#b#Teaching Award for North Alumna#/b#
Stephanie Sun, a 2006 graduate of High School North who now teaches in Brooklyn, received a Fishman Award for teaching. She receives $25,000 and a summer residency to collaborate with the other winners on a collection of essays about their teaching strategies.
“As incoming fourth graders, my students say their favorite subject is writing because it’s easy,” Sun wrote in her application. “When they leave my classroom as rising sixth graders, they still say writing is their favorite subject — but I bet they say that because it was challenging.”
Sun, who graduated from NYU in 2010, lives in Brooklyn and has taught English to fifth grade students at Achievement First Brownsville Middle School since 2013. She began her career in 2010 as a Teach For America corps member in New Haven, Connecticut, a city struggling with one of the largest achievement gaps in the country.
“I’ve known since I was 10 years old that I wanted to teach,” she says. “I know I have to do this for as long as I can. There’s no other job in the world.”
#b#Walked for a Friend#/b#
Harish Venkatraman, a junior at High School South, participated in the Pulmonary Hypertension Association O2 Breathe Walk at the South Street Seaport in New York City on May 31. He was in the top 10 in fundraising for this charity event. He walked to honor his close friend who is battling PH while awaiting a lung transplant.
High blood pressure in the lungs is called pulmonary hypertension, a chronic and life-changing disease that can lead to heart failure if left untreated. PH affects people of all ages, races, and ethnic backgrounds.
The event brings caregivers, patients, and medical professionals together in major cities across the U.S. The goal is to raise funds for lifesaving research and support programs that help the more than 30,000 Americans affected by the unpredictable and potentially life-threatening disease.
“I was able to learn about pulmonary hypertension by meeting and interacting with the warriors who live with this condition every day,” he wrote to his sponsors after the walk. “It was inspiring to see how these courageous people take on the challenge of facing PH and overcome the condition to lead happy and fulfilling lives. Although people of all ages and backgrounds were clearly affected by the disease, with oxygen tanks rolling along with them, it was uplifting to see the compassion, happiness, and unity that was evident throughout the large event.”
Pennington School’s Top Grad Is West Windsor Resident
The Pennington School graduated 91 seniors, representing four states and five countries outside the United States on June 6. Niral Ramesh of West Windsor was the valedictorian. He was inducted into the Cum Laude Society last fall and received the award for the senior excelling in science and shared the award for the senior excelling in mathematics. He will attend Rice University next year. Graduates from West Windsor also include Brett Schenkman and Margaret A. Slonaker.
First Place Award for Conservation Art
Sayee Sanjana Naresh of Plainsboro was honored on June 2 by the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey through the “Species on the Edge” art and essay contest. Naresh, the first place winner chosen from Middlesex in a statewide contest for fifth graders, presented the bronze copper butterfly.
The students were asked to draw a picture of one of New Jersey’s 83 endangered and threatened wildlife species and compose an essay about how the animal became endangered and what can be done to help protect it. The contest drew more than 2,000 entries from across the state.
“The vibrant art work and passionate essays that we received from fifth-graders across the state reveal just how much these talented children poured their hearts into the Species on the Edge contest,” said David Wheeler, CWF executive director. “We are so thrilled to help connect the next generation of New Jersey conservation leaders with the natural world around them. Through their art and essays, all of us can see the wonders of nature — and the many challenges that we must overcome to help rare wildlife survive in our densely populated state.”
#b#Millstone Holds Recycled Art Show#/b#
Millstone River School held a “Trash to Treasure” art show on May 22. Students and staff created works of art out of garbage in honor of the school’s character theme, “Respect for the Earth.” Students entered art that was beautiful to look at, some that is functional, and some that will reinforce the importance of showing respect to the earth.
Fifth grade students from Heidi Wachtin’s class created a tree out of plastic bottles, papier mache, and magazines to promote the event. The show was announced daily by students. Art teachers Linda Oliver and Nancy Halter discussed the project with students.
Cultural Diversity at Town Center
Town Center Elementary School’s extended day program presented World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development in May. The directors of the project, Shannon O’Donnell and Christine Shannon, wrote the following:
“World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development is held annually to help people learn about the importance of cultural diversity and is an occasion for people to deepen their understanding of cultural diversity.
“Our goal in hosting this week-long event is to infuse our program with a variety of cultures to help students to better learn to appreciate themselves, as well as others as being unique in our own special way.
“This week is filled with wonderful performances, informative presentations, and opportunities to sample delicious foods from around the world.
“The best part is students will be learning from their fellow peers, parents, and TC EDP alumni students who have generously volunteered to participate in one of the many ways previously mentioned.”
Students who painted the large event banner include Ethan Braverman, Ananya Iyer, Karishma Kagitala, Shruti Maddi, Riya Mani, Evana Moses, Vibha Sanjay, Hasini Thupakula, Laila Williams, Andrew Yuan, and Riya Mani.
Foods presented included rice pudding and yellow rice from Spain and Portugal, Elizabeth Cruz; sweet matzoh kugel from Israel, Ethan Braverman; Nian Gao, a cake from China, Chelsea Lin; chocolate covered matzoh from Israel, Matthew Bilmes; crispy waffle rolls from Asia, China, Hong Kong, and Korea, Michelle Yau; latkes from Eastern Europe, Andre Levine; Moro de Guandules y Coco from Dominican Republic, Xavier Conde-Gonzalez; challah from Israel, Sarah Pennock; samosa from India and central Asia, Vidith Iyer; garbanzo beans and Indian bread from Punjabi and India, Annum Hasan; rasgulla from West Bengal, Riya Mani; and dumplings from China, Oscar and Linus Li.
Presentations included Africa by Malachi Viera; South India by Sanskriti Ramji and Vibha Sanjay; India by Prajeeth Kumar, Pranav Theoleti, Eshani Banerjee, and Shasha Peddaboina; China by Odette Liu; and Trinidad by Rahi Premchan.
Singing numbers included songs from China by Alan Zheng and Tytus Hurd.
There was a karate demonstration from Korea by Jinuka Jayasinghe and Nicholas Todd, a kung fu performance from China by Andrew and Alex Yuan; and a discussion and demonstration about the Dohl, an Indian percussion instrument, by Varun Misra.
Dance presentations include Balma from India with Riya Mani, Shasha Peddaboina, and Hasini Thupakula; Koli Dance from India by Ananya Subash; Achudam Kesavam from India by Ananya Iyer; a Bharatnatyam performance from Southern India by Nirati Iyer; and Itti Si Hansi from India by Amber Verma.
#b#Faith#/b#
Max Gessner of West Windsor was one of four eighth graders to be confirmed as a member of Princeton United Methodist Church on May 24. He is the son of Oliver and Cindy Gessner, who also joined the church that day.
“Confirmation for the eighth graders is about personally confirming the vows made at their baptism,” says Reverend Susan Victor, a West Windsor resident who is a deacon at the church and the director of counseling and chaplain at Womanspace Inc.
“Through the year-long series of classes leading up to Confirmation Sunday, students were encouraged to think about who God is, and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and a member of the church,” Victor says.
#b#Senior Managing Director#/b#
Patrick R. Brocker of West Windsor was appointed to the position of senior managing director at Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation and Peapack-Gladstone Bank. Based in the bank’s Carnegie Center office in West Windsor, Brocker is responsible for establishing the cash flow leveraged finance and asset-based lending product capabilities for the bank. These products will play a critical role in wealth creation, preservation, diversification, and succession strategies for many of private banking clients and prospects who own businesses by facilitating the purchase, sale, rapid expansion, or rehabilitation of businesses.
Brocker holds a bachelor of science degree in business administration with a major in accounting from Marquette University and has been active for more than 20 years in the commercial finance and asset based lending industry. An active member of St. David the King Catholic Church, he has served in the Princeton-based Healthcare Ministries providing assistance to the elderly and individuals with disabilities.
#b#WW Resident Publishes Book on Jesus#/b#
Bob Dunne of West Windsor recently self-published “909 Days that Changed the World,” a chronological rendering of the public life of Jesus Christ.
Dunne graduated from Columbia College with a bachelor’s degree in economics, and the University of Chicago with an MBA in accounting and finance. He spent most of his professional career on Wall Street as a fixed income salesman and managing director for Salomon Brothers in New York City. He left Wall Street and opened up and ran a franchised tutoring center business, Huntington Learning Center, in the Princeton area for about five years.
He currently volunteers on the finance councils of various charity boards, volunteers at Morris Hall Nursing Home and St. Lawrence Rehab Center services twice a week, and teaches religious education at St. David the King.
Dunne and his wife, Paula, were married in 1984 and moved from Brooklyn Heights, New York, to West Windsor in 1993, shortly after the arrival of their second child. “We moved to West Windsor because of the train station and commuting ease to NYC, the school district’s excellent reputation, the proximity to both of our families, and the value of the home prices here,” he says. Their children Christina, 24; Robb, 22, graduated from High School North; and Nicole, 16, is a sophomore at Notre Dame High School.
“I wrote the book because for many, many years I would hear the gospels and stories about Jesus but always had a hard time picturing Jesus Christ as a real man because the gospel and other stories were always disjointed and out of context,” says Dunne. “It was like hearing bits and pieces of any historical figure — you learn a lot of facts but the man doesn’t seem alive.”
He searched out biographies of Jesus Christ and found that there was some scholarly consensus as to the chronology of Jesus’s life. “I read some of these and found them good, but usually too long, too theological, or too dated in language and approach,” says Dunne. “Most were done in the 1940s and earlier.”
Dunne realized that someone should write a book that tells the gospels in a chronological order but it took him a long time to decide that he was the person. “How I got there is another story in itself but suffice it to say, I became convinced that if the book helped only a small number of people get to know Jesus Christ as a real live flesh and blood man, it would be worth my time, effort, and money,” he says.
“I wrote this book because I thought it needed to be written and if it helps people get to know more about Jesus Christ, as a role model I believe he can be for all humans, then I will count the book a huge success. The most likely audience for this book is clearly a Christian one but a number of non-Christians have read the book and found it very informative and insightful about this person, Jesus Christ, whom they have heard much about in bits and pieces.”
The book is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble in book, Kindle, and Nook formats.
