Bridget Gallegos, Jongha Park, Caleb Guthery,and Anthony Diaz enjoyed their first week back at Saint Bernard Prep / Joyce Nix
CULLMAN – While students are settling into residential life and classroom routines at Saint Bernard Prep School, the Class of 2018 is looking forward to marking history as the first graduating class with STEM endorsements.
STEM, an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, encompasses a vast array of subjects that fall into each of these academic disciplines. The many disciplines taught in this program impact every component of life in today’s world. Students leave St. Bernard ready to concentrate in areas such as aerospace engineering, astrophysics, astronomy, biochemistry, biomechanics, chemical engineering, chemistry, civil engineering, computer science, mathematical biology, nanotechnology, neurobiology, nuclear physics, physics and robotics, among many, many others.
According to Saint Bernard Prep School Headmaster, Dan Baillargeon, “Several students have already taken courses such as AP chemistry, AP physics, AP physics C, AP calculus I and II. These students will leave Saint Bernard with academic transcripts that will help them compete for significant scholarships at top tier universities around the country. A few of them have already been contacted by these universities to apply.”
Father Linus Klucsarits, OSB, has joined the administration of the school and now serves as assistant headmaster in charge of the middle school. “Middle school is a big step from elementary,” he said. “With a campus the size of St. Bernard, they will be moving from building to building for their assigned classes. It requires more maturity and I think they will enjoy the opportunities to explore band, choir, art and computers, to name a few. It will give them the ability to concentrate on the area they enjoy most.”
Baillargeon said the school welcomed 42 new students this year from many different places, including Alabama, Florida, Canada and Germany. He also reported that on the opening day of school, Saint Bernard Prep enrolled 184 students for the 2017-18 academic year.
“The students have settled into their class schedules and have started preparations for the activities provided by the Opening of School Field Day. Students are assigned to a “House System” which provides connections for the students so that they can make friendships across grade levels that will hopefully last their lifetime. Our own middle school students will be drafted into the Houses before they compete this Friday at Field Day,” Baillargeon said.
High School students completed class assignments over the summer which included readings in English, math, theology and the sciences. As the school bells rang for classes, and students found their seats, teachers requested the assignments and began classroom instruction.
Saint Bernard welcomed new faculty members to the roster this year. Sean Moriarty, a 2013 graduate from Saint Bernard Prep School, has joined the ranks of the faculty in the middle school and Rachel Henson has become a member of the faculty in the high school.
