Pulse - June Edition

The Camp Hazen Experience
By Matthew Ross

About a week ago, the Juniors embarked on a 3- day camping trip at Camp Hazen, located in some rural area of Connecticut. Speaking for the majority of the eleventh grade, I can honestly recall having incorrect assumptions regarding this camping trip before going on it. Talking to some of the seniors, they claimed it was horrifically boring and in general it would be a big waste of time. Fast forwarding to the first activities we all participated in at Camp Hazen, our premature judgments turned out to be completely wrong. Some of the activities we did included high ropes, low ropes, team building exercises, an absurdly excessive amount of Frisbee throwing and much more. The goal of this trip was primarily to establish a certain level of leadership skills necessary to lead the school the coming year. We also talked about goal setting for our senior class and formulated remarkable ideas for next year. Another subject I would like to touch on is food. The food at Camp Hazen was delightful as were the beverages. The facilities were up to par too: Our dorm rooms were more than adequate, including a common area in each cabin. The dining hall/forum area was also very nice. I would like to say to all future senior classes that going on this trip will only benefit you. You will get a feel for what your class is all about, and best of all you’ll talk to people you normally don’t get a chance to talk to in or outside of school. You will also get the opportunity to work with different people you’re not used to working with, in an array of different activities. This will strengthen your communication skills as well as leadership skills and problem solving. It will stimulate those normally unproductive and inaccessible parts of your brain. Another awesome aspect about Camp Hazen is the staff. They’re all very open to conversation; therefore I strongly suggest that you get to know them as I and many others did.

What Do We Want In Our Tummy’s?
By: Kayla Mogrovejo

Recently we took a lunch survey asking what kids wanted as meals. What they dislike about our menu? What is their favorite meal? And should or should we not have snacks in the afternoon?

Viewing on the survey students would like to see a change in the menu, or at least more choices of food. Students would like to see more of wings, pesto pasta, sandwich bars, meatball wedges, fresh fruit, ice pops, and a theme day for certain kinds of food. Another opinion is that most students say we should have a snack sometime in the afternoon but some want healthy choices and others don’t. It seems that Oreos are a popular snack choice.

After athletic practices, many kids are hungry. This leaves people spending hundreds of dollars a year on the vending machine, eating food that is for the most part, not nutritional. The student body would greatly benefit from having an after school snack.

Coming from a public school, I take Harvey’s food for granted greatly. I especially enjoy the wide variety of options Chef Lee and his assistants offer daily, and the way in which the food is presented. However, there is stillroom for improvement. Being high school students, we aren’t really interested in foods such as Foccacia, and battered cod. We need the basic food that they offer on different days, such as: pizza, chicken fingers, burgers, sandwiches, etc. to be offered on a more daily basis.

Hopefully the next upcoming year our chefs will provide us with new and improved types of food.

“Ode to Harvey”
By: Jacqueline Just

Once again, the Harvey School held its annual poetry contest earlier this month. The show was started by Harvey’s own, Mr. Owens, who started the ceremony with a poem he had written. The judges were Harvey’s director of development, Ms. Laura Prichard, Mr. Tom Christopher, and Mr. Andy Hammerstein. The ceremony began with sixth grader Matt Diamond, reading the poem “For Poets”. A title that was perfect to begin the contest. Next up was Charlotte Wittman, also a sixth grader, who recited “The Moment”. She was followed by Kyle Williams and “Equinox”. The seventh grade had only one participant: Fiona Magliari, who gave a dramatic rendition of the poem “El Dorado”. The eighth grade was started with Brendan Bernegger, with his reciting of e.e. Cumming’s “Ballad of the Scholars Lament”. Next up in the eighth grade was Nikki Pugliese and “Valentine for Earnest Mann”. The middle school was wrapped up by Natalia St. Lawrence reading “Rereading Frost”. The upper school was led by ninth grader Marcus Franklin with his theatrical version of “I too sing America”. Next up in the ninth grade was Brandon Harmer with “At Least”. “Bustopher Jones”, read by Chloe Delaitre, started off the tenth grade portion of the ceremony, followed by Will Shearer reading “The Walrus and the Carpenter”. The third tenth-grader was Camilla Skalski with an impressive rendering of “I Too Love Thee”. Eleventh grader Chrissy Casbarro recited “Life is Fine”. Next up was Kenny Malloy with a comical interpretation of “Forgetfulness”. Francesca Neri followed with “Invictus”. The twelfth graders were led by Bridey Elliot and “Mad Girl’s Love Song”. The last poetry recite was Abby Hunt, who recited a beautiful depiction of “The Lanyard”. While the judges decided on the winners of the poetry contest, students who were not part of the contest read some poetry, with some being paired with Kenny Malloy and his guitar. It was a great way to fill the space of the intermission! At last, the judges returned. It was claimed to be “an extremely hard decision”. In the middle school, eighth grader Nikki Pugliese claimed the trophy. In the upper school, it was tenth grader Will Shearer. Everyone did a fantastic job and the judges had to make an extremely hard decision! I personally liked Charlotte Wittman’s “The Moment”, and Abby Hunt’s “The Lanyard”. Congratulations to the two winners, all of the finalists, semi-finalists, and to all the other students who participated! And a special thank-you to the judges, Mr. Owens & all the English teachers at Harvey, and to the phenomenal intermission performers and poetry reciters!

Pokémon is Back!
By: Nick Durst

To many, Pokémon is a thing of the past, a hobby everybody experienced back in Elementary school. However, Pokémon is now back. Recently, freshmen Tré Wilson, Brian Dooley, Nick Durst, and Joe Fraioli have been competing rigorously on their Gameboys in Pokémon: Silver, Crystal, and Gold. Tré Wilson, the current leader in the Pokémon “tournament” is followed closely by Brian Dooley. Tré Wilson quotes, “It’s something that puts me back in my childhood days” Joe Fraioli, a new player, found his Gameboy pocket and Pokémon silver, and quotes, “It’s living life to the extreme, trying to beat my opponents, Tré Wilson and Brian Dooley is very time consuming but well worth it.” In the middle of a fierce battle, Tré Wilson quotes, “Pikachu is a chump because he won’t evolve.” Stop by Mr. Halewicz’s room slot 6 to see the battles rage on.

Moving On
By: Nicole Koppel

Every year at The Harvey School when I drive up to school in the beginning of May and I see the white tents out I know the school year is almost over. This means many things. It means exams, the auction, and above all, saying good-bye to our senior friends. As they go on to bigger and brighter futures one has to wonder: are they scared? And if they are, why are they scared? They have had all the courses, been advised, and made their decisions. Is it leaving high school? That their teachers won’t hold their hand or give them until three ten to get their homework in? Or is it their friends they will miss the most? Going to Manny’s with them, hanging out on weekends. When you go to college you can’t take your friends with you! Or maybe it’s their family they will miss. There are many reasons to be scared of moving on not only to a new school but to college to the “real world”. But some seniors are not scared. They are excited to get away and start something new. Or maybe they’re sick of the helping hand the teachers give them; they want to strike out on their own. So although there are many reasons to be scared, why should they be? To answer this question I asked senior Gretel Coleman about her feelings about leaving home and Harvey, and how she felt her peers feel about leaving.

Q: What will you miss most about home and Harvey?
A: I will miss my own bed, bathroom, oh, and closet space! (She laughs). My dog. All my friends and teachers.
Q: Do you think (as a majority) your peers are scared to go off to college or are most of them saying how they can’t wait to leave?
A: I think their all scared to a certain extent but most people act tough try to cover it up.
Q: what do you suppose is so frightening about leaving Harvey?
A: I think it’s a couple of things. First off it’s starting a new routine, you know. It’s like we have all gotten used to a certain way, we know what’s going on and now we have to start all over. Also we have gotten to know our teachers and what they expect. We are so comfortable we can go to them for stuff and I think that’s really important. When your class has 25,000 to 50,000 kids your just a number.
Q: What’s scariest for you personally?
A: For me it was how quick the year went by. It was like, um, where did the last four years go!? Really, it hasn’t hit me yet that I won’t be coming back.
So what ever the reason for seniors being scared to go from here just think of it this way: No more pesky morning meetings!

Harvey’s Most Secret Club
Clara Lefton

Most of the student body and faculty might think that they know all of the extracurricular activities, but it is very possible that they have missed one of the best ones. Earlier this year Mrs. Mahony had assigned her AP English class to create a satirical picture book in order to help prepare us recognize satire for the AP tests in May. During this time both Eupha Jeanne McCrary and I were reminded how much fun it was to use Crayola Crayons. It was from this that we came up with the idea to start what we called the “Coloring Book Club.” As a test to see if anyone would be interested I called all of my friends the night before we decided to meet, and the next day over twenty people showed up to Miss Boltz’s room. I did not think too many people would show up, so Miss Boltz found herself very surprised when tons of students piled into her room about something called “Coloring Club.”

Due to the club’s success, Mr. Lazzaro who had no problem with it meeting every Thursday during Harvey’s slot time for club meetings ran the next day the idea of a “Coloring Club.” Eventually, Eupha and I informed Mrs. Mahony of the club that her English project had inspired to create; she felt very enthusiastic toward the project and has allowed the club to use the Green Room and have her as our club supervisor. In addition to providing us space and an advisor, Mrs. Mahony suggested that we had a more official club name so that the faculty could not disband us. After much debate, the idea of calling it the “Stress Reduction Through Coloring Club,” also known as S.R.T.C.C.

As the club has grown we now have anywhere from twenty to thirty members show up in the Green Room on any given Thursday. The pictures everyone colors each day are normally all contingent to a theme that Eupha and I have had the club vote on in the previous weeks. Some of the most popular coloring themes have been: Disney princesses, superheroes, holidays, sports, and historical figure. Now after these pictures have been colored in they are often found hung up throughout the school. Some of the most common places include the upper school, the arts center, the library, and teacher’s classrooms. Even Mrs. Normandeau especially enjoyed each week receiving an attendance sheet completely written in crayon. As the year comes to an end, the coloring club wishes to thank all who have helped it become the secret success it truly has been. This spring the coloring club hopes to pass the crayon off to rising junior Anna Walnut, and we wish her the best of luck with the club in the following year.

MIDDLE SCHOOL HALLWAY NAMED

On May 15th, 2008, the Harvey Middle School held a ceremony to honor Vincent Gallo by dedicating the new hallway of the Middle School to him. Vincent Gallo helped make the addition to our school possible, and was also involved in renovating the Weil House as well as the construction of the McMahon Cottage. Mr. Gallo’s achievements were acknowledged with a plaque that is posted between Ms. McGowan’s and Mr. Byrne’s classrooms: The space between these two classrooms will be known as the Vincent Gallo Gallery. We are honored to acknowledge Mr. Gallo’s memory, and his accomplishment of giving us this beautiful Middle School. Our thanks to Mr. Gallo’s family, who attended our ceremony. We are very grateful. As the plaque says, “He helped build Harvey’s future with precision, dedication and enthusiasm.”

Campus Cleanup
By: Andy Jamieson, Camilla Skalski, and the members of Global Green

In spirit of Earth Day, Harvey thought it be incisive to have a campus cleanup day. We thought it witty to name all trash collected “Mount Trashmore”. However the mountain was somewhat diminutive. Conversely, showing that the Harvey Campus consists of very little trash. We would like to thank Mr. Wyland for his supportive efforts in organizing the student body interactions.

The club is now setting our next achievements in playing a part of the building processes in the new multi-functional addition to the Upper School portion of the Harvey Campus. We have and will further be collaborating with both Ms. Prichard (Director of Development) and Mr. Drude (Business manager). We hope to make the new addition “Green” in every aspect, excluding the color.

To Flee or Not to Flee
By: Rod Owens

Yep, I wanted to run, beat it, escape, crawl under my seat, and flee the production of Hamlet which my two senior classes and Mrs. Mahony’s AP class witnessed at the Peekskill Paramount Theatre on a recent Friday morning. Was it terrible? I guess not. After all, it was folks from the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Company whom I’ve seen put on two great Shakespeare plays each summer under the big tent at Garrison, NY overlooking the Hudson and West Point. But! It tweren’t the summer actors-it was a novice crew. Did they capture Uncle Willy’s (perhaps) greatest creation? Shoot, no!

So what went wrong? Well, Hamlet, as you may or may not know, is the numero uno brain in all of Shakespeare’s 38 plays (which probably also makes him Mr. Brain in all of Western lit). And how was he portrayed for us? Whining, silly, gutless, and foolish-other than that, he was only okay. I hated it!

Did the students like it? For the most part, nope. I don’t know about you, but I like to care about characters: I love Randall Patrick MacMurphy (Jack Nicholson) in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (he’s a rebel, funny, and very reeeeeeal) as well as Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) in On the Waterfront (a loser who takes a stand and finds his own inner dignity). And I used to love Hamlet! Why? He’s another lost dude who struggles to figure out what’s right and do what’s right. He’s also brilliant, insightful, funny, and caring. Yes, he’s also indecisive, but I see that as a plus because he’s wrestling with how to handle a slightly difficult situation. I mean, how would you react if your dad just died, your mom remarries (your uncle) two months later, and then the ghost of your pops tells you that it was his brother, your uncle and new step-dad, who murdered him? (I know-you can all identify with that situation.) Hamlet, unlike Laertes and Fortinbras in the four-hour-long original play, cannot act like those two foils and just jump to the sword for revenge. And that’s the point-he works at figuring out what’s the right thing to do, and I love him for this. Obey father-or do what you believe is right? Don’t all of us deal with that quandary in some shape or form?

So, I apologize again to youse guys who went on the trip. Yeah, maybe it’s impossible to cut this classic down to 80 minutes and still zing-but jeez I wanted it to be as great as the character and the play could possibly be. Unfortunately, it turned out not to be.

Philadelphia Trip
By: Nikki Pugliese and Natalia St. Lawrence

On the morning of Thursday May 8, the eighth grade class departed at eight in the morning for their trip to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We arrived in Philadelphia around 11:00, and made our first stop at the Benjamin Franklin Institute. After having lunch, we were allowed to see the interesting aspects of the museum, such as the heart center, train center, and aircraft center. Then, after leaving the museum, accompanied by a tour guide, we were introduced to the history of Philadelphia through two-hours of sightseeing. During this tour, our guide led us through different details of the historic city’s lifestyle, both past and present. Ben Franklin was a significant part in our day. The eighth graders saw landmarks such as the outline of his house, his grave, printing space, and even his privy pit. Other stops included the Liberty Bell, possibly Betsy Ross’ house, (they are not positive if it is hers,) and Independence Hall. Afterwards, we had a duck tour through the city, and the Delaware River. We then concluded day one with dinner, and a trip to the ‘Rocky Steps.’ After a factual packed day, we retired to the hotel, The Valley Forge Suites, to enjoy a desert bar and pool time. After packing and room-checks, we were able to start day two of our trip. This included our favorite part, a trip to Great Adventure. We started off six flags with a trip to their safari. Finally, after much rain, the park was opened. Although the Kingda Ka and El Toro were shut down, students managed to enjoy other rides such as Medusa, Nitro, and Superman. We then proceeded to depart from New Jersey after our over-night trip. The Philadelphia trip was educational, as well as a good time for roller-coaster lovers. It was also great to get away from school before the crazy final exams take over everyone’s minds. But above all, it was a great trip because the eighth grade class was able to spend time together as a whole before everyone departs for high school. Thank you to all of our chaperones and everyone who made the trip possible!