SAINT ANTHONY'S HIGH SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT ALUMNI ...

Six Saint Anthony’s seniors have recently
completed science research papers and
have entered their work into two of the
most prestigious national science competi -
tions, the Siemens Competition in Math,
Science and Technology and the Intel
Science Talent Search under the guidance
of Mr. Paul Paino, the director of the
newly formed Saint Anthony’s Research
Program, Friarquest.
The team of Satya Makadia, Michael
Ravella and Greg Reardon worked in the
physics laboratories of SUNY Stony Brook
and under the guidance of Dr. Thomas
1 2 F R I A R F O C U S 0 2 / 2 0 1 2
Hemnick and Dr. Andre Lipski. While their
ultimate goal was to reduce a sample
of wood from a tree to pure carbon and
bombard it with sub-atomic particles in
an attempt to determine its age, they had
to settle for a sample of carbon dioxide due
to time constraints. Their paper describing
accel erator mass spectrometry, a novel
method for carbon-14 dating, was entered
into the 2011 Siemens Competition.
In addition to Eric Caliendo’s work, two
other seniors chose to study human
behavior. Danielle Citera studied the effects
of pet-therapy on nursing home patients in
various stages of decline. She observed their
Senior Eric Caliendo was named a National
Semifinalist in the prestigious Intel Science
Talent Search. Eric was one of only three
hundred students in the nation who
qualified for this award. As a semifinalist,
Eric has won a $1,000 scholarship, and
Saint Anthony’s High School will receive
a $1,000 award which will be put towards
the Saint Anthony’s Research Program.
Eric’s research focused on finding a
correlation between the ability to recognize
and recall information using both auditory
and visual stimuli. He is now a candidate for
the National Finals, which will be announced
this month and has a chance to win the
$100,000 top prize.
Congratulations to Eric and his teacher,
Mr. Paul Paino, on this most impressive
achievement. Eric is the first Saint Anthony’s
student since Amit Mehta received the
same distinction in 2005.
behavior before and after exposure to
pets and concluded that the pets had a
significant positive impact on the mood
and overall physical and emotional well
being of the patients. Alexa DeAngelis
compared musicians to non-musicians,
including both genders, and discovered
that there may be a connection between
the ability to memorize two-dimensional
spatial patterns and the degree of musical
training in an adolescent population of
males and females. Danielle and Alexa
entered their individual papers into the
2011-2012 Intel Science Talent Search.