Lisa Piccolo

Staff Writer

Marywood has partnered with Holy Cross High School in Dunmore for a new scholars program, which will allow Holy Cross students to take advanced-level and college-credit courses at Marywood.
The program brings Holy Cross sophomores, juniors, and seniors onto Marywood’s campus, giving them first-hand experience of what academics and volunteering programs Marywood has to offer. The program is also intended to help the high school students make a successful transition from high school to college level academics.

Students may take courses in liberal arts, mathematics, or science. They also have the opportunity to be involved in a program run by Campus Ministry, which will give them an orientation to the Marywood Core Values, service.

Ms. Ann Boland-Chase, vice president for Enrollment at Marywood, said that the program is off to a good start. “At this point, it’s just the first year of the program, and we have seven students and then we have a cohort of students interested for next year. They are going to begin a leadership training program this fall,” Boland-Chase said. According to Boland-Chase, next year’s class will include fifteen students.

According to Sister Catherine Luxner, IHM, Director of Campus Ministry, the service experiences that the high school students will receive here are ones that they can apply within their own lives.
“Eventually they may get involved with a service project, or our students may help them do service or get students engaged in service from their school. So, they take some of the things we’ve done here and transfer them to Holy Cross so that they will be the leaders there,” Luxner said.

While taking classes, students will be also meeting with current college students, some of the Maxis-Gillet scholars—students who excel in community service in high school and continue through college—from Campus Ministry.

According to Andrea Fritchey, Maxis Gillet Scholar and sophomore Marywood student, these meetings are a way to track how the Holy Cross students grow during this program. “[This program is] a way for us to impart some of the wisdom that we got in the last couple of years since we [were] in high school,” Fritchey said. The mentorship program is also one designed to give Holy Cross students the skills they need to get through the rest of their high school careers and to begin college life. “[This program] will give [Holy Cross students] a way to know what they want for their future and where they want to go to school and be in a great community like Marywood,” Fritchey said.