School Briefs

Through the kindness of Anthony Curatola, the students of St. Joseph Regional School in Somers Point now have 12 additional computers.

Curatola is president of ECS, Enroute Computer Solutions, and founder of the “Soprana Coppola Education Foundation.” Curatola’s sister, Soprana, died in August 2007 from a rare form of cancer. The goal of the foundation is to put technology in the hands of as many students as possible so perhaps one of those students will help to find a cure for one such disease.

Curatola was introduced to the technology needs of St. Joseph Regional School by one of his employees, Gina Lucasti. Lucasti is the human resources representative for ECS, and also the mother of a student at the school.

Through notices sent from school Lucasti was made aware that the anticipated Technology Funds sent by the State of New Jersey would not be forthcoming this year. This loss of funds represented a major shortfall for the technology budget of the school.

“Through his generosity, Mr. Curatola gives us the tools necessary to prepare our students for the future. We are blessed to have him as a new member of our school family,” the school said in a statement.

Two students at Camden Catholic High School, Cherry Hill earned the designation of AP Scholar by the College Board in recognition of their exceptional achievements on the college-level Advanced Placement Program (AP) Exams.

Hyun Ah Chang of Cherry Hill qualified for the AP Scholar with Distinction Award by earning an average grade of at least 3.5 on all AP Exams taken and grades of 3 or higher on five or more of these exams. She is currently attending the University of Texas at Austin.

Christopher Duffner of Mt. Laurel received the AP Scholar Award by completing three or more AP Exams with grades of 3 or higher. He is now a freshman at Georgetown University.

Only about 18 percent of the more than 1.6 million high school students in more than 16,000 secondary schools worldwide who took AP Exams performed at a sufficiently high level to merit the recognition of AP Scholar. Chang and Duffner took the exams in May 2009 after completing challenging college-level courses at Camden Catholic, which offers students 11 AP course selections and 25 Honors-level courses.

In the spring of 2008, students at Notre Dame Regional School participated in a statewide poetry contest on recycling. Councilwoman Patricia Andaloro submitted the poems to the Bureau of Recycling and Planning. Brandon Danley was one of 12 winners selected from over 900 poems for his poem entitled “Working Together.”