Mike Donahue, a Notre Dame West Have alumnus, is a pro at being a Shepherds Mentor. This year Mike celebrated the NDWH graduation of his FOURTH Shepherds student. With that much experience, we asked Mike to share with us what makes him come back each time.

“When your student graduates from high school, you’ll look back on the past four years. It’s a great feeling knowing that your words of encouragement, “You’re doing a good job,” or the motivational effect of asking “What can I do to help you achieve your goals?”  helped your student achieve success in high school–a success that directly impacts his or her success in college and in life.  Being involved in the Shepherds program is an invaluable experience–for your student and for you.

When invited to become a Shepherds mentor again, it’s an invitation I cannot refuse and am happy to accept. “

Mike is picture here with his student Maicol, ND ’21. Maicol will be attending Fairfield University this fall.

Celebration!

Perhaps it’s the post pandemic version of Newton’s Third Law of Motion* that makes this spring’s celebration of completing the school year and our seniors’ graduation that much more celebratory and joyous.

The forces of the health crisis, job disruptions, and hybrid school days that pushed us into isolation and worry generated the deservedly powerful rebound of our spirits and appreciation of what our 17 seniors in particular, and all of our Shepherds students accomplished this past year. The words “admirable resilience” understates the character, drive and perseverance of what we have seen from the graduating seniors and all of our Shepherds students.

This month we celebrated the seniors’ perseverance, hard work, their successes, and their futures.  They set a standard for their classmates to aim for. They set an example of what the rest of us can learn from.

The Shepherds organization congratulates our graduating seniors, their families, mentors, and school teachers, counselors and administrators for bringing home a success story that we’ll likely be telling for many years. 2020 – 2021 is the past… the future is unknown but we have learned that we as “team” are on the rebound for bigger and better things.

Lives have changed – our students’, our mentors’ and all of us around and with you for the past four years. Congratulations!

Have a wonderful and safe summer!

*Law of Action and Reaction (PS I had to Google this)

Dear Shepherds Friend,

With just a little over three months to go in this school year, our successful 2020 COVID motto, Adapt, Innovate and Overcome is graduating early. From lessons learned over the past year and new skills developed, we celebrate a new sense of community in the Shepherds family. Building on the past and looking ahead, we inaugurating our new motto, “We’re Better Together.”

This health crisis has forced us to take stock of what is important and, more importantly, who is important in our lives. There has been nothing ‘extra’ during the past year. Everyone has been forced to winnow our personal contacts and activities to the bare essential – to the crucial.

The Shepherds team recognizes more than ever your indispensable role in our mission of closing the education opportunity gap in Fairfield and New Haven counties.

On behalf of the Shepherds Board and Staff, I want to take this opportunity to recognize and thank our mentors, families, school liaisons and school partners for pulling together and making this past school year a successful one, despite the challenges faced on so many levels. Each one of you is part of our critical ‘pod’, ensuring the success of our program for our Shepherds Students. There is still more work to be done.

As we are hopeful about the end of this health crisis with vaccines rolling out at a steady clip, Shepherds is already looking to the future by planning for the fall of 2021 by lining up mentors and financial resources for the incoming class. Circling back to our motto of We’re Better Together, we would like to ask that you become Shepherds Ambassadors by sharing information about our program with individuals like yourself who want to make a big impact on high school students in their own backyard. We will be sending a Spread the Word About Shepherds Tool Kit in another email soon. We appreciate any assistance you can give us.

Working together, we believe the future is bright for current Shepherds Students and the incoming class of 2025. Real change is more than any one of us can do alone – but it’s not more than all of us can do TOGETHER.

Cheers..

Dan McAuliffe

Executive Director