(Turn to page 2 to read more)

GeorgianA P u b l i c a t i o n o f G e o r g e S c h o o l , N e w t o w n , P e n n s y l v a n i a V o l u m e 7 3 • N u m b e r 2 • S u m m e r 2 0 0 1

FPO

Higher Education

Learn about where studentsare going to college and why,page 3.

Decision Making

College counselorteaches prisoners to makeresponsible decisions, page 4.

Chimp Researcher ChoosesHer Path to SuccessBy Ayeola G. Elias

Like her fellow George School graduates,

Sarah Dunphy-Lelii ’96 was faced with

important and sometimes difficult

decisions after high school. She had to choose

what college to attend, what courses to take and

what occupation to pursue. Now one year out of

college, Sarah has the satisfaction of knowing that

she achieved her current success by having

confidence in herself, in her capabilities and in

her decisions.Last year, Sarah earned a B.A. in psychology from Pennsylvania State Uni-

versity while enrolled in the Schreyer honors program. Within the same yearof graduating from college, Sarah was awarded a five-year doctoral fellowshipat the University of Michigan, a program that will earn her a Ph.D. in neuro-science. But before beginning her doctorate studies this fall, Sarah decided totake a year off from school to study primate mind development at the Univer-sity of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL Lafayette).

During college, when Sarah was contacting primate facilities throughout thecountry in search of a summer internship, one of her Penn State professors sug-gested she contact Dr. Povinelli, a well-known scientist in the field of cognitiveevolution research at UL Lafayette. They began corresponding and eventually,he offered Sarah her current job. “I just got really lucky,” Sarah said.

But luck is not what helped Sarah obtain the position of study reviewcoordinator for the Cognitive Evolution Group at UL Lafayette. Sarah’s te-nacity and knowledge are what helped her gain invaluable experiences. The

(Chimp Researcher, continuedfrom page 1)

2V o l u m e 7 3 • N u m b e r 2 • S u m m e r 2 0 0 1G e o r g e S c h o o l • G e o r g i a n

Education After George School

The average person might find it difficult to tell each of the chimps apart. Infact, at first, Sarah did as well. But with time, she learned the chimps’ variousnuances and distinct characteristics making it easy for her to tell them apart.

The best part about hercurrent experience,

she admitted,“is working with

the chimps.”

best part about her current experience, sheadmitted, “is working with the chimps.”

“I love my job,” Sarah said. “Mytypical day might entail arriving at 7:30a.m. and working on graphing andtabling results for data collected fromeither the chimpanzee or child labs,”Sarah explained. “Then I might climbon top of the chimpanzee cages outsideto record live data from the afternoontesting session.”

“She has the mind of a scholar andthe heart of a child,” said George SchoolEnglish teacher Ralph Lelii about hisdaughter. “She can work for hours onsome small problem in her field. Sheloves the truth of things, the rightnessof things.”

One truth Sarah learned is that likehuman beings, every chimp is unique.“Each one is entirely different, and eachhas its own rules,” Sarah ex-plained. “Never turn your backto Brandy; never get close toMindy without carrying along ahose; don’t give Candy or Meganfood when Apollo is around.”

Sarah’s work at UL Lafayetteis excellent preparation for herPh.D. studies. Comparative cog-nition, one of the topics beinginvestigated at the UL Lafayettelab, happens to be directly relatedto the topic Sarah plans to studyfor her Ph.D.

“At Michigan, I would like towork on the topic of theory ofmind,” she explained. “I will cre-ate experiments, which can berun here with the chimpanzees,to investigate the similarities and differ-ences between the ways chimps and chil-dren think,” she explained.

As a senior at George School, Sarahapplied to William and Mary,Boston College, Penn State, andGeorgetown University. All schools, ex-cept for Georgetown, sent her a letterof acceptance.

But Sarah was persistent and reap-plied to Georgetown during her first yearat Penn State. The second time around,Georgetown wanted her. After rethink-ing the characteristics she sought in a

college, however, Sarah decided to con-tinue studying at Penn State.

“Penn State is an excellent univer-sity,” Sarah said proudly. “I wanted tohave access to as many labs and coursesas possible, and the honors program gaveme the small, personal environment thatI needed.” She also pointed out thatPenn State gives its students a superbeducation at one-third the cost of somemore prestigious schools.

Sarah is looking forward to reenter-ing the educational community as a stu-dent. With a long list of interests includ-

ing foreign languages, culture, travel, andof course science, Sarah plans on learn-ing for the rest of her life. But aftergraduate school, Sarah said she wants tobegin sharing her knowledge. Someday,Sarah explained, “I’d like to be a teacher.”

■

Three doors down from Sarah’s officeat UL Lafayette is the office of Dr. ToddPreuss ’74, the director of another researchfacility. Not only is he the head of the Labo-ratory of Comparative Neuroscience, butcoincidentally, he is also a George School

graduate. Todd and his researchers are com-paring brain evolution of chimps, monkeysand humans.

❈ Note: According to the latest alumnisurvey, Sarah is not alone in feeling success-ful. Ninety-four percent of the 100-respon-dent sample also feel they have reached theiridea of professional success. Turn to page 5for more survey results.

High school graduates are fa- cing greater challenges thanthey had in previous years

with their search for the right college.Getting high scores on SAT’s and

having straight A’s in an honor class donot guarantee entrance to Harvard, Yale,Princeton, or Brown universities. Gradu-ating from the best private secondaryschools doesn’t secure a spot at either Co-lumbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, or the Uni-versity of Pennsylvania.

The “U.S. News & World Report2001” edition of America’s Best Collegesnoted that among the 1,976 high schoolgraduates who attended highly selectiveand moderately selective colleges, thosewho attended the latter were actually earn-ing slightly more than those who studiedat the top schools—an average of $91,200versus $90,100 in 1995.

According to this report, a school’sreputation and rank should be consid-ered less significant in a student’s analy-sis of where to go than the details of whata school has to offer that student. Toptier, very entrant-selective colleges are notthe only schools with world-class pro-grams. Many lower-tier schools have de-veloped excellent departments and haveadded eminent professors to teach sub-jects that have been eliminated by IvyLeague schools.

Ezra Rosser, a GS graduate of the Classof ’96 and who presently attends YaleUniversity, agrees that the university’sreputation isn’t as important as the stu-dents who attend it. “I don’t think I ex-perienced the very best education becauseI was at Yale. I think I have had that ex-perience because I chose to have it. Therewere people who didn’t really learn thatmuch at Yale, and I have friends who havelearned a tremendous amount at largestate schools. Going to an Ivy Leagueuniversity certainly facilitates an intellec-tual and personal education, but it canbe found anywhere and everywhere.”

Having a son or daughter graduatefrom a well-known college is a dream formany parents. It may even be more im-portant to some international studentssince international name recognition

3G e o r g e S c h o o l • G e o r g i a nV o l u m e 7 3 • N u m b e r 2 • S u m m e r 2 0 0 1

College Quest BecomesMore ElusiveBy Marie Duess

might help a student when seeking em-ployment abroad.

Nancy Culleton, director of CollegeGuidance at George School, said “Theinternational students tend to focus oncolleges with well-known names such asBoston University, NYU, the Universityof Michigan, as well as the Ivies.”

Francine Block, president of Ameri-can College Admissions Consultants,based in Bucks County, Pennsylvania,said, “Some of the admission counselorswith whom I’ve been working… havetold me this is the toughest year ever.”

Francine has found that even thosecolleges that normally accept the major-ity of their applicants have developed en-trant wait lists this year. Although no oneis certain there is any one factor contrib-uting to this problem, both Nancy andFrancine seem to think that the use ofthe Internet for fast and easy applicationsubmission and the steady economy con-tribute to competitive acceptance ratios.

“Demographics are playing a part inmuch of this,” said Nancy. Schools areseeking out the best students from manycorners of the country with the intent tobroaden their diversity, both ethnicallyand demographically.” This means thatschools aren’t pulling as many studentsfrom the same geographic areas and fromprivate schools where they haverecruited in past years. “Being perfect isn’tgood enough anymore,” Nancy said.

A silver lining is that the second- andthird-tier schools are getting better be-cause the pool of students from whichthey are selecting is better filled with stu-dents and these schools are successfullyworking to meet those students’ desirefor challenges. Introductory classes arebeing taught by professors, not teachingassistants as is the norm in Ivy Leagueschools. And professors have a betterchance to get to know students, afford-ing them more detailed and impressiverecommendations for internships andgraduate schools.

Perhaps the best of all the news forstudent applicants is that graduateschools and company recruiters arelooking for people who excelled in

whatever college they attended, ratherthan those in the middle of the class athighly selective schools. The messagesent is that it is not necessarily theschool one attends, but the level of ef-fort a student exhibits that is a measureof his or her true success. ■

Pho

to b

y A

yeol

a G

. Elia

s

Director of College Guidance Nancy Culleton (center) helped each of these seniorsmake college decisions. In September, (from left to right) Nicholas Perez willattend St. Louis University; Honoka Takei will attend American University;Tiffany Vaughan will attend Bryn Mawr College; and J.C. Stephenson will attendLafayette College.

“Demographics isplaying the part inmuch of this,” saidCulleton. “Schoolsare seeking out thebest students frommany corners ofthe country with

the intent tobroaden theirdiversity, bothethnically and

demographically.”

Note: The list of graduates including thecolleges they will attend is available on theWeb (www.georgeschool.org/admission/collist.html) and will appear in thefall Georgian.

Ihad to learn to be non-judgmen-tal,” said Associate Director of Col-lege Guidance Peggy Anderson.

“It is hard for me not to suggest solu-tions or to try to fix things. I’ve learnedto resist saying ‘that’s good’ or ‘are youreally sure you want to do that?’ I’velearned to listen and to encourage myclients to express their own ideas.”

Peggy isn’t talking about GeorgeSchool students. She’s summarizing herexperience of working with BucksCounty prisoners through the Volunteersin Teaching Alternatives (VITA) pro-gram.

Peggy has worked with 11 inmatessince 1995, but it wasn’t until she wasthe faculty recipient of the AndrewBourns Social Justice Endowment in2001 that she was able to dedicate thetime to teach them a decision makingcourse. The Bourns endowment paid apercentage of Peggy’s salary so she couldreceive some release time from her guid-ance counselor job.

Some of Peggy’s clients have notcompleted high school and have accu-mulated several adult convictions in ad-dition to having prior juvenile arrestrecords. Drug and alcohol addiction,difficulties in holding jobs, and troubleobeying authority are some problemsmany prisoners face that prevent themfrom leading satisfying, productive lives.

Founded by Milton Burglass—aHarvard graduate who once served timefor check fraud—the VITA programPeggy teaches helps participants learn tobreak the cycle of destructive behaviorthat disables them from making rationaldecisions in their lives.

“The course we work on togetherhelps them define the situations, map outconsequences, make thoughtful choices,and not give in to hasty or expedient op-tions,” said Peggy.

Peggy works with an inmate oneevening each week in an individual ses-sion. The program lasts between 8 and15 weeks. “No conversation is ‘off sub-

4

College CounselorGuides PrisonersBy Diane Labas

G e o r g e S c h o o l • G e o r g i a n

Associate Director of College GuidancePeggy Anderson counsels prisoners onresponsible decision making throughthe Volunteers in Teaching Alternatives(VITA) program.

V o l u m e 7 3 • N u m b e r 2 • S u m m e r 2 0 0 1

ject,’” Peggy explains, adding, “It’s a realluxury to have unlimited time. All con-versations are confidential, unless theprisoner tells me he plans to escape, hurthimself, or hurt others.”

One lesson she has taken to heart isthe impact people’s attitudes can have ontheir lives. “One of the themes of thecourse is ‘life is 10 percent situation and90 percent attitude.’ You can’t changeanyone but yourself, so start with yourown attitude. In an environment asregulated as prison, your attitude maybe your only control or power,” she said.

■

Now in its eighth year, the AndrewBourns Social Justice Endowment supportsGeorge School faculty and students whochoose to volunteer for service in inner cit-ies. The endowment gives each participantfunds to pay for their time, materials, trans-portation and other items they may need tocarry out this service. Last summer,Katherine Camp ’01 and Tiffany Vaughan’01 were the student grant recipients.

“

C A M P U S U P D A T E

best classes I’ve taken at George School. We

planted our own gardens here and went on

field trips to a farm where we helped plant

crops. We’ve learned a lot about biology from

this class, too,” Ben said.

Now an enthusias-

tic horticulturist,

Alcora Walden ’01 de-

clared, “I just finished

planting a garden for

one of the faculty

members with beef-

steak tomatoes and

cilantro, things I

hadn’t really heard of

before. I had a feeling

of accomplishment

when I finished.”

Always looking for

new things to intro-

duce to the class

which he has been

teaching for over a dozen years, Mark bought

six gosling and four young geese because he

read that Chinese geese were good for weed-

ing. The flock’s boarding days at George

School were, short lived, however. “The Chi-

nese geese were good weeders,” said Mark,

“but they also like to eat the vegetables.”

They were taken to a local petting zoo, and

no tears were shed by the students when the

geese were expelled. According to Mark, a

lot of barbecue recipes were being exchanged

for a while.

Although the course requires a huge

amount of reading on horticulture—with

many term papers to produce—Mark Wiley’s

horticulture class is mostly experiential. It

begins in the passive solar greenhouse

in the alternative en-

ergy center where stu-

dents begin the pro-

cess of growing veg-

etables for faculty

members’ gardens.

The students plant

the seeds or cuttings

and tend to them until

they are planted in

manageable 4- by 20-

foot raised beds be-

hind the energy center

near the windmill. All

the gardens are or-

ganically grown using

compost and mulch

that the students create. Horticulture stu-

dents tend the gardens until graduation day

when faculty and staff members “adopt” the

gardens and tend them through the summer.

“We grow tomatoes, eggplants, herbs,

peppers, whatever was requested by the staff

and faculty members who signed up for a gar-

den,” Mark said. Students raise money for

gardening supplies by growing about 10,000

impatiens that they sell in the spring.

Ben Phillips ’01, one of Mark’s students

this year, said, “I think it’s been one of the

Horticulture student, ZoeBouloux ’01, started her gardenby lining its perimeter withhay to prevent weed growth.

Horticulture Class Breeds GardenersBy Marie Duess

NOTE: Pages removed from this document to protect the privacy of GS alumni.

Alumni may login to the alumni community at http://alumni.georgeschool.org to view the full version of this issue.

Volume 73 • Number 2 • Summer 2001

I N T H I S I S S U E

Education ..................... 2

College Decisions.......... 3

eQuiz Results ................ 5

Class Notes ................... 5

Retirees ....................... 16

Ayeola G. Elias, EditorE-mail: Ayeola_Elias@georgeschool.org(215) 579-6568

GeorgianAdvancement OfficeGeorge SchoolBox 4000Newtown, PA 18940-0962www.georgeschool.org

NON-PROFIT

U.S. POSTAGE

PAID

PERMIT NO. 1NEWTOWN, PA

P R I N T E D O N R E C Y C L E D P A P E RE

Pho

to b

y A

yeol

a G

. Elia

s

Phyllis Sexton served as a pillar inthe science department before herretirement this June after 39 years

of teaching at George School. Outside theclassroom, Phyllis has spent hundreds ofhours working to help the school improvefaculty salaries and provide better pay forcoaches. Colleagues described Phyllis asbeing unusually wise, keeping in mindthe larger picture and being steady,patient, and committed. As the chair ofthe science department, Phyllis set high

Smith and Sexton Retirestandards for herself and her students.

Sam Smith retired from GeorgeSchool after completing his 30th year ofteaching mathematics. His eclecticinterests include math, physics,philosophy, religion, history, politics,classical music, and baseball. Hiscolleagues described him as sweet, smart,funny, honest, and sincere. Throughouthis career, Sam was dedicated tohelping his students understand thatmathematics is exciting and beautiful.

George School is pleased to announce that theGeorgian received the Gold Award in the District IIAccolades 2001 CASE competition in the category ofIndependent School Periodicals. CASE, the Councilfor Advancement and Support of Education, recognizes“models of excellence” for publication content, layoutand design. Your interesting class notes and continuedinput help us produce this prize-winning publication.

Georgian Wins Gold Award