CONGRATULATIONS    

CLASS OF 2010!

VALEDICTORIAN

Kevin Walsh

SALUTATORIAN

Megan Brattole

Welcome to our new online community.  Membership is FREE and available exclusively to our alumni and friends!

This is ALJ's private, online community created exclusively for ALJ HS alumni.   It is a secure, password-protected environment established by the ALJ High School Alumni Association.

Once you register, an email will be sent to confirm your membership and validate your email address.  Be sure to click on the link in this email so your account can be activated.

Please be patient with the site as it's being developed and content is being added.  *Most of the information on the site is for testing and development purposes and will be replaced with better content as soon as possible.

Become a member and take advantage of the following services:

• Reconnect with faculty and former classmates
• Organize class reunions
• Discover ways to support your school
• Share alumni news and activities

Features include:

• Message boards for In Memorial, Lost/Missing Alumni, Career & Volunteer Center, Class Notes, School & Alumni News
• Subscriptions to keep you updated by e-mail of classmates and message board updates
• Alumni directory that's searchable by class, by name or by occupation
• Lost / missing alumni directory to help find people that others are looking for
• Social networking (Facebook, Skype, MySpace and LinkedIn) support

Search for friends and make new connections with the online community!  All you need to do to take advantage of all the community has to offer is to proceed through the registration process to establish an account.

These women are looking for you!

Your "Barbaras" will fill VFW Post 7362 at 6 Broadway in Clark, NJ with members of ALJ's Class of 1960! The celebration of your 50th Reunion begins at 6p.m.on Saturday, October 9, 2010, with casual dress and BYOB. Take a minute to register on this only offical ALJ Alumni Association website (it's free and very private!) and learn more from your Class Message Boards. Barbara De Cillis Guzzi (732.202.8388) and Barbara Zavoda Bevilacque (732.862.6239) are your Reunion coordinators and need to chat with you in the next 60 days. Do it now! 

SAMPLE ONLY                                The Clark School District has announced the establishment of the ALJ Hall of Fame to honor former students and administrators beginning with the initial year at Regional in 1956.

Supporters of ALJ can nominate candidates for the inaugural class of 15 inductees from Nov. 13 through Dec.31 by logging onto the site.  The class will be announced at the annual luncheon  and will be honored at a banquet in March.

Be sure to check out the list of reunions and events posted to the left in "Upcoming Events".  If you are a planner of a future event, be sure to read "Event planning information / add an event" for tips and information to make your event a success.

Thomas McManamy, Class of 1959

Keep your e-mail and mailing addresses current and you'll receive the details for all alumni information, activities, events, and reunions.

CONGRATULATIONS !

NASA ASTRONAUT  

Captain KENNETH T. HAM, USN

Mission Commander STS-132

ALJ Class of 1983

32nd & Final Atlantis journey into space

 

(CAREER DETAILS IN CLASS OF 1983)

______________________________

ALJ needs your help! Please consider becoming a founding member of your alumni association. Also think about "giving back" by participating on potential committees like  goals and objectives, research, legal formation, membership, scholarship, speakers bureau, event planning, reunions and school store. Do as much or as little as you wish. Class Contact? Decade Director? Web Master? Association counsel and CPA? If you have any interest, ALJ will find an appropriate way for you to give back.  Drop a brief note of interest to tjm@ec.rr.com to begin our challenge. We look forward to your thoughts!              

There can be more to a high school "reunion" than just sports, cocktails and dinner dances. ALJ will always be a significant part of what we are or, more precisely, what each of us has become. Alumni are a invaluable "life asset" that can be utilized to the best interests of current undergraduates,e.g. paying it back. The Friday of Reunion Weekend found most of us at the Hyatt Golf Course, checking into hotels or visiting briefly with our friends, relatives or classmates. That is most ,except Len Baumel. Seizing the initiative back home in Austin, Len had made prior arrangements to meet with ALJ science and math students that afternoon. A summary of that classroom experience and Len's unique bio follow. The Class of 1959 applauds Len Baumel for "paying it back!" 

Len reports..........

"As for my experience during Reunion friday with the current high school students, I can only say that when you get 40 kids willing to listen to an old geezer talk about himself, it doesn’t get any better than that.

Based on input from the guidance counselor, Ellen Zamboni, I started talking about college, and tried to get across the idea that you don’t need an Ivy League school to get a meaningful college education. I emphasized that math and science represents the language of technology, and that while cutting edge science is changing, the basics remain constant, and need to be learned.  I also reminded them that the technology that is current when they start college will most assuredly change by the time they graduate. They need to learn how to learn, not just the current technology, but whatever new comes along.  Their math and science is the foundation on which to build.

I then spoke about how I got my first job with Boeing, in Huntsville, Alabama and made a point of being willing to relocate. You must go where the work is. Being flexible is the key to advancement.  I also discussed my change of job from Boeing to Lockheed in Houston, being able to work on the Apollo Command and Service Modules and the Lunar Module allowing my involvement for the whole lunar mission rather than just the first few minutes of the Saturn V booster stages firing. I also stressed the importance of not burning your bridges when moving from one employer to another.  It is a small community and you will very likely encounter the same people and it is better not to have told them off when leaving your previous employer. 

I spent time talking about the Apollo program, and the sense of national purpose that directed that effort. The trade-off between building a space station first, and then moving on to the moon verses the lunar orbit rendezvous approach that was ultimately taken.  In spite of warnings about the short attention span of these students, I found them very receptive to the presentation.  In fact several students gathered around asking additional questions after the allotted 45 minutes was over. I was able to keep their attention for an additional half hour of conversation.

I thought that our alma mater was in good hands with these students. I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity of sharing my experiences with them, and would encourage others to share their experiences as well.  I just hope the students enjoyed it as much as I did."