This Annual Report presents the intersection of the numbers, events, and the people that define Shepherds’ mission in action.
We are proud of the accomplishments of our students and the role Shepherds plays in supporting them. We invite you to read our Annual Report and hope it inspires you to support our mission by becoming a mentor or financially support our program. To find out more, contact Executive Director Dan McAuliffe at info@shepherdsmentors.org or call 203.367.4273
Shepherds enjoyed hearing from a student alumnus at Shepherds Notre Dame Mentor Appreciation Night. Notre Dame West Haven ’14 alum, Jeenn Barreiro embraced the lessons he learned during his time as a Shepherds student at NDWHS.
After high school, he continued his education at College of the Holy Cross, graduating in 2018. Jeenn currently works at Brigham and Women’s Hospital as a researcher and plans on attending graduate school in the fall.
While his academic and work successes make Shepherds proud, his impact on his community in Boston brings the lessons learned at Shepherds and NDWH full-circle. At our Mentor Appreciation Night, he spoke about how he is now a mentor himself. Jeenn mentoring and coaching a soccer team of refugees, undocumented and socio-economically challenged youths.
KCHS seniors (pictured) attended workshops with Jane-Ellen Collins at the end of January. Students received a crash-course on what it means to be a freshman in college.
Topics covered included roommate issues, laundry, planning a schedule, balancing studies and fun, where to go for academic help and a lot more! Consistently rated a favorite Shepherds activity by graduating seniors, Jane-Ellen does a great job preparing our KCHS Seniors for the next big step in their academic lives: Being a College Freshman
January is National Mentoring Month and Shepherds is so thankful for all the mentors that assist our students.
Our mentors are kind-hearted adults who help bridge the opportunity gap our inner-city students have. A good mentor allows students to see the hope and possibilities within themselves. Becoming a Shepherds is a satisfying way to make a positive impact on a young person in your own backyard.
As the Chronicle of Evidence Based Mentoring states, mentoring is an opportunity not only for the student, but for the mentor as well.
To find out more about becoming a mentor at Shepherds, contact Executive Director Dan McAuliffe at info@shepherds.com or www.shepherdsmentors.org
Shepherds hosted a festive brunch in honor of f the six Kolbe Cathedral High School graduating seniors. The brunch honored the graduates, their families and the students’ mentors. …
Shepherds, a non-profit based in Bridgeport, has supported the education and success of inner-city teens from the New Haven and Bridgeport areas for 20 years. During National Mentoring Month, Shepherds students will celebrate the role that mentors play in their lives with a Mentor Appreciation Night at Notre Dame West Haven High School. Mentors make a monthly commitment of time and energy to an individual student and receive professional training and extensive staff support throughout their four-year commitment.
Results over 20 years have demonstrated that Shepherds students have a much higher likelihood of graduating from high school, pursuing higher education, breaking the cycle of poverty and becoming productive members of society. Since 1998, 265 students who might otherwise have dropped out of high school have graduated and gone on to institutions of higher learning, military or civil service roles.
Shepherds is committed to helping these students achieve their potential through a high quality, college preparatory curriculum, go on to higher education, and eventually become valuable and productive members of society. Fifteen adult mentors are needed for students beginning high school in September of 2019.
Financial sponsors are always needed to help to defray tuition costs and provide additional supports and services throughout the school year including test prep and remedial supports. If you are open to making a valuable impact on a young person’s life and reaping the personal rewards that come with it, please contact Dan McAuliffe, Shepherds’ Executive Director, by April 15th. You can reach Dan by email dmcauliffe@shepherdsmentors.org or call him at 203-367-4273.
Kolbe Cathedral students perform community service throughout their four years of high school. Recently, a group of students and mentors volunteered at the Exchange Club of New Canaan Annual Christmas Tree Sale. For more than 50 years, the club transforms Kiwanis Park into a Christmas village with more than 1,300 trees along with a variety of wreaths, roping, tree stands and other seasonal merchandise. Funds raised at the event primarily support programs for the prevention of child abuse.
Pictured are Shepherds mentor, Joe Purcell with student, Martin V. Also participating were Kolbe students Jannelle, Nayshawn and Jerome who attended with mentors Linda Theriault, Tim Dwyer and Wayne Theriault.
Mentoring can be sweet – really sweet! Kolbe Cathedral freshmen (L-R) Valentina, Annaclaudia, Quiana and Lauren gathered at the Fairfield home of Quiana’s mentor, Marlene Kimberly along with Valentina’s mentor, Sara Tieke, Annaclaudia’s mentor, Hetty Nerod, and Lauren’s mentor, Laura Canning for some serious Christmas Cookie baking. Merry Christmas to all of our students, staff, mentors and families.
From The New Haven Register
By Eric Anderson Updated 11:28 am EST, Friday, November 23, 2018
STUYVESANT, New York – It was a close call for hundreds of holiday travelers aboard an Amtrak train on Thanksgiving Eve when two of the passenger cars separated from the rest of the train.
The cars had just been attached at the Albany-Rensselaer station to provide more seating for the packed Adirondack, which had originated in Montreal and was heading south to Penn Station in New York City.
A quick-thinking Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute student, freshman Reuben Clarke, of West Haven, Conn., was credited with pulling the emergency brake at the front of the car.
“The car from the back of the train was like leaving us, and I saw sparks and stuff like that and a huge gust of wind,” Clarke, an offensive lineman on the RPI football team and 2018 graduate of Notre Dame High School in West Haven, told CBS 6 News in Albany. “So I just calmed myself down, and I was like, we have to stop the train and make sure everyone was fine.”
The train was carrying 287 passengers and crew when the incident occurred. No injuries were reported, the cars didn’t derail, and passengers were transferred to a new train to continue their trip, state police said. The Adirondack had just left the Albany-Rensselaer station when the cars decoupled about 7:22 p.m.
Trains on that section of track can travel up to 110 mph. It’s not clear how fast this train was traveling when the cars separated.
Clarke “saved our lives tonight,” Helen Mark Crane told CNN. “Our car broke off from the rest of the train and was picking up speed. There was no Amtrak personnel in our car. Reuben calmly went into action and pulled the emergency brake at the front of the car. Thankful he was on the train with my son and I.”
Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams said the railroad is investigating the cause of the separation.
One transportation source said the cars, which he believed were added at the Rensselaer station, should have stopped automatically when they separated. But if they had been improperly connected, the automatic braking might not have worked.
The incident occurred on one of the busiest travel days for Amtrak. The Adirondack was delayed about 3 hours and 15 minutes, Amtrak tweeted, and the northbound Empire Service Train 245’s departure also was delayed because of the late arrival of the crew from the Adirondack.
Read the original article at https://www.nhregister.com/business/article/Amtrak-probes-what-caused-passengers-cars-to-13416229.php?utm_campaign=fb-tablet&utm_source=CMS+Sharing+Button&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR3hYLAVwUFgBSpCaymFIS4xdnN_KCMXTniy5f2J2MvN00PJ8bJ6vs7zpY8#photo-16545701
Thank you to the BIC Corporation and to Chief Financial Officer, Jim DiPietro, who coordinated a career day at their headquarters in Shelton. Fifty-seven students, staff and mentors from both Kolbe Cathedral High School and Notre Dame West Haven attended the event. The day included 12 speakers from all different branches of BIC – marketing, communications, packaging, finance and IT – who spoke with the kids throughout the day. In addition, students were treated to breakfast and lunch and some fun fake tattoos.
