Bulldogs for Life
FirstLine is proud to partner with the Alumni of Joseph S. Clark High School to help make Clark Prep one of the top performing high schools in New Orleans. Already this year Clark Bulldogs have given their time to the rehabilitation of the school, their services to Clark Prep students, and their money to help us provide Clark Bulldogs with a world-class education. Thank you, Bulldogs, and stay tuned for more exciting events!
BIG-TIME BULLDOGS! Meet our illustrious Alumni...
THANKS TO THE CLASS OF '57!
Their visit to Clark Prep this week was a delight, and they made Principal Coleman an honorary Clark '57 Alum!
Bruce Davenport, Jr. Clark Alum and internationally-renowned visual artist
Clark Prep would like to shout out Bruce Davenport, the visual artist whose meticulously hand-drawn portraits of New Orleans High School marching bands and carnival scenes are being displayed in galleries around the world. In addition to donating his portrait of the Joseph S. Clark Marching Band to the school, he has hosted master classes in our visual arts department and is donating one of his prints for silent auction at the First Annual Clark Prep Jam, June 8. Read some of a profile from the Times-Picayune below.
New Orleans artist brings back the marching bands
Published: Friday, August 22, 2008 - By Doug MacCash, The Times-Picayune
"Davenport grew up in the Lafitte public housing complex with his grandparents, who did not allow him to stay out after dark. When the streetlights came on, Davenport headed home to entertain himself with his pencils and paper, drawing football players, basketball players and marching bands.
Though he made the high school football team, he never found a place in a band, joking that he was so bad at clarinet his teacher offered to pay him to drop the class. Nonetheless, he was so swept up in band music during football games that he was sometimes afraid he'd lose track of the action and "get run over."
Davenport says he took one high school art class (at Joseph S. Clark Senior High School), where he excelled -- even helping his classmates complete their assignments. But that was the extent of his art training. The only artists he'd ever heard of, he said, were J.J. Evans, the lanky, clownish character in the "Good Times" television show, and Pablo Picasso.
The most meaningful art arrives just when it's needed. Picasso's fractured paintings made it easier to understand the new concept of a human subconscious in the early 20th century. J.J. Evans' paintings (created by real-life artistErnie Barnes Jr.) gave the 1970s television audience an impression of the sort of joyous creativity that couldn't be crushed by poverty and prejudice. Davenport's charming drawings help us relive a few before-the-flood memories as the third anniversary of Katrina approaches and the high school names and locations we once knew are reshuffled for a new era."
The Rebirth Brass Band! Clark Alums, musical geniuses, Grammy winners!
Legend has it that the Rebirth Brass Band's first concert was at a Clark High School staff party in 1982. 30 years later, Rebirth's musical creativity, longevity and contribution to the culture of New Orleans and music in general was rewarded on February 12 with Rebirth's first ever Grammy! Clark Prep hopes to continue the legacy begun throughout the decades, and would like to congratulate the Rebirth Brass Band on their achievement!
Dr. Monique Cola, Clark Bulldog, Doctor of Neuroscience and member of the JSCCC
Dr. Monique Cola is a native New Orleanian, and is a graduate of Joseph S. Clark High School in New Orleans. She attended Pitzer College (a member of the Claremont Colleges in Claremont, CA) where she double majored and received her B.A. in Biology and Chemistry. Dr. Cola received her M.S. degree in Pathology (sub-specializing in neuropathology) from Louisiana State University Graduate School in 1995. In 2004, Dr. Cola received her Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience from Tulane University. Her dissertation research investigated the neuro-chemical organization of the visual system in humans and non-human primates, and how the human visual system is affected in Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. Cola has received several accolades, including in 2005, a prestigious Postdoctoral Neuroscience Fellowship by the American Psychological Association. In January 2008, Dr. Cola was selected as scholar by the African-American Mental Health Research Scientist Consortium.
Dr. Cola is currently an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Tulane University. In 2008, Dr. Cola became the first African-American faculty member of the Tulane University Neuroscience Program. She teaches the Neuroanatomy Laboratory for the Neuroscience Graduate Program. In addition, Dr. Cola continues an active research program using MRI to study the cognitive dysfunction in patients who have suffered a stroke and in patients with Alzheimer's disease. She is also interested in investigating the progression of Alzheimer's disease in African-Americans, a historically understudied clinical population. Outside of Africa, Dr. Monique Cola is one of a handful of African-American women neuroscientists in the world!
Dr. Cola endeavors to expose underrepresented minority students to careers in the sciences. "My goal there is to eliminate the illusion that only the best and brightest can do science. I want to demonstrate that scientists can be normal, warm-blooded people, from backgrounds and circumstances similar to theirs."
In an effort to promote public and personal benefits of brain research, Dr. Cola visits classrooms a few times a year to allow students to learn more about what makes their brain "tick". She brings her "brain bucket" and provides students with a hands-on demonstration of a preserved human brain and allows the students an opportunity to touch a real, human brain. It has been her experience that this type of lesson is invaluable and students leave with an experience that very few of their peers have had.
