The Cardinal A PUBLICATION OF LA SALLE ACADEMY, NYC

Volume 2013, Number 5 March 31, 2013

By Kenneth Brewer

The month of March was a great success. As you all know in March, we had our St. Patrick's Day Parade; and let me tell you, if you weren't there, you truly missed out because it was a day that you don't want to ever forget. La Salle Academy has a history of marching in the St. Pats Parade, and for the past 15 years we have not had the honor in March. However, in 2013 honor was restored and La Salle Academy's name was brought to life as the La Salle men lit up the parade route. People from across the city, across the world, knew the name of La Salle and our spirit was in place with our students and faculty. As your president and as your banner carrier, I will personally tell you that it was no 'walk the park', it was an extremely cold morning. However, with the spirit of Saint Patrick and the spirit of our great St. John the Baptist de LaSalle, our students had the courage to wait two hours until the parade actually started and walk the entire route. For those students who walked on that day, I want to take the time to thank you for your efforts. It truly means a lot. With that being said, our principal will be giving us another Friday off in the month of May.

I hope you all had a very restful Easter and a great spring break. The fourth quarter is upon us and we have to start and end strong. The month of April have some very key events like to sophomoric treat and the senior mass at the end of April. The senior mass will be hosted in St. Patrick's Cathedral on April 24. For all seniors, this mass will be unlike any other. I say that for reasons because there'll be over 2000 students in the chapel that morning in our Archbishop of New York will be the leader of the procession. I encourage every single senior to go to this mess because you want to remember the mass in its entirety. Those are all the calendar scheduled events in the month of April please keep an eye out for any last-minute announcements and make sure you listen to the morning announcements.

WERE YOU AT THE SAINT PATRICK’S

PARADE? FIND YOURSELF IN THESE PICTURES!

A Letter from the Student Body President

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By Michael Muyalde

On March 21st and March 22nd, 2013, La Salle Academy held its Career Day and Entrepreneur Days respectively. During the course of these two days, guest speakers and visitors spoke with students during classes to give their insights of their careers, as well as the field of Entrepreneurship. It is important to note that a great deal of these successful speakers were former students at La Salle and part of the school's vast and interconnected alumni.

The first of these two reflective days began with visits from the Career Day speakers. These included David Harney, '82, the Chief of Staff at the FDNY; Steven Leader, President of Leader Realty Advisors, Ltd; Larry Rawson, current commentator for ESPN-TV for track and field; Lamarr Ellis, '98, current Police Officer at the NYPD; Bert Halliday, '73, Senior Financial Advisor and Senior Vice President at Merrill Lynch; Br. Edward Shields, FSC, former elementary school principal for 27 years and now Vication Director; Brett Settles, recruiter for O' Connor Davies, LLP, one of the Largest Certified Public Accounting firms in the New York Metropolitan area; and Marvin Cabrera, 88' the program director of the "I Have A Dream Foundation", which empowers children and families living in undeserved areas through long term mentoring and tutoring.

Throughout the day, more alumni shared their thoughts with students on their respective career paths and answered any questions that were brought up by the young La Sallians. These alumni included William Valentine, '62, former Christian Brother and education volunteer at the Peace Corps; Stanley Cisak, '69, successful sales representative and NYC Public High School History teacher; Josephus Tudtud, 00', former Sergeant of the United States Marine Corps, and current producer, videographer and editor; and Michael Dicerto, '83, author of children's literature series, Rupert Starbright: The Door to Far-Myst, and the third book coming in September 2013, The Ghost of Winter Joy.

The final batch of alumni speakers concluded Career Day with their conversations with the students during class. These included Dennis Orsini, '02 who had worked as a Senior Examiner of Municipal Affairs at the Office of State Comptroller of New York; Sal LaRocca, '82, Executive Vice President of Global Merchandising of the National Basketball Association; Orlando Ortega, '69, College Professor at ASA College; and Shindo Rodriguez, '01, graduate of John Jay College with a Bachelor of Science in Police Studies and current background actor for shows such as Law and Order, Blue Bloods, and even successful movies such as the Dark Night Rises and The Dictator.

As evidenced from these names, the long list of La Salle alumni comes to show the many interesting and rewarding facets in life that La Salle Academy students have chosen.

The second enriching day, March 22nd, took on the theme of Entrepreneurship, complete with speakers and current entrepreneurs in the field. These included Nina Kaufman, of the Ask The Business Lawyer website; Ramon Ray, of Smallbiz Technologies; Steve Hindy, founder of Brooklyn Brewery; Andrew Hoeft, CEO of Pinpoint Software at the University if Wisconsin; Kevin Collins, Executive Director of NYC Business Solutions and NYC Dept. of Small Business Services; Ty Grant, President/Co-founder of Team First; August Cardona, from Epicurean Managment; Rich McKeon, of Helmsley Charitable Trust; and Sandy Eames of SCORE and NYC Business. Furthermore, members

A Successful Turnout for the Accepted Students

Day Party!

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from the community of Manhattan College spoke: Janet Rovenpor, Professor in Business and Chair in the Department of Manganent and Marketing at the School of Business at Manhattan College; Carolyn Predmore, Manhattan College Marketing Professor; and Alley Bradley, a successful Manhattan College graduate who started a real estate agency in France.

Surprisingly, there were also members of the La Salle community who gave their insights of the field of Entrepreneurship: Mike Roderick, former La Salle Academy English teacher and current CEO of Small Pond Productions, and Brian Antolin, '08, who holds a BA in Business Administration and is currently concentrating in Marketing and Legal Studies.

The La Salle Newspaper would like to thank the Alumni Department and Ms. Straub for

coordinating this informative and wonderful event.

Photos taken by Brandon Polanco, La Salle Academy Junior and student at The New York Film Academy.

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Sidney Birch Christian Diaz

Congrats To The February Students of The

Month!

Sequan Dowe Erick Tapia

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Recalling Easter Celebration

By Brandon Leon, Freshman

Easter is the day we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and it marks the end of Lent. Lent is a

period of fasting and repentance. It begins on Ash Wednesday and ends on Easter Sunday. People usually

celebrate Easter by attending church with their family and doing something special afterwards.

In my family, my mom usually s tarts cooking early in the morning; that way the food is already

done by the time mass is over. If she doesn’t cook, we usually go out to a nice restaurant. We celebrate Easter

Sunday by having an Easter egg hunt. In the past, we have gone to Central Park where they host a big event for

the public. They have many activities for children and their parents. The lines are long, but all the activities

make it worthwhile to stand on line. They have egg hunts, face painting, craft projects and the Easter Bunny

even makes an appearance to greet and take pictures with the kids. It’s nice to live in the city because there are

many places that have events for Easter. Two years ago, my family and I went to Dylan’s Candy Store. They

had a nice Easter event going on for paying participants. We

started by arriving early and being welcomed to a buffet of

different breakfast foods. After breakfast, there was an

Easter egg hunt and then pictures with the Easter Bunny.

We were even given our own baskets and were able to

choose our own candy from the array and assortments off

candy they had.

That was the nicest part to the whole event because

if you have ever been to Dylan’s Candy Store you would

know that they have many different candies from all over

the world. This year, we celebrated Easter by spending a

quiet day at home. We went to church, came home and had

a nice dinner afterwards. We then sat down around the

dinner table to dye Easter eggs. In my family it’s a tradition that every year we dye Easter eggs no matter how

old we are. My mom says we are never too old to dye Easter eggs and have fun. It’s nice spending time together

and seeing all the beautiful different color Easter eggs afterwards. I hope you have enjoyed my story and I hope

your Easter was as nice as mine.

La Salle Literary Forum

This Month’s Contributions

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New Wave Self-Intervention

By Christopher Pena, Junior

A world I find myself in,

A world lacking in creativity

Everlasting sensations of thought,

Though it never forms to speech.

A skinny sliver of hope

Sends me off on a lyrical storm.

A meeting of the minds,

Brings the strongest inspiration.

This is the faith I still believe in,

Within lies potential to evolve,

Improve and learn.

He who learns to pick his priorities proper

Is he who brings his dreams to fruition.

He who keeps his cross hair steady,

Is he who clears the firing range and then some.

I seem to desire the forbidden yet again,

It is only human nature

As though the child inside me is tugging at my

strings

Controlling my life decisions.

My priorities are the outcasts of my daily thought

process.

I wonder what it will be like when I must come to

terms with the rest of my life

I could choose the path of passion

Or the path of responsibility.

Whatever happens in the end,

Will be that of my own doing.

At least unlike most in my spot I am taking the

initiative

As I always do.

Instead of digging a deeper grave,

I am finding the simplest solution.

And that is to simply continue…

Improve, reconstruct, rejuvenate, and advance.

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By Noah Griffith

The Baseball season and the Handball season are well underway here at LaSalle Academy. Both sports teams are excited to show what they can do this season and hopefully bring home their respective championship. The Varsity Baseball and Junior Varsity baseball have started well this season, and hope to bring home the CHSAA division championship. Here is the schedule for both Baseball teams this season Junior Varsity:

4/23 – Cathedral (Away)

4/25—Scanlan (Home)

4/30—Sacred Heart (Home)

5/7—St. John’s (Home)

5/10—Cathedral (Home)

5/13—Scanlan (Away)

5/14—Sacred Heart (Away)

Varsity:

4/15—St. Agnes

4/17—Loughlin

4/19—Cathedral

4/22—Sacred Heart

4/24—St. John’s

4/29—Scanlan

5/1—St. Agnes

5/3—Loughlin

5/6—Cathedral

5/8—Sacred Heart

5/10—St. John’s

5/14—Scanlan

La Salle Basketball Column