NEW YORK TIMES JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR ANTHONY DEPALMA

Brazen Acts of Resilience

You could say resilience is Anthony DePalma’s beat. For 50 years, the New York Times journalist and author has reported on people and societies standing up to adversity from around the globe. Recently, Mr. DePalma turned his attention to Newark and spent the 2023-24 year embedded at Newark Abbey and St. Benedict’s Prep for a powerful and inspiring new book, On This Ground: Hardship and Hope at the Toughest Prep School in America.  

The book is called On This Ground: Hardship and Hope at the Toughest Prep School in America. What makes Benedict’s so tough?

It’s tough because the kids come from a tough city, live in tough conditions and are being guided by a bunch of tough guys [the monks of Newark Abbey] who are still at it.  Once the kids get here, they encounter some pretty tough conditions. They are here 11 months out of the year. Every morning, they have to take what's called attendance, but I prefer to call it inventory. It’s not who's here and who's not. It’s why someone is not here.  And where are they?

Kids who come to St. Benedict’s have a tough road ahead of them. They need to have resilience and a school that understands that the things standing in their way shouldn’t prevent them from eventually reaching their full potential. I don't believe many schools do that.

You’ve covered NAFTA, Ground Zero after 9/11 and Cuban-American relations. What prompted you to write a book about Newark Abbey and St. Benedict’s Prep?

The way people adapt to adversity and resilience has been a theme that I’ve followed throughout my career. As a young man, I read about the Bristlecone Pine trees in the White Mountains of California, the oldest things on earth. I had to see them. They grow basically in what looks like urban rubble. There’s no soil and very little rain. They survive by adapting to adversity. So, whether I’m writing about 9/11, Cubans or Newark Abbey, St. Benedict’s Prep and the City of Newark, [whatever topic I’m writing about] comes down to resilience. 

You chronicle daily miracles on the Property, as well as the shortcomings of adults and kids. What did you learn about Benedict’s from exploring its highs and lows?

Every place has flaws. Despite the issues that naturally come up in any place, the story is a positive one. Kids make mistakes. Things don't go exactly according to plan. People say things that they don't really mean. In the end, if you can overcome that, if you can see beyond that and continue with your mission — which is to prepare these kids for life — you have a story that's so much more powerful than one that is 100% positive.

The flaws reaffirmed what I already thought going into this. I knew there would be issues, and honestly, some things really threw me for a loop. People I thought would be superstars in the book turned out not to be, while others who were more in the background rose to take their place. I thought, ‘Gosh, that truly is life.’ Based on the early responses I've received, I believe the book provides an honest picture of a place doing extraordinary work under extraordinarily difficult conditions. 

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Was there anything specific you saw that reaffirmed your belief in the resilience of St. Benedict’s Prep and Newark Abbey?

I met Fr. Ed decades ago, but I didn't really get to know him. As I was preparing to write the book, someone described him to me as ‘the voice of your conscience,’ and another said he was as close to a saint as any man still living. I really was skeptical and needed to be convinced. Then I watched as Fr. Ed defended kids who any other headmaster or principal would have thrown out. And he did it with a ferocity that changed my view of him, the monks and the School. Fr. Ed says many times, ‘Your history is not a mistake,’ which is easy to say and hard to live by. And you've got kids who are coming here from situations beyond their control. For a school to expect that, deal with it, and make sure kids got a second chance was impressive to me.

Also, being on The Trail, watching the Water Adversity Challenge, seeing kids come in at 7:45 a.m. all year long…to me, they were all lessons about resilience.

You spent a lot of time with students following their successes and struggles. What impressed you the most about Gray Bees?

I think it’s helpful to clarify that I came in not knowing any of the kids. No one told me who to talk to; I picked the kids interviewed for the book. Having grown up in Hoboken, a city quite different than the Hoboken of today, I also knew what it was like to be in tough situations and deal with things that seemed to be beyond your control.

Many of the kids I met obviously had been through something similar, and what I saw was them responding to the care of all of the adults here, monks, faculty, counselors and coaches. Kids responded to varying degrees. Some got it right away. Others didn’t. I was most impressed by the kids who didn't get it at the beginning, kids who wanted to be anywhere but here, who stuck it out because they were resilient enough to stick it out. And the faculty were resilient enough not to give up on them. The most encouraging stories were the kids who went through that process of change, from rebelling against Benedict’s for one or even two years, and then something happened. It became their choice to be here.

On This Ground is a story about people, and it’s also the story of Newark. What was the impact of the monks’ decision to stay in 1972 and the opening of what they called an educational venture the following year impact the city?

It quickly became clear from my research that 1972 was a horrible year for the city. Ballantine Brewery closed, The Newark News went under, the railroads went bankrupt and half of the monastery left in June. In the face of those two things, the city bottoming out and half of your compatriots leaving, the monks’ decision to stay to meet the adverse conditions was an absolute brazen act of resilience.

Kenneth Gibson, the mayor at the time, said that opening an education institution in Newark was important, but opening one that had closed is way more important. Why? It was a symbolic turning point. It signified to the city, yes, you can stay. Yes, you can work together. And yes, you can serve the community, even if that community has changed.

What would you say is the source of Benedict’s staying power?

Easy. The monks and The Rule. You had this core group of monks who formed the nucleus and stayed. That vow of stability could be called a vow of resilience. It’s so unusual and incredible these days. When so much seems temporary, you have people who take a vow and 50 years later, they're still faithful to that vow. And somehow, they have been able to convey that resilience to a bunch of other people who don't wear robes (teachers, counselors and staff) but who are just as committed to it.

These are pretty dark days. As I was working on the book, I became convinced that this is the right story at the right time for people who know about Benedict’s, but more importantly, people who don’t know about the School and don’t know that such a thing is still possible.

Speaking of dark times, the country is more polarized than ever and it's harder to find common ground. What do you hope people take away from On This Ground?

The message is that all is not lost. There are ways for people of different races, different faiths, who come from different parts of the world to get along. Don't believe it? You can see it on YouTube any morning. Kids are coming from all those different quadrants, and somehow, they make it work.

St. Benedict’s is a preparatory school in the real sense of the word. Sure, it prepares kids for college; almost all go on to college. But just as important, it prepares them for life by not telling them that everything is going to be perfect or easy. It’s the opposite. The only way Bristlecone Pine trees survive in rocky soil is to stand up to the adversity. And so, 50 miles on the Appalachian Trail even if you've never spent a night in the woods. A whole week inside the School [for the Freshman Overnight] being busted by older kids that you never would have to listen to out on the street. Don’t know how to swim? We're going to throw you in the pool, but first, we're going to prepare you. And through all that, the lesson is always going to be, ‘You are part of a community and you get out of the community what you put into it. We don't expect you to do any of those things by yourself, but we are going to show you how, if you work with the people around you, you can get it done.’

And isn't that the lesson that we need right now?

Anthony DePalma is a bestselling author and award-winning journalist who spent 22 years as a reporter and foreign correspondent for The New York Times. He was a member of The Times team that won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2002. On This Ground, Mr. DePalma’s fifth book, will be published on February 3, 2026.