All are welcomed to attend St. Francis Prep’s annual open house for prospective students and families at noon on Saturday, Oct. 19.
There will be auditorium and departmental classroom presentations. Attendees will be able to experience the school’s new facilities, and tours will be led by students every 10 minutes. There will also be a financial aid room for families to explore options that will assist them in attending St. Francis Prep, located at 6100 Francis Lewis Blvd., in Fresh Meadows.
Aside from a rigorous and fluid academic program at St. Francis Prep, there are countless clubs and activities students can join. These include ethnic clubs that celebrate students’ heritages, to special interest clubs like the Snow Club, or Ultimate Frisbee and Video Game Club, to faith-based clubs like the Franciscan Youth Movement.
All of these activities will be represented at the open house by student participants and faculty moderators.
St. Francis Prep also has a storied Athletics legacy, including traditional sports like football, 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 Prep’s inclusive and supportive programs allow students to develop physically, as well as grow in their sense of self-esteem, teamwork, discipline and healthy competition.
Prep’s 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. Recently, the school’s 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. Prep is only one of two schools in the world that holds this distinction.
Additionally, its music department was the first program ever to be recognized by Middle States by earning their Program of Distinction in Music, which is aimed at recognizing only those schools with the most sophisticated programs and the highest goals in music education. Their elite ensembles followed up their 2016 tour of Rome and Assisi, with a 2018 tour of England, including Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon, Canterbury, and London. This summer, the students will be traveling to France, including Paris and Normandy.
Current construction includes an orchestra rehearsal room, orchestra storage room, chorus room and faculty office. Recently, the first of three phases opening, including a small rehearsal space, and a dedicated percussion room, with new equipment. There is also a suite of seven Wenger SoundLok Sound Isolation Rooms of various sizes. There is also a dedicated classroom for advanced electives. The final stage of construction will 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, which 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 nearly $170 million in merit scholarships to colleges and universities all around the world. Colleges that welcomed Prep alumni this fall include Brown University, Cornell University, Tufts University, Amherst College, New York University, the Sophie Davis School, The Cooper Union and McCaulay Honors College. Seventeen institutions offered onsite interviews through the course of the school year, which alone resulted in nearly $18 million in freshman year scholarships. Middle States has also recognized Prep’s Guidance department, as they earned the Association’s Program of Distinction in School Counseling Services. That makes Prep one of only three schools worldwide who currently hold three of those recognitions.
St. Francis 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 students — a complete upgrade of infrastructures, including HVAC and PA systems, an Art Education Center, Athletic Center, collegiate quality, Science Labs with full Smart technology integration, including Digital Microscopes, and Vernier Lab Quest interface systems.
This year, Prep received a $100,000 grant from NewYork Presbyterian-Queens, for its award-winning Science Department to be equipped with an Anatomage Table — the world’s first virtual dissection table that provides hands-on visualization tool for students in anatomy and biology courses. Students will be able to see the interior of the human body and
perform “operations” on over 1,000 virtual cadavers.
Students from a myriad of faiths and cultures attend Prep, and all of its students learn the importance of giving back to society, helping those in need, and caring for creation. Prep is the only high school in the Brooklyn-Queens Diocese to have a full-time chaplain, and a well organized and energetic Campus Ministry team that offer service opportunities in New York and abroad.
For more information on St. Francis Prep’s Open House, contact: The Admissions Office at the Prep at 718-423-8810, x229, or
admissions@sfponline.org, or register at https://sfponline.org/AdmissionsVisit.asp
