Brooklyn Education: P.S. 212 congratulates spelling bee winners

P.S. 212 congratulates its first Scripps National Spelling Bee school competition winners. The first, second and third place students will represent the school competing at the district level in January. What an exciting accomplishment for all of them!

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Fontbonne Hall Academy students who are participating in the Brown Pre-College Scholars Program in Engineering spent a day at Brown University. The students received a guided tour of the engineering facilities and watched a chemical and mechanical engineering demonstration. They sat in on an engineering class and even tried some practice problems. During a lunch with Brown students, they learned about the university and the application process.

Fontbonne currently offers the Brown Pre-College Scholars Program in Engineering to students in grades 10 through 12. It is a year-long online course of study taught by faculty from Brown University’s School of Engineering. The students are supervised by Fontbonne’s STEM Specialty Programs Coordinator Adam Segall.

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On November 18, Xaverian hosted its annual Spirit of Xaverian Gala at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City. The event drew over 300 attendees and honored the following individuals: Spirit of Xaverian Award Recipient Edward Gilligan ’77 (1959-2015), president of the American Express Company and member of Xaverian’s Board of Trustees, and Bernard McQuillan Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients James Leonard ‘76, chief of department, FDNY; Joseph Corrado ‘73, senior managing director, the Boston Company Asset Management, LLC; and Michael Mennella ‘64, executive vice president, Tishman Construction and member of Xaverian’s Board of Trustees.

Following a video tribute to Gilligan, his wife announced the establishment of a perpetual scholarship in his name at Xaverian.

The evening’s events were made special by the presence of student volunteers throughout the program. Guests were greeted by the students in the Pipe and Drum Corps and enjoyed music by the Jazz Band throughout cocktail hour.

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St. Edmund Preparatory High School students recently gave a concert under the supervision of Band Director Joseph Gucciardi. Since adding a curriculum for stringed instruments in 2015, SEP students have the opportunity to learn and perform music for the violin, viola, cello and double bass.

Performances included a violin and piano duo, wind trio, brass duet, clarinet quartet, brass and piano duo, and piano solos. Mr. Gucciardi, who was unable to find suitable music for the clarinet quartet in the standard literature, composed “Minuet in Common Time,” which the student played beautifully. The concert ended with thunderous applause and a standing ovation.