Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation Names 2019 Honorees

Dana and Christopher Reeve (Image Source: https://www.christopherreeve.org/about-us/christopher-and-dana)

By Taylor Smith

This year’s gala benefit for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation took place on Thursday, November 14 at Cipriani South Street in New York City.

The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation grew out of the community-driven Stifel Paralysis Research Foundation, which was founded in 1982 when Henry Stifel, a New Jersey high school student, was involved in a car accident that left him paralyzed at age 17. The organization evolved into the American Paralysis Association (APA). When actor Christopher Reeve was injured in a horseback riding accident in 1995, the APA was one of the first places that Reeve and his wife, Dana, sought support. By 1999, the APA and Christopher’s foundation united as the Christopher Reeve Foundation (Dana’s name was added to the moniker after her death in 2006). more

Edible Ornaments for Birds

Image Source: https://wilderchild.com

By Taylor Smith

Winter often signifies a challenging time of year for birds to find adequate food and sustenance.  Decorating an outdoor tree with edible ornaments is a way to attract winter birds, providing them with shelter and a wide range of foods. more

Have a Creative Winter at The Center for Contemporary Art

Image Sources: The Center for Contemporary Art

By Taylor Smith

Registration is underway for winter art classes for adults, teens, and children at The Center for Contemporary Art in Bedminster. With more than 35 offerings to choose from, classes begin in January 2020. more

Make a Lasting Impact with a Degree in Ecology

Miller Library at Colby College

By Taylor Smith

Ecology concerns the analysis and examination of the varied systems of interaction between humans and their environment. The trans-disciplinary subject matter relates to topics of anthropology, psychology, environmental management, engineering, biology, animal science, agricultural economics, geography, and sociology, among others. more

Poet Walt Whitman Honored with New U.S. Stamp

By Taylor Smith

 American poet Walt Whitman has been honored with a new United States stamp.

The stamp is intended for domestic first-class mail weighing up to 3 ounces, and is priced at 85 cents. USPS Art Director Greg Breeding designed the stamp with artwork by Sam Weber, who previously illustrated the Flannery O’Connor stamp in 2015 and the Henry David Thoreau stamp in 2017. more

Send Hunger Packing Princeton

Area Nonprofit Believes Children Should Hunger for Knowledge — not Breakfast

By Taylor Smith | Photos courtesy of SHUPPrinceton

Ross Wishnick, chairperson of the Princeton Human Services Commission, remembers a meeting that was held in 2012 to address the problem of hungry kids in the Princeton School System.

Of the Princeton school population, an estimated 14 percent of students receive free or supplemental lunches. Of particular concern to Wishnick and his fellow community members was the fact that these same children who receive supplemental meals during the school week often find themselves food insecure on the weekends and during summer vacations. Studies have proven that improper nutrition negatively affects a child’s ability to concentrate, learn, and ultimately retain information.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), more than 12 million children in the United States live in “food-insecure homes.” The USDA’s annual report on Household Food Security in the United States indicates, “In 2017, the typical food-secure household spent 23 percent more on food than the typical food-insecure household of the same size and household composition. About 58 percent of food-insecure households participated in one or more of the three largest federal food and nutrition assistance programs: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps); Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC); and the National School Lunch Program.” more

A Look inside Princeton’s Educational Testing Service

With a 70-year history, it’s at the forefront of today’s educational challenges

By Wendy Greenberg | Photos by Shutterstock

In 1947, a small nonprofit organization with a mission of advancing equity in education began its work in a brick building at 20 Nassau Street in Princeton. After more than seven decades, Educational Testing Service (ETS), located since 1964 on a scenic campus off Rosedale Road just outside of Princeton in Lawrence Township, still adheres to its original mission to “advance quality and equity in education” and “measure knowledge and skills, promote learning and performance, and support education and professional development for all people worldwide.”

But since the early years of ETS, the testing and assessment landscape has evolved. The topic of standardized testing has been in the news, both heralded and under scrutiny, with debates focusing on the importance to college and graduate school admissions, and whether the tests are indeed equitable to all.

Even with its long history, ETS is facing forward, and has evolved as the needs of learners have changed. While it is considered the epicenter of research in and development of tests like the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) and TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) and development of test questions used on the College’s Board’s Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SATs), ETS is also immersed in conducting research to improve quality and equity in education. more

The Ayres Way

PU Wrestling Coach Chris Ayres Builds a Winning Program

By Bill Alden | Portrait by Frank Wojciechowski

Settling gingerly onto a couch in the living room of his Princeton home this July days after undergoing a hip replacement, Chris Ayres laughs through the pain, recounting the beginning of his wrestling career as a fourth-grader.

“I lost my first 14 matches, but then I won my last four,” says Ayres with his face creasing into a grin before he chuckles at the memory. “I wasn’t good at it right away but I loved it.”

That rough debut proved to be a harbinger of things to come as Ayres has gone on to fight and win a number of uphill battles in his wrestling career, fueled by his passion for the sport.

After not medaling in the New Jersey state championships during his career at Newton High, Ayres spent a year competing as a postgraduate at the Blair Academy and then walked on the Lehigh University wrestling team. He ended up as one of the greatest wrestlers ever for the Mountain Hawks, setting a program record with 120 victories and twice earning the school’s Outstanding Athlete award.

Ayres, though, failed in his bid to make the U.S. team for the world championships, and turned to coaching as an assistant at Lehigh. He spent five years learning the ropes and preparing himself to guide a college program.

In 2006, he undertook a massive challenge, becoming the head coach of a moribund Princeton University wrestling program that was mired in the cellar of the Ivy League. The Tigers went 0-35 in Ayres’ first two seasons but, true to character, he kept plugging.  more

MPower: Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Battle Against Tobacco Use

Mike Bloomberg

By Taylor Smith 

“Philanthropy gives us a competitive advantage, we think, in recruiting and retaining talent. And I can tell you from personal experience, it is also good for the bottom line, as good a thing a company can do.” —Michael R. Bloomberg

Headquartered on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, Bloomberg Philanthropies was founded in 2006 with the purpose of directing funding and research to five major areas: the environment, public health, the arts, government innovation, and education. By “using data in new ways,” Bloomberg Philanthropies routinely shifts policies and advances progress, legislation, and public opinion. As an example, the organization has potentially saved countless lives by creating solutions proven to curb global tobacco use. According to bloomberg.org, “If left unchecked, tobacco use will kill one billion people this century.” more

The Psychosis Identification and Early Referral (PIER) Model

Image Source: The Psychoanalytic Institute of the Contemporary Freudian Society

By Taylor Smith

Adolescents and college-age men and women are statistically at a high risk of experiencing the onset of a psychotic episode, particularly if they are genetically predisposed to mental illness. more

New Guidebook Helps Teens Navigate the Highs and Lows of the College Years

By Taylor Smith

In The Stressed Years of Their Lives: Helping Your Kid Survive and Thrive During Their College Years, authors B. Janet Hibbs (psychologist and marriage therapist) and Anthony Rostain (psychiatry and pediatrics/Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania) write that today’s students “experience the very real burdens of constant striving on behalf of uncertain futures, amidst swiftly changing political and economic landscapes. They’re also stressed by the 24/7 availability of the internet, by social media pressures, and the resulting metrics of constant comparisons, whether social or academic.” more

Want to Make a Global Impact? Consider the Growing Field of Conservation Medicine

Image Source: Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute

By Taylor Smith

Many veterinary schools are now offering education tracks in wildlife medicine, which is an interdisciplinary study that involves work in wildlife rehabilitation, wildlife medicine, and conservation medicine. Conservation medicine is concerned with looking at the interplay between environment and health. more

Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Speak at NJPAC

By Taylor Smith 

On Thursday, October 10 at 8 p.m., former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will deliver a talk at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark. The event is presented by Fairleigh Dickinson University and is part of the New Jersey Speaker Series at NJPAC that has previously hosted former FBI Director James Comey, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin, journalist and political activist Gloria Steinem, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and Ian Bremmer, founder of the Eurasia Group. All events take place at NJPAC’s Prudential Hall.  more

Monmouth University Recognized as a NJ Sustainable Business

By Taylor Smith

Monmouth University in Long Branch (www.monmouth.edu) is the first private institution of higher education in New Jersey to join businesses across the state on the New Jersey Sustainable Business Registry (http://registry.njsbdc.com). more

“U.S. News and World Report” Ranks Best Graduate Engineering Programs

Photo Credit: University of Texas at Austin

By Taylor Smith 

U.S. News and World Report recently released the 2020 rankings of the Best Graduate Engineering Programs in the United States, according to a methodology that accounts for selectivity (acceptance rate), faculty resources, student-faculty ratio, research activity, total doctoral degrees awarded, GRE scores, peer assessment scores, and more. Statistical data was collected in fall 2018 and early 2019.  more

Purnell School for Girls: An Individualized Approach to Learning

By Taylor Smith 

Located in scenic Pottersville in Bedminster Township (60 minutes west of Manhattan), Purnell School is a progressive private all-girls boarding high school. It was founded in the summer of 1962 by Lytt Gould and his wife, Sis, who wanted to create a school in New Jersey that would “put the girls first.” Purnell’s founding Guidelines — Consideration of Others, Use of Common Sense, and Truthfulness in all Relations — are still upheld and honored today by current Head of School Anne M. Glass, Ed.M.  more

Flemington Department Store: For All Your Summer Camp Needs

Photos Courtesy of Camp Rim Rock

By Taylor Smith 

My summer camp experiences as a child and teenager are some of my most vivid memories. Growing up in Princeton, I attended Rambling Pines Day Camp (https://www.ramblingpines.com) in Hopewell with my younger brother when I was 8 years old. I immediately enjoyed being able to spend all day outdoors, riding mountain bikes, playing tennis, and swimming, before taking the bus home — sweaty, contented, and freckled.  more

Joy Harjo Named First Native American Poet Laureate

By Taylor Smith 

Poet, writer, activist, and musician Joy Harjo will succeed Princeton University professor Tracy K. Smith as the nation’s 23rd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. Announced by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden, the appointment will make her the first Native American to occupy the position.  more

Lake Bryn Mawr Camp for Girls Forges Spirit, Tradition, and Sisterhood

By Taylor Smith

Located in Northeastern Pennsylvania’s Wayne County, Lake Bryn Mawr Camp for Girls is a rural summer haven that prides itself on building “summer sisters” among girls ages 7 to 15.  more

Drew Theological School Encourages Impactful Action

By Taylor Smith 

Grounded in the Wesleyan/Methodist tradition, Drew Theological School is a leading seminary in Madison, N.J., offering four unique master’s programs and two doctoral programs.  more