Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Spring/Summer 2020

Pennington

STRONG together!

Reunited!

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HOMECOMING and Reunion Weekend

October 9–10, 2020 To learn more and register, please visit us at pennington.org/ homecoming. Please contact Jane Bott Childrey ’89 at jane.childrey@pennington.org or by phone at 609–737–6144 with any questions.

Register Today!

We hope you will join us back on the Pennington campus to reunite with your classmates and friends for this year’s Homecoming and Reunion celebrations.

Need accommodations?

A room block is reserved at the Courtyard Marriott in Ewing, NJ. Please call 609–771–8100 to make your reservation by September 6, 2020, and refer to code PHS to receive the discounted rate.

Spring/Summer 2020

Volume 61, No. 1

Head of School William S. Hawkey, Ph.D. Editor Lori G. Lipsky Director of Communications and Marketing llipsky@pennington.org 609–737–6156 Communications Team Lisa Aliprando Julia Corrigan A. Melissa Kiser Director of Admission and Financial Aid Sharon Jarboe Assistant Head of School for Community Life Chad Bridges ’96 Assistant Head of School for Advancement and Strategic Initiatives Charles D. Brown Contributing Writers Sophia Amaro ’20, Leah Balerna ’20, Chad Bridges ’96, Brooke Buchanan, Jane Bott Childrey ’89, Julia Corrigan, William S. Hawkey, Lisa Houston, Lissa Kiser, Dolores Eaton, Debbie Fermo, Suzanne Houston, Chrissie Knight, Marlynne Marlow P’20, Patrick Murphy ’80, Scott Peeler, Jo Prockop, Alicia Reed, Jessie Shaffer, Erica Torsiello ’10, George Ward ’88, Wendy Ward, Susan Wirsig Contributing Photographers Erica Bridges, Julia Corrigan, Don Dolan, Dolores Eaton, Marisa Ferrari, Lisa Houston, Suzanne Houston, Jim Inverso, Lissa Kiser, Keri Marino, Cecilia Rouse P’21, Jessie Shaffer, Cie Stroud

Features 4. Celebrating the Rev. Dr. Charles Sayre: Happy 100th birthday to a Pennington legacy who has dedicated his life to service.

22. Middle School News: Our youngest students reached new heights despite the challenges of a closed campus.

34. A Year Interrupted: Pennington thrives despite COVID-19 challenges.

46. Alumni Reach Out: Our alumni hosted and attended a variety of virtual gatherings.

48. Student Spotlight: Achievements beyond the virtual classroom 56.Commencement 2020: Pennington honors the seniors with a new spin on the School’s traditional rites of passage.

Printing Prism Color Corporation The Pennington School 112 West Delaware Avenue Pennington, NJ 08534 609–737–1838 www.pennington.org All materials copyright © 2020 by The Pennington School unless otherwise noted. The cupola logo is a registered trademark of The Pennington School.

The Pennington School®, Registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Opinions expressed in Pennington Magazine are those of the authors, not necessarily those of The Pennington School.

The Pennington School admits students of any race, religion, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, physical disability, national and ethnic origin, or sexual orientation in administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship and financial aid programs, employment policies, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

Also Inside

32. The Francis Harvey Green Society

2. From the Head of School

42. Winter Musical: Urinetown

6. Special Events

44. Faculty Spotlight

11. Parents for Pennington News

50. Spring Play: 116 Hudson

12. In the Gallery

60. Eighth-Grade Graduation

14. Giving Tuesday Now highlights

62. Alumni News and Class Notes

16. Upper School Winter Athletics

71. In Memoriam www.pennington.org

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Letter from the

Head of School

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ast September, when I addressed this year’s student body, faculty, and staff, as well as many parents and friends of Pennington at our annual Convocation ceremony, my speech centered on the theme of perseverance and grit. Students had begun the year working together in groups to build and launch model rockets capable of carrying a fragile glass ornament up into the air and providing a way for it to return safely to the ground, an exercise created to acknowledge the anniversary of man’s first steps on the moon. Given no instructions to follow, students had to embrace trial and error to get it right. Each brought different talents to the task at hand, and many modifications had to be made along the way. But by the end of the afternoon, there was much to celebrate: our students in grades six through twelve had worked creatively and collaboratively to achieve a meaningful goal. And at the close of Convocation, I offered this quote attributed to Winston Churchill:

“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

I reminded our community that in most instances, noteworthy accomplishments do not happen in a vacuum but rather are the result of a community that encourages, supports, challenges, and inspires each of us to give our best. Our outstanding faculty work tirelessly, creatively, and with great passion to help our students find their own individual excellence every single day. As author Zig Ziglar said,

“When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal; you do not change your decision to get there.”

I challenged all of us to reach this year for a goal we believe in and that we find important or even difficult, to go outside of our comfort zones and push beyond what we know we can do and imagine all that we might do.

This “growth mindset” helps each of us persevere through the setbacks that we will inevitably encounter.

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

When I said these things in September, I never imagined the enormous and life-changing challenges we would face together this year. All of us have had to reach beyond in myriad ways both large and small. The COVID-19 crisis changed who we can see, where we can go, and how we manage our day-to-day lives. It turned bedrooms into classrooms and laptops into whiteboards.

It forced us to distance ourselves physically not only from our School and our campus but also from loved ones, sometimes even in our own homes. But this virus did not succeed in isolating us.

Beyond the pandemic, our society and our community became engaged in an opportunity to uphold our nation's professed ideals and live out Pennington's core values by challenging the status quo of systemic racism in the United States. The murder of Mr. George Floyd (as well as the many other incidents of the unjust killing of Black citizens) was a spark that ignited feelings of anger, fear, sadness, and hopelessness. I recently spoke with the co-presidents of our Black Student Union and listened to what they had to say about their Pennington experience and the hopes and goals they have for our School moving forward. Over the summer, we will open up opportunities for our alumni of color to join us for frank conversations about being Black at Pennington so that we can better understand their experiences through their eyes. Listening to and learning from our current students and alumni will help us make more substantive and sustainable change at Pennington. I want every single one of our students and faculty to have the tools to become leaders for justice and equality—and to use them to make a difference at Pennington and for our country.

I invite you to embrace this really challenging moment with me and with our faculty and staff. Systemic racism and implicit bias are just a couple of the realities that we all need to confront and to change.

Our School’s core values of honor, virtue, and especially humility are guideposts that serve to remind us to always strive for individual excellence, understanding, and justice: as citizens; as family members; as friends; as allies; and as human beings. Pennington will always stand beside you to help make a better world.

When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters; one represents danger and one represents opportunity.

John F. Kennedy said these words in the Convocation address of the United Negro College Fund in 1959. Then-Senator Kennedy was using his voice to chart a new course for this nation.

Now we, too, are faced with a turning point in our history. I believe this pandemic and the broader cultural moment has also helped us to become more acutely aware of what is important, and the need for us to be active participants in changing the course of our lives.

As JFK said, when faced with a crisis, be aware of the danger but don’t fail to recognize the opportunity. I believe our collective focus has become sharper, more acute and I don’t want to lose that. We all have hope for this generation to be the pre-eminent leaders who will shape a healthy, equitable, and progressive future for our world.

This was not the spring I imagined for our Class of 2020 or for any of us. We have all been rocketed into circumstances that are challenging and unpredictable. But I know that working together, with perseverance, grit, and determination, we can help each other find our way forward. As you will see in these pages, we worked together and accomplished much these past months. I hope you will share the deep sense of pride, hope, and admiration I hold for every member of our Pennington family.

Yours in Pennington,

William S. Hawkey

www.pennington.org

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The Rev. Dr. Charles Sayre: Celebrating a centenarian's life of service and an enduring Pennington legacy

The Reverend Dr. Charles Sayre turned 100 this past April. We spoke with Dr. Sayre upon the occasion to learn more about a man who has dedicated his life to service and played a significant role in shaping the School that we know as Pennington today.

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t 100 years of age, the Rev. Dr. Charles A. Sayre is in good spirits and reflects with clarity on service, community, family, and faith—tenets to which he has dedicated his life. He takes this major milestone in stride and attributes his long life in part to eliminating stress where possible and having a purpose in his calling to serve others.

When asked what he hopes to accomplish in his 101st year, he chuckles with authentic humility, “I am simply a minister. That’s all I aspire to at any time: being a good minister.” And that he is.

Dr. Sayre, who lives in Haddonfield, NJ, served as the beloved senior minister at the United Methodist Church in the town for over twenty-five years and still regularly attends service. Dr. Sayre’s roots of doing good and serving through ministry run deep. In 1905, when The Pennington School was dedicated to educating Methodist ministers, the Reverend Woodburn J. Sayre, Charles’s father, graduated from the School and served as minister in Trenton, NJ. His father’s deep commitment to the faith started Dr. Sayre on a life’s journey to serve others with care, kindness, and respect, and he found his calling to ministry as a young man.

Charles Sayre’s journey has significantly shaped The Pennington School as we know it today. Although he did not attend as a student, Dr. Sayre served as a member of Pennington’s Board of Trustees for twenty-six years in the critical decades of the 1980s and 1990s that catalyzed significant growth for the School. He fondly remembers his time on the Board and the friendships he made. Ever humble and grateful, Dr. Sayre says, “I feel very lucky to be part of a Board that had such a high caliber of knowledge, skill, and experience around the table.”

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

But what stands out clearly for Dr. Sayre as his most significant and meaningful work with Pennington came years before he joined the Board. While serving on the Methodist Conference Board of Education in the 1950s, Dr. Sayre was in a prime position to view the state of the School and saw that Pennington needed a course correction. He swiftly brought the matter to the attention of Bishop Fred Pierce Corson (formerly president of Dickinson College), who proceeded to play a pivotal role in advocating for the School. Dr. Sayre recounts how Corson swiftly reacted, calling a special Conference session in 1953 focused on Pennington’s needs, where he championed investment in the School’s future.

These actions brought a host of changes to Pennington, including the appointment of Dr. Charles Smyth as headmaster in 1958, changes in the role of the Board of Trustees, focus on growing the School’s endowment, and other changes to ensure academic rigor and sound institutional management. Although he deflects all credit, without Dr. Sayre’s work to move the School forward as a priority for the Conference, Pennington would not be here as the School we know today.

However, it is the present-day chapter of Dr. Sayre’s influence at Pennington that is most aligned with his deep passions for equality and civil rights. To honor his life of service and commitment to the School, the Charles A. Sayre Endowed Scholarship was created in 2005 to help deserving students of color have access to a Pennington education.

Dr. Sayre has firsthand experience in fighting for racial equality. He served on the board of a

To commemorate his 100th birthday and celebrate his life of service and Pennington legacy, the Pennington Board of Trustees passed a resolution to honor the Rev. Dr. Charles Sayre. Here Head of School Bill Hawkey presents Dr. Sayre with the signed resolution in his honor.

historically black college in Tennessee, and worked closely on issues of civil rights in the 1960s with Dr. Joseph Lowery, a founder with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and its president from 1977 to 1997. For Dr. Sayre, issues of race in America today are still our greatest challenge, and he urges the students of today to actively work to fight prejudice in the nation.

Generous donors have collectively brought the Sayre Scholarship Fund to over $500,000, allowing multiple students each year the opportunity to attend Pennington and leaving Dr. Sayre “overwhelmed with gratitude.” Dr. Sayre is moved by the generosity of the donors who have contributed to the fund and is equally touched by the letters, visits, and calls he receives from those Pennington students benefiting from the scholarship each year. “It is the most satisfying moment to meet these families and see and hear what good this did.”

Of course, Dr. Sayre’s sphere of influence is much broader than The Pennington School. He has founded and chaired a number of nonprofits, including Respond. Inc., and Fellowship House in Camden, NJ, and has served on the board at Princeton Theological Seminary and countless other organizations where he continues to fight against poverty, addiction, racism, and injustice.

As a living embodiment of our Pennington values of honor, virtue, and humility, Dr. Sayre has a legacy and influence that has an impact upon Pennington students every day, and will continue to do so for another 100 years and beyond.

“Let the heart of Jesus be seen in me.” Dr. Sayre’s favorite daily prayer, which speaks to his dedication to living a life of Honor, Virtue, and Humility.

Happy 100th birthday, Dr. Sayre!

Resolution of the Board of Trustees

Whereas, throughout his distinguished career as a member of the clergy, the Reverend Dr. Charles Sayre has devoted himself to the care and nurturing of others; and Whereas Dr. Sayre served for 47 years as an active member of the clergy in the Greater New Jersey Conference of the United Methodist Church until his retirement from active appointments in 1990; and Whereas Dr. Sayre was a member of the World Methodist Council from 1976 to 1995; and Whereas his kindness, generosity, and infectious energy have enriched the lives of those fortunate enough to know and work with him; and Whereas Dr. Charles Sayre is the son of the Reverend Woodburn J. Sayre, a Pennington School alumnus of the Class of 1905; and Whereas Dr. Sayre served with distinction as an engaged and thoughtful member of the Board of Trustees at The Pennington School for 26 years, from 1983 to 2009; and Whereas Dr. Sayre has offered sage advice and valued counsel to Pennington School leaders and volunteers; and Whereas Dr. Sayre celebrates his 100th birthday on April 19, 2020; now, therefore be it Resolved, that The Pennington School Board of Trustees: 1. express deep gratitude for and honor the years of service and steadfast care that the Reverend Dr. Charles Sayre has bestowed upon The Pennington School; and 2. felicitate his centenarian milestone and declare respect and admiration for a life of purpose and commitment to the values of Honor, Virtue, and Humility.

Dated January 24, 2020

www.pennington.org

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Winter/Spring 2020

Special Events 1

1. The Global Studies Speaker Series welcomed one of Pennington's own faculty members, Mary Roseen (left), to speak to students on January 10. Roseen was a teacher of English as a foreign language (TEFL) volunteer in Armenia for the Peace Corps from 2016 to 2018 before coming to The Pennington School.

Joining Roseen for the presentation was Kelsey Rowe, who also volunteered as a teacher in Armenia from 2016 to 2019.

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2. During the week of January 13, students in Mr. Harding's Civil Rights and Liberties class showcased their impressive presentations about recidivism, environmental justice, constitutional interpretation, the right to live, and more. Every year, the students research topics for their "CRAL Talk" and share what they learned with an audience of students and teachers.

3. The Pennington School welcomed Dora Damiano Mavellia P’15 ’20 on January 14. She spoke with Green Teamers about the benefits of vertical farming. Students were then able to get their hands dirty and plant some of their own seeds for our newly created vertical garden!

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4. Grade 6 "Book Talks" were in full force in mid-January. The students selected a book to read, analyze, and share with the class. In addition, they created a project that relates to or depicts the stories.

5. Pennington's forensics class is creating a new set of detectives. On January 16, students entered a fake crime scene and had to collect evidence and use special tools in order to solve a crime.

6. Eight Pennington School students traveled to The Hun School of Princeton for the MLK Leadership Summit from Friday to Monday, January 17–20.

Participants in the Summit had the opportunity to examine and develop their own leadership potential within a multicultural context.

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Special Events 7

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7. The residential community celebrated the Lunar New Year at formal dinner on Monday, January 27. Everyone enjoyed the delicious food, and students from China, South Korea, and Vietnam shared stories of how their families celebrate the new year.

8. On Friday, January 17, the Global Studies Speaker Series welcomed Jesse

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Moore, a field instructor in Latin America for the organization Where There Be Dragons. Moore led a discussion about critical reflections on service travel.

9. Upper School students celebrated the end of the semester with Cotillion on January 25.

10. Michael Lee Brown, a Broadway actor and 2011 graduate of The Pennington School, returned to his alma mater on Friday, January 31, to host an acting and dance workshop for drama students. He also brought his co-star, Mallory Bechtel, who performed alongside Brown in the smash hit Dear Evan Hansen in New York City.

www.pennington.org

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11. The Applied Science Speaker Series continued on January 31 with Dr. Tage Ramakrishna P’21. Ramakrishna is a physician and currently the chief medical officer and president of worldwide research and development for Bausch Health Companies.

12. Once a month, the STEM Leaders Club visits the first-grade class at the Christina Seix Academy to perform a fun STEM activity. February's STEM Challenge was to stack cups into different shapes.

The kids had a blast building up their structures, much like a reverse game of Jenga!

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13. The Robotics Team put in a good showing at South Brunswick High School during a competition on Saturday, February 1.

14. The Pennington Ski Club had a funfilled trip to Mount Snow in Vermont on the first weekend in February!

15. On February 5, The Pennington School honored eleven seniors who had already made athletic commitments to colleges or universities for next year. Of those eleven, two signed NCAA National Letters of Intent to play Division I sports in college.

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

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16. On February 7, Karun Pothacamury P’21 spoke to Pennington students about "Modular Innovation: Evolving Your Technology Baseline" as part of the Applied Science Speaker Series.

17. The Science Olympiad team participated in Princeton University's Invitational Competition in February. Our team entered a gravity vehicle with an automatic braking system and competed in events such as code busters, astronomy, experimental design, and ornithology.

18. A group of boarding students went to the New Jersey Devils game on February 8.

19. On February 12, Trinity Pryor ’21 presented the monologue project she had been working on to earn the Girl Scout Gold Award (the highest award a Girl Scout can achieve). For her project, she interviewed women whose lives were affected by war, from the wives of fallen soldiers to Pennington's own Ms. Fermo (former U.S. Navy pilot). She then turned those stories into monologues with the help of some of her female Pennington schoolmates.

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Special Events 20. For a special Advisory period in February, students decorated leaves in honor of the Jewish holiday Tu B’Shevat, the New Year of the Trees. Those leaves were then placed on trees inside the buildings on the campus.

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21. Students from Saint Denis International School in Loches, France, visited the Pennington campus the week of February 17! The guests attended classes with hosts, visited New York City, and even played a game of basketball with the Boys’ Basketball team.

www.pennington.org

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Special Events

22. Marisa Ferrari’s ecology class worked with the Mercer County Parks Department to set up transects and quadrats in a section of woods at Rosedale Park. The students surveyed the grounds, collecting data of tree, sapling, and seedling size and numbers.

The end goal is for the department to install a large fence in 2020 to keep deer out to aid in the regeneration of the forest.

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23. An-lin Sloan ’21 gave a presentation on February 21 about new developments in her work on behalf of the orphanage in Dapu, China, from which she was adopted at one year of age. Her talk was part of the Global Studies Speaker Series.

24. The robotics team had another intense competition on February 22 at Cherry Hill High School East.

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25. Dodgeball for Haiti was held on Saturday, February 22. Six teams competed in a round-robin tournament that raised close to $200 for Harmony Ministries in Haiti.

26. The Middle School Creative Writing Club wrote and acted out an original play, All You Need Is Love and Pizza, for an audience of family and friends on March 6.

27. To kick off Spring Break, the Middle School participated in an exciting dodgeball tournament on March 6.

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Parents for Pennington PREVAILS!

ool ch on

nt

s fo

gt

Parents for Pennington wants to thank all members of the Pennington community for their tremendous support!

nington S en

e

With Assistant Head of School for Community Life and Dean of Students Chad Bridges ’96 as auctioneer and master of ceremonies, Red and Black

Chad Bridges ’96 as auctioneer and master of ceremonies for the Red and Black Bash

Pa r

Bash 2020 brought together current and former Pennington School parents, alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of the School to bid on a wide variety of items and experiences donated by local businesses and members of the School community. The event ultimately exceeded Parents for Pennington’s fundraising expectations, netting an unprecedented $107,000 to be divided among various Parents for Pennington projects. In addition to embarking on a long-term effort to revitalize the on-campus pond, which was the original fundraising target for this year’s event, PfP plans to increase its annual contribution to the School’s Student Assistance Fund, sponsor more community-building programming, and assist Pennington School families affected by COVID-19.

The P

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espite setbacks caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, Parents for Pennington’s Red and Black Bash was a tremendous success this year. The Bash committee had almost reached the finish line of planning this year’s gala fundraiser, “The Secret Garden,” which was originally scheduled for Saturday, March 28, on campus, when COVID-19 mitigation efforts derailed our plans.

In less than four weeks, this dedicated group of parents regrouped, redesigned the event, and presented a virtual Red and Black Bash via Zoom and GiveSmart. com on Saturday, April 25. From the class cocktail parties for current parents to the online live and silent auctions open to all, the event celebrated the warm, supportive, and resilient character that defines the Pennington School community.

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Parents for Pennington Board 2019–20 President Marlynne Marlow P’20 Vice President Cynthia Wallace P’20 ’23 ’26 Financial Liaison Michelle Meinhart P’23 Events Coordinator Jacqueline Evans P’22 ’25 ’25 Recording Secretary Lewis Arthur P’24 Communications Lisa Hardt P’24 Upper School Representative Teresa Lewis P’22 Middle School Representative Linda Sichel P’19 ’22 ’26 Boarding Life Representative Dora Mavellia P’15 ’20 Immediate Past President Lori Washton P’20

pfp@pennington.org www.pennington.org

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in the Gallery

SPACE MAKER T

he 2019–20 student exhibition SPACE MAKER continued Pennington’s tradition of exhibiting work from all Upper School art classes, including painting, drawing, ceramics, and photography classes, displayed together in our beautiful Silva Gallery of Art in February. The Pennington Arts Department believes that every point of discovery in art is worthy of a showcase—from level one through advanced placement. We value each and every work because the artistic process is sincerely practiced by each and every student. We honor the pieces they make and we honor the makers that these students are. Student artists were also celebrated at a reception event in conjunction with the February Coffeehouse with HeART. While the run of the show was cut short, our distancelearning curriculum inspired us to create a Silva Virtual Gallery. All are invited to see the most recent creative expressions by our Upper School students, created during the distance-learning period, on the School’s website!

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Coming to the Silva Gallery this fall!

Time Traveling: Paintings and Drawings

by Monika McCall ’79 September 14–November 20 Reception with the artist: October 10 The Silva Gallery is honored to host a visual journey exploring time, memory, and self, spanning 25 years of this alumna’s art-making career. For McCall, nature, music, meditation, and comedy are a recipe for existence and the art-making process.

She believes silence gives birth to expression; music and nature brings lighthearted freedom; and comedy relieves life’s pains.

McCall’s goal is for all these things to be found in her work.

McCall is returning to Pennington after 40 years—a most appropriate event to celebrate on Homecoming weekend!

McCall writes that she is, “constantly finding myself alongside myself, time traveling the roads and landscape I know and love, imposing my perception on places that no longer exist, and summoning people from the past and projecting my future self.” www.pennington.org

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Pennington Strong

NOW

Giving back together May 5, 2020

#GivingTuesdayNow

at PENNINGTON

BY THE

NUMBERS

24

HOURS

of celebrating giving and community

$50,000 MATCHING

challenge met!

OUR DONORS

TOTAL RAISED

$155,497 325 donors supported PENNINGTON

103 alumni 100 parents 75 faculty and staff 47 past parents 23 states and 3 countries represented

SPECIAL MENTIONS

39 first-time donors 108 donors made 2 or more gifts this year 1981 class with largest number of gifts

GIFT BREAKDOWN

Gifts ranged from $5 to $10,000 $100 median gift amount 40 donors made gifts to honor faculty and staff

THANK YOU to all who participated in #GivingTuesdayNow at Pennington!

We are grateful for your support.

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Pennington Jazz Combo at NAIS On Friday, February 28, at 3:30 the Pennington School Jazz Combo took the stage at the Philadelphia Convention Center and performed before an audience of 5,000 at the National Association of Independent Schools Annual Conference! The ensemble, composed of David Cahn ’22, Shivant Krishnan ’21, Sampo Lintula ’21, and Deep Patel ’20, was one of only four featured school music groups selected from hundreds of audition videos from across the region—and we could not be prouder of their preparation and performance.

Krishnan said, “Our preparations were quite extensive—we found time to meet as a group in the midst of our hectic schedules. In fact, all of us were involved with a major School activity (varsity swimming and the musical) this winter, but we still rehearsed weekly to prepare for the conference.”

“...We are so grateful to have been selected to perform our favorite type of music! It was an honor to represent Pennington on the national scale, and we couldn't be happier with how it turned out.”

Dr. Dolan was proud to report the group was definitely well-received. “The stage manager enjoyed talking with the students beforehand, even playing a tune for us on his custom-made trumpet. The other ensembles that performed had their director on stage with the students, but our students stepped out onto the stage without me and it really highlighted how student-run the group truly is. I was proud of their professionalism during sound-check, as well as before and after the performance.” The musicians represented Pennington with pride, playing Stevie Wonder’s “Isn't She Lovely” and Kenny Dorham’s “Minor's Holiday.”

Senior Deep Patel commented, “It was a really awesome experience, and it stood out because it felt very professional. I had never played on such a large stage before, or in front of such a large audience, and the whole experience was exhilarating. We usually play in front of smaller groups of people, but this time, due to the vast size of the room, we needed to get mic-checked, which was a whole new experience, as well. It was absolutely amazing.”

www.pennington.org

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Athletics Upper School Winter 2019-20 Ice Hockey Coaches: Tom Horsley, Chauncey Farrington, and Elliot Coates This was a rebuilding year for the Pennington School Ice Hockey team. The team was led by co-captains senior Deon Kraft and junior Bill Bernal. Several younger players were required to step into significant roles. Freshman Chris DeLellis led the team in scoring with our best two-way player, sophomore Andrew Stournaras, close behind.

Senior Malcolm McGill split time this year, starting out on defense and transitioning to offense in the second half to take advantage of his speed and energy. Freshman Wolfie Meinhart used his hockey sense and skills to lead the defense. Goalie Bernal was named to the first team All League for the third straight year and the Trentonian first team All Prep for the first time. DeLellis made second team All League and honorable mention All Prep.

Boys’ Basketball Coaches: Chandler Fraser-Pauls ’11, Ryan Stokes, and Ryan McCoy Progress: That is the word Coach Fraser-Pauls would use to describe the 2019–20 Pennington Boys’ Basketball season.

Although there were ups and downs throughout our season, there is no doubt the young men became better players, a better team, and, most important, better people over the course of this year. Winning the John Molinelli Holiday Classic over Winter Break was one of the highlights of our season. Coach Fraser-Pauls said, “Overall, I could not be more proud of our group for buying in and setting the foundation for our program for years to come.” The team will have a majority of the players return next year, and everyone is excited to continue to work hard and make

progress as a program going forward. A special thanks to our seniors Max Henry and Rickey Eng for their leadership throughout the year, and we wish them the best as they move ahead!

Winter Track Coaches: Rick Ritter and Long Ding From early meets at Peddie to qualifying for and competing at the Eastern States Championship, this has been a season to remember. The boys’ team ended the season with a record of seven wins and six losses. Early in the season, the teams ran at the Bishop Loughlin Games on Staten Island. Drayton Kolaras took second in the Frosh 600 Meter and third in the Frosh 1,000 Meter, while Isaiah Muse took seventh in the 300 Meter and a strong fifth in the 55-Meter Dash. Muse once again ran well representing Pennington at the Mercer County Championships, placing fourth in the 55 Meter. The team did well at the State Championship meet, placing third overall. A highlight that day was the 55-Meter finals with Pennington sweeping it!

Jabril Walker came in third, Aidan Israel came in second, and Muse took first place. Muse then came back and won the 200 Meter and 400 Meter, ultimately anchoring the 4x400 Meter Relay with a gold medal. While running at the North Shore Invitational meet in New York City, Muse set a new School record of 51.00 in the 400 Meter.

The girls’ team was young and resilient. Our final record was three wins and seven losses. We ended with a respectable fourth place at States despite being outmatched by teams with more girls and more experience. There was personal growth and there were little successes along the way. The team effort at States was palpable. The team has many positive things hopefully to build upon for next year!

www.pennington.org

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Winter 2019-20 Upper School Athletics

Girls’ Basketball Coaches: Jeff Eckerson and Holly Jones After losing six seniors to graduation last year, the Varsity Girls’ Basketball Team had no seniors on this year’s team. The young group, including two freshman starters, worked hard every game and finished with a 7–15 record.

Sophomore MK Kramli led the team in scoring, including sinking 47 three-pointers. Junior Sophia Kavulich was the second-leading scorer and also led the team in rebounds and assists. Freshman Reagan Amberson led the team in steals. Freshman Macayla Rodriguez was also a starter and contributed significantly in all statistical categories. Season highlights included two wins over Princeton Day School and a close victory over Perkiomen School. The team improved significantly throughout the season and has a very bright future ahead with all players returning next year.

Swimming Coaches: George Ward ’88, Scott Doughty, Maria Kane ’09, and Marisa Ferrari Varsity Boys’ and Girls’ Swimming had a season for the ages.

The boys finished 6–1 and the girls finished 5–2 in dual meets.

The boys won their first 2020 Mercer County Tournament (MCT) championship by three points and their third NJISAA Prep B State championship in a row. The girls placed second at MCT and won the NJISAA Prep B State championship meet, scoring the most points for both the A and B divisions.

At Easterns, Pennington finished a best-ever sixth place in combined team scores, finishing ahead of local teams such as Peddie and Lawrenceville. It was a season of eleven new School records, as well. Three for our girls (Ellie Schinsky, Makenna Urbanek, Elena Nechay, and BB Kim) as well as eight for the boys (Ben Eckerson, David Curtiss, Oliver Gassmann, and Mark Usiskin) as well as new Mercer County records that included Liam Rodgers in the medley relay as well as Eckerson, Gassmann, Usiskin, and Curtiss. New state and pool records were written by Eckerson in the 100 Back at Lawrenceville; he also won “Swimmer of the Meet” honors. New Easterns meet and pool records were set by Curtiss at the Franklin & Marshall pool, where he also set a new National Independent Short Course Yards record in the 50 Free (19.42), breaking the 2012 record of American swimmer Ryan Murphy. This achievement is in addition to Curtiss’s national record in the 50 Meter Free (22.38) from the County meet!

According to SwimSwam.com, Curtiss finished his season as the seventh-fastest American ever in the 17–18 age group in the 50 Free, moving ahead of former Olympians Anthony Ervin and Gustavo Borges, who are now tied for eighth. Curtiss had planned to train for the Olympic Trials. The team says goodbye to thirteen incredible seniors, including captains Harper Usiskin, Blake Hart, and Jack Fancher.

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Above: Boys' Swimming won the NJISAA Boys’ Swim Championships, which took place on February 4 at The Lawrenceville School.

Below: Girls’ Swimming won the NJISAA Girls’ Swim Championships, which took place on February 5 at The Lawrenceville School.

www.pennington.org

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Upper School Athletic Awards Winter 2019–20

VARSITY Ice Hockey Coaches’ Award—Malcolm McGill ’20 100% Hustle Award—Andrew Stournaras ’22 Total Dedication—Connor McAlister ’21 Winter Track Boys Red Raider Award—Isaiah Muse ’22 Leadership Award—Aidan Israel ’20 Stoker Award—Kenzo Takeda ’20 Winter Track Girls Red Raider Award­— Julia Alito ’20 Leadership Award—Hope Blair ’20 Stoker Award—Shreya Krishnan ’20

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Boys’ Basketball Coaches’ Award—Max Henry ’20 Coaches’ Award—Ryan Bowen ’21 Girls' Basketball Red Raider Award—Mary Kate Kramli ’22 Coaches’ Award—Sophia Kavulich ’21 Swimming Boys Greatest Contribution—Jack Fancher ’20 Red Raider Award—Blake Hart ’20 Coaches’ Award—Chris Long ’20 Swimming Girls Greatest Contribution—Harper Usiskin ’20 Coaches’ Award—Kate Long ’20 Red Raider Award—Jenna Kollevoll ’20

JUNIOR VARSITY Boys’ Basketball I Coaches’ Award—Hieu Nguyen ’22 Boys’ Basketball II Red Raider Award—Ronan Hwang ’23 Coach’s Award—Patrick Riley ’23 Girls’ Basketball Red Raider Award—Holly Kennedy ’21 Coaches’ Award—Taylor Li ’20

Pool Construction

UPDATE

In February 2020, the School started a major renovation project on the Michael T. Martin Aquatic Center’s pool, which was originally built in 1962 and later upgraded. Included in the massive overhaul was new plumbing, water filters, a new gutter system (which will make the pool considerably “faster”), new deck, brand-new custom SR Smith starting blocks, new in-deck components for the Colorado timing system, and the addition of underwater music!

The project should be near completion by the beginning of summer 2020 as you read this magazine!

Summer in the

Cloud!

Ages 10-15+

Virtual Summer Camps Music Lessons STEM Programs Summer Academy: Distance Learning Athletic Coaching Program www.penningtonsummers.org www.pennington.org

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Middle School

NEWS

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Middle School News

Middle School ski trip On February 7, 2020, the Middle School traveled by bus to Shawnee Mountain in East Stroudsburg, PA, for the annual Middle School Ski Trip. A rainy, foggy morning created wet, slushy conditions on the mountain, but that didn’t stop the group of excited and eager Middle Schoolers! As the day went on, the fog cleared and the rain turned to light snow. After a full morning of skiing and snowboarding, students came back to

the lodge to warm up and have lunch.

In the afternoon, some students went tubing and others went back out to the slopes.

At the end of the day, Grades 6 and 7 packed up their gear and returned to Pennington. Grade 8 continued the fun overnight with a trip to the movies, dinner, and more time on the slopes the following day.

We believe taking the time to get out of the classroom as a community enhances our relationships and provides opportunities to interact in new and different ways. In addition, the Middle School also used this trip as a way to celebrate a semester’s worth of academic effort and achievement. Many students learned to ski or snowboard for the first time, and others practiced while hanging out with their friends!

Middle School celebrates Kindness Week From February 10 to February 14, the Middle School celebrated Kindness Week. This special week is one when students plan a variety of activities in order to spread kindness throughout Pennington. All week the Middle School students wrote nice notes, made crafts like friendship bracelets, and spread love and positivity.

In addition to Kindness Week, the Middle School also celebrated Valentine’s Day with some special, meaningful valentines.

Global Perspectives—locker project Middle School students in Global Perspectives were asked to create an art installation in their locker representing seven descriptors of culture: “family patterns,” “customs and traditions,” “language,” “arts and literature,” “religion,” “forms of government,” and “economic systems.” This unit in the class focused on building identity and finding commonalities among the students. They had artistic freedom to decorate the locker, but usually students mixed pictures, labels, and objects. It was a fun project to have students complete, because it gave them insight into one another's lives and the cultures that they bring to our community!

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Middle School News

What makes a sustainable community?

At the end of the first semester, the Middle School embarked on a day full of exploration of the question, “What makes a sustainable community?” Pairs of faculty members designed field trips relevant to the three themes of cultural identity, immigration, or climate change. These themes touch on the multifaceted reality of what creates sustainable development and communities, as captured from the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations. Groups went out to locations such as Long Beach Island, Philadelphia, Hamilton, West Windsor, and Hopewell to actively find answers to the question. Students spoke to local political officials and experts in these fields, viewed art and murals, explored topics of science, and created projects with their collected wisdom and materials. Each group had a special lunch together, as well.

All in all, students learned that a variety of viewpoints and skills is needed to make a community sustainable. Their discoveries included ideas of teamwork and collaboration, support, sharing of ideas, respect for others and the Earth, understanding where we come from, and envisioning where we can go in the future.

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Opposite page: Mr. Moore and Mr. Ding’s group participated in a mural walk in Philadelphia to explore topics of immigration; this page, above: Ms. Alito and Ms. Houston’s group, who visited an Escape Room and then designed a climate change-themed room on campus; below: Mrs. Shaffer and Mrs. Farina’s group, who visited the Hydrogen House in Hopewell and made their own sustainable tree art that graced our Middle School lobby into the spring.

Middle School News

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Middle School News

Art with Guatemala In early March, students put the final touches on their works of art that were sent to students in Guatemala. The art was intended to represent a value they have. The students also added in cultural detail (such as the background or clothing) to communicate what life is like in the United States. The students in Guatemala had the same task!

Artorama Puppet Show The seventh-graders in Artorama made puppets with the supplies dropped off for them by their teachers in April.

They filmed their shows and then shared them with local kindergarten and first grade students at Toll Gate Grammar School in Pennington.

Artorama The seventh-graders started Artorama class on April 20 with Ms. Hall and Ms. L. Houston. In order to have students prepared and ready for their upcoming art lessons and the annual puppet show project, Ms. Hall packed up art supplies and the students’ sketchbooks. The two teachers divided up the list of students in the class and hand-delivered these Artorama gift bags right to the front doors of the seventh-graders!

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Middle School News

Odyssey of the Mind Competition This year marked Pennington’s ninth year of participation in the Odyssey of the Mind program. Beginning in November 2019, our Middle School teams began their planning and work for the long-term competition. The teams met each day after school until Spring Break, and while the solutions proved very creative, and we were ready for this regional competition, it was canceled due to concerns regarding COVID-19.

Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities for students from kindergarten through college, according to the New Jersey Odyssey of the Mind website. Odyssey of the Mind team members work together to solve problems that range from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretation of literary classics. The Pennington School prepared solutions to the “Longshot Solution” Division II and “Net Working” Division II. In the “Longshot Solution” presentation, team members collected supplies via three original team-made vehicles to complete a chemical reaction. The students had to perform an original skit that included characters and special effects, with an emphasis on running the vehicles to the “reaction center.” In the second problem, the team created a series of devices, including a pneumatic tube system, to represent segments of a home network device.

To prepare for the competition, the students built multiple vehicles and devices, designed and crafted costumes, created musical instruments, wrote scripts, made props, and designed and painted backdrops. In a normal year, the teams placing in the top two spots in each problem and division advance to the State Finals. Following that competition, the top two teams from each problem and division advance to the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals.

For more information, visit https://njootm.org.facilisi.

Distance learning advisee friends Young adult novelist Shannon A. Thompson once wrote, “We were together even when we were apart.” The Class of 2026 proved that to be true during their time together in Pennington’s distance-learning platform. Distance did not keep the sixthgraders from taking care of their close Advisory friends. In fact, with a little ingenuity and creativity, they figured out a way to both recreate one another and have some laughs with the new “2.0” versions of their friends. Each student in Advisory “remade” their friends out of paper, cloth, reusable household items, or anything they could use to build. Afterward, the new 2.0 version and the creator enjoyed some activities together. Whether it was playing soccer, LEGOs ®, a game, or enjoying a meal, all the 2.0 versions had a wonderful time with their buddies. After photographing the fun, students shared pictures and videos of their time together in their morning Advisory class. Not only did the sixth grade find ways to stay connected, but they also found ways to laugh and to bond. A few miles on a map can be conquered by a wonderful imagination!

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Middle School News

Cooking Class Starting at the end of April, about ten Middle School students participated in Teacher of Middle School Spanish Tracy Kuser’s hour-long Cooking in Quarantine class.

Every week, the students tackled new recipes including: fried rice, chocolate lava cakes, and fresh salsa, guacamole, and homemade tortilla chips. The goals of this class were to teach students to improvise with ingredients in the house, learn about new dishes, relax, and have fun!

Kuser came up with the idea for the class when she was cooking at home during the quarantine. She says, “During the quarantine I have noticed myself really relying on that creative outlet for calm and joy. I also found myself constantly trying to figure out how to be as efficient as possible with my ingredients (so I didn't have to go to the store often) and it was this thought that inspired me to offer these Cooking in Quarantine workshops.”

For Kuser, one of the most rewarding aspects of this activity was hearing from students after the class. She says, “I love hearing a student tell me how they have made the dish multiple times since the workshop or how they have baked or cooked other things on their own.”

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Lisa Fitzpatrick’s eighth-grade students were asked to perform scenes from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The plan was that they would perform it after Spring Break, but four of her students— Teagan Walsh, Sanjana Padmanabhan, Cici Yu, and Praslin Hayes—asked if they could present it via Zoom. They never had the chance to finish videorecording it before Spring Break, so they regrouped and shared an amazing piece of creative perseverance.

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

MS Athletic Awards Winter 2019–20 Girls’ Basketball Coach’s Award–Nicolette Kirikian Fearlessness Award–Keke Nwoye Boys’ Basketball–A Team Red Raider Award–JT Shamsey Coaches’ Award–Keane Brown Boys’ Basketball –B Team Red Raider Award–Benjamin Pearlberg Coaches’ Award–Tait Brown

MS Athletics Winter 2019–20 Girls’ Basketball

Coach: Patrick Murphy The 2019–20 Middle School Girls’ Basketball team had an outstanding season. The fun started with a sign-up that was so large that we created two teams and held a combination of games for both squads. Team members included eighth-graders Shahrin Akhtar, Micah Bowser, Nicolette Kirikian, Keke Nwoye, and Tess Zabele and seventh-graders Lia Brunetti-Carroll, Charlotte Close, Eliza O’Neil, Mykaela Sanders, Abby Stevenson, and Myla Tudor. Five sixthgraders also joined the hoops action: Amelia Buck, Laney Keith, Olivia Lee, Natalie Maschler, and Issy Wallace.

The Red Raiders were successful in all respects: each and every player gained valuable experience on the court, and the team managed to win ten games while losing only three. The coach is excited for the next season!

Swimming Red Raider Award–Owen Doughty Most Improved Award–Will Arthur Coaches’ Award–Alex Lee Coaches’ Award–Michela McCagg

Boys’ Basketball

Coaches: Nathaniel Van Yperen and Will Burke The Middle School Boys’ Basketball season was a success. Twenty-seven boys came out for basketball, so we were able to field two full teams. The A team consisted of mostly eighth-graders: Keane Brown, Nicky Esposito, JT Shamsey, Arun Bhattacharjee, John Hillman, Alex Brackin, Ray Heaton, Tom Craig, and Justin Davidyock. Topher Kelley represented the seventh grade, and sixth-grader Tait Brown gained experience as a swing player between the A and B teams. The A team finished with a 4–5 record, which included several very close losses. Throughout the season, the A team played hard, developed existing skills, and modeled sportsmanship.

The B team consisted of players spanning grades 6–8, including James Bradley, Tait Brown, Michael Carroll, AJ Gray, Garrett Hardt, Jayce Hulme, Justin Jamieson, Grayson Levy, Dustin Liu, Lucas Medina, Teddy Molner, Leo Momo, Benjamin Pearlberg, Ian Sendak, and Hunter Shaffer.

For many of the players, this was their first experience with organized basketball, but every player received substantial minutes on the court. The team exhibited an admirable amount of enthusiasm and support for each other.

Swimming

Coaches: Brandon Hullings and Bill Hutnik Nothing could stop the Middle School Swimming team this year from having a good time, improving our techniques, and reaching personal bests. The Middle School team finished the season at 1–1 after a shortened season due to the closure of the pool. Some of the swimmers chose to stay the course and train in the weight room until the Middle School Championship. Owen Doughty and Alex Lee earned first-place finishes at the Ranney Invitational while setting Pennington Middle School records in the 50 Backstroke and 200 Freestyle, respectively. Because the season was interrupted, we also remain undefeated (1–0) in dual meets in the new decade!

Good luck to all of our eighth-graders as you join the Upper School swim team next year, and congratulations on a unique but successful season!

www.pennington.org

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Middle School

PLAY

A Note on this Year's Middle School Radio Play This year, with a strong group of eighthgraders, and dedicated sixth- and seventhgraders, we had every hope to re-mount this production with full sets, lighting, and costumes. But this spring was a huge surprise! Lucky for us, we picked a show set in the 1920s. We entered rehearsal with plans A (onstage production), B (staged as a radio play), and C (radio recording) in mind.

Plan C is where we landed—Pennington's first-ever radio show! This was not an easy process, but it provided the students, and Leah and Sophia, with a great opportunity to stay creative and connected in an uncertain time, full of surprises.

A Note on the Production History of Muddah Goose The play’s author, David Lightfoot, was a Pennington faculty member who served the Cervone Center as an excellent teacher of Compensatory Skills. Lightfoot was also a dedicated hall parent, and he could also write and direct. During his tenure at Pennington from 1997 to 2011, he wrote six original Middle School productions to fit our students and the topics they were studying at the time. He also served as the play director. Simply put, he knows Middle Schoolers, and we love his plays.

Pennington originally mounted this production under his direction in 2002, and then again in 2010. Suzanne Houston also directed it in Princeton in 2003. There is something really special about this show because all of the many characters have their own moments to shine.

Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the students in both of those earlier productions went on to serve as the core members of the Upper School Drama trips to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2007 and 2012.

by Lisa Houston

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Director’s Note by Sophia Amaro ’20 and Leah Balerna ’20

P

ennington Drama has been a huge part of our lives since Middle School.

Directing the Middle School Play was something we always knew we wanted to do; therefore being given the opportunity to direct Muddah Goose was a dream come true. It feels as though our Pennington Drama careers came full circle, and being able to inspire Middle Schoolers to love drama as much as we do has been the most rewarding experience.

We have learned so much about ourselves, each other, and the wonderful faculty and students here at Pennington.

We have faced many challenges, had many laughs, and created so many special relationships with the new people we have gotten to know through creating this production. The Pennington Middle School is truly a special place, which is all reflected in the outcome of Muddah Goose.

We are incredibly grateful for the amazing cast and crew that stuck by the production through the events of COVID-19. The Middle Schoolers always brought infectious positive energy to every virtual rehearsal, which continued to inspire us throughout the entire process. We have learned the true meaning of community while directing this production. We had so much support from our mentors, and the actors could not have succeeded in creating this radio play without them. We took everything

Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

day by day and were able to create a production so unique that it will make its mark in Pennington Drama history, which is everything we could have hoped for. Muddah Goose was so special because it brought out everyone’s creativity and determination to create an amazing show despite any challenges. After going through this experience we know that we are capable of doing anything, no matter where life takes us. Muddah Goose has shown us that when one door closes, an even better one opens up.

This year's Middle School Play directors (below)

With the help of our mentors, we were able to come up with the idea for a radio show that anyone could listen to in the comfort of their own homes.

Since Muddah Goose is set in the 1920s, it was the perfect way to perform the play. Radio plays were the basis of many people’s entertainment during that time, and we were so excited to be able to transport our audience into the world of Breezy City. We wanted to make sure that anyone who wanted to continue to participate in the show could, and our tech crew truly stepped up to the challenge. Middle School Tech Crew created stills of the different locations in the show as a backdrop for the show.

Some members of the Tech Crew also recorded the sound effects for the entire show. The show would not have been possible if it were not for their creative ideas. The Costume Crew was able to design outfits for each character using articles of clothing the actors had in their homes. This way, they were still able to get into costume and take photos with their groups to use to promote the show. We were lucky to have such a talented group of kids to help us along the way, and we will always be grateful.

All photos were taken via a Zoom photo shoot with costume items that students found at home.

We would like to thank the very special people who helped us put together this production of Muddah Goose. Ms. S. Houston has taught us so much over the past year, and she continued to motivate us even at our low points. Mrs. Fitzpatrick did more than we could have asked for in designing the costumes. Ms. Hall and Ms. Houston were always there for us with words of wisdom to carry us through each day, and their ideas with the Tech Crew are the reason we were able to create such an incredible radio play. We would like to thank Mr. Secrest for all of the work he has put into this production, and for putting up with us every day.

We are so thankful for his guidance; we would have been lost without him. To our Middle Schoolers, thank you for sticking by us and never giving up. You have made a huge impact on our lives and we can’t wait to see you in more shows in the future. This experience has truly taught us that “Sometimes, a surprise can be a good thing.”

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THE FR ANCIS HAR Creating a Lasting Legacy at Pennington The Francis Harvey Green Society recognizes Pennington donors who have pledged their support with a planned gift. Planned gifts significantly bolster the endowment needed to keep The Pennington School competitive and deliver on our core values of Honor, Virtue, and Humility. In just the past twenty years, Pennington has received more than $4 million in estate gifts.

All alumni, parents, and friends of Pennington are invited to be recognized as members of the Francis Harvey Green Society by making a bequest provision in your estate plans or by establishing a life income gift.

Planned Giving at Pennington: A Mutually Beneficial Endeavor Please let us know if you already have The Pennington School in your estate plans so that we can celebrate your

Making a planned gift shows your support and appreciation for the School and can help you meet your own personal, financial, estate-planning, and philanthropic goals. Many planned giving vehicles help secure retirement and maximize inheritances for future generations while also providing support for The Pennington School and its mission.

support and welcome you into the Francis Harvey Green Society! If you are interested in learning more about how you can have a bigger impact with your giving, please contact Charlie Brown, assistant head of school for advancement and strategic initiatives, at charlie. brown@pennington.org or 609-737-6103.

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Dr. Francis Harvey Green was headmaster of The Pennington School from 1920 to 1943 and left a lasting mark on Pennington. His legacy encompasses far more than the letters, manuscripts, and books he presented to the School on his retirement. He is revered for the commitment to academic excellence and respect for each individual that were his hallmark. The Francis Harvey Green Society was established to honor his legacy, celebrate his guiding values of generosity and humility, and ensure a strong future for the School through planned giving.

RV EY GR EEN SOCIET Y Members We are grateful to these members of the society who have created a lasting legacy with their giving—ensuring Pennington will continue to realize its mission of developing individual excellence in every student. Thank you for your loyalty to and support of Pennington.

Dr. Abraham Abadi ’62 Mr. Frederic E. Bahrenburg 1926 * Mr. and Mrs. William J. Baxter * Mrs. Ruth L. Becher Chartier P’70 * Dr. and Mrs. Robert H. Beckett, Sr. ’52 GP’14 Mr. John S. Biddiscombe ’63 and Ms. Abigail Gorton Mr. and Mrs. Stephen L. Bowers Mr. and Mrs. Wilson R. Bradley ’63 Mr. Andrew D. Brashears, Jr. ’50 Mr. and Mrs. Gary J. Brooks P’03 ’08 Mr. Charles D. Brown Mr. and Mrs. H. Walcott Brown, Jr. P’65 * Mr. and Mrs. Peter W. Brown ’65 Mr. and Mrs. John E. Celentano P’12 ’16 ’17 Mr. Thomas D. Chiodi ’81 Rev. and Mrs. Newton D. Coughenour ’37 * Mr. Drew C. Curry ’76 Mr. and Mrs. Bruce L. Custis ’68 Mr. Douglas M. Davies ’60 Mrs. Nancy Davison Dr. and Mrs. John W. De Reamer ’40 * Mr. John T. Dean, Jr. ’47 * A. Louis Denton, Esq. ’76 Mr. Adrian J. DeYoung ’52 * Mrs. Adrian J. DeYoung Mr. Ronald T. DiGiovanni ’71 Mr. and Mrs. Lionel R. Driscoll ’40 * Mr. John Bruce Dunlop ’49 * Ms. Frances L. Durst P’90 ’93 Mrs. Ted Essex 1925 *

Mr. and Mrs. H. B. Farquhar ’39 * Mr. and Mrs. Ernest T. Gardner ’39 * Mr. Herbert S. Grafton 1929 * Mr. Scott T. Gray ’77 Dr. and Mrs. Jorge Guerrero P’94 Mr. Thomas K. Haje ’47 * Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Horner ’40 * Mr. John H. Houghton ’48 * Dr. and Mrs. David Iorio, Sr. P’17 ’18 Mrs. Frances White Keebler * Mr. and Mrs. F. Thomas Keogh P’90 Ms. A. Melissa Kiser P’01 Mr. and Mrs. Russ J. Koesterich P’23 Mr. Donald H. Kolb ’55 P’07 * The Hon. John S. Kuhlthau and Dr. Carol Kuhlthau Mr. and Mrs. Joseph E. LaVance, Jr. ’39 * Dr. R. James Lawton * Mr. and Mrs. Steven D. Levy P’09 Mr. Jacob A. Levy ’09 Mrs. Demie S. Lewis * Mr. and Mrs. David J. Long, Jr. P’86 ’88 ’91 ’00 GP’12 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’20 ’20 Mr. Daniel F. Maloney ’39 * The Rev. and Mrs. James W. Marshall ’41 * Mr. Norman A. Martin ’48 * Mrs. Phyllis Martin Mr. and Mrs. Wayne R. McDaniel ’49 * Mr. and Mrs. James R. McKee, Sr. ’48 Mr. and Mrs. Herman Meckler P’63 * Mr. and Mrs. Donald K. Moore P’04

Mr. G. Nelson Moore 1924 * The Rev. Douglas S. Nau ’70 Col. (Ret.) Albert M. Navas ’48 * Mr. Earl H. Newbery 1916 * Mr. Joseph Olbrys * Mr. Bruce E. Peterson ’81 Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan F. Plimpton P’99 Ms. Lori A. Plimpton P’14 ’16 The Rev. and Mrs. R. Bruce Poynter ’44 Ms. Jo Prockop Dr. and Mrs. Theodore P. Reed ’40 * Mr. John L. Reid, Jr. ’31 * Mr. Joseph A. Schermerhorn ’49 * Mrs. Charles A. Schmutz Dr. Richard H. Sharrett ’46 * Mr. Nolan H. Sherry ’68 * Dr. Victor S. Sloan and Ms. Sandra Gong P’21 Mr. and Mrs. Elliot J. Smith ’50 Mr. Howard S. Stainton * Mr. Donald M. Sykes, Jr. GP’22 ’25 ’26 * Mr. and Mrs. Leonard A. Sylk P’04 ’07 ’10 Mr. and Mrs. A. Lee Talbot ’58 Mr. and Mrs. Eliot F. Terborgh ’61 Mr. C. William Thorn ’36 * Mrs. Erica DeKranes Torsiello ’10 Mr. and Mrs. Trafton Tredick ’33 * Mr. and Mrs. Peter J. Tucci ’79 P’16 ’16 Mr. Howard P. Weller ’36 * Mr. Clair Zepp P’79 * Anonymous (4) *Deceased

The recently passed CARES Act legislation is designed to rescue the economy from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Visit our website at pennington.org/support/planned-giving to learn more about how the CARES Act may affect your gift planning and allow you to maximize your gift.

www.pennington.org

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Pennington thrives despite COVID-19 challenges

A

t the beginning of 2020, just as the Pennington community was returning to school from Winter Break, we began to hear about the virus that was spreading rapidly in China. By the end of January, Dr. Hawkey asked Pennington’s chief financial officer, Graeme McWhirter, to convene a special committee to study the ramifications of the virus’s spread and to prepare the School’s response. Senior School leadership began to meet almost daily, and the new Pandemic Committee met twice each week to chart the course ahead.

December 31, 2019: World Health Organization (WHO) says mysterious pneumonia sickening dozens in China.

January 11, 2020: China reports first novel coronavirus death.

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

A virus is unleashed and the world responds By the end of February, it became clear to the administration that, as the virus spread first to Europe and then made its first appearance in the United States, we would need to seriously consider closing the campus to help “flatten the curve” of the disease. On February 28, the School made the difficult decision to cancel

January 21: A man in his thirties from Washington state who traveled to Wuhan diagnosed with novel coronavirus, the first confirmed case in the United States January 30: WHO declares a global health emergency, just the sixth time in history.

special trips abroad for our students.

Although COVID-19 had not yet spread to some of the planned destinations, there were two important considerations that drove that decision. First, we could not risk traveling overseas with students, knowing that borders might close suddenly or that quarantines might separate students from their faculty trip leaders. Second, we could not take the chance that one of us might bring the virus to a place such as Malawi or Zimbabwe, where the lack of adequate medical help could endanger both our own groups and the lives of local people we planned to visit. The following week, as COVID-19 continued its reach throughout the U.S., Pennington also canceled its athletic trips to Florida and to California. Although all participants were deeply disappointed, we can now look back at that decision and see that it was clearly the best possible one we could have made.

Just before March 6, when Pennington students and faculty members were headed their separate ways for Spring Break, it became clear that the closing of campus might become necessary during the break. Students and faculty gathered for a community meeting, and everyone was told to take home all of their school books, laptops, iPads, and anything else stored on campus. A deep cleaning of the entire campus was planned for the two-week break, but School leadership also knew that if a distance-learning model would need to be deployed, its success depended on students and their teachers’ having the materials they would need with them at home. That day feels like a lifetime ago, partly because of the magnitude of what has happened around the world, and partly because we have spent the months since then apart from one another.

Creating an exceptional distance-learning environment After returning from that break on March 24, the School gathered in a very different space from our familiar classroom environment. Yet, when we gathered for Advisory and classes online for the first time that week, teachers and students felt the same unmistakable joy and hope and connection with each other. As we worked out technology issues and settled into a new routine, we saw the rise of engagement and the return to learning together.

DISTANCE

Learning Manual

HONOR . VIRTUE . HUMILITY

Distance learning (DL) became our new normal out of necessity. A familiar bromide is that necessity is the mother of invention, and we completely reinvented the Pennington experience for our community. Our new program was based on three guiding principles: continuity, sustainability, and connection.

Continuity. Even before the campus was closed to everyone on March 13, planning was well underway for a transition to DL. The charge to the faculty during the week of March 16 as they considered

their curricula was to identify essential understandings of current courses to both conclude this academic year and prepare students for next year. It is these essentials that students and teachers addressed so successfully this spring.

Sustainability. Cognizant of the many disruptions we expected to experience, the second principle behind our new DL design was to establish a daily schedule

Virginia Machado’s Spanish V class meets on Zoom during distance learning.

February 11: First meeting of Pennington’s Pandemic Committee, formed in January and convened

by Chief Financial Officer Graeme McWhirter

February 12: Dr. Hawkey meets daily with a task force consisting of Pennington’s senior administrative team and other key staff members to respond to the evolving challenges surrounding COVID-19.

February 17: Spring Break trips to the Dominican Republic, France, Guatemala, Malawi, and Zimbabwe are canceled due to uncertainty about global travel amid the spread of COVID-19 abroad.

February 26: First case of suspected local transmission of COVID-19 in United States

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COVID-19 Challenges that students and teachers could manage well over time. We designed backward from the idea that students would devote four hours per week to each course in a mixture of synchronous and asynchronous experiences. We were hopeful that our students would benefit from both formats; we monitored that process closely.

weeks into the DL model, we surveyed parents and students for feedback and then tweaked the schedule to allow for extracurricular activities to meet more often, and to build in some much-needed time away from screens. Throughout the spring months, we remained committed to the student experience of continuity, sustainability, and connection.

Connection. Finally, and recognizing that the Pennington community is greater than any one relationship or course, we felt a strong need to ensure that we were all together on a regular basis: in Advisory, in class, and, soon after, in club, grade-level, and community gatherings. Synchronous events serve a greater purpose above and beyond the academic, especially at Pennington, and we wanted to make that possible.

Beyond the DL classroom, we knew there were numerous other hurdles in students’ lives during this crisis, including social connectivity, household anxieties and hardships, economic hardship, and, of course, health concerns.

Late in the spring, they also experienced nationwide social outrage and protests.

We monitored these closely, too, and although we were confident that our program was sustainable, we anticipated that students would face additional challenges specific to their situation.

The School established several support networks, including more frequent Advisory meetings, weekly webinars for parents with School counselors, and numerous ways for students to stay connected with peers and School programs and counselors, in addition to their classes, all to ensure students’ wellbeing and to be certain that grades did not suffer because of influences beyond a student’s control.

Over Spring Break, it was a truly inspiring, collaborative effort to get this program off the ground; on a dime (and during their well-earned vacations!), teachers learned new technology skills and tapped their creativity; the School’s Technology Department made herculean efforts to support every student and teacher through this transition; and all of the department chairs rallied their teams and kept the four academic leaders facilitating this process (Director of the Cervone Center Jo Prockop, Dean of Faculty Deborah Fermo, Head of Middle School Chrissie Knight, and Dean of Academic Affairs Scott Peeler) informed about any rough edges.

When we saw our students’ faces on our first Tuesday in DL classes, the burden of the work fell away, and we were awash in gratitude and joy. We worked hard to design a program in which Pennington students could continue to flourish. Three

March 2: Faculty video conferencing training takes place. Spring Break athletics trips to California and Florida are canceled.

March 6: Students are dismissed for Spring Break; all are told to take home belongings in case the School has to close the campus during that time.

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The show must go on: extracurricular activities continued After the campus closed during Spring Break, it would be logical to assume that spring performances could not take place. But the Pennington School arts community is resilient and innovative;

March 12: Head of School Hawkey makes the decision to move to a distance-learning platform upon students’ return from break on March 24. Pennington’s website adds COVID-19 resource pages to keep community up to date.

Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

the arts continued during distance learning in new formats. Rehearsals continued for the senior spring plays, and the final performances were livestreamed in May (see pages 50–51). The Middle School play reimagined itself as a radio show (see pages 30–31), and music lessons continued for instrumental students.

Jim Horan led the Pennington Singers in rehearsals that culminated in an original performance of the beautiful song, “I’m Standing with You,” which he arranged and for which he played each instrumental track, recorded the singer’s voices, and then combined them digitally. The result was a stunning production that was featured in both the Upper School Commencement and the Middle School Graduation virtual programs in June.

March 16: The physical campus closes to all except residential community members, but School offices remain open during normal business hours; staff members all continue working remotely.

Guest speaker programs continue during COVID Keeping Pennington’s community together Host families welcome boarders home Several international students, unable to travel home because of restrictions or the threat of a solitary quarantine, needed to remain close to Pennington. At first, the students stayed on their residence halls.

They continued to socialize with each other and their hall parents. But as their numbers dwindled, it became apparent that they would enjoy a better experience if they could stay with a local family instead. Many day families participate in Pennington’s Host Family program, which matches a local family with an international student for weekend outings, family dinners, and even homestays and vacations together.

In March, some families offered to house their student indefinitely, as the School could not plan a date to reopen campus until it became clear that it would be safe to do so, and under the guidance of state and local government and health officials.

As this magazine goes to press, some students are still here in the U.S. with their Pennington School host families!

Left top photo: The MS Spring Play; Left bottom photo: I'm Standing with You singer; This page, top photo: The Overhiser family is still hosting El Hadj Gueye; in this photo faculty member Gretchen Overhiser awards him his Pennington diploma. Middle photo: Eighth-graders Ruoni Tu and Ruoyi Tu bake cookies at Humanities Teacher Jessie Shaffer's house during the Pennington Host Family Program before returning home to China. Bottom photo: A prop used during the virtual play

March 16: All dormitories close.

Boarding students make plans to go home or stay with local families and/ or guardians. All School-related travel, including all travel related to School business, is suspended.

March 23: New virtual faculty lounge opens.

March 24: Students return to classes after Spring Break and meet via the new distance-learning platform for the first time.

Applied Science program speakers and Global Studies speakers “visited” Pennington during the lockdown period by participating via online webinar technology. DJ Kleinbaum ’01, a pioneer in biotechnology, led the way for Pennington on May 4, serving as the first Applied Science speaker to deliver his talk remotely via Zoom. Kleinbaum, co-founder of Emerald Therapeutics, Inc., and Emerald Cloud Lab, was introduced to the audience by alumnae Mina Shokoufandeh ’19 and Sydney Gibbard ’19, whom he has mentored in their Girls Code the World project (see page 70).

Kleinbaum spoke to the large online group about the experiences he and co-founder Brian Frezza had as they strove to acquire investors in a company that would combine computer science with the life sciences, a bond not unusual today, but almost unheard of at the time they envisioned it almost twenty years ago. Today, Emerald Therapeutics is working on antiviral therapies, and Emerald Cloud Lab provides laboratory automation to other companies, as well.

Kleinbaum is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University with a doctorate from Stanford University. As he told students the story of Emerald Therapeutics’ founding, he mentioned various bits of wisdom he gained along the way. For instance, he said that, in addition to providing necessary credentials, graduate school gave him and Frezza five years to vet ideas about what they wanted their company to do and how to accomplish it.

The two men quickly learned that “it takes money to get lab space, and lab space to get money,” and there were many approaches to investors that were unsuccessful. Eventually, a San Francisco venture capital firm provided funds enabling the company to get off the ground. “All you need is one or two people to believe in you,” he told the students, “—and sometimes that’s you!”

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COVID-19 Challenges HomeFront, a local organization serving those in need in Mercer County. The Pennington School has a longstanding history with HomeFront, hosting the annual Holiday Party for 26 consecutive years as well as biweekly Gym & Swim sessions. The leaders hoped to raise $25,000 for the organization and even secured a donor who matched every donation up to $25,000, meaning the group could donate over $50,000. The students also added a little fun motivation: for every $1,000 donated, a teacher agreed to create a TikTok video and post it on School social media.

Formal dinners continued!

Residential faculty and families missed formal dinner so much that they participated in a Social Distance Formal Dinner. Families were encouraged to make their own table numbers and menus, and Ms. Hall sent around conversation starters. Dress ranged from sweatpants to true formal attire. It’s just not the same on our campus without our boarding students, so the residential faculty and families sent out good wishes for health and safety during this time. We can’t wait until we meet again around the table for good company and conversation.

• In March, Chef Edward Espinal and Don Toner from the Sodexo Dining Services team packed up a large number of perishable food items from the School, including a variety of individually packaged snacks and drinks. This delivery also included bulk packages of cereal, pasta, and waffle mix (they even included a waffle maker), perishable dairy products, canned goods such as pasta sauce and applesauce, and paper

During the COVID-19 crisis, Pennington School students, faculty, and staff found new ways to give back to the local community. Our community’s care and generosity have been especially evident over these past months as so many have offered their help and support.

• Community Service Club leaders Molly Gibbard ’21, Julia McDougall ’21, and Kofoworola Jolaoso ’20 created a GoFundMe to support

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• A group of 35 students at The Pennington School split up into three teams to create a 3D face shield to donate to local medical facilities. The face shield consisted of two parts: a 3D-printed frame, and a clear cellulose acetate shield that attaches to the frame. One group of students used CAD software to create the frame for the shield. The second group located the material needed for the shields and used School’s laser cutter to make them. The third team shared the project with the community, creating a signup database and putting together a dropoff box on the Pennington campus for finished products. Phase two of the project was the assembly and delivery to various medical facilities, which were very grateful to receive this much-needed PPE. • Pennington School sophomore Erin Penders held a food drive to help those struggling during these difficult times. With help from her family and Pennington School friends, she was able to donate $1,500 worth of food to the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen.

The items were delivered on April 10. TASK is a nonprofit organization that feeds the hungry in the Trenton area and offers programs to encourage self-sufficiency and improve the quality of life of its patrons. Even during the coronavirus pandemic, the organization continues to provide meals for those in need.

Community service programs initiated during COVID crisis

April 2: The federal government extends social distancing initiatives until at least April 30. This means Pennington’s distance-learning platform remains in effect until at least Friday, May 1.

products. On April 9 and 10, the team provided about 80 homemade lunches to the clients at HomeFront. On Friday, April 17, the Dining Services team received a delivery of 150 cases of frozen food that was then donated to HomeFront.

April 5: Virtual Revisit Week begins for newly accepted families and is a huge success. The Admission team offered prospective families a brand-new virtual campus tour, six new videos, eleven live student events and panels, and a new edition of their “Admission Insights” podcast. By the end of the day on April 10, all enrollment goals for 2020–21 were met!

Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

April 17: NJ Governor Murphy extends school closings until Monday, May 18. Slight changes are announced concerning the daily and weekly schedules for distance learning at Pennington.

COVID-19 Challenges • Pennington School student Alexander Huang-Menders ’21, along with his siblings Celeste HuangMenders and Christian Huang, created the Share Some Care project, an online database that allows people throughout to country to locate fire stations, food banks, hospitals, and police stations near them that are accepting donations for COVID-19.

They collected new or gently used supplies that first-line responders could use, such as disposable gloves, N95 face masks, and other personal protective equipment. Once users select their local emergency service on the website’s interactive map, they are prompted with that branch’s contact information. For people who don’t know where to donate their supplies, Share Some Care offers to help pair them with a local organization in need.

• Over Spring Break, Collin Penders ’22 planned and organized the first annual skate-a-thon to support the Mercer Bulldogs Special Hockey team. With the help of junior coaches from Notre Dame High School, Robbinsville High School, and The Hun School, Penders and Andreas Oskiper from Princeton High School raised over $3,700 for the organization. The Mercer Bulldogs Special Hockey team teaches children with varying developmental disabilities to play the game of hockey in a specially adapted learning environment. The team is composed of players ages five to adult, with varying abilities.

• In early April, Michael Petrane ’23 put on an impromptu concert to raise spirits of those quarantined in his

April 21: New REACH program is announced, designed to help the seniors think about their past, imagine their future, and share their reflections with the larger community during the month of May. REACH seminars were led by senior School administrators.

neighborhood. He practiced and performed a 25-song concert tribute to Elton John, putting on a show with his keyboard and microphone.

Bikers, joggers, and community members stopped to listen to the music and sing along.

• Green Team members created a fabulous video about how to help the Earth while in quarantine, which was released on Wednesday, April 22, in honor of Earth Day. They offered many great ideas on how to get involved and make a difference.

• The Inspire Performance Academy, which trains our student-athletes and is an excellent resource for health and wellness, offered free access to The Quarantine Club for Pennington community members. The Club was launched on March 30 to help enhance one’s mindset, nutrition, and movement.

REACH program invented to keep the Class of 2020 connected REACH, inspired by Dr. Hawkey’s speech during Convocation in which he challenged the Pennington community to reach for difficult goals, gave the Class of 2020 time for reflection, imagination, collaboration, and expression. This capstone program was created this year after the COVID-19 crisis forced the School to rethink the traditional Horizon senior internship program that takes place each May. During REACH, seniors met for two hours a week with a cohort of fellow seniors, guided by a senior member of the School administration. Each group participated in a series of challenges, completed at their own pace. The creation of REACH was driven by

Kathryn Wilder, Ph.D. P’21 ’24 was a Professions in Medicine and Psychology panelist during REACH 2020 Career Week.

the need for seniors to stay connected to one another, process, and share the unique experiences of this time together—all the while being guided by caring, experienced, committed faculty members of the School.

Highlights of the program included a Freshman Realities Panel, (hearing from our youngest alumni about the college experience), a presentation on transitions from George Scott (a local therapist specializing in recovering from stress events), Career Week (an opportunity for discussions with professionals in the fields of business and technology, environmental science, medicine and health, athletics, and the arts), Community Service, and a final Commencement project that was shared with the community.

April 23: The Pennington School announces that the campus will remain closed for the remainder of the academic year. The spring athletics season is canceled.

May 1: Virtual REACH program begins for seniors.

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COVID-19 Challenges “I had a group of ten outstanding seniors who met online at the end of the year and had a great time working together. Their final Commencement addresses were tremendous and truly captured the goals set at the start of the REACH program. I appreciated how open and honest this group was, and how each student showed great respect for all the others and valued the different paths each took to get to this point. Despite being online for the program, I felt that the group became tighter each week. The four weeks with this resilient group of seniors flew by, and I will miss them all. I'm confident that our seniors are well prepared for the next steps of their academic adventures.”

—Chad Bridges Assistant Head of School for Community Life and Dean of Students

REACH was an opportunity to have the seniors reflect on their time at Pennington, prepare for the next steps of their academic journey, and think about their future careers. The seniors were engaged, remained connected to their classmates despite the difficult circumstances of being off-campus, and shared some memories as they celebrated their individual and class achievements.

The faculty lounge Faculty member Erin O’Connell created a new space in March for colleagues on campus to meet and trade ideas and inspiration for distance learning and more. The virtual lounge included book recommendations, recipes, and a lot of useful content for Pennington’s teachers.

Here is an image from their first meeting in this new space, which took place on Monday, March 23!

May 11: NJ Gov. Phil Murphy mandates that all NJ school buildings are to remain closed through at least June 30.

May 29: New Class of 2020 website launched

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The virtual Faculty Lounge was created by faculty member Erin O’Connell.

Parents for Pennington Pennington parents also worked hard to keep our community together despite having to remain physically apart. Book club meetings went online, the annual Red and Black Bash was reinvented as a Zoom party (and was the most successful parent fundraiser in recent history!), and these dedicated parents even managed to hold their annual Faculty and Staff Appreciation Lunch event on June 9, complete with generous gift cards for every member of the faculty and staff as well as ten huge baskets stuffed with fun items that were raffled off to their lucky recipients. (See page 11 for more news about Parents for Pennington.)

June 5: Last day of classes for grades 6–11 June 1-5: Senior Week is re-imagined to include a virtual Senior Chapel, digital yearbook signing, a message board for faculty to celebrate the seniors, special videos for lifers and boarders, and much more.

Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Pennington alumni connect and reconnect online Pennington alumni sprang into action to help draw our community together.

Alumni Christina McKitish Reinhardt ’02 and Jesal Trivedi ’07 introduced online yoga and meditation classes dedicated to the Pennington community. Their classes were well attended by current students, their parents, and a number of alumni.

See pages 46–47 for more information about alumni outreach programs that were offered to the entire community.

There is also a new page on the School website devoted to upcoming alumni virtual events that are planned for this summer and fall.

June 5: A Car Parade takes place on campus, and local seniors collect their yearbooks and have a special photo op with Dr. Hawkey.

June 6: Pennington’s first virtual Commencement exercises are broadcast live, the first disrupted graduation ceremony in the 182-year history of The Pennington School.

COVID-19 Challenges earnest for the year ahead. Head of School Hawkey designated several committees to examine every aspect of School life in order to put into place the resources needed to deliver an exceptional academic experience for 2020–21, whether a student is in a physical classroom, attending class from another space on campus, or working from home.

staff and always within the guidelines offered by the CDC and our local government, we are also developing new protocols for health and safety on campus, and will provide more details about these as they are developed.

We miss our students and can’t wait to see them back on campus this fall!

New 360-degree video cameras that can follow student-led conversations have already been installed in every classroom.

Teachers have started ongoing summer professional development programs to give them more best practices for distance learning and engagement with students beyond the physical classroom. All of this, and much, much more, is being planned now so that every student will enjoy the best possible Pennington experience this fall.

In close collaboration with medical professionals and our own Health Center

Many alumni also participated in the Career Week for the Class of 2020, which was part of this year’s new REACH program. See more in Class Notes on pages 64–70.

Finishing the year #PenningtonStrong As the academic year came to a close, we celebrated the graduating classes of 2020 and 2024 with special live broadcasts (see pages 56 and 60). The Pennington Fund surpassed its ambitious fundraising goal by early in June, and School administration began preparing in

June 11: Middle School virtual Graduation takes place. Prior to graduation, faculty members delivered special gifts to all local members of the Class of 2024.

July 25: Planned Class of 2020 Celebration

Virtual Revisit Week, April 5–10, 2020 Watch our virtual campus tour!

Closing Pennington’s campus in March meant that our annual Revisit Days, a highlight of the admission cycle for newly accepted families, had to be recreated in a new, virtual format. The Admission team sprang into action and quickly created stunning content that offered prospective students and their parents an inside look at the Pennington School experience. A new campus tour video, live webinars throughout a new Virtual Revisit Week, panels with faculty members and current students, and thoughtful video and podcasts clearly communicated the value of a Pennington education. Despite the lack of an in-person experience, the School’s enrollment goals for 2020–21 were met by the end of the day on April 10—a strong indication of Pennington’s appeal in the local area and beyond.

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Winter Musical:

Urinetown

by Suzanne Houston

I

n choosing this year’s musical, I wanted something that was fun and funny, had great music, and in some way reflected our own society. After much thought and research, I landed on Urinetown. It is a show about a large corporation that controls the basic rights and privileges of average citizens and takes advantage of Earth’s natural resources without giving a thought to the damage it is so clearly causing.

The show also offers commentary on a huge economic gap between groups of citizens in this imagined world. Urinetown suggests that although humans might be the problem, they can also be the solution... but if they’re not careful, history will repeat itself again and again. We may want what’s best for ourselves today, but we must always be thinking about tomorrow. This past winter—through song, dance, discussion, satire, comedy, and some rather provocative and hilarious lyrics—the cast, crew, and pit band explored these big ideas.

Urinetown: The Musical was created with the intention of never really going anywhere. One of its creators had been on a trip abroad, found himself low on funds, and was suddenly burdened by having to pay to use public bathrooms. He questioned what it would be like to live in a world where everyone had to pay to use the bathroom every single time that “nature called.” And thus, this show was born. The show was performed at the New York Fringe Festival in the late ’90s and was so successful that it opened off-Broadway. The show moved to Broadway in September 2001 and ran for over three years.

This social satire is written in the style of Bertolt Brecht, a German playwright who wrote “epic theatre” for the people, breaking the fourth wall to interact directly with the audience. It is also both an homage to and parody of the American musical. It includes moments that nod to such shows as Fiddler on the Roof, Les Miserables, Guys and Dolls, The Threepenny Opera, and West Side Story.

I vividly remember seeing Urinetown performed at The Pennington School in 2008. I laughed until I could hardly breathe, and I couldn’t believe some of the lines and lyrics! And interestingly, many of those lines and lyrics hit a bit closer to home in 2020 than they did twelve years ago. Plus, it is great fun that our new choreographer, Ali Crivelli ’10, was in that production as a student, and this is her first show with us as a faculty member!

As part of our rehearsal process, we also had some special guests and conversations. Michael Brown ’11 (Dear Evan Hansen) and his girlfriend, Mallory Bechtel (also a Broadway performer), visited campus and led a fantastic musical theatre workshop with the cast.

We also were fortunate to have a FaceTime call with actor Kristie Dale Sanders, a friend of mine who was in Urinetown on Broadway. Several of our cast members got to hear firsthand what it was like to do the show on Broadway and to hear some hilarious behind-the-scenes stories as well. Finally, our very own Dr. Margo Andrews came in and led a workshop about drought, water usage, conservation, and policymaking. This really got us thinking about our world and how we can help save it for today and tomorrow.

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Opposite page: Penny Pennywise (Madeline Fox ’21, right) tells Bobby Strong (Jordan Matthews ’20) to get his head out of the clouds.

Top: The full cast of Urinetown: The Musical Bottom left: Hope Cladwell (Molly Nelson ’20) assures the Poor Rebels that a new age is dawning under her leadership.

Bottom right: In their secret hideout, the Poor Rebels lament their current state— through dance!

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Faculty Spotlight Three longtime Pennington faculty members retired at the end of the 2019–20 school year: Melissa Kiser (thirty-seven years), Patricia Zema (twenty-three years), and Marc Epstein (ten years). We wish them well! committees including the Honor Code Committee, and was chair of the Faculty Forum in 2002–03. Her work in communications continued throughout. She became director of communications in 2010 and then director of special projects in 2012, when her first major project was compiling a history of the School for its 175th anniversary year. Since then, she has continued to assist with the School Archives and historical research, but her main focus has been in the Communications Department, writing, editing, and proofreading. Kiser has one son, David Mesrobian ’01.

Lissa Kiser joined the faculty of what is now the Edmund V. Cervone Center for Learning in 1983. A graduate of Princeton University with an A.B. degree in history, she went on to earn a master’s degree in English at Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey). Before coming to Pennington, she had worked at Princeton University in communications and alumni relations. In 1997, she began putting her public relations training to work for Pennington, writing press releases and editing other School publications. She switched to teaching freshman honors English in 2001 and more recently has taught Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition. Feven Negussie ’18 writes, “I enjoyed having her as my AP literature teacher. Stellar educator! What a wealth of knowledge she possesses.” Kiser has also been a freshman advisor for a number of years.

Co-advisor of the yearbook from 1996 to 2009, Kiser has served on faculty 44

Patricia Zema began teaching all levels of French, including Advanced Placement French Literature, at Pennington in 1997. An alumna of the University of Denver with a B.A. degree in French education, she also holds an M.A. degree in French language and literature from the University of Illinois

Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

at Chicago. She had previously taught French at the secondary level in three states. Zema served as a class dean for twelve years, coordinating fundraisers such as Battle of the Bands and planning the prom. She started Pennington’s chapter of the French National Honor Society and has served as its advisor; she was also advisor of Pennington’s Tri-Steps Chapter of the National Honor Society from 2010 to 2013.

In addition, Zema inaugurated the annual participation of students of French in the National French Contest (Le Grand Concours) and the poetry contest at William Patterson University.

She has coordinated Pennington’s biennial student homestay exchange programs with schools in Meaux, Rumilly, and Orange, France. As advisor of the French Club, she has guided the annual poinsettia sales to benefit Harmony Mission in Haiti but also began Club traditions such as making Bûche de Noël at her home in December, baking and serving crepes on campus for Mardi Gras, and holding a fondue soirée. Sloan Seiler ’13 remembers “Madame Zema” with gratitude as “a kind, supportive educator who made learning about another culture and language engaging for her students.

I will always remember the amazing trip to France!” Zema has a son, John Richter ’03, and a daughter, Frances Richter.

Marc Epstein joined the faculty of the History and Social Studies Department in 2010 after a number of years at The Baldwin School in Bryn Mawr, PA. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history and political science and an M.S. degree

The Second Annual

Piano Competition

P in secondary education, both from the University of Pennsylvania. His specialization in nonwestern history and international politics has been valuable at Pennington, where he has taught World History and Advanced Placement U.S. Government and designed new senior electives in Comparative Politics and International Politics.

After receiving an Innovations in Civics Education grant from the Stanton Foundation, he designed a program of lectures and field trips for 2013–14; the grant also funded visits to the U.S. Supreme Court and Q & A sessions with justices Alito, Ginsburg, and Scalia, which Epstein calls a highlight of his thirty-one-year career. In addition, throughout his tenure Epstein has advised the School’s delegation to the Model United Nations, preparing student groups to go to conferences in New Brunswick and Philadelphia. He also was co-founder of the Pennington Jewish Community and has been part of the team organizing the School Archives and moving them into their new space in Meckler Library. Terrence Kane ’16 says, “Mr. Epstein inspired my love of law and government,” describing him as “one of the best teachers I have had in my entire educational career.” He was “also a fantastic advisor and confidant, who made my whole high school experience so much better. Thank you, Mr. Epstein!”

ennington's second annual piano competition was a resounding success.

Started by one of our own student pianists, junior Cihan Sahin, the competition this year was open to students from The Pennington School as well as area independent schools; The Peddie School and The Lawrenceville School also took part. All performances were presented on our fabulously restored Steinway model C grand piano, donated by a generous parent a couple of years ago.

The Grand Prix winner was Lawrenceville's Siraphob Wanavejkul, who also took the honors for the best performance of a Romantic Period work. The Best Bach Award was given to Lawrenceville's Noah Laubach, while the Best Romantic Era Award was won by Pennington’s Yiwei “Vicky” Zhu ’22. The judges for the competition were a former teacher of Sahin's, Dr. Clipper Erickson, and a distinguished alumnus of The Pennington School, Dr. Wei-Han Wu ’01.

Erickson is a teacher at the Westminster Conservatory of Rider University in Princeton and also serves on the piano faculty of Temple University. He is known in the area as a great concert pianist with frequent appearances on WWFM, The Classical Network hosted by Mercer County Community College. He was a student at The Juilliard School of Music, Yale University, and Indiana University before moving to Morrisville, PA. Wu specializes in new music, currently serving as the pianist of the Switch Ensemble, which performs primarily electroacoustic music (live music mixed with recorded sound). He also works as a vocal coach and accompanist in the Washington, DC, area. After graduating from Pennington, he went on to study piano performance and chamber music at Northwestern University, the University of Michigan, and The Eastman School of Music before settling in Arlington, VA.

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Alumni NEWS

Pennington Alumni Host and Attend

VIRTUAL

GATHERINGS Yoga and Meditation

P

ennington alumni haven’t let this pandemic stop them from connecting with one another. Director of Alumni Relations Jane Bott Childrey ’89 quickly replaced some of the typical spring campus gatherings, like Alumni Weekend, with some new virtual events. Alumni were generous with their time and hosted virtual parties, conducted free online classes, and connected with classmates.

Pennington alumni also went virtual to rally around our senior class and held career panels over Zoom in May focused on Finance and Business, Arts, Environmental Science, Sports, and Medicine as part of the revamped Horizon Reach program. Alumni offered exposure to diverse potential career tracks and provided some real-world tools to help seniors prepare for college internships. Our collegeage alumni also stepped up and hosted a virtual “College Freshman Realities” session on lessons learned from their first year.

The best way to stay connected and learn more about these events (and even host your own) is to join us on social media, where we have popular Pennington alumni pages on LinkedIn and Facebook. We are grateful to all of our Pennington alumni who have joined in and supported one another. Our alumni community is strong and thriving—be sure to follow us on Instagram @penningtonalumni!

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Christina McKitish Reinhardt ’02 (below) and Jesal Trivedi ’07 (above) have been offering the Pennington community free weekly online yoga and meditation classes, respectively. These have offered some muchneeded relaxation and deep breathing and have spurred some new friendships and connections.

Swim Team Reunion Swim Coach George Ward ’88 hosted an alumni swim team online reunion, where 26 attendees from over twenty years of swimming, including swim team alumna Carly Deeter ’12 (pictured below), joined together to share swim stories and hear the latest updates on the pool renovations and swim program.

ASCP Speaker Ashley Disbrow Hood ’10, who lives in Texas and has her Ph.D. in astrophysics, spoke on May 18 to Pennington’s Applied Science Certificate Program students in the virtual classroom, an opportunity that resulted from her attending the online yoga class and connecting with Pennington staff.

“Only the Excellent” Sean Cavin ’98 (pictured here) has hosted weekly “Only the Excellent” happy hours for the classes of 1998 and 1997. Maurice Hallett ’92 and Kimberly Borden Perri ’92 hosted a Class of 1992 reunion over Zoom and had so much fun they think they will do it again soon.

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Student

Achievements Pennington students achieved goals beyond the classroom despite COVID-19. Though they had to remain physically distant from one another, students made the most of their time outside of classes.

Here are some highlights of Pennington student achievements this spring.

to what many viewers are used to seeing on reality television: “petty and often cruel conflict interactions” between contestants, judges, and hosts.

In addition to the nine winners, the judges also chose eight runners-up and eighteen honorable mentions. Of those eighteen honorable mentions, two other Pennington School juniors were also selected for their creative pieces.

Safa Morrison ’21 wrote a review on the live-action version of The Lion King, “Live-Action Lion King: 1 Hakuna out of 5 Matatas," and Anjollie Ramakrishna ’21 wrote about the musician Kanye West with her piece titled, “Is Kanye West Being Born Again?”

According to The New York Times, students 13–19 were asked to "play critic and write an original review" for the contest. The writers had the ability to write about anything that fits into the category of creative expression that The New York Times reviews. Students worked on the reviews in Stephanie Cohen's AP English: Language and Composition class. Congratulations to all on their achievements!

• We had one student, Charlie Chen ’22, who finished tied for an individual top international score. Twelve of our students had perfect scores during at least one of the four monthly subcontests.

• Six of the seven seniors on the team are planning on majoring in computer science or data sciences as they prepare for college next year.

That number includes three who made that decision in their senior year after their first exposure to the field here at Pennington.

The twenty students who participated on the team this year are: Akshay Arun ’22, James Cai ’22, Charlie Chen ’22, Alexander Huang-Menders ’21, Ben Jiang ’22, Masha Khartchenko ’20, Tarun Kumar ’21, Taylor Li ’20, Sam Lovvoll ’21, Jennifer Lu ’20, Caroline Muscara ’21, Deep Patel ’20, Rohit Pothacamury ’21, Ben Robertson ’21, Sydney Shah ’20, Jack Wang ’21, Anita Yang ’20, Anna Zhang ’22, David Zhang ’22, and Yiren Zhou ’20.

Computer Science team repeats as international champions!

After completing all of the four contests of the American Computer Science League (ACSL), The Pennington School’s Computer Science Contest team is now ranked at the top of the international leaderboard with a perfect score of 120.

Our team was one of only three schools out of the 96 teams to attain a perfect score through each of the four subcontests, marking the second time we have earned a perfect yearlong score and a spot as a cochampion.

Fox wins New York Times essay contest Madeline Fox ’21 was selected as one of only nine winners out of 2,300 entries in The New York Times “Fifth Annual Student Review Contest for High Schoolers.” Fox's review, “‘The Great British Baking Show’ May Ruin Your Taste for Reality Television” highlights the “good-natured humor” and “celebration of people and food” in the BBC’s program The Great British Baking Show. She contrasted the series

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Highlights from this year include: • We had twenty students (a Pennington record) who consistently participated in the team throughout the year.

• Not only did we persevere through the COVID-19 situation, but we also thrived. Students started meeting virtually even during Spring Break, and our prep sessions (with optional times for students in China and for the USA) and hackathons continued with heightened enthusiasm.

Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

This year the ACSL held its first-ever online post-season All-Star contest for individual students throughout the world. Thirteen members of Pennington’s team, an extraordinary number, qualified for invitations to a demanding one-day contest of coding and computer science knowledge on May 23. Two of Pennington’s representatives were awarded prizes: Deep Patel earned a silver level, and Alexander Huang-Menders earned a bronze level.

Wang receives award Pennington School junior Haichuan “Jack” Wang was awarded First Place honors in the General Engineering section, Senior Division, at the 2020 Mercer Science and Engineering Fair. His winning entry was a design for an original detector of foreign object debris, a hazard for aircraft on runways. Wang was also selected for the Air Force Research Laboratory Award.

After the coronavirus pandemic forced cancellation of the face-to-face competition, usually held at Rider University, Wang had to submit online a poster with details of his invention; he was then interviewed by eight professors about his invention. His first-place award would have qualified him to advance to the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in May, but that event was also canceled.

Wang’s project is a track-based detector that can identify and categorize foreign object debris (FOD) on airport runways from different angles automatically.

It consists of a base unit, including a movable track; a LIDAR sensor, providing redundancy; and a rotating camera. It is intended to minimize possible FOD incidents, reduce operational costs, and increase operational efficiency.

Wang, who is enrolled in the Applied Science Certificate Program, undertook this independent project in part because of his personal interest in aviation.

Susan Wirsig, director of the Applied Science program, helped support Wang’s efforts with use of the makerspace and equipment, and she also helped connect him with industry and academic experts.

Wang earned his pilot license last year and also started the School’s aviation club.

Applied Science students make PPE for local hospitals

Lacrosse teams raise funds for HEADstrong Foundation

A team of 35 students first met on April 16 to go over the project plan to create face shields for local medical facilities facing shortages. The interest from the students was incredible! They formed three teams, with team captains for each. Each team determined clear mandates and deadlines. The face shields had two parts: a 3D-printed frame and a clear cellulose acetate shield that attaches to the frame.

Thirty-six members of the Pennington School girls’ and boys’ lacrosse teams, plus five coaches, participated in a virtual 5K run on Monday, April 27, to raise money for the HEADstrong Foundation, whose mission is to improve the quality of life for people with cancer. The combined team raised $1,428 and came in nineteenth among the participating teams.

Our 3D designers used CAD software to create the frame for the shield. Design considerations included keeping the shield off the face to reduce fogging; providing enough support in the right places to give structure; minimizing material use to reduce print time and cost; and reducing supports needed, which will lower cost and also shorten manufacturing time.

A second team located the material needed for the shield. They had to ensure that the material was safe to use in the School’s laser cutter, that the material could be shipped to them in a reasonable amount of time, and that the cost of the material was budget-friendly.

A manufacturing team system was set up to cut the shields on the laser cutter, and more help was offered from the Pennington community; students used their home 3D printers to make frames.

Students coordinated all of this work and then set up a drop-off location on the Pennington campus to collect the completed frames. Phase two of the project involved assembly and delivery of the frames to medical facilities, which included Mercerville Center in Hamilton, NJ.

After online meetings with the participating players to discuss logistics, Pennington coaches Wendy Morris and Jason Carter sent the runners off on their individual 5K (3.1-mile) runs. Some students ran on treadmills, but most took outdoor runs, varying from country roads to town and city streets. Some local students ran on the Hopewell Lawrence Trails. All of the runners recorded their mileage with an app on their phones or other tracking device.

It was an opportunity for these lacrosse teams, whose seasons were canceled this year, to end the spring on a positive note.

This particular HEADstrong campaign had more than 2,700 participants nationwide, uniting 191 high school and college lacrosse teams in a common cause.

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Spring Play 116 Hudson Spring Play artwork by Abby Bulger ’20

Notes by Suzanne Houston 116 Hudson is the twelfth Spring Play under the leadership of Mark DiGiacomo and Jamie Moore, from my second Senior Seminar class, and the first ever produced virtually! This incredible class of senior artists set out to write three different plays that all take place in the same apartment building: 116 Hudson Street, New York, NY. Once they had the idea, we found a Zillow listing that offered a ground-level storefront for Coffee Express, an apartment for NYU students, and a glorious penthouse apartment ready for an epic New Year’s Eve party.

When we found ourselves in this new state of distance learning, and ultimately had to move the performances to something virtual, the student directors were understandably disappointed. However, the adults on the creative team knew that if any Senior Seminar class could ever face such a challenge and succeed, it would indeed be this one! This class has not only written three fantastic plays, but they have also seen the beauty of possibility when faced with creative restraints, all while being physically distant from one another. They cultivated a new place for students to gather and be creative each day. And ultimately, in the midst of the most unusual second semester ever, they have learned and grown as directors, artists, and humans.

What more could we ask for?

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A Series of Fortunate Events / Midnight in Manhattan / Decrypted

Opposite page, top left going down: Sahil Navani ’21 as Sam in Decrypted; Matthew Cooper ’20 as Jaxx in Decrypted; Kailey Dierk ’21 as Elizabeth Bates in Midnight in Manhattan; Corrine Coakley ’21 as Ava in Midnight in Manhattan This page, top row: Ashley Goldberg ’21 in A Series of Fortunate Events; Jack Fancher ’20 as Arlo in Decrypted; Jake Bongiovi ’20 and Ethan Rizzuto ’20 in Midnight in Manhattan; Second row: Esther (Maddy Fox ’21) explains the situation to roommate Phoebe (Daisy Hutnik ’22) in Decrypted; Third row: Stella (Kofo Jolaoso ’20) and Jackson (Alex Huang-Menders ’21) share their mysterious fortunes in A Series of Fortunate Events; Bottom Row: Coach (Cormac Glanas ’22) shares his disappointment with Jackson in A Series of Fortunate Events, and Detective Kaia (Jenna Soliman ’20) cracks the case in Decrypted.

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We LOVE the

Class of 2020!

T

o honor our seniors this year, we delivered three personalized packages (in person to all students residing in the area) full of Commencement paraphernalia and gifts, created a brand-new Class of 2020 website, filled Senior Week with events both virtual (Senior Chapel) and live (Car Parade), and celebrated each senior in turn on social media.

Congratulations to the great Class of 2020!

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Class of 2020

CAR PARADE

F

ollowing the virtual Commencement ceremony, the Class of 2020 celebrated with a car parade on Sunday, June 7, at 5:00 p.m. Seniors and their families came back to campus for a final drive-through as the faculty and staff cheered them on. They made their way over to Corson House to pick up their yearbooks, academic certificates, and other items—and to enjoy one last photo op with Head of School Bill Hawkey.

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Class of 2020 Commencement Saturday, June 6, 2020

R

esilient. Optimistic. Passionate. Focused.

These are all words to describe the members of the great Class of 2020, who will be remembered in Pennington’s history as the first class to experience a virtual Commencement. Despite the challenges imposed by social distancing, every member of the class was honored in an individual way during a unique live-broadcast ceremony. The faculty and staff of The Pennington School celebrate all of you, and wish you much success on your journeys to college and beyond!

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Commencement in China On June 6, as a virtual Commencement broadcast was streamed live from the U.S., domestic seniors and their families watched the ceremony at the same time but apart from one another, since social distancing was still mandated in New Jersey.

However, across the globe, those restrictions had been lifted and a group of Pennington families in Asia decided that they wanted to be together, so they created their own Commencement overseas!

“All seven seniors wanted to celebrate our graduation together. We decided to meet in Shanghai, took pictures on a ferry, had cupcakes, and enjoyed dinner on a rooftop overlooking the Bund with our parents and several Pennington underclassmen and alumni. We all watched the graduation broadcast together. The seven of us will remember this experience forever.”

—Jennifer Lu ’20

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Class of 2020

Senior Prizes Department Awards Arts

W

e are delighted to announce the senior prizes for the Class of 2020! Congratulations to all the students listed here who have won the academic prizes for 2019–20:

The Pennington School Award to the Senior Excelling in Instrumental Performance: Meng Lu The Pennington School Award to the Senior Excelling in Vocal Performance: Jordan Christian Matthews

Valedictorian: Deep Manish Patel

The Pennington School Award to the Senior Excelling in Video Production: Brooke Avery Riley

Salutatorian: Maria Dimitria Khartchenko

The G. Arthur Campbell Award for Distinctive Service in Drama: Anna Quaid McLaughlin The Pennington School Award to the Senior Excelling in Technical Theatre: Reid Rana Gajewski and Raul Ankoor Shah The Pennington School Award for Continued Excellence in Theatrical Performance: Jordan Christian Matthews

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English

The Pennington School Award to the Senior Excelling in English: Caroline Frances Heffern and Maria Dimitria Khartchenko The Pennington School Award to the Senior Excelling in Journalism: Gavin Hart and Julia Rose Peters

History

The Pennington School Award to the Senior Excelling in History: Meng Lu and Deep Manish Patel

Mathematics

The Pennington School Award to the Senior Excelling in Mathematics: Deep Manish Patel and Yiren Zhou

Religion

The Pennington School Award to the Senior Excelling in Religion: Abigail Blair Bulger

Science

The Pennington School Award to the Senior Excelling in Science: Deep Manish Patel

The William Mastrosimone ’66 Award for Excellence in Writing and Directing an Original Play: Abigail Blair Bulger and Grace Caroline Roberts

Technology

The Kersey Award for the Student Showing Most Promise in Art: Mingjia Liu and Tsung Yuen Tung

World Languages

The Pennington School Award for the Senior Excelling in Computer Science: Deep Manish Patel The Pennington School Award to the Senior Excelling in Spanish: Jenna Elizabeth Yasser Soliman

The Pennington School Award for the Senior Excelling in Photography: Alexandria Catherine Ume

The Pennington School Award to the Senior Excelling in French: Abigail Blair Bulger

The Pennington School Award for the Senior Excelling in Sculpture and Ceramics: Annelise Faustine Cornet

The Pennington School Award to the Senior Excelling in German: Maria Dimitria Khartchenko

The William Alford Award for Distinctive Service in Music: Annelise Faustine Cornet, Gabriela Carolina Montero, Molly Katherine Nelson, and Jenna Elizabeth Yasser Soliman

The Pennington School Award to the Senior Excelling in Chinese: Nashay Cierra Little and Edwin Alejandro Marmolejos

Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Named and All-School Awards

Certificate Programs The Pennington School Award for Distinguished Achievement in Applied Science: Andrew Michael DiDomenico The Pennington School Award for Distinguished Achievement in Global Studies: Ian Albuquerque Applied Science Certificates earned by: Hope Blair, Vincent Colalillo, Andrew DiDomenico, Carlos Duato, Robert Dusek, John Fancher, Reid Gajewski, Gavin Hart, Erin Heyeck, Logan Hill, John Hoblitzell, Severin Ihnat, Maria Khartchenko, Promise Klink, Jenna Kollevoll, Daniel Kottcamp, Shreya Krishnan, Alexa Lepold, Samantha Mazzoni, Jayne McGrath, William Miller, Gabriela Montero, Aaron Orshan, Connor Ort, Deep Patel, Luis Paúl, Matthew Shipley, Jenna Soliman, Peter Tarpinian, Alexandria Ume, Harper Usiskin, Alexander Wallace, and Yiren Zhou Global Studies Certificates earned by: Ian Albuquerque, Julianna Alito, Sophia Amaro, Andres Argueta, Leah Balerna, Jacob Bongiovi, Kelli Collins, Annelise Cornet, Charlotte Diamond, Tori Dorfman, Rickey Eng, Olivia Ernst, Aidan Gross, Ameer Hasan, Elise Hawkey, Caroline Heffern, Olivia Heimann, Promise Klink, Xinyi Li, Katherine Long, Jon-Henri Marlow, Laura Mertz, Jonathan Moskowitz, Lucas Ort, Griffin Papa, Julia Peters, Sophia Petrone-Gramer, Timothy Riley, Artem Rukavishnikov, Kenzo Takeda, Tsung Yuen Tung, Carter Williams, and Huiyu Yang

Cum Laude Cum Laude Spring Inductees: Rickey Eng, Gavin Hart, Caroline Heffern, Xinyi Li, Timothy Riley, Grace Roberts, Raul Shah, Alexandria Ume, Jacob Washton, and Huiyu Yang Fall Inductees (previously announced): Erin Heyeck, Maria Khartchenko, Jenna Kollevoll, Mingjia Liu, Meng Lu, Yaoxin Mo, Deep Patel, Julia Peters, Jenna Soliman, and Yiren Zhou

Class of 2020 Gift to the School The Pennington School senior class committee vice president Logan Hill and president Gavin Hart announced the 2020 Senior Class Gift just before Commencement. They decided this year to divide their proceeds in half.

Half of their funds are a donation to the Capital Health COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund. The amount of this donation is $5,000. The other half will purchase a statue of the School's mascot, a red-tailed hawk, for the campus. The statue will be installed on either the Campus Center plaza or another location determined by the School. Hart hopes the statue will bring more recognition to the athletic teams and be a symbol of honor, virtue, humility, perseverance, and grit for the student body.

Dean's List High Honors Abigail Bulger, Charlotte Diamond, Tori Dorfman, Robert Dusek, Rickey Eng, Olivia Ernst, John Fancher, Blake Hart, Elise Hawkey, Caroline Heffern, Olivia Heimann, Severin Ihnat, Maria Khartchenko, Jenna Kollevoll, Daniel Kottcamp, Xinyi Li, Meng Lu, Gabriela Montero, Molly Nelson, Deep Patel, Julia Peters, Timothy Riley, Grace Roberts, Raul Shah, Sydney Shah, Matthew Shipley, Jenna Soliman, Frederick Tewell, Jacob Washton, Huiyu Yang, and Yiren Zhou Honors Sophia Amaro, Hope Blair, Vincent Colalillo, Carlos Duato, Gavin Hart, Ameer Hasan, Erin Heyeck, Aidan Israel, Kofoworola Jolaoso, Edwin Marmolejos, Laura Mertz, William Miller, Luis Paul, and Alexandria Ume

The Charles G. Bennett ’59 Memorial Award for School Spirit: Christopher Long The Pennington School Award for Outstanding Citizenship: Gavin Hart The Pennington School Award for International Citizenship: Artem Rukavishnikov and El Hadji Ousmane Gueye The Pennington School Award to the Senior Outstanding in Volunteer Service: Kofoworola Ibironke Jolaoso The Brigid Kilfoyle ’91 Memorial Award for the Senior Female Making the Greatest Contribution to Pennington School Athletics: Katherine Zelda Long The Pennington School Award for Peer Leadership: Kelli Lynn Collins The Pennington School Award to the Senior Who Has Shown the Most Noticeable Improvement: William James Miller and Laura Katherine Mertz The William E. Long Award for the Senior Male Making the Greatest Contribution to Pennington School Athletics: Rickey Benjamin Eng The M. James Coyle Award to the Student Who Has Fostered Community Understanding of the Strengths Associated with Learning Differences: Leah Marie Balerna The Monique Visser ’88 Memorial Award: Alexandria Catherine Ume and Gabriela Carolina Montero The Gateway Prizes to the Seniors Who Best Exemplify Pennington's Core Values of Honor, Virtue, and Humility: Ian Cavalcanti de Albuquerque, Elise Faith Hawkey, Kofoworola Ibironke Jolaoso, Jordan Christian Matthews, and Jenna Elizabeth Yasser Soliman The Head of School's Award to the Best AllAround Student: Deep Manish Patel and Jenna Elizabeth Yasser Soliman

Class of 2024

Eighth-Grade Graduation On Thursday, June 11, Pennington’s Middle School held its first-ever virtual Graduation ceremony. Students sent in their own photos for the roll call, during which the advisors shared a personal comment about each student. After the one-hour ceremony, a reception was held via Zoom.

Congratulations to the Class of 2024!

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Alumni

SPOTLIGHTS This fall, three young alumnae with magnificent and quite varied career paths will come back to campus to speak with our students and alumni. They will share their success stories and lessons learned as part of Homecoming Weekend and special speaker series programs. These three women are bound to inspire us all; they serve as excellent examples of how a Pennington education can translate into a bold, courageous, and impassioned life.

Erin A. Simon ’10 You may already know Erin Simon ’10 as the popular host of Cheddar Esports, an online gaming show, and from her podcast, Grass Routes. Interviewing the likes of Snoop Dogg, Kevin Durant, and Marc Merrill (co-founder of Riot Games) is all in a day's work. While at Pennington, Simon was a member of the national championship-winning Girls’ Soccer team, and she went on to play NCAA Division I soccer at the University of Kentucky.

Recently, Simon was featured in Forbes Magazine for her contributions as a maverick in the gaming world. Esports are currently poised to gain wider audiences as they rise to the mainstream media, and Simon is at the forefront of it all. Despite her early success, she stays grounded in the Pennington value of humility and says that she is “still progressing in my field, growing as an adult, but finding a career that fits with who I am.”

She encourages people who don’t understand esports to be open to them, because gaming is big business and certainly here to stay.

“Gamers have careers; some are getting [college] scholarships for it,” she is quick to point out.

Her message to Pennington students today is to start creating.

“Just figure out what you're passionate about, then start creating, blogging, or putting content on YouTube; you’re never too young to create.” Simon credits her parents with encouraging her individual interests and passions. “They never thought gaming was a waste of time.”

Simon will be on campus to talk about her career and tell more about the industry. Catch her shows Cheddar Esports or Grass Routes Podcast for the latest news in gaming.

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Alumni News Maggie Feldman-Piltch ’10 Alumna Maggie Feldman-Piltch ’10 has always known she wanted a career in which she can make a difference. “I wanted a life in public service, and national security is the path I’ve chosen to do that.” As the CEO and founder of #NatSecGirlSquad, FeldmanPiltch helps to build competent diversity in national security and defense. In addition, her business reinvests in the community and provides resources for professional development.

After graduating from Pennington, Maggie attended Wesleyan University and then earned her master’s degree from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 2019. While at Georgetown, Maggie experienced the lack of a suitable mentoring network of women in the security field—inspiring her to launch #NatSecGirlSquad.

Celeste Jackson ’06 If the global pandemic has taught us anything, it is that we are all intrinsically connected. Celeste Jackson ’06 believes in taking advantage of whatever life presents.

Jackson attended Duke University as an undergraduate and later returned there for a law degree. Always interested in global politics, she took a fellowship in Israel after receiving her undergraduate degree in order to learn the language, research, and develop her own project. The following year, a contact connected her to a job in Cairo to work at the United Nations, coinciding with the Egyptian Revolution. She now works at Linklaters, a large global firm in New York City, in the finance department, where she advises clients including Deutsche Bank AG on a wide range of complex international transactions.

“When you learn with passionate people, it makes you love learning and going to school.”

Feldman-Piltch’s time at Pennington taught her “how to advocate for myself and be self-directed,” skills that have translated to her work. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Feldman-Piltch was able to pivot her business to virtual platforms, providing a diverse array of content to the members of #NatSecGirlSquad. She credits her success to the skills she learned from her liberal arts education and to being true to herself, “I’ve never had to compromise my own values and priorities to achieve my definition of success.”

“Not everyone sees the world as you do. It's really important to know what your values are and to be able to stick to them.”

Maggie’s advice to today’s Pennington students is to learn skills before specializing in any one content area. She also believes in knowing what guides your decisions and choices. “Not everyone sees the world as you do. It's really important to know what your values are and to be able to stick to them.”

Jackson considers attending Pennington to be the most influential decision she has made so far. Jackson says that “when you learn with passionate people, it makes you love learning and going to school.” She attributes to her valuable years at Pennington her ability to unlock the opportunities that led her to where she is today. Her one piece of advice for students today— and the key to her success—is always putting yourself out there and taking advantage of every opportunity that presents itself.

Jackson advises, “You have to be open and proactive. Try things and see what happens.” Her Pennington Horizon internship at the American Stock Exchange resulted from casual conversations with a family for whom she babysat at the time.

Her career is a fast-paced pressure cooker, but she stays balanced by remaining connected with friends and by taking time to herself to reflect and sit in silence. She loves to read and is a history buff; one of her favorite historical novels is The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz.

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Class Notes

Susan Allen Hooper ’90

Matt Biedron ’08

Adam Toltzis ’06

Rotimi Adesina ’04

Renee Washington ’10

Michael Lee Brown ’11

Brielle Wilson ’09

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Steven Tydings ’12

Gillian Kemmerer ’07

Tony Glazer ’87

Fifteen alumni gave their time and expertise to address the Class of 2020 as panelists during a new Horizon Career Week in May. Participants included:

Rotimi Adesina ’04 Matt Biedron ’08 Amber Brooks ’09 Michael Lee Brown ’11 Tony Glazer ’87 Susan Allen Hooper ’90 André Terrel Jackson ’09 Patrick Janson ’02 Gillian Kemmerer ’07 Jaclyn Moses ’13 Gianna Russo ’07 Adam Toltzis ’06 Steven Tydings ’12 Renee Washington ’10 Brielle Wilson ’09

Class Notes Reunions for 5s and 0s 1940s

Jim McKee ’48 celebrated his ninetieth birthday with family and friends in Florida this winter.

1950s

Evan Tibbott ’58 recently celebrated his eighty-eighth birthday with a nice party hosted by the Presbyterian Church in Rigby, ID, where he is a deacon. In 1974, he helped found the Nordic Patrol, which received national recognition in 2019. He is now teaching fourth-graders the technique of Nordic skiing at fourteen of the Idaho Falls elementary schools as an adjunct to the Nordic Patrol.

He writes that vigorous outdoor activity is beneficial not only for physical health but also for improving academic performance and retention.

1960s

Abraham Abadi ’62 moved to Boca Raton, FL, last year after retiring from a career in education in the Boston area, including serving as an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at Lesley University. He was able to travel to many parts of the country for his work at Lesley, including Montana, Idaho, South Carolina, Georgia, and Wasilla, Alaska. Now in Florida, he is spending most of his time writing a book about his teaching experiences and would like to meet other Pennington alumni in the area.

Jaclyn Moses ’13

Mark Barondess ’64 welcomes his fellow alumni to check out his Twitter feed and connect with him @mark_barondess.

Mike Fish ’68 is spending his stay-at-home time gardening. He is using the Square Foot Gardening system, which he recommends highly.

1980s

Tony Glazer ’87 has a new television series, Big Dogs, which he executive-produced and co-wrote; it will be released this summer.

It is an action-mystery show taking place in an alternate reality of New York City.

Jennifer Starr ’89 reports that she will be a grandmother. Her daughter is expecting her first child. Her son, Jordan Bostick ’20, graduated from Pennington this year and is excited about going off to college in the fall.

Patrick Janson ’02

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Class Notes

1990s

Maurice Hallett ’92 and Kimberly Borden Perri ’92 hosted a virtual happy hour for their Pennington class and had a blast! All who attended committed to attending their Thirtieth Reunion in person in 2022.

Coltrane Stansbury ’92 reports that his son Noah finished his first year in college as a scholarathlete playing football at the University of New Hampshire.

Carlos Wyre ’92 hosted current Pennington student and new pilot Jack Wang ’21 for a tour of the Teterboro Airport.

Monique Richards Smith ’95 and her husband, Hugh, welcomed their baby girl, Wynsome, into their family this past August.

Jes Therkelsen ’98 and his wife, Kerry, welcomed a daughter, Nova Stone, into the family at the beginning of March, just a few days before shelter-in-place orders when hospitals stopped allowing visitors. Everyone is healthy, happy, and snuggling together at home, which is what they hope for everyone during this wild and crazy time—and they send positive thoughts to all those who need them!

2000s

Gregory Coll ’00 announced in January his intention to run in Maryland’s Republican Primary as a candidate to become U.S. Representative of Maryland’s Eighth Congressional District.

Rotimi Adesina ’04 has relocated to Waco, TX, with his family. They have a 17-month-old child and a new addition due in September. Rotimi is practicing pediatric sports medicine, and his wife is in family practice medicine.

Kimberly deLeon ’06 recently celebrated her one-year anniversary at Nike in merchandising.

She has been using her quarantine time to get settled into her new apartment in New York City and to connect with friends.

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This page, top: Carlos Wyre ’92 and Jack Wang ’21 at Teterboro Airport; Center: Wynsome Smith; Left: Gregory Coll ’00 intends to run in Maryland's Republican Primary; Facing page, top left: Gianna Russo ’07; top right: André Terrel Jackson ’09; Center: Amber Brooks ’09; Bottom: Kendell McNichols ’09

Class Notes

Gianna Russo ’07 recently had knee surgery on her ACL and meniscus, which she tore during a charity soccer match in which she plays each year. Just as she went back to work, the stay-at-home order was put in place in New York City, so her knee is getting extra rest and she has had more time for her rehab exercises.

Brandon Hullings ’08 is now working with Eastern Express as an elite swim coach. He loves working for his former coach and mentor.

During the COVID-19 shutdown, he is keeping his athletes in shape with Zoom athletics classes. He is enjoying the extra time with his wife, Laura, and the ability to create wonderful home-cooked meals together.

Amber Brooks ’09 has relocated to Tacoma, WA, to play for the professional soccer team OL Reign FC. After playing in Australia, she arrived just in time to have one week of preseason with her new team before the COVID-19 shutdown occurred. Her season started back up in June and will be condensed. Amber looks forward to visiting Pennington sometime soon during her off-season.

André Terrel Jackson ’09 is teaching a summer class on fashion design at his alma mater, Albright College. He is figuring out how to do the class online, taking into consideration the difficulties in getting all of the materials needed into students’ hands. He is also working on a small collection for a fashion competition Albright College is hosting this September.

Kendell McNichols ’09 answered the call to help the Pennington Applied Science team make 3D-printed frames for face shields from home. These personal protection devices were donated to people on the front lines of the health industry.

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Class Notes

Dustin Vile ’09 and Rachel Costas ’14 played with their sixth-month-old puppy, Nelson ,while they were home from Santa Monica, CA, during Christmas break!

Brielle Wilson ’09 escaped New York City to quarantine at her childhood home in New Jersey. She has enjoyed this time with her parents and is loving her mom’s home cooking.

Fortunately, her website and branding design business can be operated remotely.

2010s

Ashley Disbrow Hood ’10 and her husband, Don, each completed Ph.D. programs and graduated from Louisiana State University this past December. Ashley’s degree is in physics and astronomy with a concentration in nuclear astrophysics; Don’s is in geology, focused on the geology of Mars. Ashley is working at the Cyclotron Institute at Texas A&M, doing postdoctoral work, studying the formation of super-heavy elements.

Social distancing couldn’t keep Coach Jason Carter and Will Wojciechowski ’09 from connecting about lacrosse.

Erin Simon ’10, Cheddar Esports host and Grass Routes Podcast co-founder and co-host, was signed to Creative Artists Agency and was featured on Forbes.com this past December.

Rahul Krishnamoorthy ’11 is hard at work on his start-up endeavor and is experiencing a measure of success at this stage. He is enjoying living with his fellow Pennington alumni friends Nick Cavalier ’11 and Matt Barbuscio ’12 in Skillman, NJ. Doug McCord ’12, a graduate of University of Maryland, Baltimore County, is pursuing a career in nursing.

Collette King ’13 is living and working in Boston as a product manager. She just celebrated her one-year anniversary with HubSpot.

Kaison Randolph ’14 is playing basketball in France for Étoile Sportive Prissé Mâcon.

Sara Selamie ’14 has a growing career as a UX Designer. After transferring from Syracuse University to a fashion school in Los Angeles, she taught herself coding and human-centered design. She has built her network and landed contract jobs with clients including IKEA and iHeartMedia and holds a full-time role as a product designer at an environmental consulting company in New York City. She is a member and mentor of the Women in Tech organization. She misses Pennington and thinks often of the teachers who believed in her and encouraged her along the way. She plans to become more involved as an alumna.

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

Class Notes

Chong Hwi Kevin Yoon ’14 recently got a chance to participate in Arena Winter Nationals in South Korea, representing Seoul as a player-coach. After four matches, they finished in first place, winning the winter national title!

Robert Demaree ’15 is currently interning in business analytics at Munich RE at its headquarters in Munich, Germany. After graduating in May 2019 from the University of Vermont, he moved to Germany for a gap year before beginning work toward his master’s degree.

He will conclude his gap year with an internship in project management and is set to begin his master’s program in economics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in October.

Simon Wan ’15 graduated from Columbia University and is a graduate gemologist at the Gemological Institute of America.

Kevin Maley ’16 became the Head Freshman Boys’ Basketball Coach at Germantown Academy while also serving as a student teacher for the school. His team finished with a record of nine wins and seven losses.

Plimpton siblings Audrey ’16 and Jack ’14 are doing well and continuing their academic journeys! Audrey is embarking this coming winter on a Fulbright year to Salzburg, Austria, where she will research political populism in Europe and teach English at a local high school. Jack will begin a Master of Arts program in philosophy of religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School.

Lily Childrey ’18 is interning with IBM this summer in its Cyber Policy department. All IBM internships will be online this summer, but she has spent this school year already working remotely for NBC.

Opposite page, top: Dustin Vile ’09 with puppy Nelson; Bottom: Ashley Disbrow Hood ’10 with husband, Don, at Louisiana State University; This page, top: Chong Hwi Kevin Yoon ’14 after winning in South Korea; Right: Will Wojciechowski ’09 connects with Pennington Lacrosse Coach Jason Carter. Below: Aidan Sichel ’19 and his brother Avery ’22 rocked out during the alumni/ student Virtual Coffeehouse: Open Mic Night hosted by Henry Sheeran ’14, Andrew Agress ’13, Anna McLaughlin ’20, and Abby Bulger ’20.

Trevor Belinsky ’19 was recently promoted to vice-president and mechanical/design lead for the Rocketry Club at Lehigh University, which competes in the Spaceport America Cup (the world’s largest intercollegiate rocket engineering competition). He has an engineering internship lined up for this summer.

Katie Byun ’19 has started a new job as an alumni events assistant at UC San Diego. They loved her experience as a student ambassador, helping Pennington’s Alumni and Development Office with events.

Amy Garry ’19 is now serving as the College of Education academic representative at Penn State University. She represents the entire College for the University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA).

www.pennington.org

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Class Notes

Sydney Gibbard ’19 was elected as Penn State University’s College of Engineering representative in Penn State’s student government, which will provide her with an opportunity to work with university administration and have an impact on academic decisions regarding undergraduates.

Mary Griswold ’19 is studying architecture at Penn State and says that although distance learning is difficult within this major, it has sped up her knowledge in learning AutoCad, Adobe, and RHINO, all of which will be beneficial when pursuing internships next summer. She enjoyed playing club soccer in the fall and this past spring joined the sorority Gamma Phi Beta.

Tami Kolawole ’19 was chosen to be an NC Fellow, which is a selective, three-year leadership program at UNC–Chapel Hill. This unique leadership development opportunity has already presented valuable connections in her pursuit to enter the medical field.

Gianna Lucchesi ’19 had surgery this winter on a torn labrum from soccer, but she fortunately didn’t miss her fall season at the University of Richmond. She has been doing rehab and looks forward to playing soccer this fall.

Mina Shokoufandeh ’19 just finished her freshman year at Tufts University and received excellent news about her acceptance into the 2020 Summer Founders Program. She and Sydney Gibbard ’19 went through an extensive application and interview process and were ultimately awarded a $15,000 grant from Happy Valley LaunchBox to help them further develop their Girls Code the World program into a nonprofit organization with 501C-3 status. (story, right)

Send news and notes to Jane Bott Childrey ’89 at jane.childrey@pennington.org

Girls Code the World Alumnae Win $15,000 Grant!

T

wo alumnae from the class of 2019, Mina Shokoufandeh and Sydney Gibbard, recently won a start-up grant for $15,000 that they plan to put toward “Girls Code the World,” the program they started in Pennington’s summer programs with the Christina Seix Academy. This new source of funding, which was granted in February 2020, was provided to help the two women scale up working in STEM with this underserved population.

In January 2020, Shokoufandeh and Gibbard were faced with a funding problem. They needed to come up with a way to fund the one-week Girls Code the World camp in summer 2020 (which cost less than $2,000). They looked at possible grants offered by each of their colleges and found one at Penn State that fit their needs. They submitted the grant request in early February. They were called in as finalists for an interview in March and heard a week later that they were grant winners.

In addition to receiving the $15,000 grant, both young women will work full-time this summer in an innovation workspace at Penn State, where they will have access to mentors and entrepreneurs who can help guide them in their work. You can read more about the program here: https://invent.psu.edu/ program/summer-founders/ It is interesting how some problems can just steer you toward a better solution. Rather than just having $2,000 to run the program, the two founders now have $15,000 to think more holistically about making STEM accessible to more girls. They will learn a lot ... and it all started at Pennington!

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Pennington Magazine Spring/Summer 2020

In Memoriam With sadness we remember the following members of the Pennington community who died or whose death we learned of since the publication of our last magazine:

Malcolm Bahrenburg ’45 Peter L. Pollock ’47 Salvatore P. Luciano ’48 Kinsey S. Dickel ’52 Robert A. Freeman ’60 William J. Vosper ’63 Frank J. Bossmann ’64 Donald W. Sharp ’66 Raymond Van Arsdale P’76 Hareese Parnos P’78 FS Syamak Sadighi ’79 Thomas A. Wolf ’83 Anita Schatz P’89 Donna Winslow P’94 William D. Winslow P’94 Antoinette Williams-Akita P’09 Abayomi Jolaoso P’20

P–Parent; FS–Former Staff www.pennington.org

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The Pe n

Golf Classic and Tennis Round Robin

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SAVE the NEW DATE! The Pennington School

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Scholarship Classic

OCTOBER 12, 2020 Bedens Brook Country Club, Skillman, NJ

Planned Schedule Golf Classic

9:00 a.m.

Tennis Round Robin

10:30 a.m.

Lunch and Silent Auction

1:30 p.m.

All proceeds from our Classic events support scholarships for students who would not otherwise be able to attend The Pennington School.

For more information, please contact Jane Bott Childrey ’89 at jane.childrey@pennington.org.

The Pennington Class of 2020

will be matriculating at the following colleges and universities: American University • Arcadia University • Bryant University • Bucknell University • University of California–San Diego Carnegie Mellon University • University of Chicago • College of Charleston • University of Colorado–Boulder • Cornell University • University of Delaware • Denison University • Dickinson College • Drew University • Drexel University • Duke University • Elon University • Emerson College • Emory University • Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts at The New School Five Towns College • Fordham University • George Washington University • Gettysburg College • Grinnell College • High Point University • IE University Madrid • Indiana University–Bloomington • Ithaca College • Lehigh University • Louisiana State University • Macalester College • Marist College • University of Miami • Miami University of Ohio • Muhlenberg College • University of New Haven • New York University • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Northwestern University • University of Notre Dame • Pennsylvania State University • University of Pittsburgh • Princeton University Purdue University • Quinnipiac University • Rider University • University of Rochester • Rutgers University • Seton Hall University • Siena College • Skidmore College • University of St Andrews • St. Lawrence University • State University of New York–Oneonta • Syracuse University • University of Tampa • Temple University • Texas Christian University • Thomas Jefferson University–East Falls • Tulane University • Ursinus College • Vanderbilt University • Wellesley College Wesleyan University • West Chester University of Pennsylvania • University of Wisconsin–Madison

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