Additional Senior Deal Discoveries

By Tiffany Peng

In our November issue, we detailed senior savings exclusive to Northern Virginia Magazine readers with proof of age. Continue below to check out where to score additional deals on dining, entertainment, travel and education for the 55-and-older crowd.

SHOPPING
On the first Tuesday of every month, seniors aged 55 and older who shop Senior Day at Belk department stores receive a 15-percent discount off their entire purchase. And every Tuesday, the same set gets a 10-percent discount at Ross stores (check for participating locations).

Other retailers don’t require shopping on a particular day. Examples: Goodwill gives seniors aged 55 and up a 20-percent discount on their entire purchase, excluding new items, daily. And, similarly, some Banana Republic locations offer a 10-percent discount to seniors aged 65 and older every day.

DINING
Some of the deals we discovered include the following: Arby’s (10 percent off for ages 55-plus), Burger King (10 percent off for ages 55-plus), Dairy Queen (10 percent off for ages 55-plus), Taco Bell (10 percent off for ages 65-plus), and McDonald’s (64 cents for coffee, iced tea or soft drinks for ages 55-plus). Again, due to a modern age of franchising, these discounts can vary depending on the location, so it’s best to call ahead of time to find out if a particular location is a participating one or not.

For those who prefer to sit and stay a while, Bob Evans restaurants offer seniors aged 55 and older a special senior menu that includes lower prices and smaller portions. Other chains that offer a special senior menu include Denny’s (for seniors 55-plus), IHOP (for seniors 55-plus) and Friendly’s (for seniors 60-plus).

Additionally, Old Country Buffett allows seniors aged 60 years or older to purchase a Senior Club Card for just $1, which grants seniors discounts on every adult buffet meal they purchase for one year. For those who do not wish to purchase the Senior Club Card at Old Country Buffet, every weekday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., seniors 60 years or older receive a discounted adult buffet meal for only $5.99. Still more dining deals: AARP cardholders receive 20 percent off at Boston Market, and seniors aged 65 and older save 10 percent at Pizza Hut.

ENTERTAINMENT
Nearly all area movie theaters offer some form of a discounted movie ticket for seniors, including local, independently owned theaters. For instance, Cinema Arts Theatre in Fairfax offers Wednesday Senior Day, where seniors ages 60-plus can watch $4 movies.

If you enjoy catching live acts on the cheap, check out Wolf Trap. The performing arts park offers a senior citizen discount of 50 percent for in-house tickets for those adults ages 65-plus starting a half hour prior to performances (subject to availability).

Of course, it’s always good to get out and enjoy the great outdoors, too, and seniors 62-plus can purchase for a small price the America the Beautiful Senior Pass, which provides access to all U.S. National Parks and a 50-percent discount on some Expanded Amenity Fees on facilities and services such as camping and swimming. Go to http://www.nps.gov/fees_passes.htm for more information.

The Virginia Department of Recreation and Conservation offers a variety of discounted senior citizen passes for admission to Virginia state parks as well as for parking, boat launching and amenities, which include camping, park merchandise, equipment rental and shelter/amphitheater rentals. Additional information is available here: http://www.dcr.virginia.gov/.

TRAVEL
If you happen to live in the City of Alexandria and are at least 60 years old, you may want to pay attention to this. The City of Alexandria Department of the Aging offers seniors who live in Alexandria taxi services for only $2 to visit grocery stores and pharmacies within the Alexandria city borders. They will also take seniors to medical facilities in a radius of five miles outside of the city (excluding Lorton, Woodbridge, D.C. and MD) for only $2.50. Call 703-836-1840 the DAY BEFORE to make a reservation or to apply. Office hours are Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (closed on weekends and holidays).

Elsewhere, the Seniors-On-The-Go! taxi program is available through the Fairfax County Department of Transportation. Seniors who are at least 65 years old and meet certain income criteria can participate in this program, which includes taxi coupon booklets that are worth $33, but only cost $20. If you apply and are eligible, you may purchase up to $528 worth of booklets a year with an actual cost of only $320 per year. (Residents of the City of Alexandria and the City of Falls Church are not eligible).

EDUCATION
Thinking about taking some classes but don’t want the headache of homework and exams? The Osher Lifetime Learning Institute (OLLI) at George Mason University offers daytime classes, lectures and special events led by qualified OLLI members and teachers from George Mason University. Classes meet for 90 minutes from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on weekdays for four terms—a total of 26 weeks per year—at locations in Fairfax, Reston and Sterling. OLLI members are entitled to a George Mason photo ID card and with it can enjoy many campus privileges. Aside from class, OLLI also offers various social and volunteer activities.

The annual fee is $350 for membership at all three sites and $150 for a Loudoun-only membership. There is also an introductory rate of $150 for one term.

(November 2009)

Tags: deals, dining, discount, Education, Entertainment, savings, seniors, shopping, Travel

High School Daze

We see you through one of the most important decisions of your student’s fledgling academic career: public or private?

College is only one stretch of a long and winding road through a student’s academic journey. First we must decide on a preschool. Then we ensure we are living in a school district that’s the best fit for our families. We opened our college savings accounts while our kids were still inutero, and may have already stacked the applications for when the time comes to decide. But what about high school? We have a choice there, too, and in this region, the choices are abundant. Lucky for you, you have us to map you through this long and arduous journey.

By Maria Scinto

• Alexandria City
• Arlington County
• Fairfax County 
• Loudoun County
• Prince William County
• Stafford County

How We Got Our Info
In addition to delving heavily into state government education resources and individual school websites, as well as other academic resources containing information available to the public (www.greatschools.net, www.publicschoolreview.com, www.privateschoolreview.com, www.collegeboard.com), we also spoke with school administrators to confirm the most accurate and current information available. All figures refer to the 2008-09 school year, unless otherwise noted.

Key To Chart
Enrollment: Total school population enrollment, not just enrollment at the high school level.

Student/Teacher Ratio: Figure reflects the total number of students—of all grade levels—enrolled divided by the number of full-time equivalent teachers (i.e., two half-time teachers equals one FTE).

Ethnic Diversity: Refers to the percentage of non-Caucasian students enrolled in the entire school.

AYP: In Virginia, Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) means that at least 77 percent of students have demonstrated proficiency in reading, and 75 percent overall have demonstrated proficiency in mathematics.

AP Courses: Advanced Placement (AP) courses are college-level classes offered to eligible high school students. Many smaller private schools do not offer AP classes as a part of the curriculum, instead offering them at the student’s request.

Accreditation-Adjusted SOL Pass Rates: Overall achievement on Standards of Learning (SOL) tests in English, history/social science, math and science, adjusted to facilitate transfer students and those with limited English proficiency.

Reduced/Free Lunch Eligible: Percentage of students whose households are at or below 1.3x the 2007 federal income poverty guidelines, which qualifies a student for free lunch; at or below 1.85x for reduced-price lunch eligibility.

On-Time Graduation Rate: Percentage of students who earned their diplomas within four years of having entered high school for the first time. Magnet School: A public school offering a special curriculum capable of attracting substantial numbers of students of different racial backgrounds. IB Program: International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program, recognized by many colleges and universities worldwide.

Number of School Safety Offenses: Reflecting the total of all safety offenses reported to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE); the individual categories as defined by the Safe Schools Information Resource (SSIR) include weapons offenses, offenses against student, offenses against staff, other offenses against persons, alcohol, tobacco and other drug offenses, property offenses, disorderly or disruptive behavior offenses, technology offenses and all other offenses.

Median SAT Scores: These are maintained by the College Board and released to the individual schools. In some cases, schools—marked “Not Available”—were unable to report the scores due to a contractual agreement with the Association of Independent Schools of Greater Washington, and in other cases schools—marked “Will Not Disclose”—elected not to report them to us at all. A reported range in each test section indicates the school has a policy to report only the median 50 percent in concordance with The College Board reports.

Financial Aid: This data varies widely from year to year as it is dependent on a school’s budget. The information provided on the chart is for the 2008-09 school year, and is subject to change for subsequent school years. As such, some schools preferred not to share this information. Uniforms: Some schools mandate a dress code instead of uniforms. These differ from uniform policies in that they are more likely to prohibit certain garments (i.e., too-tight clothing) than to require specific ones.

(August 2009)

Tags: Education, high schools, private schools, public schools

A for Effort

With major Budget cuts and a growing student population Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Jack Dale says the county is making progress and moving toward a more beneficial strategy for educating area students

By Forrest Glenn Spencer

Photography by Seth Freeman

Jack Dale has now entered his sixth year as superintendent of the Fairfax County Public Schools. With more than 170,000 students, nearly 200 schools and an operating budget of more than $2 billion, the system is the 13th largest in the nation and one of the highest rated in terms of student performance. This year, Dale faces some of his greatest challenges from budgets to enrollments. How is he going to continue to meet the quality standards in education?

Describe the budgetary problems you have had this year.
We will face a shortfall. We had to cut $150 million out of our budget, and that includes cost avoidance, such as not giving people a salary increase and freezing salaries; not giving a cost of living increase, but not even giving an increment or steps that’s on salaries’ schedules. Those two together probably saved $70 million, and the rest were in cuts.

I understand class sizes are increasing.
We’re increasing—on average—half a student in regular education, special education, English as a Second Language education, career and technology courses. Everywhere we have a group of kids.

What caused the Budget shortfall?
We have a projected increase of 4,000 to 5,000 students, and we have property values in Virginia that have dropped dramatically, so the tax revenue drops. And the state of Virginia itself is short on revenue from all of its sources, which means they allocate less money to us. I end up with less state revenue, less county revenue, and I have increased enrollment. It’s the perfect wrong storm.

Last year, we spoke to Jackie Harris, Fairfax’s Registrar. she described how this county is a transitory county. Is that reflected in students and families?
We have a normal churn. To quantify that, out of our 170,000 kids, we have 8,000 that will change.

In six years, how has the school system changed?
We are seeing greater diversity with some students from over 200 different countries, speaking 40 different languages. Forty percent of our students go home each day where English is not the primary language. We have an increased percentage of children who are eligible for free and reduced meals, an increase from 15 to 17 percent.

Describe programs you implemented.
Fairfax has always been very good [about] being ahead of the curve. What I have done, especially in the budget crisis, is eliminate some programs or [allocate] staffing where they are needing it. There is one program that I have been focusing on with great results. I call it Teacher Leadership. Teachers work with other colleagues analyzing instruction, analyzing student performance, analyzing needs of the schools, talking across grade levels so when your sixth-grade teacher tells the student what’s necessary in middle school about science, they do so with some knowledge because they’ve talked to the middle school science teacher. What I’ve been shifting toward is running a pilot in over 24 schools with more than 600 teachers, working full-time, and seeing what impact we have on student learning and working conditions to increase our teacher retention.

What’s the parental consensus on needs for children?
We want children to reach their full potential … which means you’re going to try and provide advanced-level courses, programs or offerings in a whole variety from the arts to the sciences to math and foreign languages.

Describe the changes in grading.
The big changes have been our Advanced Placement/International Baccalaureate courses from half a grade point to a full grade point to be more aligned with the rest of the nation. We did this last January and made it retroactive for all courses. We have also begun implementing a half-a-grade-point boost for honors courses, and these are for high school-level courses.

Why the grading change?
It gives the kids a boost in their [grade point averages] if they are going to engage in tougher courses. For example, if you’re in an Advanced Placement class, and you got a B, that would be like getting an A in a regular class. It doesn’t penalize the student for trying.

Where are we with NCLB? Will it survive in its current form? Will it be revised?
NCLB wasn’t reauthorized this last January; basically, it was put on hold at the time. It will be revised, and it’s just an issue of time. The Obama administration has been focused on economic recovery, which included stimulus money for public schools. I think the president and Secretary [of Education Arne] Duncan will be revising NCLB laws over time into something that is more commonsensical.

Have you talked to Secretary Duncan?
We have talked on the phone. He wants the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to work and not have all the turmoil that was built around the negative sanctions. I think they’re going to look at more high aspirations and more world-class standards and world-class assessments as a nation. I think we’ll see a shift [from] 50 states doing their own things to a nation being more cohesive in its approach in education and looking forward in [aspiring] standards instead of minimum competencies with penalties.

What’s the background on changing dismissal times?
It was trying to identify a different transportation and bell schedules so that the high school students could start later in the day and end later in the day to accommodate their natural sleep cycle. There’s been a quite a bit of debate on the shift, such as having middle school children being the last group that ends the day. We have an extensive after-school program for them. Another concern from parents was if older students come home after younger students, then there’s nobody home to take care of them, because many parents are working, or there are single-parent households, and those households rely on their high school students to be home first.

What’s the focus of this school year?
The major shift we are engaging is [from] one program for all kids to one where we are focusing on individual kids and what their individual needs are, then trying to deliver those services on a personalized or customized basis. Huge shift.

Is there a point when the county will max out on taking on more students?
I suppose there is, because we’re running out of land in Fairfax, and that can be a challenge. What we’re seeing with the student increases is people leaving private schools because they cannot afford tuition and people moving in from the suburbs because for a while there, their gas was getting too expensive. People found it cheaper to live in closer, even if the housing was more expensive.

What’s the average class size?
Primary level, low 20s; middle school, mid-20s; and high school, upper-20s. That will go up this new school year.

What changes in education have most impressed you?
One is, school systems. They have become much more intentional about measuring and being held accountable for results. Before it was more about making the course work and opportunities available, but whether students avail themselves were the students’ decisions. Another: parents. They are becoming more focused on how their children are doing, their safety, performance in school, getting access to the right programs and services, and if they’re on track for college. There’s technology, which has allowed greater access to current information. It’s also overloaded all of us. It causes us … to teach kids on critical thinking, to look at information and see whether it’s accurate or not.

(August 2009)

Tags: Budget, challenges, Education, Fairfax County, public schools, school system, superintendent

Young Palettes

With schools increasingly under attack from budget cuts, Susanne Dassel’s Academy provides a precious resource in instruction

By Ubah Pathan

Photography by Seth Freeman

Like the completed suites from reality home-decorating show “Trading Spaces,” the walls of Dassel Art Academy are draped in bright colors that make for an inviting atmosphere. But instead of sofas and chairs, the Academy’s rooms are composed of frames, sculptures and easels. Against one wall stands a baby grand piano, its surface crowded with years of student work. Adjacent to the instrument is a life-size mural of oceanography, complete with a giant squid.

A Prince William County institution for over 20 years, the Dassel Art Academy continues to fill the fine arts education hole left by an overextended public school system. 

“Art is life,” Academy owner and founder Susanne Dassel, 66, exclaims with lavish flair.

Art in Education
The nation has witnessed a downward trend in fine art lessons in public schools since the 1980s with the advent of such standardized educational metrics as 2002’s No Child Left Behind, a spinoff of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act. This was quantified by a nationwide 2008 study from the Center on Education Policy, which found that school districts were reducing instructional time for art and music, sometimes by as much as 50 percent, in favor of English and math. And with no assessment data in the art arena, many public school systems are putting limited funds to use for “concrete” subjects.

While art is considered part of the curriculum for No Child Left Behind, the federally mandated program does not provide any specificity on instruction time or express lessons that must be taught, making it easy to cut. Virginia has no arts education assessment requirement and, according to the Arts Education Partnership, there is no arts requirement for college admission. Exacerbating this already strained condition for public school art programs is the economic downturn of recent months, resulting in heavily overcrowded art classes, teachers who do not have the time to explore topics or form relationships with students to develop talent, and formulaic, one-hour-a-week teaching sessions. 

It’s the environment Dassel works to alleviate. Her students come from all over Northern Virginia seeking specialized training. “They want more out of art than they are getting in school.”

Artistic Beginnings
The Dassel Art Academy was created in 1987 with only two students. It started out of Dassel’s home, and marketing was simple word of mouth. The present day finds the Dassel Art Academy in the same location, but with over 50 students and modern technology for art creation. 

“She used to volunteer at my elementary school, Hunt Elementary in Fairfax County, helping with art. She opened up the art program to a lot of material we had never done before,” recalls Sasha McMurrer, 41, Dassel’s daughter. Dassel adds, “Even back then, I would teach in pods with 30-plus students in a class for a very small amount of time. It was too huge, too large, and the lessons were very structured. There was no real art experience in the process.” 

Dassel moved onto teaching in a private school but ultimately found more satisfaction outside of the structures of formal educational institutions. 

“It is frustrating schools, and parents find money for soccer but not for art,” she says. “Why is that?”

Artful Instruction
Dassel’s teaching methods infuse small class sizes (each group is limited to eight) with hands-on experiences. She does not specifically direct her students in what they must do, instead encouraging them to tap into what they love and then pushing them to go beyond their comfort zones. In one exercise that features nature as its focus, Dassel has the students step out into her front yard to interact with plants and insects. 

She pushes pupils to move beyond the one-dimensional when illuminating subject matter. In a previous class, a student painted a large pine tree as it looked in the winter landscape of that yard. Upon completion, Dassel had the student paint the same tree in the other three seasons so the child could learn different facets of art by way of his own process. 

“He resisted and at the time bemoaned the task, but now it’s the project he remembers first,” Dassel says, noting that she also dedicates herself to understanding students’ points of view and develop ing those outlooks. 

Develop is a word Dassel uses often. She repeatedly expresses how art is about developing positive reinforcement. “I want art to stay with these students throughout their life, to get kids away from just watching television or getting on the computer which is depriving them of so much creativity,” she says. “This is what public schools can’t provide, making children think about what art means to them.” 

For the long run. One of Dassel’s connections is Patrick Berran, who came to Dassel as a boy of 10. Guiding him through the years with projects in foreign mediums, Dassel introduced Berran to a deep love for art. Graduating in 2002, Berran went on to study art at Virginia Commonwealth University and is now a painter residing in New York City.   

Art in Life
Dassel’s father was Herbert Dassel, a commercial artist in pre-WWII Germany. Living in Berlin, Herbert Dassel made movie posters and advertisements for German businesses, and it was this talent that saved him after the war, when he was imprisoned in a Russian POW camp. Facing a firing squad, Herbert Dassel’s talents helped spare his life. “Don’t shoot Dassel,” they said, “he can make propaganda posters for us.” 

Following Herbert Dassel’s release from the Russians, the family moved to Cologne, Germany, but fears of advancing Communist Russia forced the family to flee to Canada, where Herbert Dassel and his wife made a living as non-commercial artists. Dassel picked up the mantle of art and studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, majoring in illustration. After raising her five daughters as a divorced single mother, Dassel continued on in the family business. “My parents encouraged me to paint,” she says simply.

Honing the Future
It’s this encouragement she wants to pass on to others who have the passion.

“I want to give them a base for whatever they want to do in life, to give them the self-esteem that comes when a project is conquered,” Dassel says. Her students have gone on to study at the Savannah College of Art and Design, the Universities of California and Virginia Commonwealth University’s top-ranked art program. Many attend for art education, but others go for architecture and, in one case, medical illustration. Some have returned after graduation and continued learning with Dassel.

At the end of the year, her students exhibit pieces in a private show. Just as in “Trading Spaces,” the show and Dassel’s academy process elicit delighted responses to the advancements made. 

(May 2009)

Tags: art, Dassel Academy, Education

Arts for the Ageless

By Devorah Ben-David

Courtesy of Louise Noakes

The Center for the Arts of Greater Manassas was founded by a group of art lovers and artists in 1984. Its mission is to enrich life in the Northern Virginia suburbs via theater performances, gallery exhibits and arts education—at all ages. Located in the historic Candy Factory building in Old Town Manassas on Battle Street, the Center offers a special series of classes for adventurous 50-plus seniors seeking to broaden their horizons.

A spring session of Acting I For Seniors, designed to help enhance concentration and teamwork skills, will start March 25. Other senior-friendly programs include Night Club Dancing (so you’ll never be the wallflower on the cruise ship again) and Ballroom Dancing at the Candy Factory (just pay for your session at the door and rumba your way in), which is held the first Sunday of every month.

For more information, visit Center for the Arts online at www.center-for-the-arts.org.

(March 2009)

Tags: Candy Factory, Education, Lights

Camps That Help Kids Care

Environmental health and individual fitness are the summertime focus for Northern Virginia’s youth

By Susan Anspach

Fit Camps
Kids’ programs espouse the notion that happiest of campers are healthy, too

For Peg, a Fairfax mother of two, it was Christmas 2006 that drove home the need for an active summer camp for her 8-year-old. “The downtime from school made him visibly restless,” she said, and prompted her to think ahead to the three months stretching out before her son at the close of the spring semester.

Over the 2006 holidays, Peg was also warned by her family pediatrician against her son’s weight, which he told her was not a healthy match for his height. She admits that she and her husband “were never shining examples of physical fitness,” and says their respective 50- and 60-hour workweeks are partially to blame. She says the admonition left words like “preadolescent obesity” and “juvenile diabetes” ringing in her ears, and prompted her to keep an eye on the family’s intake. The lessons the winter reinforced for her also led her to seek out an alternative approaches to working exercise into her son’s lifestyle.

To date, the U.S. Department of Health lists more than 12.5 million children and adolescents as overweight, equating to 17.1 percent of people who fall between the ages of 2 and 19 who are at risk for cardiovascular diseases. According to a 2006 state department of health study exploring the relationship between childhood obesity and schools, Virginia weighs in as the 25th state most plagued by adolescent obesity.

Northern Virginia has recognized the value for intervention, and its camps are filling the need for programs constructed on a philosophy of children’s wellness. When a neighboring mother steered Peg toward the Fairfax County Park Authority-organized Rec-PAC program, “it turned out to be a good fit for us, and for him, in a lot of ways.”

More than 3,000 kids participated in Rec-PAC’s weeklong theme camps last summer. According to manager Mike Bonneville, the program is for elementary-aged children in Fairfax County and Fairfax and Falls Church Cities, and uses a sliding pay scale based on the income of families who can enroll their children for any or all of the six weeks it runs.

Registration for Rec-PAC, which is in the process of expanding from having operated at six school sites to 52 in Fairfax County for 2009, opens in late spring. The program recently implemented a wellness element with the assistance of Oak Mar RECenter fitness director Kwame M. Brown. According to Brown, “They came to me looking for a fitness component to put in, and I said would do it under one condition: that I wanted to have kids learn through games, not three sets of 15 push-ups, because that’s not how kids operate. And it’s taken off from there.”

The gamut of both public and private fitness-oriented summer camps in this region has a far-reaching range of flexibility. No more are parents limited by their child’s range of athletic ability or sport preferences. Sally Nanas, co-owner of the children’s health facility Fitwize4Kids Sterling location, has been working with children ages 6 and a half through 15 since the location opening in August 2007. Fitwize’s day-camp programs cap off at 15 kids per weeklong session and strike a balance between exercise, activity fieldtrips (public pools, parks with playing fields) and nutrition lessons.

“Of course, the epidemic of childhood obesity we’re here to help with, as well,” said Nanas, whose 2009 camp rates and dates had not been set at press time. “But I would say 30 percent of our kids, maximum, are overweight, and that’s varying degrees of overweight … There are a lot of kids out there who don’t like sports, and this is something their parents can put them in that will keep them active.”

Audrey Moore RECenter fitness director Liz Ittner, who will launch her county fitness center’s Fun in Fitness camp for the first time this summer, also recognizes that not all children are motivated by the same concepts and rewards. “We’ll divide our time with racquetball and soccer games so the competitive kids can really thrive. But for the most part, this is more about learning and experiencing and less about competition.”

The program will be centered on a win-win philosophy, Ittner said, and a hands-on approach through nutrition workshops with dieticians. Fun in Fitness is a Fairfax County-wide initiative, although programs are organized by individual directors based on an expression of regional interest. Each is designed with the participants and their parents in mind. According to Ittner, “We have set it up [at Audrey Moore] a little differently than at the other sites: We did an eight-hour day instead of four or five hours so that our parents can have the whole day taken care of for their kids.”

For Ittner, however, the objectives are further reaching than simply babysitting. Her curriculum will be a sample showcase of the center’s offerings—spinning, pool work, pilates—that she designed to keep kids coming back. The five-day-a-week program will be offered two weeks per summer, and kids ages 12 and over are invited to attend either one or both.

“Parents are looking for a less sedentary, most active way to have their child going through a camp,” Ittner said. “They’re looking for more than singing songs, eating peanut butter and jelly. And there’s so much to offer in fitness these days that parents don’t even realize it.”

On the opposite end of the age spectrum are the services of Chad Mussmon, father of five and owner of The Little Gym branch locations in Ashburn, Fairfax and Gainesville. His franchise locations are for children ages 3 to 9 and offer summer sessions with pick-and-choose scheduling options. “You can sign up on a day-to-day basis, if that’s what you want,” Mussmon said. “It’s a flexible program that caters to moms who can pick a morning session, then afternoon, then another morning, if that’s what they’re looking for.”

Children attend three or five days a week for one or more of the 11 weeks that the programs are offered, and each week centers around a different theme: Dinosaur week prompts movements that mime those of Triassic times; Lights, Sirens and Badges features visits from members of police and fire departments.

Mussmon’s program, which costs $30 per three-hour session, does not stress any nutritional focus other than the snack covered in the price of camp. At that age, “it’s more about activity in a nurturing environment,” said Mussmon, citing the locations’ 5,000 square feet of play space and eight-to-one supervisor-child ratio. “For a lot of 3- through 6-year-olds, first-time campers, this fills that learning-through-play niche.”

Fun in Fitness
Audrey Moore RECenter (and various other Fairfax County sites); 8100 Braddock Road, Annandale; 703-321-7081; www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/rec/wakerec.htm
Director: Liz Ittner
Each Fairfax County RECenter that offers the week-long program is a variation on a nutrition- and activity-based theme; Audrey Moore offers an eight-hour schedule, 60 to 90 minutes of which focus on exercising different body parts through activities the facility also offers year-round.

Rec-PAC
Multiple NoVa locations; www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/recpac
Director: Mike Bonneville
Operated by the Fairfax County Park Authority, a six-week program for elementary-aged children incorporates indoor and outdoor games, sports, activity festivals and supervised play sessions with a 1-to-18 staff-to-child ratio. Scheduling options include 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. days, or 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. days.

The Little Gym
Multiple NoVa location; www.thelittlegym.com
Director: Chad Mussmon (for Ashburn, Fairfax and Gainesville locations)
Eleven weeks of different activity themes—beach, pirates, cheerleading, dinosaurs—keep tots ages 3 through 9 bustling in an adult-supervised environment.

Fitwize4Kids
Regal Center; 20921 Davenport Drive, Ste. 128, Sterling; 703-421-3481; www.fitwize4kids.com
Director: Sally Nanas
“Children tend to outgrow these roll-and-tumble place when they’re in the 6- and 7-year-old range, and can’t join adult gyms until they’re 12 or 13, or work out by themselves until they’re 16. We fill the in-between niche.”—franchise co-owner Sally Nanas

Eco-Systems
Programs with an eye toward the environment foster a care for the planet

Planting seeds of environmental consciousness for children can be as simple as instilling in them a love of nature. The easiest way to do that? “Get ‘em dirty,” laughed Shawna Levins, manager of volunteer services for Fairfax County’s Spring Hill RECenter.

Levins heads up the Roots & Shoot junior volunteer program at Spring Hill, a year-round youth project chapter through which she launched two one-week pilot day camps for 9- through 12-year-olds in summer 2008. Roots and Shoots, a global service program for kids founded on the philosophies and principles of Jane Goodall, offers environmental campaign and volunteer opportunities through a number of its Northern Virginia branches. The camp at the Spring Hill RECenter, she explained, serves as a sort of gateway to other Roots and Shoots initiatives, since children do not have to already belong to the program to attend.

“It was just a huge success,” attested Levins, who researched other environmental camps around the globe for a year prior to the first session. “Just an overwhelming success in terms of feedback we received from parents and kids, both.”

Levins suspects parents in Northern Virginia like the idea of enrolling their children in such programs because “we’re such a culturally rich area. Parents want their kids to appreciate it. It sets a standard for the rest of their lives when they learn what it means to give back.”

According to Levins, though, for kids, it’s the hands-on elements that make those lessons stick. With last summer’s guest raptor-handler, “the kids just got very engaged with the physical animals there.” And when an environmental worker visited to speak on about the impact of litter on local watersheds, “once they understood what contaminates water, [the children] were so gung-ho about cleaning up their environment … Almost all of them touched on the feeling that they got, the gratification they got by doing good.

“That right there, for me, made the camp a success.”

Because of the positive responses from program participants and parents she received in 2008, Levins said she expects to be able to double the number of weeks the camp will be offered this summer. For 2009, the half-day week rate is $170, and the full-day week program runs for $270.

Across the region in Leesburg, Rust Nature Sanctuary education coordinator Julie Gurnee oversees the Audubon Naturalist Society’s summer programs at Rust and the Broadlands Nature Center. Online registration for the camps that hosted 150 area kids last year opens Jan. 30. For 2009, the programs formerly restricted to 4- through 8-year-olds will be open to 8- through 12-year-olds, as well.

Rust’s 68 acres tender a bounty of nature trails, species of wildlife, pond-side clearings, meadow space and hushed forested reserves. The Broadlands Nature Center is home to wildlife native to the surrounding woods and fields and offers opportunities to get up close with animals in a safe environment.

“I see a lot of kids who, when they’re outside, it’s [for the purposes of] very structured sports,” Gurnee said, “whereas these camps give them a little more freedom. I have kids tell me they’ve never been out in the woods before. We saw an owl one year, and some of the kids said, ‘What’s an owl?’”

Camp classes taught by environmental educators at a student-teacher ratio of eight to one fall within a price bracket of $140 to $230 and adopt a hands-on approach to outdoor learning through week-long half-day and full-day programs from June 22 through Aug. 21. At Rust, the vast bulk of camp time is spent outdoors; the backup indoor facility is mostly reserved for cases of inclement weather. “In general, we’re trying to expose these kids to nature, get them to feel comfortable with nature, get them to fall in love with nature,” said Gurnee, who cited a 50 percent increase in participants in 2008. “When they’re young like that, that’s a really good time to get them started.”

For that reason, the Audubon programs are geared not only toward an appreciation of nature, but also a proactive environmental awareness. “Throughout our camps, we make all the kids bring their own water bottles and compost their leftovers,” Gurnee cited. “Composting, recycling, we’re getting them in those habits. We instill a respect for nature and wildlife and try to get them to turn off lights and AC, to give them that push … We walk away with very little waste from camp.”

Audubon Naturalist Society at Rust Sanctuary and Broadlands Nature Center
802 Children’s Center Road. Leesburg; 21907 Claiborne Parkway, Broadlands; 703-669-0000; www.audubonnaturalist.org
Director: Julie Gurnee
A curriculum of week-long programs changes yearly, keeping returning campers engaged and eager to learn. The 2009 lineup includes Dirt, Worms and Other Ickys; Nature in Disguise; Home Sweet Home; Native American Life; and Wet and Wild.

Roots and Shoots Camp at Spring Hill RECenter
1239 Spring Hill Road, McLean; 703-827-0989
Director: Shawna Levins
Still basking in the success of its 2008 pilot program, Spring Hill’s camp is a summertime component of a Jane Goodall-inspired global eco-awareness youth project.

(February 2009)

Tags: Education, fitness, kids, summer camp

Private Schools

Shadow education thrives in our communities. So why do some take the don’t-ask-don’t-tell approach?

By Jill Stewart Brigati

For the third year in a row, *Matt’s parents wrote a $26,000 check for their son’s private high-school education at Flint Hill School in Oakton. They have also been writing a check every week to their son’s math tutor and another one to his writing tutor since he was a freshman. It adds up to an additional $3,000 per year. They think the money is well spent. “My parents are fine with it,” shrugged the junior. “They just want me to be happy.” Matt is an honor-roll student who welcomes the extra help. “My parents can’t really help me with the math anyway,” he smiled.

Isn’t Tuition Enough?
Thousands of Northern Virginia parents supplement their children’s private-school educations with private tutors, a multibillion-dollar industry nationwide. Why? Some area school administrators and tutors are reticent to answer that question, but for the most part it is private school families who aren’t talking.
Education researchers say that families are hush-hush on this topic all over the world. Mark Bray, director of the Comparative Education Research Centre in Paris, published a 2006 study of the huge international private tutoring industry. He found that families hesitate to reveal the amount of tutoring they commission in part because they want to keep a competitive edge over their peers.

According to British journalist Jenni Russell, author of “The secret lessons,” there is “no official information on the extent of private tutoring, because it’s in nobody’s interest to collect it.” Russell said parents are often reluctant to admit they have hired tutors, and “schools would rather take the credit for their pupils’ results themselves.” However, she said, “The anecdotal evidence is sobering.”

Some educators think it is folly to believe that private school is all a student needs to excel. Fairfax tutor Jennifer McKain-Dausch said some private-school parents view tutoring as overkill, but “others understand that sometimes a neutral party is needed.” McKain-Dausch noted that even top students use her as a sounding board. “I work with one student who consistently earns grades in the A and B range [yet] he always wants me to review with him before a test … I help him sort through his ideas.” The former private-school teacher said tutoring addresses students’ needs the way nothing else can. “They feel they can be very open with me about their struggles.”

Learning therapist Julia Visconti in Washington, D.C., knows that even kids from the most highly regarded schools need after-school help from time to time. “Learning success depends on how subject matter is presented,” she said. Visconti explained that our brains work in such a way that the teacher must allow time for student inquiry and interaction to ensure learning. “This is how a student retains details of a concept,” she said. The parent of an area private-school freshman feels her son’s teachers are highly qualified, but “he’s a kid who needs to be exposed to challenging concepts more than once in order to get it.”

Tutors to Close the Gap
Debbie Danoff, a Metro math and college prep tutor, noted that parents are often willing to hire a tutor when they realize that their child’s curriculum is more challenging than what they have time, patience and or the skill set for. Not only is there more material to sort through, according to Danoff, but most of her private-school students are on the accelerated track.

“A senior who transferred from public to private in ninth grade told me that she still feels less prepared than her classmates” now that she has reached upper-level French, Danoff said. “There are ninth graders taking French IV with this girl.”

Danoff sees kids under pressure, sometimes self-imposed, to take “that honors or AP class rather than a truly grade-level option.” She believes that proper placement would reduce the need for supplemental help. “They can understand the work, but with the fast pace, they need reinforcement. So I have kids in between, but they still go into accelerated classes,” she said.

When rigorous curriculum requires brisk teaching, after-school tutors have the luxury of expanding upon classroom instruction. Matt said that although his teachers and his grades are top-notch, his two tutors provide a slower-paced home setting he likes.

“We’ll talk about more than just the unit we’re working on, and then when the class gets to it, I’ll be like, Oh, yeah. It clicks.”

Matt takes advantage of the school’s learning center, but sometimes he would rather use his study hall to work independently “or take a break once in awhile and talk to my friends.” The junior added that he’d rather “save” the tutors until after the school day ends to assist him in regaining focus. “They help me manage my time at home, which is where I need it more,” he said.

Tutors in the Shadows
At Wakefield School in The Plains, outside enrichment starts early. “Kumon [tutorial program] is a popular one,” said one mom. Her sixth-grader son gets straight As, but math has never been a strong suit. “He’s not going for remedial reasons. It’s just a good way to stay on top of things.”

She added that her younger son, a third grader, started attending the sessions “instead of just sitting in the car.” Several of her sons’ classmates are signed up, too, but their parents were not willing to talk about it.
There are even some tutors who prefer to keep their business under wraps. “They’re leery to discuss the topic because sometimes these are teachers from other schools supplementing their income,” a Purcellville college advisor explained. “They don’t want their administrators to find out.”

And some private schools have their own reasons for keeping stealthy on the subject. One area learning specialist remarked, “Some schools don’t want to be seen as a school that has kids with special needs or [as having a program] so hard that kids can’t get through it without a tutor. ‘None of our kids have learning issues.’ That’s the mindset.”

According to the parent of a recent graduate of McLean’s Madeira School, “If there’s an academic problem they’d rather take care of it [in-house].” The local mother said she also believes there is a common assumption among parents that “everything will be taken care of when you’re paying for it.”
Administrators at The Madeira School declined to comment on the subject.

Danoff noted that private schools are often more capable than public schools of addressing academic problems because of their smaller class sizes. “It’s easier for teachers to identify who’s slipping. The problem then becomes students are embarrassed if they have to take a step back.” She paused. “At that point, I’m helping them keep their heads above water.”

Tutors in the Spotlight
All students at Flint Hill School have a team of specialists watching whether they sink or swim. Nelson said she will point a struggling student toward a private tutor only after the team—which includes the student and parents—have done everything they can to help.

All students are offered extra-help sessions, blocks of time built into the day’s schedule to meet with classroom teachers, and qualified students can utilize the Learning Center, which offers assistance from counselors, coaches and the dean. When a student requires additional assistance, the school offers up names for outside help.

“We’re realistic; we have a very challenging program. We have kids who can handle it just fine with no support, and we have others who need support in a particular area.

“Because not everybody’s good at everything all of the time,” Nelson emphasized.

Flint Hill’s open-door policy with outside tutors serves their students well. “We see the kinds of kids we turn out—they’re great kids. And if they need a tutor, that doesn’t take away from how great they are in our minds,” Nelson said.

“They are all learners. They are learning about themselves just as they are learning academically,” she added. Her center’s mission is to help students figure out just what type of learners they are. “It’s always going to be different than the person next to you, and sometimes that means it’s with the help of a tutor.”
When private schools act as a resource for private tutoring it can be a winning combination.

A private-school 10th grader explained ticked off the reasons why he feels successful in school. “I feel like the school helps me, and so does the tutoring. It’s not one more than the other.”

A Culture of Support
Local private-school parents are part of a tutoring trend that has exploded in recent years. Sylvan Learning Center cites that five years ago there were a mere 250,000 tutors in the United States, whereas today there are two million.

Janice Aurini, a post-doctorate fellow at Harvard University, explained that the rise of tutoring is part of an expanding repertoire of parent-driven activities. “To paraphrase one of my interview subjects, ‘You put your kid in soccer, you put your kid in piano lessons, and now you put your kid in tutoring.’ It’s just one of the many things you do for your children,” she observed.

Match Makers
How you and your private school can help find the right tutor for your child

Credentials: There is no regulation in the tutoring industry, so buyer beware. Look for a tutor who has experience working directly with students in addition to checking his or her diploma. For students with learning disabilities, schools should only suggest tutors who are accredited specialists. Multiple references and a criminal background check are often required before a tutor can get on a recommendation list.

Curriculum: Education-industry analyst Steve Pines said familiarity with curriculum is a must. Since anyone who tacks up a sign at Safeway can wind up working with your child, make sure your tutor knows exactly what is being studied in class. Flint Hill’s Learning Center director Linnea Nelson explained: “It’s tough to get on our list. You have to have worked with a student here in order to get on.” She recommends many former faculty members and substitute teachers.

Keep watch: It’s hard for a private-school student to slip under the radar; usually there are regular team meetings to discuss each student’s progress. Many private schools also have learning centers that will help evaluate your child’s needs and suggest further testing, if necessary. But no one knows your kid is up until midnight doing homework on a regular basis unless you tell them.

Know your players: Matching personalities is just as important as credentials, Pines said. “I can’t emphasize enough the importance of chemistry. Involve your child in finding the right match.” The school might suggest peer tutors as a more informal, money-saving option.

Choose a path: Does your student want a tutor for enrichment, reinforcement or remediation? Private schools have often already researched who the appropriate professionals are.

Select a timeframe: According to Visconti, your child will give you the cues. “If the tutor hasn’t sparked a fire within three months, it’s not going to happen,” she said.

Nelson pointed out that private schools’ main objective is embedded in many of their names. “They are preparatory schools. No one wants Junior moving back home at 22,” she laughed.

If that preparatory process involves a tutor, many Northern Virginia private-school students and their advocates are all for it. “We want to do everything we can to get the job done thoroughly now,” Nelson said.

(October 2008)

Tags: after-school, curriculum, Education, learning, lessons, private schools, tutor

Entering Freshmen

Some Kids Get an Early Ride Around the Political Arena

By Lexi Gray Andrews / Photography by Jonathan Timmes

For the second time in a year, Kristen Skowronski, an eighth grader at Herndon’s Carson Middle School, is appearing on “Virginia Report,” the local television show hosted by Del. Kenneth R. Plum. Slowly and carefully, with hands folded in her lap, Kristen, 14, answers question after question about her political activities, which include a stint as a Senate page and efforts that led to the passage of a Virginia law banning phosphates in dishwashing detergent.

With a smile that reveals two rows of metal braces, Kristen comments, “I use phosphate-free dishwashing detergent, and the dishes get clean just as well as dishwashing detergent with phosphates. And it doesn’t make a difference.”

Kristen is just one of many politically active students who are too young to vote, but too passionate to stay quiet about their views. In addition to piano lessons and lacrosse practices, these students have chosen to make their mark through grassroots action. But unlike other extracurricular activities, their progress does not spring from the expectations of teachers or coaches. It is instead the students’ own motivations that drive them to political activism.

For young people in the Washington, D.C. area, the excitement of the 2008 elections is compounded with the realization that they are only a short drive away from where the major decision-making occurs. D.C.-area students have an advantage, since many grow up with campaigns and political protests as the backdrop for everyday life.

Meg Dvorak, 18, of Woodbridge, works as an intern in the “war room” of Sen. John McCain’s campaign headquarters in Crystal City. When she speaks about the Republican presidential candidate, it’s with more than a touch of enthusiasm and admiration.

If something is being said about McCain, it’s Meg’s job to track it: “We go through political blogs and other news articles, and we pull out anything about the senator, and then send alerts to the rest of the campaign. We really just monitor everything.”

Meg, the youngest member of the staff, doesn’t think her age has any impact on how she’s viewed. “It’s not strange, being the only high school student, because everyone’s really nice to me—though they do crack jokes every once in awhile. Overall, they don’t treat me any differently, and I love it.”

A large amount of Meg’s senior year in high school was devoted to McCain’s campaign; each day during the final leg of her time at Manassas’s Osbourn Park High School was spent counting the seconds until the final bell—when she could race to her internship in Crystal City.

According to the young activist, she viewed her time before college as one of the last chances she’ll have to be so vocal about politics. Meg entered the United States Naval Academy this fall, where she said she would faithfully serve the candidate who enters the office of commander in chief—regardless of party affiliation.

Faced with some serious responsibility for a teenage girl, Meg handles it all in stride. “I still have to convince my mom all the time that it’s safe for me to be driving all the way to Crystal City every week,” she laughed. She recounted the first time she met McCain, when the candidate appeared for a support rally at the Virginia Aviation Museum in Richmond.

“I didn’t want my mom to tell me I couldn’t go, so I went down there without telling my parents. Actually, during the drive down I called my mom and came clean,” said Meg, who smiled and added, “It was worth the risk of getting in trouble.” Meg, who also offered her volunteer services without first checking with her parents, has no doubts about that—during the event she was able to speak with McCain and have her photo taken with him.

“I called out to him as he was about to get on his plane and told him how I’m going to the Naval Academy, just like he did.”

Kristen’s personal interest in politics was born of a school science project, for which she researched how phosphates pollute the Chesapeake Bay. The youth was so moved by the project that she decided to gather her research and collect signatures for a petition to ban them from dishwashing detergents.

A short time later, Plum received a manila envelope containing both Kristen’s research and the petition, signed by his constituents. Less than a year after Plum opened that manila envelope, a bill to ban phosphates in detergents by July 1, 2010 was passed into Virginia law.

“Most of the time people just come to legislators with ideas,” Plum said. “Kristen came to me with research and pertinent information, so it was easy for me to move forward with the legislation.”

Plum applauded Kristen, who provided testimony for her cause at a hearing of Virginia’s Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee, for her dedication. “It was an opportunity for her to stand up in front of a committee. And let me tell you, she wasn’t scared at all. If that was me at her age, I would have been dying a thousand deaths.”

To his credit, Plum has become something of a mentor for Kristen, beyond their work on the phosphates law. Around the middle of Kristen’s eighth-grade year, Plum suggested she apply for the Virginia Senate and House page programs, designed for students aged 13 to 14.

Kristen was accepted into the Senate page program, where she served from January to March, living in Richmond during the week and traveling back to her home in Reston for weekends.

“Pages are important arms and legs for legislators who are otherwise occupied,” Plum said. “These kids enter the page program with no experience, and you really see them blossom by the end of it.”

Kristen, described by the Virginia Senate clerk Gwen Bailey as an intelligent young lady who was able to grasp onto the process of legislation more quickly than most, speaks with hushed excitement about her time with the page program. Her primary responsibility, she explained, was to “wait on the Senate floor to help with anything they might need.

“Being a page was fun because I was able to see what most senators are like when they’re not in chambers.”

Shane Grannum, 14, of Centreville, has been campaigning on and off since he was in fourth grade, when he was only 10 years old. His political activism was inspired by Howard Dean’s campaign for the 2004 presidential primary. After deciding Dean was the man for America, Shane began volunteering a few hours a week at the former candidate’s headquarters in Falls Church.

“Howard Dean really talked about health care in a way that hadn’t been done for a long time. With him talking about it, it prompted all Democrats to begin talking about it again and make it a big issue,” Shane said.

As a result of his campaign efforts for Dean, Shane was featured in a CNN documentary about the presidential candidate, entitled “True Believers.” He was also featured in the KidsPost section of The Washington Post. When Dean dropped out of the 2004 presidential race, Shane turned his attention to the Kerry/Edwards campaign by handing out political literature at local schools.

Now, Shane’s resume is the stuff of political science majors’ dreams—he’s worked on presidential, senatorial and gubernatorial campaigns, though still several years from being able to legally register to vote. The Sully District Democratic Committee nominated him for their 2008 volunteer of the year and the Lynda and Chuck Robb Award for Best Upcoming Democrat.

On the national front, Shane is a longtime supporter of Hillary Clinton, and volunteered for her since the beginning days of her campaign. Shane worked by offering his services as a “phone banker”—calling strangers to speak with them about the presidential candidate. And on the day of the Virginia primaries, he spent hours in the rain at two local polling centers to show his support. “I’m really devoted and committed to the campaign because I see experience and actions as the two biggest qualifications for a president.”

Both of Shane’s parents are Democrats, which he said he knows has somewhat influenced his views. Yet he claims not to be afraid to disagree with them—his father is partial to Barack Obama.

Shane’s mother, Denise Grannum, and her husband, Roger, have always encouraged their son’s political motivations “by exposing him at a very young age when he showed interest in politics to the system, and we also have made it a point to always be available to transport him to different political events and meetings.”
Some of those meetings were for the Sully District Democratic Committee, the chairman of which, Mary Lee Cerillo, has known Shane since his early days on the local political scene. “When Shane first started coming to our meetings, the other members were very supportive of him from the beginning. They would sit and listen to him speak and just marvel at how bright he was,” Cerillo said, adding, “He puts some of us adults to shame. When it comes to politics, Shane could debate any adult. I think he actually knows more about politics and what’s going on than a lot of adults.”

According to Shane, none of his close friends share his enthusiasm for politics. In 2006, Shane founded the Young Sully Democrats, a club for students under the voting age who were passionate about politics. The group consisted of about five members and disbanded in 2007.

“People have always questioned my age because they’re intrigued that I would be involved at such a young age. I don’t necessarily mind it, but it would never be asked if more people my age were involved,” Shane said.

“I just don’t think many kids his age are as interested in politics as he is,” Cerillo noted. “Ten years from now, I see Shane running for some kind of political office. It wouldn’t be at the national level, since he would only be 24 or 25, but trust me when I tell you he will be doing something with politics. It’s just really the love of his life.”

Yasmine Evans, 16, a junior at Flint Hill School in Oakton, is an eloquent speaker with a level of confidence that far surpasses her age. With a flair for debate and a desire to learn “all sides of the story,” Yasmine has taken advantage of her proximity to Capitol Hill through an internship with Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) that began in August 2007.

For her, the program with King was first set up through an annual initiative of the Girls Scouts Council of the Nation’s Capital (GSCNS), which matches young women with participating members of Congress for one week. (Yasmine has been a member of the Girl Scouts since she was in first grade.) About 100 young women participate in the “week on Congress” program each year, according to Meghan Delgiacco, GSCNS’s team program specialist.

Yasmine, a Democrat, was randomly assigned to the Republican King’s office. Though her personal political beliefs were not an exact match, Yasmine said she enjoyed the internship from hour one.

The feeling, it seems, was mutual. After one week on the job, King’s staff members asked Yasmine to continue working for the office. Now, Yasmine volunteers during school breaks and whenever she has enough free time, answering phones, speaking with King’s constituents, attending hearings and giving tours of the Capitol.

“I’m glad I was randomly assigned to Peter King’s office, because it allowed me to explore the relations and dynamics of a Republican office,” Yasmine said. “I’m open to exploring different things—there’s nothing wrong with understanding and accepting what an individual has to say even though you might not agree with them.”

Practice supplements her preaching, as Yasmine is heavily involved with educating others about the importance of diversity and multiculturalism. She currently serves as president of All Cultures All People, her high school’s diversity club, and is also involved with the Black Student Union. She has organized school-wide discussions about multiculturalism, socioeconomics and gender roles.

“Yasmine is an earnest young lady, mature beyond her years in the way in which she approaches the world. She is aware of important national and world issues, and she believes that it is both important and worthwhile to become involved in these issues,” said Yasmine’s advisor, Cathy Steg, Flint Hill’s English department coordinator.

“I love the fact that she is both a passionate idealist and a pragmatist,” Steg added. “She sees a need, she makes a plan, she finds an adult to help implement the plan, she makes good things happen!”

When given the opportunity for formal involvement in the political system, each of these young students has come to succeed. Perhaps one of the best ways to determine who will be tomorrow’s leaders is to let younger folks lead today, Plum commented.

“My experience is that kids thrive when you give them responsibilities. I think the secret is just to give kids more responsibility, and they’ll become successful from there,” he said. “It’s important for the future to have young people standing up to say, ‘We need to do this. We need to change.’”

(October 2008)

Tags: Education, kids and politics

Kitchen Consequential

Local Cooking Schools Test Would-be Chefs’ Metal

Text and Photography By Warren Rojas

Although some might argue that the D.C.-Metro area lacks the glitz of established dining meccas like New York City, Los Angeles or Chicago, the roster of marquee chefs and nationally recognized restaurants that have set up shop within our very borders would suggest we are, at the very least, on the cusp of becoming a can’t-miss culinary stop on the national radar.

Our appetite for gustatory greatness means local restaurant owners, chefs and general managers are always on the lookout for those key front- and back-of-the-house personnel who can help keep their business humming along, or, better yet, propel them to the next tier of stardom by adding that final touch that sets patrons’ imaginations/reviewers’ hearts/the blogosphere on fire.

Lucky for them, that talent pool is being continuously stocked with starry-eyed perfectionists courtesy of The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Washington, L’Academie de Cuisine and Stratford University School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management.

I went behind the scenes at each of the hospitality proving grounds to learn more about what it takes to make it in today’s rough-and-tumble restaurant market. After all, not every aspiring chef can expect to be handed a multimillion/billion-dollar property from some manic reality TV star (can they?).

The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Washington

Location: 1820 N. Fort Myer Drive, Arlington
Founded: November 2007 (the culinary program was recently re-branded; culinary studies originally debuted in 2001)
Director: Dr. Susan Hendee
2008 tuition: From around $20,000 for a culinary skills diploma to roughly $90,000 for a bachelor’s in food and beverage management
Program length: From nine months (diploma) to three years (bachelor’s)
Total graduates: 135 (since 2003)
Website: www.exploreculinary.com

Starting from Scratch
Kirsten Wright, director of career services at The Art Institute of Washington, views the current crop of TV cooking contests as a “double-edged sword.” While the national attention is certainly appreciated, she worries that the shows “are glamorizing an industry that is a grueling choice. You spend all day on your feet, and you work while everyone else plays.”

Just don’t tell that to the fresh-faced teens who file into the Rosslyn-based campus daily in the hopes of carving out a place for themselves among today’s cooking elite.

Of the three local schools, the newly restructured International Culinary School seems to be the youth magnet, predominantly attracting recent high-school graduates who possess a desire to cook, but who are also looking for a traditional degree to fall back on. The Art Institute has helped court that demographic since 2001 by hosting annual Best Teen Chef competitions— each AI campus promotes local cook-offs, then sends their first-place winners to a national showdown at rotating AI locations (this year’s finals took place in Las Vegas).

Culinary student Matt Acampora said he’s been cooking since he was 13, having worked in various area restaurants, including a current gig at Lansdowne Resort. Having considered The Culinary Institute of America, Pennsylvania Culinary Institute, Johnson & Wales University and even neighboring Stratford University, he was already looking for some additional instruction when a partial scholarship helped seal the deal (though he insisted, “Stratford was nowhere compared to this”).

“You learn proper techniques here,” he said of his AI studies. “It’s helped me to become more successful and professional in my career.”

Culinary student Cecil Cox originally entered the pastry program, but has since decided to explore all sides of the restaurant trade—pastry, culinary and management—to maximize his hiring potential.

“School’s great. Because this is what I wanted to do,” he said, adding that the flexible scheduling and Metro accessibility made AI an easy choice.

Established pastry chef-cum-newly minted instructor Michael Roll said his night students tend to be “a little older, more responsible,” postulating that evening classes are often flush with already working professionals who come in, absorb whatever tidbits they need and methodically knock out assignments just so they can head home for the night.

Though often more trying, Roll said he enjoys helping younger students hone their budding talents.
“They get good,” he said of the dramatic improvements he sees in his classroom from week to week. “There are people who will stay in the area and do really well.”

L’Academie de Cuisine

Location: 16006 Industrial Drive, Gaithersburg, Md.
Founded: 1976
Director: Francois Dionot
2008 tuition: From around $23,000 (pastry) to about $27,000 (culinary arts)
Program length: Approximately one year
Total graduates: Approximately 1,340 (lifetime)
Website: www.lacademie.com

Everyday Iron Chefs
“Our professional programs tend to attract career changers,” L’Academie assistant admissions director Allyson Lara explained, staking the average age of their enrollees at around 27 years old.

As such, L’Academie doesn’t bother with any liberal arts-like electives. Instead, tightly knit groups of students (each section is limited to 24 students per semester) spend virtually every day of their abbreviated tenure mastering the art of producing multicourse meals on deadline in either L’Academie’s kitchens or at pre-arranged externships within various high-end restaurants.

“What we teach them is how to cook,” Lara maintained. “Everything else they can learn on the job.”

Most students arrive at the warehouse-like culinary complex toting some sort of caffeinated beverage, tool chests full of cooking utensils, digital cameras and lots of questions. Dry-erase boards crowded with complex French menus items—“French is the language of food,” Lara stressed—announce the cooking regimen to be covered each morning.

After several hours of instruction and a gourmet breakfast (instructors typically demo the dishes during each lecture, then send the finished plates around so students can inspect and taste the final products for themselves), each morning’s micro presentation becomes a macro challenge as phase I student teams attempt to replicate said meals for dozens of peers and L’Academie staff.

By the time they reach phase II, students must be prepared to cook for the parade of potential employers, including previous attendees Patrick Deiss (2941), Tracy O’Grady (Willow), Christophe Poteaux (Bastille), Tony Chittum (Vermilion) and Jeff Heineman (Grapeseed), who often guest-judge the high-stress “market basket” challenges—ingredient-driven showdowns not unlike those featured on reality cooking programs.

Program director Patrice Olivon sets each market basket in motion by revealing the core ingredients required, meeting with the predetermined teams to review their proposed dishes, then loosing them on the burners, stoves and tabletop grills over which they are expected to sweat out the details for themselves.

Once the clock starts running, the kitchen spins into a whirlwind of delicious chaos, as students battle to fashion daring new appetizers, entrees and desserts in record time.

One student offered me a nibble of a developing sweet potato-based mole, joking, “Just like Grandma used to make. Except totally different.” Another group hunkered down to weave together seared scallops and fennel fritters. Elsewhere, ambitious dessert-makers discussed plans to construct a molasses-gingerbread cake with fruit sorbet and spun sugar.

With mere seconds to go until the final presentation, one clearly frazzled but still-chipper student coyly smiled and yelled, “Game on!”

Good humor, it seems, is necessary, since the judging turns out to be a grueling two-hour tasting trial where every little detail is analyzed to death.

Award-winning chef R.J. Cooper (Vidalia) peppered his critiques with common-sense lessons students might not have considered while laying out their fantasy menus.

“That’d be $45 at my restaurant. That’s how much duck is there,” Cooper informed one group that erred on the side of generosity whilst plating. He urged the molasses-gingerbread team to be more prescient about the totality of every dish, noting, “It’s too smoky to add a $13 glass of port. That’s the way to think about it.”

A few minutes and several dozen bites later, Cooper found a little something he really liked. The praise came as gentle ribbing. “If you see this at my restaurant next week, you won’t get mad, right?” he asked. An unnerved, would-be chef quickly shot back a warm smile.

Stratford University School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality Management

Location: 7777 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church
Founded: 1981 (culinary); 1994 (hospitality)
Director: Richard R. Shurtz
2008 tuition: From around $24,000 for a diploma to approximately $63,000 for a bachelor’s degree
Program length: Varies from around 12 months (diploma) to three years (bachelor’s)
Total graduates: Approximately 1,400 (culinary) and 300 (hospitality)
Website: www.stratford.edu

From Theory to Practice
During the course of this investigation, at least one prominent restaurateur voiced concerns about the quality of Stratford’s culinary curriculum.

“I know that the more ‘for-profit’ schools have sent out a lot of graduates without the basic understandings of kitchen operations and without fundamental preparation for the realities of restaurant work; e.g., mise en place, discipline, etc.,” the hospitality professional bristled.

None of the Stratford grads we talked to, however, seemed to have any trouble finding work. In fact, several seemed to be on the fast track to success.

Dogwood Tavern executive chef Jeremiah Mahoney had already spent nearly a decade toiling in various kitchens before going on to receive his associate’s in culinary arts from Stratford, but the veteran toque said he still found the experience enlightening.

“I just had a limited knowledge base, and it kind of helped open that up,” he said of his Stratford studies, crediting time spent absorbing the background of different foods and classic cooking styles with greatly expanding his personal repertoire.

“Some of it I already knew and had mastered. Some of it I didn’t know at all.”

Matt Finarelli, a one-time web guru-turned-up-and-coming sous chef—you can read more about the astonishing career 180 on his personal blog—said Stratford helped fill in the gaps that had built up over a lifetime of self-instruction.

“It put names to the things I had sort of already done,” he said of the technical vocabulary he acquired while completing his associate’s in culinary arts.

With degree in hand, Finarelli bounced from Cafe Tirolo (learned to cook high-volume), to Restaurant Vero (gleaned a host of fine-dining techniques) to his current post at Rustico, where he does everything from open the restaurant, handle inventory and purchasing and tackle “anything else that Chef needs.”

His efforts did not go unnoticed by Rustico executive toque Frank Morales, who tapped Finarelli to help draft operating protocols for his forthcoming Logan Circle restaurant (at press time, the establishment remained very much in flux) and hailed his “on-time, can-do mentality.”

“There are some skills that (Finarelli) possesses that no one can actually learn,” Morales said. “He is an incredible asset to this restaurant and will continue to grow within this organization.”

Moreover, Morales said that his experiences working with both L’Academie and Stratford have firmly convinced him that hometown cooking grads are the way to go.

“I prefer local schools to my alma mater,” the CIA alum said of his current hiring inclinations, explaining that locals naturally “understand the likes and dislikes of the area” better than outsiders.

Morales noted, however, that he’d be happy to bring in any CIA grads with roots in the D.C.-Metro area.

Meanwhile, Finarelli urged anyone considering making the move into professional cooking to start by checking out a cooking class or two and then gauging whether they have the fire required to endure life behind the burners.

“It’s a totally different lifestyle,” he counseled. “But you can kind of baby step your way into it.”

(August 2008)

Tags: chef, cook, culinary schools, Education, L’Academie de Cuisine, Stratford University, The International Culinary School at The Art Institute of Washington

The Play by Play

Coaches and players from Virginia colleges’ most reputable teams tell us where they are going and reflect on where they have been

By Libby Burns

Virginians know that, when it comes to sports, there’s no such thing as overindulgence. Lucky, then, that Virginia houses some of the most outstanding college sports teams in the nation. Teams like Virginia Tech’s football and George Mason’s men’s basketball have become household names, selling out stadiums to an immense number of face-painted, diehard fans whose enthusiasm easily rivals that of pro sports event-goers.

With so many extraordinary moments from these collegiate athletes, we went one-on-one with players and coaches to find their most memorable moments on the court and on the field.

University of Virginia Football
Division IA
The Cavaliers have some big cleats to fill, now that defensive end Chris Long’s been snatched up in a first-round NFL pick by the St. Louis Rams. Virginia head coach Al Groh said Long provided the team with some of their best moments, and will be greatly missed.

“He set a great example as a leader, and his dedication and drive to make the team better were outstanding and a great example for our younger players. He was the best defensive player in the nation and an honor to coach,” Groh said.

Despite the loss of Long, several linemen and even their starting quarterback, Groh said he believes his team will come back strong next season.

“It takes time for a team to come together, and you lose guys every year,” Groh said. “But people come back,   and guys like Cedric Peerman and John Phillips and Clint Sintim have really stepped up, and they are doing a great job. They are trying to teach the younger guys the Wahoo way.”

The “Wahoo way,” according to Groh, is “the commitment of the players and coaches to build a big, strong, fast, smart, tough, disciplined team that consistently will compete for championships.”

“We say about players when we’ve gotta move on, we’ve used the phrase, ‘Next man up.’ And I guess it’s, ‘Next season up.’ It’s one of the realities of coaching teams and, in particular, in the college level, where the timeframe is short.”

Virginia Tech Football
Division IA
All season openers contain significance in setting the tone for the season, but the Hokies’ first game of the 2007 season held a unique emotional weight in light of last year’s April 16 tragedy.

“The game against (East Carolina University) was an extremely emotional game for everyone,” said junior fullback Kenny Younger. “Every member of the team felt it was their duty to play an amazing game. The support was overwhelming … I felt chills from the atmosphere that was created. The win felt good, but everyone on the team hoped for more of a blowout.”

The same sense of determination leveraged the Hokies through the ranks to the 2007 ACC Championship against Boston College, which they took, 30 to 16.

Younger predicted that the best is yet to come, declaring that, next season, the Hokies are looking to go all the way.

“The team’s expectations for this next season are higher than ever,” he said. “After narrowly missing out on the National Championship in 2007, we would love nothing more than to get there this year. The team is coming back very strong this year on offense, and the depth on the defense will show in this next season.”

College of William and Mary Football
Bowl Championship Subdivision
William and Mary football took some pretty hard hits last season, but with some much-needed upgrades, this Tribe will be ready to conquer 2008.

The biggest improvement was the addition of the Laycock Football Center, a new complex complete with football offices, meeting space, training room, equipment room and locker room. The facility is dedicated to and named after the school’s current head coach, Jimmye Laycock.

“People stepped up and decided that the football team deserved a better facility,” Laycock said.

Offensive left tackle and 2008 graduate Brent Cochran said he believes the facility will lead to significant progress in the team.

“I am confident where the program is heading, with the team returning nine starters on offense and defense, respectively, they are mature enough to make a run for a conference championship,” Cochran noted. “I think it is extremely important that Jake Phillips is back as the starting quarterback.”

With Laycock, who has dedicated over 30 years to coaching the team, hard-working players and a state-of-the-art facility, Cochran said he expects the Tribe to better take its opponents in the upcoming season.
“With a solid spring practice and a strong summer workout, the guys should be a force to be reckoned with in the CAA (Colonial Athletic Association).”

Women’s Basketball
Division I
There may not be crying in baseball, but that doesn’t mean women’s sports aren’t played with exceptional passion. Junior guard Kelly Heath recalled a January 2008 game that defined her team as strong, hard-working and fervently united.

“The most memorable moment of the season was when we played No. 13-ranked ODU (Old Dominion University) at home. Our arena was packed, and the fans were super loud. This was a different kind of feeling game; it was special,” Heath said.

She described the team as carrying a confidence and pride that she had never seen before. William and Mary started strong, leading by two points at the half.

“We were thrilled, and the thought of beating ODU for the first time in school history was something we were striving for,” said Heath, who cited a thick intesity and roaring crowd.

“With four minutes, we had the game in our hands—but we then let it slip away. The score ended up being ODU 63, William and Mary 55.”

Heath said that, despite the close loss, the game proved her team’s outstanding character.

“It showed something about our team—it showed our toughness and desire to keep fighting. We gave it our all but fell a little short. But it was a memorable game that gave us confidence for the rest of the season.”

James Madison University Football
Bowl Championship Subdivision
In 2004, JMU football won their first NCAA Division IAA championship, making a name for themselves in a way that would permanently transform the team, fans and the school.

“There’s no question the 2004 National Championship changed the perception of our football program forever; we became nationally known,” said Mickey Matthews, head coach of the Dukes’ football team. “It changed the way we are viewed by recruits, and it has opened a lot of doors for us.”

The Dukes soared through their 2007 season, only narrowly missing out on the NCAA quarterfinals to Appalachian State. However, Matthews said he believes that, despite the loss, the returning players are prepared to seek out another big win for the school.

“This year we have a lot of experience returning, and we hope that translates into success on the field,” he said. “We’ve built a program that attracts quality student-athletes, we have outstanding student support services and facilities, and we’ve been able to maintain a good coaching staff. With those ingredients and everything JMU has to offer students in general, we feel we always should be among the leading programs in the Football Championship Subdivision.”

George Mason Men’s Basketball
Division I
In 2006, George Mason men’s basketball became only the second team with a double-digit seed to make it to the NCAA tournament’s Final Four quarterfinals in 20 years. Head coach Jim Larranaga remembers the moment that carried them there.

“The whole game, the crowd had been deafening, they were so loud. University of Connecticut made a game-tying shot, and all of a sudden it became silent. Everyone thought it was over.”

As the two schools huddled before overtime, Larranaga told his team there was no place he’d rather be than there with them. Then he asked his players the question that reminded them what the sport was all about.
“Are you having any fun yet?”

With that, George Mason defeated the Huskies, one of the topped-ranked teams in the nation, 86-84, to create one of the greatest moments in college sports.

Then-junior guard John Vaughan recalls the whirlwind clearly.

“It was the biggest achievement in the school’s athletic history,” Vaughan said. “The sights, sounds, the fans, to have the whole country behind you. I grew up watching that on TV.”

Having earned the title of CAA champions in the 2007-2008 season and taking another trip to the NCAA tournament, the squad dubbed the “Cinderella team” wouldn’t call their run to the Final Four a happy ending; rather, just the beginning.

Virginia Commonwealth University
Men’s Basketball
Division I
With an outstanding 2007-2008 season, Virginia Commonwealth University head coach Anthony Grant has a gamut of outstanding moments to choose as favorite. Though one in particular, he said, stands out.
“The win at home against UNC Wilmington—the regular season championship.”

Despite losing the title of 2008 CAA champion to George Mason University, the team went 24-8 overall, and claimed the title of CAA regular season champs. With a one-point lead going into halftime in the game against UNCW, the Rams proved their strength and talent by stretching their lead in the second half, ultimately shutting out the Seahawks, 72-58.

With fresh talent coming in and the return of some of the Rams’ best players, Grant said he believes his team will continue to be front-runners for the CAA.

“We lost three seniors, but have 10 scholarship players returning and signed two incoming freshman that will be ready to play,” he said.

And when asked what to expect from his team in the upcoming season, Grant’s answer was simple.
“Our expectation is to be the best we can be.”

University of Mary Washington
Women’s Basketball
Division III
In their 2006-2007 season, Mary Washington women’s basketball ushered in an extraordinary 31 wins, making their way to the NCAA Division III Final Four for the first time in the school’s history.
As the Lady Eagles toppled their opponents throughout the tournament, one game in particular stands out for players and head coach Deena Applebury alike.

The Eagles faced Bowdoin College—the team that shut them out of the ’05-’06 Sweet 16 game—in an Elite Eight lineup. This time, the ladies were determined to take victory over the Polar Bears.

The game, in then-junior guard Kaitie Clarkin’s mind, was both tense and unforgettable.

“At halftime we were down nine. We came back and won by five,” Clarkin remembered. “It proved how good we were and showed we really deserved to be there.

“It was just a great experience, and we left our hearts on the court that night.”

The Eagles finished with a 64-59 win over Bowdoin, advancing them to the Final Four semi-finals, and establishing themselves as one of the nation’s top college teams.

Coach Applebury credited the team’s success to their dedication and close bonds. “Our individual development, team chemistry and team depth has been key to our success. We have players that believe in each other and the system.”

Keeping Score
Virginia Game Day Fundamentals

University of Virginia Football
Division IA
School Colors: Blue and Orange
Mascot: The Cavalier
2007 Season Record: 9-4
Athletic Name: Cavaliers, Wahoos, Hoos
Head Coach Name: Al Groh

Virginia Tech Football
Division IA
School Colors: Chicago Maroon and Burnt Orange
Mascot: HokieBird
2007 Season Record: 11-3
Athletic Name: Hokies                                                                            
Head Coach Name: Frank Beamer

College of William and Mary
Football—Bowl Championship Subdivision
School Colors: Gold, Green and Silver
Mascot: None
2007 Season Record: 4-7
Athletic Name: The Tribe
Head Coach Name: Jimmye Laycock

College of William and Mary
Women’s Basketball—Division I
School Colors: Gold, Green and Silver
Mascot: None
2007-2008 Season Record: 14-18
Athletic Name: The Tribe
Head Coach Name: Debbie Taylor

James Madison University Football
Bowl Championship Subdivision
School Colors: Purple and Gold
Mascot: Duke Dog
2007 Season Record: 8-4
Athletic Name: Dukes
Head Coach Name: Mickey Matthews

George Mason University Men’s Basketball
Division I
School Colors: Green and Gold
Mascot: Gunston
2007-2008 Season Record: 23-11
Athletic Name: Patriots
Head Coach Name: Jim Larranaga

Virginia Commonwealth University Men’s Basketball
Division I
School Colors: Black and Gold
Mascot: Rodney the Ram
2007-2008 Season Record: 24-8
Athletic Name: Rams
Head Coach Name: Anthony Grant

University of Mary Washington Women’s Basketball
Division III
School Colors: Gray and Blue
Mascot: Eagle
2007-2008 Season Record: 28-3
Athletic Name: Eagles
Head Coach Name: Deena Applebury

(August 2008)

Tags: basketball, college sports, Education, football