In most schools it takes generations of students to create legacies of families who have made their marks on the institution. And at a relatively new school, such as West Windsor-Plainsboro High School North, many legacies will surely be established.
But one family name already stands out at North: Marathe. This year’s valedictorian, Payal Marathe, follows in the academic footsteps of her older sister, Priya, who also earned the valedictorian title when she graduated in 2008. And if the surname of Payal, who will enter Yale in the fall, and Priya, who attended Penn, sounds familiar, it should. Their father, Hemant Marathe, is president of the WW-P Board of Education.
The Marathe parents have a unique perspective on the quest for academic excellence in the WW-P district. After his eldest daughter earned recognition as a class valedictorian, Hemant Marathe recognized that his other kids might face more scrutiny in school. But he says there was definitely no pressure put on them from within the family, and the efforts his daughters have put forward have been entirely self-motivated.
“We’ve always told them that they need to take their studies seriously but not with pressure of achieving certain grades or doing a number of activities. In fact, I keep telling them they are doing too many activities and they need to pick and choose, not do everything, because there is so much that our school district offers,” Marathe said.
The father is proud of his family’s successes, but he says the overall caliber of students in WW-P is more important than individual accolades. Marathe explained what can distinguish a student as a valedictorian: “When it comes to being valedictorian it helps to take certain classes — for example, science classes have higher credits than non-science classes. Because my kids were interested in science they took extra science classes, and that helps you to become a valedictorian. That doesn’t mean that Payal or Priya was the smartest kid in their class or they got the highest marks, but because they took all science classes that certainly helps because of the credits.”
He said AP science can count for seven credits where as AP social studies may count for five or six. “It’s always the case of what courses are available to you, and whether you take advantage of them or not,” he said.
One challenge is navigating a student’s route through school in West Windsor-Plainsboro, as Marathe spoke about the abundance of activities that kids can get involved in. He says if students participate in too many activities, they cannot devote the necessary time to any particular one and therefore lack a focus. Tied to that is a student’s use of time.
At their home in West Windsor, the Marathes do not enforce strict policies limiting the amount of time their kids spend socializing, using the Internet, or playing video games.
“We have not set any hard and fast rules. The kids have been fairly good, and they know what is expected. I have noticed in this school district that it automatically happens with kids — when you are doing so many activities after school, you are busy. There is not much time to do other social activities,” he says.
But when Priya and Payal were younger, Marathe says there was no Facebook and Skype to facilitate online communications with friends. “The younger ones use that a lot more than the older ones simply because it’s available,” he said.
Marathe concedes that he wonders when he hears his children say they’re using Facebook or Skype to do class assignments “if that’s the most productive way to do things.” He likes to reference a story of when AOL chats were first used, Priya was in second grade. One day a child from next door went running to her house, and Marathe asked the child why she was in a rush. The little girl said she wanted to talk to Priya, and though Priya was inside Marathes’ house the two children had set up to chat from their computers.
Payal Marathe, discovered her main activity, journalism, by happenstance (see sidebar below). Another major activity during high school career varsity swimming. Tahat, all with competing in the state-level Science Olympiad, took up a lot of her time.
On the technical side, she gets some influence from her parents. Marathe’s mother, Punit, is a scientist at Bristol Myers-Squibb. Her father holds a master’s degree and PhD in electrical engineering.
Payal’s older sister Priya was on the swim team, a member of the debate club, and (like Payal) participated in the Science Olympiad.
Payal Marathe is undecided on what her major will be at Yale. There is no journalism major, but she does want to pursue journalism in some capacity.
Her father encourages her to follow her interests while building on her strengths. “Payal chose journalism on her own. She likes to write and she’s good at it. I know she would like to do something related to writing in college, although she doesn’t know exactly in what capacity,” he said.
The father of four girls gives credit to his wife of 25 years. Hemant and Punit Marathe went through the same classes since kindergarten, with his wife excelling as the top-performing student in her grade each step of the way. Hemant says his daughters have often heard about their mom’s academic accomplishments, particularly about when (in India) she earned the top score on a standardized test out of every student in their state.
“It was quite an achievement in India in those days. The kids have known all along that their mom came in first, so whatever influence that had on them is relevant, but we have never put pressure on them because of their mom’s performance,” he says.
Dad admits getting a little less attention, however. “I tried to encourage them all to take more computer classes, but so far no one has, so I know that doesn’t work,” he says.
Marathe says that letting children follow their interests instead of only doing what they’re told is a formula for success. But some rational advice has been heard loud and clear. Hemant Marathe says his kids have been forewarned: their accomplishments in high school are excellent, but life in WW-P is still small in scale compared to the competitive environment they will face in college.
As Priya has thrived at Penn, the Marathes have helped prepare Payal for her time at Yale. “We’ve told them college is a whole different ball game — if you think you’re smart, there’s going to be 5,000 kids there smarter than you, so don’t let this go your head,” he says of earning valedictorian honors.
Marathe will be leaving for a freshman class pre-orientation at Yale on August 18. In the meantime she is working throughout the summer, doing “a lot of tutoring.”
The Marathes’ youngest children are twins headed into their sophomore year at High School North. Shreya plays the flute and participates in the school’s model U.N., model Congress, and National History Day. Shruti is involved in the high school radio station and in the broadcast journalism class.
But Hemant Marathe will not even entertain the thought of challenging his two youngest kids to capture the family’s third valedictorian honors from North. He says his twins will not make him hold his breath, either.
“They’ve already told me not to expect anything like that, and that’s fine. They are good kids, and they work hard,” he says, “and most importantly they take the classes they want to take.”
#b#After School: More Challenges#/b#
High school valedictorians can be expected to spend a lot of time in the classroom. In the case of Payal Marathe, North’s 2012 valedictorian, a good portion of her final year was spent editing stories for the Knightly News, the school paper.
The 2011-’12 school year was a big one for student journalists at North. Governor Chris Christie visited North this spring as part of an event highlighting New Jersey’s high-performing school districts. At the time, there was also buzz that Christie would soon announce his candidacy for president.
Marathe says the Knightly News “covered (the speech) from the basis of what it was like to have the opportunity to meet and interact with him here. Governor Christie visited an AP U.S. History class, so we talked about some of the questions those students asked and his responses to them,” she said.
The staff was already well prepared to deal with a big story and media attention, thanks the negative attention of the Rutgers spycam case since September, 2010.
As Marathe’s time at North was coming to a close, the trial of North alumnus Dharun Ravi began, making the past few months another spectacle for the editors to witness. “When the incident happened at Rutgers, we wrote an editorial just about how North, as a high school, was being unfairly associated with the whole thing,” Marathe says. “When the story broke, there were a lot of reporters at school for a long time. We just talked about how what one or two kids from here did didn’t really say much about the caliber of North as a high school.
“A lot of people had different ideas, and they wanted to put those in print. Our staff members talked about different aspects: cyberbullying as an issue, the gay rights movement as an issue — we just looked at it from a couple of different angles,” Marathe said.
Marathe hopes that the Ravi case will not remain as a cloud hanging over North’s skies, but she says it is unlikely that media attention will simply end. “I do think it’s been covered in full,” she said.
The Knightly News aims to provide students with a mini career path for journalism. Marathe says that each year the workload of writing is the same, but as students move up the chain of command, their editing responsibilities grow.
During Marathe’s senior year, she was co-editor-in-chief with fellow senior Sean Pais. “We worked closely with our advisor to brainstorm articles, edit everyone’s articles, and oversee layout of the publication,” Marathe said.
Payal Marathe said middle school didn’t provide much opportunity to learn the ropes. “The writing in middle school is really cookie cutter. The way that journalism works at North is that you have to take an introductory course. Freshman year I took journalism to pretty much just fill an elective requirement. I didn’t really think too much about it, but once I started to get involved, I realized how much I liked writing,” Marathe said.
