Michael Lipari
Michael Lipari, class of 2015, is a junior from Long Island, New York who is majoring in Adolescent Education with a concentration in Social Studies. His minor is Classics. He holds a Presidential Scholarship, the most prestigious scholarship award the University grants. Michael enjoys New York City, and this too figured in his decision to attend St. John’s. The Honors Program and the opportunities it offers sealed the deal for him.
As an avid student of history, Michael took full advantage of the many historical walking tours the Honors Program provides during his freshman year, exploring New York City from the Lower East Side to Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters. Michael also discovered a love for opera when he attend Verdi’s Don Carlo, one of the Manhattan theatre events the Honors Program offers free to its members.
Michael has been able to take a number of Honors courses during his tenure at St. John’s and appreciates the reduced class size and the attention professors can give to individual students. Often, these classes have fewer students to comparable regular sections of the same course.
Using the Honors Commons provides Michael a special quiet place to study, relax, or catch up with other students in the program. It directly connects with the University Learning Commons, where Michael is a tutor assisting students in history and philosophy. As a student in the School of Education and a future teacher, Michael is gaining confidence and practical experience even before acquiring his formal practice teaching field experience. No surprise, but Michael has discovered already that he greatly enjoys teaching, the profession in which he intends to make his life’s work.
Michael has also found satisfaction in St. John’s Vincentian tradition of service by joining the Vincent and Louise House. Named for St.Vincent DePaul (founder of the Vincentians) and St. Louise de Marillac (who founded the community of sisters known as the Daughters of Charity), the “House” is a group of fourteen St. John’s students who strive to embody the four pillars of faith: simple living, spirituality, community, and service. Through this community, Michael has acquired what amounts to a second family while serving at sites such as St. Nicholas of Tolentine’s men’s shelter and the Church of Our Lady of the Isle in Long Beach, New York. His service began after Hurricane Sandy and continues.
An undergraduate in the School of Education, Michael is a member of the Kappa Delta Phi Honor Society, the STAR group (which pairs upperclassmen with incoming freshmen to guide them through their first year at St. John’s) and Dean’s Scholars, an elite group of student ambassadors who embody what it means to be a student at St. John’s.
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