101: Fund Benefit to Support PHS Graduates

The Ides O’ March Madness, the annual 101: Fund benefit and silent auction in support of scholarships for Princeton High School (PHS) graduates with financial need, will be held at Princeton University’s Cloister Inn eating club on Saturday March 16 at 7 p.m.

Guests are encouraged to come dressed casually in Irish green, togas, or their favorite March Madness team jersey.

“Our annual benefit event, Ides O’ March Madness, follows our tradition of hosting a fun, informal theme party that connects the Princeton and Cranbury communities,” said 101: Fund Benefit Co-Chair Roxanne List. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with friends and neighbors, while supporting a local cause that’s meaningful to the PHS community.”

Tickets start at $125 per person, and can be purchased at the door or online at www.fund101.org. Founded in 1970 and operating as the Princeton Regional Scholarship Foundation until 2008, the 101: Fund has provided more than $1 million in aid to PHS seniors over the past 12 years.

PDS Announces Summer Research Internships

Seven Princeton Day School juniors in this year’s Research Experience (REx) program, directed by science teacher Carrie Norin, have secured research-based summer internships at an array of prestigious universities and other institutions around the country.

Krista Caasi will study the epidemiology of depression at Harvard University/Massachusetts General Hospital; Andrew Ciccarone will investigate fatigue performance on steel highway bridges in Lehigh University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering; Alex DiNovi will focus on modeling Arctic Sea ice melt at Princeton University/NOAA; and Fechi Inyama will measure bioaccumulation of contaminants in wetlands in Rutgers University’s Department of Environmental Sciences.

Madison Izzard will analyze movement ecology of sharks at the University of Rhode Island Department of Biological Sciences; Sachin Patel will investigate understanding language recovery after a stroke at Johns Hopkins University Center of Excellence in Stroke Detection and Diagnosis; and Luigi Soriano will investigate the genomics of neuroblastoma at Harvard University/Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

PDS Honors John and Louise Wellemeyer

Princeton Day School honored the vision, leadership, and generosity of longtime PDS community member John C. Wellemeyer and his wife Louise at a March 7 ceremony, officially naming the School’s STEAM facility the Wellemeyer STEAM Center.

A 1952 graduate of Princeton Country Day School (predecessor to PDS) and past PDS parent, Wellemeyer has been a member of the PDS Board of Trustees since 2012, serving as chair of the Investment Committee. He has also served as class secretary, class agent, annual fund parent captain, and a member of the annual fund leadership gift committee.

“His service leadership is also reflected in generous financial gifts, which have directly benefited programming across the School, none more so than STEAM curricula,” PDS noted.

NASA’s Weiss Visits YingHua International School

Michael Weiss, retired NASA deputy program director on the Hubble Space Telescope program at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, visited the YingHua International School in Kingston recently, speaking with students in classrooms from third to eighth grade throughout the day.

Weiss, who has appeared on NOVA, the Discovery Channel, NPR, and the BBC discussing the Hubble Telescope and serving missions, recounted first-hand experiences and presented videos on topics the students have been studying, including the training of astronauts, diving experiences, and the Big Bang theory.

Weiss accumulated over 200 hours in NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in training Shuttle flight crews on servicing techniques and procedures, and he was involved in all five Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions.

Princeton Public Schools Win Sustainability Grants

Five Princeton Public Schools have been awarded Sustainable Jersey for Schools (SJS)              capacity-building grants. Johnson Park Elementary School, Littlebrook Elementary School, Riverside Elementary School, John Witherspoon Middle School, and Princeton High School will each receive the $2,000 grant, which is intended to assist the school green team as they lead and coordinate sustainability activities.

The Princeton schools were among 47 in New Jersey selected to receive the grants, sponsored by SJS and the New Jersey Education Association.

Pennington School Literary Magazine Wins Award

The Pennington School literary magazine, Pennyroyal, was one of only five in New Jersey to receive a “superior” rating in winning the National Council of Teachers of English’s (NCTE) Recognizing Excellence in Art and Literary Magazines Award.

English teacher Jon Lemay was the advisor for the magazine, and the student editors included Caleigh Calhoun and Shae Calhoun of Stockton; Corrine Coakley, Megan Eckerson, and Julia Peters of Pennington; Ayanna Johnson of Ewing; and Emily Moini of Princeton.

Pennington School’s Odyssey Team Goes to State Finals

The Pennington School’s Odyssey of the Mind teams placed first and third in the Coastal Plains Regional Tournament on March 2 in Columbus, New Jersey.

For the eighth year in a row, the school’s first place team will advance to the state finals on April 6. Odyssey of the Mind is an international educational program that provides creative problem-solving opportunities ranging from building mechanical devices to presenting their own interpretations of literary classics.