EMS Gala Raises Over 210K For Faculty Endowment Fund

By Jennifer Shaia, Judy Couri , Courtney Miglietta
Spring Gala 2012 Co-Chairs


The Spring Gala 2012 was held at the Alpine Country Club and a wonderful time was had by all who attended! This year, our annual benefit honored retiring Head of School, David Lowry, as well as Aril Lowry, affectionately known as our “Garden Lady.” On Saturday, May 5, more than 320 people came together to say “Thank you!” to Dr. and Mrs. Lowry.

Dr. Lowry believes that “the teachers are the heart and soul of Elisabeth Morrow” and requested that all proceeds from this event be directed to the Endowment for our Faculty. This year, more than $210,000 was raised at the event!

We sincerely thank all the volunteers, underwriters, faculty, staff, and administrators who made this event such a success.

Photographs by Shelley Kusnetz

Elisabeth Morrow Students Take First Place Team Trophies in Every Grade Level at Inaugural Math Contest.

4th Grade Winning Team:
Reha, Cameron, Oren and Sangmin

by Evan Brown
Director of Communications and Alumni

On Monday April 30, The Elisabeth Morrow School hosted the first-ever, elementary Math League Contest to take place in Northern New Jersey.  The contest, organized by EMS Math Chair Carol Toth for students in grades 3 through 6, was administered by Mathleague.org and are modeled upon the larger MathCounts National Competitions. 

The Elisabeth Morrow Math scholars faired exceptionally well, garnering first-place, all-around trophies in 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th grade, making a clean sweep of all divisions. In addition, the EMS team registered two 1st place individual winners: Peter Staphos (in grade 3) and Dylan Rhee (in grade 5).  As well, Dylan was the highest individual scorer for the entire competition.  Elisabeth Morrow also had the highest overall team score from its all-girl, sixth-grade team:  Stephanie Li, Emily Yu, Kira Trout and Chrissie Anagnos. The team was coached by EMS Math teacher, Sarah Ehatamm.

MathLeague.org competitions consist of several challenges that require a variety of math skills and abilities.  Students are tested through mental-math problems, group problem solving, sprint rounds featuring multiple choice, and targeted rounds that allow for the use of approved calculators.  The competition fielded teams from a number of prominent regional independent schools, including: Princeton Academy, Solomon Schechter, The Wilson School, The Peck School, Far Hills Country Day, Rumson Country Day and The Red Oaks School.  In all Elisabeth Morrow hosted 175 students for the afternoon competition.

The Experience of Research in Kindergarten

by Beth Brennan
Director of Early Childhood Programs


This spring, our EMS Kindergarten classes have been using their acquired literacy skills to begin their first, school research projects.  As with all projects of this nature at EMS, the teachers are merely guides while the students are encouraged to take ownership of their research and presentations.


Initially, the children are instructed to select an animal.  Next, they are guided through the research phase.  The teachers assist in selecting a variety of books (non-fiction), provide video clips and apps to use with iPads, and help with fact-finding during library visits.  Students are also provided with a list of general questions as a framework for their research; this also helps them process their findings through notes or images they sketch.  Experience is also important, so very soon, the children will be visiting the local zoo to study their animals in person. 


Projects such as this one are multi-faceted, engaging a range of methods for gathering and processing information.  From a farther perspective, "research" gives young children a sense of purposeful study–it  forms a body of skills and pattern of thinking as children move through school and are confronted with problems or topics they must break down and understand.