There are a number of events coming up in May that I want to highlight because, as always, we do things a little bit differently at St. Francis School, and I want everyone to know what's going on all three Campuses as the year draws to an end.    

 

We just completed a number of the annual marquee events at the Preschool and Goshen Campus.  On Wednesday, April 30, the Preschool once again had its Preschool Derby and Grandparents' Day, in which students dress as jockeys and create "horses" and each class decorates a float.  The event begins with a parade, and then each of the classes "races" in several heats, but of course all the children are winners in these events!  We then adjourn to the classrooms for lunch provided by the parents.  At the Goshen Campus, we have the ever-popular Kindergarten Derby.  We started off the day in Middle School Morning Meeting and I asked the 8th graders who had been with us since kindergarten if they remembered and would share their horse names - they all did, of course!  The event began with a new entry this year: the JK Steamboat race.  Each member of the JK class created a steamboat with a string, and they raced to the finish line - I can assure you that the JKers were going faster than the Belle, too!  Then the 1st and 2nd grade's parade on wheels is next, with bikes, scooters, and roller skates decorated for the occasion.  Finally, we close with the main event, announced by famed track announcer Reed Gabhart, in which kindergarteners dress as jockeys and race their created stick horses in several heats - again, everyone's a winner. 

 

The Goshen and High School Campuses both have annual field day events.  Goshen's is "Blue-Red" day, an event that is held on one of the last days of the school year.  Students are assigned to Blue or Red teams in 3rd grade and begin competing in the series of field events.  The winning team is announced by the 8th grade team captains at the end of the day.  At the High School, Advisee Games are a half-day eventheld at the end of April at Seneca Park.  Following lunch, we hold a costume contest, won this year by the Butler Advisee with their "Looney Tunes" skit performance and costumes.  We then have a number of events, including a balloon toss, a wheelbarrow race, a three-legged race, a 50 yard dash, and a tug-o-war.  The winner receives the coveted Advisee Games Trophy, which the Advisor gets to keep in his/her room or office for a year.  This year's winner was the Butler Advisee Group.  Kudos to Coach Butler himself, the only adult to compete in the "fastest man at St. Francis" contest (the 50-yard dash) - and he actually placed 3rd!

 

The Goshen Campus and Downtown Campus both have a dance at the end of the year.  At Goshen, it's the 7th/8th Grade Formal, which this year will be held at Gingerwoods Reception Hall, kindly donated by parents Morton and Hope Boyd.  The kids get all decked out in formal wear and have a great time.  The 8th graders then come back to School after and have a Lock-In.  The High School has the all-school Prom, which this year will be held at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft (KMAC).  Prom is funded and organized by the senior class; juniors sell the tickets and get the ticket revenue, which will be a part of funding next year's Prom.  Attire for Prom runs the gamut, and tends to be more formal for seniors than underclassmen.  Some girls will dress in ball gowns; some will not.  Some boys will wear tuxedos; some will not.  Attire is really up to the attendees - however dressy they feel is appropriate is fine with us.

 

The Goshen and Downtown Campuses both also have an event for students to showcase their culminating projects.  The 8th Grade Capstone Showcase is during the day, and all 8th graders participate by making displays of their projects and being available to talk to any visitor who comes to their display.  8th graders spend the last month or so of their LA/SS classes working on their Capstone Projects, which involve a paper and often another demonstration or activity to demonstrate the project.  The Senior Project Showcase is an opportunity for all parents, students, and friends to visit a display the seniors set up about their Senior Projects, and talk to them about what they did.  Students at the High School write a Senior Project Proposal, which must be approved by the Senior Project Committee, in the spring of their junior year and request an advisor for the project.  They then do the bulk of their research in the summer before senior year, and come back in August with an annotated bibliography.  They spend the rest of the year completing the project and writing the paper, culminating with a presentation to a grading committee of three faculty/staff members in the spring.  Each project must include a research component, a written component, and a presentation component; students also earn process points for effectively meeting all the milestones in the project.  It should be noted that this is all done on top of a regular, and often very demanding, course load, as well as completing college applications.  This event is combined with the Art Show, which showcases the work of the Art, Advanced Art, Photography and Video classes.

 

The next big May events are Class Day at Goshen and Awards Day at the High School.  Class Day is an event primarily to present awards to the 8th grade class, but all the Middle School students attend, as well as the 8th grade parents.  All the major awards are given that day, and each student is also recognized by a personalized speech about them written by faculty and staff.  Awards Day at the High School is a student-faculty-staff-only event (parents are not invited, primarily due to space limitations).  Each department will give awards, some of which will be serious and some not-so-serious, and students of all grades can receive awards.  In addition, college book awards will be given for juniors.  Freshmen through juniors will be dismissed from school at noon this day (so they can start studying for exams, of course!).  Seniors will go on to the Senior Luncheon.

 

The Senior Luncheon is a very special High School event held after the Awards Day ceremony for all seniors and their parents.  This year the event will be held at the Brown Hotel.  At this event, we celebrate our seniors in a way that only St. Francis could do.  All students have a faculty or staff member speak about them to commemorate their time at St. Francis and who they have become.  Teachers and staff choose students they know particularly well and want to represent.

 

We finish up academics with another set of semester exams at the High School (the partner to semester exams in December).  Students generally take five exams over four days.       

 

Finally, let us not forget the most important events of the year:  Goshen Campus Graduation and Graduation.  Both ceremonies are strikingly similar, with the best part of each being the student speeches - any student who wishes to speak can do so.  In both cases, the students elect a faculty or staff member to speak to/for them as well.  At Goshen, all awards are presented at Class Day, whereas at the High School, five major awards are presented at Graduation.  We invite ALL St. Francis families to please join us at both of these joyous occasions:  Goshen Graduation is at the beautiful Goshen Campus outdoors (weather permitting) at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 29.  Graduation is Friday, May 30 at 4:00 p.m. at Actors Theatre of Louisville in the Pamela Brown Auditorium.  At the Goshen ceremony, 8th graders wear white dresses or coat and tie/suits; at the High School, graduates wear caps and gowns.  Both ceremonies beautifully demonstrate what makes St. Francis so special, as our students always capture the essence of St. Francis so perfectly.

 

Please do mark your calendars for these last two momentous occasions and join us at one or both Graduation ceremonies.  Thanks to all the members of the St. Francis community for a wonderful 2013-14 school year!

Highlights from the Downtown Campus

 

Nina Erbes '15 (pictured below left) and Tinsley Nugent '15 (pictured below center) have been accepted into the Governor's Scholars Program for this summer.  

 

St. Francis winners of the American Math Competition were Tinsley Nugent '15 (pictured above center) for 11th and 12th graders and Lucy Lv '16 (pictured above right) for 9th and 10th graders. 

 

Math League competition has wrapped up, following the fourth test last month.  The St. Francis team placed first in our district for the second year in a row!  Individual top-ten finishes include:

9th grade:    Andrew Swan (6th), Ethan Mackin (10th)

10th grade:  Lucy Lv (1st), Sam Borden (2nd), Gilman Bagga (4th)

11th grade:  Michelle Jones (2nd), Tinsley Nugent (8th)

12th grade:  Joe Harlan (1st), Olivia Beres (8th) 

 

Gilman Bagga '16 will be attending the Governor's School for the Arts (in drama) this summer.  In addition, he was one of 42 high school students nationwide selected to attend JCamp 2014.  Students representing 22 states, Washington D.C., Austria, and Costa Rica were selected by the Asian American Journalists Association to participate in this six-day multicultural journalism training program for high school students led by top professionals in the journalism industry.

 

Kinsey Morrison won the district-level Rotary Club Speech Contest.

Kinsey Morrison '14 has been named to the Kentucky All-Resilient Team, sponsored annually by the Kentucky National Guard to recognize up to 25 high school athletes who have shown resiliency. Kinsey also just won the district-level Rotary Club Speech Contest, next moving on to the state finals in May. 

 

 

Autumn Thompson '16 (above left) and Shelby Luby '17 (above right) represented St. Francis at the Green Spark Awards, a fundraiser for Project Warm.  Autumn and Shelby were chosen to attend due to their work with Project Warm through their St. Francis community service group.  We were told afterward that they were "wonderful ambassadors" for St. Francis!

 

Kinsey Morrison '14, Joe Harlan '14, Olivia Beres '14 and Gray Thurstone '14 were all recognized in the Business First's First Honors. Four students is more than any other Independent School this year.

 

 

For the first time ever in Wyvern history, we have three of the state's top-ranked tennis players in Eva Borders '18 (below left), Jamie Anderson '15 (above left) and Gray Thurstone '14 (above right).  Regional tennis competition begins next week and we look forward to seeing how these Wyverns fare! 

Gaby Melendez '16 (above right) will spend part of her summer with Habitat for Humanity International's "Learn and Build Experience".  She will help build a home in Wisconsin and learn more about the issues surrounding poverty housing.  

On May 6, 2014 St. Francis School is participating in the Community Foundation's  Give Local Louisville Campaign. You can participate in a number of ways, including going online and naming St. Francis in your giving.

Happenings at the 

Goshen Campus

Happenings at the 

Downtown Campus