Rosati-Kain High School Blog

R-K Alumna, Dr. Ingrid Taylor is featured on STLtoday.com: http://interact.stltoday.com/pr/non-profits/PR01251201148051. Congrats!

The roads may be awful, but R-K looks pretty in the snowy sunshine! Happy Snow Day to our students & teachers!

18 current R-K sophomores, juniors and seniors in R-K’s Advanced Placement Biology class travel to Chicago, IL on January 6, 2012. The group will tour the Field Museum, with a private, behind-the-scenes tour of the Zoology Department and visit Shedd Aquarium’s coral reef exhibit. 

AP Biology teacher Donna Scott: “This trip gives students insight into possible science careers and courses of study. The class is completing a unit on evolution, and the Field Museum’s exhibit on changes undergone by the earth and its inhabitants illustrates these shifts. The Shedd Aquarium’s coral reef exhibit provides an up-close look at the aquatic/marine biome.”

Principal Judy Mohan notes, “This trip highlights our faculty’s commitment to enriching students’ academic experience while strengthening our curriculum.”

Rosati-Kain offers 17 AP (advanced placement) and ACC (advanced college credit) courses to current students. In Advanced Placement (AP) courses, students have the opportunity to “test in” to higher level college prep classes. The Advanced College Credit (ACC): provide student with the opportunity to earn college credit through St. Louis University and the University of Missouri- St. Louis.

R-K alumna Emily Andrews, 1993, is named to the St. Louis Business Journal’s list of “40 under 40” for her work as executive director of the Missouri Gateway Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council. Look for a full profile of Emily’s work in the January 27, 2012 issue of the St. Louis Business Journal.

• See the St. Louis Business Journals’ List of “40 Under 40″ 

S. Mary Denis Curran, CSJ, longtime R-K faculty member passed away peacefully on December 23, 2011 after a brief illness. She was 84 years old.

S. Denis taught English at Rosati-Kain for 36 years (1957-1958 and 1973-2008). She was instrumental in developing the modular schedule and in introducing technology to the English department. Most R-K girls will remember the “Steps 2600” and “Steps 3200” programs, which were introduced to help students learn at their own pace. After her retirement in 2008, R-K named “Room 34” in her honor.

A lifelong Cardinals fan, S. Denis never lost hope for the 2011 team, although she often commented “I don’t know what LaRussa is thinking…” She followed every playoff game, loved the “Rally Squirrel” and was thrilled when the 2011 “Wild Cards” finally won the World Series title.

In a 2008 R-K Today interview, Sr. Denis was asked to name one of her favorite works of literature. She replied: “Russian Literature. I love Dostoyevsky’s depths of examining a person, and his attitude toward God. In The Brothers Karamazov, he writes ‘In the grammar of being, man is an adjective, not a noun.’ We are dependent on God for everything.”

Funeral arrangements are pending. Please visit http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/stltoday/ for the most current listing.

R-K alumnae and friends are invited to share their memories of S. Denis online at http://www.rosati-kain.org/alumnae/share-your-memories.php

With the holiday hustle and bustle approaching, don’t forget to make your tax-deductible donation to Rosati-Kain’s Annual Fund before December 31, 2011.  You can make your Annual fund donation online by visiting http://archstl.org/giving/online/recipients/rosati-kain-high-school.

For information on making your gift to the “Build the Dream…Live the Legacy” Capital Campaign, please call Toni  Ponder, Director of Development at 533-8513 x216 or email aponder@rosati-kain.org after January 2, 2011. (An online giving feature will be coming soon.)

Antonia (Maysey) Ponder, R-K class of 1993, accepted the position of Director of Development and is now working full-time on R-K’s campus. She can be reached at aponder@rosati-kain.org or (314) 533-8513, ext. 216.

“It is an exciting time to be so integrally involved in the Rosati-Kain community as we celebrate our Centennial year and are looking forward to expanding our facilities through our first Capital Campaign,” notes Ponder.  

After graduating from Rosati-Kain, Ponder attended Saint Louis University for both her undergraduate and law degrees.  She has previously been engaged as a corporate attorney in the St. Louis area and has served and advised many non-profit organizations.

“We are proud to welcome Toni back to R-K in a professional capacity,” notes current president, S. Joan Andert, SSND. “Her experience working in the Catholic fundraising community is a great asset to our development efforts and the ongoing Capital Campaign.”

Current UMSL junior and R-K alumna Rachel Hosna has been awarded UMSL’s College of Arts and Sciences research grant for her project, “Diversity of Galling Wasps across Eight Species of Quercus in Missouri.”

In an interview with the UMSL Daily, she describes her project: “I’m trying to find out what species of galling wasps occur on eight species of the most common oaks in Missouri. Galls are growths on plants which can occur on leaves, stems, etc. They are a result of wasps, in the case of oaks, that deposit their eggs in between the tissues of a growing leaf and through various pathways allocate plant resources to making these external structures that come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.” Congratulations to Rachel from the R-K community!

Read the full story at: http://blogs.umsl.edu/news/2011/12/02/gallingwasps

The R-K Voices’ caroling trip to City Hall is featured on Kevin Killeen’s Whole ‘nother Story — “Girls Choir Revives Tired City Hall Workers.” Listen to the full 2-minute story with interviews from City Hall employees at KMOX.com: http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2011/12/02/kevin-killeens-whole-nother-story-girls-choir-revives-tired-city-hall-workers/.

This morning the R-K Voices, under the direction of Luanne Murphy, recorded an arrangement of “Let there be Peace on Earth” for the Catholic Charities 100th Anniversary video. Both R-K and CC are celebrating their centennial anniversaries this year. The video will be shown at the November 19th Centennial Kickoff Gala at the Chase Park Plaza.

CC MISSION: Catholic Charities Archdiocese of Saint Louis is one of the largest private providers of social services in the state of Missouri. Organized as a federation, Catholic Charities is comprised of 8 agencies offering more than 100 programs to assist, on average, more than 150,000 poor and impoverished people annually. Race, creed and ethnic background play no role in determining who receives help from Catholic Charities. Need is the only criterion.