The moment they get their diplomas, graduates immediately go from being “students” to “alumni.”
And yet, graduates of Secaucus High School have sometimes found themselves at a loss when planning reunions, or looking for jobs, or trying to reconnect with old friends. In most communities, graduates turn to their alumni associations for help. But in the case of SHS, no such association exists to furnish those resources and meet the needs of its graduates.
“There’s been no one centralized place that everyone knows they can go if, let’s say, they want an internship, or maybe they want to start a scholarship in memory of someone that’s passed,” said SHS grad and School Board Trustee Dora Marra. A business owner who operates a hair accessories shop in town, Marra said she periodically looks for high school students to work as interns. “I’ll usually reach out to Mr. Epps or Doug DePice in the [SHS] art department because I know him. But I know who to call. Not everyone does. Not every business out there with an internship or job opportunity is going to have that contact.”
“There’s been no one centralized place that everyone knows they can go.” – Dora Marra
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Often times, Marra said, alumni-oriented questions end up getting placed directly to the high school, which is understandably more focused on current students rather than ones who graduated years ago.
She added that even the Board of Education, which likes to poll recent high school graduates, finds it challenging to stay in touch because, “people move. Their numbers or e-mail addresses change and there’s no way for us to know they’ve changed.”
So, working under the auspices of the Secaucus Public Education Foundation, Inc., Marra is trying to put together SHS’s first official alumni association.
And official is the key word here. Marra said there’s an unofficial website out there that was launched independently by some SHS grads who have no affiliation with the school district or the Secaucus Public Education Foundation. “If you look at that website, they have a Class of ‘66. We didn’t even have a Class of ‘66,” Marra noted.
Young district
In fact, the Secaucus Public School District is still a very young district.
Secaucus High School didn’t open its doors until 1976. Before then, local students completed their secondary education at out-of-town schools, with many residents attending high school in Weehawken.
The Class of 1977 was SHS’s first graduating class.
So, like any young establishment, SHS has taken some time to develop the typical school community institutions.
As Marra envisions it, the alumni association will give grads opportunities to share news and activities, organize class reunions, keep in touch with faculty and other former students, and find ways to give back to their alma mater.
“Sometimes we have people who want to give to one of the scholarships, or maybe they want to create a scholarship in memory of a student or graduate who has passed,” said Marra. “That’s one way to give back to the school. But some people may want to volunteer or make a donation for some other purpose. The alumni association will be a conduit for these kinds of things.”
Currently she’s working with resident Hardik Shah, an IT professional who is creating a website for the association free of charge.
Once the official alumni association website is up and running, there will be an ongoing monthly fee for web hosting.
The site isn’t up and running yet, but should be launched in the fall.
Supported by public education foundation
The alumni association is a project of the Secaucus Public Education Foundation, a nonprofit that gives small grants to classroom projects that can’t get funded through other channels
Launched in 1994, the foundation has contributed a total of $150,000 to the Secaucus school district in the last 14 years.
Among the projects supported by the foundation in the past were field trips, English as a Second Language curricula, and experimental interactive learning tools.
“With all the cuts in education spending at the state level, the foundation’s work is more vital now than ever before,” said Marla Arbuse, first vice president of the foundation.
The foundation’s next fundraiser will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 14 at Cheeseburger in Paradise from 4 to 11 p.m. The restaurant has agreed to donate 20 percent of each bill to the foundation’s work. Cheeseburger in Paradise is located at 700 Plaza Dr. in Secaucus.
To become active in the Secaucus Public Education Foundation, visit www.SBOE.org/spef , or send an e-mail to spef@gmail.com.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.