the school.”

After the filming is complete,“Assignment Discovery” is expectedto debut on the Discovery Channelfrom 9-10 a.m. on September 8. Itwill continue every weekday for theremainder of the school year.

THE PINGRY RECORD • MAY 2003

7

BY DAVID SPETT (V)& K ATIE SUCHOW (V)

This year’s annual blood drivewas held in the old Multi-PurposeRoom on Thursday, March 6. Runand staffed by the Blood Center ofNew Jersey, the drive began at 8 a.m.but ended less than two hours laterbecause of an early snow dismissal.

In the two hours, only 21 peoplegave blood. 11 others signed up butwere not permitted to donate, eitherbecause of a health concern or be-cause they did not eat breakfast. Ofthe 21 donors, 12 were faculty mem-bers and 11 were giving blood for thefirst time.

School nurse Joanne Childs is dis-appointed by the low turnout. “Wedon’t have enough donors, and Idon’t know why,” she says. “Givingblood means taking only a smallamount of time to help the commu-nity.”

Last year’s turnout was poor, too:there was a full day for donating, butonly 39 people gave blood. Six oth-ers were turned away. Before lastyear, Mrs. Childs notes, attendancehad been better, and according to theblood center, other schools of oursize typically donate more blood.

Upon arrival in the Multi-PurposeRoom, prospective donors wereasked to fill out a registration form.Next, they underwent a finger prickto briefly test their blood, and thenthey were asked several questionsabout their health histories. After allthis came the actual blood donation,and after that, the best part of all: freefood and a surprise present!

The process usually takes no morethan 20-25 minutes and is mostlypainless. Students giving blood wereexcused from any classes they hadto miss. Though blood donors should

GETTING BLOODFROM A STONE

BY JANE SAWYER (VI)Twenty-four alumni returned to

Martinsville on January 24 to speakto the senior class about their careerpaths since high school.

Organized and sponsored by theAlumni Association and organizedby the Development Office, thisyear’s fifth annual Career Day in-volved speakers from a wide varietyof occupations. The day began withthe seniors gathering in the audito-rium to listen to keynote speaker

Seniors GetCareer Taster

David Gernert’s comments on his jobas a literary agent for author JohnGrisham. Mr. Gernert described howhe became involved in the mediafield after college because of his loveof books, music, and movies. Whenone is successful, he emphasized, “acareer is not a job, but a lifestyle.”

After the keynote, seniors at-tended three different 45-minute ses-sions with alumni in locations aroundthe school. Students had previouslychosen which of the 11 availableoccupational fields they were mostinterested in and received a sched-ule detailing the location and time ofeach meeting.

Choices included sports, engineer-ing, education, fine arts, medicine,advertising, investment banking, law,media, behavioral medicine, andtechnology. The alumni representingeach field determined the activitiesof their different sessions.

At the marketing discussion, forexample, samples of food werepassed around, while the technology

meeting featured physical examplesof different phone cords.

Mr. Corvino and Ms. Yorke, bothPingry graduates and current Pingryteachers, spoke about their experi-ences in the field of education.

Overall, the senior class enjoyedCareer Day. “It was informative andinteresting to learn about variouscareers that I might explore after col-lege,” Ashley Cohen remarked.

Jennifer Wu enjoyed the personalexperience the speakers brought totheir presentations. One students saidshe enjoyed the day but suggested,“I wish we knew which sections wewere scheduled for in advance so wecould have more time to preparequestions for the speakers.”

This was the fifth year of CareerDay’s existence, and the Develop-ment office plans to offer the pro-gram again next year.

Dave Harris’s overall impressionof the event was that “it might nothave been life-changing, but at leastI’ve got a feel.”

not play sports or do anything strenu-ous for 24 hours, most experience noside effects.

Some faculty members take partin an informal blood-donating “race”to see who can lose a pint of bloodthe fastest. This year, Mr. Rohdiewon with a time of five minutes. Dr.Macrae and Ms. Boisvert were veryclose behind.

Barbra McDonald, Blood Centerstaff team leader, gave a big thankyou to the 21 people who gave blood.“It was good to see an enthusiasticresponse from young people,” shesaid.

Mrs. Childs notes that New Jer-sey is always in a blood shortage andthat anyone 17 years of age or oldercan donate without parental consent.She calls giving blood “going aboveand beyond to save a life” and hopesthat more people will donate in fu-ture years.

BY JAMES SOMERS (IV)With winter setting in, exhausted

and overworked sophomores andjuniors packed up their books, loadedinto buses, and traveled toWilliamsburg and Boston from Feb-ruary 28 to March 2.

This was the sophomores’ first tripto Williamsburg; in past years, theywent to Washington, D.C. Their tran-sit was relatively uneventful, al-though student Robert Trangucci(IV) complained that “there was re-ally nothing to do, the toilets wereclogged, and oh yeah, the VCRs werebroken, so we couldn’t watch ‘SpaceBalls.’” The trip improved, though,and Robby said, “The seafood wasreally good.”

Another student speaking anony-mously raved, “Touring the NavalAcademy was a fascinating experi-ence.” However, the cold weathermade the educational facets of thetrip more difficult, and the depth of

the whole experience was limited.Williamsburg did provide a uniqueatmosphere, though, for students tointeract with teachers in a differentsetting and atmosphere. Even thoughsome students did not appreciate thetrip, it did serve as both a bondingexperience and a history lesson.

Boston was perhaps a more col-orful experience for the juniors.Some claimed that the trip lackededucational value, but that the prob-lem was solved with plenty of freetime and enjoyable entertainment.

The juniors enjoyed being letloose on Harvard Square, where theycould shop, explore, or just relax andexperience the scenery. They spenttheir nights going out to restaurantsand watching plays and perfor-mances. On Friday night, “Tubes” byBlue Man Group proved to be morefun than some had expected.

Trip Coordinator Mrs. Joan Hearstreflected on the trip with a smile, re-

A WEEKEND AWAYSophomores and Juniors Take Annual Trips

calling great moments of the week-end. “There was so much energy,there was great humor, and there wasgood music.” She also noted that theatmosphere of the trip allowed thestudents to “get to know the facultyon a different level.”

The fun activities in Boston werenot balanced with historically edu-cating experiences, but Mrs. Hearstsays she will change this facet of thetrip next year. Noting the lacklustertrolley tour, she suggested that someother activity might give students amore real sense of what Boston hasto offer.

Both trips had unique pros andcons, but the most important aspectof them was that students were givena chance to relax with friends andfaculty they might not otherwise in-teract with. With changes planned,more history and more fun can beexpected on these trips next year.

Mr. Bratek

Mr. Bratek

Mr. David Giarrusso is in good spir-its after donating blood.Alumni came back to Pingry to share their career wisdom with the senior

class.

David Gerner relates his experi-ences working for John Grisham.

Mrs. Joan Hearst

Junior boys kick back at the Hard Rock Cafe in Boston.

David Spett (V)

THE PINGRY RECORD • MAY 2003

8

CENTER SPREAD

BY DAVID SPETT (V)The new, $12.3 million Academic

Arts Center isn’t just a nice build-ing—it’s chock-full of technologyand high-tech gadgets. According toDirector of Facilities Mr. MichaelVirzi, “It is second to none amongour peer schools.”

On the bottom floor, there are sixsound-isolated practice rooms. Thereare also three large, “acoustically-correct” music rooms outfitted withrecorders, tape decks, microphones,and speakers for playback.

All the recording equipment iswired to a MIDI recorder room. Al-though the room has no equipmentyet, Mr. Virzi explains that “we’veallowed for it to be modified andexpanded in the future.”

The middle floor features a state-of-the-art theater that Mr. Virzi calls“on par with any professional re-gional theater.” It features a modernprojection system in the lightingbooth with a touch screen control.“It’s just like being at a bank,” ex-plains the facilities director. “Kidscan come and plug in a laptop with-out having to wheel a projectioncart.”

The theater also features highquality lighting racks that can be eas-ily expanded and upgraded in the

Loaded with Technology

ARTS CENTER AR

coming years.Also on the middle floor is the all-

new board room. Although it is gen-erally closed to students and faculty,Mr. Neiswender will be using it tomeet with the Board of Trustees and

the administration.The room will also be home to

alumni meetings and PSPA meetings.According to Mr. Virzi, “There wasnever a place in the school for thesegroups to meet without botheringother students and faculty.”

The room is equipped with a largewooden table and 22 leather chairs.The table, rumored to cost over$18,000, features pop-up power out-lets and Ethernet plugs. Although itsexact cost is confidential, Mr. Virzisays that the table “was actually abargain” and that the $18,000 figureis only a rumor.

Besides Ethernet ports, the boardroom also has wireless Internet ac-cess. “We’re not sure there’s anyneed for it,” explains Mr. Virzi, “butit was relatively inexpensive so wedecided to get it.” Audio/visualequipment is being considered andmay be added soon.

The board room also includes akitchenette with a sink, numerous

cabinets, and a refrigerator. The cabi-nets contain a full plate and silver-ware set, and there is a buffet tablein the main room for the board mem-bers to get their food. According toMr. Virzi, “The room is always readyfor whatever meeting has to happen.”

Next to the kitchenette is a smalllibrary that may soon house some ofthe school’s antique books, such asDr. Pingry’s favorite bible.

The middle floor also includes agallery that will showcase students’art projects. The gallery has a fancydimming system for Mr. Boyd, theart department head, to control theambiance in the room.

Also on the middle floor is thecritique room, which has a projec-tion system that is similar to, al-though slightly smaller than, thetheater’s. The room also has DVD,VCR, satellite, and network hook-ups.

On the top floor of the building,the art rooms have several new

Macintosh G4 computers as well asprinters and scanners. The comput-ers are fully loaded with new soft-ware, and each has a flat LCD moni-tor to save space.

A projection screen in the front ofeach room is linked to satellite tele-vision as well as VCRs and DVDplayers. The rooms also havedimmable track lighting.

The new dance studio on the toplevel features a special sprung floorfor dancing. The room is outfittedwith its own sound system, whichincludes a CD player, tape player,and speakers in the ceiling.

Mr. Virzi explains that all of theart center’s integrated technologyeliminates the need for anythingmobile. “We were able to put everypiece of technology the departmentheads requested in the rooms,” hesays.

The facilities director explainsthat the building’s construction totalwas only $9 million, but that vari-ous other planning, legal, and man-agement costs brought the final pricetag to $12.3 million. “We were prettygood at keeping within the budget,”he explains.

In fact, according to Mr. Virzi,great efforts were made to savemoney and keep costs down. He saysthat the original estimate for the pro-jection system in the theater was over$115,000, but the school shoppedaround and found one at less than athird of that price.

Mr. Virzi adds that most of thebuilding’s furniture was purchasedfrom a store called Shanahan’s,which offers “very reasonableprices.”

The only thing that the $12.3 mil-lion didn’t pay for was bathrooms.There are two small, one-personrestrooms on the bottom floor, butplans for more, larger ones had to becanceled. According to Mr. Virzi, theschool decided to forego the bath-rooms to make it clear to the certifi-cation board that Pingry’s enrollmentwould not be increasing.

THE KIDS IN THE HALL SPEAK OUT

Brad Zanoni (II)“Probably the dance studio,

because that’s all I’ve been in.”

Ben Rosenthal (IV)“The sound-proof music

rooms.”

Francesca Bacardi (I)“The new art studios. They’re

bigger.”

BY REBECCA SPEISER (V) AND SUSANNAH BRAGG (V)

Adam Goldstein (III)“The clay room because it’s the

only room I use regularly.”

The cast of the Middle School play rehearses for “Alice in Wonderland” in the Macrae Theater.

This table was rumored to cost $18,000.

C E N T E R S P R E A D

THE PINGRY RECORD • MAY 2003

9

BY SUSANNAH BRAGG (V)On the first day back from spring

break, faculty and students gatheredto celebrate the opening of theschool’s brand new and long-antici-pated arts wing. Mr. Al Romano, Dr.Andrew Moore, and Mr. Miles Boyd,department heads of drama, music,and fine arts, respectively, joined to-gether to cut the blue ribbon on theoutside of the building.

Headmaster Mr. John Neiswenderrecalls, “What really made the dayfor me was the wonderful receptionthe facility received from our stu-dents and faculty—I was sure thenthat all the hard work and the longwait were well worth the effort!”

The arts center, covering 42,000square feet and sporting a final pricetag of $12.3 million, came nowherenear its projected completion date ofAugust 2002. Still, faculty and stu-dents alike are thrilled and impressedwith the new facilities.

“The kind of program we offer atPingry in the arts deserves the kindof space we have built,” says Mr.Neiswender. “It serves as a clear

RRIVES AT LAST!

Community Adjusts to New Wingdemonstration of the value we placeon the arts at Pingry. I think this fa-cility is second to none in the worldof independent schools and com-pares favorably with many collegefacilities.”

Fine Arts teachers are delighted tomake use of spacious new roomsfilled with windows. Mrs. JaneEdwards, who teaches 7th and 8thgrade art as well as two periods of

Art Fundamentals, notes that “thenatural light is so usable, we don’teven have to turn on the lights.” Shealso loves the “setup and the acces-sibility of the supplies. There is amuch better flow to the whole room.”

Sonam Sharma (V), who takespainting, explains that the new artrooms have “a lot more space and anice breeze. They are less crowded,prettier, and generally more condu-

cive to creativity.”The Music Department is equally

excited to have practice rooms largeenough to fit groups such as the gleeclub and orchestra. Mrs. JenniferRunge says that “just this week wehad a combined rehearsal for the en-tire Women’s Glee Club in our cho-rus room, something we’ve neverbeen able to do before. It’s reallynice to be able to put all the piecestogether.” Glee Club member CaitlinBergh (V) agrees that the Women’sGlee Club room is “really spaciousand has great acoustics.”

Liz Sebesky (IV) feels that “thenew practice rooms are even morestate-of-the-art than ones in college-level conservatories. In the new or-chestra room, you can hear everyindividual playing and the sound ismuch bigger.”

According to Mr. Romano, headof the Drama Department, “ Thereare still technical aspects of the the-ater that are not completed, but wheneverything is finished and we alllearn how to use the new equipment,The new theater space will offer

some exciting staging challenges. Wewill know more about strengths andweaknesses as we do more perfor-mances there.”

As soon as he moved some of hisdrama classes in to practice sceneshe realized, “it is a great space forscene study work.” Mr. Romanoadds that “the dance studio is won-derful. All those students who takedance in the ‘outside world’ shouldconsider joining a dance class tomake use of this ‘in school’ studio.”

Lauren Miller (V), a cast memberin the senior play “Our Town,” foundit refreshing to “finally be in a realtheater” instead of the school’s largeauditorium. “It was great to be open-ing the new space, but it’s also kindof sad that we won’t be able t,

Mr. Neiwender sums up: “It is allquite exciting, from the art class-rooms with the wonderful naturallight, to the first permanent dancespace, the art gallery, the theater, andthe massive music rooms. It all ex-cites me—even more so now that Isee students taking advantage of ev-erything the new center has to offer!”

Ashley Jackson (V)“The Men’s Glee Club room”

Andy Schlesinger (V)“The practice rooms. They’re

quiet and dark.”

Elan DiMaio (VI)“The catwalks. I just love

catwalks.”

Mikasha Edwards-White (VI)

“Air-conditioning.”

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART OF THE NEW ARTS CENTER?

Left to Right: The outside of the new wing is designed to fade to match the green color of the rest ofthe building; the dance studio features springy floors and full-length mirror; the glee club roomcan finally fit the entire chorus at once.

Art teachers are excited about the natural light in the new drafting room.

All Arts Center Photosby Susannah Bragg (V)

THE PINGRY RECORD • MAY 2003

10

THE HALLS ARE ALIVEBY CAITLIN BERGH (V)

“The Sound of Music,” amusical based on a true story,emphasizes the importance ofcourage, music, and laughter,especially in a time of war. OnFebruary 20, 21, and 22, adedicated cast of Pingry stu-dents delighted packed houseswith their rendition of the play.

The first scene opens inSalzburg Abbey where severalof the nuns are having diffi-culty with a particular youngpostulant, Maria, played byjunior Alex Holland. AfterMaria’s repeated mistakes,Mother Abbess (YvetteZimering, VI) decides Mariais unfit for life as a nun andsends her to the home of Cap-tain von Trapp (Ben Grant,VI), where she will be the gov-erness for his seven childrenuntil September.

Maria, though reluctant toleave her life at the Abbey,awkwardly takes on her newposition as governess. Thechildren, except for the eldest,Liesl (Susannah Bragg, V),take an almost immediate lik-ing to their new governess.

Soon Maria teaches the chil-dren to sing, bringing musicback into the Von Trapphousehold for the first timesince the Captain’s wife died.She and Liesl even becomefriends.

However, when Maria

finds herself falling in lovewith the Captain, who is soonto be engaged to the BaronessSchraeder (Anne Kroeger,VI), Maria escapes to the ab-bey. Mother Abbess soon con-vinces Maria to return in theAct One Finale “Climb Every

Mountain,” and Maria and theCaptain are eventually mar-ried.

While they are on their hon-eymoon, family friend MaxDetweiler (Steven Horowitz,V) arranges for the children tosing at an upcoming festival.Meanwhile, the threat of Nazidomination of Austria is im-minent.

Captain von Trapp, uponhis return home, faces ordersto serve in the Naval forces ofthe third Reich.

After a suspenseful and dra-matic escape from the singingfestival, we are left with theimage of the nine Von Trappsclimbing the mountains onfoot into the distance.

The cast, set and lightingcrew, stage manager JenniferZoephel (VI), and directorStephanie Romankow, rose tothe challenge of bringing sucha well-known and well-lovedproduction to the Pingry stage.Junior Zach Schuman said, “Ifyou didn’t see it, you missed

out.” Marisa LaValette (V)agreed. “The quality of thesinging was amazing and ev-eryone was really talented,”she said. Favorite songs suchas “Do-Re-Mi,” “My Favor-ite Things,” and “Edelweiss”

were highlights of the show.The cast also enjoyed

working on the musical. AndySchlesinger, who played theyoungest Von Trapp boy,Kurt, said “there are no wordsto express how much I en-joyed being in the produc-tion.” Steven Horowitz en-thused, “the play was verysuccessful.

Everyone in the play knewhow to make the experiencegood for each other, and wewere like a big family.”

Susannah Bragg was im-pressed by the incredible turn-out: “Friday night was reallyamazing because there wereabsolutely no seats in the au-ditorium. People were sittingon the balcony and floor. Itgave the play a really greatenergy.”

Alex Holland summed up

the experience for many of thecast and crew: “It was one ofthe best experiences of mylife, everybody in it was sogreat, and it would have beennothing without everyone’shard work.”

Dancing the Night AwayBY EDWARD BARSAMIAN (VI)

& SUSANNAH BRAGG (V)This year’s Community

Service Club–sponsored Inter-generational Prom was as dy-namic as ever. The theme,

Passport to Pingry, incorpo-rated elements of foreign cul-ture into the evening from thefood to the music and dancing.

The club felt that at thistime, the global climate was so

tense, that to create a unityamong all cultures and civili-zations would be uplifting andbeneficial to their guests.

The guests for the eveningwere from a local retirementcommunity, and although thisyear’s invite list was consid-erably smaller, it made for amore intimate atmosphere.The guests and their studenthosts began the evening by sit-ting down to eat dinner andgetting to know each other. Asthe night progressed, it wasfilled with dancing and enjoy-ment for everyone involved.

Various students providedentertainment that kept withthe multicultural theme. TheBalladeers started off the nightsinging two African songs:

“Siyahamba” and “Living in aHoly City.” The Buttown-downs then performed “ComeGo with Me,” “Moondance,”and “Up the Ladder to theRoof,” during which senior J.T. Burgess briefly serenaded awoman in the audience whowas having a birthday.

Next came Suruchi Ahuja(IV) showcasing her talents attraditional Indian dance muchlike the one she performed atthe school’s multicultural as-sembly earlier in the year. JeffCox (V) and Jacquie O’Con-nor (IV) then gave the audi-ence a taste of salsa dancing.

Dana Zolli, one of the stu-dent hosts and secretary of theCommunity Service Club,says that it was “an event that

I looked forward to all spring,and it turned out wonder-fully.”

The culmination of theevening came in the crowningof the king and queen of the

Maggie Oberrender (VI)Maggie Oberrender (VI)

Student hosts dine with guests from a local retirement home.I said a hip hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop ayou don’t stop...

prom, two of the guests whothen share a dance together.According to Zolli, “thewoman chosen as prom queenwas so moved that she hadtears in her eyes.”

The Van Trapp family belts out the showstopper“Do-Re-Mi.”

“How DO you solve a problem like Maria?”

Ain’t love grand?

Mrs. Stockwell

Mrs. Stockwell

Mrs. Stockwell

OP-EDS C H O O L N E W S

THE PINGRY RECORD • MAY 2003

11

BY SUSANNAH BRAGG (VI)Mark Watson, a voice

teacher at Pingry since 1999,is currently involved inlaunching a new organizationencouraging young people toraise money for pediatric heartsurgeries in India.

The charity, named HeartsAcross the Ocean, aims to getAmerican kids and teenagersto help in whatever ways theirtalents allow. Through variousprojects, young people cansponsor operations for chil-dren with heart defects at theAmrita Institute of MedialScience (AIMS) Hospital inKerala, India.

The heart pediatric depart-ment at AIMS has performedover 2500 procedures in thefirst three and a half years ofits existence. “Several yearsago there were only eight pe-diatric heart surgeons in In-dia—a country of over 900million people,” says Mr.Watson.

“In the state of Kerala thereare more than 40,000 childrenwith heart defects. Proceduresavailable in the West wereimpossible to get in India. Thewaiting lists were six to sevenyears long, and many familiesdid not even try because thecost of operations was sohigh.”

Every $2,500 raised covers

Voice Teacher Starts CharityFor Heart Surgery in India

came to Mr. Watson when hevisited the AIMS Hospital lastAugust and was “over-whelmed by the hospital—theway it was built (both its in-novative design and the waythe community was involved),the atmosphere there, and thespirit of the workers.” He ex-plains that volunteers literallybuilt the hospital, made thebricks, created factories tobuild furniture, and carved thewood. Locals even dismantledcrates containing equipmentand imaginatively used thewood to make an impressivemeeting room.

Pingry students, possiblyon both campuses, are plan-ning a dress down day for May16. There will be cards avail-able so that students can writeletters or draw pictures to sendto children receiving opera-tions. Mr. Watson has alsoasked several talented Pingryinstrumentalists to participatein a benefit gala concert en-titled “Lasagna and LoveSongs” on June 22.

Young people can contrib-ute individually or in groups,and “Hearts Across theOcean” will keep track of alldonors and give them infor-mation about the child theyhelped.

Its founders envision“Hearts Across the Ocean” as

an organization run primarilyby young people. According toMr. Watson, “each of us hasdifferent talents, different in-terests and therefore differentways to offer help.”

One of the best ways forstudents to help is throughwriting. The charity encour-ages people to draft proposalsand articles for news publica-tions and to send letters tobusiness community formatching donations and spon-sorship. For the artistically tal-ented, there is a competitionfor the design of an originallogo. People can also contrib-ute items to sell at street fairsor school fairs, photograph orfilm events, help create a webpage, make donations, or takeon more organizational roles.

“The driving philosophy

behind ‘Hearts Across theOcean,’” says Mr. Watson, “isthe idea that if each of us doesone small thing, we can makea difference in the world. 25kids raising $100 each … 50kids raising $50 each …100kids raising $25 each … liter-ally can change the life of an-other human being.”

Hearts Across the Oceancan by contacting by calling908 222-1889 or emailingHeartsacrosstheocean@yahoo.com. Tax-deductiblechecks should be made out to:St Mark’s Church (make sureto include “Hearts” or“Hearts Across the Ocean” inthe memo) and can be sent toSt Mark’s Episcopal Church,140 South Finley Ave, Bask-ing Ridge, NJ 07920.

Opportunities for Students to Help

We Care Because AmeriCares

the cost for an open-heart sur-gery and all necessary equip-ment, and as Mr. Watson adds,“it means one more child hasa chance to live.” Recently, theorganization raised enoughmoney for its first operationthrough a number of smallfundraisers and sent out acheck on Tuesday, March 18.

Mr. Watson has coachedtheater groups and taught atthe Paper Mill Playhouse. Hestudied opera at the JulliardSchool and in Europe, haswon prizes in internationalvoice competitions, and hasbeen working for the past fiveyears for the organization“Music for All Seasons,”

which presents interactiveconcerts for children’s hospi-tals, retirement and medicalfacilities, juvenile detentionfacilities, and prisons.

He is now studying musictherapy at Montclair StateUniversity and working threedays a week as an intern atBeth Israel Medical Center inNew York Center, where hehelps cancer patients and theterminally ill. He feels thatmusic is “ubiquitous, andpeople are not conscious of theways the pulse, brain waves,and heartbeat are affected orthe ways mood and concentra-tion may be subtly altered.”

The idea for Hearts first

A young child in India recovers from heart surgery.

BY CAROLINE SAVELLO (IV)Somewhere between the

anti-war rallies and the televi-sion pundits’ complaints, thereis common ground in everyAmerican’s opinion about thiswar: humanity.

Some people object to warbecause it could cause a hu-manitarian disaster, while warproponents defend OperationIraqi Freedom for its principalhumanitarian cause. Bothsides, despite their differingopinions, seem to be united bytheir chief concern for thewelfare of the Iraqi people.

However, in the days fol-lowing the start of war in Iraq,when we watched endlesshours of news coverage, myfamily was disappointed to seeno humanitarian action frompeople on either side of theargument.

While discussing theschool’s upcoming war forumover dinner one night, my par-ents suggested to my brotherAlex and me that we bring

Pingry’s opposing sides to-gether. They suggested wefind the common ground thatexists everywhere but is rarelyacknowledged. After a fewweb searches and phone calls,Operation AmeriCares began.

We e-mailed and called sev-eral international aid organiza-tions, including Mercy Corps,InterAction, Mercy Airlift In-ternational, the Red Cross, andAmeriCares, to ask if theycould use Pingry’s help. MercyAirlift International andAmeriCares were the only onesthat needed more than financialassistance. Both Mercy Airliftand AmeriCares were request-ing hygiene kits for refugees,but AmeriCares was already in-volved in refugee camps out-side the border of Iraq. Theywanted donations of backpackscontaining hygiene and comfortitems for Iraqi children.

Because AmeriCares re-quested only certain items forthe backpacks, we decided theproject would be perfect for

Pingry. Each grade could par-ticipate by bringing in one ofthe needed items.

After only three weeks,Pingry students amassed 32balls, 125 toothbrushes, 119toothpaste tubes, 124 bars ofsoap, 65 packages of babywipes, 59 shampoo bottles,and 88 hairbrushes and combs.

There were also nine back-pack donations.

The drive at the Short HillsCampus began almost threeweeks after it did here in Mar-tinsville. Despite the late start,the Lower Schoolers donated

39 coloring books, 48 pack-ages of markers, 41 bars ofsoap, 4 hairbrushes, and anamazing 130 stuffed animalsand Beanie Babies.

Time and resources werealso eagerly donated. Betweenmaking posters, designing andcopying flyers, stuffing mail-boxes, and collecting money

at the Operation AmeriCaresDress Down Day, dozens ofPingry students from allgrades volunteered their timefor our cause.

By day two of the project,we had a list of over 40 stu-

dents and faculty who wantedto get involved. Some con-tacted backpack companiesfor donations, some workedwith local supermarkets fordonations, and others helpedorganize the Dress Down Dayand Operation AmeriCaresPizza Day. The middleschoolers outdid themselves

with pizza that Friday — bythe end of C lunch, we had toplace three extra orders be-cause of the tremendous sales.

Though our biggest worryabout the project was the fi-nancial aspect, the donations

we have received are extraor-dinary. We have raised morethan enough money to buybackpacks, and we even haveextra money that will go to-wards blankets and other itemsthat are still in great need atrefugee settlements.

We ordered 75 backpacksfrom a wholesale distributor.The bags are monogrammedwith “PingryCares” — simplya new name for the spirit ofconcern and compassion thathas characterized Pingry foryears. Including donatedbackpacks, we hope to as-semble 85 complete backpackkits, many with enough tooth-brushes and toothpaste to giveto an entire family.

Before we hand the back-packs over to OperationAmeriCares so that they canbe distributed to the refugees,the 85 filled backpacks will bedisplayed in the Upper Com-mons. They are a true testa-ment to how much Pingry re-ally does care.

After only three weeks, Pingry students amassed32 balls, 125 toothbrushes, 119 toothpaste tubes,124 bars of soap, 65 packages of baby wipes, 59shampoo bottles, and 88 hairbrushes and combs.

THE PINGRY RECORD • MAY 2003

12

JENNIFER ZOEPHELWINS STIFEL AWARD

BY SONIA ALAM (VI)The much-anticipated

Cabaret Night 2003, whichtook place on March 5, was asure hit with its lineup of allBeatles songs.

The night is both a Commu-nity Service Club and Music

Department event and hasbeen a tradition at Pingry since1996. All of the proceeds fromthe concert are donated to aparticular charity that is voted

on during Community Ser-vice Club meetings. This yearthe ticket sales went to TheValarie Children’s CancerFund.

In preparation for theevent, the Pingry Jazz En-semble, headed by Mr.McAnally, practiced musicarranged for the band by bothoutside composers and Mr.McAnally himself. The bandmembers included Mr.Sluyter, Buzzy Cohen (VI),Mikasha Edwards-White(VI), Sonia Alam (VI), DavidSalz (VI), Jennifer Wu (VI),David Asch (V), AlexBregman(V),and DougEllwanger (V).

Also in the band were Ja-son Levinn (V), ZackSchuman (V), Sumeet Shah(V), Jack Zoephel (V), AdamFreedman (IV), AllisonKeeley (IV), Noah Keil (IV),Ben Rosenthal (IV), MikeStuzynski (IV), NathanBurgdorff (III), AnthonyFeenick (III), Park Smith(III), and Rob Tilson (III).

The vocalists were chosenthrough a very selective pro-cess and although all who au-ditioned sounded excellent,

Dr. Moore, Mrs. Runge, andMr. McAnally could onlychoose nine singers, each ofwhom chose his own song.The vocalists included seniorsEric Bergh singing “And ILove Her,” Stephanie DeVossinging “In My Life,” ElanDimaio singing “Girl,” ThorGrant singing “Lady Ma-donna,” Anne Kroeger singing“Can’t Buy Me Love,” DavidPage singing “Yesterday,”Sonia Alam singing “HereComes the Sun,” and YvetteZimmering singing “TheLong and Winding Road,” andjunior Susannah Bragg sing-ing “Eleanor Rigby.”

It is always a challenge tocreate the perfect atmospherefor each Cabaret Night at Pin-gry. Thankfully, the Commu-nity Serivce Club faculty ad-visor, Mrs. StephanieRomankov, makes sure that allfurniture and accessories arestored properly before thesetup for the event. Studentsfrom all forms sign up to helpwith setting up, waiting tables,and cleaning up for the con-cert.

The singers were giventheir music to learn on theirown or with voice teachers,and the jazz ensemble pre-pared the musical selectionswith Mr. McAnally beginningin mid-late February. How-ever, the band and each singerrehearsed together only twicebefore the actual performance.But, as always, the jazz en-semble managed to give a stel-lar performance, as did thesingers, despite their mere twoweeks of practice.

On listening to eachvocalist’s performancecomplemented and balancedwith the jazz band, Jane Saw-yer (VI), Community ServiceClub member, said, “It was

enjoyable to hear the perform-ers’ different interpretations ofthe familiar Beatles songs. Ialso enjoyed serving theguests because it was for a

good cause.”Cara Sogliuzzo (VI), a

waitress at the event, said, “Iloved listening to the vocalistsand the jazz band harmonize.The arrangements were awe-

some!”Mrs. Runge called the event

“wonderful” and remarkedthat “the band delivered Mr.McAnally’s sophisticated ar-

rangements with assured play-ing and flair. The soloistsbrought their individual per-sonalities to the belovedBeatles hits and made themtheir own.”

YEAH, YEAH, YEAH, YEAH!

BY JENNA WHITELEY (V)Sometimes special rewards

come to special people. Suchwas the case April 8, when theschool honored JenniferZoephel (VI) with the StifelAward during morning meet-ing.

At the start of the assembly,Dr. Macrae explained the ori-gin of the award named afterformer Pingry student HenryStifel, who was paralyzed in aserious car accident in 1982while still attending theschool.

Against all odds, Mr. Stifelgraduated with the rest of hisclass. The Stifel family,through the Stifel ParalysisResearch Foundation, cameup with the idea of giving anannual award to a member ofthe Pingry community “to ac-knowledge the honor andcommitment made by thePingry School to theFoundation’s goal of curingspinal cord paralysis.”

Henry Stifel has returned toPingry for the past seventeenyears to present this award todeserving Pingry students.Students who “bestexemplif[y] those characteris-tics exhibited by Henry Stifelin the aftermath of his acci-dent” are nominated by thefaculty to receive the award.“Courage, endurance, opti-mism, compassion, [and]spirit” are criteria that the fi-nal committee (consisting ofthe school nurse, school psy-chologists, division heads,

dean of students, and theheadmaster) use to chooseone recipient out of the restof the candidates.

Mr. Rohdie explained whyJenn is a perfect choice for theaward: She is an amazing andversatile achiever despite suf-

fering from ulcerative colitis.She is very active in theschool community, includingparticipating as Pingry’s headstage manager for severalyears, a member of the waterpolo and track and fieldteams, glee club singer, pho-tographer for the PingryBluebook, and much more.

Jenn has accomplished allthis in spite of the effects ofulcerative colitis. This dis-ease is a debilitating autoim-mune disorder affecting thecolon.

She has had to deal withmultiple flare-ups from thedisease, some caused by al-lergic reactions to the many

medications she has to take.She will have to take immune-suppressant drugs for the restof her life.

The teachers who nomi-nated her were full of praise.Dr. Dineen described her as an“incredibly bright” student

who makes people notice herintelligence and style morethan her condition. Dr. Dineensays that Jenn “reads vora-ciously, and has a mature sen-sitivity to nuance and subtlety.”Other faculty commented onwhat a fine addition Jenn is totheir classes and the way thatJenn does not make her colitisan issue in everyday participa-tion.

After Jenn thanked the StifelFoundation, Mr. Stifel, and allher teachers, Henry Stifel ad-dressed the student body. Heoffered words of commenda-tion to Jenn and encourage-ment to everyone else in the au-ditorium.

BY DANIELLE PERETORE (IV)& DAVID SPETT (V)

Several changes have beenmade to the school curriculumfor next year. New classeshave been added, and oldclasses have been modified inseveral departments. The mostchanges will occur in the his-tory department.

Two new electives will beoffered: World Religions andAP Modern EuropeanHistory. The AP coursewill follow the standardAP curriculum, and stu-dents will be expected tosit for the AP exam at theend of the year.

Students will be re-quired to have completedWorld History 9 and 10,and preference will begiven to seniors whohave completed U.S.History. Thus, a generalknowledge of Europeanhistory will be assumed,and the aim of the coursewill be to deepen previ-ous knowledge.

In contrast, World Reli-gions is an entirely newcourse, which, as the brain-child of Dr. David Korfhage,will be mainly under his direc-tion. The course will focus onthe comparative study of reli-gions of the world.

All major religions will betaught, in addition to severalsmaller, less widespread ones.The aim will be to addressquestions that all religionspose, such as the existence of

God. Actual practices of theindividual religions will alsobe studied.

According to history de-partment head Dr. James Mur-ray, “I’m very pleased aboutthe new courses because theyfill two significant voids in ourcurriculum. So far, enrollmenthas been encouraging.”

The foreign language de-partment has also made minor

changes to the Spanish cur-riculum. To accommodate stu-dents who wish to continuestudying Spanish without thepressure of an AP course, anew non-AP Spanish 5 classhas been added.

“Nearly half of all Pingrystudents take Spanish,” saysMr. Norman LaValette, headof the department, “but wedecided to add a non-AP Span-ish 5 course because many ofthem are reluctant to take

Spanish 5 AP.”Changes have also been

made to Spanish 6. Formerlyan independent study course,it is now an AP Spanish Lit-erature course. Its structurewill be flexible. If many stu-dents enroll, it will run as aregular class; if fewer enroll,they will study independently,most likely meeting with theteacher once or twice a week.

“Since there is an APtest offered in SpanishLiterature, we felt weshould offer a course toprepare students for thattest,” explains Mr.LaValette.

Health classes, too,have been revamped.Currently, freshmen andjuniors take single-tri-mester health courses.Freshmen cover FirstAid and CPR, while jun-iors make individual pre-sentations on pertinenthealth and societal is-sues. Next year, thefreshman course will fol-

low the current junior course’scurriculum.

Possible topics include eat-ing disorders, sexual harass-ment, stress, drug use, rape,abortion, and sexuality. Juniorswill no longer take health; in-stead, sophomores will studythe topics currently studied byfreshmen. They will learn FirstAid and CPR, and will betrained to use the school’s fourAED defibrillators.

CURRICULUM CHANGESCOMING NEXT YEAR

Andy Schlesinger (V)

Andy Schlesinger (V)

Andy Schlesinger (V)

“Bright are the stars thatshine ... ”

“Wonder how you manage to make ends meet ... ”

“All the lonely people ... ”

Jennifer Zoephel (VI) with her family and Henry Stifel.

Caberet Night

Continued on page 13

THE PINGRY RECORD • MAY 2003

13

BY DANA ZOLLI (VI)The Art Department presented the

first student film festival this yearon January 31. The program, coor-dinated by Mr. Peter Delman, in-volved short films from several stu-dents. The films lasted from two tosix minutes each and involved ideasranging from television to wind. Me-lissa Tyson (V), Isaac Oransky (V),Dana Zolli (VI), and Joe Della Rosa(VI) were the students responsiblefor the work showcased in the as-sembly.

Mr. Delman mentioned at the be-ginning that Isaac Oransky (V)’sfilm, “Hobbes,” had made it to thefinal stages of the Myhelan StudentFilm Competition and would beshown at the Myhelan Student Fes-tival.

When asked to evaluate the festi-val, Mr. Delman said, “It showed

Film FestivalWows Crowds

BY CHRISTINE HSU (V)If you know the name of the line

between the numerator and denomi-nator of a fraction, you belong on thePingry Quizbowl team. However,you do not have to be a trivia wiz tojoin; many of the questions involveacademic subjects.

Although there is no officialrecord for the Pingry Quizbowl team,it came in second at a competition atColumbia High School and reachedthe semi-finals in The BloomfieldAcademic Tournament of Excel-lence. Over spring break, the PingryA team also placed second in overallpoints in the Millburn tournamentout of 50 teams.

When asked why he enjoyed

Quizbowl, Buzzy Cohen (VI), the“Lord Protector” of the Pingry team,replied, “It’s like playing Jeopardya lot, and I like Jeopardy.” Buzzy,according to advisor Mr. Wang, es-chews the term “president” since hefeels that he was not duly elected.

At competitions, there are usuallyfour people per team and up to twoalternates. A school can normallybring from one to four teams depend-ing on the competition. Questionsrange from beetles to the Beatles,eastern philosophy to inverse varia-tions, and biomes to speleology (thestudy of caves). There are two typesof tournaments: buzzer and Jeopardystyle. “The strength of the Pingryteam lies in the Jeopardy style tour-naments,” comments Buzzy. How-ever, the team has recently purchaseda new buzzer system, and has beenhoning their skills between meets.

Pingry will have attended fiveQuizbowl tournaments by the end ofthis year. Most recently, Pingry sentthree teams to the Joseph BookstaberMemorial Academic Tournament at

QUIZBOWLSCORES!

Dana Zolli (VI)

some of the best work of the film-makers. They were entertaining butserious. A lot of hard work went intothese pieces.”

Participant Melissa Tyson felt that“it was a reallygreat experi-ence, and I en-joyed seeingmy work on thestage. The filmwas really funto make, and itwas interestingto see every-one’s reac-tions.”

Audience re-action to the as-sembly wasmixed. EricBergh (VI) saidof the films, “I

Millburn High School.After four rounds of round-robin

play, the Pingry A team was in sec-ond place out of fifty, the highest fin-ish by a Pingry squad ever. The Band C teams were 15th and 20th re-spectively. The top eight teams wereseeded and put into a single elimi-nation bracket. Pingry A dismantledits first oppoents, Seton Hall Prep B,but lost eventually to GovernorLivingston High School A in thesemi-final round. Tournaments canbe competitive or relaxed, depend-ing on the opponents the team is fac-ing.

A future goal of the Quizbowlteam includes organizing an intramu-ral Quizbowl tournament that would

take place at Pingry next year. Thistournament, with possible namesranging from “February Fever” to“Pingry Brainfest,” would be heldamongst Pingry students.

Coach Wang comments that an-other future goal of the team is toattract more people, especially girls.“There are only two girls who comeregularly to the meetings,” com-ments Coach Wang, “and we needmore people because at one tourna-ment, Buzzy Cohen and DougEllwanger by themselves carried ateam of two people into the semi-fi-nals.”

The Quizbowl team meets everyWednesday during C.P. and no quali-fications are necessary to join. Whenasked what students needed to jointhe team, Coach Wang replied, “Wewill take anyone. If you are smartenough to be at Pingry, you can beon the Quizbowl team.” Oh, and bythe way, the line between the nu-merator and denominator is called avinculum. The question was given byAugust Dupont (III).

The Quizbowl A-team will be headed to nationals this summer.

A frame from Dana’s film shows a family’s inner desires.

Dana Zolli (VI)

Before each film, the lights came up in the auditorium so that theaudience could read synopses in their programs.

War Forum Stirs ControversyContinued from page 1

MidtermsContinued from page 1

“We wanted to add defibrillatortraining to the freshman curriculum,”explains health department headMrs. Sue Marotto, “but freshmen aretoo young to be certified to use adefibrillator, so we decided to rotatethe curricula.”

The science department has alsomade significant changes. HonorsBiology will no longer be offered asa separate course; all students willtake regular Biology 1, but thosewishing to earn honors credit will beable to apply in September for thehonors program.

Prospective participants must havecompleted eighth grade with a B+ av-erage in science, history, math, and En-glish. New students must receive per-mission from the department, whichwill consider students’ former gradesand admission test scores.

Honors students must attend ex-tra classes, complete five extraprojects, pass a test on competencyin chemistry and two others on ad-vanced biology concepts, and main-tain a B+ average in the course.

Science department head Mr.Chuck Coe explains, “Because ofchanges in the discipline, the depart-ment had noticed that the regular bi-ology and honors biology curriculawere becoming very similar. We hadseveral choices, and we made our de-cision because we believed that it of-fers the most benefit to the greatestnumber of students.”

Changes

pants had their own spin on what wasright and wrong.

One idea everyone was able toagree on was Caroline Savello’s (VI)and her brother Alexander Savello’s(II) plan to aid the Iraqi refugee chil-dren with the help of the Pingry stu-dent body, faculty, and theAmeriCares organization.

The debate continued well afterthe assembly finished, permeating

class discussions throughout the day.Aaron, with approval from the Ad-ministration, had benches set up out-side the school so that anyone whohad free time during the day couldstop by and speak or just listen towhat other people had to say.

Mrs. Grant’s reading was espe-cially memorable. Reading a piecefrom The Guardian, a British news-paper, Mrs. Grant wanted to dispelthe idea that being against the war

means being against the troops andtherefore behaving in an unpatrioticfashion. While she is “still opposedto the war and what we may do next,I wanted everyone to realize thatpeople opposed to the war still worryabout the troops.” She also wanted“the horrors to be realized and peopleto think about the fact that is isn’tunpatriotic to speak out against war.Our country is a democracy; it’s pa-triotic to speak out.”

Overall, by most people’s stan-dards, the forum was a success. Withnumerous people and musicians per-forming, the forum served its pur-pose of informing everyone about thewar. Katie Lawrence (V) thought“the forum was a good idea and agreat opportunity for hearing differ-ent opinions. The only thing thatwould have been more beneficialwould have been more time for freediscussion,” she said.

cember. This would require theschool year to begin at least one weekearlier.

“That’s not our culture here,” Mr.Neiswender explains. “If we see thatthe exams don’t work, we’ll evalu-ate the problem and consider changesto make them work. But I don’t fore-see any problems.”

The headmaster explains that thedecision to institute the exams wasmade by the administrative council.“Our council felt it was the rightthing to do,” Mr. Neiswender says,“and after significant discussion,most of the department headsagreed.”

According to English DepartmentHead Dr. Jane Ashcom, the Englishdepartment disagreed because it was“skeptical that adding January exams

Continued from page 12

thought that some of them wereclear, but others were a little harderto follow, although I appreciatedeveryone’s artistic efforts.” TinaChristakos (V) could tell that “a lotof hard work had gone into the pro-ductions” as well.

Joe Della Rosa (VI), who fea-tured his film “That’s Entertain-ment,” was excited about the festi-val. He explains that his film dealtwith “the effects of television on ourgeneration and the role that it playsin our lives—specifically sitcoms.”Joe was nervous about theaudience’s reaction, but was pleasedby the experience.

“It went better than I thought itwould,” he said. “I didn’t know ifthey would understand it. I wantedto leave it open to interpretation,and people sort of liked it.”

According to Mr. Delman, therewill be another film presentation be-fore the end of the year.

would lessen stress for the students.We also mourn the loss of five teach-ing days.”

The headmaster feels that “it’sokay to disagree. We talked throughit and tried to answer each concern.I think we’ve worked it out.” Headded that although most depart-ments were supportive, “every de-partment has its own culture, so uni-versal appeal isn’t to be expected.”

Mr. Neiswender also notes thatMr. Rohdie and Dr. Macrae infor-mally polled some students on theissue at the beginning of the year. Al-though most expressed concernabout added stress, he said some oftheir concerns were reduced whentold that the material would be splitup and not tested twice.

“With the deadline looming toannounce the key dates for next year,we decided to call the issue and an-nounce the midterms,” Mr. Neis-wender explains.

Dana Zolli (VI)

THE PINGRY RECORD • MAY 2003

14

Due to the recent passing of Ruben Cabrera, we decided to re-print an article from the March 2000 issue of The Record.Written by Arjun Iyengar ’01, this profile recounts the fascin-ating and, at times, tumultuous life of the man who became sofamiliar and beloved to students over the past 17 years. A tributeto Ruben will be printed in our graduation issue.

WE’LL MISSYOU, RUBEN

BY ARJUN IYENGAR ‘01Many people take their le-

gal and economical libertiesfor granted, such as the abil-ity to vote, to form a peace-able assembly, and to speakfreely. Unfortunately, not ev-eryone is granted even thesebasic elements of freedomand democracy. Every year,thousands of immigrants pouracross our nation’s borders inhopes of seeking asylum andpursuing opportunity. In May1960, Ruben CabreraMartinez, Pingry’s favoritejanitor, was one of them.

Ruben was born in Havanain 1938, the youngest of ten

Ruben:

The PingryWitch Project

brothers and five sisters. Upongraduating high school, hejoined the family business, atrucking company. The com-pany transported raw materi-als like bananas and tobaccoacross the island to the facto-ries and commercial indus-tries. It was a very competi-tive yet lucrative business forthe Martinez family. However,life changed on the Christmasof 1958 when Fidel Castroseized power in Cuba.

Castro began to regulate theCuban economy. He arbi-trarily raised the tariffs andmonitored commerce. He toldpeople involved in the truck-

ing profession what to carry,where to carry, and how muchto charge.

Ruben hated the new rules.Nearly one third of the peoplein the trucking industry wentbankrupt, because they werenot making any profit. Real-izing the situation would soondeteriorate further, Ruben ap-plied for a visa to America in1959. He felt guilty aboutleaving two days beforeMother’s Day, especially sincehe would never see his motheragain.

Before coming to America,the Cuban custom authority

stripped Ruben of almost ev-erything he owned. He wasnot able to bring any rings,

Cuba after his visa expired.Knowing that the Immigra-

tion and Naturalization Ser-vices would easily catch himin Miami, Ruben moved toNew York City in 1960, wherehe stayed at a friend’s house.One morning when Rubenwoke up, he was terrified thathe could not see anything out-side. He asked his friend,“How come America can’t af-ford to clean the streets…thereis so much dust outside.” Thefriend then explained toRuben that outside it wassnowing.

While in New York, Rubenworked in the laundry busi-ness. Although he could notspeak English fluently, heshied away from Hispanic ar-eas and people to avoid get-ting deported. Ruben had to

plead asylum and ask for Ca-nadian citizenship. He was re-fused, but the Canadian em-bassy managed to get himAmerican citizenship.

When asked if he ever ex-perienced any racism, Rubensaid he did on a frequent ba-sis. When he was working atthe diner, a woman gave hima sizable tip and told him thatif he saved up he might beable to buy a car. Although hewas angry with the woman, hedid not look a gift horse in themouth and humbly acceptedthe tip. He never told her thathe had four cars in Cuba andthat he chose to start fromscratch in America.

Ruben then came to Pingryand joined the maintenancestaff in 1986. When askedabout how Pingry had changedover the years, Ruben said that“there are some good and badchanges.” He cited the suc-cessful attempts at increasingdiversity and how “nice it isto see different types ofpeople.” However, he also feltthat there are more spoiledstudents who “act as if theyown the place,” although heacceded that it was more of acultural phenomenon ratherthan an exclusively Pingryoriented problem. He also dis-likes the familial role inAmerican culture. “Here thefamily is all split up,” he says.“In Cuba you have closer tieswith family.”

When asked about what hemisses in Cuba, Ruben said heoften longs for his family, Ha-vana, and Cuban cigars. De-spite leaving his family,Ruben said he was glad thathe had the courage and thefortune to come to the U.S.

Arjun Iyengar

Ruben arrived in Miami with only 150 dol-lars in traveler’s checks and five dollarsin cash. He was only on a fifteen-day visit,but he made plans to stay longer.

watches, jewelry, food, ormail. When he arrived in Mi-ami, he only had 150 dollarsin traveler’s checks and fivedollars in cash. Although hewas only on a fifteen-day visit,Ruben made plans to staylonger. He never went back to

work hard so that he couldsave a little money for himselfand try to mail the rest back tohis family in Cuba. It was ex-hausting work trying to makemoney while keeping a lowprofile.

Ruben then decided tomove to Metuchen, New Jer-sey, in an attempt to dodge theINS once more. He lived in aHispanic restaurant andworked in the kitchen for fouryears. While working at thediner, he met his future wife.They would later have fourchildren, one of whom wouldgraduate from Pingry. Beforemarrying, Ruben decided togo to the Canadian embassy to

Ruben’s native country, Cuba, on map (above). Anocean side view of Havana, tropical hometown of thePingry janitor (left).

the theater. Using just a sparse set oftwo tables, a bench, and some lad-ders, the cast discovered that simplic-ity was key. According to Mr.Romano, “The play is designed to bedone as simply as possible so that theactors create the reality of the town.”

Because the stage itself was plain,sound and lighting became crucial.The production staff included soundtechnicians as well as people mak-ing live sound effects. Songs such as“Tis A Gift to Be Simple” providedtransition between the three acts.

Seniors were not the only mem-bers of the cast. The wedding guestsand village members were comprisedof juniors as well as faculty mem-bers, including Mr. Adam Rohdie,Dr. Jane Ashcom, Ms. Janet Koch,

‘Our Town’ Is A Hit!Mrs. Susan Smith and Mrs. DianaAbreu.

In a time of hectic schedules, “OurTown,” set in the 20th century in asmall town in New Hampshire calledGrover’s Corners, reminded the au-dience of the comfort of simple val-ues.

Kate Coyle, Tomo Gibson, andAbby Buurma, who played the StageManagers, led the audience throughthe three acts: “The Daily Life,”“Love and Marriage,” and “Death.”Exploring the lives of two normal,happy families, the Gibbs and theWebbs, Wilder reminds the audienceto appreciate each minute of exist-ence.

Mirror images of each other, Mrs.Gibbs and Mrs. Webb (Lauren Millerand Anne Kroeger) work in their gar-

den, Emily Webb (Liz Wight) andGeorge Gibb do homework in theirwindows, and Dr. Gibb (JohnKuchta) and Mr. Webb (Thor Grant)come back from work each day asthe sun sets.

The traditional paper boy, JoeCrowell, Jr. (Jeremy Massler), themilk man, Howie Newsome (LouisDiLeo), and an unprofessional buteager women’s church chorus allconjure up the Norman Rockwelllifestyle that is lost in everydaychaos.

One of the central scenes of theplay was shown at the Friday all-school teaser. In that scene, GeorgeGibbs, at the soda fountain withEmily Webb, decides that he will notgo off to agricultural school to learnhow to be a farmer. Choosing to stay

Continued from page 1 in his small town, he chooses happi-ness and love over success and tech-nology.

Mr. Romano explains, “In Act II,for example, the stage managerbreaks in and stops the events onGeorge and Emily’s wedding day toshow us the moment when Georgeand Emily first expressed their lovefor each other.”

Ending with the melancholy deathof Emily, Wilder asks the audienceto reflect on the nature of mortalityitself. The set in third act was a som-ber graveyard, dramatically repre-sented by rows of chairs filled withmotionless actors. This provided avisual effect for the audience to seethe line between the living and thedead.

“Our Town” emphasized the im-

portance of community—our Pingrycommunity. Brian Kelly acknowl-edged the group effort, saying, “Ev-eryone involved from the largest partto the smallest role is committed tothe play. We have all worked reallyhard as a cast on our accents andphysicality. as there is not much ofset, we have had to react to eachother,” he said.

The audience reacted emotionally.Elyse Feldman (IV) commented, “Ithought the casting was very appro-priate, and the acting was really welldone. There was definitely chemis-try between John Kissel and LizWight.” Sonia Alam (VI) remarked,“The seniors’ production of ‘OurTown’ was nothing less than aston-ishing. I enjoyed it enough to see itall three nights!”

OP-EDF E A T U R E S

THE PINGRY RECORD • MAY 2003

15

BY SAMANTHA BAILYE (VI)

“The world is an imperfectplace, sir, screws fall out allthe time.”

– “The Breakfast Club”

It is in this “imperfect” uni-verse that the heroine of NickHornby’s latest novel, “HowTo Be Good,” finds herselfturning into the type of“woman who ends marriagesin a car park.” Coping withmiddle-aged complacency,Hornby’s nameless femaleprotagonist struggles to putback together her rocky mar-riage and raise her two chil-dren.

The author of the best-sell-ing novels “High Fidelity” and“About A Boy,” both of whichwere made into movies,Hornby has a reputation forbeing a smart, witty, and hu-morous author. However, hefails to deliver the goods, soto speak, in his latest work,

An Unnecessary LessonOn How To Be GoodNick Hornby’s New Novel Reviewed

“How To Be Good.” The plotis mundane and lacks a satis-factory climax, resulting in alingering sense of disillusion-ment at the novel’s conclu-sion. Hornby’s characters arepainfully stereotypical andlack any endearing qualities.

GoodNews, the aptlynamed spiritual guru whotakes over the lives of the nar-rator and her family, is irritat-ingly self-sacrificial. It wouldbe more beneficial to human-ity if he just keeled over anddied.

Molly, the narrator ’syoungest daughter, is a mind-less, badgering child who isridiculously self-righteous forher age and who will no doubtgrow up to be a horrible per-son.

“How To Be Good’s” great-est flaw, besides its annoyingcast of characters, is that itlacks credibility.

Hornby starts off with real-istic characters living in an en-

vironment we can all relate toand has them evolve them intoridiculous, fanatical extremes.The narrator ’s husband,David, the author of a localnewspaper column entitled“The Angriest Man inHolloway,” goes from writingscathing “diatribe[s]” aboutthe burden of old people us-ing public transportation to in-viting homeless people tomove in with him.

While such conversions areplausible, Hornby’s descrip-tion of David’s sudden obses-sion with the ideas of the lo-cal homeless healer/gurunamed GoodNews is poorlydescribed and poorly thoughtthrough.

It is a wonder that the nar-rator manages to put up withDavid saying, “Nigel’s an an-gry man … He wouldn’t un-derstand,” and “We’ve allbeen living the wrong life.”

The only aspect of “HowTo Be Good” that has any

merit is the character of thenarrator. A family physician,or a GP (general practitioner)as they’re called in Great Brit-ain, she is the only one thatstops to think and question thesudden presence ofGoodNews and the presence

of his ideas in her family’s life.Torn between implement-

ing some of GoodNews’smore practical “lessons” andliving the capitalistic life she’searned, the passages where thenarrator struggles to figure outher place on the moral road of

life are the only noteworthyones. After all, hasn’t every-one questioned the morality ofindulgence versus charity?Hornby should get credit forhis ability to write such a fluidfirst-person narrative, eventhough the quality of his con-tent is for the most part highlyquestionable.

While “How To Be Gooddoes contain faint traces ofHornby’s trademark wit andhumor, none of them areamusing eno”ugh to mention.

The book is composedmostly of commonplace one-liners that are anything butthought provoking. It’s thelack of entertainment valueand mediocre plot that makethe book a dubious readingselection, despite Hornby’sreputation and the positive,over-hyped reviews in certainpublications.

If, as Hornby says, “Mostpeople are good people,” isthere any need for most peopleto figure out how to be good?

BY SUMEET SHAH (V)A note to my readers: It

has come to my attentionsome readers feel that myrestaurant reviews are toogenerous and lacking criti-cism.

I would like to make itclear that I choose to reviewonly the finest restaurantsnear Pingry. I only writeabout places that I have vis-ited at least 50 times or so.

NEW JERSEY’S ULTIMATEICE CREAM PARLOR!

Well, well, well. I’m re-viewing another ice creamparlor. Now you are prob-ably thinking, Is this guycrazy?

An ice cream parlor re-view in the winter? Well, myfrost-bitten friends, I am notcrazy; springtime is almosthere, and I think I shouldgive you my thoughts on, inmy opinion, the best icecream parlor in New Jersey.

Sure, Gabriel’s Fountainis up there, but I have founda parlor that is even better.Thomas’ Sweets, located inthe center of College Town(near Rutgers University) onEaston Avenue in NewBrunswick.

Rutgers students run theparlor, and the ice cream isjust heavenly. From bananasplits to huge sundaes, from20 wet and 20 dry toppingsto 40 flavors, and from cakesto quarts, you can buy manystyles of Thomas’ Sweets fa-mous dessert.

When my friend Sam andI decided to try out the par-lor, it took us about a half-hour from Pingry plus fiveminutes searching for park-ing, but the wait was worth-while.

When we entered, theplace was packed. We staredat the long and updated listof flavors, wet toppings, drytoppings, cake orders, andstyles of desserts. Sam or-dered a simple two-scoopcone ($2.17) with chocolatechip cookie dough, and I or-dered a Huge Sundae (4.09)with cookie dough, Oreosand Creme, marshmallowwet topping, sprinkles, andchocolate chips.

Is your mouth wateringyet?

As soon as I tasted mysundae, I felt as if I was inheaven. The rich and deli-cious flavor of the ice creamcircled my mouth, coveringmy taste buds with joy. Ispent about 20 minutes sa-voring every bite (Sam atehis in about seven). Despitebeing dessert, it felt like asmall meal.

Now, I really cannot ex-plain Thomas’ Sweets inwords, so I’d recommendyou go immediately. It’sgreat for Peer Groups, se-niors, and anyone who wantsto try the ultimate ice cream.

Thomas Sweet’sEaston AvenueCollege Town, Rutgers

UniversityNew Brunswick CampusNew Brunswick, NJ

For those who live fartheraway, there are also two Tho-mas’ Sweets located inPrinceton.

Ratings:Food: *****Service: ***Décor: ***Cost: max. $7.00

Class Presidents2003-2004

Form VIPresident: Liam GriffVice: Tina Christakos

Form VPresident: Nikhil Srivastava

Vice: Caroline Savello

Form IVPresident: Brian Combias

Vice: Logan Bartlett

Can you believe it?

SNOW IN APRIL!

Nelson Lee (III)

2002-2003 WINTER RESULTSBOYS’ ICE HOCKEY

Season Record: 6-12Mennen League/Haas Division All-Stars: Dave

Salerno (1st team), Bryan Zupon (1st team),Chris Collins (2nd team)

GIRLS’ ICE HOCKEYSeason Record: 0-10-1

All-State Preps: Melissa Tyson (1st team,defense)

BOYS’ BASKETBALLSeason Record: 5-17

Colonial Hills Conference standing: 4-12

GIRLS’ SWIMMINGSeason Record: 5-8

Star-Ledger Honors: Kelly Peeler (3rd team All-Somerset), Catie Lee (3rd team All-Somerset),

400 free relay team (All-Parochial)

BOYS’ SWIMMINGSeason Record: 9-3

Colonial Hills conference: 1st place

Star-Ledger Honors: Kenny Brown-Klinger (1stteam All-Somerset, 2nd team All-Parochial),

Paul Kolb (1st team All-Somerset), Jason Kurz(2nd team All-Somerset), Jack Zoephel (2nd

team All-Somerset), Eddie Layng (3rd team All-Somerset), Ian Deeks (3rd team All-Somerset)

GIRLS’ BASKETBALLSeason Record: 7-15

Colonial Hills Conference standing: 5-11Colonial Hills All-Conference Team: Allison

Keeley (2nd Team), Ellis Kelleher (HonorableMention), Julie Hamilton (Honorable Mention)

SKIINGNo record is available, but Doug Hirsch, SarahTarplin, and Max Krein all qualified for states.

GIRLS’ FENCINGSeason Record: 5-7

Dual Meet Record: 7-6Santelli Tournament: Lauren Phillips (1st place,A strip), Abby Buurma (Tied for 1st Place, C strip)

Districts: Lauren Phillips (1st place)Individual State tournament: Lauren Phillips(Sabre, 1st place), Abby Buurma (Sabre, 11th

place), Denise LaForgia (Foil, 13th place)Star-Ledger Honors: Lauren Phillips (Fencer ofthe Year, 1st Team All-State), Denise LaForgia

(3rd Team All-State)

BOYS’ FENCINGDual Meet Record: 12-3

All-State and Other Honors: Matthew Bonelli(NJSIAA, Star-Ledger All-State 2nd Team

Sabre), Emil Cappetta (NJSIAA, Star-LedgerAll-State 2nd Team Sabre), Max Haines-Stiles(Star-Ledger All-State 3rd Team Sabre), Scott

Simon (NJSIAA All-State 3rd Team Epee)

WRESTLINGSeason Record: 4-10

Special Honors: Zack Shanaman (5th place,Beast of the East Tournament, Star-Ledger

Somerset County Wrestler of the Year), DrewGatewood (2nd Team All-Conference, Courier

News All-Area Honorable Mention)

SMELLS LIKE TEAM SPIRIT!

OP-EDS P O R T S

All Photos by Nelson Lee (III)& Clare Kelly (VI)

Spring Sports 2002