President Rev. Thomas Collins Officiates at Ceremony with Members of the Administration, Faculty, and Distinguished Guests Including White Plains Mayor Thomas
Stepinac High School today dedicated its new learning spaces designed to take Stepinac’s advanced personalized blending learning program to the next level.
Rev. Thomas Collins (Class of ’79), Stepinac President, officiated at a ribbon-cutting ceremony attended by members of Stepinac’s administration, faculty and distinguished guests including Thomas Roach, White Plains Mayor and Ken Jenkins, Westchester Deputy County Executive..
Father Collins stated that the latest innovations “once again firmly place Stepinac at the forefront of secondary education in preparing students to succeed in a globally competitive market,” adding: “We take enormous pride that Stepinac has become a standard bearer of curriculum innovation, one which we are always building on to meet the students’ educational needs and the ever demanding need for sophisticated problem-solving skills in a challenging and tech-driven world.”
He cited Stepinac’s prior major initiatives that have been recognized by educators across the nation and internationally. Among them have been the first-of-its-kind all-digital textbook library, the school’s blended curriculum, and the groundbreaking Honors Academy which has become a model for an effective small personal learning program for academically top-achieving students.
Modeled after Columbia University’s classrooms, the non-traditional, 21st century learning spaces “create a singular, one-of-a-kind learning experience for students,” noted Paul Carty, Principal, adding: “This advanced learning environment, unlike anything else in the region, prepares students for what they will expect when they go to college and into their chosen career or industry.”
Guests learned how the classrooms help improve academic performance in the school’s project-based learning environment by heightening interactivity between the student and instructor and between students themselves when they collaborate on problem-solving assignments.
The learning centers are equipped with numerous touch-interactive displays with high performance front-facing speakers, and numerous inputs for all video formats. They also provide built-in browser, white boarding, and wireless sharing without requiring a computer. The new software unleashes full potential of media-rich lesson planning. The new technology will also allow real-time access to subject matter experts and lecturers located around the world, brought live into the classroom via a state-of-the-art video conferencing capability. (This feature will also be used for students who are absent or on extended medical leave.)
The new learning centers will be a major highlight for parents and students who attend Stepinac’s Open House on Sunday, October 27 with presentations at 1 and 2 PM. For more information, visit www.Stepinac.org.
This article makes no mention of the architect who designed the space. You might consider this a minor omission but nobody contributed more to creating this new space than the architect – nobody thought through the needs of the client, the limitations of the existing conditions, the cost, the colors, the lighting, the acoustics, the layout, the experience of those who will use the space to teach and those who will learn here. This is no small oversight. You need to give credit to the one person who dedicated countless hours to turn the school’s dream into built reality.
Thank you friend, Morrison. In addition to our firm there was the staff of Stepinac including Patricia, Joe, Frank and other contractors and consultants contributing their efforts including Scully Construction, Healy Electric and Tom of Cisco for IT to develop the ideas and make it happen. It was a collaborative effort which is analogous to how the students will be using the classroom.