JCC University at Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly, NJ offers the opportunity to rekindle previous passions, ignite new interests, meet new people and stay involved in the developments that shape today’s world. Top professors and experts present on topics including science, literature, film, economics, psychology, architecture and politics. more
By Taylor Smith
A selection team from Amazon met with New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and Newark Mayor Ras Baraka on Tuesday to discuss the prospects of Newark as the HQ2 Amazon headquarters, making New Jersey, the new hub of Amazon commerce.
Other notable figures in attendance included former Newark Mayor and current U.S Senator Cory Booker and D-NJ and businessman Ray Chambers. more
From secret agent training, to zombie survival, to 3D printing lessons, to adventures in LSC’s brand new Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium and LSC Giant Dome Theater, this year’s Science Camp definitely can’t be missed!
Need some convincing? Here are 12 coolest things LSC Science Campers get to do this summer: more
Written by Drew University’s Office of Communications
Former Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at Drew University, described a breakdown in the American political system that has given rise to what he described as “naked nationalism” and “senseless populism.”
The former frames the world as us versus them while the latter places majority rule above liberty, individual rights and due process, according to Biden. The remedy, he said, is nothing short of active participation in democracy—be it voting, protesting, running for office or demanding accountability from political leaders. In short, stand up for the “moral fabric” of America. more
By Laurie Pellichero
Set on 54 acres in Far Hills, N.J., about an hour west of New York City, Far Hills Country Day School is a private, co-educational day school for students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.
The school was founded in 1929 on the principles of the Progressive Education Movement, and believes in a balanced approach to learning that includes solid academics paired with valuable life skills and character development. The school’s “whole child” philosophy includes an emphasis on classroom personalization and differentiation. more
By Wendy Greenberg
Princeton University freshman Jack Aiello credits a special New Jersey camp for giving him the confidence to climb the Himalayas with the challenges associated with type 1 diabetes.
Despite the unpredictable effect elevation can have on metabolism, his blood sugar numbers stayed under control. In a blog on the camp website he wrote, “Eight summers of living with peers and counselors who have diabetes have given me a tremendous amount of knowledge and confidence in managing diabetes…Camp gave me counselors who spent weeks camping in the wilderness, friends who cycled thousands of miles competitively, and dozens of role models and friends who always kept their diabetes under control—not the other way around.” more
By Donald H. Sanborn III // Photography by Jeremy Lebled
It was really amazing to meet Kristin Chenoweth, and perform with her,” says Jacqueline Lutz of Demarest. Lutz, 9, has been a member of the Chamber Chorus of The Performing Arts School at bergenPAC for two years, in addition to singing in the choir at Luther Lee Emerson School. more
By William Uhl // Photographs Courtesy of Thomas Edison National Historic Park
Walking through the halls of Thomas Edison’s laboratory in Thomas Edison National Historical Park in West Orange, it’s easy to think history’s been frozen in time. From the chemical storage to his personal lounge, everything in the laboratory has been meticulously preserved and restored to look how Edison himself would have seen it. The material storage room still has everything ranging from iron bars to elephant hide, and the production floor has era-appropriate hats and jackets hanging on workers’ hooks. more
By Ilene Dube
“A sap run is the sweet goodbye of winter. It is the fruit of the equal marriage of the sun and frost.” — John Burroughs
Maine and Vermont may lure visitors with excursions to sugar shacks, and their tourist centers delight children of all ages with boxes of maple leaf-shaped sugary treats, but the joys of maple sugaring can be had without leaving the Garden State. more
By Taylor Smith
The boarding school experience is unique to each individual student and school. For some, the setting or architecture may be a defining feature — encouraging students, faculty, and alumni to dream big. For other institutions, traditions hold a special place in the heart of each graduate — a perpetuation of history, pride, and scholarly achievements. While some of the schools described here believe in the importance of a single-sex high school education, all of them hope to instill in their students a passion for collaboration. Perhaps one of these high schools is well-suited to your family. more
Hackensack Meridian Health, New Jersey’s most comprehensive and truly integrated health care network, is proud to announce that JFK Health in Edison, a leading hospital system that is nationally recognized for its pediatric and adult neuroscience and rehabilitation programs, is joining the network which will expand to 16 hospitals. With now more than 160 patient care locations, Hackensack Meridian Health is the largest health network in the state. more
Entrepreneur AJ Khubani ’84 took a bright idea – direct response marketing – and built it into TeleBrands, which is known for its “As Seen on TV” products and its flagship BulbHead brand. Now, with a generous $500,000 gift, the TeleBrands CEO and founder hopes to continue to help Montclair State student entrepreneurs fast-track their innovative ideas and solutions to real-world problems for the next five years. more
Written by Stevens Institute of Technology’s Office of Communications
The broad and lasting skills that emerge when a student is at the center of the learning process is nothing short of incredible.
Whether working individually or teams, students in Stevens Institute of Technology’s Charles v. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science progress through a sequence of interdisciplinary design courses. In those courses, students not only learn engineering principles and how to apply them; they also learn soft skills like creative thinking, problem solving, project management, communication and ethics that are increasingly important in the working world. more
By Ilene Dube
In all its starkness, winter was the favorite season of the painter Andrew Wyeth (1917–2009), one of the 20th century’s most popular American painters. Even today, exhibitions of his works draw large crowds to museums.
Wyeth described winter as a time when “you feel the bone structure in the landscape—the loneliness of it—the dead feeling…” Wyeth’s landscapes of that season are both placid in their silence and haunting in their feeling of desolation. He has the ability to capture the nuanced shades of white, even when working in watercolor. more
By William Uhl
A vocalist, professor, and activist, Dr. Fawzia Afzal-Khan has spent her life working to bridge gaps between people and erase misconceptions. Born in Pakistan and raised by two parents who fostered her thirst for knowledge, she has several published articles in both academic journals and newspapers, a well-reviewed memoir, and received the “Excellence in Public Life Award” by the American Muslim Alliance in 2008. Now a professor at Montclair State University, she has continued to unite the East and West through education, writing, and music. more
By Wendy Plump
Photography Courtesy of Nomadic Expeditions
In a dramatic re-interpretation of the notion “If you build it, they will come,” New Jersey resident and contractor Jalsa Urubshurow built a base for his adventure expedition company in Mongolia. He chose the South Gobi Province on the edge of the Gobi Desert—where the Altai Mountains rim the horizon—and put up forty Ger, the traditional felt yurts of Mongolia’s indigenous nomadic tribes. He designed the main lodge in the style of an ancient temple. He quarried local stone and installed local staffers – herders, guides, cooks – because he wanted authenticity in a world greatly in need of it, and, if truth be told, because he demanded the most breathtaking gateway for those visiting his beloved Mongolia, the home of his Kalmyk ancestors. more
By Doug Wallack
On Monday, November 6, the Princeton & Slavery Project—an initiative of Princeton University—launched its website as a means of publicizing its ongoing research into the University’s relationship with the institution of slavery. Visitors to the site can find over 80 articles that, for instance, tease out the links between the fortunes of the University’s early benefactors and slavery, or examine the slave holdings of University presidents, trustees, and other affiliates. Also included online are hundreds of primary documents, data visualizations and maps that track the proportional enrollment of southern students at Princeton, and video documentaries in which students and alumni reflect on their own families’ relationships to slavery. more
By Doug Wallack
On Saturday, November 18, The 5 Browns will take to the stage at the Dorothy Young Center for the Arts at Drew University. The piano quintet, composed of Julliard-trained siblings Ryan, Melody, Gregory, Deondra, and Desirae Brown, first came to prominence in 2002, and in the ensuing decade and a half they’ve enjoyed generous critical and popular acclaim. more
By Ellen Gilbert
“The exquisite-looking artist was often overshadowed by his Bohemian legend,” observed Jewish Museum Senior Curator Mason Klein at a recent press preview of the new Modigliani exhibit, “Modigliani Unmasked,” at the Jewish Museum in New York City through February 4, 2018. Images of Amedeo Modigliani’s movie star quality looks and accounts of his tempestuous and brief (1884-1920) life have indeed tended to overshadow his accomplishments, though sales of his later paintings in recent years do not seem troubled by these considerations: his Nu Couché fetched a whopping $170.4 million (with fees) at a Christie’s auction in 2015. more
By Laurie Pellichero
It’s an incredible sight to see each fall, flocks of birds making their way down south for the winter. One of the best places to witness the yearly pilgrimage of a variety of hawks and other birds of prey is the NJ Audubon Montclair Hawk Watch Lookout, a crushed stone-filled platform that sits on a basalt ledge high on a ridge known as First Watchung Mountain in Montclair, New Jersey. more
By Anne Levin
With a mother and two paternal aunts who died of breast cancer, the two sisters knew it was important to get tested to see if they carried the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene. Should the test come back positive, their risk of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer would be higher than average. And preventive measures—most likely mastectomy and/or hysterectomy—could be in order. more
By Doug Wallack
On Friday, October 27, recording artist and off-Broadway debuting star Doreen Taylor launches her “docu-musical” show An Enchanted Evening with Oscar Hammerstein II at Highland Farm in Doylestown, Pa. The show, the proceeds from which will go to the Hammerstein Center, is part of a larger effort to save the former home of Oscar Hammerstein II at Highland Farm, and to repurpose it as a museum and theater education center.
Ceramic Artist Molly Hatch has been commissioned to produce a monumental three-part installation in the niches in the Engelhard Court. Hatch is known for her murals made up of underglaze-painted porcelain plates, including two major installations at the High Museum in Atlanta. Repertoire will be her largest commission to date, honoring the Newark Museum’s 107-year-tradition of collecting contemporary ceramic art, and commemorating the retirement of Curator of Decorative Arts Ulysses Dietz after 37 years. more
The Department of Civil, Environmental and Ocean Engineering is co-hosting a one-day workshop with Green Roofs for Healthy Cities (GRHC) at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey on Monday, October 30 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. more
This unforgettable concert will feature the full-length film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets™, projected in high-definition on a giant screen, with composer John Williams’ thrilling score performed live by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Performances will take place at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 28 at NJPAC in Newark. more
Drew University (www.drew.edu) recently announced it will lower its tuition by 20%–from $48,336 this year to $38,668 next year–rolling it back to 2010 and narrowing the gap between its “sticker price” and the amount many families pay after financial aid. This move makes Drew’s true tuition and true value more clear to more families, and makes a Drew education more accessible. more
Written by Saddle River Day School
Saddle River Day School (SRDS) hosted a community build to finally complete the Lower School playground designed by last year’s seventh grade.The school integrates a concept called “design thinking” throughout many facets of its curriculum. Unlike analytical thinking, design thinking encourages students to build up ideas, with few limits on breadth through a brainstorming process. This process encourages input and participation from a wide variety of sources in the ideation phases as students ‘think outside the box’ to come up with real solutions in problem solving through seven stages: define, research, ideate, prototype, choose, implement, and learn. Within these seven steps, problems can be framed, the right questions can be asked, more ideas can be created, and the best answers can be chosen. more
By Ilene Dube
The Brooklyn Bridge, an engineering marvel of its era, is considered a work of art, one that has inspired other artists from Georgia O’Keeffe to Red Grooms. As the replacement for New York’s Tappan Zee Bridge nears completion,
observers can see that it, too, is soaring with beauty and grace. more
12–9pm Celebrate Bestfield Day with Chief Spirit Officer Meaghan Murphy! Athleta will be giving away prizes every hour donated by local businesses, the day will wrap up with a Ladies Night Out from 7–9pm featuring special guest Laurie Gelman who will be signing copies of her new book Class Mom, Mocktails provided by NosVino, Snacks provided by The Salad House of Westfield, and cookies provided by PeaPods Cookies! Books available now for purchase at the Town Book Store (270 E. Broad St., 908.233.3535). more
Nestled comfortably on nine wooded acres in Short Hills, red clapboard buildings house light-filled classrooms that open directly to the outdoors. By design, students experience the natural world in all seasons and weather. The campus lifts our spirits and inspires us even on a rainy or snowy day. The hall, gym, playing fields, playgrounds, sandbox, and courtyards provide community spaces. Our new Music and Arts Building and Kronthal Science and Environmental Center feature a greenhouse, the Fisher Woodshop, and customized learning spaces that open to the Schoolyard Wetlands Habitat. more
