Category: Maryland
For Adam Aliano, Annapolis Is Not the Average College Experience
ANNAPOLIS, Md., Nov. 3 – On a beautiful autumn day in November, Adam Aliano and his classmates sit through a required government class in their first semester of college.
The professor walks in and begins discussing a bibliography assignment that is part of a thesis paper the students must complete. She announces that the highest score is a 95 but that the class average is a 50.
The students groan in unison. Aliano, a Methuen native, looks over at his friend Jack McCain, smiling but shaking his head. It’s all part of the induction process into the rigors of academia that takes place every year on college campuses across the country.
But little clues reveal this is not a regular college: Aliano wears his dark hair cut short and his shoes spit-polished. He is dressed in a dark blue uniform called “winter working blues.” When the professor, a Navy commander, entered the room a cry of “Attention on deck!” caused the students to jump simultaneously out of their seats and salute.
This is the United States Naval Academy. Nestled on the banks of the Severn River where it empties into the Chesapeake Bay in Annapolis, Maryland, neither the school nor its students are ordinary.
At 19 years of age, Aliano already has a resume full of achievements. At Methuen High School he was the star pitcher, a member of the National Honor Society, and the senior class president who organized a Christmas tree sale to generate funds for class activities.
Since reporting to the academy in June for “plebe summer”-a seven-week program that yanks teenagers out of a world filled with reality television, video games and peer pressure, and prepares them for a schedule of discipline, rigor and military life-Aliano has been awarded the expert medal in firearms training. He has also been assigned as his platoon squad leader and was selected to represent the academy by throwing out the first pitch at a Baltimore Orioles game at Camden Yards earlier this fall.
Aliano shrugs it off and says that the academy is full of students “who are really good at something.” In fact, 82 percent of the class of 2009 were ranked in top 20 percent of their high school class and 85 percent of them earned athletic varsity letters, according to academy figures. The upper range of the average verbal and math SAT scores is 700.
Of the 11,000 students who applied to be a part of Aliano’s class, only 4,300 were nominated by an official source such as a congressman, a requirement for consideration. Aliano received his official nomination from Rep. Martin Meehan of Lowell. From this group of 4,300, the incoming class was whittled down to 1,200 students, including 235 women, based on scholastic and physical merit.
What inspires these men and women at so young an age to bear the responsibility of the Naval mission of developing “in mind and character to assume the highest responsibilities of command, citizenship and government,” especially at a time when the Iraq war weighs heavily on the psyche of the country?
“I wouldn’t have applied if I wasn’t willing to serve,” Aliano says. “I feel it’s something I owe back. In studying other cultures I realized how great we have it.”
Aliano was recruited by other schools to play baseball but chose to come to the academy.
“It says a lot about him,” says Mark Grams, one of Aliano’s baseball coaches in Methuen. “He could have gone anywhere he wanted; made any team he wanted. But he wanted to go the Naval Academy.”
Aliano’s older sister, Lorie, enlisted in the Navy and Aliano recalls watching her march in formation when he was 12 years old. “I was really impacted by their discipline,” he said.
During his junior year, he took an ROTC class offered at high school and he said his interest grew until one day while driving his car he had an epiphany about what he wanted for his life after college-serving his country.
“He chose the academy because he thought it would be a good fit for him,” says Aliano’s father, Samuel, a retired Lawrence police captain.
It’s the lifestyle attracts him, Samuel Aliano says. “There is only one club there and that’s the Navy club. They are teaching him to be a member of a team and he responds to that.”
His father remembers when Adam was a child, about three or four-years-old, playing in the backyard with a friend about the same age. The boys were playing near the family’s pool and the cover gave way as the friend fell in the shallow end. Not strong enough to pull him out, Adam was able to grab his friend and keep his head above water until his parents pulled both children to safety moments later.
“Even as a kid he had a lot of common sense,” Samuel Aliano says.
When Aliano is asked about the incident, he smiles, looks down at his hands and again shrugs. Perhaps what happened foreshadowed a desire to protect. Even when talking about the country’s divide over the Iraq war, he says, “I am here to defend those people’s right to express how they feel. I’m here to protect their opinions.”
“He wanted to be in the big situation,” says Grams, Aliano’s high school coach. “He is a very fierce competitor.”
But even with that responsibility, Aliano is still a kid. He jokes and laughs with his Academy classmates, such as McCain, the son of Arizona Sen. John McCain. Before the government class they rib each other and at one point Aliano gives McCain a noogie.
Even with all of his accomplishments he is self-effacing. “I am not the smartest and the most athletic kid,” he says. “But I know my priorities: being happy and close to those that I love. And as a leader, someone people can confide in.”
When he talks about his aspirations he lights up. Someday he wants to go into politics or law. To prepare, Aliano says he and McCain are planning to run for class office together next year – Aliano for president and McCain as his running mate. And of course, there is the dream of every kid.
“Yes, m’am. I really want to fly planes in the Navy,” he says.
Walking around the Yard of the academy one gets a sense of unity, even if only from students’ homogeneous attire. It is evident the student body, or the brigade as it is called, shares a collective experience and identity.
One such experience is plebe summer. From dawn until long after the day’s end, the first year students, or plebes, fill their time with grueling physical activities and training that prepare them for military life. Shedding their civilian skin, they learn everything from the proper saluting technique to the basics of seamanship and handling small firearms.
The goal of the summer, explains Aliano, is to bond the newcomers together. “You put the benefit of the group before yourself,” he says. “I take care of my men and I know that if there is a chance that I fail, I have the support of everyone else.”
“I can try to explain what [plebe summer] was like to you or my parents” but only the participants really understand, he says.
It’s true. A civilian walking around the Yard feels as though a different language is being spoken. It’s a language anchored with words like commitment, honor and teamwork, and that carry life and death consequences out on the field.
“Although we all may seem the same,” Aliano says, each member of the brigade’s individuality is on the inside. “It’s when you are alone that shapes your individual character. We are all individuals with really strong talents.”
Aliano says he seeks solace in the quiet of the Academy’s chapel every Sunday. And to relax, the self-taught musician strums chords on his acoustic guitar.
Another lifeline is emailing friends back home and daily calls to his mom, Maria, and his girlfriend, a freshman at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va. Without his family’s encouragement, Aliano says, he “wouldn’t be successful.”
Although he has their support, it is not without their concern.
“Like every parent,” his father says, “you worry, especially in times of war. But he says to me, ‘Dad, I could be killed walking down the street.’ There are always risks.”
Adam Aliano wears a reminder of that risk. On his wrist is a silver bracelet engraved with the name of a soldier killed in Vietnam. He bought it, he says, to honor those who have served before him.
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Local Duo Make Science Finals
By Kenneth Brown
COLLEGE PARK, MD., Oct. 28 - Chana Rich, 14 of Fairfield, recalls her parents reaction last fall when she told them she was studying phytoremediation. "What's that," they said.
The confused reaction was similar for the parents of Rich's science project partner Daniella Sinay. But according to Sinay, 14 of Trumball, after an explanation of the phytoremediation process, which uses the natural properties of plants to extract contaminants from the environment, "even my dad who is not the best in science really understood it and he was like 'that's really, really cool.'"
Their project, dubbed "Fight Back with Phytoremediation," would eventually earn them a spot as two of the 40 finalists at the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge, held at the University of Maryland this week.
The two girls, who attended Hillel Academy in Fairfield last year and have since graduated to different high schools, said they learned about phytoremediation after reading in a chemistry magazine called Chem Matters , about another student who did an experiment with phytoremediation. "We basically expanded on that," said Rich.
According to Rich, who is spunky yet composed when talking science, they decided to apply their idea to cleaning up the local wetlands along the Mill River, a problem they had noticed from frequently passing by in the car.
The wetlands are contaminated by runoff from surrounding abandoned ammunition and battery factories, said Rich. "We were thinking, what can we do to get rid of all this disgusting land, because no one wants to pay to pick up and move all the soil."
Rich said using phytoremediation would be "a natural, cost efficient way to clean up contaminated soil."
To begin they went to the wetlands, took soil samples, placed them in small pots and then tested the soil for contaminants. Next soy, wheat, rye, and oat plants were planted in the pots. Then the waiting began. After four weeks the soil was tested to see how effective the plants were in absorbing the contaminants.
The first round of experiments worked, according to Rich, but the plants were slow to react, so they decided to try it again. "We wanted to see if there was something we could do to increase the speed and get the plants to take up more metal," said Rich.
To meet their need for speed, the two decided to add Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid, which comes in a powder form and was mixed into the soil. "It's kind of like a catalyst; like a steroid it helps the plant take up more metal," said Rich.
The powdered acid was effective, but it did have a side effect: it slowed plant growth.
The final results, Rich said, showed that "soy was the best." The soy plant was so effective in most cases it extracted almost 100 percent of the metal out of the soil, she said.
"There were a lot variables, a lot of pots," said Rich laughing. Approximately 40 pots were necessary to generate information consistent enough to arrive at a conclusion.
The duo received advice from Karen Howell, 58, science teacher at Hillel Academy. Howell, who has taught since 1986 at Hillel Academy, said she served mostly as "a mentor" and provided supervision on Sundays for several months last fall and winter, when the girls came to work on the project.
"They're both very bright girls," said Howell.
"She's the best," said Rich of Howell, who uses an effective hands-on approach to science. In addition, Howell always participates in class activities, which energizes the students to learn, said Sinay
"For whatever you are doing, you must have a passion for it yourself," said Howell. "I have a passion for science."
She said she hopes her passion and methods for illustrating how science can be applied to everyday life, sparks the curiosity of her students.
Apparently Howell has turned on a few minds, because her students have consistently placed and won the Connecticut State Science Fair. Her students also have been to the semifinals of the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge, but never to the finals until this year.
Although Rich and Sinay didn't win the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge, just becoming a finalist is quite an achievement, because Howell said the competition is highly regarded for middle school science competitions.
According to the Discovery Channel, the 40 finalists were chosen from 400 semi-finalists who were chosen from a pool of 1,795 formal entries, initially taken from a pool of 7,500 students who entered science fairs around the nation.
Getting into the finals gave students entrance into a exhilarating world of science this week at the University of Maryland basketball arena, which was filled with bright green lasers, animal skeletons and people whizzing around on Segway scooters. The 40 finalists competed in teams in such events as "skateboard physics," where students predicted g-forces on a speeding skater in a half-pipe using a high-speed digital camera. And there was a "laser obstacle course," where students guided a bright green laser through several obstacles using a series of mirrors.
For the competition, Rich and Sinay were on different teams because splitting the two friends up would allow them to meet new people, said Discovery Channel spokeswoman Katie Stack.
As for their joint "Fight Back with Phytoremediation" project that got them into the finals, Rich said to apply the project to the wetlands would require removing the contaminated plants after they extract contaminants, which would be another project in itself
Sinay said they want to pitch their idea to the military. After the military has used a piece of land for artillery practice-firing guns and dropping bombs on it-the land becomes contaminated, mostly with lead, according to Sinay.
"If they use this process to clean up those contaminated sites, it's going to save them a lot of money, and it's also going to be very natural, so someone can use that land afterwards," Sinay said.
Rich said no one has taken interest in their phytoremediation idea yet, but "we might want to write them a letter, a little proposal."
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Bremer Makes Case for More Money in Iraq
By David Tamasi
WASHINGTON - The American in charge of the rebuilding of Iraq appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday and offered this sober assessment of the situation there: "We will have good days and bad days."
L. Paul Bremer III, administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority, spent nearly three hours defending President Bush's request for an additional $87 billion for war and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan -- and specifically the $20.3 billion the administration has included to enhance security and restore electricity and water in Iraq.
"This is urgent," Bremer said. "The urgency of military operations is self-evident. The funds for non-military operations are equally urgent. Now the reality of foreign troops on the streets is starting to chafe, some Iraqis are beginning to regard us as occupiers and not as liberators. Let's not hide the fact."
Before they grant any money, senators wanted answers.
Bremer faced a chorus of criticism from Democrats on the committee who wanted information for constituents who are growing wary of U.S. involvement in Iraq and wondering why the United States was being forced to pay the whole bill.
"Polls are not a basis to make decisions," said Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, the panel's senior Democrat. "But when things go south here [in the Senate] they go south quickly."
Bremer said he hoped the United States would receive pledges from other nations and the international financial community to assist with the reconstruction during a conference on Iraq in Madrid in late October. Currently, Iraq is saddled with a $200 billion foreign debt - half of it owed France, Germany, Japan and Russia -- extending back to deposed President Saddam Hussein. The sizable debt is considered an impediment to Iraq's receiving loans from international monetary organizations.
Sen. Paul Sarbanes, D-Maryland, asked how long U.S. forces would remain in Iraq. Bremer told him it would be at least the next year.
With the President's approval ratings dropping, Democrats in recent days have become increasingly strident in questioning the administration's plan for Iraq. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, has led the charge, calling Bush's initial rationale for war a "fraud" that was politically inspired. He did not back down Tuesday in comments on the Senate floor, though he softened his language somewhat.
"There's no question the White House sees political advantage in the war. You can see it in Karl Rove's speeches to Republican strategists," Kennedy said Tuesday, referring to White House political adviser.
In the face of these questions and complaints, Bremer's time this week on Capitol Hill has been busy and not very pretty. Bremer reportedly was met with hostility when he addressed Senate Democrats at their weekly policy lunch Tuesday -- and did not even receive the traditional polite applause before he left.
In his opening remarks to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday, Bremer said the first priority for Iraq was to write a constitution that would create a political and legal structure, which, in turn, would allow for economic expansion. He said he did not know how long it would take to draft a constitution.
A critical component of securing the peace is an increased number of trained Iraqi police, Bremer said. Currently there are 40,000 Iraqi police officers, and another 40,000 are needed, he said. Training 25,000 police in the next year, the current goal, would be four times quicker than any previous similar effort, Bremer said.
In response to a question from Sen. John Sununu, R-New Hampshire, Bremer said Iraq was on target to meet its goals for electric power capacity. He added that oil output was 1.7 million barrels a day now, with a goal of 2 million barrels by the end of the year.
Bremer said the entire $87 billion budget request - including the reconstruction effort -- was essential to win the war on terror.
"Recreating Iraq as a nation at peace with itself and with the world, an Iraq that terrorists flee rather than flock to, requires more than people with guns," he said.
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, did not attend the hearing. A Democratic presidential candidate, he picked up an endorsement an hour after the hearing concluded from the International Association of Firefighters, which was meeting in Washington.
