New President Helps Egypt Find its Economic Groove

By REBECCA COSTA


Mohamed Morsi has a lot of rebuilding to do since becoming president of Egypt. With the depressing economy, Morsi along with the Islamic Brotherhood, is trying to come up with a way to get Egypt back to its economic groove.

Out of Corruption - Afghanistan Will Rise

By GRACE PUKSTA


Afghanistan struggles to provide for themselves after troops leave in 2014; foreign aid pledges $16billion. Country prepares for a change in government to better protect and give new liberties to the people.

Friend Me: Mixing Home Life and the New World of ASP

By MADI CLEMENT

Rising high school seniors came to this summer’s Advanced Studies Program from all over New Hampshire, leaving friends and family behind. They packed up bags and drove sometimes for hours to reach the campus in the woods, the

St. Paul’s Advanced Studies Program (ASP). We came for various reasons, and for those reasons we made the choice to spend the summer in a classroom setting. We have developed a form of community, with houses, new families, and new friends. The question is, should the students of ASP spend time online talking to friends from home, or living in the moment at ASP? 

The first opportunity for friend visits came on Wednesday, June 27, 2012. Many people’s friends and family flooded the ASP campus in search of tours and friendly conversation. ASP engineering student Emma Sosa commented about seeing her friends for the first time since the summer started. “I felt a little empty when they left. This isn’t home for me and seeing them made me miss the parts that form my daily routine.” Sosa wasn’t alone in her feelings about being reminded of home. World Religions student Evan Howard observed that when he saw his mother and friends “I thought of home, I didn’t necessarily miss it, but I thought about it.”

The Night Life at ASP

By DREW SWEDBERG


Since 1958, the advanced studies program at St. Paul’s has thrived on challenging dedicated students in many rigorous courses outside the typical high school curriculum.  However, there is only one course here that asks students to work outside the typical high school time schedule: astronomy.  With access to the school’s observatories and the class’ nocturnal nature, the students who are presumably walking around after lights out in a state of rebellion, are actually putting in mandatory extra hours that are unlike anything they ever experienced in high school.

Most people see the night sky as both beautiful and mysterious as they stare into the vastness that peers deep into the vacuum which makes up the space outside our atmosphere.  The curiosity has always existed inside our minds, but it was the students here that decided to expand upon their curiosity besides the occasional rhetorical question.  Astronomy student Aubrey Wesson described her first experiences with the sky as “overpowering” and went on to say how she saw the night sky as “almost supernatural.”  Wesson, who received her first telescope at a young child, instantly developed a curiosity for the world outside our own.  As she grew up Wesson took another approach to the subject of astronomy.

The Glue That Holds Us Together

By ANDREW KERNS

No matter where students come from or what their interests are, they are welcomed at St. Paul’s. The glue that holds the Advanced Studies Program (ASP) together is community. All are received and included throughout the campus. The biggest way at St. Paul’s to express togetherness is the long-standing tradition of going to Chapel four out of seven days a week.

Chapel is not your everyday Christian gathering. Here at St. Paul’s they receive anyone from Christians, to Buddhists, to atheists. Interns, students, and faculty don’t sit forward facing the altar or speaker, but towards the middle facing one other; there aren’t only just readings and hymns, but activities for students, interns, and faculty to express their personalities.

Questing The Quest

By ELIZA CONRAD

At the Advanced Studies Program at St. Paul’s School, the majority of classes are self-explanatory. World Religions studies world religions and Shakespeare for Performance rehearses and performs Shakespeare. Not many ASP students, however, can define The Quest. Mary Beth Sareault of Milford, who takes Engineering, thinks “its one giant scavenger hunt for the meaning to life.”  Connor Harding of Central, who takes Shakespeare for Performance, believes “The Quest is for, like, something awesome.” Before classes started, students in the class did not even have a good idea of what they would be studying while at ASP. Student Maeve Dolan of Winnacunnet “knew nothing.” She took the course “because I wanted to find out.”

           
Even though this class still remains a mystery to many, Mr. Holding, who teaches one of the sections of the course, gives a general idea of what actually happens in the classroom. The Quest is a “literature course that focuses on the human condition and the search for meaning in life” as well as “a philosophical element”. There is a film component to Harding’s section, as he has a degree in film studies. Intern Victoria Sobocinski’s favorite aspect of class is the discussion among students. ASP “Questers”, however, have a favorite activity so far: the scavenger hunt.

iCollege: Making the Ultimate Playlist

By REBECCA COSTA

College: it’s a word that places fear in some while filling others with excitement. It’s a word that has been weighing heavily on the minds of students at St. Paul’s School this summer. It’s a word that as hard as one may try, in the next few months (and for some the last few months as well) will come up very frequently—if not every day. For some ambitious students, the college process is well on its way, while others slowly trail behind. Either way, every student here is serious about his/her education and has something that they want to accomplish in the next five weeks.


Maura McCarthy and Cory Waldinger are the counselors on campus here and meet with each student for a 30 minute session where McCarthy or Waldinger “provide whatever help may be needed.” During the meetings, McCarthy feels as though her job is to reassure students that they have done good work up until this point. “They’re wonderful,” said McCarthy referring to the meetings at the Advanced Studies Program (ASP). Not knowing the students, McCarthy does feel she needs to read between the lines a little bit, but feels she can usually get a good sense of a student. According to McCarthy, the best case right now is for students to have taken the SATs, seen a few schools and done some research, but if a student hasn’t done that yet, he/she is not too far behind.