Catholic Schools Week Supplement
16 success stories of Catholic schools in 2016
By John Shaughnessy
The success stories in Catholic schools in the archdiocese are countless.
They range from a young child in grade school learning to read and learning the fundamentals of the Catholic faith to a high school student preparing for college and becoming involved in service that helps change the life of another person.
There are also the success stories that come when a student gives everything they have to their academics, their athletics, their artistic pursuits, their faith.
The 2015-16 school year in the archdiocese has already led to numerous successes, ones that happened quietly and others that gained headlines. Here is a small sampling of those successes, captured in a recap we call, “16 Success Stories of Catholic Schools in 2016.”
- During the past school year, more than 600 Catholic school students in the archdiocese were baptized as Catholics.
- More than $5.6 million was raised in tax credit scholarship gifts in 2015 to help children in the archdiocese receive a Catholic education.
- Troy Cockrum, the director of innovative teaching at St. Therese of the Infant Jesus (Little Flower) School in Indianapolis, was one of just 28 educators in the United States who was chosen to fly on NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, the world’s largest flying telescope.
- When Bishop Chatard High School in Indianapolis won the Class 3A state championship in football, it also established an Indiana record for most state championships in football—13.
- Jay Ruckelshaus, a 2011 graduate of Cathedral High School in Indianapolis, was selected as a Rhodes Scholar, just one of the 32 recent college graduates from across the country to receive the prestigious academic honor this year.
- Catholic high school students in the archdiocese provide more than 100,000 hours of service during the school year.
- The girls’ volleyball team of Our Lady of Providence Jr./Sr. High School in Clarksville won their third straight state championship, this time in Class 3A.
- Audrey Shannon of Our Lady of Providence Jr./Sr. High School was named the winner of the state Class 3A Mental Attitude Award for girls’ volleyball, recognizing her mental attitude, scholarship, leadership and athletic ability.
- Keith Owen of Cardinal Ritter Jr./Sr. High School in Indianapolis was honored for those same qualities when he was selected as the winner of the state’s Class A Mental Attitude Award for boys’ soccer.
- About 94 percent of Catholic high school students in the archdiocese went on to college.
- A team of teachers at St. Barnabas School in Indianapolis was chosen for a special three-year program at the University of Notre Dame that focuses on helping teachers inspire student learning in the areas of science, technology, engineering and math. St. Barnabas is one of just 10 schools from across the country chosen for this summer-based program.
- The girls’ soccer team of Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory School in Indianapolis won the state championship in Class 2A.
- Lindsey Corsaro of Roncalli High School in Indianapolis was named a McDonald’s All-American, a prestigious national honor for high school basketball players.
- The girls’ volleyball team of Cathedral High School in Indianapolis won the Class 4A state championship—completing an undefeated season that solidified its ranking as the number one team in the country.
- St. Anthony Catholic School in Indianapolis made the transition from being a charter school to a Catholic school at the beginning of the 2015-16 school year.
- Enrollment in Catholic schools across the archdiocese is nearly 24,000 students, an increase of about 2,000 students since 2010. And all schools continue to focus on the spiritual, intellectual, social, emotional and physical growth of every young person, with the main goal of preparing them for heaven.
(Gina Fleming, the archdiocese’s superintendent of Catholic schools, also contributed to this story.) †