St. Mary School seventh-grader Molly Passow was one of 16 elementary school students to be honored in August with the Bishops' Scholarship for…
Scholarship for Excellence
St. Mary School seventh-grader Molly Passow was one of 16 elementary school students to be honored in August with the Bishops’ Scholarship for Excellence from the Catholic Education Endowment Trust. She was the only student from Lake or Geauga county to be recognized this year. The scholarship is awarded to students after an extensive essay and application process.
This year’s contest focused on the topic of bullying. Molly chose to write about a situation in which she was able help someone solve a challenge encountered.
Molly said, “We use the S.T.A.N.D program at our school, so that was really helpful for me when I wrote my essay.”
S.T.A.N.D. (Students Together And Not Divided) is a program specific to St. Mary School created by teacher Jenny Rodriguez. Students get together before school twice a month to discuss any social concerns and the older grades act as mediators and mentors for the younger students. All meetings begin with a prayer and the promise that no one is ever alone and that members will to lead by their example.
The Bishops’ Scholarship for Excellence program is in its 17th year and awards scholarships to both high school and elementary school aged students. St. Mary School is honored to have one of its students recognized again this year. Last year, eighth-grader Kaylie Malloy was recognized as well.
Development Director Maureen Intihar said, “It’s nice when others recognize the excellence in our students that we see everyday. We hope to maintain a long standing tradition of involvement with the scholarship program.”
New Technology For A New Year
Each St. Mary School junior high student will be starting out the school year with new technology and learning opportunities as a part of a big gift from the PTU and generous donors. They will each be receiving a Dell 2-in-1 laptop to help launch the 1:1 technology program for the school.
A 1:1 classroom is a classroom where each child has a laptop. The access that a laptop gives the student is endless. Best practices, such as differentiated instruction, activity based learning and collaborative learning, can all take place easily in a classroom where everyone has access to the same technology. Teachers can easily adapt lessons for each individual student and students can work at their own pace.
Students will be able to use their device in tablet, standing, tent and laptop modes, allowing all the functions of both a tablet and laptop.
Junior high teacher Amber Yeager said, “the 1:1 program allows us to include virtual labs and 3-D models into our lessons, gives students 24-7 access to tutoring help and allows for remedial follow up questions when a students may need it.”
The junior high students will be responsible for using their laptop in school all day replacing many of their traditional textbooks.
Eighth-grader Taylor Slish said, “We are excited to get our new laptops because we will be able to use them as a touch screen for research, scroll through for reading, but also have a keyboard for writing work.”
