Catching Up With: Matthew Bischoff '09

In today's post, Mr. Turner '00 chats with alumnus Matthew Bischoff '09 (Sicklerville, NJ) about St. Joseph's Prep, iOS apps, and his job at Tumblr.

It was clear that Matt had an interest in computers. While some students preferred a pen and pad for notes, Matt's PowerBook suited his learning style. But like all Prep guys, Matt's interests were varied - drama, service, retreats, and course work complemented his tech background. I had the chance to talk with Matt, a former student, about his time at the Prep, his current job, and what it takes to thrive in the tech world. Here's what I learned:

What have you been up to since June 2009, Matt?

Matthew Bischoff '09

After the Prep, I attended the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), studying Human-Computer Interaction for two years, before landing a job at The New York Times as an iOS engineer. While at NJIT I played Tobias in the school's production of Sweeney Todd, and did some research related to my major.

My Prep classmate, Brian Capps '09, and I starting writing iOS apps during senior year at the Prep. Our first app, Quotebook, was released while I was at NJIT. Since then we released another app called Velocity. We also do contracting for other people - building iOS apps. That's also my full time job - I'm an iOS engineer at Tumblr.

Can you take me through your day-to-day at Tumblr?

I come in and look at a list of things we need to accomplish - some of them are going to be bugs (problems in the current app), and other things are new features, exciting stuff that we want to add. I work with my team to decide who is best suited for each task and then we start developing it. We write code to start making things happen, and then we share those changes with each other before submitting a beta version to the internal community at Tumblr. Once we're confident with the update, we submit it to the App Store.

It's my favorite job I've ever had. It's such a creative place to work - we're all so focused on making the best publishing platform. And it's incredibly exciting.

Tumblr is the best way to follow the world's creators. And if you're a creator yourself, it's the best way to share your work with an audience.

What skills and background does one need to do what you do?

I was interested in computers from an early age, so that helped. Studying computer science as much as possible. Advanced math skills are nice to have, but not essential.

A lot of it is logic - critical and rational thinking. Anything that would bolster those kinds of skills is good.

But the way that I really learned how to do it was by coming up with the thing that I wanted to exist in the world - an app that I wanted to build. If you commit to that, you're forced to learn how to do it. If you're learning how to do it because you think you'll make a lot of money or because it sounds interesting, I don't think you'll persevere due to the amount of failure in this line of work. Several hours and even days are spent building things that don't work the way you want them to. That's hard to stomach unless you have an end goal in mind.

Matt's senior yearbook photo

Did the Prep prepare you well?

Absolutely. No question about it. The Prep helped me both to think critically and to make an argument in a rational and respectful way. I consider myself to be well-read and can see things from multiple perspectives. I have the Prep to thank for that. In addition, I can usually draw from something that I learned in, say, Latin or History class when I'm trying to solve a problem.

What about your Prep experience are you most thankful for?

My teachers truly cared about me as a person. I remember times when I was stressed out because I had so much on my plate and my teachers could sense that. They were very empathetic.

Why should a family consider St. Joseph's Prep?

It's different for every family - I was drawn to the Prep's excellent theatre program and the level of trust the school gave to students with respect to the use of technology. So my advice to families is: talk to people who've experienced the Prep and be sure to visit the school. Once you're there, you'll feel that St. Joe's Prep is somewhere that you should be.

This blog post was written by Mr. Ed Turner '00, Director of Admission.

Image credit: mttb.me

Great Courses @ the Prep: American Studies

In today's blog post, read about one of the great courses the Prep offers - American Studies with Mr. Connors '80 and Mr. Rupertus.

Breaking down silos

Back in the late 90's, St. Joe's Prep faculty from several academic departments shared work space in what is now the Modern Language office. Bill Connors '80 (History) and Chris Rupertus (English), "jammed in there like sardines", sat back-to-back and frequently chatted about their craft. Since Rupertus and Connors were used to spending so much time together during prep periods and since they shared a passion for the lesser known chapters of American history, from that crowded corral emerged the course known as American Studies.

Why American Studies?

CR: Before I got to the Prep, I taught for a year at Marple-Newtown Senior High School (Newtown Square, PA). A course existed at Marple-Newtown somewhat similar to ours in structure, but not in content. So during our shared prep periods, Bill and I talked about this course. Bill said, 'Wow. That's an interesting idea. I wonder if we could do something like that here.' 

We did a boatload of research; we went to Marple-Newtown and observed; we got course syllabi from other schools' classes that were interdisciplinary in nature. Our proposal for the new course was approved unanimously by academic council to begin the following fall.

The original reason Bill and I wanted to teach the course was that we thought the two subjects (History and English) inform and complement one another. Since then we've learned that the double-period (80 minutes) fosters a sense of community and camaraderie that is difficult to replicate in a 40-minute period; having two teachers for each class means we're now twice as likely to connect with a student who may be struggling in any way; it also means that Bill and I get to model collaboration for our students.

Two consequences have been the classroom's diversity - with regard to socioeconomic status, geography, GPA, racial and ethnic identity, and family make-up. And second, our class's character and complexion engender some valuable and authentic discussions and even some respectful disagreements. In that sense, our class is truly collegiate in nature.

Could you walk me through the course?

CR: In order to synthesize these two disciplines, we take a quasi-chronological thematic approach. We have 8 units of study which expose our students not only to literature, but also to primary and secondary historical texts. Our main secondary source for history is Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States:

1. The History of Native American White Contact
• We read Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie which is set on a modern-day reservation.
2. People's Movements during Colonial America
• Shay's Rebellion, for example
• Since there isn't a whole lot of literature from that period, we fast-forward and we'll read The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne one year, or Arthur Miller's The Crucible the next year so we can get a flavor for the period.
3. Slavery and Abolition
• Confessions of Nat Turner
• David Walker's appeal
• Excerpts from Frederick Douglass' Narrative
4. Women's Movement
5. Immigration and Industrialization
6. Harlem Renaissance
7. The Depression
8. Cold War & Vietnam
• Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried
• We use O'Brien's book as a lens through which we examine more current geo-political and military issues.

How do you assess your students?

CR: Our participation in the school's 1:1 device pilot program has allowed us not only to find new ways to assess our students through the use of Google Apps for Education, but also to employ traditional forms of assessment (e.g., blue books) if they suit our purpose.

BC: Yeah, we found that for simple quizzes, the blue book is still the best tool.


CR: This year we've become more project-based than ever before. And we've asked our students to collaborate more in ways that we can evaluate. During our Slavery and Abolition unit, our guys had to create a Google Presentation - part in class, part at home - on a slavery excerpt and the ripples of the document's publication. We didn't invent anything with the presentation, but by using Google, it afforded us the opportunity to ask them to dig deeper because they had the time. We also ask our students every quarter to evaluate themselves, to give themselves a grade. What's amazing is that our students are within one or two points of the grades they earn.

Any upcoming changes for the course?

CR: We are constantly evaluating what we do. We're fortunate to take field-trips that aren't too disruptive because of the time our class runs (periods 7-8, end of day), so we're always looking for new areas of the city to connect the present to the past. We're interested in examining more contemporary social and civil rights movements. It is easy and comfortable to look back and say that the civil rights movement was so obviously right, how could anybody be against it? It is much more difficult to look at current movements of a different ilk and negotiate that with an eye towards mission and justice. 

What's your favorite thing about teaching American Studies?

CR: I love my job. I never wake up with a pit in my stomach. I think that speaks volumes about the Prep. But if during the course of the day there are any bumps in the road, I can always look forward to American Studies. The level of intellectual effort, and of conversation, is humbling. We have fun together, we laugh. And to be able to work alongside as fine a teacher as Bill Connors - that has made the course fulfilling. Not to mention the atmosphere of the class - which is created organically - it is awesome to witness.

BC:  It's the interactive nature of the class - with Chris, with the students, with the disciplines, and when the kids make these connections. When the guys connect across the subjects, across time, and with one another, it's very rewarding.

This blog post was written by Mr. Ed Turner '00, Director of Admission.