Ava Z

How did it feel being part of the Honors Choir?

I was excited because I love to sing and I really want to be a singer when I grow up.

What did you have to sing for tryouts and were tryouts scary?

I forget the song I had to sing for tryouts because we didn’t sing it in the actual show, but I was a little nervous.

How do you handle nervousness?

I just kind of like do it and then after I do something once, I don’t feel so nervous then.

At what point in your life did you realize the passion you have for music?

I think I was about four or five and I wrote my own song.  I don’t know what it’s called because I forget, but I wrote my own song!

How did it feel being a new student in middle school with a bunch of kids you didn’t know?

I wasn’t really nervous. I don’t know why.  It wasn’t too nervous… I played soccer for Readington so I knew some people.

Who is your favorite singer?

Honestly? I really don’t have one. I just like music!

How did it feel auditioning for a solo in chorus?

My first solo that I did, I was a little nervous. Then I was fine.  And I’m pretty confident that I’ll get another solo.

Have you moved a lot before you came here?

I’ve only moved one other time, but it wasn’t too far and I was in preschool. I moved from North Branch to South Branch preschool.

What is your favorite song?

Probably “This Love”. I love that song. I think it’s by Maroon Five.

Do you think you’re going to do Drama next year?

Yes.  By far.

Daniel S

What role does imagination play in your life?

Well, I feel like it’s important because I want to become an actor.

Do you want to be on Broadway?

I would consider it. Mainly I want to be on a tv show: The Flash.

Why do you want to become an actor?

I feel like acting has this sort of like way that you do stuff that people in real life can’t do and you portray and act like your character.

Do you feel like family or friends have influenced your life decisions of what you want to be or what you want to do?

Yes, because my Dad is a police and I also want to become a forensic scientist.

What is a forensic scientist?

It’s kind of like a scientist who works with fingerprints, hydrogen peroxide and stuff like that.

How will you balance being an actor and a forensic scientist?

Well, every actor has a personal life and an acting life.  So, I would do forensics in my personal life and in my acting life I would go on the Flash.

Would you like it if your character on TV was a forensic scientist?

Well, that would be nice. But the character I want to portray is kind of like a forensic scientist’s son.  Bart Allen, Barry Allen’s son.

If you were to be on a TV show, would you want to be an antagonist or a protagonist?

I’d want to be a protagonist because I feel like protagonists have a good flow, a good vibe.

What kind of a flow do you have as a person?

Well, it kind of depends on what kind of a mood I feel. When I feel sad, I create a sad vibe around me. When I’m happy I try to create a happy vibe around me.

At what moment in your life did you first know that you wanted to be an actor and a forensic scientist?

Well, I was sitting on my couch and I was watching The Flash and I thought “How cool would it be if I could go on the show!?”  And my Dad has a lot of friends who are forensic scientists so I kind of got influenced from them.

What wisdom can you offer kids coming into 6th grade?

I think I could offer ideas to change the school a little bit such as a support system to prevent a lot of bad things from happening.

Dana H

I know you want to be an astronaut when you grow up. Why?

I’ve always been interested in different planets and life that could live there.  

Why is science your favorite subject?

Well, because astronauts and astrophysicists need to have a good knowledge of science and so I know I need to know that because I’m getting there.

Do you enjoy chemistry?

Yes.  It is fun to learn about. It is not fun to cram studying about when you have 64 pages to learn and you know two and it is this weekend.

How did you do at the Chemistry Bowl and did you enjoy it?

I enjoyed it a lot; it was really fun.  I am one of the top ten chemists from 5th to 8th grade in New Jersey and the top in Hunterdon County.   Yay me!

What did you do there?

It was somewhat like a Jeopardy game. We had clickers with multiple choice questions and you would click A, B, C, or D based on what you thought it would be. I was happy we got to skip the written part.

Was Miss Bengels there with you?

Yes, of course.

Why do you have crutches?

So, my funny answer is:  I fell onto a bus. Monday morning I was walking up the bus stairs and I tripped and I have a contusion on my left fibula. … which is basically a bruise on the bone.

What do you do for fun when you don’t have crutches?

Figure Skate. Any day other than Friday, I will most likely be at the Bridgewater Sports Arena after school or in the morning. I wake up at five two days a week. Sometimes I need to nap at lunch on Mondays and Thursdays.

Why do you like figure skating so much?

Cause the first time I did it, I was fairly okay at it and one of my other friends, Sam, ended up in a cast for six months. I did not want to break my leg and so I took lessons and I got really good at it. Once this is gone, I’ll do it six days a week again.

One last question, why is your Musical.ly name Athena?

First of all, I deleted Musical.ly five months ago.  My dog’s name is Athena and literally everything else was taken.

Mr. Idenden

What kind of music do you do?

I pretty much do whatever kind of music someone is willing to pay me for. I did actually go to school for music and was trained as classically as a percussionist can be trained, and I play in a cover/ party band that does lots of stuff.

What is the name of the band you play with?

I currently play with Ready, Set, Go!

What is your favorite memory in the band?

I’ve been playing with my current one for only a month, so not really.

How many instruments do you play?

Like attempt to play or actually play? Well I can pretty much play any percussion instrument with the exception of piano. I have tried to play piano but fingers are really not piano player shaped. There are short and stumpy and sausage-y.  Basically percussion and voice.

How did you get into music?

My earliest memory of wanting to be involved with music, I was four years old. I grew up in North Jersey, and where I grew up there was a park where they would do concerts every summer and the Garden State Concert Band would perform as part of it. My parents took me to it and about halfway through I pointed to the conductor and said “I want to meet that guy.”  

They took me up to him at the intermission; he was a guy named Dominick Ferrara and my father told him I wanted to come meet him. We talked for a few minutes. At four years old, conversation isn’t a strong point. But we continued to go to the concerts every summer.

As I got older, I got more and more involved in music. In my freshman year in high school, he offered me a position in the community band he directed as well. I joined and spent six years with them. As a result of working in that band, I did some paid work with him with the Garden State Marching Band.

He was the first person I would consider a mentor as far as a music career goes. He actually passed away about a month or so ago. I stayed in touch with him over the years. He was an incredible person.

One of my favorite music memories was as a result of working with him. We got to perform and the John Philip Sousa Festival.  We were conducted by one of the more well known symphonic band conductors in the world...Frederick Fennell...he was only about yea tall and he was like a wizard. He kept imploring me and my friend Joe, the other percussionist, to play louder. If you’re a percussionist, you’ll know that’s not something you’ll usually hear.

What was your favorite music venue that you’ve played at?

That would probably have to be a place in Manville that isn’t open anymore. It was called Rhythms. It had a stage set up and good sound and the whole deal.

What’s your favorite band to cover?

Probably the Foo Fighters--they’re one of my top five favorites of all time.

What are your others favorites?

Number one is the Who. Number two would be a tie between the Beatles and the Beach Boys, Number three would be Queen, Number Four would be Stevie Wonder and Number Five would be the Foo Fighters.   I listen to pretty much everything. If you were to look through my music library, you would think it was probably combined from five or six people.

What are your favorite songs to play?

I’ll give you my top two, because I would otherwise go on forever. God Only Knows by the Beach Boys. Number two: I can’t Make You Love Me by Bonnie Raitt.

What are some of your favorite musical experiences?

Probably my senior year in high school when my high school marching band performed at the marching band organization’s championship. It used to be held at Giants Stadium and took first place at the competition.  My band director, who was also a drummer, decided that we needed to actually do the middle part of Scenes from an Italian Restaurant with the piano part and the whole deal. They had a piano and a drumset set up in the stadium for us.  Being able to do that in all my long haired glory in front of everyone at Giants Stadium was pretty cool.

You look really happy in this picture.  Why do you think this is?

I was really happy because it was an evening performance and it was really beautiful outside and we had a good crowd and they were into the song we were playing.

Random Questions:

What is your favorite type of cookie?

Peanut Butter

Do you consider a hot dog a sandwich?

No.

Do you think of peanut butter as a solid or a liquid?

Unless it’s gone bad, a solid.

Mrs. Moffat

Who is in the picture with you?
Starting from the left, my mom, Peg Micai; my sister, Pamela Schoenfeld; my husband, Kevin Moffat; Me; my dad, Bob Micai

How do you know them?  They are my family.

Where were you?  We were at the Hamilton Manor, in Hamilton New Jersey.

What was the occasion?  It was my husband’s surprise 50th birthday party.  

What role does family have in your life?  My family is my everything.  My parents and my sister live in Florida, so I don’t get to see them as often as I would like.  This makes our time together even more special.

What role do friendships have in your life?  I believe you need positive people in life, so I surround myself with good friends and family.  They inspire me to be the best I can be.

What do you hope for the RMS students in their futures?  My hope is that the students make a positive difference in the world.  I hope they find careers that they are passionate about, and they surround themselves with positive influences.

How did family and friendship affect your decision to become a principal?  My children, Allyson and Kevin, my husband and my parents were very supportive of me when I decided to go back to school for my Master’s Degree in Administration. They had to sacrifice a lot because my classes and workload took up a great deal of time.  Often, my children and I would do our “homework” together at the kitchen table.  My family was always supportive and were my biggest cheerleaders!

Emmett F

What inspired your haircut?

Nothing. I just “meh”.

How do people respond to your hairstyle?

They don’t respond. They ask me if I can see or they try to be “cool” I guess and try to, like, poke their fingers in my face and see if I react to it. It’s pointless, I have to move my head.

How long do you hope to grow your hair?

I don’t know. I’m not trying to grow it so it’s too long. At this point in the year, making any changes to my hair will draw too much attention to me...unless it gets way too long.

What is your favorite part about having longer hair?

You don’t have to make eye contact with people and I don’t have to communicate with  some people I don’t exactly like.

Do you still do any Rubik’s Cubes?

I’m not past it, but I just skip from thing to thing. Right now, I’m mostly into some video games.

What’s your favorite video game and how does it affect your mood?

I guess Warframe. I mean, there’s a lot of content and it sometimes gets boring but it’s a good video.  

What wisdom would you like to give to yourself when you were younger?

Don’t be stupid.

When did you know you wanted to grow your hair out?

IT’s not like I wanted to grow my hair out in a specific way or anything. It just happened.

Will you keep it long in high school?

Not sure.

Joey F

What’s the story behind this picture?

So it was the very beginning of my passion project and I thought I wanted to learn how to improve my music editing and timing, so I decided to cover one of my favorite songs called “Screen” by 21 Pilots. It had a very nice ukulele part in it so I played all the parts. That’s the photo from the moment when I finally got the ukulele part right after 200-something times!

What does this song mean to you?

The reason I chose that song is because, to me, the song kind of means trying to be someone that you’re not, and overcoming that too. I really like that song because it showed me to be myself when I really needed to hear it. It’s a very important song to me so I decided to cover it.

You covered a song… do you make songs as well? Why do you make music?

To answer your question, yes. I do make songs as well. I usually do guitar, bass, drums, all that fun stuff.  And the reason I make music? It’s really because I just enjoy doing it. There’s so many things that stress me out and kind of get me feeling down. I play music and all that vanishes. That’s the main reason I play music. And it’s fun. It’s a lot of fun.

How often do you play?

Every day.  A couple hours, too. Sleepless nights. It really depends on the day, but yeah, every day.  I go home from school and play music because I enjoy it. I don’t want to sound like I’m showing off: “Look at me! I play music!”  It’s just like you guys have soccer. I have music.

So, is music more of a habit than a task to you? Is it part of your life?

It is definitely a huge part of who I am. When I tend to think about what I want to do in life, I always think that music will hopefully play some part in my future.  It’s definitely become a habit. I definitely feel withdrawal from it if I don’t play enough. So, it really just became a part of my routine. I wanted it to become a part of my routine.

Do you think you’re going to pursue it as a career or an aspect of one?

In all honesty….no.  As bleak and depressing as that sounds, there are so many other things I can do. Music is my number one thing I do right now, but as my parents have nailed into me since I was age four, there’s a lot of occupations that I would enjoy that are higher paying than music. But don’t get me wrong. When I become an adult, I’m not going to give up on it. It’s probably going to be just as big a part of my life as what it is now.  It’s just, it won’t be necessarily my career; it will be a hobby. Just like … now school is my main thing but music is what I do at home.

Laurel H

Is that field hockey?

Yes.

Is that Sarah Woods holding you?

Yes.

Why are people holding you?

Because we had just won and done our eighth grade ceremony so they all wanted to pick me up.

What was your favorite part of field hockey season?

Playing goalie.

What was special about playing goalie?

I got to play on the A team and the B team so I got to play with pretty much everybody.

How did it feel to play with the eighth graders who have done this for years?

It felt accomplishing but it was also a really good experience to play goalie and also see what older teams and older grades are like.

What were your uniforms like?

My goalie uniform is really uncomfortable. We had leg paddings, a different pair of shorts, something that goes over your stomach, shoulder padding, a helmet that was really uncomfortable and big, and we called ourselves “the waddle team” because you had to waddle to walk in it and not fall over and kill yourself.

What skills in field hockey will help you in life?

Communication skills because you have to communicate who is on goal, who’s got goal post and stuff like that.

Did you know you were going to be this good at field hockey when you started?

Well we didn’t have a goalie at first so I volunteered, then a different girl volunteered, so I was sort of playing field for B team and goalie for A team and she was goalie for B.  I got better throughout the year. At first I thought I was going to be really bad but then I got comfortable.

How long have you been playing field hockey?

Five years...actually, four!

What season is field hockey played in?

It’s played in all seasons. If you’re on a travel team, most are full year. But school teams are fall.

Do you prefer playing goalie or field?

I like them both, but they are totally different things so it’s sort of hard to tell.

Who was your coach?

My coach was Miss Alber, the 6th grade science teacher, and Mrs. Dahler, the 7th grade social studies teacher.

Did you form any special bonds while playing?

Yeah, I formed a really good bond with the eighth graders: Becca Woods, Sarah Woods, Jessica Bell, and Emma Matza.

How did you feel when the season ended?

I felt really sad because I knew I wasn’t going to be with the eighth graders again, but I was also happy that we had a really good season and that I’m going to play again next year with the sixth graders and seventh graders.

When you were playing with the eighth graders, did they ever coach you?

Since I was playing in goalie, I sort of coached them at the same time as they coached me, because we would tell each other to go get number nine, go get number ten or whatever. Or they would tell me to move over.

Which did you have more playing time?

I played goalie more but I played field a lot too.

Do you think that in the future you will continue to play field hockey?

Yeah.

What was your favorite part of being a goalie?

My favorite part was trying to stop all the balls the other team was trying to score, especially in the semi-final game.

Was there any moment that you felt especially proud of?

In the quarter final games, I had sixteen saves!  And my team won the quarter finals and moved on to the semi-finals against the number one team.

Briley H

How did you get such nice hair?

I took a shower this morning and I brushed it.

Why are you always so nice?

Because being nice is fun.

What is your purpose in life?

I don’t know.  To live life to the fullest.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I want to be a forensic scientist because well, my favorite superhero is a forensic scientist and it just sounds pretty cool.

Do you like Iron Man or Frisbee Man?

Neither. I’m a DC person.

Who is your favorite character in DC?

Either the Riddler or the Flash.

What do you like about them?

Barry Allen or “The Flash”  is a really cool guy and he just started out being chased and stuff and he was never like popular, but then he became the Flash and he became popular and didn’t let it get to his head. He is a really humble guy.

And the Riddler, he is just a cool guy. I don’t have a reason.

What is your favorite color?

Green.

What is your favorite shade of green?

The green on Pete’s Dragon.

What is your favorite kind of cookie?

Chocolate chip.

What is your favorite kind of chocolate chip?

Semi-sweet or milk chocolate.

If you had a superhero power, what would it be?

This is hard!  I feel like I would be a superhero without powers and I would just use cool equipment like Batman.

How do you want to help the world?

To do as much as I can even though I’m just one single person.

Noah C

Why are you holding a Shrek Pop character?

I am holding a Shrek because I am Shrek in the school play this year.

Did you audition for it?

I actually did not audition for Shrek. I auditioned for Donkey but I got Shrek.

“That’s like auditioning for a tree and getting ‘God’”~ Vaughn adds.

Are you glad you got Shrek?

Yes and no. I’m glad because I’m able to help people with their roles and I’m not glad about it because I’ve heard it’s a lot of stress on you especially towards the end of February to the beginning of March.

Why did you decide to dye your hair blonde?

Because I wanted to.

Who is your favorite character in Shrek?

Probably Donkey because he is a comedian person.

How do you handle stage fright?

I do have stage fright but the way I handle it is probably just pretending the audience is in their underwear or I pretend they’re not there and I do what I’m supposed to do on stage.

How do you think theater will affect the rest of your life?

That’s a tough question. I don’t like thinking into the future. I like living life to the fullest in the now.  I do want to do theater. It is fun especially when you know everyone because you’re like a whole big family. You can help one another whether it’s homework, whether it’s lines, whether it’s helping your community.

If you mess up, how do you cope?

I don’t feel bad about it. I just improvise.

How do you learn all the words?

I look over the script a bunch of times and I shouldn’t really be answering this question because right now I don’t know all of my lines… yet.