To: Central
Administration and the Board of Education
From: Dr.
Frank J. Barone and Mr. Hakim Jones
Subject: Senior
Symposium
Date: March
17, 2008
On Wednesday, March 26, 2008, The RCS Senior High School
will be conducting a Senior Symposium for the Class of 2008. This is the first of what we hope will become
an annual event.
FAQ’s
1.
What is Senior
Symposium and how did it come about?
Shortly
after the Fall Sport PEP Rally, the high school’s Professional Study Group
met. During discussion, the notion was
brought up that while school’s commonly set aside half a day for sport rallies,
seldom is a day set aside for an Academic PEP Rally. From this grew, Senior Symposium.
The
theory behind Symposium is to expose seniors to information they will need
after graduation, but which is not a part of our everyday school
curriculum. We’ve set aside most of the
school day. Seniors have already signed
up to attend multiple seminars on a variety of subjects.
2.
What will the day look like?
The
day begins with a breakfast for seniors.
During breakfast, we have scheduled a motivational speaker, Sal Cannova, to get the day off on a positive note. Each student will have in hand, an individual
schedule for the day. After breakfast,
students will move to the sessions they signed up for.
After
attending up to four sessions, students will return to the cafeteria. A luncheon will be set up for them. Seniors will eat in two groups so that they
fit in the cafeteria. While half of the
students enjoy lunch, the other half will be working on a Graffiti Wall put
together by Karen Teale. The groups will
then switch off.
After
lunch everyone will go to the auditorium for a closing ceremony. Here we will give away prizes to students
donated by local businesses. Finally,
our Keynote Speaker, Mr. David Soares, Albany County
District Attorney, will address the students.
From here, students will be sent back to their last two class periods.
3.
What topics will be covered in the sessions?
Film
Production – Jonathan Donald, Local Film Producer
Pogoist
– Nick McClintock
Money
Management – Crystal Langdon
Car
Insurance – Rick Reith
Therapy
Dogs – Cydney Cross
Voter
Registration – SarahHafensteiner
Daily
Exercise – Mark Thurman
Homelessness
– Perry Jones
Healthy
Relationships – Amy Vincent
Creatures
nobody loves – Dean Davis
STD’s
– Maureen Murphy
Personal
Banking – Victoria Curtis and James Hartle
Massage
– John Tubbs and Anna Capone
Dress
for Success – Grant Randall
Peppertree
Dog Rescue – Karen Harmon
Keys
to Improving Self Image – Joe Pelizza
Scuba
– Kyle Kearney
4.
Wow, looks
like a lot of work went into putting this thing together. Who do we thank?
Members
of the Professional Study Group all participated in putting this together in
one way or another. In particular, we want
to thank:
Sue
Karmo, Karen Teale, and Kathy Whitcomb = Schedule
Karen
Teale and Gloria Foley = Committee Co-chairs
Frank
Barone = Breakfast, Lunch, Contributions, and Schedule
5.
Free
breakfast, free lunch, prizes and gifts!
Sounds expensive. Who’s paying
for all of this?
While
all of our presenters are donating their time, this is an expensive
proposition. NO SCHOOL MONEY is being
used to put this event on. Food, prizes,
gifts to students and presenters are all being made possible by donations from
local businesses. Among those
contributing are:
Lafarge
= monetary gift
Deli
Plus = Gift of Food
Roc
and Dom’s Pizza = Gift of Food
Price
Chopper = Gift of Food
Walmart
= Gift of Beverages and Snacks
Hillman’s
Garage = Prizes
Meuller’s
Automotive = Prizes
6.
Will this
become an annual event?
Short
answer is YES. Senior Symposium is
unique to RCS. If the event proves to be
a success, and if local business can be counted on to fund it, Senior Symposium
will become a regular part of our school year and will be an event that
students and staff will come to look forward to.