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Note: Local juggler Kyle Peterson was feted with a fun feature article in his hometown paper. Kyle has been a regular Pratt juggler for at least two years and a semi-regular Carminer, who now comes to both every week. We featured another article about Kyle this past July.
CHS Alum Juggles His Way to the Top
By Katherine Paster, Managing Editor
November 25, 2008
MAPLEWOOD, NJ - This is the second in a series of articles on Columbia
High School alumni documenting the recent accomplishments of
noteworthy individuals who came from the South Orange-Maplewood school
district.
Juggling, plate spinning, stilt-walking and acrobatics are not skills
typically taught in school curriculums, but one Columbia High School
alum is using the unique lessons of circus performing to teach youths
one of life's most valuable lessons — anything is possible with a
little hard work.
When Kyle Petersen, Columbia High School Class of 2003, first tried
his hand at juggling in high school, he never imagined that, years
down the road, he would become the infamous juggler for the Brooklyn
Cyclones, where the multi-talented circus performer has become a
fan-favorite of the minor league baseball team's "family."
 Photo: Columbia High School alum Kyle Petersen performs for
a crowd of baseball fans during a Brooklyn Cyclone's game, where the
multi-talented circus performer does everything, from juggling and
unicycling to plate spinning.
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While searching for a summer job during his Junior year at New York
University, Petersen, who credits fellow Columbia alum Thomas Shippy
for teaching him to juggle, stumbled on to a gig to perform at
Brooklyn Cyclone games, a job which would ultimately send Petersen
blazing down the road to success in the fields of entertainment and
education.
Performing for anywhere between 7,000 to 9,000 baseball fans in the
Cyclone stadium, Petersen calls the crowd "one of the toughest
audiences you'll ever face." Luckily, the red-haired juggler and
unicyclist was a smash-hit with the crowd.
"I made a name for myself very quickly," recalled Petersen, whose
unique talents include juggling and plate spinning while riding a
unicycle through the stadium stands. "By the time the first season was
over, I had become 'the guy' that baseball fans knew from the
games."
While the self-proclaimed clown embarked on his professional juggling
career, Petersen also pursued a passion first discovered in the
classrooms of Columbia High teachers John Campbell, James Cotter and
John DeVita.
This passion was education.
"Mr. Campbell made me want to be a teacher because he was teaching
something he truly loved and I knew, by watching him, that you could
actually make a living on your passions," said Petersen.
"He loved kids and he loved teaching kids, and that translates into
the makings of a great educator."
During his senior year at New York University, Petersen interned in
the public school system in Brooklyn, where he worked for six months
as a teachers assistant and a tutor at P.S. 287.
After proving to have a knack with kids, Petersen was asked to stay on
for the full year as a homeroom teacher for high school juniors who
were struggling in school — a challenge which showed Petersen he was
able to relate to kids from all walks of life.
"I was well-versed enough in all subjects to tutor the kids in problem
areas and help to get them on track," said Petersen. "What I really
love about high school kids is that I can relate to them, since I
remember being there."
After budgetary restraints left the internship program without
funding, Petersen volunteered to finish the school year without pay
out of loyalty to his students.
"I felt an obligation to them and I was attached to it," said Petersen.
In 2008, Petersen was given the opportunity to fuse his love of the
circus with his love of teaching when he was hired by the National
Circus Project, an organization that brings week-long circus
performance workshops to elementary schools.
At the beginning of each project, Peterson and his team of performers
put on a circus show for the students and then conducted workshops
throughout the week, teaching the students how to juggle, spin plates,
use devil sticks, walk on stilts and perform acrobatics.
By the end of each week, a target group of older students were
selected, based on their abilities, and trained to perform a circus
act before their peers, teachers and parents.
"To whip a group of fourth-graders into a circus show is something
else," said Petersen. "You take a student who thinks they have no
talent and teach them skills that the general public sees as
impossible."
According to Petersen, the priceless lesson kids take away from the
act is the belief that nothing is impossible with a little hard
work.
"When you teach a kid to balance a spinning plate on their chin on a
15-foot pole in front of everyone they know, that's an incredible
success that a kid will be able to carry with them," said Petersen,
noting the importance of showing students that nothing is impossible.
"Showing a kid it's possible to do a thing that they didn't think they
could do it is important."
With plans to continue juggling with the Cyclones as long as they keep
asking him back, Petersen is about to embark on his next venture —
graduate school.
Petersen was recently accepted to the Brooklyn College master's degree
program, where he will pursue a degree in Spanish, which he hopes will
bring him one step closer to becoming a teacher.
Looking back on his success, Petersen attributes his accomplishments
to his mother, whose support enabled him to believe there was nothing
he couldn't do.
"My mother is someone who has always supported everything I have ever
done to an insane degree," he said.
While some mothers might have been hesitant to support their child's
goals of being a circus performer, Petersen's mother bought him his
first set of juggling balls.
"My mother's greatest strength is the amount of strength she has given
to her sons," said Petersen, who taught his brother, Harry, to ride a
unicycle.
Reposted from localsource.com
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