Perfectionist leads cub staff

When people are wrong, Heidi Gleit has something to say about it. Whether it's a high school English paper, or a study abroad program, the Penn Valley, Penn., native will not take things lying down. The confrontation with the English teacher occurred when Gleit was a sophomore at Lower Merion Township High School. It seems that Gleit came up with a conclusion for a paper, but her teacher didn't agree with it and wanted something completely different. "I didn't want to write that paper. I wrote on a different topic in the end," she said. But Gleit's mother Ruth remembers another part of the story. "We had to have a conference with the principal," she said. Another confrontation occurred when Gleit was in Israel, on a summer-abroad program through Hebrew University. While Gleit was there, she interned at the Jerusalem Post where she wrote an editorial "blasting Hebrew University's one-year program" -- the one she was still a part of. "It caused a lot of friction," she said. But, as her mother put it, Gleit "thinks that everything has to be done the right way, and if you don't agree, that's unfortunate, but it's going to be done." "She's very impatient with people doing things the wrong way," she added. But her roomate Tanya Thampi, a College junior, says the International Relations major is not that way at school. "She's pretty tolerant about everything here," Thampi said. "She's a nice, kind, caring person, jolly and laughing or else full of anger about some injustice." The caring side of Gleit's personality certainly comes through in her relationship with her family, and especially with the youngest of her three sibling, her sister Shoshana. "She's very much the older sister, especially with her younger sister [Shoshana]," Ruth Gleit said. "Her sister adores her. When Heidi moved out it was the most traumatic for her." "She calls me every night before I go to bed," Gleit said. And 10-year-old Shoshana was overflowing with praise for her sister. "She's very nice," Shoshana said. "We go to the park together. She's very caring, she takes care of me." And caring is what Gleit will need as she takes on the Herculean task of helping to oversee the new crop of general assignment reporters this coming year. The incoming associate/city editor will also be responsible for producing the daily wire page and coordinating city coverage. Mostly, Gleit will use her writing skills, which her mother says have always been there. "She's been writing since she could talk. Poetry, writing contests, whatever," Ruth Gleit said. And her dedication is noted at The Daily Pennsylvanian. "Her heart is truly in the paper," said DP incoming Executive Editor Stephen Glass. "She lives, sleeps and eats the DP. She has wanted so hard to succeed at the DP and has worked so hard to do so."

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