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Providence’s small college-prep institution accepts qualified students, regardless of financial need, and has ties to Bishop-elect James Ruggieri of Portland, Maine.
Four years ago, as she considered which high school to attend, Ashantty Huallanca was aiming for a Providence, Rhode Island, public school where she would study with her friends.
But her mother, Sonia Huallanca, encouraged Ashantty to consider St. Patrick Academy, a small Catholic high school not far from the family’s home that offered a college-preparatory education regardless of ability to pay tuition.
The single mother, originally from Peru, was raising three children and had heard from a friend that the academy could offer her daughter an educational path she wouldn’t have been able to afford elsewhere.
Ashantty, 17, followed her mother’s advice. At St. Patrick Academy, she has greatly benefited from more personalized learning.
As she prepares to graduate this spring with the 17 other students in her class to pursue a career in pediatric nursing, Ashantty has already been accepted by nine colleges and universities.
Ashantty said that in addition to receiving the academic grounding she needed to pursue a college degree, the academy has helped her grow in her connection to God, build better relationships with teachers and learn time management.
“In public school, I used to hate speaking up,” she said. “It was so scary for me to just go up to the teacher. At St. Patrick, I’ve learned if I don’t advocate for myself, I won’t get anywhere, so the teachers have helped me get comfortable with that, too.”
Having watched her daughter work purposefully from her first day at St. Patrick, Sonia Huallanca told the Register she believes in the academy’s education, its teachers and the values it teaches.
Part of a more-than-170-year-history of Catholic education at St. Patrick Church, in a historically majority-Catholic state, St. Patrick Academy is now a diverse, donor-supported, academically rigorous Catholic high school that doesn’t turn away students for inability to pay. Nearly all graduates go on to attend college. Adopting this model through an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Father James Ruggieri “re-founded” the school as an academy, with others from the school and parish, with the aim of a “new, affordable urban Catholic high school.” The academy now has 85 students and a teacher-student ratio of 1:5, according to the academy website. Now Bishop-elect Ruggieri, who served as pastor of St. Patrick Church for 21 years, will be installed as bishop of Portland, Maine, on May 7.
Continued below.
www.ncregister.com
Four years ago, as she considered which high school to attend, Ashantty Huallanca was aiming for a Providence, Rhode Island, public school where she would study with her friends.
But her mother, Sonia Huallanca, encouraged Ashantty to consider St. Patrick Academy, a small Catholic high school not far from the family’s home that offered a college-preparatory education regardless of ability to pay tuition.
The single mother, originally from Peru, was raising three children and had heard from a friend that the academy could offer her daughter an educational path she wouldn’t have been able to afford elsewhere.
Ashantty, 17, followed her mother’s advice. At St. Patrick Academy, she has greatly benefited from more personalized learning.
As she prepares to graduate this spring with the 17 other students in her class to pursue a career in pediatric nursing, Ashantty has already been accepted by nine colleges and universities.
Ashantty said that in addition to receiving the academic grounding she needed to pursue a college degree, the academy has helped her grow in her connection to God, build better relationships with teachers and learn time management.
“In public school, I used to hate speaking up,” she said. “It was so scary for me to just go up to the teacher. At St. Patrick, I’ve learned if I don’t advocate for myself, I won’t get anywhere, so the teachers have helped me get comfortable with that, too.”
Having watched her daughter work purposefully from her first day at St. Patrick, Sonia Huallanca told the Register she believes in the academy’s education, its teachers and the values it teaches.
Part of a more-than-170-year-history of Catholic education at St. Patrick Church, in a historically majority-Catholic state, St. Patrick Academy is now a diverse, donor-supported, academically rigorous Catholic high school that doesn’t turn away students for inability to pay. Nearly all graduates go on to attend college. Adopting this model through an inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Father James Ruggieri “re-founded” the school as an academy, with others from the school and parish, with the aim of a “new, affordable urban Catholic high school.” The academy now has 85 students and a teacher-student ratio of 1:5, according to the academy website. Now Bishop-elect Ruggieri, who served as pastor of St. Patrick Church for 21 years, will be installed as bishop of Portland, Maine, on May 7.
Continued below.
A Catholic School Named for St. Patrick That’s Totally Free and Totally Faithful
Providence’s small college-prep institution accepts qualified students, regardless of financial need, and has ties to Bishop-elect James Ruggieri of Portland, Maine.
