The recent Advanced Spanish trip, from January 19th to January 25th, marked the program’s eighth visit to Cuba since its start in 2015. This trip was designed for students to experience a unique culture, engage in community service, and live through an authentic connection with the local community. PHS Spanish students participated in various activities that ranged from painting murals in Havana to gifting local students donations fundraised by PHS students.


The trips to Cuba began as an assignment in Spanish IV A and Spanish VI A teacher Martha Hayden’s El Cine Hispanohablante class, where students were instructed to write letters to a Cuban artist. One student chose Manuel Lopez Olivia, sparking a lasting friendship between Olivia and Hayden. In 2015, when Obama lifted the travel ban to Cuba, Hayden decided to visit Olivia and give students the opportunity to experience Cuban culture firsthand.


“I said to Manuel, I’m definitely coming now. I really want to go to Cuba. I don’t know why it just felt like it was so important to now actually meet him in person because he kept writing to me for all those years,” said Hayden.


Hayden initially designed the itinerary for the trip with a tour company; however, Olivia disliked it and offered to redesign it from an authentic Cuban perspective with art as the focal point of the trip.  
“He thought that it was a terrible program and ... not really totally Cuban ... And he said ‘I really want it to be through art.’ So they [created] this whole program for me so that we could actually travel there. But I gave it a name, ‘Seeing Cuba through the eyes of the artist,’” said Hayden. 


However, traveling to Cuba required flexibility due to differences in living conditions between Cuba and the United States. For example, essentials such as toilet paper, soap, and even toothbrushes were not always readily available in Cuba. Additionally, limited internet access meant students had to put aside their phones and social media. 


“There was very, very limited WiFi at the homestay, so we could call our parents and maybe send a few texts, but that was about it. But most of us had saved music, and I think it kind of added to the experience ...  like when we were on the bus, the only entertainment was just to talk and listen to music together and stuff,” said Leopoldo Gessner ’27, a student on the trip.  


This year, as in past years, students and teachers alike enjoyed various  activities like bus tours, museum visits, and eye-opening community service events designed to help local kids. 


“We put a lot of effort into collecting and then distributing a lot of the supplies that these people needed … I would say it was a big part of the trip, and it was really amazing to see especially when we were helping out kids … It’s just really nice to see how appreciative they are … and it was so amazing being able to help out,” said Gessner.


Cuban art was an espeically important part of the trip. Cuba has many schools for the arts that were installed by former the communist  dictator Fidel Castro during the Cuban revolution in the 1950s. However,  according to Hayden, Cubans later utilized art to protest against the communist government by creating pieces that resonated with the people, leading to several crackdowns on Cuban artist. 


“The fine arts is just unbelievable. It really is. The history behind it and the talent is so incredible. It’s different than any museum that I’ve seen around the world. And I’ve traveled a lot,” said Hayden.

 
 PHS assistant Principal Lauren Freedman, one of the  chaperones on the trip, said that the many ways the trip was made to be as authentic as possible improved the overall experience, leading to lifelong memories for everyone on the trip. 


“This is like an authentic, real life. We’re going to be with the people, like it’s not a fake touristy trip. And that makes this trip, I think, extra unique and special too, because it’s like you’re going to visit family. It felt like we were with family,” said Assistant Principal Lauren Freedman. 


PHS Spanish students go to Cuba

Getting the 3,800 students in the
Princeton district to and from school
would cause a considerable amount
of traffic in Princeton if not for the
district’s transportation system. As the
Transportation Supervisor of PPS, Donna
Bradin ensures that all students are able
to attend school and events safely and
on time.

In order to coordinate transportation for
over 30 other schools in addition to PPS’s
six public schools, Bradin starts months
ahead of the first day of school to prepare
for the upcoming school year. She begins
with private schools, drafting routes in
April and May, before planning routes for
public schools in July, and sending them
to contractors by August.

“We have 26 contracted routes, which
consist of mostly our public schools
and some of our [private] schools. The
challenging part is everybody [has]
basically the same dismissal time, so I have
to be really creative with how I do these
routes,” said Bradin.

Bradin also helps to coordinate athletics
and events. A contract with Irvin Raphael,
a school bus company, allows flexibility in
coordination with Princeton drivers. This
allows Irvin Raphael to do nighttime or
weekend trips when Princeton drivers are
unavailable. She also helps to coordinate
transportation for Princeton events such
as the Princeton High School Marathon,
Community Diversity Day, and even Teen
Travel Camp.

“I’m very busy, always busy. I have a
list of things each month that need to be
done, whether it be reports or not, and I
enjoy doing it all. It’s like a big puzzle, I
have to put it all together,” said Bradin. “I
always say that anybody can come to my
office and visit just to see how we work.”

With nearly 30 years of experience,
Donna Bradin has worked her way through
the transportation ladder, from driving
buses to becoming a trainer for CDL and
a third party tester, before finally landing
in the transportation office of PPS.

“I started doing this almost 30 years ago
as a school bus driver, and I came from
Pennsylvania. And when I started, my
two children were young, and I was like,
‘I gotta get a job.’ Never thought of making
it a career, to be honest with you, but here
I am,” said Bradin.

As a former bus driver, Bradin says that
being a driver is easy for the most part, but
may encounter many challenges, including
traffic, road closures, or bad weather.
Nevertheless, Bradin believes the positives
of her job outweigh the negatives.

“I know from my own experience, you
get to watch kids grow. I try and keep the
same drivers on the same run ... I’m a
firm believer [in that] because you build
a relationship with families and you get to
watch students grow up,” said Bradin. “I’m
a people person ... I’ll run into somebody
that I drove many years ago, and they’ll
have families, and they’ll be like, ‘Hey, you
were my bus driver,’ so that is rewarding
in itself.”

Bradin stresses the importance of being
able to connect with new students and their
families who may not be used to taking a
school bus every morning.

“I know we have a lot of families that
come from other countries and their
children may never have been on a school
bus,” said Bradin. “I’ll say [to them] ‘Why
don’t you come here with your child? We’ll
take them for a bus ride and show them.’
I love doing that.”

PHS Investigates: coordinating transportation

### Bill Urias

Every day, students who enter PHS through the
Tower entrance are greeted by Bill Urias and asked for
their IDs. However, this quick interaction does not
reveal much about his interesting life before PHS or
his adventurous hobbies outside of his work.
After finishing high school in South Jersey, Urias
joined the military for four years before going to college.
He attended both Rutgers University and The College
of New Jersey, where he studied accounting. He then
traveled to California in hopes of pursuing a master’s
degree in business.

While in California, Urias instead worked for a
private company where he cut trees due to his passion
for adventure and nature. However, after eight years
of living in California, his wife’s parents fell ill and the
couple decided to move back to New Jersey.
Although Urias formerly studied accounting, he
decided to become a foreman for the Township of
Princeton.

“I had a crew of 45 men and women, and every
morning we would make the assignments on what
we were going to do. We had crews that took care
of the trees, took care of the signs around the town,
maintained the parks, [and] cut the grass,” said Urias.

Not long after retiring from his position as a
foreman, Urias was recruited to become a part-time
security guard and building monitor at PHS. He has
been working at PHS for the past five years. His job
includes checking student IDs when they enter the
building, pointing visitors in the right direction, and
filling in for other missing staff.

His passion for the outdoors not only influenced
his career choices but also how he spends his time
outside of work. One of his favorite pastimes is riding
motorcycles.

“I have three motorcycles. We do tours [and] take
people up to Lake George and Lake Placid. I don’t
bring [the motorcycles] to work,” said Urias. 

### Tracy Hart

Keeping students fed is an integral yet complex
process at PHS. As one of several cafeteria workers
who make sure this process runs successfully, Tracy
Hart ensures that all students are well-fed and ready
to learn.

Growing up in Hopewell, Hart has been working
with Pomptonian Food Service, PHS’s new food
service provider, for three years. She has worked all
over New Jersey in multiple school districts with
Pomptonian, but started at PHS this July.

“I know that the community is interested in farmto-tray and locally sourced things like that. My father’s also a farmer in the Hopewell area. I was really excited
when we [started at PHS] because I can incorporate
a lot of things that are locally grown that I’m familiar
with from this area into the menu,” said Hart.

 Prior to Pomptonian, Hart worked for several other
food service providers, but she enjoys working with
Pomptonian as the company focuses on delivering
services exclusively in schools, whether K-12 or
community colleges.

“I went to Rutgers, and I have a degree in nutritional
science, and I was hired by Sodexo, a food service
company, right from class. I was with them for 20 years.
I also did country clubs involved in food service, and
started as Grimace at McDonald’s and got involved in
food service, then I went to Strayer [University] for
my Master’s [in] Business Administration,” said Hart.

Outside of work, Hart enjoys taking her four kids
tent camping, going to Hershey Park, and tending to
her backyard chicken. She is also helping her father
as he opens a brewery in Pennington.

### Nick Cream

Armed with a ten-year tenure as a police officer,
Nick Cream now uses the security skills he gained in
his role as PPS’s attendance officer and PHS’s security
officer. With this year marking his 34th in the district,
some of Cream’s responsibilities include maintaining
building security, monitoring the cafeteria during
lunch, breaking up physical confrontations between
students, conducting wellness checks for chronically
absent students, and conducting residency checks.

“If [PPS] suspects that somebody may be living
outside of Princeton, but attending the schools illegally,
I investigate those maps,” said Cream. “And if a kid’s
missing a lot of school, sometimes … I’ll make a home
visit.”

Cream’s interest in pursuing a career relating to public
security stretches back to college. After he graduated
from Lawrence High School in Lawrence Township,
Cream studied criminal justice at The College of New
Jersey. Following his college graduation, he trained to
become a police officer and ultimately joined the
Trenton Police Department.

“I left the police force after I had a couple back
surgeries. I’ve been with this school ever since,”
said Cream.

Cream’s role in the district started as a part-time
job as an attendance officer conducting occasional
residency checks. As the demand for security in
schools increased, Cream’s position evolved into the
full-time job he currently holds, where he serves as
a security officer for PHS on top of his attendance
officer duties.

“I’m fortunate that the students are great here,
which makes my job a lot easier,” said Cream.

Outside of keeping PHS’s security in shape, Cream
likes bike riding and exercising. As big fans of the
shore, Cream and his wife also enjoy visiting their
beach house in Brigantine. Cream enjoys visiting his
grandchildren in Florida and Pennsylvania as well. 

PHS behind the scenes workers

“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good
times, good times create weak men, and weak men create
hard times,” wrote the postapocalyptic author G. Michael
Hopf. Currently, our country’s education system is in the
“good times” phase in many ways.

However, after the recent relatively calm decades and
the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, many
students today face various academic challenges,
one of the most significant being social media’s
increased influence and usage, which has led to
a decline in focus and engagement in learning.
If we want to avoid creating “hard times,” PHS
needs to go beyond our educational standards
and learn from other countries to improve the
present state of our education culture.

What is the current education culture like
in the United States? When compared to
educational systems overseas, the U.S. school system is falling
behind in multiple different aspects. Taking a look at the latest
Programme for International Student Assessment, Trends
in International Mathematics and Science Study, and the
National Assessment of Educational Progress exams held in
the years 2018–2021, the United States regularly doesn’t even
land in the top ten. This is despite being a global superpower
and an extremely well-developed first-world country.
When zooming in on the Princeton area, the case is no
different. According to the official website of the state of New
Jersey, for the 2022–2023 NJSLA and DLM, 71.4 percent
and 61.0 percent of students in the PPS District met or
exceeded expectations in the English Language Arts section
and Mathematics section, respectively. This doesn’t look
good in comparison to other districts, like the Summit
Public School District, which had 81.0 percent and 69.9
percent of students meeting or exceeding expectations
for the same test. In New Jersey, PMS and PHS don’t
even come close to being on top. So what
could PPS do better?

To improve, there are many
ways our school could
take inspiration from
international educational
standards and culture,
specifically when it comes
to respect for teachers. In
China, a 2018 study conducted
by the National Institute of Economic and
Social Research found that 81 percent
of teachers felt that they were respected
by their students, compared to the
international average of 36 percent.

This is not at all the case at PHS, where
it is becoming increasingly common
to see students being distracted during
classes — not participating, talking
during lessons, or ignoring classroom
rules. For teachers, these distractions are
more than just frustrating, but also make them feel insulted
and undervalued. In a study published in 2018 by the
Journal of Educational Psychology, it was found that
teachers who reported that they felt disrespected
by their students were less likely to be engaged in
supporting their students and have enthusiasm in
their teaching. For more teachers to feel like they
are valued, more students need to start listening
to instructions, being curious about lessons, and
engaging with their classes.

Simply put, to improve our current educational
state, there needs to be a change in students’
attitudes and the environment in which they learn.
For PHS to create future leaders, we have to focus
on our education — students need to put in the
effort and show that they care about
school. Being engaged in learning
and academics helps us build
lifelong skills and become more
knowledgeable citizens in the
future. It’s time for PHS to step
away from our current education
culture and follow the lead of
other countries when it comes
to learning, like by increasing
academic rigor, showing respect to
teachers, and showing a genuine
interest in learning

The Tower

Fangwu Yu's Work

The Tower