AROUND DELBARTON
attended the 4-day event. Admissions Director Dr. David Donovan is a busy man. In August he hosted the Green Wave Soccer Trip to Argentina. He serves on two soccer boards: the Board of West Morris Soccer Club and the Board of Everton, NJ. Everton is a select co-ed soccer academy in northern New Jersey. As the Director of Player and Program Development, Donovan designed and delivered public programs including How to Navigate the College Recruitment Process as a Student-Athlete and, this past August, two workshops on Successful Coaching Methods for Youth Soccer. Donovan also serves on three educational boards: Shepherds of Youth and Platinum Minds are nonprofits that support mentoring disadvantaged youths, and, on July 1, he became the President of the Board of Trustees at The Willow School in Gladstone, NJ. English teacher Rob Flynn is in a master’s program for computing in education at Columbia Teachers College. Campus Ministry Director David Hajduk was accepted into the Ph.D. program at Maryvale Ecclesiastical Institute in Birmingham, England, and is working on his doctoral dissertation. His projected year of completion is 2015. Spanish teacher Jaime Paris is currently studying yearround for a master’s degree in Spanish literature at Montclair State University. His goal is to earn a Ph.D. in the subject within the next few years Last summer English and Italian teacher Dan Pieraccini (continued on page 39) 38 D ELBARTON TODAY
Jayne Geiger Receives 2011 Distinguished Educator Award Jessica Fiddes
(continued from page 37)
From left, Br. Paul Diveny, OSB, Jason Wyatt '98, Jayne Geiger, Jordan Wyatt and Delbarton Admissions Director Dr. David Donovan. Jane’s father Lew Geiger sits in front.
On June 1, 2011 Ms. Jayne Geiger, Head of Far Hills Country Day School in Far Hills, NJ, received the 2011 Delbarton Distinguished Educator Award. Dr. David Donovan, Delbarton Director of Admissions, presented Geiger with the award at a Delbarton faculty meeting. Several of Geiger's former students currently at Delbarton, James Berkman '12 and Derek Speedy '14, spoke eloquently of Geiger's ability to connect with students and bring out the very best in her charges. Geiger's colleague Alfred 'Rik' Dugan, a former Delbarton teacher and coach who now serves as FHCDS's director of secondary guidance, paid tribute to his mentor who has influenced so many teachers and administrators in her thirty-one years at the School.
Geiger graduated from Douglass College at Rutgers University with a BA in Sociology and a minor in English. She holds two Master's degrees, one in Early Childhood Education from Bank Street College of Education and one in Educational Administration and Supervision from Rutgers University. In 1980 she arrived at Far Hills Country Day School in 1980 after teaching stints at the John E. Riley School from 1972-76, at the Frankfurt International School in Germany from 1976-78, and at the Copenhagen International Junior School in Denmark from 1978-80. In September, 1992 Geiger became Head of Far Hills Country Day School and she has been an exemplary leader both of children and adults ever since. Geiger is a member of several area Boards including the New
Jersey Association of Independent Schools, the Women’s Resource Center of Somerset County, and the Oliver Scholars Program of NYC. She has two children. Her oldest son Jason, a Delbarton alumnus Class of 1998, is an attorney, and her youngest son, Jordan, is currently completing his PhD in psychology. FHCDS parents and board members witnessed her gracious acceptance speech, and her 95 year old father, Lew Geiger, possibly her greatest fan, paid touching tribute to his daughter's outstanding career in education. His pride was palpable and the Delbarton faculty members gave both him and his high-achieving daughter a standing ovation.