The theme “I’ll Make a Difference” permeated the opening of the new Science Center complex at Providence High School in Burbank on the first day of the 2012-2013 school year. Attended by students, parents, Sisters of Providence and local City of Burbank officials including Mayor Dave Golonski and Vice Mayor Emily Gabel-Luddy, the Aug. 20 ribbon-cutting ceremony included a prayer service celebrated by Auxiliary Bishop Gerald Wilkerson and Msgr. Robert Gallagher. In his homily, the bishop encouraged the students to use the center to become “great minds, well-educated but also profoundly and deeply people with souls.” Then former members of the school choir from the graduating class of 2012 returned to join in singing “I’ll Make a Difference” under the direction of Marisa Bradfield.Joe Sciuto, head of school, acknowledged all the “planning, prodding and praying” it took to create the center from those who conceived the idea in 2005, to those who began fundraising in 2007, to those who actually built it across the summer of 2012. Sciuto described Mother Joseph, the founder of the Sisters of Providence, as a builder. “She would be proud of the care that was put into the construction of the new Science Center” by all the construction workers involved, he added. During her remarks, Sister of Providence Lucille Dean, board of regents member and former principal, reminded the students that the celebration was “not about the building, but about the education that will be provided there” and how that education would help all the students truly make a difference for themselves and for others in the future. To illustrate her point, she presented a new report card to Ken Coopman, campaign fund co-chair, one of her former math students. In her class he had earned a C but she said his work on fund-raising had earned him an A. When the gym full of current students reacted favorably to receiving new report cards, Sister Dean was quick to remind them that Mr. Coopman had waited 52 years for the experience. The Science Center complex includes two new buildings housing biology, chemistry and physics classrooms with state of the art equipment and computer technology to accommodate 24 students per room. As he blessed the new buildings with holy water, Bishop Wilkerson said, “We use this water to give life in baptism, but on this day we are not giving life to the building but to all the students who will pass through it gaining knowledge they will spread throughout their community.” {gallery width=100 height=100}gallery/2012/1005/sfprovidence/{/gallery}