Francis Lewis High School

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Francis Lewis High School
Location
Fresh Meadows, New York, USA
Information
Type Public
Established 1960 - first graduating class 1963
Status Open
Principal Musa Ali Shama
Grades 9 to 12
Number of students Approx. 4200
Color(s) Red     , Black     , and White     
Athletics 30 sports
Mascot Patriots
Nickname Franny Lew
Website francislewishs.org
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Francis Lewis High School (FLHS) is a public high school located in Fresh Meadows, Queens. It 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). In 1994, the US Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program was established in the school.[1] The school has approximately a 91% attendance rate and 85.5% graduation rate.

Contents

Language studies [edit]

In keeping with the school's diversity, Francis Lewis offers a plethora of foreign languages: Hebrew, French, AP French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, Latin, Modern Greek, Ancient Greek, Spanish, AP Spanish, AP Spanish literature, AP Japanese, and AP Chinese.

Honors Programs [edit]

In 1978, Francis Lewis High School was the first public high school to achieve certification to the International Baccalaureate[2][3] 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 simply 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, The Jacob Javits Institute for Law, and the Gateway Honors Program. The Science Research Program has garnered various Siemens Competition and Intel Science Talent Search finalists.[4][5][6]

JROTC [edit]

In 1994, the US Army Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) program was established in the school by Retired First Sergeant Richard Gogarty.[7] It is the largest in the nation, with more than 800 cadets of the 1,725 high school chapters in the country.[8] There are six JROTC teams, Academic, Choir, Drum Corps, Honor Guard and Raiders. Three teams compete: Academic, Drill Team (Unarmed- Patriot Pride, Armed- Patriot Guard) and Raiders (female- Patriot Strength, male- Patriot Force).[9] The Patriot Guard were national champions in 2007,[10] 2009,[11] and placed second in 2012. The Patriot Pride came in second in 2006, 2008 and 2009.[12] The female Raiders have been national championships for four consecutive years; their most recent national win was in 2012.[13] The male Raiders' most recent first place win was in 2011, having come in third in the 2012 Nationals.[14] The battalion is an honor unit with distinction, and is considered one of the best and well-known US Army JROTC units in the nation.[15]

Notable alumni [edit]

  • Steve Dorff (1968) - composer/music producer
  • Rick Elice (1973) - actor, writer
  • Steve Greenberg (1978) - record producer, former President of Columbia Records
  • Peter Guttman (1972) - Travel journalist, lecturer, and author
  • Heejun Han (2007) - Finalist on American Idol, Season 11
  • Mike Jorgensen (1973) - baseball player, manager
  • Jonathan Pontell - television director, producer and editor.
  • Ron Shandler (1974) - national baseball analyst, author of Baseball Forecaster, founder of BaseballHQ.com, columnist for USA Today.
  • Captain James Văn Thạch (1994) - 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. [3][4]
  • Dennis Walcott - Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education
  • Chris Welty (1981) - computer scientist

References [edit]

  1. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/education/20oneducation.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ http://www.timesledger.com/stories/2010/45/fm_siemens_winners_20101104.html
  5. ^ http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/francis_lewis_hs_team_takes_rd_in_NrTEGVoJVFzzleKXyGCcOO
  6. ^ http://nycprivateschoolsblog.com/scholarships-2/2012-semifinalists-and-regional-finalists-announced-in-the-siemens-competition/10/21/2012/
  7. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/education/20oneducation.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
  8. ^ http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/162143/queens-junior-rotc-cadets-put-discipline-on-display
  9. ^ http://www.flhspatriotbattalion.com/index.html
  10. ^ http://www.thenationals.net/dt-past_champs.htm
  11. ^ http://www.thenationals.net/dt-results-2009M.pdf
  12. ^ http://www.thenationals.net/dt-results-2009M.pdf
  13. ^ http://www.thenationals.net/raider-results-female-all.pdf
  14. ^ http://www.thenationals.net/raider-results-male-all.pdf
  15. ^ http://www.qchron.com/editions/north/francis-lewis-hs-jrotc-is-perfection/article_82d2edf1-10aa-58b6-a797-99ecb0f63671.html

External links [edit]

Coordinates: 40°44′27″N 73°47′38″W / 40.74083°N 73.79389°W / 40.74083; -73.79389

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