From the desk of Mr. McLaughlin:

Merry Christmas!

On Friday, December 20^th, every student attended Mass in our auditorium and the SFP Christmas Spectacular in the gym. It was a day filled with prayer, song, dancing, enthusiasm, fun, and, of course, SFP Spirit. The SFP culture was alive and well! I thank the faculty, staff, and our Campus Ministers for organizing and planning a truly memorable day for our students. Throughout the month of December, our entire school community engaged in our traditional Christmas traditions:

• The Blessing and Lighting of the Christmas Tree
• Prep The Halls
• Fall Play: Shrek
• Pep Rally
• Terrier Madness Basketball game featuring our Women’s and Men’s Teams
• Day of Reconciliation
• Project Joy
• Two Christmas Concerts
• Christmas Party for our Friends with Special Needs
• Christmas visitation and dinner at the Presentation Soup Kitchen

I am so proud of all the great work happening at SFP this past December and all year round and the giving spirit of our students, faculty, and staff.

Mr. McLaughlin

From the desk of Mr. Castellano

COURSE SELECTION

During the first week of January, we will begin the process of course selection for the 2020-2021 school year. Students will attend assemblies to hear about the process, and guidance counselors will visit a class on every level to discuss course selection. Students will have until 6 February to discuss courses with teachers, counselors, and parents and guardians: all course selection must be completed by 6 February. Please encourage your child to take full advantage of this time in order to make the best choices for the next school year. We make some changes in June, but many classes close and are not available; changes cost $50. Students are best served to make wise choices now. The entire course book is posted on the school web site.

Students may choose to take an extra credit or an H period class if they are in good academic standing and have good attendance and punctuality. There is no application form. Students who do not meet the criteria for H period or extra credits will be removed from these extra classes.

Pre-registration for certain classes will begin on Sunday, 2 February. There will be information about pre-registration on the web site, and students will get more information at assemblies and during class visits.

We encourage students to take the most appropriately challenging classes for which they are eligible. This selection is unique for each student. Please encourage your child to speak with his or her teachers and guidance counselor to make the best decision. Each department has its own criteria for honors and A.P. classes and its own process for receiving approval. Classrooms teachers are the best source of information about how to proceed.

Once your child has selected and submitted the choices for classes, we will send an e-mail home with the classes he or she chose. Thank you for your guidance with this process and for encouraging your child to meet with counselors and keep with all deadlines.

Please contact your child’s guidance counselor or Mr. Castellano (ext. 209) with questions about course selection.

PSAT RESULTS and PREPARING FOR THE SAT

Our sophomore and junior students took the PSAT in October. The PSAT is a practice test for the SAT, a major college admission test. About 2% of the students in the nation receive recognition from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation based on their PSAT results. Each year, we have about 10 students who are so recognized. For the vast majority of students, however, the PSAT serves as practice and preparation for the SAT. PSAT scores are not seen by colleges and do not influence college acceptance.

Students have received an e-mail from the College Board (the organization that oversees the PSAT) saying that their scores are now available on-line. During the week of 16 December, we distributed score reports and the test booklets to students in Cor. We have sent an e-mail to the parents and guardians of all sophomores and juniors with information about how to understand the results, interpret the score report, and prepare for the SAT.

All juniors should take the SAT or the ACT (another major college admission test) sometime in the Spring semester. Colleges accept either SAT or ACT scores for applications. SAT and ACT scores are important because they influence college acceptance and can qualify students for various scholarships. Juniors should discuss the timing of their test with their parents and guardians and their guidance counselors. We strongly recommend that all students do some type of explicit test preparation.

Sophomores will take the PSAT again in the Fall of junior year. There is more information available on the College Board web site: www.collegeboard.org.

SAT REGISTRATION

The College Board offers the SAT at many locations on different dates throughout the Spring. Students may check this information at www.collegeboard.org. Registration is done through the College Board web site. This Spring, St. Francis Prep is offering the SAT on Saturday, 2 May. We encourage students who want to take the SAT at St. Francis Prep to register early: there are a limited number of seats available, and these seats fill up early. St. Francis Prep does not control who gets to take the test at the school. Please encourage your child to register early. Students should do explicit test preparation. We wish students all the best on this phase of college preparation.

Blessing and Ribbon Cutting of the Anatomage Lab

The official dedication of St. Francis Prep’s 3-D interactive Anatomage Table and Anatomy Lab took place on Friday, December 13. Thanks to the generosity of New York Presbyterian Hospital-Queens and Bob Blenderman, COO of the hospital and 1997 SFP graduate, we now have a state of the art virtual dissection table for our students studying Anatomy and Physiology and Biology. Thank You NYP-Queens, Bob Blenderman, and Jaclyn Mucaria, President of NYP-Queens!

CAMPUS MINISTRY

Sacraments Program – Sign Up by February 26

The Campus Ministry Team offers a sacramental preparation program for students interested in receiving the sacraments of Baptism, Holy Communion, or Confirmation. Names of interested students must be submitted to Fr. Ralph Edel, redel@sfponline.org, ext. 249, before Ash Wednesday, February 26, to be included in the class preparing for Confirmation on Sunday, May 17, 2020.

Art Department

A representative from NY Conservatory of Dramatic Arts based in NYC and LA, with notable faculty from the Film and Theater industry, attended our production of Shrek on Saturday, December 6th. The Conservatory is an accredited college program with notable alumni from film and Broadway. Representative Amanda Williams spoke with Ms. Donna Mejia, performing arts director, in length and expressed how impressed she was with the production and our students.

She awarded five $10,000 scholarships each to these students: Lauren Lodico, Patrick Christopher, Andrew Jean Pierre, Ciaran McAree, and Stephen Winley. The scholarship can be used for 6 college credits to any college they attend or toward their Summer Conservatory. They also offered 1,000 each to every cast member to attend their summer intensive program in film, theater, or musical theater.

National Art Honor Society

Christmas Party!

This month, the SFP National Art Honor Society hosted its annual Christmas Party! Young artists helped to decorate the Art department Christmas tree and make gingerbread houses. Students listened to Christmas music while sipping hot chocolate with marshmallows and eating delicious Christmas cookies. Art workshops at the party included a winter landscape paint night and holiday jewelry making. The Art department also welcomed Graphic Designer and alumni artist Danny Gonzales. Danny was gracious to visit our meeting to talk to our students about his career as an animator and graphic designer. Danny owns a firm called Perception Studios in Manhattan that focuses on futuristic user interface design and digital elements for movies. He spoke with students about getting into the design world and presented some of his firm's amazing work. Their projects include the futuristic gadgets in Iron Man 2, the Ford GT interface, elements of the Avengers, Civil War, and several other Marvel movies and work with companies like Microsoft and IBM. The SFP NAHS kicked off the Christmas season with an art explosion! The afternoon was great fun for everyone!

Digital Photography Builds A Camera Obscura

SFP Digital Photography class studied the history of photography and the evolution of the camera. They created and took photos using a shoe box! Students used pinhole cameras to take photos around Prep and developed them in an actual dark room. Mrs. Buccino’s digital photography students spent a week creating and developing photographs in a darkroom environment. Students had the opportunity to take the lesson a step further. They created an actual camera obscura and experienced being “inside” a camera. Images from outside Prep were projected on screen. Digital photography students experienced firsthand the tool that Renaissance painters used to create their masterpieces!

Brigid Coghlan is nominated as a finalist in the Drexel Photography Competition!

Students from SFP Digital photography class entered the Drexel Photography competition. The Art department is pleased to announce that Brigid Coghlan has been named as a finalist! Her photograph will be on exhibit at Drexel. More than 1600 photos were submitted by over 500 high school students in the United Stated. Brigid is an invaluable member of our Art student body. Her photographs are outstanding. The Art department would like to take this moment to recognize and congratulate Brigid on her outstanding photography achievement! Her photograph is on its way to Drexel for the student exhibition.

Special Needs Christmas Party

Every year Prep opens its doors to celebrate Christmas with those in our community with Special Needs.

Over 250 guests from homes throughout the city come to Prep to celebrate Christmas with over 200 volunteers from our Alumni, Parents Guild, faculty, clubs, teams, and students. Everyone enjoys performances from the SFP Chamber Orchestra, Dance Team, Step Squad, and cheerleaders.

Even Santa came, bringing gifts for all our guests.

Music Department

On December 13th and 14th, Prep's vaunted Music department present its annual Christmas Concerts. In all, over 600 Prep students in 11 ensembles performed. We also welcomed guest student-musicians from MS 74, IS 77, Our Lady of Hope Catholic Academy, Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Academy, and Holy Family Catholic Academy. Both nights saw capacity crowds and, as always, the performers did an exceptional job.

The Music department also collaborated with Campus Ministry in delivering Holiday Music Grams. Proceeds will go to, among other charities, Hour Children's House.

Coming up is our Concert for Beginning Students on Friday, January 17th at 7:30PM. In addition to all our beginner students, the performance will feature our String Orchestra and Junior Band. Ticket are $5 and will be available only at the door. We hope to see you there.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Music department!!!

Prep Celebrates Christmas at Presentation Soup Kitchen

Each week, students and faculty volunteer at Presentation Soup Kitchen. On December 12, SFP threw those guests a Christmas party. Students, faculty, and staff, cooked, decorated, and served over 200 people in need at the Soup Kitchen. The guests were so grateful not only for the meal, but the music, decorations, and holiday cheer that Prep showed them.

Model UN

The St. Francis Prep Model United Nations sent a delegation of 7 members to the Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School Model U.N. conference, MetMUNC. This conference hosted over 500 students from 20 different schools. Our delegates did an excellent job, with many attending their first conference. We want to recognize them. We congratulate our winners: Arjun Mishra Cor 111, who earned an Honorable Mention, and Henrik Israelian Cor 407, who earned Best Delegate in their committees.

Our Model UN welcomes new members. Come join us any Wednesday after school in W014.

Three students and members of our Model United Nations attended the YMGE Yale Model Government Europe conference in Lisbon, Portugal, over the Thanksgiving holiday break. Olivia Frantangelo '21, Steven Boehm '21, and Athanasi Dilos '20 all did a spectacular job and earned special recognitionwith an Honorable Mention and Best Delegate awards. They met students from all over the world. Olivia describes her experience as follows:

"Traveling to Lisbon with All-American Model UN was a truly amazing experience and reminded me exactly why I joined Model UN: to learn more about the world and about the people in this world. My committee was CJEU (Court of Justice European Union);our topic was legal responsibility in the age of artificial intelligence. It was amazing to hear everyone’s different ideas and have a chair who was clearly very passionate about our topic. I have always wanted a career in law but was never sure what type of law. This conference has opened my eyes to a possible new career path in tech law specializing in artificial intelligence. However, my favorite thing about the conference was meeting people from around the world and getting to know them beyond committee. I got to collaborate with people from Ukraine, Israel, France, and many other countries and schools and talk to them about everything from the differences in our countries to the similarities in the TV shows we watch. Besides the conference, we got to experience the beautiful Portuguese culture. I loved everything from the music to the architecture and ceramic art. We also learned the rich history of the former but not well-known Portuguese empire on our tour on the first day.
-Olivia Frantangelo '21

Prep The Halls

Thanks to Mrs. Verdi and Mr. Ganci and their team of faculty and staff elves for prepping our halls for Christmas.

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