Francis Lewis High School
Francis Lewis High School (FLHS) is a public high school located in Fresh Meadows, Queens. Francis Lewis High School offers a number of special programs upon admission: Jacob K. Javits Law Institute (for law studies), the University Scholars Program (a highly selective program which gives its students an accelerated humanities program with a requirement of two foreign languages), and a Math and Science Research Program (advanced studies of math, science and statistics). A new program starting in 2009 is the forensic academy; it has caused a large amount of interest in the Intel Science Talent Search, with some student-created research projects including "Synthesis of Two New Alpha-Lactams" and "Suppression of Graft Versus Host Disease by Inhibition of Donor T-Cell Proliferation." The school has approximately a 91% attendance rate and 80.5% graduation rate.
Language studies
In keeping with the school's diversity, Francis Lewis offers a plethora of foreign languages: Hebrew, French, AP French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Latin, Modern Greek, Ancient Greek, Spanish, AP Spanish, AP Spanish literature, AP Japanese, and AP Chinese.
Honors Programs
In 1978, Francis Lewis High School was the first public high school to achieve certification to the International Baccalaureate[1][2] which supplemented the AP (Advanced Placement) courses by offering college credit for work done during high school (based on the final test score). Students may choose the full program to get a full years' college credit, or just courses of interest (for credit towards single college courses such as math or humanities). There are a few honors programs at Francis Lewis. They include: Math and Science Research, The University Scholars Program, and The Jacob Javits Institute for Law.
- Francis Lewis has over fifty clubs including a Glee club, an Anti Bullying club, a cooking club and various clubs dedicated to embracing the ethnic diversity of the student population.
- The Patriot, Francis Lewis High School's newspaper, at the time advised by Marci Finkelstein, was one of three schools in New York State to win a "First Place Award" in the American Scholastic Press Association's newspaper contest for 2008 (scoring 880 of 1000 possible points). The editors of the winning June 2008 issue were Daniel Bacharach, Ana Maria Blanco, and Trinel Torian.
- During the 2007-2008 school year, three students were named Siemens Westinghouse Math, Science and Technology Regional Finalists. Two students, Israt Ahmed and Cathy Xiao Zhou were named Intel ISEF finalists. These two have also placed third in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science & Technology.
- In the National Raiders Challenge in 2010, out of the 54 teams from 31 schools nationwide, Patriotettes won first in all five events [3]
The Cabinet
Previous principals of Francis Lewis include Vincent McGarrett, August Lodato, Edward Kramer, Melvin Serisky, Robert Burns, Catherine Kalina, and Jeffrey Scherr.
FLHS in the Public Eye
- In 2003, New York City artist Marshall Weber created a unique artists book by hand tearing a 1969 yearbook from Francis Lewis High School and collaging it into a vintage stamp album. Titled Souvenir the book was so popular that the Brooklyn Artists Alliance [3] published a limited edition version in 2004.
- In April 2007, NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein visited Francis Lewis to view the new science labs installed in 2005. He was greeted by the Boy's Step Team (Nu Gamma Psi) as well as Honors Orchestra.
- In January 2011, NYC Schools Chancellor Cathie Black visited Francis Lewis and met with select students in the Principal's Office.
- In April 2011, on his first day in office, NYC Schools Chancellor and FLHS Alumnus Dennis Walcott visited and toured Francis Lewis, leading the school in the Pledge of Allegiance and walking through his old hallways.
- In an episode of Seinfeld The Muffin Tops, George's replacement for his job at the Yankees was an intern from Francis Lewis named Keith.
Notable alumni
- Rick Elice (1973) - actor, writer, and co-writer of the book for Jersey Boys, he was nominated for a Tony Award in 2006 for Best Musical.
- Francheska Gomez (2008) - actress. Played Dora the Explorer in Nickelodeon's Storytime Live! tour. Plays Miss Verano on Sabado Gigante.
- Angelo J. Guglielmo, Jr. (1981) - Director/Writer/Producer of the internationally acclaimed, Peabody-Award finalist 9/11 documentary, The Heart of Steel.
- Peter Guttman (1972) - Travel journalist, lecturer, and author of five books about travel adventures, two time Lowell Thomas Travel Journalist of the Year Award winner
- Deborah Holdstein - Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Columbia College Chicago and Editor of the journal, College Composition and Communication (CCC).
- Mike Jorgensen 1973 Gold Glove winner, played for New York Mets, Montreal Expos, Oakland Athletics, Texas Rangers, Atlanta Braves, St. Louis Cardinals. Manager of St. Louis Cardinals in 1995.
- Alan P. Krasnoff - Mayor of Chesapeake, Virginia
- Ron Shandler - founder of the Baseball HQ website and the first person to apply sabermetrics to fantasy baseball. Author of yearly "Ron Shandler's Baseball Forecaster"
- Jonathan Pontell - Emmy, Golden Globe, and George Foster Peabody Award winning television director, producer and editor.
- James Văn Thạch - First Vietnamese American military adviser to the Iraqi Army. Only US servicemember to be awarded the rank of Honorary Brigadier General in the Iraqi Army. [4][5]
- Dennis Walcott - Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education.
- Chris Welty (1981) - computer scientist known for his work in the semantic web.
References
Gregory Foster (Class of 1968) NYC Police Officer along with Police officer Laurie ( Foster and Laurie) Assassinated by members of the BLA in 1972 on a patrol beat in the 9th Pct.
ref. NYC Police Dept
External links