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Dear Friends,

Lucy and I hope that you and your family had an enjoyable summer. Welcome to The Knox School’s 107th school year. I’m pleased to relate that 2010-2011 will be a year of growth for Knox. We expect to open the school year with 115 students, which is a significant increase from the past few years. Further, architectural plans are being drawn up for a new addition to one of our dormitories, Knipe Cottage. This addition will in-crease the number of students in that dorm from 8 – 24, with 2 girls to a suite and 3 new faculty apartments. We are presently in our “silent phase” for raising funds for this exciting addition to our campus.

There has been a change in the school’s Board of Trustees this year as Board Chair Jennifer Lawrence has stepped down as Chair this past June. Jennifer had 10 outstanding years as Knox’s Chairman of Board of Trustees. Our new Chair is Christopher Nesterczuk ’90 who is a 10-year veteran of our Board of Trustees.

Our admission office under Duncan Marshall’s lead-ership has opened up new countries for our boarding students, and this year we will have new students from

Turkey, Columbia, Ukraine, Vietnam and Spain. In the coming year, admission per-sonnel will be scheduling admission trips to Turkey, Germany, Russia, Spain, Brazil, Chile, Columbia and Mexico.

Please check our new web-site: www.knoxschool.org because there have been many changes with our website, specifically with the use of video, Edline (a must for parents), and connections to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

In closing, I would like to add that along with our won-derful group of new students, Knox also adds a marvel-ous group of new faculty members who will strengthen our already strong faculty. The 2010-2011 school year begins with great promise.

Sincerely,

George K. Allison

FROM THE HEADMASTER GEORGE K. ALLISON

S E M P E R A D L U C E M ❖ S E P T 2 0 1 0

THE BEACONt h e k n o x s c h o o l 5 4 1 l o n g b e a c h r d , s t . j a m e s n e w y o r k , n y 1 1 7 8 0 w w w . k n o x s c h o o l . o r g 6 3 1 - 6 8 6 - 1 6 0 0

FROM THE HEADMASTER Front Cover

EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE Page 2

NEW FACULTY Page 2

ENGLISH IN THE

21ST CENTURY Page 3

DEAN’S CORNER Page 4

REMINDERS Page 4

DORM PARENTS Page 4

COLLEGE COUNSELING Page 5

ADMISSIONS NEWS Page 5

ARTS Page 6

ATHLETICS Page 7

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT Page 7

CALENDAR Back Cover

WHAT’S INSIDE ..............................................................................................

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Dear Reader,

When I reflect on the name of this publication, The Beacon, I realize that our Knox School newsletter is just that: It’s a light that shines on the meaning-ful activities—pursued by passionate people—that make Knox a special place. As you read the articles within, you are absorbing a little bit of the heart and soul of this wonderful school. Please note that while Knox will continue to print The Beacon, we will also continue to post it on the school website at www.knoxschool.org.

Special thanks are due to Ms. Jenna Skarda, the former (and first) editor of The Beacon, whose efforts brought The Beacon “to light” over the past two years. We have a new design today, but the essence of this newsletter remains true to her inaugural efforts—The Beacon will always celebrate the activities, accomplishments, and dreams of the extraordinary individuals that keep the light shining at Knox.

BACK ROW (FROM LEFT) Walter Townes (Director of Athletics, B.S. Clark University), Stuart Guthrie (English, B.A. Plattsburgh State University), Kyle Greene (Math Dept. Chair, M.Ed Tennessee State University, M.A. Central Michigan, B.A. Oakland University), Jeannette Gould (Director of College Counseling, M.A. Framing-ham State University, B.A. Hamilton College), Erindira Tejada (Assistant Director of Admission, B.A. University of Chicago), Frank Cassano (Math, B.S. Union College)

FRONT ROW (FROM LEFT) Kellie Brookhart (ESL Chair, M.A. and B.A. Kent State University), Elizabeth Campbell (Science, B.A. College of the Holy Cross), Teresea Carey (Theater/Dance and Science, M.A. Ohio State University, B.S. University of Michigan), Jessica Kearns (French and History, B.A. Sacred Heart University)

Not in photo: Al Giuliano(Director of Technology, Associates Degree, Briarcliffe College), and Dorothea Cook(Instrumental Music, B.A. Stony Brook University)

THE EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE FRED McGAUGHAN

MEET THE NEW FACULTY

Knox is pleased to welcome several new faculty members to the community for the 2010-2011 school year.

S E M P E R A D L U C E M S E P T 2 0 1 0 E D I T O R ’ S N O T E S

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In July, I attended a week-long program for French teachers from around the world in Quebec City. As the week progressed, we dis-cussed both methodologies and is-sues in the classroom. Not surpris-ingly, the biggest issue for the North American teachers was motivating young people to learn to speak a second language. Given the pre-dominance of English on the North American continent, even Canada’s bilingual policies and the French-only policies of Quebec are insuf-ficient. Everyone, it seems, speaks English. The speaking of English as a second language is growing in English-speaking countries, but it is growing even faster outside of the Anglophone countries. China, for example, will soon have the largest number of English speakers. What does this mean for English speakers worldwide? Several books have ap-peared on the bookshelves in the past couple of years about the growth of English as the lingua franca of glob-al communication. With his Don’t Speak English Parlez Globish series, Jean-Paul Nerrière has topped the French book selling charts. Nerri-

ère’s Globish textbooks provide the English language learner with a sim-plified grammar and reduce English to about 1500 essential words. Rob-ert McCrum’s new book, Globish: How the English Language Became the World’s Language, takes a histori-cal look at the phenomenon. How has the English language changed and how will it continue to change as English is spoken by more people outside of Anglophone countries? McCrum writes that films such as “Slumdog Millionaire” and Booker Prize novels such as Kiran Desai’s “The Inheritance of Loss” demonstrate the growing influence of Asian cul-ture on the English language and that this influence will become more profound in the coming years.

While Globish might be a useful communication tool for an Italian businessman in Shanghai, I do wish to assure parents that their children are learning Standard American English at Knox. Standard Ameri-can English, however, is neither easy to define nor a static entity. English is changing so rapidly that even Oxford dictionaries (oxford-dictionaries.com) cannot give an

accurate count of the number of words. Estimates range from 250,000 to 750,000 depending on how one defines an English word, and up to 20% of these words may be obsolete. Many of these words were borrowed from other European languages to better express the real-ity of the speaker. English is a rich European language. It is becoming even richer as it globalizes.

Does this make languages other than English irrelevant? Estimates vary depending on the source, but there are over one billion speakers of Mandarin Chinese in the world. In fact, Mandarin Chinese speakers currently outnumber English speak-ers by more than two to one. Spanish and French, both offered at Knox, rank among the top 10 languages spoken in the world. Combined, they are spoken in over 80 countries worldwide. Unlike Globish, true languages are much more than vo-cabulary words and grammar. Lan-guages open doors of self-expression and communication by opening doors to other cultures, to other ways of thinking and to other views the world. The second language stu-dent inhabits a richer more vibrant world. He has a deeper understand-ing of the world and is poised to act more responsibly toward his fellow man.

GLOBALIZATION: ENGLISH IN THE 21ST CENTURY SHARON LAWRENCE, DEAN OF FACULTY

UP TO 20% OF WORDS IN THE

ENGLISH LANGUAGE MAY

BE OBSOLETE

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DEAN’S CORNER GEORGE NARON, DEAN OF STUDENTS

Welcome to the 2010-2011 school year! We have spent the summer plan-ning for the arrival of our students and have established a number of goals to make this a most rewarding school year. The Student Council and Senior Proctors will be building on the suc-cess of last year and taking on more leadership roles in student life and school activities. Our new Interna-tional Students have been here for the past two weeks learning about “life at Knox,” our school traditions and cul-ture, and start of school information.

We have a full schedule of activities and events to make our students feel at “home” and for those who are liv-ing on campus, to make a smooth transition to boarding school life.

All of our students are welcome to be involved in school activities. Student council will be sponsoring our first school dance and other events for the first few weekends of school which include a trip to the shore, Red and White Team choosing, cookouts, ice cream social, shopping at local stores and the mall, Six Flags-Great Adventure and a movie and ice cream at Stony Brook.

We are all pledged to provide a safe and secure environment for your student and are continuing to review our policies and procedures with that mission in mind.

Please feel free to contact me or our house parents if you have any ques-tions about the school year.

HOUGHTON HALL

Barbara Missirlian* Emma Sharkey Linda Pack Butler Elizabeth Campbell Katherine Faigen Kellie Brookhart

KNIPE COTTAGE

Jeannette Gould * Sonia Rodriguez Sandra Hundley

MIURA HALL

Matthew Frageau* George Naron Kyle Greene

TERRACE DORM

Stephen Pendley* Walter Townes Stuart Guthrie

UPPER DORM

Sylvie Aristilde* Teresa Carey Frank Cassano

*Head of Dorm

DORM PARENTS

1. WHEN PURCHASING TICKETS FOR VACATIONS: Students are required to at-tend classes the days before and after school holidays. Students who miss classes will receive zeros for academic work and are subject to disciplinary action by the school.

2. WEEKEND PERMISSION FORMS MUST BE IN BY NOON ON THURSDAY for students to be granted permission to leave school for the weekend.

3. HOODIES/HOODED SWEAT SHIRTS may not be worn at any time during the academic day.

4. DRESS CODE: Upper school girls will be wearing Black Watch tartan kilts starting this year. New students are required to purchase the new kilt while re-turning students have one year to do so. Kilts can be purchased in the Falcon’s Nest. All other uniform pieces are available on-line at Lands’ End and at Lobel’s School Uniform Co. (516) 795-3838 or www.lobelsschooluniformco.com.

5. THANKSGIVING TRAVEL PLANS must be submitted by November 5, 2010.

A FEW REMINDERS FOR THE START OF THE SCHOOL YEAR

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I am excited to join Knox as the new Director of College Counseling. I was drawn to Knox, not only because of its small class sizes and family atmosphere, but because it offers an individualized college counseling experience for each student as well. The students here receive advice and support during numerous one-on-one meetings. Because of the time spent meeting with each student, we are able to assess and address a student’s needs while helping him or her highlight particular strengths throughout the application process. And because of the family atmo-sphere at Knox, recommendations are written by faculty members who have a relationship with the students in the classroom, on the playing field, in the dorm, and on the stage.

Knox is a wonderfully diverse com-munity made up of aspiring archi-tects, engineers, equestrians and artists. It is my goal to have an equal-ly diverse list of college acceptances at the end of this year, demonstrat-ing that each student has succeeded in finding his or her “perfect” school. The college search is an exciting time to reflect on interests and career goals and think about a college’s ability to fit those needs. The search does take work researching, visiting campuses, interviewing and writing essays — but that work is always worth it once a student walks onto campus to begin his or her first year in college confi-dent that he or she chose the right school. I am anticipating an exciting journey with the Class of 2011!

THE COLLEGE SEARCH JEANNETTE GOULD

DIRECTOR OF COLLEGE COUNSELING

LONG ISLAND NATIONAL COLLEGE FAIR

October 3rd, 11am-4pm Nassau Coliseum

KNOX SCHOOL COLLEGE FAIR

October 4th, 2pm, Houghton Hall Water’s Edge

IMPORTANT DATES

The Admissions Office introduces with pride 46 new students (25 Boys and 21 Girls) and their families to the Knox community. This is the largest number of new students in three years, and it is clear that the word is spread-

ing “throughout the world” about the wonderful opportunities to be found at Knox. Of particular note are the 11 new girls in grade nine, eight of whom come from the local area or the tri-state region.

In addition to our new students from China, Taiwan, and Korea, we wel-come new students from Turkey, Spain, Columbia, Ukraine, and Viet-nam, bringing the total number of na-tions represented in our student body to 10. We have two siblings follow-ing their brothers and sisters and one “legacy” student, giving proof that the Knox experience is valued by families in the present as well as the past.

Our new students show great prom-ise, and we expect that they will dis-tinguish themselves in the classroom, on the stage, and on the playing fields. We wish them the best of luck and urge all members of our community to welcome our new friends with the warmth and spirit that is distinctive of our “Home by the Shore.”

KNOX WELCOMES 46 NEW STUDENTS DUNCAN MARSHALL, ASSISTANT HEADMASTER

PSAT

October 13

ACT

December 11 February 12 April 9 June 11

AP EXAMS

May 2-6 May 9-13

SAT AND SAT SUBJECT TESTS

October 9 November 6 December 4 January 22 March 12 SAT onlyMay 7 June 4

S E M P E R A D L U C E M S E P T 2 0 1 0 C O L L E G E C O U N S E L I N G & A D M I S S I O N S

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EXPANDING VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS OFFERINGS JANICE ZINGALE, DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI AFFAIRS &

VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS DEPARTMENT CHAIR

The Department of Visual and Per-forming Arts is excited that this year Knox students will enjoy a wider variety of arts electives. With the addition of Teresa Carey to the de-partment, dance (which has previ-ously been available to students only as an afternoon activity) is being offered during the class day for aca-demic credit. Ms Carey, who holds a Master of Fine Arts degree, comes to us with over eighteen years of dance training in jazz, ballet, hip-hop, modern and tap. She will also teach theater, direct the fall play, offer dance as an afternoon activity during the winter term, and assist with the spring musical theater pro-duction.

The Middle School String Program introduced to Knox in 2009 will

continue and be expanded to include upper school students. Coordinating the string program is violinist Doro-thea Cook, who is also new to our department. Dorothea, a resident of East Setauket, is widely known and respected for her expertise as a per-forming artist and teacher. She has performed and studied extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe with teachers such as Arthur Hass, Nadia Boulanger, Robert Levin and Emmanuel Zetlin. In addition to her music degrees from the Uni-versity of Washington and SUNY

Stony Brook, Ms. Cook holds cer-tificates in Delacroze Eurhythmics and the O’Connnor Violin Method.

Again this year, visual arts students will benefit from the considerable expertise of artist Christian White in Studio Art, Digital Art, Ad-vanced Placement Studio Art and Middle School Art, while Susanne Johnson will continue to teach Intro to Photography as well as Photog-

raphy I & II and oversee the So-larium Gallery. I will round out the department, serving as the chair and continuing to teach Middle School Performing Arts and direct the Vo-cal Ensemble and the spring musical theater production. In addition, the department will continue to offer enrichment through private instru-mental and vocal music instruction on campus by qualified teachers, participate in NYSSMA (New York State School Music Association) festivals and All-State competition, and lead field trips to cultural events and performances on Long Island and in New York City.

This year’s Department of Visual and Performing Arts is an accom-plished group of dedicated teacher-artists who, working together, hope to offer Knox students exceptional opportunities for growth in the arts both in and out of the classroom.

KNOX STUDENTS WILL ENJOY A

WIDER VARIETY OF ARTS ELECTIVES.

S E M P E R A D L U C E M S E P T 2 0 1 0 A R T S

DOROTHEA COOK

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Hello everyone, my name is Walter Townes, but my friends call me “Coach.” It is my pleasure to serve as the new Athletic Director here at the Knox School. Before I say anything else, I’d like to thank former Athletic Director, Kerri-Anne Alexanderson, for the outstand-ing work she did—thanks to her efforts, Knox has some good momentum as we move ahead. I would like to share my thoughts about the future of our athletic de-partment. My background as a coach at the collegiate level-- ranging from small academic institutions to the Ivy League and the Big East-- has helped me see that successful athletic programs focus first on educating and mentoring student-athletes in becoming the best person they can possibly be while learning how to perform at a high level.

Here at Knox, I look forward to installing a competitive athletic program that matches the excellence of our aca-

demics. I’d like every-one in the community — from our students to our coaches — to keep building on the energy, enthusiasm, and commitment that will be needed to con-tinue our improve-ment. This is critical, as we will be upgrad-ing our schedule, adding schools in NYC and the greater metropolitan area.

May the light on Knox athletics shine as bright as the sun off the beautiful waters of Stony Brook Harbor, and may the Falcons soar high in 2010-11.

Jim Liu, a Knox day student who resides in nearby Smithtown, has replaced Tiger Woods as the youngest golfer to win the U.S. Junior Amateur Championship. It happened this summer at The Egypt Val-ley Country Club in Ada, Michigan. Jim is 14; Tiger was 15 when he won his first U.S. Junior Amateur title in 1991. While this is an incredible accomplishment for Jim, it is actually just one piece of what is shaping up to be one of the most amaz-ing “careers” in U.S. golf history. At the age of 9, young Jim shot a 59 at Disney World’s Lake Buena Vista course in a ju-nior golf event! Now a veteran of 8 years of competitive golf, Jim won a record

three consecutive U.S. Kids Golf World Championships, and he was recently chosen to be one of just six young U.S. golfers to represent the country in the Junior Ryder Cup being held in Scotland in mid-September.

All of us in the Knox family are proud of Jim, who is also a stellar student at Knox and a popular young man who is known for his big heart and humble approach to life, even in the face of the national and international attention he has been re-ceiving. Now, if some of us at Knox could just get some advice from Jim about our slicing and three-putting...

ATHLETICS WALTER TOWNES, DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT SOPHOMORE JIM LIU IS MAKING HISTORY WITH HIS GOLF GAME

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S E M P E R A D L U C E M S E P T 2 0 1 0 2 0 1 0 C A L E N D A R

SEPTEMBER

SUNDAY 12 Welcome BrunchMONDAY 13 Classes BeginFRIDAY 17 Fall Testing (8:30-noon)FRI - SUN 17-19 Closed Weekend all boarding students on campus

OCTOBER

SATURDAY 2 Board of Trustees MeetingMONDAY 4 College Fair Houghton Hall

SATURDAY 9 SAT’sWEDNESDAY 13 PSAT’sFRI - MON 15-18 Long Weekend begins after classes on Friday

FRI & SAT 22&23 Parents’ Weekend Closed Weekend for boarders

Fall Play 8:00 p.m. Bancroft Phinney Hall

OCTOBER CONT’D

SATURDAY 23 ACT’sFRIDAY 29 Knox Halloween

NOVEMBER

SATURDAY 6 SAT’s Admissions Open House 10:00 a.m.-NoonFRI - SUN 12-14 Closed Weekend all boarding students on campus

MONDAY 15 Fall Sports Awards Banquet 5:30 p.m. Houghton HallTUESDAY 16 Fall Term Ends Knox Thanksgiving Dinner 5:30 in Houghton HallWED - FRI 17-19 Fall Term ExaminationsWED - MON 19-29 Thanksgiving Break begins after last exam on 19th

FALL TERM CALENDAR

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