Chef Ramon, Andy Falter and Paula Melvin from the Columbus Culinary Institute of the Bradford School visited the French classes last Thursday. Chef Ramon, with the assistance from student volunteers, made a dessert of Peach Melba (which we learned was originally named by legendary French chef Auguste Escoffier in honor of his girlfriend) using in-season pears instead of out-of-season peaches. Numerous alums have gone on to study the art of cooking at the Culinary Institute, including Audrianna Bast '11, Gabriella Bast '09, Thaddeus Kindall '06, Ian Richards '10, and Jacob Vasbinder '10. Pictured left are senior Sophia Nnadi and Chef Ramon.
 



St. Francis DeSales held its first annual Poetry Out Loud competition last Thursday. This is a national recitation competition supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and Poetry Foundation. Thirteen students competed in front of a panel of four judges. Our school wide contest winner was freshman Kathleen Cavanagh (pictured right) with the poem "You Charmed Me Not With That Fair Face" by John Dryden. She will move on to the state competition held at Ohio Dominican University on March 24.

DeSales sent five teams to the Ohio Mock Trial district competition held last Friday, February 3. All teams performed well, and one team advanced on to Regional competition to be held on February 24. This year's case is a motion to suppress evidence, and involves the question of whether or not a student's rights were violated when police used a warrantless search of cell phone records to track his movements. The following students won Outstanding Attorney awards: Jordan Noble, Nicolas Danner, Hershey Millner, and Jessica Johnson. We also had the following students named the Outstanding Witnesses of their trial: Rob Shields, Andrea Martinez and Nicolas Danner. Outstanding Attorneys and Witnesses pictured below left; pictured below right are other members of the Mock Trial team with legal adviser Rick Innis (former parent who has helped the SFDHS teams for many years) and Mock Trial adviser and Social Studies teacher Ruth Seggerson.














This past weekend students from the Performing Arts department earned top marks at the Ohio Music Education Association Solo and Ensemble Contest. Members of the instrumental program received two good ratings, one excellent rating and one superior rating, and members of the choral program received one good rating, four excellent ratings, and twelve superior ratings. Pictured below are members of the boys ensemble. 

SFDHS Sophomore
Ha Nguyen (pictured left) won a $1,000 scholarship from the Columbus Diocese Knights of Columbus to be applied toward tuition.