ON THE WEB:
The Nation's Oldest Country Day School Newspaper
www.pingry.org/ record
Volume CXLII, Number 5
Research Exhibit Shares Science with All By FELICIA HO (IV)
On Sunday April 9th, friends, family, staff, alumni and faculty attended the annual Pingry Research Exhibit to learn about the groundbreaking work 120 students have conducted over the past year. This year’s exhibit featured a wide selection of programs, including SMART Team, Independent Research Team (iRT), Computer Science, AP Biology Master Projects, Anatomy Club, AstroPingry Club, Journal Club, Middle School Science Olympiad, PCR (Pingry Community Research) Journal, Project 80, Research Class, Robotics Team, Science in Art, and the Waksman Student Scholars Program. To begin the day’s events, Katharine Matthias (VI) set the tone with her keynote on how she developed her iRT project from her love of scuba diving. Matthias began to take summer courses on fish anatomy and soon took interest in the zebrafish’s sensory system. After diving deeper into the subject, she learned that zebrafish ear hair cells can regenerate, whereas the hair cells of humans cannot. With her iRT project, Matthias and her research team are working towards further understanding hair cell regeneration in zebrafish and applying that information towards human recovery from hearing loss. Matthias ended her keynote by explaining why students should become involved in science at Pingry. “It’s a great way to pursue your interests and research them,” she said. “Science is about curiosity—asking questions, looking deeper, and exploring new worlds.” Afterwards, attendees were invited to attend exhibits set up around the school, which offered a variety of hands-on activities and events. Some highlights included the bottle rocket launch by the Middle School Science Olympiad team, Project 80’s activity of extracting DNA from strawberries, the AP Biology Master Projects on the effects of caffeine, the efficacy of tutoring, and sleep deprivation, as well as dissection opportunities from snakes to sheep brains by the Anatomy Club. The exhibit wrapped up with Amanda King ’07 giving a keynote on “finding success in failure.” King, a graduate of the University of PennRose Beatty (VI) teaches parents and students about animal dissection
Pingry Communications
sylvania who is currently pursuing an M.D. P.H.D. at Yale University, explained that “fail is not a dirty four-letter word.” Students should expect to fail, as failure provides new opportunities. King became involved in science after losing a four-year-old girl she had babysat, Jacquie, to a DIPG brain tumor. Years later, progress on curing DIPD is yet to be made, and this failure of medicine continues to motivate King in her medical career. King also reflected on two decisions that have led to failure: she failed epidemiology because she had no interest in the subject, and an organic chemistry test because she had prioritized swimming instead. In the end, King reminded the audience, “Failure informs decisions,” but also warned them, “don’t let it decide your actions for you.” Dr. Morgan D’Ausilio, the organizer of the research exhibit, labeled this year’s exhibit as a great success, as it “especially engaged people of all ages, from younger siblings to parents.” It “truly gives kids the chance to show off the research they have been working on for the past year and make it available to the general Pingry community,” she said.
The Pingry School, Basking Ridge, New Jersey
Dean Chatterji Transitions from Interim Head to Full-Time Head of Upper School By JONATHAN CHEN (IV)
At the start of next year, students will look to Dean Chatterji as the full-time Head of the Upper School. This year, Dean Chatterji represented the school as both the Academic Dean and the Interim Head of the Upper School. With experience under her belt from this year, Dean Chatterji will easily adjust to her new role, hoping “it will be easier than this year, even though this year has been great.” When asked to summarize her new job, Dean Chatterji responded, “I’m the one who has to make sure the ship sails.” What that means is that she has to manage the day-to-day operations of the Upper School. From Dean Chatterji’s perspective, she approaches her new role from three different directions, in which she “thinks about the happiness and well-being of the students, the faculty and their vision and growth, and the inclusion of parents and encouragement of their kids to make good decisions.” With her new approach in mind, Dean Chatterji’s new job differs slightly from her old job. Not only does she have to think about everybody in the Pingry community, but she must also make sure the school runs properly each and every day. She does not only have to manage academics anymore, as she did in her previous job, but she has to run the whole school. Although Dean Chatterji loves being the academic dean, she looks forward to transitioning from the academic dean to the Head. Although she hopes that the role is not much different, she thinks the primary way that it will be different is that she “will always be able to consider the future outside of my time as the
By MEGAN PAN (V) On Friday, April 7, the Justin Society celebrated its biennial Creative Writing Festival with an assembly, Q&A sessions, and writing workshops led by guest writers. While inspired by the structure of the Dodge Poetry Festival, in which high school students and teachers from around the country convene to meet with guest poets, the Justin Society Creative Writing Festival “brings the festival to the students” by inviting the writers to the school itself to meet, talk to, and work with the students. The festival began with an Upper School assembly in which Dr. Reid Cottingham, the festival organizer, introduced the writers. Each writer then talked a bit about his writing and read some of his work. This year featured three poets and one fiction author for a total of four guest writers. The first to read was poet Deborah Landau, currently the Director of the Creative Writing Program at New York University, who recited a few of her poems, including “The City of Paris has You in Mind Tonight.” Next to read was poet and translator Rowan Ricardo Phillips, recipient of the 2013 Whiting Writers’ Award, who
dean.” With her current role, she thinks in one-year increments, but as the Head, she has to think about the long-term future. “I get to think about how the Upper School will be better even when none of us are here anymore,” she said. She will take on the responsibility of improving the quality of Pingry for the future generations. As she looks to her new job, Dean Chatterji feels confident and excited, and when asked about whether she is enthusiastic about the position, she exclaimed, “Of course! This is an amazing place to come to every day.” She looks forward to the unpredictability of the job, as no day will ever be the same as any previous ones. “You never know what you’re going to get, which is really unique in life, to have a career in which you can’t predict what your day is going to look like,” she said. In addition to the unpredictability, she respects “100% of the moments with the students” and focuses on her short-term goal of “how to make this day a good day for the people in the building.” As she bids farewell to many of the seniors, Dean Chatterji is setting an ultimate goal for herself: to create an environment that the seniors will have to walk away from, “wishing they never had to leave.” Finally, Dean Chatterji remembers that she absolutely loves the student body. She realizes that the kids here “are always willing to learn from each other. I’ve seen it in classrooms, athletic fields, and advisory groups. No student walks around as if they are the center of the world because they know everyone around them has something to contribute to their success.” She hopes to continue this trend and prepare students for life outside of Pingry.
Dean Chatterji announcing her new role as Full-Time Head of the Upper School
Pingry Communications
Mr. Romano Directs his Final Senior Play: SMOKEFALL!
By RACHEL CHEN (V)
On April 6, 7, and 8, Drama 6 seniors bid farewell to the Drama Program and to Drama Department Chair Mr. Albert Romano with three stunning performances of the play Smokefall, a three-act play following an eccentric family across four generations. Violet, played by Katharine Matthias (VI), struggles to balance her life as a wife to her discontented husband Daniel, played by Connor Beard (VI; a mother to her self-imposed mute daughter Beauty, played by Raena LeBourne (VI); and a daughter to the
Justin Society Hosts Biennial Writing Festival also read a few of his poems, such as “Violins.” After, author Roxana Robinson, currently the President of the Authors Guild, read an excerpt from her short story “At the Beach.” Unfortunately, the assembly ended without enough time for poet Danniel Schoonebeek, editor of the PEN Poetry Series since 2013, to present his work, but at the later Q&A sessions he was able to introduce himself and share some of his poems, such as “Cold Open.” After the assembly, students who had signed up for Q&A sessions convened in either Hauser or the faculty lounge to talk with the writers and ask questions. There, the writers were able to provide some insight into their work and writing processes. When asked about how he was introduced to poetry, Danniel Schoonebeek said, “From a young age, I remember memorizing nursery rhymes, and there was a moment when I realized you could add your own words to the rhythm.” He talked about how the rhythmic, musical aspect of poetry was very appealing to him. Deborah Landau talked about how her interest in poetry began at a young age, when she was thirteen years old
May 12, 2017
and received a book of Anne Sexton’s love poems. She cites poetry as a way to “make art [out of] things that are happening to you at every stage of your life.” Similarly, Rowan Ricardo Phillips said, “I understand the world best through poetry. It is my baseline.” He went on to explain how after having experiences, the poetry comes afterward. Roxana Robinson talked about how she was drawn to the narrative aspect of fiction with its specificity and depth. On the nature of writers, she said, “Everybody learns to write at the same time, but writers never stop. We all start writing, setting down our view of the world.” After a lunch break in the faculty lounge, students participated in writing workshops with one of the writers to learn more about the art of poetry or fiction. “I loved being able to talk with the writers on a very personal level,” Allie Verdesca (V) said. “Working with them really helped me improve my writing technique and learn lots of valuable new ideas.” Her words resonated for many of the student participants who enjoyed the experience to get to know these writers, hear their work, and hone their own skills.
Alzheimer’s-afflicted Colonel, played by Henry Biedron (VI). As the play opens,Violet is pregnant with twin boys, played by Maddy Shilts (VI) and Jessie McLaughlin (VI), who by the middle of the play debate philosophical quandaries in the womb. After Daniel abandons the family, the show explores the impact of his absence on every family member, including the unborn, through the next 70 years. Kayla Thau (VI) and Lauryn Rodney (VI) framed the piece with “footnotes,” speaking as omniscient narrators. “It’s a hard piece to describe because it’s got everything, from magical realism to vaudeville to lyrical passages,” Mr. Romano said. “It’s a family drama, but through it, we experience the impact of time on human beings. From the fetuses to the Colonel with Alzheimer’s, nothing in the play isn’t about time. It’s our curse and our salvation. And it raises the question, ‘If you knew your life would take a certain path, would you still choose it?’” The play was meaningful in other ways as well. Not only was the senior play the last production seniors performed in as part of Pingry’s Drama Program, but it was also the last production Mr. Romano directed after 29 years at Pingry. Matthias can testify to the impact of the Drama Program and Mr. Romano’s guidance on all his students. She said, “Drama let me grow out
Mr. Romano and seniors who performed in Smokefall
of my shell in a way I wasn’t able to do before,” she said. “Through acting I learned how to be truthful, how to be vulnerable, and how to find genuine moments in spite of everything. And more than anything, I learned how to empathize with other people.” “On the last night, we all gave speeches dedicated to Mr. Romano, and something that really struck me was how every single person—including all the alumni who came back—was truly touched and impacted by Mr. Romano. It was incredible,” she said. Mr. Romano was just as touched by his last play. “For me, it was all about looking back and wondering how I got
here. The show was performed in the Attic Theater, which was the initial space for the Drama Program all those years ago. The concept of time passing in the play felt so relevant. Life and art were constantly intermingling.” “I mentioned that the play asks, ‘If you knew your life would take a certain path, would you still choose it?’” Mr. Romano said. “For me? 29 years… Absolutely, I would choose this. It was purely by serendipity, completely luck, but Pingry gave me every opportunity to develop as a teacher and as a person. I would absolutely choose this.”
Inside The Record
Op-Eds:
School News:
Rachel Chen (V) stresses the importance of taking a break from studying to explore and learn about the world. P.2
Mackinley Taylor (VI) discusses how Green Group continues to promote environmental conservation. P.5
Columns:
Sports:
Aashiya Jaggi (IV), Alison Boys’ Tennis has a solid Verdesca (V), and Kristine 5-1 record P.8 Fu (III) write columns about food, music, and fashion. P. 3-4 Danniel Schoonebeek reading his poems at Writing Festival
Pingry Communications