TRT - Testosterone Replacement Therapy in Zarephath, NJ

See below for a look at some of the most popular youth soccer tournaments taking place over Memorial Day weekend throughout New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.

+Read: FC DELCO Players Cup set for 17th edition over Memorial Day weekend

Avon Memorial Day Tournament Attending Teams | Schedule / Results May 28-29 Avon, CT

Boys and girls teams from the U-9 through U-14 age groups will play in the 28th Annual Avon Memorial Day Tournament this weekend in Connecticut. The tournament field includes 88 teams representing clubs from New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and the host state.

Brick Memorial Day Soccer Tournament Attending Teams | Schedule / Results May 28-29 Jersey Shore, Brick, NJ

Brick Soccer Club will play host to 71 teams making the short trip from their neighboring New Jersey clubs in addition to several New York sides in a two-day event held at Drum Point and Pinewood Park. The tournament includes U-8 through U-15 competition, with each team playing a minimum of three games over the course of the weekend.

Cougar Soccer Club Memorial Day Tournament Attending Teams | Schedule / Results May 28-29 Maplewood, NJ

Entering its 35th year of play, the Cougar SC Memorial Day Tournament will feature 83 U-8 through U-14 teams playing at multiple venues around Maplewood and South Orange, NJ. Clubs from around New Jersey and New York will be sending teams to the event which has provided convenient access to local since the early 1980s.

+Read: Potomac Memorial Tournament set to kick off 37th edition

East Fishkill Memorial Day Tournament Attending Teams | Schedule / Results May 28-29 East Fishkill, NY

Closing in on four full decades of hosting Memorial Day competition, East Fishkill Soccer Club continues this weekend with the 37th running of its annual tournament. Nearly 150 teams will take part in the event, hailing from throughout Eastern New York, as well as New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania.

PDA Girls Showcase / ECNL NJ Showcase Attending Teams | Schedule / Results | College Coaches May 28-30 Zarephath, NJ

In one of the most highly anticipated college showcase events of the year, PDA and the ECNL combine to host premier level girls teams from all over the country. The tournament pairs some of the best ECNL match-ups of the season with the nation’s top non-ECNL squads, providing college coaches with a central destination to watch many of the most coveted recruits.

EDP Cup (U11-U14 Weekend) Attending Teams | Schedule / Results May 28-30 Hammonton, NJ

An eclectic group of teams from New York, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Canada and the host state of New Jersey will participate in the EDP Cup U-11 through U-14 weekend. Age groups will be as many as nine divisions deep, providing each attending team with evenly-matched opponents.

EDP Memorial Day Classic Attending Teams | Schedule / Results | College Coaches May 28-30 Lakehurst, NJ

More than 260 teams are set to participate in the EDP Memorial Day Classic, another New Jersey-based event which will generate a significant amount of interest from college coaches in the showcase age groups. In addition to drawing talented teams from up and down the East Coast in the older divisions, younger divisions competing in small-sided play will feature as many as four flights per age group.

Manalapan Memorial Day Tournament Attending Teams | Schedule / Results May 27-29 Manalapan, NJ

One of the largest tournaments in the country on the holiday weekend, the 2016 Manalapan Memorial Day Tournament will feature 400 teams representing clubs from New York, Pennsylvania and an overwhelming majority from the host state of New Jersey. The event is one of the most popular in the younger age groups, going as many as four flights deep in the U-9 through U-13 divisions.

Massapequa SC Lincoln Page Tournament Attending Teams | Schedule / Results May 27-29 Massapequa, NY

Massapequa SC, which hosts several high level tournaments throughout the year, continues its Memorial Day tradition with the Lincoln Page Tournament. A total of 273 teams almost exclusively from Eastern New York are set to participate in the 2016 event, which has as many as four flights per age group in the younger divisions.

Oakwood Premier Invitational (OPI) Attending Teams | Schedule / Results | College Coaches May 27-30 Glastonbury, CT

Entering its 25th year of play, the Oakwood Premier Invitational is an annual destination for many of the top teams from throughout the Tri-State area and New England. Teams from around the host state of Connecticut, as well as Maine, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire and Vermont make up the 130-team field for the 2016 event, which combines college showcase action with excellent competition for the younger age groups.

Scarsdale Memorial Day Tournament Attending Teams | Schedule / Results May 28 Scarsdale, NY

The 16th edition of the Scarsdale Memorial Day Tournament is coming up this weekend on Saturday, May 28. The successful one-day event will host more than 175 teams ranging from the U-8 to U-14 age groups. The tournament field is predominantly local sides from around Eastern New York, in addition to others from New Jersey and Connecticut.

Voorhees Memorial Day Classic Attending Teams | Schedule / Results May 27-39 Voorhees, NJ

A total of 137 teams are set to compete in the Voorhees Memorial Day Classic, each playing a minimum of four games over the course of the weekend. The tournament field includes a wide range of New Jersey sides, in addition to others from New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. It is a boys and girls event with age groups spanning from U-8 to U-19.

SOMERSET — Nearly two years ago, hope for Somerset Christian College's future was literally floating away.

Floodwaters from Tropical Storm Irene had swamped the private college’s campus in the Zarephath section of Franklin Township. Fourteen feet of muddy water ruined 16,000 books in the school library and sent pieces of the campus floating down the nearby Delaware & Raritan Canal.

Though things looked dire, the college’s president, David Schroeder, vowed that the century-old school would not shut down.

"There was no way we would go out of business," Schroeder said.

Two years later, the school has a new name — Pillar College — along with a new campus in Somerset, a thriving site in Newark and ambitious plans to expand into other parts of New Jersey. School officials say the storm may have been one of the best things to ever happen to one of the state’s smallest colleges.

"It was a big blessing," Schroeder said. "It gives us a chance for a new start."

The college was founded in 1908 as Zarephath Bible Institute, a school to train missionaries, preachers and teachers. It was an outgrowth of Pillar of Fire International, an evangelical Christian church based on the old campus. It took its name from a description of God as a "pillar of fire to give them light" in the Bible’s Book of Exodus.

The school, which eventually was renamed Somerset Christian College, was headquartered on the church’s riverside property off Weston Canal Road in Zarephath, a few miles from what is now Route 287. In 2001, the state licensed the college to begin offering two-year associate degrees. Though it only had a few hundred students, five years later the college was approved to offer four-year degrees as it continued to expand its focus to nonreligious majors.

The Zarephath campus was nearly destroyed when Tropical Storm Floyd hit in 1999 and 8 feet of floodwater devastated several buildings. The property, which included church and college buildings, underwent a nearly $3 million renovation, school officials said. But when Tropical Storm Irene brought in even more water in 2011, the school’s president knew it was time to leave.

With no main campus and enrollment dropping, some said they doubted whether the school would survive.

B. Keith Brewer, a professor of biblical studies, had been with the school since the days it was known as Zarephath Bible Institute. As the 2011 floodwaters subsided, he said he saw the staff and the school’s leadership step up to rethink the college’s future.

"I also trusted in the providence of God to continue the important work of the college," Brewer said.

The college sent students to a temporary facility at a church in Warren County and to the school’s new satellite campus in an office building in Newark. The college gave half of the insurance money it got for its damaged campus to the Pillar of Fire church, which also needed to rebuild but lacked adequate flood insurance, the president said.

A new home

Then the college took the rest of the cash, along with donations from benefactors and some of its tuition revenue, and began looking for a new home, the president said. It settled on an office complex off Apgar Drive in Somerset, a few miles from its old campus.

The office space, which was transformed into classrooms and student lounges, opened this year. The college’s second campus in a building near the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark also expanded.

By the time Somerset Christian College renamed itself Pillar College in April, the school’s enrollment had bounced back to more than 450 students. School officials also were exploring finding dormitory space for students and opening additional locations in Rahway, Paterson, Phillipsburg, Rockaway and Passaic.

College officials said they do not expect to have difficulty finding students to fill new seats.

"There really seems to be a real desire for faith-based higher education," Schroeder said. "Part of it is just the lack of schools like us, particularly in New Jersey."

At the new Somerset campus, a large wooden cross stands in the student lounge where students hang out between classes. Classrooms, computer labs and offices line a brightly lit hallway in what once had been office space for an office supply company.

With no outdoor space at the new campus, students still go back to the college’s old campus in Zarephath to use the sports fields.

Freshman Faith Sanislo, 20, said she ended up at Pillar after an unhappy stint at Raritan Valley Community College.

"I told my parents how I felt, and my mother suggested that I look into Pillar. I decided to give it a try, and I fell in love with the school very quickly," said Sanislo, a business major from Somerset. "There is something about Pillar that you just do not experience anywhere else. You feel like you are part of a family.

"Everyone there wants to see you do your best and succeed," Sanislo said.

Many undergraduates say they ended up at the school through recommendations from their local churches. The college’s mission statement says it is "rooted in and committed to Christian faith and love." Students say religion does not dominate their courses, but faith has a prominent role.

"Most of us will start the class off with a prayer," said Josue Cruz, 23, a senior from New Brunswick majoring in psychology and counseling.

Cruz learned about the college through his church, enrolled and stuck with the school while it regrouped after the storm. He said there were mixed feelings among the students when the college decided to move to Somerset and change its name to Pillar. At a meeting where students voiced their concerns, Cruz said he advised his classmates the changes were for the best.

"Change may not be the easiest thing, but sometimes it’s necessary," said Cruz, president of the student government on the Somerset campus.

Though the school was founded to train ministers, religious training is now Pillar’s smallest division. Psychology, counseling and business administration and management are the school’s top majors. Tuition and fees for full-time students are about $17,000 a year. In the next three years, Pillar plans to add two undergraduate majors and two graduate programs, including a possible master’s in business administration degree, campus officials said.

Both the college and Pillar of Fire International long ago disavowed the church’s early ties to white supremacy, anti-Semitism and anti-Catholicism movements. Pillar now stresses its racial diversity and global focus when recruiting potential students, campus officials said.

The college is investing in a new bilingual program that allows students to earn an associate degree in classes taught in Spanish while taking noncredit classes to learn English.

Chinese students visit

The school also is developing relationships in China. During the summer, Pillar’s Somerset campus is hosting several sessions for Chinese students who are paying to come to New Jersey for multiweek English-language programs that include classes in American culture, baseball and learning how to cook a Thanksgiving dinner.

Meanwhile, a group of 22 Pillar students and professors is spending part of the summer in China teaching English to teenagers at a summer camp. Brewer, the biblical studies professor who also serves as head of the college’s global learning program said the U.S. students are taking Chinese-language courses, tai chi lessons and weekend trips around the country.

"A great time is being had by all and we expect this program to continue in the future as an annual event," Brewer said via e-mail from Jinhua in southeastern China.

Back home, Brewer said he sees a renewed spirit at the school.

"I am very excited about the future of Pillar College," Brewer said. "The new name will give us a broader connection with students beyond Somerset County."

With the school’s expansion continuing, Pillar College might consider applying to the state for university status one day, Schroeder said.

"That’s down the road a way," the school president said with a smile.

•

Going global: N.J. colleges step up efforts to attract more international students

• ACLU files lawsuit to block two NJ religious colleges from higher education bond money

FOLLOW THE STAR-LEDGER: TWITTER | FACEBOOK

If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation.

Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH) Somerset, an RWJBarnabas Health facility, is now accepting applications for its Healing Homes initiative which offers transitional housing for Somerset County individuals or families who have an illness that caused financial hardship and are unable to afford housing.

As part of RWJBarnabas Health’s Social Impact and Community Investment Practice, the hospital launched Healing Homes in 2019 with one home in Somerville and helped a family transition to permanent housing in 2021. A second home in Somerville was renovated by the hospital in 2022. Furnishings for the homes were generously donated by Acme Drapemaster Inc. and Flemington Department Store.

Applications for Healing Homes are accepted through March 15.

“At Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset, we understand that health care is more than just providing medical treatment within the walls of the hospital. Health outcomes are impacted by a variety of social and economic factors, including access to safe and affordable housing,” said Patrick Delaney, chief administrative officer, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset. “By providing a place to live and connecting them to community resources, Healing Homes helps individuals who are coping with an illness and facing financial challenges to improve their overall health and become financially independent.”

An assigned case manager will refer participants in Healing Homes to resources that are designed to help with their individually identified health issues as well as community resources that offer support for basic needs such as employment, transportation, social services and permanent housing.

The hospital’s two Healing Homes are two-bedroom ranch homes. One home is handicapped accessible. Each home is available to a single individual or a single family of no more than four.

To be considered for Healing Homes, participants must meet specific criteria for consideration, such as: have an illness that has caused financial hardship and makes them unable to afford housing and /or basic cost of living; have limited access to health care; are employed with a steady income but earn below the New Jersey Housing and Urban Development (HUD) income guidelines. Additionally, participants in Healing Homes must demonstrate a willingness to achieve the goals identified by the case manager in their individual progress plan to improve their circumstances.

Preference will be given to residents in the towns identified in the hospital’s Community Health Needs Assessment with a median household income below the Somerset County average (Bound Brook, South Bound Brook, North Plainfield, Somerset, Franklin and Manville).

RWJUH Somerset’s Healing Homes initiative is guided by a committee that includes representatives from the following organizations: Affinity Federal Credit Union, Bonnie Brae, Central Jersey Housing Resource Center, Pioneer Family Success Center, Greater Raritan Workforce Development Board, Habitat for Humanity, Safe and Sound, Somerset County Board of Social Services, Somerset County Community Development, Somerset County Health Department and Housing Authority, Somerset County Human Services, United Way’s Alice Project of Northern New Jersey and Zarephath Christian Church.

For more information about Healing Homes and an application, please visit www.rwjbh.org/somersethealinghomes or call RWJUH Somerset’s Community Health Department at (908) 685-2814.

If you are a resident of New Jersey, we take for granted how relatively easy it is to say some of the confusing town names that are around here, but just imagine living 3,000 miles away and trying to pronounce these...

Only True New Jersey Locals Can Pronounce These 10 Town Names

Don't call yourself a local unless you know how to pronounce these places.

Gallery Credit: Diana Tyler

Allamuchy

Looks may be deceiving, but Allamuchy is pronounced Al-uh-moochie. Not Al-la-mew-chie or Al-la-much-ee. It's the Native American name for "place in the hills."

Gloucester

Before you scratch your head too hard, it's Glaw-ster. Not Glow-ster, or Glow-cest-ter, or Glow-chester.

Diana Tyler

Absecon

This is a tough one. It's Ab-see-kin. Not Ab-se-con, named after the Native American word for bay.

Diana Tyler

Ewing

Named after Charles Ewing like You-wing. Not Ewing like Ew-wing.

Diana Tyler

Buena

Technically, the correct way to pronounce the word Buena is Bway-na. But the New Jersey town is pronounced Buh-you-nuh.

Diana Tyler

Moonachie

Okay, I've botched this one before. It's Moon-a-key, not Moon-a-chee, named after a Native American Chief.

Diana Tyler

Forked River

It's Fork-ed River, not forked river as in the past tense of fork.

Diana Tyler

Monmouth

Monmouth, known for Monmouth County, Monmouth Park etc, is named after Monmouthshire in Wales. It's pronounced Mon-muth, not Mon-mouth (and don't put too much emphasis on the N either).

Diana Tyler

Hopatcong

The town of Hopatcong is a Native American word for "stone over water." It's pronounced Ho-Pat-Kong.

Diana Tyler

Lenape

Lenape is a name of a High School and park in NJ. But it's actually named after the Native American Lenape tribe. It's pronounced Len-uh-pee.

That is exactly the mission that a few editors at OnlyInYourState recently set out to accomplish.

They just published a video that featured people from California attempting to pronounce some Jersey cities.

Get our free mobile app

In all fairness, they did pretty well with some and failed miserably at others. Take a look...

The 99 top paying jobs in New Jersey

How much do you make? These are the occupations in New Jersey with the highest median annual compensation. Source: Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2022

Canva/Townsquare Media

Top median salaries

Canva/Townsquare Media

Top median salaries

Canva/Townsquare Media

Top median salaries

Canva/Townsquare Media

Top median salaries

Canva/Townsquare Media

Top median salaries

Canva/Townsquare Media

Top median salaries

Pharmacies are often critical touch points for health care in the community, and pharmacists are among the most visible members of the health-care system. With this in mind, Michelle Chin made it her mission to get involved in service throughout her six years as a Pharm.D. student in St. John’s University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

Pharmacies are often critical touch points for health care in the community, and pharmacists are among the most visible members of the health-care system. With this in mind, Michelle Chin made it her mission to get involved in service throughout her six years as a Pharm.D. student in St. John’s University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

“When I started college, I wanted to make a positive change in myself and for others,” she explained. “At St. John’s, I learned about the importance of service and giving back, and over the past six years, I have become a new and stronger person as a result.”

Like many students, the native of Hillsborough, NJ, participated in University Service Day each year, and was involved in countless outreach activities in the community surrounding St. John’s Queens, NY, campus. She also lived St. John’s Vincentian mission in her home state, volunteering as a medical assistant at Zarephath Health Center, which provides free health care to the poor and uninsured in Somerset, NJ, and as a member of Somerset County’s Prescription Work Group, which hosts programs that educate the public on issues of prescription drug abuse and misuse.

“Pharmacists have to be engaged with members of the community,” she said. “That’s why altruism is an important characteristic of a good pharmacist. My service work allowed me to gain a better understanding of the needs of the communities I served, and to connect with people.”

As a student in the University’s rigorous Pharm.D. program, Michelle benefited from a diverse mix of classroom, laboratory, and abilities-based learning exercises, and the mentorship of world-class faculty, including Vibhuti Arya, Pharm.D., Clinical Professor, Clinical Health Professions.

“Naturally, Dr. Arya inspires her students to do their best, but she goes above and beyond her role as a pharmacist and professor to contribute great work to advance the profession,” she said. Dr. Arya is an active member of the American Pharmacists Association and was recently elected to the association’s Board of Trustees. “My long-term goal is not only to become a clinical professor, but also to become a leader in pharmacy, just as Dr. Arya has done.”

When she wasn’t in the classroom or volunteering her time in the community, Michelle gained valuable practical experience through a wide range of internships, including positions with the US Food and Drug Administration and Bristol Myers Squibb.

Over the summer of 2019, Michelle was also fortunate enough to land a coveted internship in the Global Quality Assurance Department of Celgene, a subsidiary of Bristol Myers Squibb. “I learned about the product development process and the importance of research and development in discovering and manufacturing new drugs,” she explained. “This experience was very special to me because it was my first one in a nontraditional pharmacy role.”

As Michelle is now set to start the next chapter of her life as a resident pharmacist at Walgreens in Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, she offered sage advice for students who will enter St. John’s this fall.

“Get involved on campus,” she said. “I was able to become very involved in campus activities and had the opportunity to experience virtually almost every aspect of University life. There is a sense of family in the community, regardless of your major. One of the best things about St. John’s is the friendly nature of students.”