By Janie Rosman
Meeting (the late) baseball Coach Dom Cecere ignited Jimmy Fong’s love for the sport. “Coach transformed it into an actual passion (for me) by just being around him, the way he talked about the game and talked about how the game affects your life,” the Eastchester High School Valedictorian confided.
His longtime passion for baseball led Fong to junior varsity and varsity programs for the past four years. “It’s my home away from home, especially after all the stress of school and work. I’d get on the diamond, and it would be like heaven to me.
Fong and EHS Salutatorian Juliet Liao discussed their high school experiences and college plans with Rising Media one week prior to tossing their tasseled caps into the air.
Both nodded in agreement that their world history teacher Edye Caine’s unconventional teaching — group projects or dinner parties with guests from another time period — left a strong impression.
“We (each) had to embody a person from another time period and interact (with each other) as these people,” Liao explained. An eastern European Holocaust trip to four different countries and several former concentration camps “was an altering experience, where you got a more worldly view of life and history.”
“I think the best part was that she taught beyond the curriculum and taught you how to look at life,” Fong added. A turning point for him was learning “grades don’t define you, to trust the work ethic, the process of putting together what we learned. She didn’t tell us what to think.”
Caine told them learning how to learn and experience new things is more important in life than doing well on a test. “She taught me that learning how to learn and how to respond to what other people say. She made everything more memorable, and this stuck with me.”
While Liao considered calculus her favorite subject, Fong favored AP literature. “We had some conversations in there (class) I never thought I’d have in school,” he mused, “and m mind hurts a lot (thinking about it).”
“We read The Sound and the Fury (by William Faulkner), and spent 40 minutes talking about one word,” Liao expanded. “Explaining one or two key words in a phrase and how it affected the meaning of an entire passage “enlightened us about one of the book’s characters,” Fong added.
In addition to literature he took AP calculus BC, college physics, AP government and AP psychology. Liao’s courses also included AP psychology and college physics and AP government.
Marching band and orchestra afforded Liao, who plays the flute, opportunities to play numerous repertoires. “I liked exploring different topics in class with open discussions, extracurriculars that allowed me to expand my interests, and fun, spirited school events like Rock Against Cancer, musicals and pep rallies.
She and Fong grinned when asked about college plans. Liao chose the STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and its undergraduate research opportunity program. “I’m interested in civil and environmental engineering and also like that it’s near Boston as being near a city is important to me.”
After MIT shs’ll commission for five years as part of the US Naval Academy’s ROTC program. “It’s important to serve my country,” she said, and wile unsure which community to chose, a summer seminar and hearing about her father’s experiences with Army ROTS helped her decide.
Fong preferred more opportunistic programs like the one at Northeastern University in Boston “because it has a coop program and lets students spend a semester as interns at companies and fits into my schedule,” which appealed to him. His choice is engineering, and while unsure which field of study, he surmised, “I’d like to take it one step at a time. “That’s what college is for: get to know what I like and if engineering is the right path.”
While new experiences await, Fong emphasized, “I will never forget the friends I’ve made here over the last four years, and I’m so thankful to have met such supportive and influential individuals that motivated me each day, from all of my teachers, to my guidance counselor and coaches.”
“I appreciated the help and support from several teachers and friends who aided in my personal and intellectual growth,” Liao agreed. Her advice to rising seniors and undergraduates is to “manage your time well, let go of some other worries and stay on top of yourself. Have a good support system, appreciate your friends no matter what.”
“Enjoy high school and the people you meet along the way because before long you’ll be in college,” Fong added. “In high school you’re growing, and it may be awkward, yet the people you meet in high school will be different from the rest of your life.”
