St. Francis GradNews Fall 04 - YourMembership.com

GradNews • 35Brother Ralph Clifford Way andThe Brother Ralph Clifford AuditoriumAn effort started by a recent Prep graduate resulted in the school’s section ofFrancis Lewis Boulevard being renamed in memory of Brother Ralph Clifford.Brother Ralph, a graduate of the Class of 1948, was the treasurer at the Prep from1967 until his passing in the fall of 2002 at the age of 72. He also had served asteacher and assistant principal.Anthony Amorese, Class of 2004, who initiated the idea of having the street renamed, along with Brother Ralph’ssister, Fran Recker, who has worked at St. Francis Prep for 15 years, unveiled the new street sign on Friday, June 18, 2004.Also, on November 7, 2004, as part of the AnnualAlumni Memorial Mass and Brunch event, the Prep willdedicate its auditorium to Brother Ralph as well. After the11:00 AM Mass that day "The Brother Ralph CliffordAuditorium" will be blessed, along with many newly donatedbricks for the special "Pathway to St. Francis" project.All are welcome!Science Research ProgramThe Science Research Program held its sixth symposium on June10, 2004. This annual event featured posters from the research program's78 participating students and also included 19 oral presentationsfrom seniors. The event was attended by approximately 300guests and included parents, mentoring scientists, administrators,teachers, students, and Science Research alumni.The evening began in the cafeteria with a poster session. Eachresearch student was responsible for creating a poster that detailedtheir project. Sophomore posters presented ideas and backgroundinformation on potential research questions the students intendedon investigating, while juniors had posters that included their twoyears of work. These posters highlighted a specific research questionwith a set methodology and preliminary data. Lastly, the seniorswere able to show their completed projects and highlight thesignificance of their discoveries.The poster session was followed by 17 senior oral presentationsthat ran in three concurrent sessions in the auditorium, library,and the large group instruction room. The presentations usedPower Point and ran approximately 10 minutes each, with 3 minutesallotted for questions at the completion of each talk. Guestswere permitted to change locations throughout the sessions. Theflexibility of the concurrent sessions allowed guests to choose theareas that thy;y were most interested in learning about.A second session highlighted the keynote speaker, Mr. MarkBlenner, Class of 2000. Mark just recently graduated fromManhattan College with qachelor of Science Degree in ChemicalEngineering, and will begin working on hictorate in ChemicalEngineering at Columbia University in September 2004. Mark wasa student in the first graduating class from the Science ResearchProgram, and is also the first graduate from the Science ResearchProgram to return to speak at the symposium. He delivered aninspirational address to the students in the program. The sessionalso included mock presentations by Michelle Bubnik and MarlenaLaszkowska, the two Intel Science Search semi-finalists. Michellewill be attend Queens College Honors Program on a ffill scholarship,and Marlena will be joining her sister Monika, who was alsoan Intel semifinalist in 2003, at Harvard University in the fall.The evening provided the students with a tremendous amountof well-deserved recognition. Besides the two Intel winners, theScience Research class of 2004 can boast 4 NYC Metro JuniorScience and Humanities Symposium semifinalists and IntelInternational Science and Engineering Fair semifinalists. Our currentstudents also had the opportu,nity to speak to many ScienceResearch alumni about continuing their research experiences intocollege. Two of our graduates, Renzo Lombardozzi and EvelynGordon, both from the Science Research class of 2003, recentlyhad their research papers published as part of articles in professionalscience journals. This is an outstanding accomplishment forthem, and a tremendous accolade for St. Francis Prep and theScience Research Program. We were also happy to welcome 44new students into the program, and the symposium gave them aglimpse of the accolades and accomplishments they could achievein three years. It was a wonderful evening for the science department,our students, and our school.