FEATURE
Tony Ferraro, ‘86 has lived in
Singapore along with wife Kelly and their two children for the past three years, following time in Italy and Thailand. As ChevronTexaco’s general manager of asset management for Asia, he is currently working on power plant projects in Thailand, Indonesia, Korea and Vietnam. “I remember coming back from the German exchange and knowing that I wanted to live overseas,” he recalls. “It took more than 15 years and several career path choices to make that happen.” Tony credits his English class with Jack Campion, who “taught me to think,” with helping him to develop the open mind necessary to thrive in a foreign environment. “I’m not sure anything can prepare you for the day you realize you aren’t in your home country and you aren’t just visiting,” he reflects. “You aren’t living in a hotel, but in your own apartment and you don’t have a ticket to go back home. It’s strange, wonderful, scary and exciting all at the same time.”
Pete Capizzi, ‘87 has lived in Tokyo
for over three years, along with his wife, Gina, and their three children – A.J., Mia and Dean. He serves as the Chief Human Resources Officer for Prudential’s Japanese Insurance Operations, no small task given the company’s 23,000 employees in Japan alone. Reflecting on his time at Prep, three teachers stand out as having influenced him to view the world more broadly: Mike Tunney, S.J., whose “passion for art inspired me to think about the history of art and the way art was influenced by movements around the world,” during freshman and sophomore English; “Doc” Kennedy, who “motivated me to want to understand the world from different cultural viewpoints;” and Bill Donahue, who, as a forensics coach, “pushed us to realize that the world is bigger than Jersey City, with a lot to offer, as evidenced by his beginning the German Exchange Program.” Of his time in Asia, which has included visits to nine countries outside Japan, he remarks: “For my children, their world (and quite frankly, ours as well) is now so much broader and richer.”
the classroom environment. Our task is to make our students want to pursue their language studies beyond their two or three years of study at Prep. I truly believe that throughout the years the department has been successful in doing so. We have been fortunate at Prep to have produced quite a few language teachers, including our current German teacher, Ryan Grusenski, ’03, and of course, our principal, Jim DeAngelo, ’85, a former German teacher himself. In addition, six of my former students are or will soon become Italian teachers: Robert Bradfield, ’01; Joe Dacchille, ’01; Anthony Fischetti, ’02; Mauro Raguseo, ’03; Phil Dacchille, ’05; and Patrick Comey, ’06. Countless other alumni have successfully applied their language skills to professions in business, medicine, industry and government. Ana Garcia, who has been teaching Spanish at Prep since 1972, developed courses approximately ten years ago, entitled, “Spanish for Medical Personnel” and “Spanish for Business and Finance,” so that these students may begin to envision a logical and natural union of language and career. It is in engaging this “real world” outlook that our main objective becomes empowered. In addition to creating new courses or simply bringing the culture into the classroom via the use of varied media technologies, Prep’s Modern Language Department encouragingly organizes activities, events, participation in greater community competitions – but most importantly our study abroad and exchange programs. These are crucial and essential elements in expanded planning throughout the academic year and beyond. In order to excel in a language, we know that the student must apply his skills and experience social interactions firsthand. We invite our students, therefore, to join us on excursions in New York City – to Spanish or Cuban restaurants, Flamenco dance performances, Italian Mass on Sunday mornings, and German or Italian operas at Lincoln Center. We are proud of our cultural events in Manhattan, but we are prouder still to cross not just the Hudson River, but the Atlantic Ocean. Through our study abroad and exchange programs our students become fully immersed in the language and culture as they live with host families, visit classrooms and assist in lessons at our partner schools in Spain, France, Germany and Italy. This June, Ms. Ana Garcia will accompany to Spain a group of students who will study the Spanish language at the Collegio de Espana in Salamanca. Within the same week, Mr. Ryan Grusenski’s exchange
PREP Magazine www.spprep.org SPRING 2011 2011 15 15
