FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM SEPTEMBER 21, 2017 • THE QUEENS COURIER 25
ADVERTORIAL
All Are Welcome
On Saturday, October 14th, St. Francis
Prep will host its annual Open House
for prospective students and their
families. This year promises to be just as
informative and exciting as years past.
One of the most important parts of the
Prep community is its extraordinary sense
of family and belonging. Over the last few
years, we have adopted the saying, “high
school is four years, Prep is forever.” In
addition to an incredibly rigorous, fluid,
and vibrant academic program, there
are countless clubs and activities that
students can join. These include ethnic
clubs that celebrate students’ heritages,
to special interest clubs like the Snow
Club, or Ultimate Frisbee Club, to
Faith Based Clubs, like the Franciscan
Youth Movement. All these clubs and
activities will be represented at Open
House by student participants and faculty
moderators.
Prep has a storied Athletics legacy,
including traditional sports like football
and basketball, as well as unique sports
and competitive activities such as Rugby
and Dance. One of the “golden links” of a
Franciscan education is the Physical, and
our inclusive and supportive programs
allow students to develop physically,
as well as grow in their sense of selfesteem,
teamwork, discipline, and respect.
Thanks to the support of the Franciscan
Brothers of Brooklyn and our Alumni,
we are able to offer the Prep community
our unmatched, state-of-the-art Fitness
Training Center.
Winston Churchill, when asked about
cutting arts funding in favour of the
war effort, simply replied “then what are
we fighting for?” The Arts at Prep are
second to none. Our Art Department
students have been recognized by having
their award winning work displayed
at significant venues such as The
Metropolitan Museum of Art through the
auspices of The Scholastic Art and Writing
Awards, and at the White House, through
the Congressional Art Competition.
Most recently, our entire Art program
earned the Middle States Association
of Colleges and Schools Program of
Distinction in Art. The process included
a lengthy and collaborative self-study,
culminating in an on-site visit by
nationally recognized Art educators.
There are only a handful of schools in the
world who have earned this distinction.
Our Music Department was the first
program ever to be recognized by Middle
States by earning their Music Credential
(now called Program of Distinction),
which is aimed at recognizing only those
schools with the most sophisticated
programs and the highest goals in music
education. Our elite ensembles followed
up their 2014 tour of London by touring
Italy during the summer of 2016,
including visits to Rome, and the home
of Francis, our patron saint, Assisi. We
will be returning to England, including
Oxford and Cambridge, during the
summer of 2018.
Prep anticipates construction of
the second of three stages of our new
Music facilities to begin this year. This
will include an orchestra rehearsal
room, orchestra storage room, chorus
room, and faculty office. Last year, the
first of three phases opened, including
a small rehearsal space, and a dedicated
percussion room, with new equipment
including two 5-octave marimbas. There
is also a suite of seven Wenger SoundLok
Sound Isolation Rooms of various sizes.
Four of these rooms are equipped with
VAE technology which, according to
Wenger, will put Prep’s Music program at
the forefront with the latest state-of-theart
music practice technology. There is
also a dedicated classroom for our more
advanced electives. The final stage will
ultimately include a new band room and
storage, and Electronic Music studio.
Academically, Prep has an extraordinary
array of electives, Honors, and Advanced
Placement classes in every subject area.
This is supported by a firm grounding in
a core curriculum that prepares students
for both college and their adult lives as
stewards of their society. Last year alone,
Prep students earned well over $150
million in merit scholarships to colleges
and universities all over our nation and
in many foreign countries. Colleges that
welcomed Prep alumni this fall include
the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical
Enginnering, Cornell University, CUNY
Macaulay Honors College, Barnard
College at Columbia University, William
and Mary, and the Juilliard School. Prep
even hosted thirteen on-site visits by
colleges this year, where students earned
$18 million in scholarship for their
freshman year alone.
Middle States has also recognized our
Guidance department, as they earned the
Association’s Program of Distinction in
School Counseling Services. That makes
Prep one of only a very few schools who
currently hold three of these recognitions.
Prep President, Brother Leonard
Conway, O.S.F., has been committed to
ensuring Prep is able to offer state-of-the
art facilities and resources for all of our
students. This has included a complete
upgrade of our infrastructure, including
our HVAC and PA systems, an Art
Education Center, an Athletic Center, and
collegiate quality, unrivaled Science Labs
with full Smart technology integration,
including Digital Microscopes, and
Vernier Lab Quest interface systems.
Faith is at the center of all that we do.
Although our student body is 75% Catholic,
we witness the charism of St. Francis
in that all students and their families
are welcome. Students from a myriad of
faiths and cultures attend Prep, and all our
students learn the importance of giving
back to society, helping those in need,
and as Pope Francis has esposued, caring
for creation. Prep is the only high school
in the Brooklyn-Queens Diocese to have
a full-time chaplain, and we have a well
organized and energetic Campus Ministry
team that offer service opportunities here
in New York and abroad.
St. Francis said, “Start by doing what’s
necessary; then do what’s possible; and
suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
Prep has been doing what’s necessary for
countless generations of young people
for going on 159 years, and as such,
has allowed our students and alumni to
achieve the impossible.
Please join us on Saturday, October
14th, 2017, beginning at 12 Noon for our
Open House.
For more information, please contact:
The Admissions Office at the Prep at
(718) 423-8810, x229,
or admissions@sfponline.org
St. Francis Prep is located at 6100
Francis Lewis Boulevard
in Fresh Meadows.
One of our new, state-of-the-art Science Labs at St. Francis Prep
Students, faculty, parents, alumni, and parishioners from American Martyrs Church in Bayside at the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi