Francis Lewis Hosts In-Person Freshman Academy Fair
Francis Lewis hosted the Freshman Academy Fair on March 4 in the gymnasium to give freshmen students the opportunity to learn about the different academies FLHS has to offer throughout their high school career.
“Francis Lewis is such a huge high school with so many opportunities but often students are not aware of all of the choices they have,” global teacher Ms. McGuirk said. “I love that the Academy Fair exists as a way for our freshman to learn about all of the different programs and academies. Additionally, the fair allows upperclassmen to share their passion, work, and knowledge which can serve as a motivator for our underclassmen.”
Many freshmen students were excited to be able to visit the different academies available at Francis Lewis.
“I visited forensic science and I learned how they view dead bodies in certain situations,” freshman Houston Tang said.
The Academy Fair provides many opportunities for freshmen who are interested in a specific field and might want to pursue that career in the future.
“I already started engineering and I enjoyed it so I feel like I am just going to stick with engineering because I already got a feel for it,” freshman Alvin Huang said. “I didn’t really visit any academies besides engineering but I did learn what I will be doing as far as the kinds of things I will be working on in that academy.”
During the pandemic and remote learning, it was difficult for teachers representing each academy to present some of the opportunities available to freshmen via Zoom presentations.
“I didn’t love having the Academy Fair over zoom,” Ms. McGuirk said. “International Relations isn’t a typical academy and many students don’t know what it is. So last year I think academies like the Law and Journalism got a lot of visits to their Zoom but smaller academies like ours didn’t. I think hosting it in person allows students to explore more opportunities and options they didn’t think they would normally consider.”
Mathematics teacher Ms. Muscat also thought that the lack of student interaction via Zoom hindered students’ ability to explore each academy.
“Hosting the Academy Fair through Zoom last year was not the same,” Ms. Muscat said. “The freshman did not interact as much with us/current members. We had pictures of what we did, however being in person was better because they were able to see what is created and how it works.”
“I am currently hosting the Robotics & Engineering Academy,” Ms. Muscat added. “The way that we get students interested in the program is by bringing out one of the robots that the current students have built. This allows the freshman to see what we do in Robotics along with interacting and asking current members questions.”
