On October 26th, 2010, the students of the Verrazano Learning Community (LC) 1, Jenna Cozzolino, Thomas Peruggia, Lauren Hornek, Michael Nappi, Joseph Bushman, Rachel DiVirgilio, Nicole Arce, and Medine Kovacevic, went on a school trip to the Moravian Cemetery. Their English professor, Professor Gianoulis, organized the trip, and accompanied the students on the trip. Their sociology professor, Professor Sigler, also attended the trip. Throughout the hour and a half tour, the tour guide talked about the history of some of the family grave sites that the group had seen as well as the sites that were in the cemetery. As the group came upon different grave stones, Professor Sigler cracked jokes about the different names on headstones, which gave everyone a laugh.
The students of LC1 had a great time taking funny pictures, enjoying each other’s company, exploring the cemetery, and learning about the history of the people that were buried at the cemetery. As the group passed multiple grave sites, the tour guide spoke about how some of the street signs on Staten Island were named after the families that were of great significance to New York or were wealthy and had a lot of property. The students were impressed by the amount of knowledge that the tour guide possessed about Staten Island and New York history/
Further along in the tour, the group came upon a Receiving Tomb. According to the tour guide, the Receiving Tomb was created as a place to store the bodies of people who died during the winter months due to the difficulty in digging a grave when the ground becomes frozen. Currently, the Receiving Tomb also holds bodies that are waiting to be buried because of the lack of room in some areas of the cemetery. As the tour continued, the group came upon a recent tomb that had a built-in skylight, and Professor Gianoulis had thought it was “absolutely beautiful, and thoughtful as well”. Before everyone knew it, the tour was finished. Everyone thought it was an all-in-all wonderful, fun, educational, and interesting experience.
Written by the Verrazano Students of Learning Community (LC) 1 in English 111
Edited by Medine Kovacevic
Photos by Jenna Cozzolino
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