8 THE QUEENS COURIER • JUNE 4, 2020 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
St. Francis Prep seniors celebrate college
acceptance and merit scholarships
BY CARLOTTA MOHAMED
cmohamed@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
St. Francis Prep is celebrating the class
of 2020 as more than 600 seniors graduate
with prestigious college off ers and merit
scholarships.
Despite challenges set forth by the
coronavirus pandemic, St. Francis Prep
seniors have been attending classes and
events virtually, including their fi nal
senior assembly.
Th e school’s 162nd commencement ceremony
was scheduled to take place, as it has
for decades, on the fi rst Saturday of June.
Prep hopes to eventually have an in-person
ceremony, but there is no guarantee.
In recent weeks, Prep President Brother
Leonard Conway reached out to families
advising them that no student would
be asked to leave if their family was suffering
hardship due to the impact of the
pandemic. On May 5, Conway and Prep
launched the TerrierSTAR Program, or
Student Tuition Assistance & Relief, with
a heartfelt video plea.
Th e school, whose beginnings go back
to 1858, saw alumni start to reach out
to off er any assistance they could. One
alum was TV personality, Julie Chen,
from the class of 1987, who promised to
match every single donation made to the
TerrierSTAR fund.
Despite the current circumstances,
Prep’s seniors have established themselves
with the broad array of colleges they will
attend, along with a sheer amount of
scholarship money they have earned.
Prep seniors, who along with the entire
school community, have adopted the
phrase, “Terrier Tough,” have received
acceptances from among other schools
such as New York University, Cornell
University, Macaulay Honors College, the
Sophie Davis School, McGill University,
Dartmouth College, Villanova University
and Lafayette College, where a set of triplets
were all off ered a scholarship.
One student received a full, named
scholarship from Columbia University,
and fi ve students received full scholarships
from New York University. Th ree
female students will be attending West
Virginia University, Xavier University and
Howard University to play Division-I basketball,
all on a full scholarship.
As in past years, seniors had the opportunity
to have on-site interviews, which
always results in signifi cant scholarship
off ers. Currently, Prep’s College Offi ce is
preparing statistics on scholarships, and
even with institutions “on pause,” this
year’s senior class is well within reach of
previous year’s scholarship totals.
Th e average total merit scholarship total
for Prep seniors over the last fi ve years is
nearly $150 million. Robyn Armon, longtime
award winning director of College
Counseling at Prep, as well as the chair
of Guidance, credits her involvement as a
major reason Prep’s College Offi ce is able
to provide as much as they do to their students.
“If I won the lottery, I’d still do what I do,
and no diff erently. Changing the trajectory
of children’s lives is the most important
thing we can do,” said Armon, who is
a member of numerous national boards,
including the National Association for
College Admission Counseling, and is a
voting member of the College Board.
Armon cited Prep’s Senior College
Process Symposium as a major resource
for rising seniors.
Th e symposium addresses numerous
elements inherent to the college application
process, including the application
process, the college essay, scholarship
opportunities and new fi nancial aid
information, SUNY and CUNY applications,
the Common Application, and the
student resume.
St. Francis Prep is recognizing the need
for specialized attention for its current
junior class in the college process.
“SFP is focusing our time and energy
Photo courtesy of St. Francis Prep
on adapting to the changing landscape
with our only goal of supporting you as
we work together to navigate this process,”
Armon wrote to the junior class. “We are
here, and we are available to help!”
Prep’s Guidance Department has
been recognized with the Middle States
Association of Colleges and School’s
Program of Distinction in School
Counseling, aft er a self-study and visit by
multiple representatives from the Middle
States.
A major part of the Prep’s Guidance
department is college counseling. Prep
has traditionally boasted a college attendance
rate of over 99 percent, with the
remaining students enlisting in the country’s
armed forces, or entering the workforce
to save for college.
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8 8
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