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Frank Sinatra School of the Arts
Address
35-12 35th Avenue Astoria, New York, 11106 United States
Information
Founded	September, 2001
Founder	Tony Bennett
Principal	Donna Finn
Number of students	≈700
Website	http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/30/Q501/default.htm

The Frank Sinatra School of the Arts (FSSA) first opened in 2001 and was co-founded by the great American singer/painter, Tony Bennett, and his wife, public school teacher Susan Benedetto, in partnership with the NYC Dept of Education. It was named in honor of Tony's late friend and colleague, Frank Sinatra. The school originally opened in temporary quarters in Long Island City, Queens. In September 2009 it moved into a new building to be its permanent home located in Tony's hometown of Astoria, Queens at the Kaufman Astoria Studios Complex. The building was designed by the renowned Polshek Partnership Architects firm.

FSSA offers a rigorous academic curriculum in addition to six studio majors: Fine Art, Dance, Vocal Music, Instrumental Music, Drama (Theatre), and Film & Media Arts. Students must audition for admission to the school; grades are also a deciding factor for admissions. Upon graduating 12th grade they will have completed 4 years of daily study in their studio major in addition to their standard academic courses and required community service hours.

FSSA holds one of the highest graduation rates of NYC public high schools. In 2009, 96% of the senior class graduated with 97% enrolled for college. The class of 2009 additionally completed 17,000 hours of community service while at FSSA. Graduates have gone on to study at such institutions as The Juilliard School, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Columbia University, Pratt, Queens College Aaron Copland School of Music, and School of Visual Arts. FSSA students have also attended competitive pre-college summer arts programs at The Joffrey Ballet School, The Stella Adler Studio of Acting, Parsons The New School for Design, and Carnegie Mellon's Musical Theatre.

When Tony Bennett and Susan Benedetto established Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, they additionally founded a nonprofit organization, Exploring the Arts (ETA), whose mission is to support arts education in public schools. ETA has provided support to FSSA as well as to other NYC public high schools with a focus on teaching the arts.

[edit] Academics

FSSA offers five Advanced Placement courses that include AP Biology, AP Calculus AB, AP English Literature and Composition, AP United States History, and AP Spanish Language. In the future, the school will offer AP French Language and AP Music Theory.

Students are offered college courses such as Psychology, Math, English, Critical Thinking, Literacy and Propaganda. They may also elect to take other classes at LaGuardia Community College and Queens College. The students of the past graduating class have earned millions of dollars in scholarships toward college

[edit] External links

• FSSA School website

Coordinates: 40°45′22″N 73°55′31″W / 40.75611°N 73.92528°W / 40.75611; -73.92528