Fall/Winter 2014

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outreach FA L L | W I N T E R 2 0 1 4

Celebrating

50 YEARS

in

Livingston

NEWARK to LIVINGSTON CONNECTIONS

that INSPIRE and TRANSFORM

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The foundation stone of the Broad Street building in Newark, dedicated in 1792, was thoughtfully incorporated into the design of the building entrance on the Livingston campus.

The stone, and its translation from the original Latin, are a reminder of the rich heritage that Newark Academy has carried to each location the school has called “home.�

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bo

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em CONTENTS FALL | WINTER 2014 FEATURES

22 A Nation of Contradictions Newark Academy Faculty Members Travel to North Korea 32 From City School to Country Campus Newark Academy, 1964 IN THIS ISSUE

2 Perspectives

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4 NA News 28 Advancement 40 From the Archives 42 Homecoming & Reunion 2014 48 Alumni News 50 Alumni Profiles 56 Class Notes

‚ Join the conversation: “Like” NA on Facebook;

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Follow NA on Twitter @newarkacademy; Visit us on the web at www.newarka.edu

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outreach fall | winter 2014 Donald M. Austin Head of School Lisa Grider Director of Institutional Advancement EDITOR Debra Marr Director of Communications A S S I S TA N T E D I T O R S Marci Kahwaty Communications Associate David Beckman English Faculty CONTRIBUTORS John H. Bess ’69 Victoria Agresti-Hoehn ’90 Elaine Brodie Alexandra Mahoney Garrett Caldwell Blackie Parlin Matthew Gertler ’90 Courtney Roosa Ted Gilbreath Jeff Vinikoor Kristin Walpole BOARD OF TRUSTEES Chairman Jonathan D. Olesky ’74 Executive Committee William Bloom Jeffrey Kaplan Patricia Budziak David D. McGraw ’77 Laura White Dillon Larry S. Wieseneck Kim Hirsh ’80 Jane Wilf Suzanne Willian Trustees Donald M. Austin Lauren Hedvat ’01 Maria Rice Bellamy ’85 Glenda McNeal Betsy Dollinger Bernstein ’86 Samir Pandiri John H. Bess ’69 Sujata Pandiri Lawrence G. Cetrulo ’67 Sandra Peinado Jeffrey H. Cohen ’81 Richard R. Redmond ’77 Samuel W. Croll III ’68 Alexander M. Rose ’96 Mary Ellen DeNoon Mark Rosenbaum Scott L. Hayward Tiffany Taylor Smith Patrick B. Wang Emeriti Louis V. Aronson II ’41 K. Kelly Marx ’51 Paul Busse ’38 John L. McGraw ’49 Robert Del Tufo ’51 Robert S. Puder ’38* William D. Green ’69 Gary Rose William D. Hardin ’44* William T. Wachenfeld ’44 A L U M N I A S S O C I AT I O N B O A R D O F G O V E R N O R S John H. Bess ’69 President Amanda Addison ’06 Sean Allen ’03 Lara Samet Buchwald ’01 Daniel Cronheim ’72 Jacqueline Lipsius Fleysher ’93 Peter Gruenberg ’81 Lauren Jacobs-Lazer ’98 Gillian Javetski ’07 William S. Kaplan ’69

Jennifer Mandelbaum ’11 David Mazzuca ’03 Edward Pursell ’02 David Rattner ’03 Jed Rosenthal ’93 Alexander Senchak ’02 Brian Silver ’09 Andrew Somberg ’07 Glenn Waldorf ’90

Emeriti Lance Aronson ’74 Jeffrey J. Silverman ’82 J. Richard Beltram ’41 William S. Stroh III ’48* Richard M. Watson ’50 Newark Academy Office of Institutional Advancement 91 South Orange Avenue • Livingston, NJ 07039 Telephone: 973.992.7000, Fax: 973.992.8962 E-mail: dmarr@newarka.edu • Website: www.newarka.edu *Deceased

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PERSPECTIVES 3

FROM DONALD M. AUSTIN, HEAD OF SCHOOL

Celebrating the 1964 Move to Livingston THE CHALLENGES AND REWARDS OF RISK-TAKING The significance of the 50th anniversary of Newark Academy’s move to Livingston has been on my mind recently as we mark that event in various ways throughout the year. Although we have come to think of the Livingston campus as home to our 241-year-old school, and our success here has validated the move from the city to the suburbs, the decision to leave Newark was controversial at the time. Even in the context of the collapse of the city of Newark around the school, there was great affection for our First Street campus and for the school’s neighborhood feel and urban identity.

Many people were strongly opposed to the idea of Newark Academy leaving Newark. The courage it took to make a difficult decision for the long-term benefit of the school serves as a lesson in leadership and vision, and it invites parallels to decisions we are making today to provide for the future of Newark Academy.

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he move from Newark in 1964 was predated by several years of planning.

The search for a new campus began in the late 1950s. Even after the Greenwood Farms property in Livingston was purchased – for the remarkable sum of $255,000 – the Board was divided on the merits of a move west. In the end, they forged ahead, despite risks and reservations.

The construction costs of the building we now occupy seemed expensive at the time, and the school was forced to take on debt. There was also uncertainty about enrollment in the new setting: would the relocated Newark Academy attract enough qualified students? In fact, the improved facility on the spacious campus quickly drew both loyal old families and new ones.

Over time, playing fields were created and improvements made to the campus.

Enrollment grew, programs developed, and the school’s reputation was enhanced.

As we look back today on that move 50 years ago, we correctly focus on the success the school has enjoyed. But it would be an oversight to ignore that many questioned the move at first, and others feared that the change in location would lead to a loss of essential aspects of our identity. The school’s leaders chose to take a risk that in retrospect looks like a great decision, especially given that the

Campus Master Plan, which consisted alternative, staying in Newark, would of the Upper School Academic Center likely have been catastrophic. and the outdoor turf fields /concession At first glance, our situation today building, we are now focusing on the could not be more different. We are Middle School and the renovation and flourishing, with an outstanding faculty, expansion of the Rose Auditorium. The capable students and distinctive programs. energy and planning Admission is The Board was divided that have gone into strong, the school these initiatives on the merits of a move west. is financially sound, and we enjoy a In the end, they forged ahead, are extraordinary, with tremendous solid reputation. despite risks and reservations. support from Still, our own trustees as well as many parents, alumni, history reminds us that the decisions and alumni parents. Over the last four we make today will have long-term years, we have raised more than $20 consequences decades later, and the failure million and are well on our way toward to prepare adequately could compromise our goal of $30 million. The design of our future. It is in this spirit that our these new spaces has benefited from the Board of Trustees embarked in 2011 on expertise of many in our community, the Rise & Flourish Campaign to assure including students, teachers and architects. that the excellence we enjoy today will As we seek to broaden support for the endure for the next 50 years. Our task next phase of the campaign, we are today is to update our 50-year-old facility maintaining a self-imposed fiscal discipline so that Newark Academy will be able to measure, requiring that we raise 50 percent thrive in 2064 as it does in 2014. of the funds of each phase before The immediate challenge before us is construction and 100 percent before the completion of that campaign. Having moving on to a subsequent phase. finished the first two phases of our As we carry out this generational investment in our campus 50 years after our move to Livingston, I take great satisfaction in imagining the families who will benefit over the next 50 years from the hard work and generosity of this generation. This is the legacy we will leave to thousands of Newark Academy students. NA OUTREACH fall | winter 2014

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NA NEWS 4

Middle Ground NA’S NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL FACILITY TAKES SHAPE The middle school years are a unique time – a formative period when students rapidly develop new social and academic skills. Newark Academy offers a Middle School program that respects the specific needs of students in grades six through eight and enhances their experience of the “Middle Years.” Now the future looks bright for building a facility to complement that program.

NEWARK ACADEMY

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n recent years, the Newark Academy Middle School has grown, as has its focus on delivering the best programs targeted to students in these grades. “Recently, deliberate shifts have strengthened the identity of the Middle School division and built a program that better serves Newark Academy’s youngest students,” said Head of School Don Austin.

But then there’s the issue of the Middle School hallway: full of life, but a tight squeeze. While the program has grown and the students have thrived, it has become clear that the current facilities are merely adequate. “Our program and curriculum outgrew our physical space a long time ago,” noted Middle School Principal Tom Ashburn. “I – and many of our Middle School teachers – have been dreaming of what it might be like to have a facility that matched the excellence of our program.”

THE WAIT IS ALMOST OVER Construction is set to begin on a new Middle School in mid 2015. Located at the end of the west parking lot and adjacent to the McGraw Arts Center, the 26,075-square-foot building will include 10 classrooms, three science labs, a large commons space and faculty offices.

The two-story structure will provide dedicated space for each grade, allowing for the expansion of extra-curricular and athletics offerings, and the opportunity to build a schedule that meets the needs of all Middle School students.

Groundbreaking for construction will likely take place in Summer 2015, contingent upon securing additional gifts and pledges to Rise & Flourish: The Campaign for Newark Academy.

The new Middle School will provide future generations of NA students with the environment they need to continue to learn and thrive. The facility will be the kind of space that inspires Middle School students to create new traditions and offers them a sense of place – a place they will look back on with pride and nostalgia long after their own Middle Years. NA

OUTREACH fall | winter 2014

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NA NEWS 6

College Destinations for the Class of 2014

Rinat Alelov George Washington University

Stephanie Carter Rochester Institute of Technology

Olubusayo Grace Alofe Yale University

Lauren Catena Boston University

Samantha Altschuler Brown University

Wesley Christmann New York University

Vivek Amin Stevens Institute of Technology

Thomas Ciccone Indiana University

Rebecca Antwi Tufts University Nina Anwar Massachusetts Institute of Technology Thomas Bernhardt Columbia University Julia Blanchard New York University Georgia Bloom Wake Forest University The late Dr. Clement A. Price, former Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor at Rutgers University and noted Newark historian, delivered the Commencement address.

NEWARK ACADEMY

Pieter-Paul Brakel New York University Margaret Brummer College of Charleston Emory Griffin Burrough Kenyon College

Emma Coffey Boston College Jacob Cohen University of Pennsylvania

Jacob Faber Yale University Sydney Feinberg Syracuse University Jack Fox Brandeis University Bailey Galvin-Scott Emerson College

Craig Haratz University of Pennsylvania Coleman Hughes The Juilliard School

Erin Garinger Wesleyan University

Kasey Iverson Pennsylvania State University

Patrick Gerish University of Maryland, College Park

Brendan James Colorado College

Cillian Connor Colby College

Jai Ghose Carnegie Mellon University

Colin Corliss University of Rochester

Gabriella Giachin University of Miami

Marissa Coscia Lehigh University

Harrison Glatt Union College

William Delaney Georgetown University

Rebecca Gorelov Williams College

Tyler Dohrn Yale University

Zachary Gross University of Pennsylvania

Zachary Epstein Washington University in St. Louis

Serena Gupta University of Pennsylvania

Flannery James Columbia University Siddarth Kannan Pomona College Alexandra Katz Emory University Hannah Kraft Barnard College Chelsea Labdon Loyola University Maryland Kelly Lazarus Tulane University

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Marley Lazarus University of Wisconsin–Madison Jessica Lim University of Pennsylvania Courtney Luing University of Wisconsin–Madison Sydney Mann Cornell University Elizabeth Meijer Washington University in St. Louis Julia Mills Purdue University Jake Mundo Swarthmore College Kristen Nachtman University of Southern California Ryan Nachwalter Emory University Serena Najjar New York University Esther Neibart Emory University Jordyn Norris Lafayette College Thomas Pan Stanford University Shivani Pandiri Columbia University Tyler Park Georgetown University Daniel Patracuolla Lehigh University Michelle Peng University of Michigan Kristian Petillo Rutgers University Lyle Poisson Johns Hopkins University Matthew Press Bowdoin College Mariel Pressler Tulane University Matthew Ratner Columbia University

Zoe Rollenhagen Dickinson College Christopher Roser The College of New Jersey Jonathan Sadeghi University of Pennsylvania Ethan Savel Wesleyan University Eric Schwed Dartmouth College Sydney Sheehan George Washington University Faye Sheppard Lehigh University Danielle Sidi Emory University Greta Skagerlind Rhode Island School of Design Taylor Smith American University Theodore Steffens Tulane University Katharine Stein Northeastern University Eric Szlosek Syracuse University Alex Tarowsky University of Michigan Cory Tell Johns Hopkins University Stutti Tilwa Lehigh University Rebecca Tolpin New York University Nathaniel Tsimikas Tulane University Eddison Ugaddan Lehigh University William Ulrich Lehigh University Nicholas Verrilli Case Western Reserve University

Andie Wei Washington University in St. Louis Abigail Whelan Boston College Lauren Whelan Bucknell University Max Whitmore Brandeis University Jacob Wieseneck University of Pennsylvania Daniel Winkler Northwestern University Remenna Xu Northeastern University David Yaroshevsky Georgia Institute of Technology Maia Yoshida University of Pennsylvania Hannah Zack Emerson College William Ziefert New York University Jaquasia Zlu-Cornish St. John’s University

CONVOCATION 2014 Convocation 2014 celebrated Newark Academy students, faculty and guest alumni. Head of School Don Austin welcomed the community to the 2014-2015 academic year, NA’s 50th in Livingston. Trustee Lauren Hedvat ’01 (here with Don Austin and Board of Trustees Chair Jon Olesky ’74) addressed the community as Convocation speaker.

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NA NEWS 8

TEDxNewarkAcademy 2014 Speakers Emma Baumgartner ’11 Studying Abroad and the Global Perspective Vihar Desu ’15 Divergent Thinking in the 21st Century Benson Hawk, Faculty Risk-Taking and the Future of Education Kevin Jiang ’15 Deciphering Genius through Jazz Lila Rimalovski ’15 Innovation & Feminism: A New Junction Matt Thekkethala ’15 Education Models for Underdeveloped Communities

TEDxNewarkAcademy was organized by Humanities Department Chair Jeff Vinikoor and senior Claudia Lu ’15 with support from dozens of students, faculty and staff. Videos of all presentations, produced

by Bailey Galvin-Scott ’14, can be found online at TEDxNewarkAcademy.com.

TEDxNewarkAcademy

Ideas Worth Spreading from NA to the World

By Jeff Vinikoor Last spring, Newark Academy hosted TEDxNewarkAcademy, a two-hour event in the new Upper School Academic Center’s Kaltenbacher Hall that featured six speakers from across the NA community.

TED (Technology, Education, Design), a nonprofit organization “devoted to spreading ideas,” allows individuals and organizations to host TEDx events (independently organized TEDstyle conferences) in their local communities.

Since the inception of TEDx in 2008, only a handful of secondary schools around the world have hosted a conference.

The speakers at TEDxNewarkAcademy focused their presentations on the event’s theme, “Beyond Content: Skills for the Future,” a topic stemming from NA’s 2013 Strategic Plan, which calls for the expansion of program initiatives aimed at helping students develop “the skills and qualities needed to meet the challenges of a complex, rapidly changing global environment.”

Presenters spoke about experiences that have allowed them to develop, practice and teach these skills and about why they value these qualities in themselves and others. In this way, presenters moved beyond the particular contexts of their individual experiences to address enduring issues for the future.

All the presenters evidenced a commitment to TED’s mission – “Ideas Worth Spreading” – yet each was uniquely motivated to participate.

Humanities teacher Benson Hawk sought to model risk-taking behavior for his students. “If we as a

school want our students to speak publicly, to travel globally, and to live passionately, we need to model these values,” explained Benson, who spoke about fostering risk-taking in the classroom.

Emma Baumgartner ’11 “wanted to spread the importance of an international experience.” And School Council President Matt Thekkethala ’15 aimed to share his experiences teaching basic skills to children in India with the Learn for Life Foundation, a nonprofit organization he founded in 2012.

Crafting, practicing and delivering the original memorized talks was a welcome challenge for the speakers. “I went through version after version, revising excessively so that I could be certain that my presentation was relevant, concise and memorable,” said Matt. By any measure, their hard work produced remarkable results. The presenters wowed the live audience of more than 100 students, faculty and guests, and video recordings of the six talks on YouTube have garnered more than 6,000 views.

“I could never fathom getting so many views on my talk so quickly,” said Vihar Desu ’15, who shared lessons from his experience developing an iPhone application. “I hope the talk generates some conversation about new ways to implement divergent thinking and creativity in schools.”

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PRESIDENTIAL WELCOME

President Barack Obama poses with faculty member Candice Powell; Newark Scholars Jocelyn Willoughby ’16, Katelynn Rodriguez ’16, Tiana Barkley ’17, Asia Moore ’16 and Yusuf Jackson ’18; and faculty member Amanda Addison ’06.

NA’s Newark Scholars and faculty members Amanda Addison and Candice Powell had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet President Barack Obama at a fundraiser in New York City. During the event, the students introduced themselves to President Obama and posed for a photo. “I said, ‘Hi Mr. President, these are my students,’” said Director of Equity and Inclusion Amanda Addison recalling her nervousness and excitement.

“What an impressive group of young people,” the President remarked after meeting the Scholars.

During his address at the fundraising event, President Obama delivered a message that is sure to resonate with many young people. Discussing the future of the nation, he said, “Cynicism is a choice but hope is an even better one.”

A TEST OF CHARACTER Newark Academy is participating in a ground-breaking independent school admission initiative. The multi-year project will attempt to develop a tool that assesses an applicant’s non-cognitive attributes. What does that mean? The assessment tool can be used in the admission process to offer insights into an applicant’s character.

Of course, independent schools like NA always look at non-cognitive traits and abilities of each applicant during the admission process. Those character attributes often include collaboration, perseverance, creativity, curiosity and motivation. The new tool aims to make the process of evaluating those areas more effective and more objective.

The driving force behind the initiative is the Secondary School Admission Test Board (SSATB), which administers one of the admission exams that NA uses.

SSATB’s Think Tank on the Future of

Assessment has been researching possibilities for non-cognitive assessment and now SSATB is working on a prototype assessment tool based on the Think Tank’s recommendations.

NA is one of the pilot sites for testing this assessment and one of only a few schools selected to be part of developing the assessment tool. In spring 2015, 50 current students in grades seven through nine will complete the practice assessment.

NA faculty will review the completed tests and provide feedback to SSATB. NA is also developing its own proprietary

non-cognitive assessment tool and will determine whether the SSATB tool, the proprietary tool or another option best meets the school’s particular needs.

“Knowledge is power,” says NA Director of Admission Will Taylor. “We’ve always had – and will continue to maintain – our own methods for determining whether an applicant’s character traits would be a good fit at NA. But the more information we have about a potential student, the more effective and objective our decisionmaking process can be.”

OUTREACH fall | winter 2014

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NA NEWS

FACULTY FOCUS

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NEWARK ACADEMY IS PLEASED TO WELCOME THREE NEW FACULTY MEMBERS:

welcome!

Erik Jacobsen and Michael Thayer in the Mathematics Department and Caitlin Berkefeld in the Science Department. We also welcome the return to the English Department of beloved former faculty member Dr. Elizabeth LaPadula.

FACULTY ACHIEVEMENTS Joe Ball (Humanities) participated in a summer institute on Neuroscience and Classroom Engagement. The event was offered by Learning & the Brain, an organization that provides educators with professional development opportunities to explore potential applications of the latest research in neuroscience and psychology.

Sarah Fischer (Humanities) was selected to participate in Race and Politics in the American Civil War, a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar hosted by the New York Historical Society. The selective program drew hundreds of applications from across the country for only 30 spots. Based on research presented during the seminar, Sarah has planned lessons for the AP curriculum and reworked the assignment for the sophomore class trip to Gettysburg. She also welcomed the opportunity to see and touch documents signed by General Robert E. Lee and Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S. Grant.

Vanessa Jimenez Gabb (English) was voted Poet of the Week by Brooklyn Poets, a nonprofit literary organization celebrating and cultivating the poets, poetry and literary heritage of Brooklyn.

Viraj Lal (Arts) served as vocal coach for the Paper Mill Playhouse Broadway Show Choir through its 10-month season. This selective exhibition show choir consists of 60 singers and dancers between the ages of 16 and 22 who act as ambassadors of the Paper Mill Playhouse with performances throughout the community and beyond.

Students selected for this talented group have the opportunity to fine-tune their craft with free, intensive instruction and a variety of public performance opportunities.

Candice Powell (Humanities) led a workshop at the 2014 NAIS People of Color Conference. The event, Flip the Script, Change the Narrative: Educating and Advocating for Black Male Students, facilitated a candid discussion about the broad and multidimensional challenges facing young black men in independent schools. Informed by current research and interviews with students, parents and educators, the workshop encouraged participants to break down barriers, reverse troubling trends and clear pathways to opportunity and success for black male students.

Von Rollenhagen and Dan Erlandson celebrated 30 years at Newark Academy.

NEWARK ACADEMY

Amy Schottland, Tom Ashburn, Pat Neary and William Blomn celebrated 15 years at Newark Academy.

Blackie Parlin celebrated 55 years at Newark Academy.

MILESTONES Congratulations to faculty and staff members celebrating milestone anniversaries at Newark Academy: 55 YEARS Blackie Parlin 30 YEARS Dan Erlandson Von Rollenhagen 25 YEARS Amy Emilianoff 15 YEARS Tom Ashburn William Blomn Pat Neary Amy Schottland 5 YEARS Robert Bitler Edward Pursell ’02

Edward Pursell ’02 and Robert Bitler celebrated 5 years at Newark Academy.

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DESTINATION: DELHI FACULTY TRIP TO INDIA IN MARCH 2015 A delegation of Newark Academy faculty will pack their bags and head to India during spring break 2015. The group will begin and end their journey in the city of Delhi. In between, they will travel to locations including the rock garden at Chandigarh; Shimla, the summer capital of the Raj; and, of course, the Taj Mahal.

The faculty trip is modeled on Newark Academy’s cultural, service and wilderness Immersion program for students. The NA cohort will stay with host families in the village of Thali and work on a service project there, teaching English and collaborating with local

AROUND THE WORLD IN 100 OBJECTS

teachers. The itinerary will also include

By Amy Schottland, Humanities Faculty

hikes through some of India’s most beautiful terrains and a rafting trip on

Thanks to a Newark Academy Faculty Enrichment grant, I fulfilled a lifelong dream last summer: to visit and study at the British Museum in London. While the vast collection of the British Museum has always been an integral part of NA’s ninth-grade Ancient World curriculum, I had never visited the institution. When I heard that BBC Radio had challenged the museum to choose and exhibit just 100 objects that reflect the various aspects of the human experience, I knew this could finally be my chance to visit.

The carefully selected artifacts in the exhibit, A History of the World in 100 Objects, date from the beginning of human history to the present. The exhibit offered a unique look at the way humans have defined, interpreted and influenced their world by examining the objects they left behind. I was fascinated by the way the objects were displayed – not chronologically, rooted in time and place, but rather by thematic and archetypal connections. This world-renowned museum was taking an imaginative approach to the study of history, inspiring me to consider how I might integrate their perspective into my classes.

During my visit I took advantage of educational opportunities including a “Lunch and Learn” gallery talk, hands-on activities and formal guided tours. One highlight of my visit was the day I was able to sit quietly with the Parthenon Marbles and just reflect on their grandeur and beauty. My only regret was that I had to leave – but I vowed to return someday soon.

the Sutlej River, sourced by the glacial melt of the Himalayas.

This unique opportunity is possible due to the generosity of the Newark Academy Parents Association. Through the proceeds from the Winter Benefit on February 21, 2015, NAPA will help fund this amazing journey that will inspire Newark Academy faculty long after they return home. Bon voyage!

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NA NEWS 12

Maria Rice Bellamy

Glenda McNeal

Sujata Pandiri

Tiffany Taylor Smith

Patrick Wang

NEW TRUSTEES The Newark Academy Board of Trustees recently welcomed five new members: Maria Rice Bellamy ’85 was a regular cast member in NA musicals and played on the state championship girls lacrosse team. She went on to Harvard University, where she earned a BA in economics. After working as a financial analyst and commercial lending officer, she served as a mission intern for the United Methodist Church.

Later, Maria returned to NA as an English teacher. She was also the Academy’s first Diversity Coordinator before leaving to pursue a PhD in English at Rutgers University. Maria is now assistant professor of English at the College of Staten Island (CUNY). She lives in Bloomfield, New Jersey, with her husband, Melvin, and their twin sons.

Glenda McNeal serves as executive vice president and general manager of the Global Client Group in Global Merchant Services at American Express. She serves on the boards of the United States Steel Corporation, RLJ Lodging Trust and the United Negro College Fund. Glenda earned her MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania and also holds a degree from Dillard

University in New Orleans. Glenda’s daughter, Sydney, is a senior at Boston College and her son, Carter, is in ninth grade at NA. Sujata Pandiri currently serves as president of the Newark Academy Parents Association (NAPA). Before taking on volunteer roles at her children’s schools, Sujata served as senior manager with Deloitte & Touche’s International Corporate Tax Consulting Group. Sujata holds an MBA in finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a BA in economics from Barnard College, Columbia University.

Sujata also attended The Madeira School, a secondary school for young women in McLean, Virginia. She lives in Chatham, New Jersey, with her husband and children. Her daughter Shama ’12 studies at the University of Chicago; her daughter Shivani ’14 is a freshman at Columbia University; and her son, Shaan, is a sophomore at NA. Tiffany Taylor Smith is the president of TR Taylor Consulting Group, focused on increasing cultural competence in schools,

CAMPUS SNAPSHOT

‚ NA’s 589 students come from 80 communities in New Jersey

‚ There are 407 students in the Upper School, 182 in the Middle School ‚ Students of color represent 45 percent of the student population

‚ The Class of 2015 consists of 92 students, including 22 National Merit Scholars, 4 National Achievement Scholars, 3 Hispanic Scholars and 26 International Baccalaureate candidates

businesses and community organizations.

She is also a school placement specialist working with international students interested in studying in the United States.

Tiffany serves as an adjunct professor of psychology at Kean University, teaching child and adolescent psychology. Before launching her own consulting firm, Tiffany worked for Procter & Gamble in sales, recruiting and training, and diversity.

She earned her BA in psychology from the University of Rochester and her MSEd in counseling from Fordham University.

Tiffany’s daughter, Taylor, graduated from NA in 2014 and her daughter, Kennedy, is in sixth grade at NA. Patrick Wang earned a BA in physics from Japan’s Shizuoka University and an MA in physics from Tokyo University.

He came to the United States to pursue a PhD in astrophysics from Harvard University. He went on to hold various research and teaching positions in astrophysics. After years in academia, Patrick joined Merrill Lynch’s Institutional Investment division. During his 13 years with the company, he was head of Global Quantitative Analysis in the rates group and was a managing director responsible for trading complex interest rates options.

Since retiring from Merrill Lynch, Patrick has served as a senior member of the portfolio management team at WCG Management, a hedge fund based in New York City. Patrick and his wife Vickie Yin live in Short Hills with their two daughters; their younger daughter, Crystal, is an NA sophomore.

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THE NA GLOBAL SPEAKER SERIES

Voices of the World

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he Newark Academy Global Speaker Series has brought eminent individuals from around the world to address the NA community.

This year, second-year faculty member Alexis Romay took on leadership of the program after several successful years of work by Derek Kanarek.

The Global Speaker Series committee includes student, faculty, administration and parent representatives. Members discuss the kinds of topics that would be of value and interest to the school then research possible speakers. In conducting research and sharing thoughts on the direction of the series, all committee members contribute to securing the best slate of speakers each year.

Alexis recognizes that student members of the committee appreciate opportunities to share in coordinating a successful Global Speaker Series.

“Students know what the community needs to hear about,” he said.

“The Global Speaker Series is facilitated by advisors but run by students.”

Over time, students on the committee have assumed increased responsibility for researching speakers, negotiating the logistics of their visits, and acting as ambassadors and coordinators for the speakers on campus.

The first Global Speaker of the year was Mirta Ojito, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author who has worked for the Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald and The New York Times. She shared a Pulitzer for national reporting in 2001 for a New York Times series on race in America. Her visit to Newark Academy was a joint effort by the NA Global Speaker Series and the Feinberg Multicultural Assembly.

Mirta addressed the NA community in October on the topic of immigration, then conducted breakout sessions in both English and Spanish – a first for the series. “We’re a globally conscious community, so approaching topics from different linguistic perspectives was a natural choice for our community and for Mirta Ojito,” Alexis said.

In November, Stephen Baker, a journalist, author and blogger, visited NA to discuss artificial intelligence. His first published book, The Numerati, discusses the increasing role that data mining plays in the realms of politics, business, law enforcement and even romance. The book highlights the mathematicians, consultants and programmers who harness information to learn more about people and precisely target them for a variety of purposes.

What’s next for the series? “Speakers that bring views and voices that are integrated with other areas of the Newark Academy curriculum can only benefit our community,” Alexis said. To that end, he looks forward to forging additional partnerships between the Global Speaker Series and other NA initiatives.

The Global Speaker Series Committee includes representatives from the faculty, student and parent communities. The members of the 2014-2015 Global Speaker Series Committee are: Faculty Advisors Alexis Romay, Director Richard DiBianca • Derek Kanarek Rayna Lifson • Candice Powell

Students Soven Bery ’15 • Claudia Lu ’15 Lila Rimalovski ’15 Rebecca Mandelbaum ’16 • Seth Wilensky ’16

Parent Amy Weiss (Parent of Julia ’05, Charlotte ’08 and Elizabeth ’12 Reisen)

The Global Speaker Series is funded, in part, by the Feinberg Multicultural Assembly Endowment.

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NA NEWS

ATHLETICS

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A League of Their Own NEWARK ACADEMY FOOTBALL JOINS HUDSON VALLEY LEAGUE

By Ted Gilbreath, Director of Athletics

THE 2011 AND 2012 SEASONS WILL PROBABLY GO DOWN IN THE RECORD BOOKS AS THE NADIR OF NEWARK ACADEMY FOOTBALL. The number of players was low, the number of injuries was high, and the Minutemen were forced to forfeit multiple games over that two-year span. Culturally, there was increased consciousness of the dangers of football, with headlines warning of high concussion rates and other health risks for players. Not only was the team losing games, but fewer and fewer parents seemed willing to let their sons play. On the verge of installing the second of the two new artificial turf fields, the administration had to decide whether they wanted to commit to football or whether Newark Academy would join many other small private schools in discontinuing the sport.

NEWARK ACADEMY

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ltimately, NA decided to stick with football for a variety of reasons: a belief that football games are powerful incubators of school spirit; a feeling that the rigor and discipline of football has a positive effect on the lives of our athletes; and, finally, a sense that football brings diversity to our school community. While all those involved in the decision were committed to moving forward, one thing was non-negotiable:

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FOR ATHLETIC NEWS AND UPDATES www.newarka.edu/athletics goNAMinutemen

@NAMinutemen

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football at Newark Academy would have to be safe. This safety would come in the form of a new league and schedule, state-of-the-art equipment, and proper coaching and preseason preparation.

To find the right opponents, Newark Academy asked for and was granted a release from the Super Essex Conference, and after two years as an independent team has found a football home in the Hudson Valley League, a conference that

to host “Friday Night Lights” games that includes schools from New Jersey, New have been very well attended and earned York and Connecticut. In the Super Essex the facility acclaim in local media. The next Conference, NA’s home for most other critical component was to replace all of the sports, the Minutemen were forced to team’s helmets with cutting-edge Schutt play group III and IV public schools with “Vengeance” helmets, literally thousands of which offer the best students. The deeper Football games are protection available rosters of those teams powerful incubators against concussions. allowed them to field of school spirit The team’s other varsity squads where protective equipment almost all of the has also been replaced with lighter and starters were seniors – essentially men – stronger versions. against Newark Academy sides that were As the team hit the weight room and routinely made up of freshmen and worked hard to ensure they were in top sophomores. Additionally, those teams physical condition, Coach Blomn and his could afford to field different players for staff re-examined how they taught tackling. offense and defense, while NA athletes Utilizing the “Heads Up Football” program were on the field for every snap. The best created by the National Football League, the analogy for this scenario is a boxer fighting coaches taught proper tackling techniques out of his weight class. that greatly reduce the chance of injuries.

In the Hudson Valley League, Newark Visitors to the practice field were impressed Academy exclusively plays schools of our by the extent to which the coaches and approximate size and mission (no football players had embraced the new methods, and factories) whose teams consist of athletes the results seemed to speak for themselves: from a mix of grades logging time on both the Minutemen finished the season with sides of the ball. Against these schools, a 5-4 record, earning second place in the NA has been at its most competitive.

Hudson Valley League. The team also Coach Blomn and the Minutemen are very remained healthy throughout the season. excited about their new home. While the team may be logging more time on the road than they have in years past, the opportunity to play competitive games more than makes up for any inconvenience.

In addition to league games, NA played three independent games this season against New Jersey schools Cardinal McCarrick, Montclair Kimberley Academy and Morristown-Beard.

In terms of equipment, by far the biggest upgrade has been the Coursen Field facility. By installing an artificial turf field, All of these steps have Minuteman Newark Academy ensured that its gridiron football poised to enjoy a level of success team would be playing and practicing on that has not been seen in a generation. The a safe surface. Anyone who played on the administration believes that this success, former field can attest to how sloppy and coupled with the new athletic facilities, dangerous it could become over the course will drive a surge in admissions that will of a season. Now players are guaranteed allow the team to continue toward even sure footing and soft landings. Coursen loftier heights in the near future. NA Field’s lights have allowed the Minutemen OUTREACH fall | winter 2014

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ARTS

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The cultural exchange went both ways, though, as the musicians got a first-hand view of European culture, history and traditions. The students participated in Viennese dancing, attended a Tyrolean

The American Music Abroad program fosters cross-cultural connections between American musicians and global audiences

The Language of Music NA STUDENTS PERFORM IN EUROPE

by Elaine Brodie, Arts Department Chair A glorious, reverberant echo lingered three or four seconds after the final chord was released in Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral. As it faded, the audience burst into thunderous applause. Young musicians from all over the United States had come together to share their love of music in a foreign land.

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ewark Academy students David Parker ’15, Kristie Petillo ’14, David Robusto ’15, Noah Wagner-Carlberg ’15 and Chloe Yu ’17, along with 62 other highly recommended high-school instrumentalists and singers, traveled through Europe for two weeks last summer on the American Music Abroad Red Tour.

NA Choral Director Viraj Lal also joined the group as co-conductor of the tour’s Concert Choir. The tour included Vienna, Westendorf, Salzburg, Rattenberg, Mauthausen and Mayrhofen in Austria; Prague in the Czech Republic; and Dresden, Dinkelsbühl, Leipzig, Deggendorf and Passau in Germany.

NEWARK ACADEMY

The American Music Abroad program fosters cross-cultural connections between American musicians and global audiences, so much of the tour focused on American music. Ensembles performed marches, folk songs, Broadway tunes, jazz standards, Disney songs, African-American spirituals and contemporary pop songs.

folkloric festival, went on historic city walking tours, hiked the Austrian Alps, and performed in historic cathedrals and music halls – the very same venues where Mozart, Bach, Brahms, Mendelssohn and other master composers once performed.

“One of my most memorable moments was when our ensembles performed a joint concert with the Freudenhain Gymnasium choir and band in Passau, Germany,” said Viraj. “It was incredible to see two completely different cultures come together through music. All language barriers were eliminated. The language of music spoke abundantly, articulately and universally.

The musicians shared an experience that was far greater than they could have ever imagined.”

Experiencing the atmosphere and energy in the streets of Germany in the moments after that country won the World Cup finals was another highlight for the students. With new friendships and memories of many appreciative audiences, these young musicians have returned to NA from the trip of a lifetime.

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DANCER IN RESIDENCE This year’s Artist in Residence is acclaimed singer, dancer and choreographer Jonathan Lee. Jonathan has an impressive résumé that includes performance and choreographic work for Grammy Award-winning musicians, television, theater and advertising. He teaches hip-hop at The Ailey Extension, Steps on Broadway and Dance New Amsterdam in New York.

Jonathan will be at Newark Academy in February, teaching dance, theater and vocal music classes. He is looking forward to collaborating with other disciplines, such as creative writing, as well.

ZOOM IN THE NEWARK ACADEMY COMMUNITY ART EXHIBIT January 20 - February 19, 2015 Entries due January 9, 2015 Each January, Newark Academy comes together as a community to create works of art based on a common theme – a concept, word or phrase that might spark the imagination. This year’s theme is Zoom In. What does it mean to zoom in? To focus a zoom lens or viewfinder in order to obtain a larger image or a closer view; to bring details into sharp focus; to magnify; to abstract.

Or think of the word zoom, as in speed, buzz, dart, dash, rocket, surge, whiz, zip, fly, rush, streak or bolt.

What does zoom in mean to you? This year, Newark Academy asks you to zoom in on your subject.

We invite you to approach the theme from any number of directions. Share your vision and submit a work of art to the 12th Annual Community Art Exhibit.

Contact Arts Department Chair and Gallery Director Elaine Brodie for details, ebrodie@newarka.edu

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math science18 technology engineering math STEM nce technology engineering math science technology engineering math STEM nce technology engineering math science technology neering mathSTEM science chnology engineering math math science technology neering mathSTEM science chnology engineering math science technology neering mathSTEM science chnology engineering math science technology neering mathSTEM science technology engineering hSTEM science technology neering mathSTEM science chnology engineering math science technology neering mathSTEM science chnology engineering math science technology neering mathSTEM science technology engineering math science technology engineering math STEM science technology engineering mathSTEM nce technology engineering hSTEM science technology neering mathSTEM science technology engineering hSTEM science technology neering mathSTEM science technology engineering hSTEM science technology neering mathSTEM science technology engineering hSTEM science technology neering mathSTEM science technology engineering hSTEM science technology NEWARK science ACADEMY neering mathSTEM technology engineering hSTEM science technology

NA NEWS

Full STEM Ahead INTERNSHIPS, PROJECTS AND OPPORTUNITIES ABOUND FOR STUDENTS INTERESTED IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATH (STEM) FIELDS AT NEWARK ACADEMY. Science teacher and Student Research Coordinator Robert Bitler has been cultivating relationships with area universities and corporations to offer research and internship opportunities to NA students. There is now a dedicated page on the Newark Academy website with information about upcoming opportunities to which students can apply.

NA’s Robotics and Engineering Club, with a growing membership of about 60 students, is hard at work on several unique projects, including a solar-powered phone charger, an electric bicycle, and a hot-air balloon that will hover over the athletic fields to take photos during games.

Finally, a team of three students will attend this year’s Panasonic Creative Design Challenge, which attracts teams from more than 50 high schools across New Jersey. The NA team is working on a multi-purpose robot for the first phase of the competition later this winter.

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A MOLECULE BY ANY OTHER NAME...

Just before the end of the 2013-2014 school year, a unique research project culminated in an evening of presentations by nine students who had worked for months on a molecular modeling initiative alongside NA parent Sol Jacobson, senior scientist at Henkel Corporation. Using the quantitative structure-activity relationship method to theorize the properties of different types of molecules, the students determined how these molecules might be useful in certain compounds and products.

IT ALL ADDS UP By participating in the American Math Competition, a national contest offered at Newark Academy each year, Mauranda Men ’16 earned a spot at the Math Prize for Girls competition at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Bringing together 300 talented students from across the nation, the competition, offered each September by the Advantage Testing Foundation, promotes gender equality in mathematics by recognizing talented, high-performing female students.

Mauranda describes competitive math as “more creative” than good old multiple-choice exams. A creative approach is attractive to Mauranda, who balances competitive math with her role as managing editor of Prisms, NA’s student literary magazine.

NOTES FROM THE LABORATORY BENCH Amani Garvin ’15 spent a STEM summer working in a condensed matter physics lab as part of the Girls’ Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Summer Program, offered through the NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (NYU GSTEM).

The program gives high-school juniors the chance to work on real-world projects with professional researchers.

Amani spent six weeks commuting to New York, meeting with fellow program participants and working in the lab. Her research focused on the magnetic fields needed to create skyrmion structures in ferromagnetic thin films. Skyrmions are structures that can store data or serve as time-keeping devices.

The program offered Amani opportunities to connect with female mentors in STEM fields and to meet other like-minded young women. “I loved having a network of strong female scientists and people who just love science,” she said.

Amani’s research culminated in a paper and presentation to a panel of judges. Her paper was chosen among the top five, but she is most proud of the knowledge that she gained as a researcher, learning something completely new in a setting that she’d thought she could only experience at the college level. “Now I read an article about nature nanotechnology and get excited about it,” Amani said.

The NYU GSTEM program aims to motivate young women to explore STEM fields, and they have certainly succeeded with Amani Garvin. NA OUTREACH fall | winter 2014

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NA NEWS

THE ARTS

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Elective Pursuits THE UNSUNG HEROS OF OUR CURRICULUM

by Jeff Vinikoor, Humanities Department Chair English teacher Stephanie Acquadro grew up watching and loving good movies. “When I was little and most of the viewing fare on early TV was old movies,” recalls Stephanie, “my mom could walk through the room, glance at the screen and say, ‘Oh, look. It’s Beulah Bondi’ or ‘Akim Tamiroff!’ – like I knew who they were. But after years of a steady diet of Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, I was hooked.”

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s an adult, Stephanie’s interest in the silver screen never waned, and in 2001, after taking a film theory and history course at New York University, she created Film Studies, a senior elective course that has allowed her to share her passion with Newark Academy’s students.

Today, Film Studies remains on the roster of academic electives offered as part of the Upper School program. Independently designed by Newark Academy faculty and departments and approved by the school’s Curriculum Committee, academic electives are untethered from standardized curricula and external examinations. As a result, teachers have increased flexibility in terms of scope and concentration. “It is hard to overestimate how important this is to the feeling and experience of freedom in the classroom,” explains Upper School Principal Rich DiBianca.

“The teachers can innovate and detour as they see fit.”

Science teacher Amy Hone has taken advantage of the opportunity to innovate in Anatomy and Physiology, an elective she has taught for seven years. “Everyone loves learning about how their body works,” says Amy, who designed the course to serve the needs of both students who are naturally drawn

NEWARK ACADEMY

to the biological sciences and those who are fascinated by the subject matter but less certain of their skills. The course offers students the opportunity to understand at a sophisticated level how the human body operates, with animal dissections and other investigations supplementing classroom study. On any given day, one might find students in Amy’s laboratory grappling to understand a model of the heart or examining human skin cells.

According to Amy, “Dissection of the fetal pig is always a high point of the year.”

Dr. DiBianca jokes that academic electives are “the unsung heroes of our curriculum,” since they are neither part of a required course sequence nor affiliated with the International Baccalaureate or Advanced Placement programs. Of course, the students who enroll in electives – typically juniors and seniors, many of whom take an elective as an extra (sixth) academic course – come to appreciate their unique elements. Elana Widmann ’10 took Politics of Change as a sixth academic course during her junior year. In this year-long elective created by Humanities teacher Amy Schottland, students examine the cultural and political ramifications of the 1960s as well as the challenges facing the

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2014-2015

Electives ENGLISH DEPARTMENT Creative Writing Workshop • 1960s Literature and Letters: Don’t Speak Too Soon • Sport, Story, Society • Film Studies: Fiction • Film Studies: Genres • Genius and Insanity • Sense of Place •

modern Middle East. “POC was the first time I felt that I was learning at a college-like level,” reflects Elana. She credits the course with helping her develop a greater sense of self while embracing other people’s differences.

Over the years, academic electives have covered a wide spectrum of topics and student interests – from world religions to personal finance, from neuroscience to creative writing. This year students are enrolled in two new offerings: 1960s Literature and Letters: Don’t Speak Too Soon, an English course in which students are reading the works of Capote, Didion and Baldwin, among others; and Mobile Application Design and Engineering, a computer programming course in the Mathematics Department in which students are creating and deploying mobile applications on cutting-edge platforms. Mathematics teacher Andrew Alford proposed the latter course in order to meet growing student interest in applied computer science and mobile technologies.

Now Andrew’s students are among dozens in the Upper School who are finding faculty-designed electives to be among their most distinctive educational experiences.” NA

HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT Politics of Change: Voices of the Middle East • Politics of Change: Voices from the Modern World • Holocaust and Genocide Studies • Economics •

MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT •

Mobile Application Design and Engineering

SCIENCE DEPARTMENT • •

• •

Anatomy and Physiology Engineering, Technology and Design Astronomy and Astrophysics Biotechnology

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a Nation of Contradictions NEWARK ACADEMY FACULTY MEMBERS TRAVEL TO NORTH KOREA

By Jeff Vinikoor, Humanities Department Chair NEWARK ACADEMY

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On a balmy afternoon last summer, NA faculty members Megan Lopretto (Health and Physical Education) and Rob Rezvani (Mathematics) enjoyed an impromptu game of beach volleyball and lighthearted conversation with a group of gregarious teenagers. The adolescents chatted about school and sports, especially basketball. While this encounter might have seemed rather insignificant in most of the world, it was in fact a rare opportunity, for Rob and Megan were engaging in informal, unmonitored conversation with citizens of one of the world’s most isolated nations: the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), commonly known as North Korea.

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ith the support of Newark Academy, Rob and Megan traveled in North Korea for 10 days in August as part of a group organized by Pyongyang Project, a Vancouver-based educational enterprise dedicated to responsible engagement with North Korea and co-founded by Matthew Reichel ’05.

Matt, who graduated from Brown University in 2009 with a degree in international relations and East Asian studies, returned to NA in September 2013 as a featured presenter in the Global Speaker Series. His talk, which addressed the challenges of working in a nation suspicious of outsiders and the unique ways in which his organization seeks to aid the North Korean people, piqued the interest of Rob and Megan. In order to enrich their work in the classroom, they decided they wanted to see the country firsthand through one of Matt’s study tours.

Rob, who taught in Japan prior to his arrival at NA, was particularly

interested in learning about the experiences of children in North Korea. “Pyongyang Project’s focus on adolescent development really hit home since I teach middle school students,” said Rob. “I help shape the minds of today’s youth and, in doing so, have a responsibility to open their minds to life around the world.” Megan sought to understand the hardships faced by North Koreans.

“Visiting the DPRK,” she said, “has given me the opportunity to bring a concrete global perspective into many of my lessons – about nutrition, health status, ethics and social responsibility.”

Both Megan and Rob found North Korea to be a nation of contradictions. “The entire countryside was dotted with fields tilled by cow-drawn ploughs,” recalled Megan, “but there was almost no fruit and very little produce available for sale.

Many of the poorest North Korean people subsist on a diet of rice, corn and locally grown vegetables, yet we were served bountiful

amounts of meat and fish.” Rob observed, “We didn’t see any ill people, any disabled people, any homeless people, any starving people.

We were acutely aware that we were only seeing certain aspects of North Korean society.”

Perhaps the most difficult part of the trip was Megan and Rob’s inability to discuss or question what they were seeing while they were in North Korea. Before the flight from China to Pyongyang, Matt warned the group that hotel rooms could be bugged and that any notes or photographs taken while in the country could be confiscated upon departure. That may be why Megan and Rob found their impromptu encounter with a group of teenagers on a beach so remarkable. “Our scheduled visits and arranged exchanges were invaluable,” said Rob, “yet it was during the unplanned moments that we were able to grasp the deep human connections between us and the North Korean people.”

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a Nation of Contradictions A PHOTO JOURNEY THROUGH NORTH KOREA

PYONGYANG. Traffic lights recently introduced in the capital city have resulted in fewer traffic guards.

Curiously, though, when guards were posted at intersections where they were no longer needed, they continued to stand and watch the occasional passing vehicles.

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KAESONG. In this historic city just six miles from the Demilitarized Zone, which separates the North from the South, Rob and Megan participated in Liberation Day, the celebration of national independence. Local residents in traditional North Korean formal wear carried flowers as they marched in waves up a hill to bow before a bronze statue of their “dear leader,� Kim Il-Sung.

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COUNTRYSIDE. A lack of heavy machinery in the countryside requires rural people to engage in the type of manual labor not seen in the developed world. In one city, farmers lacked the equipment and infrastructure needed to harvest and distribute the massive crop of potatoes that the government required them to grow.

KAESONG. Two young girls gaped at the foreigners on their walk to school.

Each wears a pin with the faces of Kim II-Sung and Kim Jong-II, a requirement for all citizens as a sign of respect and loyalty.

The pins are issued exclusively by the government.

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a Nation of Contradictions A PHOTO JOURNEY THROUGH NORTH KOREA

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KAESONG. Propaganda billboards and national flags appear on every street throughout the country.

PYONGYANG FOUNTAIN PARK. As teachers, Rob and Megan were concerned about the morale of the children in DPRK. Would they be innately playful and cheerful despite the widespread repression, fear and starvation portrayed in the media? As the two approached the Fountain Park, they were greeted by the uplifting sounds of children giggling and splashing water on each other. It was reassuring to know that, even in North Korea, kids were still kids, enjoying their time outside with friends.

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HAMHUNG CITY SQUARE. When the travelers arrived at the city square, the uniformed man in the photo began blowing his whistle, warning local pedestrians and bicyclists to keep their distance. The group suddenly realized they had the square to themselves, noting that this was one of the rare circumstances when authorities did not want the locals to interact with foreigners.

TUMEN RIVER FRIENDSHIP BRIDGE (North Korea/China Border Crossing). According to Rob and Megan, the border crossing at the conclusion of their trip was one of the most intense parts of the trip. Only after enduring strict exit procedures (including a search of all electronic devices for photos and files deemed inappropriate) were they permitted to walk across the bridge from North Korea to China. Many Chinese tourists come to this spot and are allowed to walk partially across the bridge to take photos. This is the river that many defectors – some successful, some unsuccessful – must cross in order to make their way into China. After 10 days of strict surveillance, during which they were unable to leave the group at any time, Rob and Megan’s first reaction when crossing into China was to exclaim, “FREEDOM!” NA OUTREACH fall | winter 2014

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ADVANCEMENT 28

Preparing for the Next 50 Years Campaign Momentum Continues In 1964, Newark Academy’s trustees and academic leaders had the vision to move the school to its present Livingston campus, ensuring the future success of this historic institution.

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ifty years later, Rise & Flourish: The Campaign for Newark Academy aims to equip the school with all it needs to continue to thrive well into the future. Thanks to the support of more than 330 NA alumni, parents and friends, this visionary dream is becoming a reality, as the campaign surpassed the $20 million fundraising milestone in June 2014.

The tremendous fundraising success of Rise & Flourish has already enabled the school to build the new Upper School Academic Center, renovate the athletic fields, admit the first six Newark Scholars and significantly bolster the endowment. As momentum builds, plans are on track to begin construction on the new Middle School building in Summer 2015. This new building will create a much-needed independent environment for Middle School students and faculty to learn, collaborate and play, and it will also free up critical space for other campus enhancements. The present Middle School common space will be replaced by an extension of the dining hall, and the current Middle School science labs will be transformed into state-of-the-art Upper School physics labs.

In addition, the new Middle School will help pave the way for the campaign’s final capital project: the expansion and renovation of Rose Auditorium, scheduled to take place after the move to the new building frees up current classroom space. The renovation will bring significant improvements in both technology and facilities for NA’s performing artists and will also make it possible for the long-cherished all-school Morning Meeting tradition to continue as student enrollment grows.

All of these campus changes respond to genuine needs, ensuring that NA students and faculty will have the space and resources for an exceptional academic experience in the 21st century. In this way, Rise & Flourish marks another important historic moment for the school, as the generous outpouring of support from alumni, parents and friends allows Newark Academy’s legacy of excellent education to continue through this generation and the next. NA

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This new building will create a much-needed independent environment for Middle School students and faculty to learn, collaborate and play, and it will also free up critical space for other campus enhancements.

NA ROLLS OUT NEW PLANNED GIVING WEBSITE

Few of us relish having discussions about wills, life insurance policies, retirement plans or any of the other elements of estate planning.

Nonetheless, it is important to make arrangements to ensure that your estate plans provide for the people you love – and for the organizations you hold dear. An estate gift, also known as a planned gift, can be a simple and meaningful way to make a lasting impact on those organizations that mean the most to you. For those alumni, parents or friends who are looking to include Newark Academy in their estate plans, the Advancement Office’s new Planned Giving website is a useful place to start learning more about the options available.

This easy-to-navigate, interactive site features answers to frequently asked questions, details about different planned giving vehicles, and inspirational stories about members of the 1774 Society, which honors all those who include NA in their estate plans. The site also provides contact information for Advancement staff members who would be happy to discuss planned giving options one-on-one.

Visit NA’s new Planned Giving site today to learn more: newarka.plannedgiving.org OUTREACH fall | winter 2014

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ADVANCEMENT 30

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Funding Scholars Financial Resources for Deserving Students Newark Academy is committed to enrolling the most talented and deserving applicants regardless of financial background, and to maintaining a balanced, diverse community of students representing the cultural, ethnic and socioeconomic diversity of northern New Jersey. To achieve that end, NA provides more than $2 million in financial assistance to qualified students whose families cannot afford the school’s full tuition.

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his year, we have 92 students who are the recipients of financial aid packages that make their attendance at NA a possibility,” says Director of Admission Will Taylor. “That’s more than 15 percent of the student body receiving an average aid package of approximately $28,000.”

Financial aid at Newark Academy is provided by three sources: Newark Academy’s general endowment, earmarked funds from its operating budget, and 25 privately established scholarship funds.

NA parents, alumni and alumni parents have established scholarships in their families’ names or in honor of beloved faculty and coaches. The school has also received scholarship support from prestigious foundations such as The Edward E. Ford Foundation and the Malone Family Foundation.

Dr. John C. Malone established the Malone Family Foundation in 1997 with the goal of improving access to quality education for gifted students lacking the financial resources to best develop their talents.

“Today the Malone Foundation has an extensive network of about 50 independent schools around the country who’ve received endowed funds from the Foundation after a rigorous research and qualification process,” explains Lisa Grider, Director of Institutional Advancement. “In 2000 Newark Academy was one of the first two schools to receive an endowment gift of $2 million from the Foundation, and since then 14 students have been named Malone Scholars.”

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One of these scholars is Kumar Ghafoor ’10 who expresses deep appreciation for the academic opportunities he enjoyed as a student at NA. “My scholarship allowed me to attend Newark Academy, where I was encouraged by outstanding teachers who challenged me, and surrounded by other students who seek as I do to make a positive impact on the world,” says Kumar. He particularly valued

NA parents, alumni and alumni parents have established scholarships in their families’ names or in honor of beloved faculty and coaches.

the challenging and vibrant intellectual discourse he experienced at the school. “Throughout my time at NA, I noticed that daily conversations would revolve around topics such as the tradeoffs between climate change, going green and a capitalist society. Those types of conversations first occurred when I was 13 years old, in the eighth grade. As my years at NA followed, the conversations became more robust as each student had more insight to add.”

After graduating from NA, Kumar attended Drexel University, where he stood out as a student leader. He majored in economics and minored in political science.

After finishing his undergraduate studies in June, he began working in management consulting as an associate for Grant Thornton.

While the Malone Foundation’s endowed fund has been supporting scholars for more than a decade, one of NA’s newest scholarship initiatives has already made a substantial impact. Assisted by the generosity of a loyal alumnus, the Newark Scholars Program provides comprehensive financial support for all education-related expenses to worthy scholars from the city of Newark. In the fall of 2012, NA welcomed the program’s first six Newark Scholars to campus. NA

NAMED SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n

Matthew C. Baumeister Memorial Scholarship Fund Alex Bloom Scholarship Fund Charles Edward Bloom Fund Joseph Borlo Scholarship Fund Class of 2004 Endowed Scholarship Fund E.E. Ford Foundation Fund Melvin A. Glucksman Memorial Scholarship Fund Green Family Scholarship Fund Robert J. Hendrickson Scholarship Fund Kilcullen Family Endowed Scholarship Fund John Kim Memorial Scholarship Fund Kindle A. Spark Scholarship Fund Kruvant Family Scholarship Fund Lomker Family Scholarship Fund Lustig Family Scholarship Fund Malone Family Foundation Endowment Fund Newark Academy Parents Association Fund Newark Scholars Endowed Fund Betty Newman Scholarship Fund Claire Driver Redmond Fund Elizabeth P. Riegelman Scholarship Fund Silverman Family Scholarship Fund William E. Simon ’46 Scholarship Fund Annette Tomaino Endowed Scholarship Fund Roger Vaughan ’27 Memorial Scholarship Fund

For more information about establishing a scholarship fund or contributing to an existing fund, please contact Lisa Grider at lgrider@newarka.edu or (973) 992-7000.

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Newark

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Livingston

from city school NEWARK ACADEMY

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50 CELEBRATING

YEARS

in LIVINGSTON

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NEWARK ACADEMY, 1964

by Garrett Caldwell, Humanities Faculty

hen I began to write my master’s thesis a few

years ago, on private schools in the postwar era

(case study: Newark Academy), I was disappointed

to learn that personal interviews were off-limits. Stick to

archival evidence, I was told. This was not an insignificant setback. Practically speaking, interviews would have saved

time: 30 minutes with faculty member Blackie Parlin is the equivalent of five hours in the school archives. But beyond

that, I simply enjoy listening to people talk about their pasts.

So when the editor of Outreach approached me about

writing this article to commemorate the 1964 move from

Newark to Livingston and suggested that I contact NA faculty, students and trustees from the time, I eagerly accepted.

All of us in the NA community are familiar to some

degree with the school’s historic connection to the city of Newark. The school name, of course, reminds us daily.

Current school leaders who taught and studied at the First

Street campus, such as Blackie Parlin or NA Trustee Larry Cetrulo ’67, offer direct links with the school’s past. The

Academy’s Colonial imagery and references reinforce the connection, as the school was directly affected by British

destruction in the city. Less obvious is the school’s emblem,

depicting a book and five sunbeams with the motto Ad Lumen; the sunbeams represent the five different locations of the Academy, four of which were within Newark.

tocountry campus OUTREACH fall | winter 2014

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TOWARD A TURNING POINT

The postwar era was a time of crisis for Newark Academy, as it was for many private schools. In fact, many schools closed after the Depression and war years of the 1930s and 1940s. The Academy, had it stayed in Newark, might have met a similar fate. Or, as one NA headmaster in the early 1950s warned, it might have become an “inner-city school” with an entirely different identity and mission.

In his 1951 book Why the Private School?, Lawrenceville Headmaster Allan Heely wrote that a private school “enjoys the particular advantage that it can be as good as it wants to be, if it can find out what that is.” Heely may have had Newark Academy, among others, in mind when he called for private schools to reflect and reform. The Academy in the early 1950s was at an all-time low point: enrollment was down and finances were in disarray. The school’s historic reputation for excellence was tarnished.

To make matters worse, the Academy’s constituents were leaving Newark in droves. The city, and the First Street area in particular, was experiencing rapid decline. “White Flight” began a half century earlier but accelerated dramatically after the war.

Meanwhile, the school’s leaders seemed to be working at cross-purposes. Trustees felt a stronger

in 1954 under new president Stuart Z. Hawkes brought in many new voices with fresh ideas about fundraising, marketing and public relations. Miller and the trustees worked well together; they successfully merged traditional standards of excellence with modern relationship-oriented business principles.

Newark Academy’s postwar reinvention was not quite complete, though. Its existence was still threatened by two factors beyond its control: demographic change and neighborhood decline. But by the mid-1950s the Academy was financially and philosophically secure enough to imagine greener pastures, quite literally.

Trustees no longer talked of merging with the likes of Montclair Academy or The Kimberley School. In a highly charged meeting one night in 1957, the trustees voted to go it alone in the suburbs.

In a highly charged meeting one night in 1957, the trustees voted to go it alone in the suburbs.

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athletics program would attract students and thus stepped in to recruit and steer scholarship money in that direction. Headmasters fought to allocate resources to the more scholarly and needy. The trustees fired one headmaster as a result of this conflict; another was so frustrated that he resigned and went into banking.

The Academy was desperately in need of strong leadership, and the school found it in Headmaster Donald Miller. Beginning in 1952, Miller instituted reforms and in two years turned the school around: standards rose while enrollment stabilized and then trended upwards.

In business terms the school improved dramatically as well. The expansion of the Board of Trustees

FAREWELL TO FIRST STREET

In the spring of 1963, Suburban Life ran an article titled “New Home for Tutor of Great Minds,” followed by this subtitle: “Newark Academy has a genius for environment, both its selection and exploitation. The fame acquired in an urban setting promises to grow brighter on broader acres.” Headmaster Robert M. Butler (Miller’s successor), Hawkes, and other trustees and administrators smiled broadly in the accompanying photograph. They had raised enough money to begin construction of the new school building.

Despite widespread recognition of its necessity, the impending move inspired mixed feelings. The

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from city school to country campus Academy, after all, had a nearly two-century relationship with Newark. In a Sunday Newark News article, long-serving NA administrator George C. Hindenlang spoke about the historic connection between the school and the city. He said that so many members of the Newark Academy community had become prominent Newark leaders “that you fairly stumble over them when you go downtown.” He noted that Hawkes directed United Hospitals of Newark, that Joseph M. Byrne Jr. had been a Newark city commissioner, and that trustee Paul Busse ’38 headed the Newark Economic Development Committee.

The move raised a number of difficult questions, chief among them: What would relocating to the suburbs mean for the school’s relationship with Newark?

What would it mean for the demographics of the school? These questions remain relevant still.

There was no question, though, about what the move meant for the Academy’s educational identity.

Since the founding in 1774, the school aimed to train minds and build character, and its new suburban home was not going to change that. Headmaster Butler said before the move that the school would continue to ensure that “each boy develop his own intellectual

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both campuses, but it was with particular fondness that he reminisced about First Street. He recalled how “at dusk the lights came through the huge windows at the back of the school and enveloped and embraced the football field and track.” He remembered the L-shaped building and loved how the athletic field was “nestled in the fold” of the school.

Parlin, however, remembered things from a different perspective: with a smile he noted that the athletic field was either a “swampy morass or the sands of Sahara,

left: Larry Cetrulo ’67 with Coach Hendrickson

awareness.” The Newark Academy student, he explained, would continue to be “encouraged to think for himself, to express opinions freely, and to stand up for his ideas in a polite and courteous manner.”

The move would be particularly significant for athletics. On 68 acres of farmland, the Academy could build the facilities it needed to remain competitive.

Hindenlang noted that Paul Busse was the most outstanding athlete of that decade at the Newark campus, despite its relatively meager sports facilities.

One wondered, then, what kind of athlete might emerge on the Livingston campus, with its new pool and properly shaped baseball field.

Although lazy fly balls to right field at the First Street campus landed on train tracks, the facilities and building hold special memories for those who studied and taught there. Larry Cetrulo was a star athlete on

above: NA athletes on the Newark campus

He remembered the L-shaped building and loved how the athletic field was “nestled in the fold” of the school.

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depending on the weather.” His perspective might have been colored by attending NA football games at Pingry’s new Hillside facility in the early 1960s.

Pingry, he said, had a “six-man gardening crew.”

The school building on First Street was situated in the north end of Newark, adjacent to Branch Brook Park. Jim Manning, who taught at both the First Street and Livingston campuses, recalled that the park

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Former faculty member Jim Manning with students

by car. Vinnie Strully ’65 commuted with five of his classmates from Fairlawn and Paterson in a Cadillac funeral car driven by a young upstart undertaker looking for extra money.

Faculty and students remembered the First Street building as being “beautiful and magnificent” and “elegant.” Parlin described the building as a “three-story Georgian style building with an impressive entryway and classrooms with wooden wainscoting and built-in bookshelves and an abundance of space.”

(No one worried about heating costs in those days, he added). Classrooms held up to 25 students comfortably and were equipped with tablet desks as well as large oak tables at the back to facilitate small-group discussion. Parlin fondly recalled the several generations’ worth of carvings on the desktops, which made test taking difficult but gave the classrooms character.

Unfortunately, the First Street neighborhood had declined considerably by the early 1960s. To stem the tide of vandalism, trustees arranged for more police presence. In return, they allowed the Police Athletic League to use the

Since the founding in 1774, the school aimed to train minds and build character, and its new suburban home was not going to change that.

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was “considered to be one of the loveliest public parks in the greater New York area, large, sprawling, with plenty of gravel roads for the carriages to travel on, and a show of cherry blossoms every spring that rivaled the display on the Potomac.” The nearby residential areas of Forest Hill, Prospect Hill and others, he recalled, had been “home to the wealthier and more influential Newark leaders, who very early on sent their sons to Newark Academy.”

Access to public transportation was always an advantage of the First Street location. Anthony Sarno ’66, who arrived at the Academy as a first grader in 1954, used to walk 10 minutes down Ballantine Parkway, through the Ballantine Gates, and across a grassy stretch of Branch Brook Park to get to the Davenport subway station; from there, he rode the subway along the edge of the park to the stop near First Street. Stuart Fischer ’67 came from Jersey City by public bus and subway. Some students came

Academy field for free. One faculty member recalled hearing a number of stories about the garage-like building across the street from the school. On the outside it appeared to be a ballpoint pen factory, but it was rumored to be either a brothel or an organized crime headquarters. Another building next door to the school was a tenement house. The teacher remembered seeing people coming and going from that building.

The school experienced a shock one morning when a student looked out the back window and saw

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Vandalized front door of First Street building in Newark

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from city school to country campus a large object hanging from the goalpost. Someone had hung himself during the night.

One summer day in 1964, Cetrulo and his friends visited their old school on First Street, which had closed its doors for good just a few weeks before.

They were saddened to see that the building had been vandalized already. They entered and were careful to avoid what they presumed were the vandals inside at the time. They ascended the stairs that led to the cupola.

“Inside a room off the stairwell,” Cetrulo said, “were thousands of NA memorabilia, like pictures of teachers and students, class and team photos, candid yearbook photos, student newspapers, and old yearbooks.”

Cetrulo and his friends went to a local store to get boxes to take and preserve these artifacts, but by the time they returned an hour later the room was on fire.

Cetrulo thought that someone inside the building must have followed them and started the fire after they left for the boxes.

To help finance the move to Livingston, the trustees needed to sell the First Street building and land, which proved difficult. The trustees found a buyer, but Federal Housing Authority roadblocks upended the deal. Later, there were buyers interested in the land only. It was not until the late 1960s that the trustees finally sold the land – for much less than they had expected – and paid to have the building demolished.

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SETTLERS ON THE MOON

In the fall of 1963, Newark Academy students and faculty were bussed from First Street to Livingston for

In the fall of 1963, Newark Academy students and faculty were bussed from First Street to Livingston for the laying of the cornerstone of the new school. the laying of the cornerstone of the new school. This was an historic moment, marking the Academy’s fourth move – and the first out of Newark. Cetrulo was on one of the buses; he thought it was “an incredibly long journey.” The route along Northfield Avenue, a slow-going country back road at the time, was lined with farmland and woods for much of the way. The new campus was only eight miles from First Street, but the trip took 50 minutes. For Cetrulo and many of his classmates, it was a different world. His father asked him after the ceremony what the new school was like and he replied, “It’s like being on the moon.”

The Academy’s demographics changed as a result of the move. According to Jim Manning, who taught at both campuses, the second- and third-generation Newark students were now joined by boys from the suburbs west of the city. “This surely created a richer mix as I recall, and we all enjoyed the results,” Manning said. “There was a decline, however, in the number of boys from Jersey City, Paterson and Bayonne, which made the First Street classes so much fun. Not to say the Livingston mix was dull, not at all.

Just different.”

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For students who lived in Newark and adjacent towns like Belleville, Bloomfield and Kearny, the move to Livingston posed transportation problems.

For Sarno the move was “a very big deal.” He lived in north Newark and now had to commute by van with a group of other boys. Strully was unable to participate in after-school athletics because of the long ride back to Fairlawn. Cetrulo participated in sports, but at the risk of being stranded if football practice ran late.

Academy athletes were the first to arrive at the new campus in the late summer of 1964, when the school was still under construction. Since the athletic fields were not yet ready, Coach Bob Hendrickson held football practice across South Orange Avenue

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Shaking his head, Parlin admitted that they said the Academy looked like a new A&P grocery store.

Faculty and students liked the new school building, though. For Manning, the building was a very pleasant change from First Street. He appreciated the “spacious, beautifully lit front lobby and the general feeling of spaciousness that extended through the corridors, new library and auditorium.”

He noted, “It was a place to be proud of.” Strully thought similarly. Whereas the First Street building was dark, drab and institutional, he said, the new building was modern, bright and open.

The faculty was excited to finally have department offices. There was some initial grumbling about the lack of windows and the poor air circulation. Of course, that might have had something to do with the fact that most of the faculty smoked (even during classes).

One faculty member recalled that a colleague smoked so much that he

above: Morning Meeting in Livingston

In Livingston, daily chapel was replaced by Morning Meeting; there were no more hymns, but a short talk on good behavior was still common.

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on the property of Foster Wheeler, the global engineering firm.

Sarno recalled the wide open spaces around the school as a boon because of the abundant parking.

Parlin had a different memory of the campus space; he recalled other schools’ athletic teams mocking the Livingston campus for its lack of trees, lawns and shrubbery.

used a hubcap as an ashtray. Complaints melted away soon enough, though. “We were just glad to have our desks in the same area,” Manning said.

The faculty was not fond of the new classroom design, though – in particular, the rooms with flexible divider walls that were not soundproof. Parlin was assigned a partitioned room and dreaded the day that he would be giving a test while his colleague next door was lecturing on the same topic. The faculty generally missed the classroom decor of the old building.

Everyone appreciated the new library and studios, which allowed for more varied curricular and extracurricular offerings. Charles Abbey, one particularly popular faculty member, was able to

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from city school to country campus form an NA chapter of the National Forensics League.

Strully and his fellow debaters made good use of the new library to do research.

There were some changes to the daily routine.

On First Street, most days had begun with a gathering in the chapel, where hymns were sung and the headmaster delivered a short talk. “That talk was about one of the virtues,” Manning recalled. “I think punctuality, good hygiene and no cheating were favorite topics.” In Livingston, daily chapel was replaced by Morning Meeting; there were no more hymns, but a short talk on good behavior was still common.

Many things stayed the same, though. The traditional dress code of jacket and tie remained in place. Manning recalled how the headmaster’s announcement, on particularly hot days, that jackets could be removed was received with the joy “Snow Day” brings today.

Strully noted that the quality of teaching remained excellent; Parlin’s history course was the hardest course he ever took, and subsequent college courses seemed easy by comparison. He recalled the advice Parlin gave him when he wanted to take time off from school to

building, and a parking lot. The school has also improved existing facilities and made significant investments in new equipment and technology. Plans for a separate Middle School building and a renovation to the auditorium are underway.

“The expansion and improvement of plant and equipment is important for the school to remain competitive,” said Head of School Don Austin. But what is most important, he stressed, is the school’s commitment to educational quality, teaching excellence

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Newark Academy today

become a civil rights demonstrator.

“Mr. Parlin had a knack for bringing the civil rights issues of the day alive for his students,” Strully said. Parlin told him to stay in school and get skills and then to go out and make the world a better place.

AND ON INTO THE FUTURE

Newark Academy today looks much different than it did in 1964. For one, it is considerably more diverse.

There were no female students and few people of color then. And certainly no one today would compare today’s Newark Academy to a grocery store.

The Academy’s recent facilities expansions are impressive. In just a few years the school has added an Upper School Academic Center – complete with classrooms, conference rooms and a lecture hall – plus two multi-use turf athletic fields with lights, a concession

and diversity. “The school must always ask questions and be continually in a state of reinvention,” said Austin.

By reinventing itself 50 years ago, Newark Academy survived its most serious crisis. Amid rapid social, economic and political change, the Academy in the postwar era found a way to remain relevant. In the process, it laid the foundation for a bright future. NA

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FROM THE ARCHIVES 40

by Blackie Parlin

Today’s Young Adult Literature:

What Would Horatio Alger Say? MY SUMMER READING OBJECTIVE THIS YEAR WAS TO BECOME INFORMED ABOUT THE GENRE OF “TEENAGE ROMANCE.” Barnes & Noble devotes as much shelf space to this genre as it does to the histories of America, Europe and the rest of the world. There are four times as many Teenage Romances as there are books on religion and 12 times as many as there are books on philosophy. What is this genre? I wanted to know.

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asked my wife to pick up two Teenage Romances, but she misunderstood and brought me two Harlequin Romances – another genre of which I was ignorant.

I was surprised in reading the first book at how quickly the characters were sweating. In the first chapter,

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she sat on a bar stool while he stood behind her: “A sensual aura oozed from him,” and an “electric current… suffused her whole body.” I guessed what was ahead.

Between couplings there were shopping excursions, sports cars, luxury

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In our age, there has been no compelling work of literature forcing the issues of injustice and unfairness on the public consciousness.

penthouses, a “jaw-dropping architectural masterpiece of a hotel,” enough traumas for a small city, and then marriage following a surprise pregnancy. I didn’t check CliffsNotes, but the theme seemed to be that “human beings are predisposed to carrying a hell of a lot of baggage.”

I have to admit that I couldn’t finish the second Harlequin; the book became a colossal bore. And anyway, my goal had been to understand a different, albeit related, genre.

So: Teenage Romance. I admit that my sample size was small – two more romances – but I believe I can generalize.

The main foci are facial complexion, body shape, experiments in amour, cliques and boyfriends. I was shocked by the prevalence of boyfriend stealing.

I could not be paid to plow through another Teenage Romance. But my reading got me to thinking about Horatio Alger. Alger was the author, not the hero, of about 100 novels for young boys. A good friend annually gave me tattered Horatio Alger novels, so over the years I read quite a few. I used to laugh contemptuously about these novels, until I heard my father-in-law’s view.

My father-in-law, a brilliant and very fine man, always said that there were two aids to his escape from the ghetto of New York City. The child of Russian-Polish, Yiddish-speaking parents,

he felt lost in America. Then a public school teacher told his sixth-grade class: “You talk funny, you dress funny, you act funny, but I am going to teach you how to be American.”

“Opi,” I said to my beloved fatherin-law, “that was cruel and terrible.”

“No,” he replied, “I knew she was right, and I welcomed her help.” Then he went on to express gratitude to Horatio Alger. “Life seemed so daunting to me as a child that I often felt helpless.

Horatio Alger’s young heroes always worked hard and made moral decisions that inexorably led to a stroke of luck and propelled them out of poverty. That faith gave me hope and ambition.” (Opi became a prominent eye surgeon.)

The Harlequin Romances and the Teenage Romances both seemed totally devoid of redeeming values or literary merit, offering pure escapism for minds consumed by issues of the body. Horatio Alger’s novels, by contrast, presented values and taught a great deal about how to prevail in urban life.

Reflecting upon my summer reading, I realized that our age has not seen a genre of literature that once shaped America: the novel of compassion and reform which, within an interesting plot, addressed the moral issues of the day. This was the genre of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s indictment of slavery, Edward

Bellamy’s critique of the American economic system, and John Steinbeck’s portrayal of the strength of “The People” in enduring injustice.

Although the Wall Street protests were often portrayed as somewhat comical and pathetic, the phrase “the 99 percent and the 1 percent” has caught on, and the inequities of wealth distribution in America have been much publicized. But there has not been a focused demand for remediation, as there was in earlier eras of reform.

Perhaps this is because, in our age, there has been no compelling work of literature forcing the issues of injustice and unfairness on the public consciousness.

How can the public be mobilized for constructive public policy if we are fed the escapist and soporific literature of Harlequin and Teenage Romances? NA

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HOMECOMING & REUNION 2014 42

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A GREAT DAY TO BE HOME Record numbers of fans and families flocked to the NA campus for Homecoming 2014. The day began with the Be the One 5K Run to benefit the Annual Fund. Participants enjoyed the early-morning quiet as they walked, jogged and ran the course, beginning and ending on majestic Coursen Field. Michael Yogg ’64 earned First Place Male Alum and Jackson Powers ’20 took First Place Under 18.

Many families brought several generations to join in the afternoon of Homecoming fun. Kids of all ages sported their NA gear and delighted in cheering on the Minuteman teams, painting pumpkins, bouncing around bouncy castles, sampling all of the game day food and toasting s’mores.

The NA Pep Band and the Academy Voices brought their talent and spirit to Coursen Field. The football team emerged victorious over the Harvey School Cavaliers.

Over on Kacur Field, girl’s soccer had a decisive win over Science Park and boy’s soccer beat Delaware Valley Regional High School.

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Class Rep Breakfast The annual class rep breakfast provided an opportunity for class reps from many different years to reunite on campus and learn about new initiatives for the coming year.

Alumni Awards Reception HONOREES

1 Leo M. Gordon ’69 Board of Governors Medal Presented by Will Green ’69

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2 Jonathan Olesky ’74 Fulton MacArthur Award Presented by Don Austin, Head of School 3 Robert Wellen ’64 Alumni Achievement Award Presented by Michael Yogg ’64 4 Peter McNeely Athletic Hall of Fame Award Presented by Will Taylor, Director of Admission

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5 Lee Abbey Distinguished Faculty Award Presented by Joe Ball, Humanities Faculty

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THE 6TH ANNUAL

WOMEN OF NA LUNCHEON Honoring Successful and Distinguished Newark Academy Women HONOREES

Joan Parlin, Retired Faculty Adrien Wing, JD ’74, Keynote Speaker Pamela Huttenberg, Former Trustee

WOMEN OF DISTINCTION

Michele Smith-Blackwood, MD ’79 Barbara Marino ’84 Candia Herman ’74 Asha Talwar ’99 front: Rebecca Moll Freed, Esq. ’94 Marika Alzadon ’89 Jamie Cohen, DO ’04 Ilana Maccia ’09

back:

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As the sun went down, Reunion classes caught up with old friends and celebrated their years at NA together.

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ALUMNI NEWS 48

Van Stevens ’65 Reminisces:

THE EARLY DAYS IN LIVINGSTON From John Bess ’69, President of the Alumni Board of Governors This year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Newark Academy’s move from downtown Newark to the current campus in Livingston. This move represented a huge shift for the school after 190 years in the city for which the Academy was named.

NA has undergone significant further growth and change since 1964, and we are now in the midst of another major expansion of the Livingston campus.

On this anniversary, many of us look back fondly to those early days after the move to Livingston.

I first came to NA three years after the move and remember well the early days of the new campus.

But here I would like to share the memories of Dr. Van Stevens ’65, who was a student athlete in Newark when he first learned that he would be finishing his education in Livingston.

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Official news of NA’s move to Livingston first came in May of 1962. Mr. Butler and Mr. Fox, our headmaster and assistant headmaster, made an announcement in chapel. The move created much ambiguity for an inner-city private boys school that was moving to the suburbs far away from Newark.

The idea of the move became a reality when the administration bussed all students in grades one through five out to Livingston to witness a ground-breaking ceremony in a pastured field on a cold, rainy day in November 1963. If this was any indication of what was to come, I wanted to stay in Newark, which had been for four years MY HOME! But times had changed, and it was Newark Academy’s destiny to be in Livingston.

My transition began during preseason football practices at the new campus in August 1964. There were no trees or shrubs, just concrete and mud. There were no outdoor sports fields, just fields of high grass. The parking lots were crushed stone, not asphalt. There was no sign on South Orange Avenue exhibiting Newark Academy’s name. Many of the classrooms and hallways were unfinished. The Livingston Mall did not exist.

We practiced in a field across South Orange Avenue that at the time was owned by the Foster Wheeler Corporation. We had two sessions a day, morning and late afternoon, and we had to bring our own lunches because the cafeteria was not completed, with installation of the cooking equipment delayed for two months. There were no traffic lights, so in the fall, when it got dark early, our football coach Bob Hendrickson arranged for the Livingston police to regulate traffic so we could cross back over South Orange Avenue. All of our “home games” for football, basketball and swimming were played away! It was not until the spring of 1965 that the sports facilities were completed.

By January 1965, though, we had all settled in and felt comfortable with the new campus. The classrooms and cafeteria were finally finished. I felt proud to be going to such a beautiful and spacious school. Playing spring sports at home was

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something I will never forget – especially watching the eyes of the opponents when they got off the bus, marveling at the modern new facility.

Now, after serving on the Board of Governors for 12 years, I have decided to step down. When I look at the first phase of the current expansion initiative that took place during my tenure, it is just breathtaking! At our 50th Reunion next October, my classmates will marvel at how far NA has come since 1964.

I always have a glow in my heart when I think of where I came from and what Newark Academy did to help make me who I am today. I have so many fond memories of the administration, faculty, fellow students, and their parents and siblings. Many of those people still remain a part of my daily life. My teachers and coaches will never be forgotten. The physical entity has changed, but the education and social atmosphere remains the same. It’s all about the attitudes and values of the people.

Most important to me is the fact that my parents had the insight, generosity and kindness to have sent me to Newark Academy. What a school!

I know there are many other alumni who feel, as Van does, that NA was a defining experience for them. And whether you were part of the early days of NA’s move or a more recent graduate, it is the Board of Governors’ sincere hope that you will make it back to NA for a visit in this our 50th year in Livingston. I’m certain you’ll find the school’s continued growth inspiring. We look forward to welcoming you back to campus.

Get the Newark Academy Alumni Mobile app and take NA with you wherever you go: ‚ Network with other alumni

‚ Learn about upcoming alumni events

‚ Get NA news and updates

‚ and much more!

‚ See which old friends live and work nearby

‚ Connect with NA on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

Visit the iTunes or Google Play app store to download the NA Alumni Mobile app for your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or Android device.

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ALUMNI NEWS 50

ALUMNI PROFILE

TIM HWANG ’04

The Idea Man

By Kristin Walpole

Tim Hwang has never been short on ideas. In fact, he keeps a two-column list of them that is currently running at 200 strong. Nor has he lacked the motivation, creativity and intelligence to realize his ideas, which is probably why, at the age of 27, he finds himself on Forbes’ most recent “30 Under 30” list.

Tim acknowledges the recognition in a self-deprecating manner. “I’m really honored and happy about it,” he says.

“But in some ways I feel out of place in that group because it’s all people who are leading large law firms or medical nonprofits. And I just have a collection of weird projects.”

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ewark Academy was where Tim began his habit of collecting such projects. During his sophomore year he founded the Strategic Gaming Forum, a lavish name for what was “basically a nerdy board-gaming club,” he says. Tim funded the club with profits from bake sales featuring marked-up grocery store products – the sort of enterprise now common in NA’s dining hall. Students by then were already familiar with Tim’s entrepreneurial efforts: in a previous commercial undertaking, Tim sold 1984-themed T-shirts featuring his own face and the phrase “Big Tim Is Watching You.” Tim chuckles when recalling his youthful venture into fashion merchandising, saying that his parents were concerned but supportive, spending their weekends ironing Tim’s face onto shirts. “The club was nerdy and fun and I made a profit on those shirts,” he laughs. “NA was one of the few places that this can happen – where students have ideas and the philosophy is to let them do it. It was such a welcoming place for experimentation

and a great place to be able to have an interest in something and run with it.

The culture of the school was like that from the students on up to the head of school. ” After graduating from NA, Tim attended Harvard, where he discovered the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. “It was the ‘NA’ I encountered in college,” he says. “It was great because it sparked my interest in the way the Internet and technology shape society as a whole.”

His research at the Berkman Center, along with the professors and fellow students he met there, provided great inspiration, and that’s when Tim’s “collection of weird projects” really took off. He ultimately founded the Web Ecology Project, which produced academic studies of Twitter; the Pacific Social Architecting Association, a producer of social BOTS for retailers; the Awesome Foundation for the Arts and Sciences, which hands out $1,000 grants for awesome projects; the Bay Area Infrastructure Observatory, an alliance of citizens devoted to exploring

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their infrastructural landscape; and ROFLcon, a three-time biennial convention that gathered Internet memes and celebrities in one place.

“ROFLcon was an out-of-left-field success thing. The New York Times and Wired covered it and it was a platform that led to interest in other things for me, but by 2012 it had run its course. When it started in 2008, Internet culture was very uninformed – you could call someone on the phone whose cat was famous. By 2012, I was on the phone with Grumpy Cat’s agent.

There were many more middlemen and marketing was involved. Also, by then, Internet stars were actually becoming TV stars and traditional celebrities becoming Internet stars, so the lines blurred and it was the right time to end it.”

Perhaps the prized piece in Tim’s collection of projects is Robot Robot & Hwang, a startup law firm he began four years ago, seeking to integrate available technical solutions for legal work.

“I ended up in law school to find ways to automate lawyers,” Tim says.

“Lawyers are most valuable when they’re doing big things, like providing strategic advice and counsel. But they spend a lot of time finding and replacing words in documents or doing form checks because they don’t have the technology to automate those tasks. I became interested in finding ways to use machines to do those simpler chores.”

Tim says that Robot Robot & Hwang’s typical client is a smaller tech company, like Urban Dictionary. Solo law firms tend to move too slowly and lack the technical savvy for these clients, while the sterling

51

firms are often cost-prohibitive. Hwang and his team – Apollo Cluster and Daria XR-1028, the robots in Robot Robot & Hwang – are able to meet their clients’ needs while remaining affordable.

”

Tim Hwang is more than a generator of ideas: he’s a man of action.

Adding to Tim’s eclectic workload are several current side projects. He recently accepted a full-time position as head of special initiatives for Imgur, an online image hosting service, curated by its users through commenting, voting and sharing.

He is also developing tabletop games to teach real-world policy scenarios.

So what do Tim’s parents think now of his collection of projects, initiatives and jobs?

“I’d say concern has evolved into amusement. They were kind of wondering, ‘What is this kid going to do with his life?’

But now they seem to think, ‘Well he’ll be okay. We have no idea what he’s doing, but people seem to be enjoying it.’ My dad probably still wishes I was doctor, but they came around.”

Tim Hwang is more than a generator of ideas: he’s a man of action. One of his current projects is at Data & Society, which describes itself as “an NYC-based think/do tank focused on social, cultural and ethical issues arising from data-centric technological development.” Tim is a fellow at Data & Society working on a

two-year initiative to better understand intelligent systems.

According to Tim, “Data, automation and algorithms are increasingly being combined to create intelligent systems, software which exercises judgment and control in lieu of human management. While these systems are often not by themselves novel, recent years have seen the emergence and mass implementation of these technologies in a variety of critical arenas within society.

This includes the use of intelligent systems in capital markets, warfare, medicine, transportation, and within the home.”

Because these systems have the potential to disrupt many aspects of modern life, Data & Society advocates understanding them and their societal implications.

Having founded a law firm with the sole purpose of disrupting the basic operations of legal practice, Tim is the ideal investigator for a project such as this. Describing his work, Tim said, “The Intelligence and Autonomy (I&A) initiative seeks to develop general principles applicable across sectors – on the legal, technical, societal and economic levels – to secure the public interest in this new technological ecosystem. Our objective is to create coherent, common frameworks that will enable more effective policymaking and encourage an interdisciplinary approach that draws on valuable lessons across sectors.”

Tim is pleased to announce that the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has joined the Microsoft Technology Policy Group in funding the Intelligence and Autonomy initiative. NA

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ALUMNI NEWS 52

ALUMNI PROFILE

SHILPA MANIKIKAR ’94

A Passion to Create

By Kristin Walpole

Shilpa Mankikar was surrounded by creative energy when she attended Newark Academy. As a student with eclectic interests, she was stimulated by this rich cultural environment and by the currents of 1990s popular and alternative culture. From those varied influences and sources of inspiration, Shilpa has forged a career as a New York-based freelance filmmaker who has won awards at the Sundance, Shanghai and Palm Springs film festivals and has been recognized by the National Board of Review.

NEWARK ACADEMY

S

hilpa grew up as an arts enthusiast.

She was an avid consumer of ’90s film and television and was plugged in to the period’s alternative music scene. Shilpa found friends and faculty members at Newark Academy who shared these interests and an academic environment that nurtured them.

“NA has a great arts program,” Shilpa said. “Our senior class was the first to have the opportunity to work and create in the McGraw Arts Center at NA. I spent a lot of time in the Black Box Theater, the photography dark room and the painting studio.” Shilpa recalled with particular fondness the time she spent in NA’s drama program: “A group of us were in the school plays every year – it was fun. I think the musicals allowed me to connect American audiences to Bollywood years later.”

But it was not only in NA’s arts scene that Shilpa found inspiration.

“Film encompasses all of the arts and sciences,” Shilpa said. “You balance acting, writing, photography, music and technology.” Shilpa recalled finding

artistic expression and inspiration across the curriculum at NA, even in surprising places. “There was a lot of creativity in every class. Mr. Jacobs brought his guitar to geometry class. Doctora San Pedro had us compete in Spanish poetry performances. We read Beckett in Medieval history class. Doc Webster, the chemistry teacher, had a song about mol wheels.”

As an NA student, Shilpa was academically driven, with her heart set on the Ivies. But she ultimately declined a number of acceptances and chose to attend Oberlin College, drawn by the school’s reputation as a creative institution. This decision eventually pushed her in the direction of filmmaking, and she later earned an MFA in film at Columbia University.

As the daughter of two doctors, with no connections in the entertainment business, Shilpa had to forge her own path to becoming a filmmaker, but she was shaped by the arts and culture of her youth. She admired great television shows of the time, like The Cosby Show

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and 21 Jump Street. She read Sassy, an alternative to traditional glossy teen magazines. She immersed herself in foreign and independent films.

“Gurinder Chadha’s Bhaji on the Beach came out, and it was the first time I saw someone like myself on screen,” said Shilpa. Working in New York during summers in college, Shilpa made short films and frequently saw movies at the Angelika Film Center.

After college, Shilpa worked as production assistant for director Adrienne Shelly’s I’ll Take You There. “I caught the bug,” she said. “The crew was mostly women – which I later found out was rare. Then I worked in the editing room on Spike Lee’s Bamboozled. Spike had a shelf full of African-American cinema history, and I watched all his DVDs. It was really inspiring.”

Shilpa describes the late ’90s as something of a turning point for racial diversity in popular culture. “At NA, there were a lot of Asian-American kids, but there wasn’t anyone who looked like us or represented our community in the media in those days. Now there’s an explosion, with Mindy Kaling, Aziz Ansari and many others behind the scenes. I see Reena Shah ’95 and Ami Sheth ’96 in commercials all the time.”

Working in the entertainment business since 1998, Shilpa has been on both the creative and business sides of filmmaking. She favors the artistic work, but recognizes the importance of both. “There’s nothing as satisfying as self-expression, telling a new story, or moving an audience,” she said.

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“However, it’s the ‘entertainment business,’ so you can’t really have one without the other. If you make something, you have to market and sell it, or else no one will see it.”

In 2001, Shilpa was working in film distribution and curating festivals. She

year, as well as a highly successful annual film festival.

Given her entrepreneurial spirit, it is no surprise that Shilpa is one of the founders of what has become a prominent national celebration of South Asian film. Her freelance career has spanned more than 15 years and she has experienced great success in varied roles, including those of director, producer, writer and editor.

Shilpa’s work has even enabled her to participate in some historic events. She documented veterans at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in 2008 and interviewed Harlem residents as results came in for President Obama’s first election later that year. “It’s amazing to be right at the center of history unfolding,” she said.

As a freelancer, Shilpa has honed her multi-tasking abilities and is currently immersed in a number of projects. “I’m developing a couple of period scripts. One is about a Jazz Age princess. That’s been really fun to dive into. I love discovering unknown, true stories.” She is also in the process of raising funds for a slate of feature films, including a coming-of-age story based in Goa, India; a surreal veteran’s story in New York; and a story of women in the early years of the technology sector.

As for her long-term goals, Shilpa has it all figured out: “I hope to create a body of work that impacts the global community.” And after that? “I would like to retire on a tropical island with Dave Chappelle, Sarah Silverman and great mojitos,” she laughed. NA

”

There’s nothing as satisfying as self-expression, telling a new story, or moving an audience.

acquired films at Cannes, Berlin, Toronto – all the major markets – and had recently moved to San Francisco to work at the Center for Asian American Media. But she saw many South Asian diaspora projects fall through the cracks.

Although she knew there was an audience for these films, the mainstream industry didn’t seem to know what to do with them. To fill this niche, Shilpa and two other filmmakers founded 3rd i Films, a national film exhibition network devoted to the work of South Asian filmmakers.

“This was before YouTube, so we actually had to track down projects via the producers internationally, rent a theater to project them, then match them with local groups and market to niche audiences,” Shilpa explained.

3rd i Films is now more than a decade old and hosts a robust schedule of screenings and events throughout the

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ALUMNI NEWS

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A FOND RECOLLECTION OF MARY BURG NA French Teacher, 1973-1997

by Victoria Agresti-Hoehn ’90 “Bonjour classe, asseyez-vous s’il vous plaît!”

This phrase still rings loud and clear in my head every time I think of Newark Academy.

I took French I, II and III with Madame Burg from 1986 to 1990. No matter the class or the challenge of the unit, Madame knew how to make it cheerful, engaging and fun.

Not only did Madame teach us French, she taught us to embrace the French culture and Parisian lifestyle. Her creative lessons were the hallmark of her talent as an educator.

Every other week we brought in French cuisine, sampling the delights of the country.

Madame Burg cooked delicious French dishes for us as well.

Another memorable class exercise was when we had to act out French fables. It was fun to try to master the enunciations or to have Madame remind us of “l’accent aigu!”

Always dressed in a skirt with a crisp, white-collared shirt, a cardigan and her hair coiffed to perfection, Madame was an elegant Frenchwoman, with no hint of her Ohio background. And who would have guessed she had been one of New York’s famous Rockettes? This impressed me, as I was an aspiring actress at the time.

It was Madame who coined my nickname – in French, of course: Victoire. To this day, my NA girlfriends and my family love to call me that.

Madame made a lasting impression on me, as I decided to study in Paris my junior year of college. This trip was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I regret that I will never be able to tell Madame how much she inspired me and how I fell in love with everything French. Thank you, Madame, for sharing your love of France with me.

Bonjour classe, asseyez-vous s’il vous plaît!

SEND US RECOLLECTIONS OF YOUR TEACHERS Newark Academy Alumni Relations is compiling stories of teachers from the most trusted source, the students they taught. If you have an anecdote or simply wish to put into words the impact your teachers had on your life, we want to hear from you.

If you would like to contribute to this vital piece of Newark Academy history, send an e-mail to Matt Gertler at mgertler@newarka.edu or mail your recollections to Newark Academy Alumni Relations.

”

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TOP REP Bud D’Avella Rallies the Class of 1962 The Class of 1962 has looked to Bud D’Avella as a Class Rep for over 40 years. The role was a natural one for him.

“I always liked keeping in touch with my classmates,” he said, fondly recalling his days at NA and beyond. With the help of a few core volunteers, Bud has built a strong network of alumni from 1962, diligently making phone calls and writing notes and emails to keep them all connected to each other and to NA. “We had a great class who were happy to go to Newark Academy and to continue the relationship.”

C

lass Reps looking for a successful alumni class model need look no further. More than half of the Class of 1962 came back to NA for their 50th reunion – an excellent turnout by all accounts. But that success was actually years in the making. The groundwork was laid at their 25th reunion, when Bud and a small group of classmates decided to work together to strengthen connections within the class and encourage attendance at future events. Bud has found that attendance builds with momentum. “Sometimes we’ve circulated a list of everyone who has committed to attend an event to tell classmates, ‘I’m going to be there – are you?’”

The Class of 1962 made their 50th a full-weekend event, with an offsite party planned just for the class. This unique component drew some alumni who otherwise might not have attended. As Bud explained, “Having a party the night before made it much easier to justify coming from across the country.”

The 1962 alumni had even more cause to celebrate their 50th year when they were honored with the 1903 Cup – awarded to the class of the last 50 years that has the highest rate of participation in the Annual Fund. Last year, his class continued their strong showing of support to NA, garnering 37 percent participation in the Annual Fund. For Bud, supporting NA is a priority, and he leads by example. As a Cupola Society member, he has given to NA for 18 consecutive years and many years before that. In addition, Bud made a leadership gift to name a classroom in memory of his brother John D’Avella ’65.

Fostering a connected alumni class takes long-term effort, but in the age of Facebook, Instagram and, of course, the NA Alumni Mobile App, staying in touch with your Newark Academy family is easier than ever.

“The people who you went to school with are very much like your family because you have been through similar experiences together,” Bud said.

“The connections that you have with classmates last a lifetime.”

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CLASS NOTES 56

Bruce Van Vliet ’52 catches up with Bill Van Winkle ’52

Norm Grossblatt ’52, Jack Gansler ’52 and Bill Van Winkle ’52

1935

1952

Contact: Nathaniel S. Rosengarten azrosengarten@cox.net

Contact: William Van Winkle billvw7334@aol.com

Traveling on business in Maryland, Bill Van Winkle met with classmates Jack Gansler and Norm Grossblatt at Clyde’s in Silver Spring. He also managed a short visit with Bruce Van Vliet. Bill is sad to note that his cousin and classmate Bill Wescott passed away on May 10.

1938 Contact: Paul Busse (732) 785-7785

1946 Contact: Robert Cronheim rdc@cronheim.com

1947

Contact: Edward L. Levitt ed_levitt@alumni.upenn.edu

Marvin Rothman lives in Somerset Run in Somerset, NJ, with his wife, Doris. He wanted all to know that he is “alive and kicking” and remains very active for a man of 85.

Contact: K. Kelly Marx (973) 376-0777

1960 Contact: Frederick J. Katz katzjr@optonline.net

1955

Contact: Marvin J. Rothman mrothman1@aol.com

1951

century outpost located in Gwinnett County, GA. The foundation recently received the Albert B. Corey Leadership in History Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History, prompting local county freeholders to issue a proclamation commending the foundation for its efforts.

1959 Contact: Douglas B. Slade Dslade542@aol.com

James D’Angelo, PhD, is site archaeologist and president of the Fort Daniel Foundation, an organization responsible for maintaining the 19th-

Frank Phifer ’68, Dave Drake ’69 and Tom Louthan ’66 with Frank’s portrait

1963 Contact: Peter P. Artaserse PArtaser@aol.com Charles A. Fischbein Cafpac@earthlink.net

Charles Fischbein recently celebrated 40 years as a pediatrician. He is still going strong and has been named a Connecticut Magazine “Top Doc” every year since 2008.

1964

1961

Contact: Michael R. Yogg michaelyogg@gmail.com

Contact: Curtis Cetrulo curt.cetrulo@gmail.com

1965

Peter C. Papademetriou papadem@cs.com MacKinnon Simpson MacKinnon96816@gmail.com

1962 Contact: Bernard J. D’Avella bdavella@comcast.net

Contact: Van S. Stevens drvanstevens@comcast.net

1966 Contact: Jonathan I. Epstein jonathan.epstein@dbr.com

1967 Contact: Matthew J. Leone mleone@colgate.edu

LOOKING FOR YOUR CLASS REP? Just look for your graduation year to find your rep’s name and contact information. Then be sure to reach out to share the latest on what’s happening in your life or just pick up the phone to say hello.

NEWARK ACADEMY

Bob Good recently published a paper on “The Role of Lab Animal Sciences Within the Science of Reincarnation,” as well as a book of science fiction short stories, Stories

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We Fondly Remember WILLIAM D. HARDIN ’44 September 12, 2014

from the Cylot Wars. Both are available on Amazon.com, along with Bob’s other books.

The paper is also free to download from Bob’s website, thescienceofreincarnation.com.

Bob is currently writing a rock opera based on his third book, Flight of the Monarch.

1968 Contact: Stephan G. Kravitz sgkravitz@gmail.com Franklin C. Phifer fphifer@hecht.com

Last July, Frank Phifer, Dave Drake ’69 and Tom Louthan ’66 got together to celebrate the unveiling of Frank’s caricature, which now hangs in The Palm Restaurant in Washington, D.C.

Perusing the records of William D. Hardin’s contributions to Newark Academy is itself a lesson in the 20th-century history of the school. As the staff found when researching Bill’s legacy at NA, carefully preserved documents detail his decades-long commitment and generosity.

Bill Hardin, who was born in Newark, entered Newark Academy in 1935, in what was then the Lower School (fifth grade) when the school was on First Street. During his last four years at NA, he was on the student council and was a member of the swim team and drama club. He also committed himself to the football and track teams, dance committee, yearbook committee and athletic association. He was a member of the Cum Laude Society and received the Wilson Farrand Gold Medal upon his graduation in 1944.

Following graduation, Bill attended Princeton University and Columbia Law School.

After serving in the Navy, he joined the family law firm, Pitney, Hardin & Kipp, where he worked until his retirement in 1997.

Elected to NA’s Board of Trustees in 1952, Bill served until 1985. After working diligently to bring Newark Academy to Livingston on sound footing, he served as president from 1969 through 1972 and as chairman from 1976 through 1978.

Bill was honored with the Alumni Achievement Award in 1982 and the Fulton MacArthur Award in 1999. In 2011 he was presented with the inaugural Board of Governors’ Medal, the highest award given to an alumnus for lifetime achievement, generosity of spirit and long-term service to Newark Academy.

In addition to his work on Newark Academy’s behalf, Bill was an active member of his broader community, serving on the boards of the Selective Service Administration, Family Service of Morris County and Legal Services of New Jersey.

A NEWARK ACADEMY FAMILY

1969 Contact: John Bess bessjh@gmail.com Leo M. Gordon gordon43b@gmail.com

The Hardin family’s involvement with Newark Academy dates back more than a century to when Bill Hardin’s father, Charles Roe Hardin, graduated in the Class of 1911. Other Hardin alumni include Bill’s uncle, John R. Hardin Jr., Class of 1913; cousin John R. Hardin III ’45; brothers Charles Jr. ’37 and Robert ’51; sons William Jr. ’71, David ’73 and Peter ’75; and grandson David ’07.

Peter Berhle’s daughter, Allison ’06, is engaged to Michael Breckheimer. The couple is planning a destination wedding on Amelia Island, FL, for September 26, 2015. They live in Chicago.

1971 Contact: William D. Hardin Jr. whardin@ptd.net Mark J. Menza markmenza53@gmail.com back: Paula Hardin, Kate Hardin, David Hardin ’07, Sarah Hardin front: William Hardin Jr. ’71, William Hardin Sr. ’44, Ruth Hardin, David Hardin ’73, Laura Hardin OUTREACH fall | winter 2014

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We Fondly Remember

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William D. Hardin ’44 September 12, 2014

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John E. Newman ’44 August 10, 2014

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William Wescott ’52 May 10, 2014

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James St. Lifer ’70 April 19, 2014

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Douglas Zargham ’81 June 3, 2014

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Stephen Prickett ’83 June 26, 2014

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Nicholas Messare ’84 October 2, 2014

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Jonathan Newman ’94 October 17, 2013

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John W. Strahan III Former Faculty October 6, 2014

Laurence Belkoff ’74 earned the Orel F. Martin Medal

1972 Contact: Daniel D. Cronheim dan@cronheim.com Harry Hazelwood drhazelwood@massmed.org

1974 Contact: Lance T. Aronson lancetrezevant@aol.com

Laurence Belkoff is a urologic surgeon in the Philadelphia area. In September, he received the Orel F. Martin Medal, which recognizes outstanding service in the areas of surgery, education, leadership and research; it is the highest award bestowed by the American College of Osteopathic Surgeons.

W. Scott McGraw retired from the media business several years ago, having spent almost 29 years at the CBS

Brian Stroehlein ’80 and Sue Karlin ’81 at the Burning Man event

Television Network and the Discovery Channel. Currently, he serves as a board trustee at Skidmore College and chair of the Adirondack Health Foundation Board of Trustees.

He and his wife, Cathy, split their time between Short Hills, NJ, Lake Placid, NY, and Hobe Sound, FL. Their daughter, Carolyn, will be married next August.

1976 Contact: Donald C. DeFabio drdefabio@aol.com Robin Lechter Frank ontheqt1231@aol.com

1977 Contact: Thomas E. Hennigan njtomh@gmail.com

1978

Sue Karlin ’81 visits spacecraft manufacturer SpaceX

1979 Contact: Michael I. Schneck Mschneck@schnecklaw.com

1980 Contact: Kim S. Hirsh KHirsh@jfedgmw.org

Stuart Risch was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General, Judge Advocate General’s Corps for the U.S. Army. He recently had the honor of performing the coin toss at the University of Virginia (UVA) vs. University of Louisville football game, as part of UVA’s Military Appreciation Day. The UVA Cavaliers won the game, 23-21.

1981 Contact: Arthur Williams artiekid@aol.com

Contact: Margery Gering Feinberg margiegf@aol.com

JOHN W. STRAHAN III ß October 6, 2014 Beloved faculty member John Strahan taught English, foreign languages and humanities at Newark Academy from 1954 to 1975. He also coached tennis, served as choral instructor and was a gifted linguist – sometimes tutoring students in several languages. The 1969 Polymnian was dedicated to him and he is fondly remembered by a large number of alumni. His children, Gertrude (Trudi) ’78 and Philip ’81, both attended NA. Outside of school, John loved opera, theater and the outdoors. He was an avid conservationist, spending some of his happiest days hiking.

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Sarah Coyne ’89, Stacey Bradford ’89, Amy Slotnick ’89 and Jennifer Riemer Allen ’89 in Puerto Rico

Sue Karlin writes: “It’s been a year of interesting stories – covering SpaceX’s Elon Musk, new space technologies at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, an attempted space launch at the University of Southern California Rocket Lab, space science education at Burning Man, and the master artists who teach drawing to Disney animators.

As for my NA partners in crime: I watched July 4th fireworks with Jay Moore and his family during their visit to Los Angeles, attended Michael Blum’s ’79 backyard ‘Shakespeare in the Yard’ production, and returned to the playa [the Black Rock Desert of Nevada] with Brian Stroehlein ’80 for our annual Burning Man pilgrimage. A sad note was the passing of classmate Doug Zargham, with whom I reconnected at our 30th Reunion, and who left us far too soon.”

1982

1986

Contact: Kristen Brask Martin kbcolesfamily@comcast.net

Contact: Betsy Dollinger Bernstein bdb1@mac.com

Richard Weinblatt earned certificates in service administration and basic emergency studies from Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis. He is pursuing a technical certificate and a degree in homeland security and public safety.

James C. Schachtel dschachtel@verizon.net

1984 Contact: William E. Markstein WEMarkstein@gmail.com

1985 Contact: Kimberley Griffinger Wachtel kgwachtel@gmail.com

Brett Baron and fiancée Melissa announced their engagement last May. Brett is a recruitment relationship manager for Allegis Global Solutions, a leading global recruiting company.

Trevor Weston, associate professor of music at Drew University in Madison, NJ, was one of four featured composers at the second annual Colour of Music Festival in Charleston, SC, in October.

Warren Kermit Kusnan, son of Joe Kusnan ’89

Jason Berlin ’90 with bride Apryl Lundsten and family

Glenn Waldorf gwaldorf@bellenv.com

1988

Jason Berlin tells us that he “tricked the way-out-of-myleague Apryl Lundsten” into marrying him on May 17, 2014. His brother, Eric ’92, was in attendance, of course.

Contact: Melissa Dollinger Shein msheinus@yahoo.com

1991

1989

Contact: Richard L. Worth richardworthmd@yahoo.com

Contact: Stacey L. Bradford-Greenberg stacey.bradford@gmail.com

Best friends Sarah Coyne, Stacey Bradford, Amy Slotnick and Jennifer Riemer Allen spent a long weekend in Puerto Rico over the summer, soaking up the sun and celebrating their many years of friendship.

Joe Kusnan and his wife, Jeanne, announced the birth of Warren Kermit on April 11.

At the time of delivery, Warren was 3 lbs., 10.5 oz., but Joe reports that he is strong and healthy and just needs a little more time to grow.

1990 Contact: Matthew T. Gertler mgertler@newarka.edu Troy Powell troy256@mac.com

Rajan Khanna’s first novel, Falling Sky, was recently released by Prometheus Books.

The book is a postapocalyptic thriller about an airship captain trying to survive in a world devastated by a pandemic. Fellow science fiction author Tad Williams described it as “Hemingway meets The Walking Dead.”

Andrew Morrison and his wife, Gabriella, live in a tiny house on wheels in Oregon.

They have embraced the tiny house movement, detailed on their new website, TinyHouseBuild.com. A YouTube video tour of the house has gone viral with nearly three million views.

In Colorado in early October, OUTREACH fall | winter 2014

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CLASS NOTES

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Michele Segal and husband Richard Worth ’91 with sons Gregory and Lawrence

Andrew gave a TEDx presentation titled “Finding Freedom by Living Tiny”; he gave another presentation on the movement at the Mother Earth News Fair over the summer. Andrew also continues to present about straw bale construction, which he describes as one of his many passions.

Richard Worth is proud to announce the birth of Gregory Benjamin last May. Gregory joins his brother, Lawrence (2).

1992 Jessica Mayer Herthel’s first children’s book, I Am Jazz, was published in September by Dial Books, an imprint of Penguin.

The book is a first-person account of a transgender child, real-life teen activist Jazz Jennings. The book was recently named one of the top LGBT books for children by the Associated Press. Jessica lives

Jessica Mayer Herthel ’92 with her new book, I Am Jazz NEWARK ACADEMY

Baby Aria, daughter of Suzanne Paragano Kane ’92

in Fort Lauderdale with her husband, Jason, and their three daughters. She considers herself a passionate straight ally and currently serves as the director of the Stonewall National Education Project, which networks LGBT-inclusive school districts nationwide.

1993 Contact: Timothy E. Herburger burgermac@mac.com Jed S. Rosenthal jedrosenthal@gmail.com

After surviving a battle with a rare form of cervical cancer in 2011, Suzanne Paragano Kane is pleased to announce, along with her husband Jimmi Kane, the birth of their daughter, Aria, on May 16.

They also have two boys: Dylan, an eighth grader, and Justin, who is in sixth grade at Newark Academy.

Last August, Maria Teresa McNeilly-Anta ’93 and her husband celebrated their daughter Isabela’s First Holy Communion in Spain. The event was held at El Parador de Gondomar where The Pinta docked on its historical return voyage from the New World.

To celebrate the joyous occasion Eva San Pedro ’97 traveled to Spain along with former faculty members

Maria Teresa McNeilly-Anta ’93 (far right), with children Kennedy ’20, Isabela and Sebastian, husband Brad, and Joseph and Carolyn Borlo

Dr. Teresa San Pedro and Joseph Borlo who carried out his godfather responsibilities perfectly.

1994 Contact: Pamela Helfant Vichengrad pamelavich@hotmail.com

1995 Contact: Rasheea S. Williams Hall rasheea@hotmail.com

Chris Jenkins married Lauren Braunschweiger on June 14 in Rochester, NY, with NA classmates Jennifer Feldman Foy and Matt Lillard in attendance. The couple met while working for the Buffalo Bills, where Chris is the team’s executive director of media relations. They now call Buffalo home.

1996 Contact: Jason S. Granet grizo1222@yahoo.com Andrew Slutzky andrewzky@gmail.com

Ryan Howard and his wife are happy to report that their daughter, Madison Joelle, was born on September 29, 2014.

Mom, dad and big sister Brooklyn (3) are so excited for their new blessing.

Jamal Parker and Stephanie Baldwin were married last September in Jekyll Island, Georgia, joined by 120 family and friends.

1997 Contact: Amanda Rubinstein Black amandahblack@gmail.com

Ryan Howard and his wife, Stephanie, welcomed their second child, Madison Joelle, on September 29.

1998 Evan Michelson is happy to report that his second child, Seth Ezra, was born on July 3.

Seth and big sister Mira are enjoying getting to know one another. Evan is a program officer for energy and science at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

He recently earned a PhD in public administration from the Wagner School of Public Service at New York University.

1999 Contact: John C. Gregory Jcg681@gmail.com

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Sara and David Green ’99 with son Matthew

Newlyweds Lauren Braunschweiger and Christopher Jenkins ’95

Asha K. Talwar asha.talwar@gmail.com

Dania Matos was chosen as one of Leadership Arlington’s “40 under 40” for her work as vice chair of Latinas Leading Tomorrow, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower Latinas, and for her leadership at Brown University as president emeritus of the Brown University Alumni Council.

Leadership Arlington is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to enlighten, inspire and connect leaders to strengthen the community in Arlington, VA, where she resides.

some of his former teachers.

David teaches anatomy at Midwestern University in Glendale, IL. Doug McNamara and his wife, Rachel, are expecting their second child in April 2015. In addition, Doug has started work on his M.Ed. at the University of Maryland.

Nicole Ware Slavitt and her husband, Joshua, welcomed Jackson Colby into the world in October.

2000 Contact: Alison Poole Lasher akpoole@gmail.com

David Green and his wife, Sara, stopped by Newark Academy to introduce their son, Matthew (15 months) to

Brittany and Chris Cardoso were married on October 18, 2014 in Sedona, CA.

Madison Joelle Howard, daughter of Ryan Howard ’97

Evan Michelson’s ’98 joys: Mira and Seth Ezra Michelson

Peter Solomon has been living in Shanghai, China, for the past two years with his wife, Jamie, son Theo (2) and daughter Eva (10 months).

He’s the principal horn of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, which is a job he truly loves.

The orchestra recently moved into a new concert hall, designed by the same acoustician who designed the Disney Hall in Los Angeles.

Every week, they play great music with excellent conductors and soloists. After moving to Shanghai, Peter was contacted by Lesli Ligorner ’97, who reached out after reading of his move in the alumni magazine.

Peter and Jamie had a great time meeting Lesli and her husband and finding an NA connection on the other side of the world.

2001 Contact: Colin R. Griggs cgriggs13@yahoo.com Brian F. McGaughan bmcgaughan@gmail.com

Vinita Venkatesh and her husband, Ajay Narasimha, welcomed baby Janaki Vasundhara Narasimha on May 13.

2002 Contact: Joshua S. Jacobs joshua.s.jacobs@gmail.com Marcelo C. Porto mark.c.porto@gmail.com Alexander C. Senchak alex.senchak@gmail.com

Last spring, Daniel Vollmayer married longtime girlfriend

Congratulations to Colleen Malloy and Daniel Vollmayer ’02 OUTREACH fall | winter 2014

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SEEING THE WORLD THROUGH SERVICE A Visit from Meghan Henshall ’08

By Alexandra Mahoney Back in the United States for less than a month, Meghan Henshall ’08 visited Newark Academy after a two-year stint in Cambodia working on community health education for the Peace Corps. Meghan spoke to two different student groups, squeezing in a visit to her alma mater before heading to Maine, where she now works for the nonprofit company Teens To Trails, which helps local schools start and sustain outing clubs.

At NA, Meghan discussed how her commitment to service shaped her decision to spend time supporting women’s health initiatives in developing countries. Her message was clear: Sometime in college, her relationship with service shifted from one of obligation to one of passion. This new relationship meant that she saw her opportunity to serve as less time-bound; rather than fulfilling a minimum requirement, she wanted to dedicate more time and energy to a longerterm project.

Meghan went on to discuss her Peace Corps experience, and it was clear that, for her, the most significant element of her assignment was the connections with the villagers with whom she lived and worked in rural Cambodia. After touching on the challenges and limitations of such cultural service projects, Meghan went on to discuss her love of the outdoors, reflecting on how that passion might shape one’s decisions.

She encouraged students to generate goals for things they want to experience, to quantify those goals, and to establish timeframes in which to fulfill them. Referencing her own new career venture, she also helped students brainstorm potential careers that might incorporate an interest in spending time in or protecting the natural world.

Meghan is a woman with a message. Her warm reception by the students suggests that she has a gift for delivering that message and will indeed have an impact on the communities into which she continues to channel her passions, wherever they may take her.

Kevin Fritze ’03, Dorian Muench Fritze ’03 and son Kenneth

Colleen Malloy at a ceremony in White Plains, NY, attended by classmates Dustin Salzano, Rich Niewiadomski, Adam Burke, Jeff Goldfarb and Nate Burstin ’01. Brother and best man Douglas Vollmayer ’05 and sister-inlaw Christina Capatides Vollmayer ’05 were also there to celebrate. Colleen works for the global music label WMG, while Dan is a television writer, currently working as senior writer/producer for the children’s cable network Nickelodeon. Dan has previously written for The Late Show with David Letterman, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson and Saturday Night Live. The newlyweds recently moved to Long Island City, NY.

2003 Contact: Lauren H. Anderson lauren.h.anderson@gmail.com David R. Mazzuca david.mazzuca@gmail.com David N. Rattner drattner07@gmail.com Evan P. Sills evan.sills@gmail.com

Dorian Muench Fritze and Kevin Fritze stopped by NA for a visit to introduce their son Kenneth to some of their former teachers. They were NEWARK ACADEMY

happy to be able to show Kenneth their alma mater.

Julia Kaye married Jonah Lobe on September 6.

David Mandelbaum recently left a successful career brokering celebrity endorsement deals to start his own health and lifestyledriven matcha green tea company, PANATEA, with his wife. PANATEA is currently available at coffee shops, tea shops and restaurants in New York, and on their website at www.panateagreen.com.

Arielle Goldfischer Newcombe ran in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon in September. As if that were not enough, she ran the race while 20 weeks pregnant!

2004 Contact: Danielle Grunebaum White dwhite@hillviewcap.com Kathryn Pagos katie.pagos@gmail.com Stephanie T. Reingold simma.reingold@gmail.com Louise Ball Schutte louisehira@gmail.com

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63

Jahlisa Dodson ’06 married Kieran Braithwaite

2005 Contact: Jonathan J. Allocca jonathan.allocca@gmail.com Gabriel Gaviola gabe.c.gaviola@gmail.com Molly McGaughan molly.mcgaughan@gmail.com Bridget Duffy Raines Bridgetpraines@gmail.com

Daniel Deraney passed the New Jersey bar exam in June.

He is working as a paralegal with fellow NA alum Rubin Sinins ’87 at Javerbaum Wurgaft Hicks Kahn Wikstrom & Sinins, P.C. Daniel also runs a social network called #YesPeopleJerseyGroup, which promotes art and cultural activities across New Jersey. Contact him at daniel.deraney@gmail.com for more information.

2006 Contact: Julia Appel appel.julie@gmail.com Ilana Mandelbaum ilana.mandelbaum@gmail.com Sarah Marcus sarmar88@gmail.com Asia Stewart asiamstewart@gmail.com

In October, Sonia Anani and David Wein announced their engagement.

Devika Daga moved to Nairobi, Kenya, in March to work on a new project at Google. Her team is called Access and they build internet and energy infrastructure to expand internet access worldwide. Devika describes the experience as wonderful.

Her sister Nitika ’11 and parents visited her in Kenya in August.

Laura Schottland was reunited with some of her NA classmates at an event in October. Among those in attendance were Casey Braunreuther, Rachel Newman, Caroline Klapper, Neeti Narula, Lani Mandelbaum, and Brienne Aquilina.

Rachel Newman ’06, Caroline Klapper ’06,Laura Schottland ’06, Casey Braunreuther ’06, Neeti Narula ’06, Lani Mandelbaum ’06, Brienne Aquilina ’06

2007

Alexa Gruber alexa.gruber@richmond.edu

Contact: David Doobin doobind@gmail.com

Lynn Olesky lynnolesky@gmail.com

Catherine Pfeffer catherine.pfeffer@gmail.com

Maximilian C. Staiger mstaiger41@me.com

Emily C. Simon emily.c.simon@me.com Andrew Somberg asomberg@gmail.com

Samantha Massengill married Bryan Blaisdell on September 20, surrounded by family and friends deep in the heart of Texas hill country.

The wedding was special, intimate and spirit-filled.

2008 Contact: David Frank dfrank5@u.rochester.edu

Sophie Breene is working as a paralegal at a nonprofit civil rights law firm in Denver. She recently hosted Dana Ellis and Jen Zelnick on their first trip to the Rockies.

Andrew Goldberg is an associate producer for Mad Dog Sports Radio on Sirius XM Satellite Radio, where he works the audio board, pitches show ideas for various segments, and researches statistics. He works specifically for Evan and Phillips in the Morning, a national sports talk

Jahlisa Dodson and Kieran Braithwaite celebrated their wedding on July 20 at the Bridgewater Manor in Bridgewater, NJ. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding in front of the Manor’s breathtaking lake. Four of her closest friends from NA were bridesmaids: Asia Stewart, Amanda Addison, Maryam Kazeem, and Raquel Alonso.

They have remained close since graduating from NA.

Sisters Devika Daga ’06 and Nitika Daga ’11 OUTREACH fall | winter 2014

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CLASS NOTES

64

Doug Kitchin and fiancée Alexa Gruber ’08

show. Andrew interned for the same show during his senior year at Drew University.

Alexa Gruber and Doug Kitchin announced their engagement last May. They grew up together and started dating when Alexa was a junior. Eight years later, after both attended colleges in Virginia and the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry, he popped the question. Doug is currently in New Jersey for his general practice residency at Newark Beth Israel Hospital, and Alexa is in Virginia in her third year of dental school. The wedding is planned for 2016 after she graduates from dental school.

Dana Chernock will be the maid of honor.

Cori McGinn ’08 and Meghan Henshall ’08 with their guide in Nepal

Last August, Meghan Henshall finished her two-year Peace Corps service working as a community health educator in rural Cambodia. She also traveled to Nepal for three weeks, two of which were spent with NA classmate Cori McGinn trekking the Mustang and Annapurna areas (see page 62).

Matt Kennedy is working for Stewart-Haas Racing in Kannapolis, NC. He is a support and data engineer for the No. 4 Budweiser/Jimmy John’s/Outback Steakhouse Chevrolet driven by Kevin Harvick. Matt graduated with a BA in mechanical engineering from Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in 2012 and a master’s degree in motorsport engineering from Brunel University London in 2013.

International Alumni Relations A MILITARY WELCOME Newark Academy families opened their homes to students from our partner school, CPI Padín Tuiteiro, located near Vigo, Spain. During their visit, the Spanish students toured historic sites around the New Jersey tri-state area.

One of their stops was the United States Military Academy at West Point. Cadet Nick Williams ’13 welcomed the students, along with their NA host “siblings,” for a personal discussion session.

NEWARK ACADEMY

In his second year as the general manager of the Burlington Royals, Ryan Keur was named the Appalachian League Executive of the Year.

During his tenure, the average attendance at Royals games has increased by nearly 50 percent.

2009 Contact: Andrew S. Binger abinger1990@gmail.com

Brian P. McHugh McHugh.brian10@gmail.com

After graduating from Drexel University last June with a degree in economics, Kumar Ghafoor landed a job as a first-year associate at the audit, tax and advisory firm Grant Thornton in Philadelphia.

2011

Christina A. Colizza christina.colizza@gmail.com

Contact: Jordan I. Jett jordanjett13@gmail.com

Rebecca L. Curwin rebecca.curwin@gmail.com

Jennifer Mandelbaum jmande15@bu.edu

Shannon R. Lam lams1@tcnj.edu

Jourdan McGhee jourdan.mcghee@gmail.com

Brian L. Silver briansilver0711@gmail.com

2012

Dan Lasowski is working for Exxon Mobil in Torrance, CA. He lives in Redondo Beach, just outside Los Angeles.

Contact: Shane S. Neibart ssneibart@gmail.com Carissa E. Szlosek szlosek@wisc.edu

2010

2013

Contact: Lisa Fischer lfischer@gwmail.gwu.edu

Contact: Matthew Cowen mcowen95@gmail.com

Patrick O. Kelly kellyzl@mail.bc.edu

SaVonne Anderson savonneanderson@gmail.com

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Newark Academy

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Parents of alumni: If this publication is addressed to your child and he or she no longer maintains a permanent residence at your home, please notify the alumni office, 973.992.7000, or send an e-mail to alumni@newarka.edu.

This publication has been printed on recycled papers certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. In doing so, Newark Academy is supporting environmentally responsible, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world’s forests.

2015

ALUMNI CALENDAR JANUARY 3: IN-COLLEGE NETWORKING WORKSHOP JANUARY 3: IMPROV MANIA JANUARY 8: NYC NETWORKING NIGHT JANUARY 28-30: FLORIDA REGIONAL EVENTS FEBRUARY 5: WASHINGTON D.C. REGIONAL FEBRUARY 12: SMALL BUSINESS NETWORKING EVENING APRIL 10: SMALL BUSINESS NETWORKING BREAKFAST APRIL 25: NATIONAL ALUMNI DAY OF SERVICE MAY 18: MINUTEMAN GOLF & TENNIS INVITATIONAL MAY 28: ANNUAL NYC MEET-UP MAY 30: ALUMNI LACROSSE JUNE 7: COMMENCEMENT & OLD GUARD LUNCHEON

For more information about these events, please contact Alumni Relations Director Matt Gertler ’90, mgertler@newarka.edu, (973) 992-7000, ext. 367, or visit newarka.edu/alumni