In November, Weiss finished eighth in junior men’s foil at USAF’s North American Cup in Austin, Texas. Photo by Bill Cardoni.

By Christopher Hann

Why the foil, instead of the épée or saber?
It was actually the one I started with. When I began in instructional league, that was the one the instructor put in my hand. As time went on, I really grew to love this weapon more than the other two.

Why?
The game is different in foil. It has this thing called right of way, which is all about finding energy between your opponent and yourself and figuring when it’s appropriate to attack. I think it’s more challenging than the other two weapons. The target area is just the torso, the side and the back.

You were 57 and 5 last season, one of the best individual records in Drew fencing history. Do you still find yourself explaining your sport to your classmates?
Oh, yeah, absolutely. It’s an acquired taste for a lot of people. They’re interested by it, but it’s difficult to understand. I find it difficult to verbalize what goes on in a bout.

What’s the secret to being a great foil fencer?
Wow, that’s a really tough question. I think it comes down to smart fencing. Fencing is often referred to as physical chess, and it really is.

At the European Maccabi Games in Vienna last summer, you received an individual gold medal, a team gold, an individual silver and a team bronze. Do you prepare any differently for fencing in an international competition?
I think I treat every competition as if it was the highest level possible. Only because I know that’s when my best fencing is going to come out.

You finished 19th nationally last spring. How much better can you get in the next three seasons?
I want to go until I can’t go any farther, and I think I’m miles away from that.

Aksit has applied for a Fulbright, which she’d use to study tuberculosis in Turkey.

With a national grant, an undergrad is helping pinpoint what keeps cholera bacteria alive and kicking.

By Mary Jo Patterson

Senior Selime Aksit was always fascinated by science, but two years ago she realized her real passion was science on a molecular level. She asked chemistry professor Jane Liu if she could volunteer in her lab. “I said I was interested in learning how to do research and asked if she’d mind if I did things for her,” recalls Aksit. “She started me with really basic stuff, like how to grow bacteria.”

Aksit eventually joined a lab team of Drew undergraduates studying how a particular RNA molecule affects the cell function of Vibrio cholerae, the bacterium that causes cholera. Last spring she was awarded an Undergraduate Research Fellowship from the American Society of Microbiology, funding 10 weeks of further research with Liu. Aksit’s experiments last summer tested the team’s hypothesis that the RNA acted as a switch for a gene that produces a protein allowing the bacterium to take up a certain sugar and survive. “Right now, we’re in the very baby steps of discovery, but the molecular mechanisms we reveal might help some company—maybe 10 years from now—make therapies or cures,” says Aksit, who in June will present her findings at the society’s annual meeting in San Francisco.

Cholera, an ancient killer, remains a threat in developing countries. Outbreaks occur when water and food supplies become contaminated in areas with poor sanitation, as in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake. If untreated, the disease can lead to death, and existing vaccines have limited effectiveness.

Aksit, a first-generation Turkish-American with a major in biochemistry and microbiology and a minor in studio art, plans to pursue a dual M.D.-Ph.D. degree. What sets her apart from other students, according to her mentor, are her lab skills and her drive. “She has an incredible level of energy,” says Liu. “You get the sense there is absolutely nothing she can’t do, nothing she can’t figure out.”

Edgar Gonzalez C’12 is WMNJ's music director. Photo by Shelley Kusnetz.

Plugged-in WMNJ staffers recommend 12 must-listen songs for 2012.

Find out what the alt-music cognoscenti on campus will be listening to this year with this custom Drew Magazine mixtape by DJs John Dabrowski, Edgar Gonzalez, Hanna Jrad, Shara Katz, Nick Klein and Amy Wheeler.

“Audio, Video, Disco”
Justice: French disco has never sounded cooler; Justice returns after their mega hit “D.A.N.C.E,” with this new track, where classic rock meets the dance floor.

“What the Water Gave Me”
Florence + the Machine: British musician Florence Welch, whose ethereal and emotionally mesmerizing debut album enthralled audiences, expands her sound with this emotionally intense single.

“Lonely Boy”
The Black Keys: The first single off El Camino, the new album by the three-time Grammy-winning duo known for their raw, authentic blues-rock sound.

“Always on the Run”
Yuksek: Yuksek is French DJ Pierre-Alexander Busson, whose electro-pop music sounds like MGMT and Justice.

“Spiderwebs”
Azad Right: An Iranian-American rapper, Right produces beautiful, introspective songs that are upbeat and relatable.

“Bonfire”
Childish Gambino: In “Bonfire,” Donald Glover, acclaimed for his hilarious role on NBC’s Community, carves out a hip-hop niche with explosive verses, compact beats and a sense of humor.

“Video Games”
Lana Del Ray: Heretofore unknown Brooklyn jazz singer Del Ray has ignited a media frenzy with this elegant, confessional track.

“Truth”
Alexander Ebert: The lead singer of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes whistles and croons so effortlessly in this solo piece that you might forget all your problems

“No Diggity”
Chet Faker: An electro artist from Melbourne, Australia, Faker is rapidly gaining recognition for his cover of this R&B classic.

“Country Roads”
Pretty Lights: An epic electro remix of the classic John Denver song.

“Twist”
Oh Land: Oh Land is a Danish pop goddess who stands to make  a name for herself this year with her hypnotic voice and euphoric music.

“Cameo Lover”
Kimbra: A singer/songwriter from New Zealand, Kimbra is rumored to be releasing her indie-pop album Vows in the United Statesin 2012.

By Christopher Hann

Illustration by Edel Rodriguez

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Jayme Rabenberg  C’02 was seated on a charter bus with 24 other Drew students and political science professor Richard Rhone, all bound for Manhattan as part of the university’s U.N. Semester. The bus had left campus at about 8:30 a.m. but soon hit traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike. The students read or chatted quietly. Some dozed off. Over the stereo system, Sinatra crooned. Rabenberg was lost in The New York Times. Then one of the students got a phone call from her family. “When the girl got the call,” Rabenberg says, “all of us were horrified.”

Looking east, across the Hudson River to lower Manhattan, the students could see clouds of dark smoke engulf the upper floors of the World Trade Center’s north tower and, soon after, the swarm of news helicopters circling overhead. Accident, Rabenberg thought. Professor Rhone huddled with the driver. Sinatra gave way to radio news reports. Just before the Lincoln Tunnel, the bus turned around and headed back to campus. “We were quite lucky,” Rabenberg says. “We did not get stuck between the last exit and the tunnel.”

Minutes later the students learned that a second plane had crashed into the south tower. Before returning to campus, they learned it had collapsed.

Meanwhile, the Drew community was left to ponder an even more horrific scenario. Had the Wall Street Semester been held in the fall, students in that course would have been arriving at their classroom, on the 100th floor of the south tower, at just about the time the first plane hit.

By Christopher Hann

You have a lot of great basketball players in your family, including your cousin, Eric Murdock, who played nine seasons in the NBA. Those must have been some brutal pickup games.

Photo by Bill Cardoni.

When you’re coming from that lineage, whatever you do, it could be better. If you had a 50-point game, you could always do better. There’s a lot of trash talk. And there’s a lot of never giving up. That’s what they taught me.

You attended two other colleges for a year apiece before coming to Drew, where you weren’t even expecting to play. What happened?

I walked on at Rutgers. [Former head coach] Fred Hill told me, “You’re a good player, but we got these scholarship players, and I’m going to play them.” I was recruited to go to Idaho State. It was a good situation, but basketball just didn’t fall [into place] as I had planned. When I came to Drew, I actually knew the assistant coach, and he was like, “You’re a pretty good player. You should just play.” It was the best thing I ever did, because I had a great year.

The team rebounded last season from a rough start. How did that come together?

We started off the season 4 and 10. We were headed in the wrong direction. Coach [Darryl Keckler] told us we have a good team, we just have to get it clicking. I said I’m just going to do what I have to do to get the team winning. We got one win, two wins. It was a snowball effect. Next thing you know, we won nine in a row. We just made a conscious effort to play harder.

As a political science major, what’s your assessment of President Obama?

With all the criticism, he’s handling himself well. This Osama thing definitely helps his chances, in my opinion, to get a second term. If I had to give him a grade, I’d give him a B minus/B.

By Michelle Caffrey C’10

Kay Halverson

“Go to every event, all the comedians, concerts, ask around—it’s a great way to meet people. Drew makes it so easy to figure out what is going on. Go have a good time; there are amazing things at your fingertips.”

Cameron Smith

“Your first semester you’ll be overwhelmed, but that’s just a hurdle to get over. After that, everything falls into place. Don’t worry if you’re not happy at first, there are a lot of good things to come.”

Yang Yang

“Really put yourself into things, throw yourself into everything you do. You’ll get so much out of it. It might be tiring sometimes, but if you just commit yourself, it pays off.”

Ricardo Astacio

“The one thing I would recommend is rugby. It got me through school and gave me an outlet to take out frustration. I could just do something I enjoy doing, without the fear of someone judging me.”

The most ingenious fundraiser we’ve ever seen was the Pants Auction, which sold pants donated by students, teachers and deans to benefit Drew’s Honduras Project. As repeat students in English Professor Frank Occhiogrosso’s courses, Steffi and I knew that we absolutely had to score a pair of his trousers for the 21st birthday of fellow acolyte Kristen Daily Williams C’98. The day of the 1997 auction, we arrived at a UC full of eager would-be pants buyers and, as we waited, our anxiety rose in direct proportion to the selling price of each lot. We couldn’t afford it, but we outbid all the competition. Who cares that we spent the equivalent of a semester’s worth of trips to The Other End? It was for a great cause. And to this day, Kristen still has those pants.—Sarah Murphy and Stephanie Palermo, both C’98

We asked Arvolyn Hill, author of an ambitious Acorn series about racial diversity at Drew, to explain what writing it taught her.

By Arvolyn Hill C’11

I remember reading in The Acorn my first year about how my class was the most racially diverse yet at Drew. As diversity continued to increase, I’d see a similar article each year without fail. While the administration said Drew was committed to diversity, students I talked to had a different opinion.

Some students of color complained they had experiences that were painful, rooted in their peers’ ignorance about other races. Others said there was no universitywide forum to discuss racial issues—not just for students of color, but for the entire student body. For my part, I noticed a lack of diversity among the faculty.

Issues like these prompted me to write a four-part series for the paper this spring. My interviews with students, professors and administrators opened up a universitywide conversation about diversity and I got great feedback, including from those who wanted the series to define diversity at Drew more broadly and examine class, gender, religion, politics and sexuality. Doing the series, I discovered that diversity is always changing, and it’s important for a university to understand and adapt to those shifts.

My senior year last fall, I watched the freshman class interact with one another in a way that seemed more fluid than when I first arrived at Drew. I saw progress. With more students of diverse backgrounds, the student body slowly started to mix naturally without forced interaction. I took it as a sign of a university moving forward for all its students.

Arvolyn Hill C’11 is a reporter for The Millerton News in Millerton, N.Y. Read Hill’s Acorn series below.

The 21st Century Student Body

Percentage of first-year students of color and average GPA for entire class.

With no majority race among its students and 45 percent of its faculty non-white, the Theo School is fast outpacing U.S. demographic trends. The College of Liberal Arts has also seen a significant change in the laste decade: a nearly threefold increase in students of color, the result of Drew’s latest recruitment effort. “The educational advantages that accrue from studying in a more cosmopolitan community,” says Drew President Robert Weisbuch, “will prepare our undergraduates for a rapidly diversifying nation.”

Racial Diversity at Drew

Read the four-part Acorn series, written by Arvolyn Hill C’11 in 2011.

• “Changes in Acceptance Reveal a Culture in Flux” – February 4
• “Campus Diversity Extends Beyond the Student Body” – February 11
• “Theo School: New Issues Emerge From Pluralism” – February 18
• “In CLA, Still Playing Catch-Up” – February 25

By Christopher Hann

On the morning of September 11, 2001, Jayme Rabenberg  C’02 was seated on a charter bus with 24 other Drew students and political science professor Richard Rhone, all bound for Manhattan as part of the university’s U.N. Semester. The bus had left campus at about 8:30 a.m. but soon hit traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike. The students read or chatted quietly. Some dozed off. Over the stereo system, Sinatra crooned. Rabenberg was lost in The New York Times. Then one of the students got a phone call from her family. “When the girl got the call,” Rabenberg says, “all of us were horrified.”

Looking east, across the Hudson River to lower Manhattan, the students could see clouds of dark smoke engulf the upper floors of the World Trade Center’s north tower and, soon after, the swarm of news helicopters circling overhead. Accident, Rabenberg thought. Professor Rhone huddled with the driver. Sinatra gave way to radio news reports. Just before the Lincoln Tunnel, the bus turned around and headed back to campus. “We were quite lucky,” Rabenberg says. “We did not get stuck between the last exit and the tunnel.”

Minutes later the students learned that a second plane had crashed into the south tower. Before returning to campus, they learned it had collapsed.

Meanwhile, the Drew community was left to ponder an even more horrific scenario. Had the Wall Street Semester been held in the fall, students in that course would have been arriving at their classroom, on the 100th floor of the south tower, at just about the time the first plane hit.

Answers

Show

1. Top row: S.W. Bowne Hall; entry to Asbury Hall; radiator in Seminary Hall
2. Middle row: mailboxes in the University Center; shed door near athletic field; Davies House exterior wall
3. Bottom row: doorway in Brothers College; light fixtures in Brothers College; Dorothy Young Center for the Arts

Flagg studied a "greener" hospital device that made some patients sick.

Alan Rosan’s Chem 5 students learned why choosing earth-friendly products is no easy thing.

By Bill Haduch

When Haley Flagg, a junior environmental science major, needed a research project for her Chem 5 course, a conversation at home about a medical problem came to mind. Flagg’s mother, an oncology nurse in Connecticut, had described severe and surprising side effects in some patients when they received saline intravenously from a new type of pre-filled polymer container—one thought to be more environmentally friendly than the traditional PVC bags, and less likely to leach harmful chemicals into the saline.

The polymer containers produced vomiting and a harsh saline taste—a downside for the green movement—but it made a textbook case for one of Professor Alan Rosan’s lessons of green chemistry: that selecting products for their friendliness to the environment isn’t simple and is often a matter of weighing competing interests. “What do you choose?” asks Flagg. “The environmentally friendly plastic and somehow deal with the side effects? Or do you forgo the E factor and not endure more suffering?”

Offered for the first time last fall, Chem 5, aka “An Introduction to Green Materials, Processes and Alternatives,” is no ordinary chemistry course. “With today’s concerns about sustainability, chemistry must deal with much more than synthesis of materials,” Rosan says. “We need to consider energy use, health concerns, waste production and much more.”

If green chemistry sounds like a headache, Rosan uses the example of a popular pain­killer to show its absolute necessity. “About 30 million pounds of ibuprofen are produced every year, and it used to be that 35 million pounds of waste was also produced,” he says. “So the real product was not the drug, it was the waste.” Chemists have now found a way to productively use up twice the atoms during manufacture, greatly reducing waste, he explains. “Thanks to green chemistry, there’s a new approach.”

Rosan designed Chem 5 in line with Drew’s mission of fostering environmental awareness, and the new general education requirements in the College of Liberal Arts that aim to challenge students to take intellectual risks, develop curiosity and creativity, and ask and explore difficult and complex questions. For Flagg and her classmates, it’s paying off.

“This is the future of chemistry,” says Rosan. “It’s the way chemistry will be thought of and practiced.”

By Renée Olson

Se Habla Español

As part of a Drew project with Morristown’s nonprofit Neighborhood House/Pathways to Work program, undergrads from Elise DuBord’s Spanish class, “Service Learning and Translation: The U.S. Latino/a Immigrant Experience,” recently served as interpreters for a Seton Hall University School of Law survey on wage theft among Jersey day laborers.

Home Making

Drew Civic Scholar Pirianthini Suntharalingam C’14 devotes a half day each week to helping Fur­ni­ture Assist, a central Jersey nonprofit that makes donated furniture available free to low-income households. Passionate about issues facing her family’s native Sri Lanka, Suntharalingam, one of 33 civic scholars, is well on her way to learning the skills she’ll need for that work—she’s already taken a seminar exploring the meaning of community service.

Tell It On the Mountaintop

Drew students, together with Marc Boglioli (Anthropology), headed to Appalachia last spring break to learn about mountaintop removal mining, the controversial practice of extracting coal from mountain summits. Students described the 10 days as “life-changing.” Says Boglioli, “They saw the environmental and social consequences that are paid in regions like eastern Kentucky every time we turn up the thermostat in New Jersey.”—Funded by a grant from NASA

Dam Nation

Students working with Anthropology Chair Maria Masucci at Drew’s archaeological field station in El Azúcar, Ecuador, interviewed local residents last summer about the toll a new dam has taken on their village. Deforestation topped the list of concerns, and Drewids responded by building the community a pilot tree farm.—Funded by grants from NASA, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Science Foundation

Green Justice

A medical waste treatment facility proposed in Newark, N.J., got shot down last fall with help from Zoe Crum C’10. The Ironbound Community Corporation called Crum’s GIS map showing the neighborhood’s high number of preexisting toxic waste sites “useful” in its campaign against the facility. A biology major, Crum created the map during a postgrad internship with Catherine Riihimaki (Biology) and Krista White (GIS support specialist).—Funded by a grant from NASA

Friday Night Lights Star Tackles Race Issues in L.A.

Best known for portraying “Smash” Williams on NBC’s football drama Friday Night Lights and his role in the 2010 Angelina Jolie flick, Salt, Gaius Charles now spends his days far from Holly­wood. As a Theo student working on his M.Div., Charles is busy with the same coursework and exams that try any seminarian. But he slipped back into character last summer to make his work as a Drew Communities of Shalom intern come alive.

Playing to an excited house at the Echo Park United Methodist Church in central Los Angeles, Charles—or rather, Smash—screened two episodes of Friday Night Lights in which Smash takes the lead in grappling with a racist coach and teammates. After the second episode, Charles stepped back out of character and led a discussion with members of the largely Hispanic community about gang violence and racial hostility.

“It was a really powerful event,” says Charles. “I feel a lot of people were able to let their guard down and have a dialogue about genuine issues that, I think, planted the seeds for transformation in the community.”—Funded by the Jessie Ball duPont Fund

Photo of Pirianthini Suntharalingam by Bill Cardoni. Photo of Gaius Charles courtesy Gaius Charles

By Christopher Hann

The 1947 Bachelor-Benedict Presentation Ball in Washington, D.C. Photo courtesy Scurlock Studio Records, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Behring Center, Smithsonian Institution.

When her academic adviser told Miya Carey C’11 that her daughter was taking part in a debutante program in Essex County, the history major from East Windsor, N.J., wanted to know more. Carey’s curiosity led to a $3,000 fellowship that enabled her to conduct research last summer on the cultural significance of African-American cotillions, or debutante balls, in the first half of the 20th century.

The practice of formally presenting young women to polite society with an ornate ball is well documented among privileged white Americans, but Carey says historians have largely overlooked black cotillions. “There’s nothing specifically written about them,” she says. It makes it even better to research.”

Carey says she was surprised to learn that young African-American women were less interested in using cotillions to search for potential husbands. “It was not as major a focus as I thought it was going to be,” says Carey, who did her research at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City and both the National Archives and Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center in Washington, D.C.

Carey intends to use her work, underwritten by the inaugural Leavell-Oberg Summer Fellowship to inform her senior thesis.

“Cotillions were a way for wealthy and middle-class blacks to demonstrate their achievements” says Carey. “If you look at cotillion programs and look at what the girls said they wanted to do, a lot of them said they wanted to go into professional fields like medicine or teaching or law.”

The fellowship honors history professor Perry Leavell, who retired in 2008, and his wife, Barbara Oberg, general editor of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson at Princeton University. Leavell acolyte and Invesco Advisers Senior Analyst Gerry Lian C’77 launched the fellowship as a way to honor his former professor, and to date, his appeals to alumni have led to commitments of more than $118,000 to the fund.

Sophomore Michelle Malone’s goal landed Drew their first Landmark Conference championship game. Photo by Jordan Maslin

Women’s Soccer (15–7–1)
In a season for the record books, the Rangers took home their first-ever ECAC Metro/Upstate Championship with a 1–0 win over SUNY Brockport. Prior to the tournament, Drew had seven players named to the All-Conference Team—a Landmark Conference record—and the women’s 15 victories gave them their winningest season in 11 years.

Men’s Soccer (14–4–4)
The Rangers walked away with multiple postseason accolades, including a Landmark Conference Offensive Player of the Year Award for senior Matthew Greenberg.

Field Hockey (15–7)
Captain Kati Eggert C’11 was named Landmark Conference Offensive Player of the Year for her spectacular senior season. The three-sport star led the Landmark Conference in goals (18) and points (45). The Rangers posted 15 wins, the most under fourth-year coach Felicia Cappabianca and highest total since the NCAA tournament team of 1986.

Cross Country
Junior Steve Monteleone had one of the best years of any runner in recent Drew history and is the first Drew runner to earn Landmark All-Conference honors.

Me, today at age 23. Photo by Bill Cardoni

By Ramona Belfiore C’11, as told to Leslie Garisto Pfaff

The day I found out I’d gotten into Drew I was so excited that, running back to my house, I fell and scraped both my knees. That’s also the day my anxieties began.

They got worse once I started school, when all the memories sprang up out of nowhere. My mother be­lieved it was because I was on my own again. I remembered Alinka, one of the orphans I grew up with in Romania, and how she’d found seven stray puppies under the stairs; I remembered her dress, and her face, and the color of the puppies, and the smells. I remembered the kids who grew up with me in the orphanage, their faces and their names. And one night I had a dream: I was in a pool, and I turned to the boy next to me and he was very dark skinned. The next morning I told my mother about it, and she said, “We threw a pool party for you guys when you got adopted, and Tavi”—one of the kids from the orphanage, who might have been Romany—“was in the pool next to you.”

Me at age 7 (right), with my sisters Loredana and Mihaela.

I was born in Romania in 1987. I was very, very ill—premature, probably—and I needed a transfusion immediately. When I got sicker, they tested me and found out I was HIV positive. In those days, the hospitals in Romania didn’t have enough money for new needles, so they used the same ones over and over again, which is probably how I was infected.

My mother thinks that my parents had already abandoned me in the hospital before I was diagnosed; they lived on a farm, in a tiny house that had hay on the floor, and they had nine other kids to take care of, and their cattle were dying, and they couldn’t take care of a sick child on top of that. So they left me, assuming that I’d find a good place to live, and I ended up in the orphanage. I try to block out a lot of what I went through in that place. It saved my life, but it put me through a lot.

My mom, Susan Belfiore, around 1993, about a year after she adopted us. I’m on the right, with my siblings, from left, Mihaela, Loredana and Ionel.

It was TV that got me to America. One night in 1990, Susan Belfiore, my adoptive mother, was home with my dad, and she saw a commercial asking for volunteers to come to Romania to rock dying kids who had HIV. She turned to him and said, “I know I’m meant to go there.” So she got on a plane and went to Romania. She’d never been able to have children and, after a few months of being there with me and four other orphans, she called my dad and said, “I want to adopt one of the kids. What do you think?” He said, “How can you choose? Adopt them all.”

First, though, she had to find all of our parents and get their permission to adopt us. The only ones who turned her down were Costine’s parents, so he had to stay in Romania; I don’t think he’s alive anymore. The adoption took a year and a half, since the Romanian government wouldn’t let my mother take four sick kids out of the country—they said we were going to die anyway. But in 1992 we left for America: 2-year-old Loredana; Mihaela and Ionel, who were 3; and 5-year-old me. Three years ago the four of us got tattoos that say “92,” representing the year that we came to the United States.

Around age 8.

When I was 9 and my mother was 45, she got pregnant and gave birth to my little brother, Aidan. Like all little brothers, he’s a pain in the butt, but he’s also very understanding with us. In fact, he sometimes gets upset be­cause he’s the only one of us who doesn’t have HIV. During an interview a few years ago, he said, “If they weren’t here, I’d be a small child living in a very big house.”

I never questioned that Susan and Bill Belfiore were my parents. Eventually, though, my mother sat me down and said, “You have actual parents in Romania somewhere. If you want to know about them, we’re more than glad to help you write them.” I must have written them 10 times before I got my first letter. It listed my siblings’ names, and I suppose it was nice, but I didn’t care. Because as far as I was concerned, the people who’d adopted me and raised me were my parents.

All of us (I’m standing to the right of the surfboard) in the late 1990s on Long Beach Island, N.J.

I’d always known that my siblings and I had HIV: My mom wanted us to believe that having it made us extraordinary, that it was a gift and we were meant to do something with it. But I never really understood it. And then when my brother Ionel was 8 or 9 years old, a child told him he wasn’t going to make it past 10 because he had HIV. My mom found him in the bathroom, crying, and that day she sat us down and told us, “You need to understand that people die of this virus.” That was the day I started to be­come an advocate.

In seventh grade, we were learn­ing about HIV in health class, and while my teacher was speaking, I just stood up and blurted it out: “I have HIV.” I sat right back down, and I heard people’s necks cracking as they turned to look at me. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done (that and the slide at Atlantis—that was bad). But after class, a kid came up to me and said, “You’re so brave.” And that’s when I knew I had to keep talking about it.

My siblings and I do AIDS dance marathons, and I visit schools and talk about my experience. I’m also a family ambassador for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. Since seventh grade, I’ve known that if  I can make a difference in someone’s life, it’s totally worth it. My mother says that my not being afraid to tell people about being HIV positive has helped my siblings talk about it, too, and that’s what I wanted.

During my first year at Drew, I decided I’d tell all my professors about my status before I started a class, in case something went wrong, like a bloody nose. The school suggested I wear a medical band, but I didn’t want to be marked like that; I’d rather talk about it.

Me with my boyfriend, Matt Fay, at his graduation from Drew last May.

When I meet new people now, I tell them right away that I have HIV. That’s how it was when I met my boyfriend, Matt. Within three hours of knowing him, I said, “I want you to know that I have HIV, but HIV doesn’t have me. I’m stronger than it, and I’m healthy, and I can fight it.” I’d always felt insecure about dating: I was afraid that no one would accept me once they knew about me—that I’d always be “the girlfriend with HIV.” And then I found out that Matt’s mother was afraid because he was dating me, and that just reinforced my fears. It was rough because I’d really fallen for him and didn’t want my virus to be a problem. In fact, I’ve been undetectable since I was 8: My viral load is below 50 (which means that the virus isn’t actively reproducing) and, except when I’ve gotten sick, it’s never really spiked. I’m not on any kind of medication, except vitamins. So I called Matt’s mother, and I said, “Talk to my nurse. She’ll tell you that I’m a different case and that I’m com­pletely healthy.” And now I think she understands that and accepts me, which is fantastic. Matt has cerebral palsy, and we share the same outlook on our “disabilities”: We’ve never regretted what we have, and we know we’re stronger, better people be­cause of it.

Like any college senior, I think a lot about the future: I want to be a professor someday, and I want to teach poetry. I’ve loved poetry since eighth grade, when my teacher introduced us to “Do Not Go Gentle” by Dylan Thomas; I wrote my college essay on it—about how the lines “Do not go gentle into that good night” and “Rage, rage against the dying of the light” really paralleled my life. And then, at Drew, I took English 9 with Patrick Phillips, and I fell in love with the class—that’s when I knew I wanted to be a teacher, and I wanted to teach poetry, and to be as passionate about it as Professor Phillips is when he teaches.

But the people who’ve inspired me most are my parents. I can tell my mother anything and never doubt that she’ll understand. And both my mom and dad have taught me so much. If I had to choose the single most important thing I’ve learned from them it would have to be not to let anyone treat me differently because I have HIV, to keep my head up high in the darkest hours and to keep fighting. When I call my mother to tell her I’m upset about something, she’ll tell me, “Ramona, you were dying in Romania; you’ve been through a lot worse. You’re going to be fine.” In fact, it was talking to her every night during freshman year that got me through the anxieties that threatened to overwhelm me. She’d tell me, “Life doesn’t give us more than we can handle,” and I know she was right. Because I’m still here and loving it.

All family photos courtesy of the Belfiore family.

My room in Asbury Hall is filled with family photos and collages I’ve made. Photo by Bill Cardoni