Tag Archives: Tag: Fairfield County
Dear Shepherds Friend,
Welcome to the beginning of a new school year! This is an exciting time as Shepherds welcomes sixteen new young people to our Shepherds’ Class of 2025. We’ve all been highly impressed and encouraged the by way this class of students has bonded in two programs held this two summer – Shepherds’ Cougar Camp for Kolbe Cathedral freshman in August and the Notre Dame’s Summer Xperience held earlier this summer.
It is also an exciting time because our recently graduated Class of 2021 is launching into the next phase of their academic careers. We’ve had a few of these Shepherds graduates stop by our office and it’s been wonderful to see the excitement and confidence they have about their futures. Seeing our graduates achieving their dreams makes all of us at Shepherds very proud of them.
In this newsletter you will see two stories reflecting our past. These stories highlight the enduring nature of what the Shepherds program provides both the student and the mentor. One is about former Shepherds Board Member and Mentor, Ruby Melton. Ruby and her mentee, Ernie Santiago NDWH ’18, remain close friends as he finishes up his degree in nursing at Quinnipiac University. Another look back comes from KCHS ’16 alumnus Jason Howell. In a recent Zoom interview, he discusses the importance of his mentor for life, Tom Luciano. These stories reassure me that we are succeeding in our mission.
As we begin the new school year full of great hope and anticipation, we are obviously still saddled with the COVID-19 pandemic. Our school partners are doing a wonderful job ensuring the academic environment is as normal as possible during this time. We are grateful for their hard work.
While the school year ahead may have some bumps in the road here and there, Shepherds is confident that together with our school partners, our Shepherds Mentors and Students, we can navigate the challenges ahead. “Adapt, Innovate, and Overcome” remains Shepherds’ motto this year and it reflects a deep commitment to our mission of Changing Lives…One Student at a Time – no matter what curves life throws our way. Thank you for your many and generous contributions of time and treasure, and most of all your caring!
Stay safe, well and let’s enjoy the future!
Dan McAuliffe
Shepherds has been a beneficiary of the Foundation’s generosity going back to our founding in 1998. ICF’s funding to Shepherds is relatively unique among our community and corporate foundations as it allows for funding for tuition expenses. Each year’s grants specifically goes to supplement tuition commitments we make to our partner schools.
Earlier this year after over thirty years of support to scores of charitable organizations in Fairfield County, the ICF Board decided to wrap up the Foundation’s mission and distribute its remaining assets. This year’s funding is intended for multi-year deployment in support of 3-5 Shepherds students for their full four years of high school. Thank you Inner City Foundation for Charity and Education for this year’s grant and your many past years of generosity to Shepherds students. We hate to see you go!
Without support from organizations like Inner City Foundation for Charity and Education, Shepherds would be unable to achieve our mission of Changing Lives…One Student at a Time.
Dear Shepherds Friends,
The month of April normally brings many positive themes to our attention – longer days, warmer sun, birds chirping early in the morning, and a budding optimism for the coming months. This year obviously brings all those normal occurrences but with the added cautious optimism of a world recovering from a pandemic health crisis.
For our Shepherds students and community, this spring also brings the opportunity to be back in the classroom more, to engage in team sports, and for students and mentors to see each other in outdoor settings. We again congratulate our students, their families, mentors, our school partners for the good faith effort all put into making this past year as successful as one could hope.
With that renewed sense of optimism and self-confidence, it’s time to call upon on this collective strength of the Shepherds community to help build for the school year 2021 – 2022. As you might realize from the financial and personal repercussions of the last year, the need for a quality education in a safe environment, for a positive role model in the life of a young person and the support of an organization where the 14 year old high school student is the “franchise player” has rarely been greater.
What I am asking is simply to invite our Shepherds family to spread the word about what Shepherds does, the opportunity it provides to underserved individuals, the impact it makes “changing lives”, and the rewards it bestows on students, mentors and donors alike. Being part of the Shepherds team does require tangible effort and resources; the rewards, however, are immeasurable intangibles!
We are now interviewing over 15 students and expect more to be seeking to participate in Shepherds’ Class of 2025. We are seeking mentors and financial resources to meet that demand. The Shepherds’ story sells itself. Thank you for passing it along.
With your assistance we can again prove that We are Better Together, in every sense and application of those words.
Shepherds had to get creative this year with our Career Day due to the pandemic. Mother Necessity is the springboard for innovation, and our first virtual Career Conversation focusing on Healthcare was a smashing success which will impact future Career Days for years to come.
Organized and led by Shepherds Intern, Sydney King, Shepherds Students learned about a variety of healthcare positions, the education and skills needed and what day to day looks like for each career. Using Zoom breakout rooms, students were able to interact with the healthcare professionals in a smaller group.
A special thank you to our volunteers who shared their experiences with our students. Bernie Parks – nurse. Janet Wells – Lab Work. Kara Mather – Sports Medicine. Kathy Colucci – Hospital Pharmacist. Melissa Czajkowski – Nurse Practitioner.
The pandemic has shined a light on socio-economic disparities in education in Connecticut. Per the CT Mirror, this Spring during the COVID-19 shutdown of schools “In Bridgeport, a full half of the student body didn’t show up regularly for remote schooling during the pandemic compared to 19% who were chronically absent before school buildings closed.” Likewise in New Haven, public school district leadership told the State Education Accountability Committee, that during the first week of remote learning this fall an estimated 65% of the students participated. As a point of comparison, Fairfield Warde and Ludlowe High Schools had participation rates in the 90+% this September per CT Data.
Now more than ever, inner city high school students have more barriers to accessing a quality, college preparatory high school education. For 22 years, Shepherds has been addressing educational disparities in Fairfield and New Haven Counties. Our track record speaks for itself. 95% of our students graduate on time and 90% attend institutes of higher learning after high school, as compared to their public school peers graduation rates of 65-75% and college entrance rates hovering around 60%.
The needs of inner city high school students in Connecticut are greater than ever. With a donation to Shepherds today, you will be investing in a student’s future and helping solve the education opportunity gap right in your own backyard.
Mentoring young people relies upon the power of interpersonal connections with their mentors. Maintaining those connections can be challenging during COVID and creating new ones can prove to be even trickier. Shepherds has met these challenges head-on for our new mentors for the students of the Shepherds Class of 2024.
Shepherds has a robust training program for mentors, students and their families which normally takes place in person. COVID has changed our training program to a hybrid of virtual and in-person training which has required some adjustments. We are happy to report that our new mentors and freshman students have begun making solid personal connections.
Zoom meetings kicked off mentor training with a focus on mentoring expectations and mentoring in safe virtual and in-person environments. Our staff was impressed with how engaged our mentors were during these sessions. Up next were parent and student training sessions followed up with in-person meetings for most and a virtual meet up for one mentor, student and parent.
When mentors, students and parents met for the first time, it became clear that it is easy to be social and get to know another and still stay six feet apart. Shepherds Staff witnessed the beginning of new relationships and being physically distant, wearing masks and using hand sanitizer didn’t change a thing.
The final day of Cougar Camp 2020 was a great celebration of new friendships and new skills learned by our Shepherds Students.
Led by KCHS Teacher Alex Szabo, Shepherds Freshman worked together to make ice cream without using a freezer or ice cream maker. Ziploc bags, ice cubes, salt, milk, sugar, vanilla, and cocoa powder for those who wanted chocolate ice cream, were all the supplies used to make a celebratory treat! Students learned a great deal of chemistry while making their dessert. They learned about phase changes, melting points, and how salt can make a difference in freezing temperatures. Learning really is FUN-damental!
Shepherds is incredibly grateful to all the people that help make Cougar Camp 2020 a great orientation week for our Class of 2024! We would like to thank Shepherds Liaison Lisa Matson, KCHC Principal Camille Figluizzi, Dean of Student Life Rich Crocco, librarian and school technology coordinator, Shelly Stedman, and math teacher Ed Steadham.
Cougar Camp 2020 kicked-off the school year for Shepherds Class of 2024 at Kolbe Cathedral High School.
KCHS faculty, Shepherds Staff and Students all observed the proper COVID safety procedures of keeping at least 6 feet apart and wearing face coverings. Despite social distancing, students and staff were still quite social!
Getting to know their fellow Shepherds Classmates and participate in fun STEM-oriented classroom activities were top priorities on the first day of Cougar Camp. In ‘the getting to know each other activities,’ led by Shepherds Liaison Lisa Matson, students learned first-hand that physical distancing from each other doesn’t prevent one from being social.
Executive Director Dan McAuliffe stated, “Cougar Camp is a great opportunity for our newest Shepherds Students to make new friends and get comfortable in their new school. I was very happy to see students together, in person and not in a virtual setting. Lisa Matson and the KCHS staff did a great job in accomplishing their objectives.”
Shepherds Students also became familiar with the KCHS technology environment, their Google Chromebooks, funded by our generous Shepherds Donors, and safe usage of their devices. A tour of the school was given by staff to be sure our Shepherds Freshman are comfortable navigating around their new school.
Stay tuned to learn more about the rest of the Cougar Camp 2024 week’s activities!
At this time of year, Shepherds would be usually be gathering together to celebrate our seniors’ accomplishments and high school graduations. With the health crisis, we are unable to host in-person celebrations. However, that does not diminish our pride in our graduates.
Our students’ hard work and determination, coupled with support from their family, Shepherds mentor and Shepherds program, have led to this moment in time where we now commemorate their achievements.
Congratulations to the Class of 2020! Go forth and do great things!
