Amanda Paolino ’15: After 30 years of teaching and coaching at the Episcopal Academy, Paul Phelps will be putting down the chalk and hanging up his whistle for the last time this year. The current Upper School math teacher and JV boys tennis coach recently announced his retirement for this spring, ending his 45 year teaching career. Phelps, originally employed at Friends’ Central School, moved to EA in 1983 after being offered a position as a math teacher for both the Middle and Upper School. This began Phelps’ long run within the EA community as an educator and a mentor to…
Author: TECHALERT
Matt Blommer ’16: Every year, the members of the senior class must craft and carry out a project proposal of their choosing for two weeks in the spring. Senior projects are designed to assist soon-to-be graduating students in pursuing future career goals as well as offer the opportunity for them to more deeply explore their interests. Last year senior projects as a whole were revamped to higher standards that would lead to more focused plans. Students now must pose an “essential question” to guide themselves throughout their efforts. This alteration comes along with requiring projects to occupy students for six hours…
Jack Keffer ’14: Even though it may not seem like it, spring is rapidly approaching. For the Seniors, this means that it is our last chance to do anything we have not already completed before we graduate. This “to do list” of sorts may vary for each student, but after fourteen years here, I decided to create my own “All EA Bucket List” of everything I believe you should attempt to do during your time at Episcopal. Enjoy! • Beat Agnes Iwin/Haverford • Give a Senior Speech • Have Mr. Kerwin sing to you • Ask Mrs. Edwards (Ms. Dunphy) to…
Leigh Adelizzi ’15, Brittany Belo ’14: For a school that enjoys basking in its own glory, Episcopal seems to be blind to points of its beauty. EA is known throughout the Main Line and Inter-Ac for its excellence in sports. For years, sports like football, field hockey, basketball, lacrosse, and soccer have been celebrated and advertised at The Academy. Meanwhile, sports like swimming, track, crew, softball, golf and others wait on the sidelines as their counterparts receive recognition in the EA community. Even as these programs continue to grow in strength and number, these sports have become overlooked and lack the recognition…
Rich Palazzese ’14: The EA Girls’ track 4×400 relay team of Brianna Belo ’14, Brittany Belo ’14, Julia Hondros ’15, and Tara Boyle ’15, qualified for Nationals last weekend. The four girls competed last week in the state tournament and qualified to compete for Nationals on Friday, March 14th with a time of 4:04, an average of 1:01 per lap. Because of a spring lacrosse committment, Leigh Adelizzi ’15 will be filling in for Hondros at the national meet. The girls will head to New York City to compete against public and private schools coming from all over the country. The…
Alexander Roker ’16, Billy Hartman ’16: In a world where sports like basketball, football, and baseball are often glamorized, we tend to overlook the game of golf. Unlike other sports, where players can rely on athleticism and strength, golf comes down to resilience, patience, and focus. These attributes are what Victoria Johnson ’14 loves most about the game. “Golf is different than any other sport because it requires a variety of skills. In order to be a competitive player you must be prepared to take on any shot that you come across. I really like a challenge, so it is this continuous…
Alex Burman ’16, Francis Lee ’16: With the unprecedented onslaught of snow this year, many spring sports are caught in a bind. With several inches of snow covering the tennis courts, baseball fields, and the track, and layers of ice covering the lacrosse fields, many teams have been forced to practice indoors in crowded spaces or travel away to fields that are not covered. The boy’s tennis team this year has yet to play on the actual courts. Senior captain Brendan DeVoue ’14 said, “We cannot shovel the snow because it will damage the courts. We have to wait it out and…
Richie Palazzese ’14, Connor Martin ’14: In a league dominated by single sex schools like Malvern Prep, Haverford School, and Notre Dame, EA needs as much participation as possible out of its student-athletes. Trying to compete with half the number of athletes is practically impossible, and the diminishing number of championships on the boy’s side in particular is evidence of just that. At EA, freshmen and sophomores are required to compete in two interscholastic sports with a fitness option for a third season. On the other hand, juniors and seniors are only required to compete in one interscholastic sport with a…
Matthew Freese ’17, Conner Delaney ’17: Every athletic team needs a centerpiece, someone that can take control of a game, calm players in tough times, and lead teammates through adversity. Typical positions for such centerpieces include the point guard in basketball and the quarterback in football. In baseball, this job is often left to the true mastermind of the team, the pitcher. An outstanding pitcher in baseball is often referred to as the “ace.” If a team is fortunate enough to have one of these, it will be respectable in competition. However, as is the case for this year’s EA Varsity Baseball…
Sammi Ciardi ’15: Brittany Belo 14’ is not only an extraordinary athlete and a standout student but also a fashion expert. She runs her own fashion blog, posibiliti.weebly.com, where she posts her own videos, creations, and text posts. When asked the age at which she became interested in fashion, Brittany exuberantly replied, “Birth!” She continued, “I’ve just always liked fashion for some reason…I feel like style and art have always been a part of me and style and art together make fashion, so I guess knowing that has always fueled me to love it.” When asked about her fashion role model…
Amanda Molitor ’14: Imagine Dragons, following up on their extremly well received performance at Made in America last summer, returned to the Philadelphia area on March 7th to play a sold out show at the Camden’s Susquehanna Bank Center as part of their US tour in support of their debut album, Night Visions. This alternative pop/rock quartet hailing from Las Vegas formed five years ago and has achieved extreme mainstream success in the past year, during which it has become a Grammy award-winning band which can boast a platinum debut album and three Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping hits: “It’s Time,”…
Gianna Pileggi ’14: James Finegan, a Philadelphia native and EA music teacher, has been developing his violin skills since the fourth grade. “I grew up in the city of Philadelphia. I started playing the violin when I was ten years old, which is pretty old because most of my friends started when they were five or younger. I don’t remember exactly how I started playing the violin, but I was one of six kids, and we all played an instrument. My older brother played the trombone and my sister played the viola, so they were taken. I liked how the violin…
Jessica Bai ’15: EA’s annual Spring Concert will be held on April 7th and, for the first time, it will feature a theme. This year, however, the concert will have a theme for the first time. The Music Department has decided on a “Broadway” theme in the hope that if familiar show tunes are performed, more people will attend the concert. “We’re trying to look at a way of getting more interest for people to come to the concert since we’re not doing the end of the year Cabaret this year,” Joe Buches, Chair of the Music Department and Choir Director,…
Katie O’Reilly ’14: At Episcopal, the community seems to judge a student’s success solely on his or her college acceptance. And that is just wrong. A college acceptance is particularly one-dimensional. In the current era of higher education, legacies, millionaire parents, and connections into the admissions department are at some level significantly more valued than good character, merit, and let me mention the necessary qualifications for a particular institution. That being said, to some people, a college education has become an undeserved accessory. So how is it that at EA we as a community see college acceptance as a be all…
EUNICE JU / © 2014
Dear Editor, The editorial in last month’s Scholium, “Teachers Underestimate Internet,” underscored the evolving nature of academic assignments imposed by modern technology—specifically, Episcopal’s “unexplainable naivety…when it comes to the role of the internet in take-home assignments.” My knee-jerk reaction: there’s a reason that Turnitin.com exists. I respect the candor and curiosity expressed by the editor and wanted to continue the dialogue from a faculty perspective. Most faculty members are well aware of the plagiarizing temptation that online resources offer, particularly with the Advanced Placement curricula: free response, document based, and multiple choice questions, answers, and solutions are all readily available…
In a senior class that has been through thick and thin, it is no surprise that there has been an overwhelming amount of senior addresses this year in chapel. By giving standing ovations to the majority of speeches is truly commendable. However, this showing of support is misguided. Members of the student body, faculty, and Vestry alike have noticed that an overwhelming majority of the speeches this year have been followed by a standing ovation. Unfortunately, in doing so the standing ovation has lost its significance. There has been a standing ovation for nearly every senior speech this year. It…
Nadiyah Browning ‘16, Nina Pagano ‘16: The protocol for determining a possible snow day is quite intricate, as revealed in an interview conducted with Dr. Locke, Head of School. Many aspects are considered when deciding, including: whether or not the campus has power, if the snow can be plowed, if campus is icy, and if the roads surrounding campus are in suitable condition. Dr. Locke says, “We have many faculty members and students traveling from far away, so we need to consider a fairly broad area.” Locke explained that the night before an upcoming snowstorm, he begins to communicate with other heads…
Claudia Teti ’16: The bulletins carry it every week. The sign-up sheet is also posted in the upper school. But what really is Free Music Fridays? In short, it is an opportunity for Episcopal students to use their musical skills to teach underprivileged children a lifelong hobby. With many schools cutting back on funds for music classes, students have become less exposed to such opportunities. Fortunately, Free Music Fridays has given these children the chance to develop their musical talents with the help of the Upper School students. Every Friday from four to seven P.M., the group of EA students goes…
Alexa D’Ambrosio ’16, Sonam Saxena ’16: The difficult debate about online cheating rages on. Currently, EA’s policy, as outlined in the student handbook, describes plagiarism and cheating as a “major disciplinary offense.” However, accessibility to online study aids like SparkNotes, most notably its “No Fear Shakespeare” program, is increasing and arousing questions about what is acceptable behavior. As Kevin O’Brien, Upper School English teacher, disclosed is that it is not helpful for students to pretend they are not using them nor for teachers to pretend that they are unaware of the students’ habits. O’Brien just wants to “get real” with the whole…