CROSS-CURRICULUM CREATIVITY
While the Cybersecurity course won ’ t start until the 2022 – 23 academic year , the school ’ s club of the same name has provided a space for students to have fun hacking and cracking codes after school .
As Cybersecurity Club president Timothy de Ganon ’ 22 graduated , he entrusted the club to the hands of Paul Creegan ’ 24 , who is looking forward to running it alongside the new course .
“ The club will be focused more on competing in cybersecurity challenges [ in the coming school year ],” said Creegan . The club is already participating in online competitions through Over the Wire , a community website where students can learn and practice security concepts .
Creegan also states that the club has various guest speakers scheduled for the coming school year . “ They are from the field of academic cybersecurity and from a business standpoint of cybersecurity . Some of the speakers we have lined up do pen testing out in the real world as their actual job and work alongside a team of people on a daily basis ,” he added .
Broussard is happy that the club garnered so much traction , as it helped to solidify the need for Cybersecurity in the iSTEAM curriculum .
“ We purposefully started with cocurriculars because you don ’ t want to spend money on a class and then the students are like , ‘ We don ’ t want to take that ’,” he laughed .
Benjamin Franklin , father of Civics .
THE GOAL IS THAT STUDENTS GRADUATE FROM THE PREP WITH INNOVATIVE IDEAS ON HOW TO MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE .
ENHANCING THE CIVICS CURRICULUM
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HILE CIVICS ISN ’ T ENTIRELY NEW TO FORDHAM PREP , the FitzSimons Civics Education Initiative is putting an emphasis on making sure students are able to form their own opinions based on facts . The inaugural FitzSimons Civics Symposium on March 30th , whose theme was Social Media : Good or Bad ?, got juniors and seniors thinking about what regulated internet platforms could look like . Donor Dennis FitzSimons ’ 67 , who was in attendance for the symposium , was very impressed with the students ’ involvement and questions .
Social Studies Department Chair Matthew Bobo and his colleagues have created an improved Civics curriculum that will split the academic year into two parts : one half for U . S . government and the second half for economics .
“ It replaces the full Economics course that we used to teach ,” explained Bobo . “ We ’ re going to have the regular honors and an AP level course for students . We ’ ve identified several areas in the U . S . curriculum where we can stress the importance of the Constitution , so pretty much during the whole month of October , we ’ ll be concentrating on the Constitution , citizenship , and civics with a focus on how it applies today and rights . Historically , U . S . history classes primarily taught the historical writing of the Constitution , not necessarily the Constitution itself , and we ’ re working to rectify that ,” he added .
The goal is that students graduate from the Prep with innovative ideas on how to make the world a better place .
“ Fr . Joseph McShane used to say that an alum from a Jesuit school should leave school and be bothered with what they see ,” Bobo stated . “ When you go out into the world , you see the unethical practices and systematic structures that are unfair . What we have to do as a school is equip the students with the skills to do something about those problems . And if we ’ re successful , we create young men who have the capacity to do great things ,” he continued .
As the Prep ’ s iSTEAM and Civics programs continue to grow and evolve , the plan is to continue engaging students to foster cross-curriculum innovation and creativity ; the result being students who are better prepared to be leaders both in college and in their chosen professions all for the Greater Glory of God .
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FORDHAM PREP RAMVIEW