MEGHANN (PTW graduate) is entering her sophomore year at NYU, studying musical theatre. She currently performs with "Girls Next Door", an exclusive female vocal group that tours the Metropolitan Area.

"It defenitely prepared me for college. I think that it was just so exciting to have a bunch of people who had the same passion and desire I had for theatre and musical theatre. Everyone had so many strengths in so many different areas. When we did some of those shows, it just felt magical on stage when everyone came together and shared everything. It was really exciting.

We had one class every Saturday - song interpretation. I could go on and on about those things we learned in that class. I learned to appreciate a song and appreciate every lyric, and how important the lyrics really are. Not to take anything for granted when you are conveying a message through that song. That's probably one of the most important things I learned.

I made a lot of close friends. We all cared about each other. We all cared about our progress. I mean, we were all taking classes together and we all really were supporting each other, and hoping we all go better. And we all improved. I defenitely saw that as different from high school where everyone was really competitive."

PAT (Meghann's mother)

"We weren't sure what would be the best thing for Meghann. So basically I called Howard, we made an appointment, we came down, and explained what we were hoping for in terms of instruction. We asked for a lot of advice because Meghann knew she was interested in perhaps pursuing a career in musical theatre, but I knew nothing about it.

When I met Howard and Esther, I felt that they seemed to be concerned about kids and their development, and not only their professional goals. They were interested in providing a training program for kids, but they were also interested in how the kids would turn out. I liked hearing all of that, and I liked the fact that most of the kids who graduated from PTW went onto to college, which was important to me. I think it really exceeded our expectations.

It was for someone who was looking for an economy of time, which I was certainly doing. It was "one stop shopping" in many ways. Meghann had a very busy academic schedule. She really had to take a lot of difficult courses in high school. One thing that was very important with her academic schedule was that she would not have a dancing lesson on Monday night, and a piano lesson on Tuesday night, and some kind of voice lesson on Wednesday afternoon. I liked the idea that she could save all of this until Saturday. When I would pick Meghann up at 5:00 on Saturday, she was as energized as I'd ever seen her. I thought, "If she is like that after a full day of this, then I guess this is where she belongs because this is her happiest time."