EducationThe White Plains Examiner

Sanchez, Ramirez Named Stepinac Valedictorian, Salutatorian

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Stepinac High School has named Carlos Sanchez Jr. of New Rochelle as Valedictorian and Eduardo Ramirez of Peekskill as Salutatorian of the Class of 2022.

The honored students will deliver their addresses during Stepinac’s 72nd Annual Commencement Exercises to be held Thursday, May 26 at the renowned all-boys Catholic high school in White Plains. 

Fr. Thomas Collins (Class of ’79), President, will preside over the ceremony and present diplomas to the graduates.

Sanchez, who will continue his studies at M.I.T., served as a member of Stepinac’s groundbreaking Susan and Daniel P. Mahoney Honors Academy, a small three-year personalized learning program providing academically top performing- students with college-level studies in four disciplines— engineering (which Sanchez pursued), health sciences, economics/finance and law.

Last fall, Sanchez was recognized by the College Board as a National Hispanic Scholar, joining a select group nationally who earned the prestigious designation. 

 He was also one of the three Honors Academy students who participated in Stepinac’s dedication ceremony for the school’s latest Real-World advanced learning technologies including the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) Center, Finance Center, Adult Patient Simulator and 3D Anatomage Table.

 Before a group of distinguished guests including White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach and New York Assembly Member Amy Paulin (District 88), Sanchez spoke about how he had been using the sophisticated and engaging learning tools, typically found at college, to enhance his understanding of and successfully undertake real-world applications in engineering. 

Ramirez, who will attend Columbia University, was also a member of Stepinac’s Honors Academy. Last year, he was among 1,345 high school students from 85 countries who earned the top honor of joining the finalist ranks in the 2021 GENIUS Olympiad’s international high school competitions.

 Ramirez’s research project, entitled “Discovering predictive gene signatures in BRCA (Breast Carcinoma) patients via a novel hierarchical Bayesian Boolean matrix factorization framework,” analyzes the likelihood of inter-molecular conversations between the cancer cells to track, predict, and prevent further spread of the tissue. 

 This summer, Ramirez will have the rare opportunity to work with a professor on a research fellowship as a result of having been admitted to participate in Columbia Unirsity’s Department of Biomedical Informatics program. It is one of the oldest informatics programs in the nation, comprising faculty and staff who have undertaken research in the development and evaluation of innovative information technologies that have led to enhancements in both health and healthcare.

When he starts Columbia full-time in the fall, Ramirez plans to pursue his studies in applied mathematics.

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