Fontbonne senior does it all

Fontbonne Hall Academy senior Cathleen Giordano has a bright future ahead of her.

The 17-year-old Dyker Heights native plans on majoring in civil engineering when she enters college next fall. She discovered her love of the field when she participated in the ACE (Architecture, Construction, Engineering) Mentorship Program at URS Corporation, an engineering and construction firm, last year.

Every other Monday, Giordano was excused from classes to visit other engineering firms and take in informational presentations. Then, she worked on a virtual project, enhancing life on Roosevelt Island, including building a monorail to go along the island.

“I knew I would love it, but I didn’t know how much I would learn,” Giordano said of her experience, which included lessons from Manhattan College professors. “It was action-packed from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The coordinator treated us like his students; he was so supportive.”

Many of the presentations were from Turner Construction, where Giordano would like to work someday. Through this ACE program, she now has her “foot in the door.

“I like math and love physics,” she said, adding that females only make up a third of workers in the engineering field. She has her eye on Manhattan College, because “it’s a small school, but has a big name. That’s where I would like to go where I can.”

But Giordano’s world is not all numbers.

She enjoys musical theater and has appeared in many local productions, including those by put on by Narrows Community Theater, Xaverian Dramatics, Brooklyn One Youth Ensemble and the Ridge Choral. Giordano is also captain of the Step Team at Fontbonne, something she would like to continue in college.

During seventh and eighth grade she was part of the Diocesan Youth Choir, in which she sang to Pope Benedict when he departed from John F. Kennedy Airport. “It was the most interesting thing I was ever able to do,” Giordano said.

The talented teen is still close with the sisters at St. Bernadette, where she attended elementary school. “I like to hang out at the convent, just hanging and praying,” Giordano said, adding that she also enjoys leading overnight retreats at the Villa Walsh Academy in New Jersey.

Giordano is also the leader of the PASTE and GLUE youth prayer group, which stands for Play and Share Then Eat and God Loves Us Eternally, and is involved with a laundry list of extracurricular activities at Fontbonne.

“We reach out to girls having issues, maybe at home or maybe they are being bullied,” Giordano explained.