Mark Cubit Mercersburg Academy's head boys basketball coach

Mercersburg
VOLUME 35 NO. 3 WI NTER 2 008 – 2009A magazine for Mercersburg Academy family and friends
page 18
MERCERSBURGMAGAZINEWINTER2008–2009
ON THEIR WAY
Young Alumni
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ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
Celebrating reunion classes ending in 4 and 9
See page 42 for full detailsJune 11–14, 2009
www.mercersburg.edu/alumni alumni@mercersburg.edu 800-588-2550
Anniversary Reunion Weekend

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When I was 14, the short drive from the interstate down Route 16
was the most dreaded part of the trip. It didn’t matter that we’d already been in the
car for five hours; I was willing to turn right back around once I saw the Chapel in
the distance.
My Say
School meant sharing my room with someone who ate olives in
bed after lights out, speaking French to my teacher outside of
class, and missing home. Today, this part of the trip means that I
am home. When the Chapel spire rises above the hillcrest, I tell
myself how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful place—and how
glad I am to be back.
The beginning of this school year brought the kind of excite-
ment and anxiety I haven’t experienced in quite a while. I had a
few nightmares about missing Rotation 5 or not knowing how to
do my math homework, only to wake up and think how lucky it
would be to be a student at the Mercersburg of today. The Burgin
Center for the Arts, robotics, and Chinese classes are just a few of
the offerings that weren’t here just 10 years ago. And since the
modern world hasn’t yet mastered the art of traveling back in
time, I am happy to settle for being a faculty member at the
Mercersburg of today, working in the admission office, and
having the opportunity to share how great our school is with new
students from all over the world.
I was struck by the eloquence and drive of my faculty col-
leagues as they shared the impressive details of their continued
learning during the summer. Despite what our students may
think, we do have lives beyond teaching and coaching. And while
it’s always a pleasure—albeit a rare one—to find time to socialize
with each other, it’s an even greater pleasure to work next to Sue
Malone or Matthew Kearney or Jeff Pierce, whose excitement for
teaching our kids is tangible and contagious.
Without the faculty, this place would not be—yet it’s easy to
take this for granted. As a student, I was unaware of the time,
thought, and care that go into the preparation for the beginning
of the year. I have a new respect for how things come together.
It’s a true privilege to be a part of a community that dedicates
itself to educating our future—it’s a value on which you can’t
put a price tag.
While I take my new position very seriously, I do manage to
have a little fun as well. Living in the dorm brings me back to
the days of impromptu dress-up nights, room “parties” with the
music too loud, coloring, and eating ramen noodles just before
bed (I don’t know how our bodies handled it). It’s fun simply to
watch the girls having fun—and just as I was anxious at the
beginning, the girls were nervous, too. I reassure them that this
is normal—and that it takes time for nerves to settle and to get
into the rhythm of the school year.
Thankfully, some things never change, while with others, it
just takes time. I still struggle to say “Peter” instead of “Mr.
Kempe.” Pretzel pie tastes as good as it did 10 years ago.
And I smile every time I hear the Tippetts girls call me
“Ms. Flanagan.”
A native of Oxford, New York, Flanagan worked as a paralegal in
New York City and spent two years as a staff member in Mercers-
burg’s Office of Alumni & Development before becoming an assis-
tant director of admission in 2008. She is one of 18 members of
her family to attend Mercersburg, a group that includes brothers
Bill ’10 and Tom ’10 and cousin Peter ’11.
BY JENN FLANAGAN ’99

You Should Know
At Mercersburg’s 116th Opening Convocation
in September, Chip Vink ’73 (inset) served as
featured speaker. Vink, who holds the Mary
Keeler Lawrence Distinguished Teaching
Chair, teaches English and is head men’s
squash coach; he also served as the Academy’s
director of admission from 1989 until 2000.
The Michelet Prize and Culbertson Prize were presented to
Magdalena Kala ’09 and Wade Burelbach ’11, respectively.
Photos by Bill Green.
Photo credits: p. 2 Chris Crisman; p. 3 courtesy Pomegranate Arts; p. 4 Bill Green; p. 5 (top)
John Hutchins; p. 7 courtesy Will Willis; p. 8–9 (all photos except portrait) Mariah Blake,
(portrait) Stacey Talbot Grasa; p. 11 Ryan Smith; p. 13 courtesy NACAC/Jim McDonald; p. 14
courtesy Jeff Cohen; p. 15 Smith; p. 16 NACAC/McDonald; p. 19 courtesy Ripal Shah; p. 20
courtesy Rachna Shah; p. 21 Sandie Cubit; p. 22 American University Department of
Athletics; p. 23 (Larson) Louisiana Tech Athletic Media Relations; p. 24 (Van Ness, Miller)
Debra Collins, (Mort) Grasa; p. 25 Duke Sports Information; p. 26–27 courtesy Anjuli Pandit;
p. 28 courtesy Pierce Lord; p. 31 courtesy Bill Schindler; p.32–36 (all photos) Green; p. 37
(Dalton) Stein Communications, (bottom) Green; p. 38 Smith; p. 39–40 John Hutchins;
p. 41 (all photos) Renee Hicks; p. 42 Green; p. 44 Smith; p. 50 (Fleury, Quinn) Natasha Brown;
p. 53 Smith; back cover (top) Green.
Illustrations: cover:Paul Cox
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Mercersburg
A magazine for Mercersburg Academy family and friends
Young Alumni
4,047 Words
Spending some of the summer in South America.
Page 8
On Your Side
Mercersburg students seeking the right college fit have
a built-in advantage in Bill McClintick. Page 10
Mercersburg Profiles
They’ve only just begun; meet some of Mercersburg’s
notable graduates of the past 10 years. Page 18
My Say
Back home at work with Jenn Flanagan ’99.
Page 53
From the Head of School 2
Via Mercersburg 3
Alumni Weekend 32
Arts 37
Athletics 38
Alumni Notes 42
Mercersburg magazine is
published three times annually
by the Office of Strategic
Marketing and Communications.
Mercersburg Academy
300 East Seminary Street
Mercersburg, Pennsylvania 17236
Magazine correspondence:
Lee_Owen@mercersburg.edu
Alumni Notes correspondence:
NewsNotes@mercersburg.edu
Alumni correspondence/
change of address:
Leslie_Miller@mercersburg.edu
www.mercersburg.edu
Editor: Lee Owen
Alumni Notes Editor: Natasha Brown
Contributors: Jim Applebaum, Mariah
Blake ’09, Natasha Brown, Shelton Clark,Tom
Coccagna, Jenn Flanagan ’99, Phil Kantaros,
Susan Pasternack, Jay Quinn, Dom
Schrader ’00,Wallace Whitworth
Art Direction: Aldrich Design
Head of School: Douglas Hale
Director of Strategic Marketing and
Communications: Wallace Whitworth
Assistant Head for External Affairs:
Mary Carrasco
8
10
32

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TheArtof Leadership
From the Head of School
to the educational experience at Mercersburg is teaching young people
to read, write, and speak with greater skill and clarity. We measure
those teaching efforts in many ways, and I can confidently report that the school continues to
realize great success in teaching students those critical communication skills.
Every time a speaker visits the campus or a musical group performs or an announcement is
made in the dining hall, I am reminded of another communication skill central to a success-
ful educational experience here: being a good and discerning listener. The debates and commen-
tary and speeches surrounding this remarkable and historic political season have also served to
underscore the importance of listening well. Although we have a harder time measuring our
effectiveness in teaching this particular skill, we, nonetheless, constantly strive to inculcate
better listening skills in Mercersburg students.
While being a good listener is unquestionably one of life’s most important qualities, it is also
one of the hardest things we ever try to do. Listening well is a complicated process and often
mistakenly thought of only in terms of listening to another person’s actual words. And although
listening to those words is certainly part of the deal, we must also listen carefully to what is being
said between the actual words—to listen carefully to what is not being said. For example, imagine
a parent or friend saying as you are about to leave, “Drive carefully.” Those literal words suggest
you might intend to run every stop sign and red light or break every speed limit. Of course,
what is really being said in between those words is, “I love you very much. I don’t want any
harm to come to you. I need for you to be safe.” If we don’t listen carefully both to the words
and to the reality behind the words, then words can become a source of misunderstanding.
While listening to others is important, listening in yet another way is also vital — being
willing and able to listen to one’s own inner self and voice and experiences. In his book Now
and Then, Fred Buechner expresses this idea as follows:
“Listen to your life. See it for the fabulous mystery that it is. In the boredom and
pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way
to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis, all moments are key
moments. Listen carefully to them.”
The point, of course, is that listening carefully to our own lives will make us more discern-
ing about which voices within us have the ability to teach, to heal, and to help make things
whole, and which voices can hurt and harm and break things apart.
We are ever hopeful that Mercersburg students will become more discerning listeners to
their friends, teachers, coaches, parents, and all those whose principal motive is to help them.
We don’t insist, though, that listening well will mean they’ll always want to listen, or they’ll
always agree with what they’re hearing, or even that listening well will give them better answers;
indeed, listening well more often than not will only give them better questions.
Douglas Hale
Head of School
Central

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3
A roundup of what’s news, what’s new, and what Mercersburg people are talking about.
2009 Dates to Remember
Jan 22–23 Board of Regents Meetings, Philadelphia
Feb 7 Alumni Council Winter Meetings
Feb 27–Mar 5 Irving-Marshall Week
Mar 6–23 Spring Vacation
Jun 6 Commencement, 11 a.m.
Jun 11–14 Anniversary Reunion Weekend
(for classes ending in 4 and 9)
The second day will include a perform-
ance by Glass and cellist Wendy Sutter. Full
performance details were incomplete at press
time; visit www.mercersburg.edu for updates
as they become available.
Born in 1937, Glass grew up not far from
Mercersburg in Baltimore, Maryland. He
studied at the University of Chicago, the
Juilliard School, and in Aspen with Darius
Milhaud. Glass moved to Europe, where he
here in april: Philip Glass on Creativity and Collaboration
orld-renowned and prolific
composer Philip Glass is
coming to Mercersburg
April 3–4 for a two-day inten-
sive residency with students and faculty.
Glass has had an extraordinary and
unprecedented impact upon the musical and
intellectual life of his times. His operas—
Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha, Akhnaten,
and The Voyage—play throughout the world
to packed houses.
In addition to his many operas, Glass has
written eight symphonies, eight concertos,
film scores, and solo works. He achieved even
greater notoriety during the past decade
through his Academy Award–nominated
scores for motion pictures The Hours and
Martin Scorsese’s Kundun, among others.
On one of Glass’ two days at Mercersburg,
the entire student body will have the oppor-
tunity to meet and work with Glass—who
very much wants to delve into the Academy’s
culture, which translates into working face-
to-face with the entire student body.
“This is an extraordinary opportunity for
Mercersburg students and faculty to share in
the creativity of one of the foremost
composers of our time,” says Eugenio Sancho,
Mercersburg’s academic dean. “Philip Glass
is an artist who has helped shape the world’s
musical and intellectual life in significant
ways.”
studied with legendary pedagogue Nadia
Boulanger (who also taught Aaron Copland,
Virgil Thomson, and Quincy Jones) and
worked closely with sitar virtuoso and
composer Ravi Shankar. He returned to New
York in 1967 and formed the Philip Glass
Ensemble—seven musicians playing key-
boards and a variety of woodwinds, amplified
and fed through a mixer.
W
Schedule subject to change; for a full and updated
schedule of events, visit www.mercersburg.edu

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When they arrived on campus late this summer, several new
Mercersburg faculty and staff members didn’t need a map. Or direc-
tions. That’s because, in a way, they all came home.
Five Academy alumni have returned to campus to work at Mercers-
burg. The group includes new faculty members Nate Jacklin ’96,
Jennifer Miller Smith ’97, Jenn Flanagan ’99, and Morgan Higby-
Flowers ’03, along with staff member and Assistant Director of Annual
Giving and Volunteer Programs Nate Fochtman ’03.
“We’re always thrilled to have Mercersburg alumni return to our
community in a professional capacity,” Head of School Douglas Hale
says. “To have five alumni join us in a single year is a testament to
the bonds that our students form with this place.”
Jacklin teaches history and is head wrestling coach; Smith is teach-
ing science and math and serving as head diving coach; Flanagan,
who had previously worked in the Alumni & Development Office,
is an assistant director of admission; and Higby-Flowers (the son of
longtime Mercersburg faculty members Mark
Flowers and Kristy Higby) is a part-time teach-
ing intern in the fine arts department.
“I’ve always had a lot of interests, and
working here allows me to pursue several of
my passions, while most jobs would have me
focus on one,” Smith says. “I love teaching
such small classes and being able to focus on
individual students during class time—and in
addition, I was attracted to the idea of bring-
ing my family to a place where they can
experience cultural events, athletics, and
the outdoors in a very safe and intellectual
environment.”
Mercersburg welcomed 13 new faculty members for the 2008–2009
academic year. Front row (L–R):Wallace Whitworth (marketing &
communications), Sayo Yamaguchi (Chinese), Dave Cesa
(mathematics), Morgan Higby-Flowers ’03 (fine arts), Gonzalo del Real
(Spanish). Back row: John Burnette (mathematics), Jenn Flanagan ’99
(admission), Mike Mitchell (admission), Jennifer Miller Smith ’97
(mathematics/science), Nate Jacklin ’96 (history),Tommy Adams
(admission). Not pictured: Steve Blake (alumni & development),
Matthew Geeza (library).
FAMILIARFACES FAMILIAR PLACE

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Planning in Works for
New Turf Field, Athletic
Improvements
Beginning in fall 2009, a new synthetic-turf athletic surface will serve
as a home field for some Mercersburg athletic teams, including the
varsity field hockey and women’s lacrosse squads. Construction was
made possible through a lead major gift from an anonymous donor.
“This is a really exciting time for our program,” says Gretchan
Chace, who enters her fifth season as Mercersburg’s head field hockey
coach this fall. “It’s a great recruiting tool; we’re already pointing out
to prospective students that the 2009 team will be the first to play on
turf here.
“A lot of college programs are going to turf. So when we send our
graduates to play at that level, they’ll be better equipped to handle the
transition to the college game.”
Additionally, the Academy has chosen Bowie Gridley Architects
tomoveforwardwithplanningforinteriorrenovationstoNoldeGymna-
sium. Mercersburg alumnus and parent Bill Gridley ’69 is a partner
in the firm and is the lead architect for the project. Bowie Gridley,
with headquarters in Washington, D.C., previously worked with the
Academy on the development of its campus master plan, its dormi-
tory renovations, and several athletic facilities, including the Smoyer
Tennis Center and Davenport Squash Center.
Dedicatedin1912,theoriginalNoldeGymnasiumhashadnumer-
ous additions, and today is home to the nine-lane Flanagan Pool, the
D
uring my year attending Mercers-
burg on an American Field Service
scholarship (1949–1950), gymnas-
tics was not on the official sports program.
However, “King” John Miller needed an addi-
tional diver for his team, and offered to help
me transfer my gymnastics skills to the spring-
board. I gratefully accepted his offer.
But gymnastics was still my sport. Coach
Frederick Kuhn located a set of old parallel
bars for me, and also arranged for a high bar
to be mounted between the walls of the tower
of the gymnasium. During giant swings on
From the Official Olympic Mailbag
Editor’s note: A native of Finland, Dr. Jean Cronstedt ’50 competed
for Sweden at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, and went on
to become an internal medicine and gastroenterology specialist.
After receiving the summer 2008 issue of Mercersburg, he sent the
following from his home in Trelleborg, Sweden:
that bar, my toes were only a few inches away
from the walls!
My gymnastics spurred interest among the
students and faculty, and I was asked to give
performances during football games. While
representing Mercersburg, I won an Eastern
Seaboard Gymnastics Championship. During
my three years at Penn State, I won two indi-
vidual NCAA gymnastics championships in
1953 and four in 1954. (I am still one of just
two gymnasts to have won four champi-
onships during the same competition.)
On a visit to Pennsylvania in 1996, my
wife, Gerd, and I drove to Mercersburg to
see my old school. Outside of Keil Hall, we
met a girl with a slight accent; it turned out
she was from Lithuania and at Mercersburg
on an American Field Service scholarship—
just like I had been half a century earlier.
In 1998, I received a surprise letter from
Leonard Plantz, one of my favorite Mercers-
burg teachers. We hadn’t had any contact for
48 years, but he saw my name in an NCAA
championship program and found my
address—and it so happened that we were
on our way to fly to the U.S. for a visit. It was
simply great to see Leonard again.
The article on Mercersburg’s Olympians
in your beautiful magazine brought back
many fine memories. For this, I thank you
very much.
—Jean Cronstedt ’50
Plantz Courts, the Kuhn Wrestling Center, the Davenport Squash
Center, the McDowell Fitness Center, locker rooms, athletic-train-
ing facilities, and office space for athletics and physical-education
personnel.
The driving force behind this building project was an $11.5 million
bequest from Dwight Goldthorpe ’37, to be used specifically for new
construction.TheseadditionswillhelptheAcademycontinuetoattract
top-caliber students interested in the well-rounded Mercersburg educa-
tional experience.
Meetings to gather input from parents and alumni were held as part
of Family Weekend and Alumni Weekend events in the fall.

Members of this year’s Mercersburg student body are citizens of a
record 33 nations and represent 31 states and the District of Colum-
bia. Approximately 438 students were enrolled at the beginning of
the fall term, including 164 new students.
More than 9,000 Mercersburg alumni can be found in all 50 states
and in 76 countries around the world.
The 2008 edition of the Blue Review,
Mercersburg’s student-produced literary-
arts journal, garnered a Silver Medal from
the Columbia Scholastic Press Associa-
tion. The publication will compete in
CSPA’s prestigious Gold Circle Award
competition; winners will be announced
in early 2009. Madeleine Foster ’08 and
Laura Willwerth ’08 were co-editors of
the Blue Review this year; Lorraine
Simonis ’10 served as managing editor.
Blue Review traces its origins to The Lit, which was first published
on campus in 1901.
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With a goal of reducing waste and minimizing Mercersburg’s daily
impact on the environment, the school implemented a pair of signif-
icant changes this fall in the area of dining services.
In a typical week during the 2007–2008 academic year, the school
disposed of more than 10,000 paper cups from Ford Hall. As a
response, 850 white china mugs were purchased to eliminate the
need for paper cups; students or employees wishing to take bever-
ages from the dining hall may utilize the mugs, which can be returned
to drop-off bins in each of the dormitories, academic buildings, and
other locations around campus.
During the fall term, required dinners on Tuesday and Thursday
nights were served buffet style (as opposed to family style, where plat-
ters of food are brought to each individual table; in accordance with
health regulations, any uneaten food from family style meals must
be thrown out).
The result, according to Director of Dining Services Jim Butler,
has been a significant reduction in the amount of waste generated
in the process. More than 500 students, faculty, staff, and family
members enjoy meals in Ford Hall each day of the school year. SAGE
Dining Services serves as Mercersburg’s food service provider.
Between international trips, time spent in
the classroom pursuing advanced degrees,
and other endeavors, summer 2008 was a
full season for many Mercersburg faculty
members.
Following are just a few of the highlights:
Jeff Cohen completed a master of science
for teachers in mathematics at the Univer-
sity of New Hampshire; a number of faculty
began or continued work on advanced
degrees, including John David Bennett,
Matt Maurer, Chip Patterson, Jeff Pierce, and
Chip Vink.
Mark Cubit, Eric Hicks, John McAfee, and
Richard Rotz explored different corners of
the world’s map after their names were
drawn in the faculty travel lottery [page 28].
Cubit, his wife, Sandie, and three of their
children (Colin ’06, Kelsie ’08, and Kendra)
visited Colombia; Hicks, his wife, Renee,
and children, Elliot and Emma, experi-
enced England, France, Denmark, and
Passports, Professional
Development, and Preparation
Sweden; McAfee traveled to the Indonesian
island of Bali; and Rotz visited Greece.
And Jim Applebaum and Peter Kempe
(Germany/Austria) and Will Willis (Chile)
accompanied students on exchange visits
with Mercersburg’s sister schools.
Faculty serving as readers and graders for
national AP exams included David Bell,
Franklin Bell, Wells Gray, Phil Kantaros,
Heather Prescott, Frank Rutherford ’70, Allison
Stephens, and WendyValenteen… Larry Jones
participated in an Oxford Round Table on
the relationship between science and
religion… Sue Malone spent 30 days with a
National Outdoor Leadership School
program in the Pacific Northwest… Laurie
Mufson visited Prague on an ASSIST travel
grant, and also traveled to Amsterdam to
conduct research for Stony Batter’s fall
production of The Diary of Anne Frank;
Mufson and Applebaum are taking a group
of Mercersburg students to Prague in spring
2009… Frank Rutherford ’70 left in August for
Visakhapatnam (Vizag), India, where he spent
four months teaching AP environmental
science and micro-economics courses at the
Visakha Valley School through School Year
Abroad… Alisa Springman won a 50-mile race
around Lake Mead in Nevada, and finished
20th in the grueling 135-mile Badwater Ultra-
marathon from Death Valley to Mount
Whitney in California.
Eric Hicks (left) and children Emma and Elliot at
Wimbledon with tennis legend Guillermo Vilas.
’Burg’sEYE VIEW CC AAMMPPUUSS NNOOTTEESS

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World Travelers
In August,five Mercersburg students
and faculty member Will Willis became the
first group from an American secondary school
to participate in an exchange program with
Colegio Alemán de San Felipe, a sister school
of the Academy in central Chile.
Several students from Colegio Alemán
spent a month at Mercersburg in January 2008;
the exchange program is modeled after
Mercersburg’s long-standing exchange with
the Gauss Gymnasium in Worms, Germany,
which is celebrating its 10th year in 2008–
2009. Head of School Douglas Hale marked
the anniversary with a visit to Worms in
September, immediately before a group of
Gauss students and faculty crossed the Atlantic
for their annual stay at Mercersburg. Nine
Academy students joined faculty members Jim
Applebaum and Peter Kempe in spending
three weeks at Gauss in June; the group also
visited several points in Germany and Austria
on the trip.
“Our relationship with the Gauss Gymna-
sium has been an amazing one,” says Willis,
director of international programs, who spent
a year teaching in the former East Germany
as a Fulbright scholar in the mid-1990s. “It’s
an important annual experience for the
Mercersburg community to meet and learn
from our guests. And when our students travel
to Worms, they complement years of classroom
learning with a real opportunity to delve into
the language and culture; the impact of that
hands-on learning is hard to calculate, and
certainly memorable for everyone taking part.”
In 2009, Mercersburg plans to offer inter-
national trips for students to several locales
around the globe, including the Czech Repub-
lic, Costa Rica, Ireland, France, and Spain—
as well as domestic trips to Hawaii (for the
study of marine biology) and New Orleans
(community service).
For images of the Chile exchange courtesy
of trip participant Mariah Blake ’09, see
pages 8–9.
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Top: Mercersburg
in Chile. Right:
Students cruising
the Rhine.

4,047 Words During Mercersburg’s first-
ever exchange with Colegio Alemán de San Felipe
in Chile, Mariah Blake ’09 (inset) snapped these
photos of her home for three weeks on the other
side of the world, a place where—
given Chile’s location in the Southern
Hemisphere—cool, winter-like
conditions can be felt in August.

While searching for that
perfect fit between
themselves and a college,
Mercersburg students (and
parents) have the advantage
of a college-counseling
leader working for them
INTERVIEW BY WALLACE WHITWORTH
MM: How did you come to Mercersburg?
McClintick: It was a crossroads decision when Wirt Winebrenner ’54, my
predecessor, picked up the phone and called me and said, “Have you ever
thought about going to the secondary side?” My goals at that time were to
In September 2008, Bill McClintick,
Mercersburg’s director of college counseling,
was installed as president of the 11,000-
member National Association for College
Admission Counseling (NACAC) at the
association’s annual conference in Seattle.
This marks Bill’s 20th year at Mercersburg.
Has he seen the field of college counseling
change over the last two decades? You bet.
SIDE
ON
YOUR

12 MMEE RR CC EE RRSS BBUU RRGG MMAAGGAA ZZII NN EE WWII NN TTEE RR 2200 0088 –– 2200 0099
MM: How has college counseling changed
in the past few decades?
McClintick:Thirty years ago, it was a far more
collegial profession, where it was much easier
to pick up the phone and have an impact on
a decision.
There were no U.S. News & World Report
rankings; people were far less obsessed with
where they went to school than they are now.
What we see now is a profession that is beset
by all of these cottage industries that prey
on the fears of kids and their parents. There
are commercial interests charging $500 for
this service or that service. Scams exist in a
variety of areas, such as financial-aid coun-
seling. In the older model, you’d have a dean
of admissions that had served at an institu-
tion for many years and had some institu-
tional memory. Now, you have “enrollment
managers” who are being pushed by presi-
dents and provosts of colleges and universi-
ties to generate more applications so that
they can deny more applicants and look
better in the rankings. And that is their ulti-
mate goal, as opposed to thinking about the
best interest of the students.
So unfortunately, I feel it really has
changed, and not for the better.
MM: Since we’re on the topic of U.S. News,
how do you think those rankings aid or skew
people’s perceptions and decisions?
McClintick: It depends on how sophisticated
the consumer is. U.S. News & World Report
has filled a void for many families who don’t
have access to good counseling. On the other
hand, Americans have always loved the quick
and easy fix. If someone else does all this
research to rank colleges for them—given
our national obsession with rankings—then
U.S. News has been able to step into that void.
The problem is that it’s not an individu-
alized ranking system: It does not, because
it cannot, take into account the strengths
and weaknesses of every individual child,
which, of course, is the most important
variable in the college search process.
In fairness to the folks at U.S. News, they
are always trying to improve. For example,
there are usually some very good articles
about the search process that accompany
the rankings, but they tend to get lost because
people go straight to the rankings. Most
people don’t realize that every year U.S.
News tweaks the formulas to make sure that
the rankings shift. The respective institu-
tions have not changed a lick, but they
appear to have changed, because U.S. News
intentionally tweaks variables of their
formula—so that schools move up and down
in the rankings.
MM: What are some of the myths about
what college counseling entails, and how
do you and your staff go about dispelling
them?
McClintick: The greatest asset that my staff
and I bring is helping kids navigate what is
now a very complicated process in ways that
the average public-school counselor simply
cannot. Yes, there are many myths, and to
fight nearly every myth, we constantly have
to remind folks of one overriding message
about getting into a college: It’s the tran-
script, it’s the transcript, and it’s the tran-
script. If you don’t have the transcript, then
the rest doesn’t really matter.
There are at least three or four primary
myths, all of which assume that there are
other factors that can trump or make up for
a weak transcript. One huge myth is that
one’s connections matter more than one’s
either become a full-time collegiate soccer
coach or a director of admissions—and I
hadn’t even considered working on the
secondary side.
I had become particularly fond of
Mercersburg from visits during my years
at Kalamazoo College. I always found
Mercersburg to be a very unpretentious,
accepting place. Coming from a midwestern
school, many of the eastern boarding schools
wouldn’t give us the time of day; that was
never the case with Mercersburg. We always
got great kids from Mercersburg—kids who
were adventurous and willing to look at new
and different and interesting places. So I had
very fond feelings toward the place.
After a lot of soul-searching, my wife and
I decided this would be a great place to settle
down, raise a family, and work more closely
with kids. And I have absolutely no regrets
20 years later.
MM: It’s obvious that you like college
counseling a lot. What are and have been
the most fulfilling aspects of heading
Mercersburg’s college-counseling program?
McClintick: I enjoy the diversity of students
that I get to work with, ranging from kids
from affluent families to first-generation
[college] kids, whose hands you really have
to hold all the way through the process—
along with their parents’ hands. And also the
fact that we are, I feel, somewhat unique in
terms of the variety of colleges that our kids
go to. We are atypical in the number of differ-
ent schools that our kids consider every year.
I find that both challenging and rewarding,
because there’s nothing more fun than
helping a kid find a good fit that he or she
had never heard of two years before.
——BBiillll MMccCClliinnttiicckk
“Certainly,for us,the most exciting thing
is helping kids open their eyes to
possibilities that they would have never
thought of,but which are great fits.”

be national prep schools—for example, a lot
of our peers up in New England are truly
New England prep schools, where everyone
has a New England-or-bust mentality—
Mercersburg sits in a part of the country with
a student body that is very different and
diverse. It is every bit as common, if not more
common, for a student to walk in my door
and say, “I’d like to look in California,” or
“I’d like to look in Texas,” or “I want to go
south,” rather than wanting to go to New
England.
And that’s what is great about our coun-
seling program; we are truly a national office.
We have to know not just 50 or 100 places,
but we have to have a working knowledge
of 400, 500, or 600 colleges, because every
year we will have kids apply to 300 or 400
different colleges. Certainly, for us, the most
exciting thing is helping kids open their eyes
to possibilities that they would have never
thought of, but which are great fits.
MM: How often do you find yourself in a
situationwhereaparent ispressuring,either
overtly or subtly,a student to attend an Ivy
League school or similar, but the parental
desire is totally out of touch with the child’s
transcript; very rarely does this actually
happen. People will assume that if their neigh-
bor went to College X and writes a letter of
recommendation for their child, that it will
somehow make a difference. The truth is that
rarely is this the case. There’s also the notion
that good SAT scores can make up for a lack-
luster transcript, or that how one performs
in the ninth grade really doesn’t count, or
that extracurricular activities can outweigh
the transcript—which is never the case, with
the rare but possible exception of a student
who is a recruited athlete.
The reality is that I can’t pick up the
phone, call a school, and make something
happen just by snapping my fingers. And I
think a lot of times people think that
somehow we can wave a magic wand and get
their child into their college of choice.
MM: What distinguishes Mercersburg’s
college-counseling program? Does much of
it center on determining what is right for
each student—versus a cookie-cutter
approach, such as trying to push as many
students as possible toward one of the Ivies?
McClintick: We are truly a national prep
school. While many schools may pretend to
EEdduuccaattiioonn:: BB..AA.. ((ppoolliittiiccaall sscciieennccee)),,
HHaarrttwwiicckk CCoolllleeggee;; MM..AA.. ((eedduuccaattiioonnaall
aaddmmiinniissttrraattiioonn)),, HHoooodd CCoolllleeggee;; EEaasstt
GGrreeeennwwiicchh [[RRhhooddee IIssllaanndd]] HHiigghh SScchhooooll
AAtt MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg ssiinnccee 11998899;; sseerrvveedd aass
hheeaadd wwoommeenn’’ss ssoocccceerr ccooaacchh 11999900––22000000;;
ccuurrrreennttllyy ccooaacchhiinngg ggooaallkkeeeeppeerrss ffoorr mmeenn’’ss
ssoocccceerr tteeaamm
FFaammiillyy:: WWiiffee,, LLiizz;; ssoonnss,, IIaann ’’0044 ((LLaaffaayyeettttee
CCoolllleeggee ’’0088)),, CChhrriiss ’’0088 ((UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff
RRiicchhmmoonndd ’’1122)),, BBrreennddaann ’’1122
PPrreessiiddeenntt,, NNaattiioonnaall AAssssoocciiaattiioonn ffoorr
CCoolllleeggee AAddmmiissssiioonn CCoouunnsseelliinngg ((NNAACCAACC));;
ssppeenntt ffiivvee yyeeaarrss aass oorrggaanniizzaattiioonn’’ss lliiaaiissoonn
ttoo tthhee NNCCAAAA aanndd tthhrreeee yyeeaarrss aass vviiccee--
pprreessiiddeenntt ffoorr aaddmmiissssiioonn pprraaccttiicceess;; ppaasstt
pprreessiiddeenntt,, PPeennnnssyyllvvaanniiaa AAssssoocciiaattiioonn ffoorr
CCoolllleeggee AAddmmiissssiioonn CCoouunnsseelliinngg ((PPAACCAACC))
11999988 wwiinnnneerr ooff NNAACCAACC’’ss pprreessttiiggiioouuss
MMaarrggaarreett AAddddiiss AAwwaarrdd;; nnaammeessaakkee ooff
PPAACCAACC’’ss nneewwWWiilllliiaamm RR.. MMccCClliinnttiicckk
SSeerrvviiccee AAwwaarrdd
PPrreevviioouuss ssttooppss:: HHaarrttwwiicckk CCoolllleeggee
((aassssiissttaanntt ddiirreeccttoorr ooff aaddmmiissssiioonn)),,
KKaallaammaazzoooo CCoolllleeggee ((aassssoocciiaattee ddiirreeccttoorr ooff
aaddmmiissssiioonn//hheeaadd wwoommeenn’’ss ssoocccceerr ccooaacchh))
OOnn hhiiss ssttaarrtt:: ““UUnnbbeekknnoowwnnsstt ttoo mmee,,
JJoohhnn MMuuyysskkeennss,, tthhee ddeeaann ooff aaddmmiissssiioonnss
aatt HHaarrttwwiicckk,, wwaass oonnee ooff tthhee lliivviinngg
lleeggeennddss iinn tthhee wwoorrlldd ooff ccoolllleeggee
aaddmmiissssiioonnss;; hhee hhaadd bbeeeenn tthhee ddiirreeccttoorr ooff
aaddmmiissssiioonnss aatt bbootthh YYaallee aanndd SSttaannffoorrdd
bbeeffoorree ccoommiinngg ttoo HHaarrttwwiicckk.. HHee
aapppprrooaacchheedd mmee aabboouutt wwoorrkkiinngg iinn
aaddmmiissssiioonnss,, aanndd hhaavviinngg nnootthhiinngg eellssee
lliinneedd uupp,, II aacccceepptteedd;; ssoo,, lliikkee mmaannyy ootthheerr
yyoouunngg aalluummss aaccrroossss tthhee llaanndd,, II ssttaarrtteedd iinn
tthhee bbuussiinneessss bbyy wwoorrkkiinngg ffoorr mmyy aallmmaa
mmaatteerr..WWhhaatt II ddiiddnn’’tt rreeaalliizzee wwaass wwhhaatt aa
ggrreeaatt pphhiilloossoopphhiiccaall uunnddeerrppiinnnniinngg
wwoorrkkiinngg ffoorr MMuuyysskkeennss wwoouulldd ggiivvee mmee iinn
tteerrmmss ooff tthhee pprrooffeessssiioonn..””
THE McCLINTICK FILE

FFoorr mmoosstt MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg ssttuuddeennttss,, bbooaarrddiinngg sscchhooooll iiss tthheeiirr ffiirrsstt eexxppeerriieennccee lliivviinngg aawwaayy
ffrroomm hhoommee.. BBuutt tthhaatt ddooeessnn’’tt mmeeaann ssttuuddeennttss aarree oonn tthheeiirr oowwnn..
MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg’’ss aaddvviisseerr ssyysstteemm iiss iinn ppllaaccee ttoo mmaakkee ssuurree aallll ssttuuddeennttss hhaavvee aatt lleeaasstt
oonnee ffaaccuullttyy mmeemmbbeerr ssppeecciiffiiccaallllyy wwaattcchhiinngg oovveerr tthheemm dduurriinngg tthhee ccoouurrssee ooff tthhee
aaccaaddeemmiicc yyeeaarr.. AAllll aaddvviisseerrss aarree aassssiiggnneedd aa hhaannddffuull ooff ssttuuddeennttss ((uussuuaallllyy bbeettwweeeenn ssiixx
aanndd eeiigghhtt)) tthhaatt aarree aassssoocciiaatteedd wwiitthh tthhee ssaammee ddoorrmmiittoorryy.. AAddvviisseeee ggrroouuppss mmeeeett aatt
lleeaasstt oonnccee eeaacchh wweeeekk,, aanndd aaddvviisseerrss aacctt aass lliiaaiissoonnss bbeettwweeeenn ppaarreennttss aanndd tthhee sscchhooooll
bbyy ccoonnvveeyyiinngg ccoommmmeennttss,, ccoonncceerrnnss,, aanndd aaccccoommpplliisshhmmeennttss oonn aa rreegguullaarr bbaassiiss..
““IInn aa wwaayy,, tthhee aaddvviisseerr iiss aa ssaaffeettyy nneett,,””ssaayyss AAssssoocciiaattee HHeeaadd ooff SScchhooooll DDeebbbbiiee
RRuutthheerrffoorrdd,, wwhhoo oovveerrsseeeess tthhee ssyysstteemm..WWhhiillee tthhee aaddvviisseerr mmaayy oorr mmaayy nnoott bbee tthhee
ccoonnffiiddaanntt ffoorr eeaacchh ooff hhiiss//hheerr iinnddiivviidduuaall aaddvviisseeeess,,““aaddvviisseerrss aarree aallwwaayyss ttaakkiinngg tthhee
tteemmppeerraattuurree ooff hhooww aa ssttuuddeenntt iiss ddooiinngg,,”” aaddddss RRuutthheerrffoorrdd,, wwhhoo iiss aann aaddvviisseerr hheerrsseellff
aanndd hhaass sseeeenn tthhee ssyysstteemm wwoorrkk ffrroomm tthhee ootthheerr ssiiddee aass aa MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg ppaarreenntt..
““BBeeiinngg aann aaddvviisseerr iiss pprroobbaabbllyy mmyy ffaavvoorriittee ppaarrtt ooff tthhee jjoobb hheerree,,””ssaayyss ffaaccuullttyy
mmeemmbbeerr JJeeffff CCoohheenn,, wwhhoo lliivveess iinn MMaaiinn HHaallll..““II ffeeeell lliikkee mmoorree ooff aa bbiigg bbrrootthheerr ttoo tthhee
kkiiddss,, aanndd lliivviinngg iinn tthhee ddoorrmm wwiitthh tthheemm hheellppss mmee kkeeeepp uupp wwiitthh tthheemm ddaaiillyy.. IItt’’ss mmyy
hhooppee tthhaatt iitt ffeeeellss lliikkee aann eexxtteennddeedd ffaammiillyy ffoorr tthheemm;; II kknnooww iitt ddooeess ffoorr mmee..TThhee kkiiddss
aallssoo llooookk oouutt ffoorr oonnee aannootthheerr,, aanndd ssoommee ooff tthhee bbeesstt eexxppeerriieenncceess II’’vvee hhaadd hheerree
iinnvvoollvvee sseeeeiinngg mmyy uuppppeerrccllaassss aaddvviisseeeess sshhoowwiinngg nneeww ssttuuddeennttss tthhee rrooppeess——bbee iitt
ssoocciiaallllyy,, aatthhlleettiiccaallllyy,, oorr aaccaaddeemmiiccaallllyy..””
TThhee aaddvviisseerr ssyysstteemm aatt MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg ttrraacceess iittss rroooottss bbaacckk ttoo tthhee aarrrriivvaall ooff ffoorrmmeerr
hheeaaddmmaasstteerrWWiilllliiaamm FFoowwllee iinn tthhee eeaarrllyy 11996600ss..TThhee ssyysstteemm iiss oonnee ooff sseevveerraall iinn ppllaaccee
ttoo ssuuppppoorrtt ssttuuddeennttss iinn aallll aarreeaass ooff tthheeiirr lliivveess;; ootthheerrss iinncclluuddee rreegguullaarr iinntteerraaccttiioonnss
wwiitthh ppeeeerr ggrroouuppss ((wwhheerree aallll 99tthh--ggrraaddee ssttuuddeennttss mmeeeett wweeeekkllyy ffoorr tthhee ffiirrsstt hhaallff ooff
tthhee yyeeaarr wwiitthh aa sseenniioorr ssttuuddeenntt lleeaaddeerr)),, iinn--ddoorrmm ffaaccuullttyy,, aatthhlleettiicc tteeaammss,, ssttuuddeenntt
oorrggaanniizzaattiioonnss,, aanndd eevveenn aassssiiggnneedd ttaabblleess iinn tthhee ddiinniinngg hhaallll ((wwhhiicchh rroottaattee eevveerryy
ttwwoo wweeeekkss ttoo aallllooww aallll mmeemmbbeerrss ooff tthhee MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg ccoommmmuunniittyy ttoo iinntteerraacctt
wwiitthh oonnee aannootthheerr))..
hopes, dreams and/or capabilities? Or the
opposite,where the student has the castle-
in-the-sky view, and the parents are more
realistic? How do you handle those
situations?
McClintick:The media have actually helped
work against some of these perceptions,
because there’s been so much focus on how
hard it is now to get into the Ivies and the
handful of institutions that the national
media love to focus on. So I think most
parents now have a much better under-
standing of how exceptionally difficult it is
to get in to those elite schools.
I think kids get it, too. Kids tend to be
far better about this, because kids are a little
closer to the process. They see what happens
to their peers—whether it’s through Face-
book or blogs or what have you, they know
how tough it is. Sometimes we do have to
push kids harder. At 17, some kids are afraid
to take the risk, because their greatest fear
is rejection.
This is the problem that arises when
parents push kids toward unrealistic options.
The student knows they’re unrealistic, and
he doesn’t want all those rejection letters
in the spring—but the parents are making
him apply to these places because they
perceive the social advantage of saying,
“Well, Johnny’s applying to College X, Y,
and Z.” The kid doesn’t really want to apply
to those places, and yet feels he has to in
order to keep his parents happy—those are
the more difficult cases. But students are
probably savvier than the parents, for the
most part.
MM: What kind of role does financial aid
play in the college admission process?
McClintick: The sad truth is that it’s a very
different process for students with financial
need than for families who do not need aid.
Talking about financial aid is important,
because a lot of families don’t think about
that until they get into the process—but for
many families, this is a critical factor.
Mercersburg has always done such a
THE ADVISER SYSTEM
Jeff Cohen (second from right) with former and current advisees Chris Freeland ’08,
Joe Strider ’10, David Strider ’08, and Josh Rosenblat ’08.

wonderful job of supporting kids during
their time here, but many colleges can’t
afford to be as generous as we are. It’s
important for parents and students to have
an open line of communication on this front
so we can plan accordingly.
MM: In September, you were installed as
president of NACAC. Where will leading
this esteemed organization take you in the
next year, and how is your presidency a
benefit to Mercersburg faculty, students,
and parents?
McClintick: When you serve as president of
an association like NACAC, you’re serving
a diverse national association and repre-
senting everything from community colleges
and small rural high schools to top prep
schools and the most selective colleges in
the country. So everything we do as an asso-
ciation is going to be fairly focused on the
big picture. And the big-picture items consis-
tently are pushing for access and funding for
education, outreach efforts for underserved
kids, trying to demystify the process as best
we can, and keeping control of our own
profession so that the cottage industries and
the media are not presenting a warped view
of how the process really works.
For Mercersburg, clearly the greatest
advantage is that we’ll get tremendous expo-
sure nationally within the world of college
admissions and higher education and in the
national media, because there will be a
number of occasions where I’ll be able to be
interviewed by national media or travel to
represent NACAC nationally in different
forums. So I think it will be a great oppor-
tunity to get our name out there more so
than it already is.
MM: What kind of general counsel would
you give parents whose children are now
in the zone for the college search process?
McClintick: Try to take a step back and really
focus on what’s going to be best for your
child. Try to focus on their happiness and
their ability to succeed at the college they
choose—and not on the bumper sticker
“It’simportant forkidsand
parents to take the time
toreallydo theirhomeworkin
thesearchprocess.Thisisnot
aprocess tobe takenlightly.”
continued on page 17
Mercersburg’s college-counseling staff (L–R):
Frank Betkowski, Karla Bingaman, Caroline
Sanders, Bill McClintick.

IImmaaggiinnee aa rroooomm tthhee ssiizzee ooff aa CCoossttccoo oorr SSaamm’’ss
CClluubb——fflluuoorreesscceennttllyy bbrriigghhtt aanndd ssttrriippppeedd ttoo tthhee
bbaarree eesssseennttiiaallss ffoorr rraappiidd eexxcchhaannggee..
YYoouu wwoonn’’tt ffiinndd bblluuee--lliigghhtt ssppeecciiaallss,, sshhooppppiinngg
ccaarrttss,, oorr bbooxxeess ooff ccoorrnn ffllaakkeess tthhee ssiizzee ooff aa 33--yyeeaarr--
oolldd hheerree..YYeett tthheerree aarree““cchheecckkoouutt”” llaanneess,, wwhheerree
tthhee bbuuyyeerrss aanndd sseelllleerrss sswwiittcchh rroolleess,, ddeeppeennddiinngg
oonn wwhhoo nneeeeddss wwhhaatt ffrroomm wwhhoomm.. NNoo mmoonneeyy
cchhaannggeess hhaannddss,, bbuutt eevveerryyoonnee aarrrriivveess fflluusshh wwiitthh
tthhee ccuurrrreennccyy dduu jjoouurr——aa lliiffeettiimmee ssuuppppllyy ooff
bbuussiinneessss ccaarrddss..
TThhiiss wwrriitteerr iiss aalloonngg ffoorr tthhee rriiddee,, bbuutt ffoorr FFrraannkk
aanndd CCaarroolliinnee,, tthhiiss iiss sseerriioouuss bbuussiinneessss.. AAss wwee
ppuusshh tthhrroouugghh tthhee ccrroowwdd iinnttoo tthhee ffaaiirr,, II ccaann sseeee
tthhaatt tthhee rroooomm iiss ffiilllleedd wwiitthh rrooww uuppoonn rrooww ooff
nnootthhiinngg bbuutt bbooootthhss ssttaaffffeedd bbyy aaddmmiissssiioonn
ooffffiicceerrss ffrroomm vviirrttuuaallllyy eevveerryy ccoolllleeggee iinn tthhee
UUnniitteedd SSttaatteess,, pplluuss aa ffaaiirr aammoouunntt ffrroomm CCaannaaddaa
aanndd tthhee UUnniitteedd KKiinnggddoomm..
““TThhiiss iiss oouurr cchhaannccee ttoo ttaallkk ffaaccee--ttoo--ffaaccee
wwiitthh aaddmmiissssiioonn ooffffiicceerrss——aanndd ssoommeettiimmeess tthhee
aaccttuuaall ddeeaannss ooff aaddmmiissssiioonn——aabboouutt ssppeecciiffiicc
MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg ssttuuddeennttss,,””FFrraannkk tteellllss mmee aass
wwee ggrraabb aa hhuuggee aallpphhaabbeettiiccaall lliisstt ooff tthhee
ppaarrttiicciippaattiinngg sscchhoooollss.. ””II’’mm ggooiinngg ttoo ssttaarrtt ffrroomm
tthhee bboottttoomm ooff tthhee aallpphhaabbeett,, ssiinnccee mmoosstt ootthheerr
ppeeooppllee aarree ssttaarrttiinngg ffrroomm tthhee ttoopp..””
[[EEddiittoorr’’ss nnoottee::TToo pprrootteecctt ssttuuddeenntt pprriivvaaccyy,, ssoommee
ddeettaaiillss iinn tthhee ddeessccrriippttiioonnss ooff ssttuuddeennttss tthhaatt ffoollllooww
hhaavvee bbeeeenn aalltteerreedd..]]
ffiirrsstt ssttoopp iiss YYaallee UUnniivveerrssiittyy..
FFrraannkk’’ss aapppprrooaacchh wwoorrkkss;;
tthheerree’’ss nnoo oonnee aatt tthhee YYaallee bbooootthh yyeett.. HHee
iinnttrroodduucceess hhiimmsseellff ttoo tthhee YYaallee rreepprreesseennttaattiivvee,,
tthheenn ddiivveess iinnttoo wwhhaatt II ccoommee ttoo sseeee aass hhiiss vveerryy
ffooccuusseedd ““eelleevvaattoorr ssppeeeecchh”” aabboouutt aa ppaarrttiiccuullaarr
ssttuuddeenntt..““II’’vvee ggoott tthhiiss ssttuuddeenntt wwhhoo iiss nneeaarr tthhee
ttoopp ooff hhiiss ccllaassss…… aa ppoossssiibbllee ssaalluuttaattoorriiaann……
hhee’’ss aann eexxcceelllleenntt tteesstteerr,, ggrreeaatt aaccttiivviittiieess,, vveerryy
aaddmmiissssiibbllee,,”” FFrraannkk ssaayyss ttoo tthhee YYaallee rreepp..
““MMeeaannwwhhiillee,, aaddmmiitt rraatteess iinn tthhee IIvvyy LLeeaagguuee
aarree tteennddiinngg iinnttoo tthhee ssiinnggllee ddiiggiittss,, aanndd II jjuusstt
ddeessccrriibbeedd mmoosstt ooff tthhee aapppplliiccaanntt ppooooll.. HHee’’ss ffrroomm
AAssiiaa.. [[TThhee aaddmmiitt rraattee ffoorr iinntteerrnnaattiioonnaall ssttuuddeennttss
iiss uussuuaallllyy hhaallff tthhee nnoorrmmaall rraattee..]] TTeellll mmee,, ddooeess hhee
ssttaanndd aa cchhaannccee??””
TThhee YYaallee rreepp iiss nnoonnccoommmmiittttaall,, bbuutt iinntteerreesstteedd..
AAss wwee lleeaavvee,, FFrraannkk ttuurrnnss ttoo mmee aanndd ssaayyss,,““HHee
wwoonn’’tt rreemmeemmbbeerr tthhee nnaammee ooff tthhee ssttuuddeenntt II
ttaallkkeedd aabboouutt,, bbuutt cchhaanncceess aarree hhee wwiillll rreemmeemmbbeerr
tthhaatt MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg hhaass aa vviiaabbllee ccaannddiiddaattee ooff
iinntteerreesstt ttoo tthheemm..””
FFrroomm YYaallee wwee ggoo ttoo tthhee UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff TTeexxaass..
FFrraannkk rreeaaddiieess,, aaiimmss,, aanndd ffiirreess::““II’’vvee ggoott aa ssttuuddeenntt
wwhhoo iiss aa TTeexxaann,, bbuutt aatttteennddiinngg aa bbooaarrddiinngg sscchhooooll
iinn PPeennnnssyyllvvaanniiaa.. IInn TTeexxaass,, hhee’’dd bbee aann iinnssttaanntt
aaddmmiitt bbeeccaauussee hhee’’dd qquuaalliiffyy ffoorr tthhee ttoopp--1100--
ppeerrcceenntt pprrooggrraamm.. BBuutt wwee’’rree oobbvviioouussllyy nnoott aa
TTeexxaass hhiigghh sscchhooooll,, aanndd wwee ddoonn’’tt rraannkk.. HHooww iiss
hhee ggooiinngg ttoo bbee rreeaadd??””TThhee UUTT rreepp pprroocceeeeddss ttoo
ccllaarriiffyy wwhhaatt’’ss ppoossssiibbllee aanndd wwhhaatt iissnn’’tt,, aanndd
lluucckkiillyy ffoorr FFrraannkk aanndd tthhee ssttuuddeenntt iinn qquueessttiioonn,,
tthhee nneewwss iiss llaarrggeellyy ppoossiittiivvee aabboouutt hhiiss cchhaanncceess
ffoorr aacccceeppttaannccee..
TThhiiss iiss oonnee ffrreenneettiicc aannnnuuaall rriittuuaall——tthhee
ggiiggaannttiicc CCoouunnsseelloorrss’’CCoolllleeggee FFaaiirr aatt tthhee aannnnuuaall
ccoonnffeerreennccee ((hheelldd tthhiiss yyeeaarr iinn SSeeaattttllee)) ooff tthhee
NNaattiioonnaall AAssssoocciiaattiioonn ffoorr CCoolllleeggee AAddmmiissssiioonn
CCoouunnsseelliinngg,, bbeetttteerr kknnoowwnn iinn tthhee aaccaaddeemmiicc
wwoorrlldd aass NNAACCAACC ((pprroonnoouunncceedd ““NNAACCKK--aacckk””))..
MMoosstt ooff NNAACCAACC’’ss 1111,,000000 mmeemmbbeerrss aarree
ccoolllleeggee--aaddmmiissssiioonn ccoouunnsseelloorrss aatt tthhee sseeccoonnddaarryy
lleevveell,, oorr ccoolllleeggee--aaddmmiissssiioonn ddeeaannss aanndd aaddmmiissssiioonn
ooffffiicceerrss.. NNAACCAACC iiss tthhee vvooiiccee ffoorr hhiigghh--sscchhooooll
ssttuuddeennttss aanndd tthhoossee wwhhoo hheellpp tthheemm ppuurrssuuee tthheeiirr
hhiigghheerr--eedduuccaattiioonn ddrreeaammss.. FFoorr CCaarroolliinnee SSaannddeerrss
aanndd FFrraannkk BBeettkkoowwsskkii,, MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg’’ss aassssoocciiaattee
ddiirreeccttoorrss ooff ccoolllleeggee ccoouunnsseelliinngg,, NNAACCAACC pprroovviiddeess
aa nneettwwoorrkk ooff ppeeooppllee tthheeyy ccaann lleeaann oonn aanndd
ttaapp iinnttoo iinn oorrddeerr ttoo eennssuurree tthheeyy aarree aass hheellppffuull
aass ppoossssiibbllee ttoo MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg’’ss ssttuuddeennttss aanndd
tthheeiirr ppaarreennttss..
BBYY WWAALLLLAACCEE WWHHIITTWWOORRTTHH
GGoo aalloonngg ffoorr tthhee rriiddee
wwiitthh MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg’’ss
iinnttrreeppiidd ccoolllleeggee ccoouunnsseelloorrss
RELENTLESS IN SEATTLE
OUR

MMEE RRCC EE RR SSBB UURR GG MMAAGGAAZZ II NN EE WW II NN TTEERR 220000 88 –– 220000 99 17
SSttiillll bboouunncciinngg aarroouunndd tthhee TT--UU--VV aaiisslleess,, wwee
hheeaadd ffoorr tthhee UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff CChhiiccaaggoo’’ss bbooootthh.. IItt’’ss
ffaaiirrllyy ccrroowwddeedd.. SSuuddddeennllyy,, tthhrreeee ppeeooppllee wwaallkk
aawwaayy,, aanndd wwee mmoovvee iinn ttoo ffiillll tthhee vvooiidd..
FFrraannkk,, oonnccee aaggaaiinn oonn tthhee ssttuummpp::““II’’vvee ggoott
tthhiiss ssttuuddeenntt wwhhoo iiss ggeennuuiinneellyy iinntteelllleeccttuuaallllyy
ccuurriioouuss.. IItt’’ss aammaazziinngg hhooww mmaannyy ccoolllleeggeess tthheerree
aarree oouutt tthheerree ffuullll ooff bbrriigghhtt,, hhiigghh--aacchhiieevviinngg
kkiiddss——wwhhiillee tthheerree aarree ssoo ffeeww ffoorr tthhee ttrruullyy
cceerreebbrraall.. AAnnyywwaayy,, sshhee’’ss aa rreeaall ‘‘lliiffee ooff tthhee mmiinndd’’
kkiinndd ooff kkiidd,, ssoo,, nnoott ssuurrpprriissiinnggllyy,, sshhee hhaass mmoorree
BB’’ss tthhaann AA’’ss.. SShhee’’ss aann eexxcceelllleenntt tteesstteerr..WWiitthh
aaddmmiissssiioonnss bbeeiinngg ssoo ccoommppeettiittiivvee tthheessee
ddaayyss,, ddooeess CChhiiccaaggoo eevveenn ttaakkee cchhaanncceess oonn
iinntteelllleeccttuuaallllyy ccuurriioouuss kkiiddss wwiitthh BB’’ss aannyymmoorree??””
WWee lleeaarrnn tthhee vveerrddiicctt:: CChhiiccaaggoo ssttiillll hhaass aa
ppllaaccee ffoorr iinntteelllleeccttuuaallllyy ccuurriioouuss kkiiddss aanndd
eennccoouurraaggeess tthhee MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg ssttuuddeenntt’’ss
aapppplliiccaattiioonn..
BBuutt eeaacchh ssttoopp ddooeessnn’’tt eennttaaiill aa mmaarrkkeettiinngg
ppiittcchh ffoorr aa ssppeecciiffiicc ssttuuddeenntt..TThhee eevveenntt iiss tthhee
ppeerrffeecctt ttiimmee ffoorr CCaarroolliinnee aanndd FFrraannkk ttoo rreesseeaarrcchh
ddiiffffeerreenntt sscchhoooollss——oonneess tthhaatt tthheeyy kknnooww wweellll
aanndd oonneess tthhaatt tthheeyy’’vvee nneevveerr vviissiitteedd——tthhaatt sseeeemm
iinntteerreessttiinngg ffoorr MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg ssttuuddeennttss..
NNAACCAACC iiss wwhheerree CCaarroolliinnee aanndd FFrraannkk ccaann
ggaatthheerr iinnffoorrmmaattiioonn nnoott ffoouunndd oonn aa ccoolllleeggee’’ss
wweebbssiittee oorr iinn iittss aaddmmiissssiioonn mmaatteerriiaallss.. IItt’’ss aallssoo aa
ttiimmee ttoo rreeccoonnnneecctt wwiitthh oolldd ffrriieennddss ttoo lleeaarrnn
wwhhaatt iiss ggooiinngg oonn aatt tthheeiirr sscchhoooollss aanndd ttoo iinnvviittee
tthheemm ttoo ccaammppuuss ttoo mmeeeett ssttuuddeennttss..
CCaassee iinn ppooiinntt::WWeelllleesslleeyy CCoolllleeggee.. CCaarroolliinnee
aanndd II hheeaadd oovveerr ttoo tthheeiirr bbooootthh.. CCaarroolliinnee
ddooeessnn’’tt hhaavvee aa ppaarrttiiccuullaarr ssttuuddeenntt ttoo ppiittcchh,, bbuutt
sshhee kknnoowwss ooff sseevveerraall ssttuuddeennttss aatt MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg
wwhhoo’’vvee mmeennttiioonneedd WWeelllleesslleeyy aass aa ccoolllleeggee--ooff--
iinntteerreesstt.. SSoo sshhee ttaakkeess ttiimmee ttoo qquueessttiioonn tthhee
aaddmmiissssiioonn ooffffiicceerr aabboouutt rreecceenntt cchhaannggeess ttoo
WWeelllleesslleeyy’’ss aapppplliiccaattiioonn pprroocceessss,, wwhhaatt tthheeyy aarree
llooookkiinngg ffoorr,, hhooww tthheeyy bbaallaannccee SSAATT ssccoorreess wwiitthh
aa ttrraannssccrriipptt,, eettcc.. SShhee ccoommeess aawwaayy ffeeeelliinngg
mmuucchh mmoorree cclleeaarr--mmiinnddeedd aabboouutt wwhhoomm sshhee
sshhoouulldd sstteeeerr ttoo WWeelllleesslleeyy..
TThhee ffaaiirr aanndd iittss ffrreennzzyy llaasstteedd jjuusstt ttwwoo
hhoouurrss,, bbuutt FFrraannkk aanndd CCaarroolliinnee wweerree ccoonnssuummeedd
ffoorr tthhrreeee ssoolliidd ddaayyss wwiitthh aallll ooff tthhee ootthheerr
ffaacceettss tthhaatt tthhee NNAACCAACC ccoonnffeerreenncceess ooffffeerr
ttoo ppeeooppllee iinn tthheeiirr ffiieelldd..
OOnnee ooff tthhee sseessssiioonnss tthhaatt ssttoooodd oouutt ttoo
FFrraannkk ffeeaattuurreedd aa rreeppoorrtt bbyy tthhee NNAACCAACC
CCoommmmiissssiioonn oonn tthhee UUssee ooff SSttaannddaarrddiizzeedd TTeessttss
iinn CCoolllleeggee AAddmmiissssiioonnss——aa bblluuee--rriibbbboonn ppaanneell
cchhaaiirreedd bbyy BBiillll FFiittzzssiimmmmoonnss,, tthhee ddeeaann ooff
aaddmmiissssiioonn aanndd ffiinnaanncciiaall aaiidd aatt HHaarrvvaarrdd
UUnniivveerrssiittyy.. FFrraannkk aallssoo aatttteennddeedd aa ttoowwnn--hhaallll
mmeeeettiinngg ffeeaattuurriinngg MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg’’ss oowwnn BBiillll
MMccCClliinnttiicckk aanndd tthhee NNAACCAACC eexxeeccuuttiivvee bbooaarrdd
ssuurrrroouunnddiinngg ttrreennddss iinn ffiinnaanncciiaall aaiidd aanndd tthhee
iinnfflluueennccee ooff rraannkkiinnggss oonn hhiigghheerr--eedd ((wwhhiicchh
aaddmmiissssiioonn ooffffiicceerrss ggeenneerraallllyy ddeeccrryy wwhhiillee
wwiillllffuullllyy ppaarrttiicciippaattiinngg iinn)),, aanndd aa pprreesseennttaattiioonn
bbyy SSccootttt AAnnddeerrssoonn,, FFrraannkk’’ss pprreeddeecceessssoorr aatt
MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg,, wwhhoo nnooww cchhaaiirrss tthhee nnaattiioonnaall
aaddmmiissssiioonnss pprraaccttiicceess ccoommmmiitttteeee.. AAnnddeerrssoonn’’ss
sseessssiioonn ddeeaalltt wwiitthh pprrooppoosseedd cchhaannggeess ttoo tthhee
SSttaannddaarrddss ooff PPrriinncciipplleess ooff GGoooodd PPrraaccttiiccee——tthhee
ccooddee ooff eetthhiiccss bbyy wwhhiicchh aallll NNAACCAACC mmeemmbbeerrss
mmuusstt aabbiiddee..
CCaarroolliinnee wwaass iinnttrriigguueedd bbyy aa sseessssiioonn
eexxaammiinniinngg tthhee uussee ooff ddaattaa iinn aaddmmiissssiioonn
ccoouunnsseelliinngg..““TThhee lleeaadd pprreesseenntteerr,,TTrriisshh HHaattcchh ooff
SSaann DDiieeggoo SSttaattee UUnniivveerrssiittyy,, iiss aa ttrruuee rreesseeaarrcchheerr
aanndd tteeaacchheerr,,””CCaarroolliinnee ssaayyss..““TTrriisshh ttaauugghhtt uuss
ttaannggiibbllee wwaayyss iinn wwhhiicchh wwee ccoouulldd ccoolllleecctt ddaattaa
iinn aallll tthhaatt wwee ddoo——nnoott jjuusstt aanneeccddoottaall eevviiddeennccee..
SShhee hhaadd ggrreeaatt ssuuggggeessttiioonnss ffoorr hhooww ttoo
ddeetteerrmmiinnee iiff aa ppaarrttiiccuullaarr ttyyppee ooff pprrooggrraammmmiinngg
wwoorrkkss ffoorr ssttuuddeennttss..””
CClleeaarrllyy,, tthhee aannnnuuaall NNAACCAACC ccoonnffeerreennccee
iiss bbeenneeffiicciiaall nnoott oonnllyy ffoorr MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg’’ss
ccoouunnsseelloorrss,, bbuutt,, iinn tthhee eenndd,, ffoorr tthhee ssttuuddeennttss
tthheeyy ccoouunnsseell..““II hhaadd bbeeeenn aa NNAACCAACC mmeemmbbeerr
ffoorr yyeeaarrss,,””FFrraannkk ssaayyss,,““bbuutt uunnttiill II aarrrriivveedd aatt
MMeerrcceerrssbbuurrgg,, II hhaadd nneevveerr bbeeeenn aaffffoorrddeedd tthhee
ooppppoorrttuunniittyy ttoo aatttteenndd tthhee ccoonnffeerreennccee.. II hhaadd
nnoo iiddeeaa hhooww iinnvvaalluuaabbllee tthhee pprrooffeessssiioonnaall
ddeevveellooppmmeenntt aanndd nneettwwoorrkkiinngg ooppppoorrttuunniittiieess
ccaann bbee..””
WWhhiillee CCaarroolliinnee aanndd FFrraannkk aaggrreeee tthhaatt bbeeiinngg
aabbllee ttoo aatttteenndd tthhee nnaattiioonnaall ccoonnffeerreennccee eeaacchh
yyeeaarr iiss aa mmaajjoorr hheellpp,, tthheeyy aarree nnootthhiinngg sshhoorrtt
ooff eemmpphhaattiicc tthhaatt wwoorrkkiinngg eeaacchh ddaayy wwiitthh
MMccCClliinnttiicckk,, aa lleeggeenndd iinn tthhee pprrooffeessssiioonn,, hhaass
mmaaddee tthheemm mmuucchh mmoorree pprrooffiicciieenntt aass
pprrooffeessssiioonnaallss..
that’s going to be on the back of your car.
Make it about the child. And know that we
will help open up a world of possibilities
to them; we will work with them, we’re acces-
sible, and they will get the best advice we
can give them to help them through this
process and keep the stress level to a
minimum—to the extent that we can.
But ultimately, the most important thing
is setting your child up for success in college,
and for your child to be happy. Because if
your child isn’t happy, he or she won’t be
successful. We want to work with your child
to find that place, that fit. To us, it’s all about
fit—that’s our mantra.
MM:And advice for a group of 11th-graders?
McClintick: Don’t limit yourself; it’s a big
world. This is your chance to think broadly,
to take risks, and to be open to considering
places you may have never thought of before.
Don’t become part of the ESPN generation
that feels as if you’ve never seen a school on
ESPN, it must not be any good. Or if it’s not
in the top 50 of the U.S. News & World
Report rankings, it can’t be any good.
Be flexible. Be a good listener. Follow
your heart, and don’t assume that you know
it all at age 16. Take the time to take a step
back and look at a wide variety of options.
MM: Any final thoughts?
McClintick: It’s important for kids and parents
to take the time to really do their homework
in the search process. This is not a process
to be taken lightly; one of the great things
about being at a place like Mercersburg is
you don’t just follow your friends or girlfriend
to college, and you don’t just go the easy
route. We won’t let you get through it without
doing some real soul-searching, and you have
to be prepared to do that. And if you give us
quick and easy answers, we’ll probably chal-
lenge you to see if you’ve really thought
through some of the things that you’re saying.
Are you making choices just because of name
or just because of what your friends or parents
said, or are you making decisions based on
good research and knowledge? We want to
make sure it’s the latter.
continued from page 15

oarding school, by nature, lends itself to
accelerated development. ¶ Learning to live on
your own in a supportive and focused environment
like the one at Mercersburg—to say nothing of the
challenging academic workload—helps students quickly
prepare themselves for college and beyond. ¶ Some alumni
made an impact before they even enrolled in college.
Claire Van Ness ’03 assisted with the teaching of an
intermediate-level French course while still a student.
Fellow 2003 graduate Zak Zielezinski worked on a
fundraiser for his Mercersburg class involving the purchase
and sale of used textbooks—an idea that was the impetus for
his early success in the business world.¶ The guidance and
counsel of dedicated faculty living and working alongside
students is crucial; Bill Schindler ’02, a sportscaster working
for an ESPN Radio affiliate in Hawaii, will tell you he
considers Director of College Counseling Bill McClintick
(his Mercersburg adviser) a friend to this day. Teach for
America participant Rachna Shah ’03 speaks equally highly
of Tom Thorne, her Latin teacher here.¶ On the following
pages, you’ll find just a few Mercersburg graduates of the
last 10 years who are already making their mark.
Mercersburg Profiles
B

At Mercersburg, twin sisters Rachna ’03 and
Ripal ’03 Shah had a lot of proverbial irons
in the fire. Both were active in a number of
extracurricular activities and played on several
athletic teams. In the five short years since
their graduation, not only have they not
slowed their pace of activity, but each has
RIPAL AND RACHNA SHAH DOUBLE THEIR EFFORTS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE BY SHELTON CLARK
IMMEDIATE IMPACT
focused her energy toward helping others
and having a positive effect on the world.
Both sisters grew up in West Virginia and
enrolled at Duke University, where Ripal
became involved in the Red Cross and other
community outreach programs, and Rachna
worked at the Boys & Girls Club while tutor-
ing Duke athletes and other students. Today,
Ripal teaches special-needs children in
Boston, and Rachna teaches seventh-graders
at Harlem’s Frederick Douglass Academy.
In fall 2009, Ripal plans to start medical
school, while Rachna will begin law school.
Each points to her years at Mercersburg
Ripal Shah with children at an HIV/AIDS orphanage in South Africa

exposure to so many different demographics
and it being just a part of daily life.
“Now, when I’m in a classroom with 95
percent African-American children and 5
percent Latino children, with no other ethnic
groups represented in any of my classes, it
doesn’t seem like a barrier to me. I don’t feel
like I have any kind of difficulty approaching
these students because I’m used to a high
level of diversity.”
Ripal credits Mercersburg teachers Brent
Gift and Eric Hicks with sparking her inter-
est in science, which she used to create two
nonprofit organizations during her time at
Duke. Immediately after the South Asian
tsunami on December 26, 2004, Ripal trav-
eled to the Nicobar Islands off the coast of
Myanmar to teach CPR and first aid to victims
of the tsunami. She instructed large numbers
of Mongolian and African tribal populations,
and the training those groups received helped
save a number of lives when a second tsunami
hit in March 2005.
“I came back and friends said, ‘I wouldn’t
even think to do something like that, but if
I’d known that you were taking a trip, I would
have gone,’” Ripal says. “I just got to think-
ing, ‘Why don’t [college] kids do stuff like
this more often?’ There were so many kids I
knew who were trained as EMTs or para-
medics or in first aid and CPR. They were
teaching here in the States, but what they
really wanted to do was be able to teach
abroad to underserved communities—to
people who don’t have access to something
like Red Cross centers, as we do in the U.S.”
Not only was Ripal moved by a passion
for global health, she was also armed with
publications experience from her days as an
editor for The Mercersburg News and the
as formative to the endeavors that have
followed.
“One thing that helped me a lot was athlet-
ics,” Ripal says. “I didn’t play a sport when I
got to Duke, but having that sort of strict
schedule at Mercersburg—sports practice,
followed by a newspaper or yearbook
meeting—when I got to college, I basically
did the same thing. Having that balance of
life,” she says, “Mercersburg helped me to
learn time management.”
“In boarding school, there’s so much
emphasis on holistic education: it’s charac-
ter development, it’s academic, it’s a huge
amount of extracurricular activities,” Rachna
adds. “All of those things start to shape iden-
tity. I don’t know that I would have had nearly
as many opportunities for that kind of iden-
tity development in another type of school.
And there are so many components that make
the [Mercersburg] education much more
personal, like living alongside your teachers
and having these close relationships. I still
talk regularly to my Latin teacher, Mr. [Tom]
Thorne. He’s really more like a friend and
colleague now, which is a huge blessing.”
In her second year with the Teach for
America program, Rachna is also working on
a master’s degree in human rights at Colum-
bia University. “The demographic at Mercers-
burg is significantly different from any public
school and a lot of private schools, because
Mercersburg attracts a lot of overseas students;
there is a huge emphasis on diversity,” she
says. “Seeing that at an early age is important
for people when it’s such a significant time
for identity development. I don’t think I would
understand my place in the world and my
relationships with other ethnic groups as being
necessary and so seamless if I didn’t have
KARUX. “Instead of having to hire someone
to do graphic design, brochures, business
cards, and pamphlets,” she says, “we were
able to do it on our own because of what I’d
learned being involved in the publications at
Mercersburg. It’s nice that the skills I learned
in various activities at Mercersburg tran-
scended those activities.”
Ripal then helped bring CPR Centers
Worldwide (www.cprcenters.org) into being.
“The whole mission is to make a sustainable
cycle of health care education,” she says. “We
train people well enough for them to train
other people.” The organization is active in
India, Thailand, South Africa, Botswana, and
Zimbabwe, with plans to expand into South
America and further into Africa.
Another nonprofit, From The Ground
Up, arose from a need Ripal saw when she
served as president of Duke’s Red Cross
chapter. “One of the things we tried to address
was the fact that the campus was completely
inaccessible to kids with disabilities and phys-
ical limitations,” she says. “You don’t even
think about a kid in a wheelchair never having
swung on a swing before or never having been
on a merry-go-round.
“While those things seem trivial, when
you think about your childhood, some of the
things you remember the most are recess time
and playing outside with your friends on the
playground. And so, to have those recreational
limitations, it seems appalling that people
really don’t think about it.”
Again, Ripal brainstormed with fellow
Duke students, and contacted city officials
in Durham, North Carolina, where the Duke
campus is located. Just as she had with CPR
Centers, From The Ground Up filled a
service opportunity: “I think [college] kids
often want to get involved in service activi-
ties and want to do something with the skill
set they have, and this was the perfect thing
for engineers.”
Two and a half years after Ripal made
contact with city officials, Durham’s
Morreene Road Park became a fully handi-
cap-accessible park. “On our opening day,”
she says, “we had mothers of children with
disabilities who were crying, because they
were saying, ‘No one ever thinks about the
fact that they didn’t have this growing up.’ It
was a very motivational day.”
Rachna Shah with students at Frederick Douglass Academy in Harlem

I got up too early, did not get enough sleep,
and decided to try to make the best of the
morning before going to school. A nice long
run is a good way to start the day. I get my
gear ready, turn on my iPod, check my train-
ing schedule, and I am off to a workout
through the German countryside. It is raining,
and of course the wind is blowing straight
into my face. The pace is too slow; I bite my
lips and long to finish those miles.
On a morning like this, I question myself:
Why do I get up to run? Why do I not try to
sleep in? Why do I push myself every day?
Of course, it is to stay fit, to be part of one of
the best German running teams, and to win
races and set records and because of the
appreciation I receive from my parents,
friends, and other teammates.
The message we want to promote is that
“the peak has been reached”—the peak of
human infection from a virus that threatens
the world. Cape2Cape is the start of the
World AIDS Awareness Expedition (WAAE);
its goal is to climb all of the highest moun-
tains of the world and to plant a flag at each
summit displaying the number of those
infected with HIV/AIDS.
I had a thought that this guy must be crazy
to want to climb Mount Kenya, Mount Kili-
manjaro, and Mont Blanc during a two-
month trip. But at the same time, I was
inspired and motivated by the chance to be
an ambassador—to meet with the Interna-
tional Olympic Committee in Switzerland
and to give third-world countries an oppor-
tunity to make the world aware of their
HIV/AIDS situations and to ask for help.
I may not be the guy that climbs all the
most challenging mountains, but I will run
to the top of the highest peaks in Denmark,
Germany, and South Africa. By running, I
will do some good. And as a photographer
on the trip, I will help market this campaign
by capturing the moments and some of the
most beautiful landscapes.
Schrader, of Wolfenbüettel, Germany, has
spent six summers as a counselor for Mercers-
burg Summer Programs. A member of the
Braunschweig Running Association, he
penned this essay before the 18-member WAAE
team began its journey from Norway to South
Africa during October, November, and Decem-
ber 2008. For more information, visit
www.waae.de; look for additional coverage in
future issues of Mercersburg magazine.
But I want to use running as more than a
competitive sport. I heard about a group of
extreme-sport guys—and their leader,
Joachim Franz, who wants to fight the spread
of HIV/AIDS and to raise awareness of its
global threat by pushing himself and his team-
mates beyond limits. He uses different sports
to spread his message; to not give up in the
struggle against HIV/AIDS. He wants other
athletes to join him.
Since I knew Joachim through a mutual
friend, I was able to set up a meeting and
hear his thoughts and ideas. His latest chal-
lenge, Cape2Cape, is an expedition from the
North Cape of Norway to Cape Town, South
Africa—where he and his team will climb
the highest mountain in every country they
cross. I have joined this effort.
REACH
IN
G
THE
Running to
win the most
important race
BY DOM SCHRADER ’00
Peak
It was one of those mornings.

As college basketball careers go, the greatest moments
of Romone Penny ’03 will not be replayed on ESPN
highlights, and his accomplishments won’t roll off the
tongues of statistics freaks.
As far as success stories go, however, Penny’s is an
American classic.
Penny earned a degree in business last spring from
American University in Washington, D.C. He landed
an accounting job with the prestigious firm Ernst &
Young and began working in the company’s Washing-
ton offices in October.
The future, it seems, is limitless. The past, though,
is what makes Penny’s story so compelling.
Penny grew up in a tough urban neighborhood in
Minneapolis. Like many other inner-city children, he
played basketball, which is a religion in urban settings
all across the country.
Rex Holland, an investment banker in Minneapolis,
was coaching a seventh-grade intermediate-level team.
Penny was a nondescript player trying not only to earn
some playing time, but to just find a way to get to games.
“He was just a kid that was on the team, and one day
a lady came up to me and said, ‘You need to get that kid
some rides,’” Holland recalls. “It was a nice thought, but
I told her I wasn’t running a taxicab service. When you’re
dealing with inner-city kids, you try to get parents to take
ownership, and you can’t do that if you’re giving kids
rides all the time. You can get sucked into a trap of
dependency.”
But the woman was persistent, and Holland eventu-
ally agreed.
“Without Rex, I don’t know where I’d be,” Penny says.
“He’s been a role model, a father figure, and a best friend.”
Holland kept giving Penny a ride, figuratively as well
Winning the
ROMONE PENNY’S STORY IS
FULL OF RICHES
BY TOM COCCAGNA
Gameof Life

as literally. Holland paid Penny’s way through
DeLaSalle High School, a private Catholic
school in Minneapolis. He blossomed as a
basketball point guard and drew the atten-
tion of Division I schools, including Buck-
nell University and Lafayette College.
“My SAT scores were not the greatest,
and I was still a little small [5-feet-11-inches,
155 pounds] to play point guard in Division
I,” Penny says. “They said I should go to a
prep school, but I had no idea what a prep
school even was.”
Holland put together a video package and
sent one to Mercersburg head coach Mark
Cubit. When Penny visited campus, he
immediately felt comfortable. “There was
just something different about it that I liked,”
he says.
“What impressed me the most,” Cubit
recalls, “is that he was so eager to learn. He
would always ask questions, and he appre-
ciated everything you did for him.”
Penny also grew to realize basketball was
just a small part of life.
“I was an average student, and I would
see the study habits of other students [at
Mercersburg], and that would push me,” he
says. “I’d see people who aspired to be the
president, or a doctor, or a CEO, and I met
people from different countries.”
After graduation, Penny decided to attend
Florida State University. He made the basket-
ball team as a walk-on and played in six
games his freshman season. “It was amazing,”
he says. “I got to play in some games, even
a few ESPN games.”
But he also understood he needed to be
somewhere else, so he transferred to Amer-
ican and began working diligently toward a
business degree.
He played in 21 basketball games his
senior year, including one as a starter.
“Romone really worked hard and pushed
the guys who got the minutes,” says Jeff Jones,
American’s head coach. “He would never
back off, and he would always be positive.
He contributed a lot to the team, even if he
wasn’t always a big contributor on game day.”
Penny finished the 2007–2008 season with
73 minutes played, and totaled 11 points, two
assists, and five steals. More important, the
Eagles won the Patriot League championship
and made the NCAA Tournament for the
first time in 41 years.
“I just picked up my ring last week,” he
said proudly during a September interview.
And now, it’s off to a career that someone
from the tough streets of Minneapolis could
never have envisioned. “Without the help of
other people, I would not be where I am
today,” he adds.
“Romone is going to pay back what he’s
received,” Cubit predicts. “He’s involved in
trying to help others find the path he did.
He’s going to be in a position to do things
for someone else—and for more than just
one kid.”
Penny sponsored a charity bowling event
in Washington this fall. He’s also involved
with Holland’s program, MinneapolisNEXT,
which helps inner-city students escape tough
neighborhoods and attend private schools.
That program, which grew out of Holland’s
relationship with Penny, is sponsoring
42 high-school students this year and has
helped more than 200 students in the past
seven years.
“And it all started because I gave a kid a
ride,” Holland says. “Thanks to that, a lot of
kids are going to high school today.”
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“[Romone] is going to pay back
what he’s received. He’s going to be in a
position to do things for someone
else—and for more than just one kid.”
—MARK CUBIT, Mercersburg men’s basketball coach, on Romone Penny ’03
MERCERSBURG BRIEFS

For Claire Van Ness ’03, being in front of a
class isn’t scary anymore.
That’s because she got an early start in
teaching—while still a student at Mercers-
burg, Van Ness completed a directed study
as a French teaching intern under faculty
member Heather Prescott.
“After that experience, I knew I had the
power to teach,” says Van Ness, who describes
herself as reserved and shy by nature. “I wasn’t
sure I could do it before.”
Van Ness (who grew up next door to
Mercersburg Honorary Regent Ted Boyd ’60
in Canton, Ohio) had studied French since
age 6. Upon arriving at Mercersburg as a
ninth-grader, she was placed in French
30H—an honors course populated almost
exclusively by upper-middlers and seniors.
“It was intimidating—for example, my peer
group leader (a senior) was in my class,” she
says. “But I managed to hold my own.
Madame Prescott was amazing and so
supportive. She helped me realize that I was
strong enough to be in that class.”
After taking AP French Language (French
50AP) in 10th grade, Van Ness was the only
student enrolled in Prescott’s French 55AP
(a literature course) as an 11th-grader. “It was
challenging, but having that one-on-one
attention and not being able to hide in the
TEACHING
MOMENTS
background of a class was rewarding,” Van
Ness says. “I felt comfortable talking to her
about anything; she was always open to
hearing my ideas and pointing me in the
right direction.”
When her senior year rolled around, Van
Ness knew she wanted to continue with the
study of French—even though she had essen-
tially run out of French courses to take. So
she approached Prescott about serving as a
teaching intern, and became just the second
French student in Prescott’s 11-year
Mercersburg tenure to assist with a class
(Mike Krell ’99 was the first). Van Ness
helped Prescott with lesson plans and even
with the teaching of selected class periods
in French 20H, a second-year honors course.
“I remember being nervous and stressed
at first when it came time to teach, but it was
a great experience and certainly helped me
prepare for my job now,” says Van Ness, who
earned a bachelor’s degree in Italian from
Vassar College and is working with second-
graders at Horace Mann Elementary School
in northwest Washington, D.C., while she
completes work on a master’s degree in
French at Middlebury College. “While I was
nervous at first in front of the class, I had
been involved in Stony Batter; it helped me
to think of [teaching] as another role
on stage.”
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MERCERSBURG BRIEFS
Getting a head start in front of a class
Claire Van Ness ’03 (left) with Heather Prescott
BY LEE OWEN

The arrangement allowed Prescott to
conduct oral evaluations while Van Ness
led the class in listening exercises and
reviewed student responses. The two
frequently dissected videotape of Van Ness’
teaching sessions and critiqued and
discussed her in-class performance.
“Claire is a motivated young woman
who enjoys the study of French,” Prescott
says. “Because there were no further course
offerings, she took the initiative to create
a course of study for herself, which led to
tremendous growth in her self-confidence,
in her command of the language, and in
her ability to explain concepts to others.”
Van Ness spent the summer before her
10th-grade year in Paris as part of a Choate
Rosemary Hall program, and studied for
a semester in Bologna, Italy, during her
junior year at Vassar. While she was inter-
ested in studying abroad while a Mercers-
burg student, Van Ness decided that she
didn’t want to leave campus for an entire
year; for the same reason, she decided to
spend one semester in Europe as a college
junior instead of two.
“Everyone should have an opportunity
to experience the different cultures that
are out there,” Van Ness says. “As someone
interested in languages and history, being
able to travel, see places, and hear and
experience the language really opens up
a world of possibilities and goals.”
At Horace Mann, in addition to her
normal teaching duties, Van Ness works
with students in optional extracurricular
enrichment sessions that feature language
instruction before and after the school day.
“During the day, often the students
involved in the enrichment classes will
exchange little pleasantries back and forth
in French,” she says. “Once the kids learn
how to say three words in French, they get
excited. They say, ‘I can speak French,
too.’”
Vincent Rey ’06 (above) led Duke’s
football team in tackles during the
2007 season. Rey, who helped the
Blue Devils win three of their first four games
(the team’s best start since 1994), returned a
fumble for a touchdown in a September win
over Navy. Rey is one of four Mercersburg
graduates on the Duke roster—along with
Bryan Morgan ’07 (the team’s starting center),
Cameron Jones ’07, and Colin Jones ’07.
x2Blue

MM:What has it been like to live in so many
different places?
AP: Everything is temporary. I lived in Saudi
Arabia for 10 years, so I still feel most at home
in that part of the world. But I could never
call one country I lived in or one place I’ve
traveled to “home.” Home has always been
where my parents are, whether it’s Africa or
a hotel off the freeway in Pennsylvania. I find
it easy to get up and move myself, and have
always been able to pack all my belongings
into a couple of suitcases. I feel pretty privi-
leged to have been given all these opportu-
nities and to have met so many amazing
people from all walks of life. I can get along
with anyone and find it very easy to be out
of my comfort zone—mainly because I am
never anywhere long enough to develop a
comfort zone!
MM: What do you remember most about
your time at Mercersburg? Did your time
here change you in any way?
AP: Coming to Mercersburg was a huge
wake-up call; up until that point, I always
had my parents around to help make tough
decisions. I learned to understand different
types of people from different backgrounds,
and I became less judgmental of people based
on their lifestyles, and more interested in who
they were at heart.
AP: Academically, I will be grateful to
Mercersburg until the end of my days.
College was a breeze, and being able to
handle the demanding job I have now is all
due to what was expected of us at Mercers-
burg. I truly appreciated that the bar was set
high and we strived to reach it. Multitasking,
taking responsibility, and efficiency are all
major skills I gained from watching my teach-
ers and peers succeed.
MM: When did you first become passionate
about raising awareness of global warming?
AP: Having studied in international schools
most of my life, climate change and envi-
ronmental awareness were always main parts
of our curriculum. And growing up in an
Indian household, you are always taught to
constantly conserve water and energy and
consume less since so many others have
nothing—ask some of the Swank girls about
how I would go around turning off their taps
while they brushed their teeth! So it has
always been part of my life. I have been fortu-
nate to have traveled to almost every major
forest or biodiversity reserve in the world, and
have had quite a bit of exposure to the beauty
of nature.
MM: How did you become connected with
The Climate Project?
AP: During my second year at Miami, Al
Gore came to speak at our school. I was fortu-
nate to be chosen to meet him beforehand
and get a signed copy of his book. After his
presentation—which gave me goose
bumps—he announced he was training 1,000
Americans to give the presentation them-
selves. I applied on a whim, thinking I never
would have a chance. But a few weeks later,
I received an invitation to Mr. Gore’s final
training in Nashville. I spent four incredible
days in a room full of people twice my age,
half my skin tone, and 10 times more
educated or placed in society. I asked a man
Anjuli Pandit was born in
Texas, but has lived in Saudi
Arabia, Singapore, Nigeria,
Kuwait, the Czech Republic,
and India in addition to the
United States. As a student
at the University of Miami,
she became involved with
The Climate Project, an
organization founded by
former Vice-President Al
Gore dedicated to raising
awareness of global
warming.Today, she works
for The Climate Project-India
in Mumbai, and in
September helped preside
over the 12-city launch of
the organization’s Go Green
@ Crossword initiative, a
children’s awareness
campaign.
Q&AWorking for theWorld:
A conversation with Anjuli Pandit ’03

from CNN why this place was full of such a
specific group of people, and he said that
whether we like it or not, these are the movers
and shakers of the country, and if Mr. Gore
can convince them of global warming and
to spread his message, then we have a very
good chance of winning the battle.
MM: What’s it like to live in India today?
AP: I am so glad that I have chosen to come
back to my home country! The atmosphere
is charged with possibilities and you feel as
the pioneers must have felt when they were
settling in America so many years ago—there
is no end to what you can accomplish. India
is about to produce the cheapest car and the
most expensive home (a 27-story monstros-
ity), and has recently produced both its first
individual Olympic gold medal [in rifle at
the 2008 Summer Games], and homemade
terrorist bombs. Good, bad, or ugly, India is
breaking records every day, and being on the
ground to watch it all happen makes you feel
like you live the life one would only find in
the history books.
MM: What are your goals for the future?
AP: I plan to be in India for eight years. I
want to spend two years in the environmental
field, and then five or six going back to do
rural education development all over the
country. The only goal I want to set is how
many people I can impact in my life—I hope
it becomes a number that is impossible to
count. Maybe that sounds idealistic, but if I
keep sleeping as well as I have the last few
months, then I must be on the right track.
—Lee Owen
For an expanded Q&A with
Anjuli Pandit, visit
www.mercersburg.edu.
“The only goal I want to
set is how many people I can
impact in my life—I hope it
becomes a
number that
is impossible
to count.”
—Anjuli Pandit ’03

Last spring,when faculty member
Mark Cubit heard his name announced as
a winner of Mercersburg’s faculty travel
lottery, he immediately thought about the
type of students that graduate from Mercers-
burg and the passion they have for this place.
For him, this gift was surreal.
Just a few months later, Cubit and his
family were in Cartagena, Colombia, explor-
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ing the historic walled city, enjoying exotic
Spanish cuisines, and relaxing under the
Colombian sun. Cubit was one of four
annual winners of the drawing, which is
open to all full-time Mercersburg faculty
and made possible by Pierce Lord ’98, who
provides $7,500 to each faculty member for
travel abroad.
In college, Lord realized the importance
of travel while studying economics in
London during his junior year at Colgate
University.
“I grew up very fast when I traveled,” Lord
says. “Not only do you learn about other
cultures, but you also learn a lot about your-
self. You’re in a place where you have to
fend for yourself, and in doing that, I feel
like I learned a lot about who I am and the
world in general.”
Lord has traveled to all corners of the
world—to Fiji and New Zealand. He’s been
spear fishing in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and
rode an elephant in India. These experi-
ences have helped him understand other
cultures and people. Through these adven-
tures, he realized why it is important for
young people to travel and explore the world
as he did.
“Most of the conflict in the world today
is caused by actual misunderstandings
Pierce Lord ’98

Mark Cubit Mercersburg Academy's head boys basketball coach

Mark Cubit Mercersburg Academy's head boys basketball coach

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