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Queens Historian Leads Students on Quest for Prestigious Award

By DNAinfo Staff on January 16, 2012 8:24pm

Carl Ballenas, who leads the Aquinas Honor Society at the Immaculate Conception School, shows off the book he and his students co-authored about Jamaica, Queens.
Carl Ballenas, who leads the Aquinas Honor Society at the Immaculate Conception School, shows off the book he and his students co-authored about Jamaica, Queens.
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DNAinfo/Nick Hirshon

JAMAICA ESTATES — Junior high students from Queens — mentored by a dedicated and experienced historian — hope their passion for the borough’s past lands them face to face with First Lady Michelle Obama in the White House.

Honor society students from the Immaculate Conception School in Jamaica Estates, who co-authored two books about the areas where they live, are applying for a prestigious National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award, which honors the top after school programs in the country.

Social studies teacher Carl Ballenas, who heads the school’s Aquinas Honor Society, said his students would be elated to receive the honor.

“It’s the recognition,” he said. “Can you imagine how these kids would feel to have the First Lady give them this award?”

Students from the Immaculate Conception School stand in front of the historic home of U.S. Senator Chauncey Depew on Midland Parkway at the Grand Central Parkway service road.
Students from the Immaculate Conception School stand in front of the historic home of U.S. Senator Chauncey Depew on Midland Parkway at the Grand Central Parkway service road.
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Carl Ballenas

The prizes are given annually to outstanding after-school and out-of-school programs sponsored by museums, libraries and educational institutions. Twelve winners will each earn $10,000 and meet the First Lady at a White House ceremony late this year.

A presidential committee typically selects finalists in August and notifies winners in early fall.

Ballenas said the pride that comes with the award could change his students’ lives. “You have a person of great worth that will develop into a phenomenal person,” he said.

Ballenas, who has taught at Immaculate Conception on Dalny Road since 2000, said the honor society would probably use the $10,000 prize toward writing another book, buying costumes for historical re-enactments and putting up historical markers in Queens.

A Brooklyn native, Ballenas moved to Richmond Hill when he was 10. He lived there until a decade ago while teaching for 17 years at St. Catherine of Sienna School in St. Albans. Then he moved to Jamaica Hills and switched to Immaculate Conception.

Ballenas is also active in historical groups. He serves as chairman to the Friends of Maple Grove Cemetery, which organizes concerts and historical events at the Kew Gardens graveyard. And he is a member of the Richmond Hill Historical Society and the Central Queens Historical Association.

Ballenas' tidy home contains file cabinets filled with black-and-white pictures of Richmond Hill and Jamaica, while the walls are layered with awards, mementos and newspaper articles about his students’ work.

Cradling his long-haired Chihuahua in one arm on a recent morning, Ballenas used his free hand to sift through a wealth of photos and books that document the history of Queens. With every image came stories of how his students helped research the people and places shown.

“I hope to have passed on a lot of this to a generation of kids that will pass it on,” Ballenas said. “That’s the legacy I care about.”

Ballenas and his students co-authored a photo history book about Jamaica Estates in 2010 and Jamaica last year. They also convinced a sculptor to replace a longlost bust of journalist Jacob Riis, who documented poverty in New York City in the late 1800s, in a park along Jamaica Bay.

Ballenas said that instilling a passion for history among students makes them more aware of old buildings that are threatened by demolition and figures some students will grow up to be preservationists like him.

“It’s all about Queens history. It’s their backyard,” he said. “If they get a love of history now to preserve the past, what are they going to do as adults?”