Stephanie Mills, Bryan Bautista, and More Join Brooklyn Tech Centennial Gala This Weekend

Stephanie Mills, Grammy award-winning singer and star of Broadway's "The Wiz," will be spotlighted among other Brooklyn-based performers for Brooklyn Technical High School's Centennial Gala Celebration. Leonard S. Riggio (Brooklyn Tech Class of 1958), founder of Barnes & Noble, has been named Centennial Commissioner. Bryan Bautista (Class of 2010) and finalist on "The Voice," will perform, and award-winning news reporter Jeanine Ramirez (Class of 1988) and acclaimed Pokémon voice actor Sarah Natochenny (Class of 2005) will serve as co-hosts.

The gala will be held at The Glasshouse, 660 12th Avenue, Manhattan, on November 19. The cocktail reception is at 6 pm; awards, music and dinner begin at 7 pm, with after-party dancing to immediately follow. The Centennial Gala will pay tribute to and celebrate 100 years of Brooklyn Tech being a leader in education in New York City and the nation.

Denice Clarke (DC) Ware, President of the Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation (Class of 1983), announced that an entire evening of Brooklyn-based luminaries has been created to honor Tech's 100th anniversary. In a special moment, opera singer La Toya Lewis and composer/performer Akie Bermiss (both Class of 2001) and pop singer Cindy Hospedales (Class 2002) will perform together. While not a Brooklyn Tech graduate, Stephanie Mills is a Brooklyn-born performer who attended another nationally known Brooklyn high school, Erasmus Hall.

"As part of celebrating the historical past of Tech, a father and three sons-spanning decades of Brooklyn Tech alums-will be honored as Titans of Tech," Ware notes. "Jack Abramson (Class of 1932), Allan L. Abramson, MD (Class of 1958), David H. Abramson, MD (Class of 1961), and Richard S. Abramson (Class of 1963) are being celebrated for their exceptional contributions to our world, in medicine, finance, philanthropy and sports."

Stephanie Mills is Grammy award-winning singer and songwriter, as well as a Broadway performer who originated the role of Dorothy in "The Wiz." She has won multiple American Music Awards in R&B/soul and received a Drama Desk Award.

Jeanine Ramirez, award-winning journalist and five-time Emmy nominee, is a former Spectrum News/New York 1 news anchor. Sarah Natochenny is a Voice Arts Award-winning actor best known for voicing the role of Ash Ketchum and other characters on hit animated show Pokémon. At 23, Bryan Bautista was a semi-finalist on Season 10 of "The Voice" in 2016. He continues to record and perform Latin, pop, R&B and soul music.

Brooklyn Tech has produced Nobel Laureates and many of the world's top scientists, diplomats, Fortune 500 executives, inventors, entrepreneurs, medical researchers, politicians, Olympic athletes, entertainment and media leaders, and international chess grandmasters.

Proceeds from the Tech Centennial events support the Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation. Brooklyn Tech is considered the premier specialized high school for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). For more information, contact The Brooklyn Tech Alumni Foundation, info@bthsalum.org, 718-797-2285; or BTAF100Gala@mmeventgroup.com.