Stepinac High School's Honors Academy To Present Symposium Focused on Flint Water Crisis, May 30

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - April 15, 2018 - PRLog -- Stepinac High School's groundbreaking Honors Academy will present a Clean Water Solution Symposium focused on the contaminated drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan—a public health emergency which remains unresolved more than three years after dangerous levels of lead were detected.

The session, free and open to the public, will be held at 6 PM, Wednesday, May 30, at the school's Major Bowes Auditorium, 950 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY.

Mary Calvi, the distinguished television journalist and mother of two Stepinac sons, will serve as moderator.  She is the co-anchor of "CBS2 This Morning" and "CBS2 At Noon" on WCBS-TV in New York City and the recipient of 9 Emmy Awards.

Participating will be a panel comprising academy students who are undertaking project studies in their four respective academic disciplines—engineering, law, health sciences and finance—as well as four experts in those fields who will review the scope of the students' research and explore potential applications to resolve a number of interrelated issues in the Flint case.

The distinguished panelists are:

·         Anthony V. Capicotto, P.E.  During his 31-year career, Mr. Capicotto, a Stepinac alumnus (Class of '83), served as a senior project engineer in the design of municipal water and sewer system infrastructure projects including pumping, treatment and storage facilities. He has also provided consulting engineering services to various communities in Westchester County. For the past five years, he has served as village engineer for Elmsford, N.Y., overseeing water system operations.

·         Morri E Markowitz, M.D., Director of Lead Poisoning Prevention and Treatment Program, Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital at Montefiore (University Hospital for Albert Einstein College of Medicine. The diagnosis and treatment of lead poisoning among children and pregnant women has been the focus of Dr. Markowitz's clinical research.

·         Christopher L. Daly, Founder, CEO and President of Synergy Alternative Capital Management, a New York metro area investment firm. Also a Stepinac alumnus (Class of '89), Mr. Daly was previously a 22-year Wall Street veteran who served in key management positions of leading investment firms including Weeden & Co, BTIG and ISI.

·         Walter Schwartz is a practicing attorney based in Ardsley, N.Y. with more than 55 years of experience. He also served as a justice for the Village of Ardsley and is a former member of the Attorney Grievance Committee, 9^th Judicial District.

The scope of the projects includes:

Engineering academy students will build a lead extraction prototype, test its results against a brand filter currently in use to establish a baseline, and compile the data to analyze the results by comparing their inventions.

Law academy students will research the lawsuits and litigation that have arisen from the disaster, analyze the legal issues and arguments of key cases and provide an update of their current status and discuss likely outcomes.

Health sciences academy students will research the signs and symptoms of lead poisoning in children, create information tools for parents and pediatric offices and develop a nutrition plan that can help reduce the effects of lead poisoning.

Finance academy students will research how many homes in each of the Westchester communities were built before 1930.  With this information they will find the mean and create a model village which will become the basis the students will use to identify the cost of replacing lead pipes from the house to the water main.  It is a model which can be replicated anywhere.

The students are also preparing a prospectus to entice prospective investors to invest in a municipal bond agreement that will be sponsored by the model village to underwrite the cost of ridding the village of lead pipes used for drinking water.

Frank Portanova, Vice Principal for Curriculum and Academic Studies, said that one of the primary goals of the Honors Academy when it was launched two years ago was for the students to "see the relationship between their studies and their application to the real world." adding: "By tackling the contaminated water crisis in Flint and the need for clean water solutions elsewhere in the nation,  the students have undertaken a very relevant project, one which we look forward to sharing with the community at the Honors Academy's first symposium."

About Archbishop Stepinac High School

The mission of Archbishop Stepinac High School is to offer young men of the Archdiocese of New York a highly competitive academic and extracurricular program that will prepare them for college and leadership roles. The faculty and staff accomplish these objectives by pursuing excellence and creating a supportive, disciplined atmosphere with a strong sense of camaraderie and Christian values that is unique to the Stepinac experience.