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Rick earns an A+ in pole vault and the classroom BY JOE EMANSKI Is Sydney Rick the unlikeliest college pole vault recruit ever? Probably not, but she is one of the most inspirational. After she graduates this spring, the Hopewell Valley Central High senior will head to Stockton University to vault and gain a degree. Those are two achievements well off the radar when Rick entered ninth grade. “I didn’t expect to go to (public) high school, I didn’t expect to do any high school sport,” she said. “I never really thought about colleges. If I did, I thought I was gonna go with a family member, because they could tutor me outside the classroom. But now it’s fine. I don’t need any help.” Indeed she doesn’t, and that’s a success story in itself as Rick has battled through dyslexia in order to earn the grades necessary for college. During that same time, she won an outdoor gold medal in pole vault at the Central Jersey Group III sectionals as a freshman, and an indoor gold in the CJ II sectionals this past winter. “Sydney’s obviously a great athlete, but I’m really proud of what she’s accomplished in the classroom,” Bulldogs coach Aaron Oldfield said. “She’s just a great kid, and she’s overcome
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a ton.” Rick’s early academic career was a struggle. She was in small classes getting one-on-one reading classes “but nothing was working. I shut down every time I went to school.” In middle school she entered Lawrenceville’s Bridge Academy, which specializes in education for students with dyslexia and other learning disabilities. Rick pushed herself hard and by her junior year began taking a course at HVCHS. This year, she is a full-time student on DelCows graze at St. Michaels Farm Preserve. How is D&R Greenway, a community land trust that has aware Avenue. “I still don’t think I’ve over- preserved over 22,000 acres of local lands, showcasing uncommon, scientifically proven methods to come (dyslexia). I have a lot better utilize preserved lands? Read story on page 14. (Photo courtesy of D&R Greenway Land Trust.) of struggles that I’m working with,” Rick said. “But I think everything just clicked, I worked hard enough to push myself through everything. I was doing extra work outside the classroom, I was showing my teachers, ‘You can push me harder, I’m fine. Give me some BY JOE EMANSKI did grow up in Hopewell Valley down in 2010, though, he looked more work.’” — first on Main Street in Pen- back toward the place where She added with a laugh: “A Paul Anzano and Sky More- nington, and later in Hopewell he grew up — ending up in lot of my teachers didn’t know Hopewell Borough, where he what to do with me. When they house, two long-time elected Township. After graduating from the became just the third owner of gave me work, I would finish it officials who left office in 2024, before the duty and I’d say, ‘OK, are among the best known poli- Hopewell Valley Central High a now 120-year-old house in the can I have more?’ They were ticians in recent Hopewell Bor- School and college, Kennedy heart of town. “After college and law school, like, “Uh, what?’ They would ough memory, but neither one study law at Seton Hall University Law School in Newark. I was looking for a walkable have nothing for me. I would grew up in Hopewell Valley. Ryan Kennedy, the two-term During that time, he lived in community with lots of things to say, ‘Well make something for Welcome tomember Capital Health.Hoboken. council who succeeded do, and Hopewell Borough hit me please.’” See ZARINA, Page 12 See MAYOR, Page 9 Anzano as mayor in January, When it came time to settle When someone you care about is sick, you’ll do whatever it takes to make sure they get the best care. And so do we.
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