The Hawk

Issue date: 5/10/08 Section: Features

On a warm Friday afternoon in late April, young men in plaid shorts and women in colorful cotton summer dresses congregated around a series of blue benches shaped in a star on the campus of The Episcopal Academy.

In a nearby field, a band played from a stage while a wiffle ball game was in progress. Couches were plopped in the middle of the lawn, along with a snack table.

It was Arts Fest at Episcopal. That meant, instead of attending class, Episcopal high school seniors could shed their school uniforms and lounge around the senior star, a series of blue benches that form a star.

Steve Muir, an Episcopal employee, built the benches about 15 years ago in memory of Joe Greco, who had retired as Episcopal's director of operations and died of a heart attack. The area became known as the senior star when the senior class claimed it and refused to let the younger grades sit on the benches. Now, it is Episcopal tradition that only seniors in good standing are allowed to sit on the senior star.

"It is like a rite of passage to sit on the senior star," said Lindsey McMamus, a 17-year-old senior from Collegeville, Pa. McMamus only transferred to Episcopal last year as a junior, but she knows the rule. McMamus will attend Gettysburg College next year, where she will play field hockey.

Under bright, sunny skies, seniors like McMamus were enjoying the last Arts Fest on their school's Merion campus, and like high school seniors everywhere, they were feeling nostalgic.

And this year, Episcopal seniors are especially nostalgic, and perhaps, though they might not admit it, a little bitter.

They are the last class to graduate from Episcopal's Merion campus. In mid-August, Saint Joseph's University will officially cede the property, and Episcopal will start the school year in state-of-the-art digs in Newtown Square.

"I'd rather have St. Joe's take over than anyone else," said Jen Squspenski, an 18-year-old senior from West Chester, Pa. Squspenski has attended Episcopal since pre-kindergarten and has made the 45-minute commute from West Chester every school day for 14 years. In the fall she will attend Boston College.

Squpenski said she is relieved and glad to be part of the last senior class graduating from Episcopal's Merion campus. Her parents gave her the option in eighth grade to transfer to a school closer to home, but she refused.

"I like the feeling of being the last class and ending where I began," Squspenski said. "I would have hated to have one more year at a different campus. I do not like moving and dealing with a new campus. A lot's going to change."

Continued...

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