News

Here you will find a number of press releases that have appeared in the local media during the past few months.

The Pike School held its 70th graduation exercises Wednesday, June 14 for a class of 70 eighth- and ninth-graders, “ a wonderfully poetic coincidence,” remarked Head of School John “Muddy” Waters.

Attended by about 350 family members and friends of the graduates, the Closing Exercises were held in Harding Gymnasium, festooned with blossoms in the traditional peach, white, and green of Pike graduation ceremonies. The procession of faculty and students entered with appropriate pomp and circumstance to the accompaniment of Elgar’s stirring composition played by the Cantabrigia Brass.

Welcoming remarks by Waters reminded the audience that “much has changed in our world” since the graduating students entered Pike as pre-kindergarteners, “but not much has changed as much as the students sitting before you have in the last 11 years.” Recalling that he used to enjoy reading to them before they acquired the skill to read to themselves, Waters read to them one last time, selecting passages from Robert Fulghum’s All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. He told them “The Pike School’s mission is to develop within its community a lifelong love of learning, respect for others, the joy of physical activity, and a creative spirit. Many of the ideas from Mr. Fulghum’s book fit into those categories, and we are proud of all of you for having learned those important lessons. You eighth- and ninth-graders are living proof of our commitment to our mission.”


In addition to a number of academic and athletic awards presented to graduating students on the evening of Friday, June 9, six additional awards were presented at Wednesday’s ceremonies.

•    Francis Hamilton of Andover received the A. Daniel Phelan Award for meeting life’s experiences with a positive spirit and good humor, thereby becoming an inspiration to the Pike community. The prize is named for Dan Phelan, a Pike teacher from 1990-1996. Hamilton will attend Lawrence Academy.
•    Nicholas Poland of Andover was awarded the Nicholas Grieco Prize, which honors one of Pike’s most loyal families and is given to the ninth grade student who, in the opinion of the Upper School faculty, has achieved notable academic improvement and personal growth at Pike, having been a positive influence on fellow students. He will attend Phillips Academy in Andover.
•    Christine Goglia of Andover received the Alumni Prize, established to honor Pike alumni and awarded to the eighth grader who, in the opinion of the Upper School faculty, has achieved notable academic improvement, demonstrated an ability to assume responsibility, and displayed friendliness to faculty and fellow students. She will attend Governor Dummer Academy.
•    Talene Bilazarian of Andover was the recipient of the Margaret J. Little Award, given to the student who best demonstrates integrity, generosity, and thoughtfulness, thus exemplifying the spirit of The Pike School. The award commemorates Margaret Little, teacher and Pike’s second head of school. Bilazarian will attend Concord Academy.
•    Phillip Picardi of North Andover received the David A. Frothingham Award for contributing with distinction to the betterment of the school and/or community. Established in 1994, this award honors Pike’s sixth head of school. Picardi is expecting to attend Central Catholic High School.
•    Carolyn Calabrese of North Andover was given the Head of School Award for exhibiting unusual qualities of leadership in non-academic affairs, while setting a school standard for scholarship. She will attend Phillips Academy in Andover.

This year’s graduation speaker was alumnus Ali Siddiqi of the Pike Class of 2003. Siddiqi, who was graduated this year from Phillips Academy, was the Academy’s school president and a speaker at his own graduation. “Actually,” he told the Pike audience, “I think my dad was more excited for this graduation than he was for my own.”

Siddiqi’s speech echoed Waters’s in its theme of change and durability. “We all share this great school that connects us, makes us one,” Siddiqi told the new graduates. But “buildings and classrooms come and go....people come and go….the world around us is constantly changing….What gives me comfort…strength…and faith in this institution is that despite these changes, there is always a constant….It stays in the halls, its stays in those fields, and it stays in the gym. And that is the mission of this school. This school was founded to bring kids here and give them the best, most comprehensive education possible….It seeks to bring you here while instilling in each of you the beautiful trait of Non Sibi Solum, not for oneself alone.

“You see,” Siddiqi explained, “you can have your athletic achievements, make honor roll for the rest of your life, and stay friends with Pike classmates until you are old men and women. But when you come back to this place after having graduated from The Pike School, it is the transcending principle of ‘not for oneself alone’ that will make you proud. And that is a part of this school that will never change.”

Preceding and following Siddiqi’s speech, The Pike School Orchestra and Graduation Chorus, led by Fine Arts Department Chair Larry Robertson, performed. Head of Upper School Laura Russell, Eighth Grade Team Leader Susan Cameron, Ninth Grade Team Leader Betsy DeVries, Pike Board Chair Gary Campbell, and Waters presented the certificates of graduation to the students, 43 of whom are Andover residents: ninth graders Liza Brecher and Nicholas Poland; and eighth graders Taylor Angles, Annie Arnzen, Lara Bhailwala (winner of the Spanish Prize), Talene Bilazarian, Shane Bouchard, Calvin Chao, Sarah Clarkson, David Dlesk, Zainab Doctor, Kyle Doherty, Hilary Evans, Mary French, David Gilbert, Christine Goglia, Alice Grant (winner of the Girls Athletic Award), Frances Hamilton, Julie Helmers (winner of the English Prize and cowinner of the French Prize), Penelope Jones, Stone Lauderdale, Caroline Leed, Michael Levenson, Iain MacNaughton, Ryan McKinnon, Mari Miyachi (cowinner of the History Prize), Marina Moschitto (cowinner of the Kerri Kattar Athletic Award), Taggart Muggia, Morgan Pearce, Cameron Poole, Vinay Rajur, Carly Rauh, Spenser Rose, Gregory Serrao, Jacob Shack, Sahil Singhal, Eric Sirakian (cowinner of the French Prize and the History Prize), Naomi Smith, Emma Sundberg, Liam White, Julie Xie, John Yang-Sammataro, and James Yuschik.

Graduates from other nearby communities were: ninth-graders Carolyn Calabrese, Phillip Picardi, and Ellen Rullo, and eighth-graders Kaitlyn Barnett, Benjamin Corman, Rainer Crosett. Meredith Farahmand, Hilary Greene, Alexander Letwin, Max Lindauer, Danielle Loranger, Sarah Reilly, Alexa Sarmanian, and Erik Scott, all of North Andover; eighth-graders Cameron Brien and Leonel Contreras of Lawrence; ninth-grader Alexander Matses and eighth-graders KellyComolli and Shannon Comolli of Newburyport; ninth-grader Sinead Oliver and eighth-graders Taylor Colliton, Tennyson Hunt, and Katherine Koppel of Reading; eighth-grader PeterThompson of North Reading; ninth-grader Alexander Cope of Dracut; ninth-grader Analise Saab of Lowell; and ninth-grader William Abisalih of Merrimac.

Of the 70 graduates, 18 are headed to Phillips Academy in Andover; 8 to Governor Dummer Academy; 7 to Andover High School; 6 to Lawrence Academy; 4 each to Brooks School, Concord Academy, and Phillips Academy in Exeter; 3 to Pike Ninth Grade; 2 each to Milton Academy, Brewster Academy, Pingree School, and Central Catholic High School; and 1 each to Groton School, Tabor Academy, Holderness School, Dana Hall School, St. Mark’s School, St. John’s Preparatory School, North Andover High School, and Summit Country Day School in Ohio.

Demonstrating the strong sense of social activism that is one of the aspects of a Pike School education, graduating eighth graders have chosen a local program for homeless young people as the primary recipient of this year’s Student Council gift.

The GRIP Project (Growing Responsibility and Independence in People) of Lowell provides residential services and life-skills guidance for 16- to 21-year-olds, fostering independence and encouraging individual growth through a self-policing mini-community that demands teamwork, accountability, dedication, and duty. Its participants receive the skills and experience to complete a resume, obtain a job, schedule appointments, enroll in an educational program, open a bank account, set goals, solve problems, and generally become contributing members of the broader community.

Following months of researching local charitable organizations, hospitals, and social programs, The Pike School Student Council chose GRIP after hearing a presentation by GRIP Program Director Rachel McNamara. Deciding factors, according to Student Council eighth-grade representatives Carly Rauh and D.J. Dlesk were the nearness of GRIP residents’ ages to their own, as well as the fact that the GRIP teens, themselves, are involved in community service.

“The kids who live at GRIP are given the opportunity to give back to the community,” says Dlesk, “and that was the important thing I took away from the presentation.”

Both Rauh and Dlesk are no strangers to social activism and community service. Rauh, who has been a student at Pike since Kindergarten, has been diligently involved in improving adoption opportunities for Chinese babies with cleft palates, raising money through bake sales and by selling donated items on eBay. Dlesk has organized a highly successful book drive to aid Hispanic children in learning English.

The Pike School is especially proud of its ability to imbue its students with a sense of service as a normal part of life. Children in Lower School (Pre-K through 2) partake in food drives for such community service organizations as Lazarus House and Neighbors in Need, visit residents of Wingate Nursing Home, and organized a children’s book collection for hurricane Katrina victims.  

In Middle School (Grades 3 through 5) students participate in service projects that benefit a number of causes through car washes, bake sales, fleece hat and scarf drives, environmental activities, and pet rescue.

In addition to the Student Council activities, Upper School students (Grades 6 through 9) maintain an Off-campus Service Club as well as an On-Campus Service Club, which buys snacks in bulk and sells them to the students, the profits all going to charities.
This year, Upper School students have introduced a program through which donated, discarded cell phones help support an organization that aids abused women. So far, they have collected about 100 phones.

“As much as possible, we try to support organizations that help kids close to our age,” says Rauh. “That’s what we really relate to, and it’s where most of our contributions go.”

“Yes, kids our age,” agrees Dlesk. “But The Pike School mission statement says we’re being prepared to be ‘independent learners and responsible citizens,’ and it’s really what we’re doing.”

Besides Rauh and Dlesk, Student council members this year are Lara Bhaiwala, Sarah Clarkson, Shannon Commoli, Leonel Contreras, Meredith Farahmand, David Gilbert, Christine Goglia, Hilary Greene, Julie Helmers, Penelope Jones, Sinead Oliver, Analise Saab, Gregory Serrao, and Eric Sirakian.

Long known for graduating exceptional eighth and ninth graders, The Pike School is also a training ground for some of the Commonwealth’s newest and best-prepared teachers. Operating seamlessly within the fabric of the school, The Pike School Teacher Training Program, in collaboration with Lesley University, joins real, daily practice to educational theory in preparing new teachers for Massachusetts Initial Licensure and a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education.

It is a rare thing, in most places in the United States, for graduate students to spend a full academic year in a classroom setting before receiving teacher licensure. And it is rarer, yet, for interns to be able to take what they learn in graduate courses and immediately apply it in the classrooms in which they are interning. Yet, in this program, fully half the interns’ graduate courses are taught right on the Pike campus, and the directing teachers provide immediate and continual feedback as the interns put their new scholarship to practical use. The result, each year, is a small and well-seasoned cohort of brand new elementary educators.

Designed for people with little previous teaching experience, the program seeks candidates who have a bachelor’s degree, prior experience working with children, and a commitment to working in teams. But it is also focused on addressing the critical need to diversify the elementary teaching corps in America’s schools. To that end, Pike has established a substantial grant, open to men and to people of color, which will partially cover the cost of Lesley/Pike tuition. Thien Le, a recent graduate of Holy Cross, was the recipient of last year’s grant and spent one semester in one of Pike’s fourth grade classes and one in first grade. Le, who will be teaching her own fifth-grade class in Lowell this fall, provides a fine example of the program’s aims.

When Le entered the program last fall, she was convinced that her future lay in teaching first or second grade. “ I was so adamant,” she says. “I felt I had to be with the younger grades. Yet, I now know, having had the experience of teaching and planning the classes for older children, I enjoy the level of engagement in fourth grade. And this is where I found out…because of Margaret’s guidance. She made certain that I experienced fourth grade as well as first.”

Margaret is Margaret Cohn Szegvari, director of The Pike School Teacher Training Program since 1997, shortly after the start of Pike’s affiliation with Lesley. Since that marriage, the program has graduated more than 70 interns who have gone on to become highly qualified teachers and administrators in independent and public schools throughout Massachusetts and the country.

“Margaret is so dedicated,” says Le. “ The fact that she’s made the program the way it is—with interns being acknowledged as teachers by both students and faculty—shows the kind of culture that has been created by her hard work. Interns at Pike are involved in every single aspect, not just getting up and teaching, but really forming relationships with parents, for example. Every time either [of my directing teachers] got an email from a parent, she’d say, ‘Come look at this. This is what I just received. Here’s how I’d respond. This is the procedure.’ And so I feel that I’ve been unusually well prepared for the full teaching experience.”

Le was, however, at first skeptical. Knowing that she wanted to ultimately teach in an urban school, she questioned whether interning at a suburban, independent school like Pike would prepare her for her goal. “But Pike just has this extraordinary diversity and welcoming of cultures that made it feel unlike a suburban school,” says Le. “And I told my directing teachers, from the beginning, where I see myself going, and they’ve helped me apply everything to an urban, public-school setting. They’d say during a lesson, for instance, ’Well you can’t do this in a class of 26, but here’s what you can do.’ So, in that way, their guidance was very helpful.”

While the Pike community was making its impression on Le, she was most certainly making her impression on it. When Le was applying for a teaching job for this fall, Szegvari wrote of her in one letter of recommendation, “I say with great sincerity that the school that is fortunate enough to hire Thien will receive a remarkable woman and educator who will give 100% to all that she does. She will be a true team player whose efforts will be spent to better her students and the community at large.”

Le’s esteem extended even beyond Pike. She was awarded the June Fox Scholarship for 2006, an exceptionally prestigious acknowledgement of ability presented by the Lesley University School of Education. The award letter stated, “The Lesley committee is most impressed with your outstanding credentials and your potential for educational leadership. The letters from your colleagues and the descriptions of the work you have done with the students and your dedication to multiculturalism and diversity were a delight to read.”

Le, of course, does not recall the ordeal of escaping from Vietnam at the age of two weeks, but her twenty-two years of living as a minority in the United States have engendered in her a deep sensitivity for acceptance and tolerance. “One of the major discoveries of my life has been that the more I grow to understand, the more I come to respect others,” Le says. “I envision my classroom as a welcoming and safe place where my students experience a culture of respect. I believe there should be more young people of minority backgrounds and cultural diversity involved in the educational process. I believe that it is the responsibility of the school, and particularly of a teacher, to embody an appreciation for differences.”

The Pike School believes those things, also, which is why, despite the apparent disparity between this suburban, independent school and the inner-city public school where she hoped to eventually teach, Le saw Pike as an excellent place to intern. Not only are teachers renowned for their devotion to the school, commitment to quality education, and collective experience in the classroom, but, in an area rife with independent schools whose diversity enrollments average five percent, Pike’s student body is 27 percent diverse.

This blend of assets in The Pike School/Lesley University collaboration, along with Margaret Szegvari’s astuteness at selecting interns like Thien Le from among the many who apply, assure a steady wellspring of qualified, diverse, gifted, and confident new teachers for our independent and public schools for years to come.

Seeing oneself as part falcon, wanting wars to stop, dreaming of a quiet reading space, worrying about pollution, hearing a stream talking, saying that people do not have to look good to be good, and understanding that life is sometimes hard are among the touching and heartfelt self-revelations contained in the podcasts of a dozen Pike School third graders.

A podcast is a way of distributing multimedia files—audio and video--over the Internet, and the third grade class of Sharon Libront, through the initiative of intern Deborah Massa, is sharing their thoughts with the world. Terry Dash, Pike’s director of technology, provided technical guidance.

Exploring the theme “I Am,” the students wrote poems, drew self-portraits, recorded themselves reading their poems, and chose musical accompaniment. Now, anyone visiting http://web.mac.com/pikeschool/iWeb/Grade3Podcasts/Podcast/Podcast.html can hear the readings, see the drawings, and read the poems. Best of all, Pike parents can easily download their child’s podcast to iTunes, where they can enjoy the readings and the artwork even after they are no longer on the Pike Website.

A parent of one of the Pike poets recently said that the podcast is the best year-end gift she could ever have gotten from the school. “Not only is it wonderful to be able to listen to [my child],” she said, her eyes brimming with tears, “but I’m moved by hearing [my child] express the compassionate values the school has helped instill.”

Web-based applications to classroom projects are not new to Pike. Each winter, for example, as part of the study of water, its properties, and its interaction with the land, Pike students have obtained Atlantic salmon eggs from a hatchery in Nashua, New Hampshire, which they incubate in a freshwater tank under the watchful lens of a Webcam in teacher Ed Santella’s classroom. Throughout the school year, interested viewers worldwide can access the “Salmon Cam” to watch the eggs hatch and the young salmon grow large enough to allow their release.

With the launch of Pike’s new Web site next fall, opportunities for innovative, Web-based, curricular activities will multiply. Dash and her tech team are committed to Pike’s leading role in creative uses of technology in the classroom.

Rainer Adriene Crosett, who was graduated from The Pike School last spring and is now attending Phillips Academy, will be performing a cello concerto with the Merrimack Valley Philharmonic orchestra at its annual Pops concert on Sunday, September 17th. Crosett was admitted to the orchestra while still at Pike and is one of the youngest musicians ever to be selected as a soloist by the group.

While at Pike, Crosett was instrumental in forming a string quartet, whose performances became a featured event at school assemblies and concerts. He was also involved in the eventual expansion of the quartet into The Pike School Orchestra.

Crosett studies cello at the New England Conservatory Preparatory School with Emmanuel Feldman and is a member of the Youth Symphony. Rainer’s other teachers have included David Cho, Eleonora Lopez, and Anthony Ross. Also, he studied cello at the Interlochen Arts Camp in the summers of 2005 and 2006 and was twice a finalist in the Intermediate Concerto Competition.

The Merrimack Valley Philharmonic orchestra, begun in 1961 by musically-minded engineers from the Raytheon Company, is committed to the nurturing and encouragement of young musicians by providing performance opportunities, training, and scholarships for the advanced study of music. Sunday’s concert is at the Rogers Center for the Arts at Merrimack College at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $18.