We are excited to recognize Miguel A. for our ACCESS Academies Student Spotlight program!

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ACCESS is pleased to report the academic gains made by middle school students attending our Academy Summer School programs at our three archdiocesan partner schools.

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ST. LOUIS, MO. July 18, 2016 –ACCESS Academies is pleased to announce the new appointments of Marian “Bo” V. Mehan as the Chair of the Board of Directors and Thomas M. Mackowiak as Vice Chair. Their appointments are effective immediately.

 

Marian “Bo” V. Mehan has served on ACCESS Academies Board of Directors as the Vice Chair since the organization’s inception in 2005. She is preceded by John Vatterott, founder, who will assume the new leadership role of Emeritus Chair. Mehan is the Co-Chair of Lewis Rice’s Estate Planning & Probate Department, and a longtime member of the Firm’s Management Committee. Other charitable works include serving as the Board Secretary for the Edward Mallinckrodt Foundation and as a member of the Board of Governors for the Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital Foundation.

 

 

Thomas M. Mackowiak joined ACCESS Academies Board of Directors in 2013, and has been actively engaged with the organization’s strategic long-range plan, including fundraising, organizational growth, and school-based programs.  For more than 28 years, Mackowiak has worked for Enterprise Holdings, Inc. in a variety of management positions including, Vice-President of Finance, St. Louis subsidiary; and Assistant Vice-President-Business Management at the Corporate Headquarters supporting various subsidiaries. He currently serves as the Assistant Vice President – Truck Rental Division.

ACCESS Academies (Academies Creating Challenging Education for St. Louis Students) ensures that socially-and/or economically-disadvantaged students in the St. Louis area have access to top-quality, values-based education, regardless of race, ethnicity or religious affiliation. Beginning in middle school, ACCESS makes a seven-year commitment to each student, and extends the school day and school year to support a robust academic curriculum, homework assistance, service projects and enrichment. ACCESS also provides a school-based Graduate Support Director, who works directly with each student, and their family, from middle school, through high school, and into college.

During the 2015-16 school year, 87% of ACCESS students qualify for federal poverty programs; however, because of the hard work of each student, dedicated parental involvement, strong partnerships, and ACCESS’s support and services:

• 98% of ACCESS students are admitted to private, college-prep high schools
• 99% of ACCESS students graduate on-time
• 94% of ACCESS students are accepted to college or other post-secondary institutions

For more information regarding this release, please contact Julie Linder, Public Relations for ACCESS Academies, by calling (573) 268-0639 or emailing [email protected].

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ST. LOUIS, MO. July 1, 2016 –ACCESS Academies would like to welcome Mrs. Mary Loux as the new principal at St. Cecilia School & Academy.

For the past several years, Mary Loux has served the students at St. Cecilia School & Academy, first as a Jesuit Volunteer then as an educator teaching reading and writing. Before assuming her new role as principal, Loux taught Mathematics for grades 6, 7, and 8, and worked as the ACCESS Academies school-based Academy Director. She is fluent in Spanish and holds her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Master of Arts in Instruction from St. Mary’s University in Minnesota. Later this month she will graduate with her Master of Arts in Educational Leadership from the University of Notre Dame.

St. Cecilia School and Academy, located at 906 Eichelberger Ave., has been an institution in South St. Louis since its founding in 1908. It offers a non-tuition based education for students in grades Kindergarten through 8th grade through the support of the St. Louis Archdiocese, the Today and Tomorrow Foundation, and ACCESS Academies.

Students in Kindergarten through Fifth Grade receive a strong academic base due to a carefully cultivated curriculum that offers:

• Small class sizes
• Instruction in core subject areas
• Technology integrated into instruction and learning
• After school tutoring and mentoring
• Enrichment activities

Upon entering middle school, students are enrolled in the school-based ACCESS Academy program, which:

• Extends the school day and school year to provide additional academic support. This includes a robust academic curriculum, homework assistance, service projects, and enrichment.
• Encourages family involvement to further support the physical, social, emotional, and academic well-being of each student.
• Eases the transition to high school and into college through graduate support. This includes, but not limited to, tutoring, mentoring, academic scholarships, and monitoring each student’s individual academic growth and achievement through high school and into college.

For more information regarding this release, please contact Julie Linder, Public Relations for ACCESS Academies, by calling (573) 268-0639.

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Students from St. Cecilia Plant Monarch Garden for Riverfront Butterfly Byway

We would like to thank Catherine Werner, Sustainability Director for the City of St. Louis Mayor’s Office, for sharing the following message with our office:

Thanks to a $40,000 grant award from the U.S. Conference of Mayors and ScottsMiracle-Gro, Mayor Francis Slay has launched the St. Louis Riverfront Butterfly Byway.

The 1,500 square foot portion of the Riverfront Butterfly Byway in Bellerive Park has been planted by students of St. Cecilia School & Academy and Carondelete Leadership Academy, as well as four local community groups. Over time, the Byway will be become a pollinator pathway along a 19-mile stretch of the Mississippi River in the City of St. Louis. Not only will the gardens provide important pollinator habitat consisting of native prairie plants, but they will serve for educational opportunities for residents to connect with nature and learn the importance of pollinators to our ecosystem. The effort is an expansion of Milkweeds for Monarchs: The St. Louis Butterfly Project, which aims to bolster the dwindling monarch population while better connecting people with nature.

For more information regarding this announcement, please click here or visit the City of St. Louis Sustainability Office at https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/sustainability/

 

 

Photos provided by Catherine Werner, Sustainability Director, City of St. Louis Mayor’s Office

“AIMING HIGH: ACCESS ACADEMIES” By: Alexa Beattie, Town & Style Magazine

 

Pictured: Terry Mehan, Joan and John Vatterott; Photo by Colin Miller of Strauss Peyton Photography

 

Belief is a powerful force. Expectation is the key to success, says Carolyn Dubuque, ACCESS Academies’ director of mission effectiveness. ACCESS stands for Academies Creating Challenging Education for St. Louis Students, and since its founding in 2005, it has dispatched 98 percent of all its eighth-grade graduates from three city Catholic schools—St. Louis the King School at the Cathedral, Most Holy Trinity School & Academy and Saint Cecilia School and Academy—to private and Archdiocesan college-prep secondary schools such as St. Mary’s, Bishop Dubourg and Notre Dame high schools, Chaminade, Villa Duchesne, Christian Brothers College and Nerinx Hall. The vast majority of students come from disadvantaged backgrounds, and all benefit from homework assistance, service projects, extended school day, summer school programs, and enrichment programs that begin when a child enters sixth grade and last throughout middle school. “Middle school is a critical time for kids,” Dubuque explains. “They can excel or they can go off the rails.” But ACCESS, she says, holds their hands. “We give them opportunities they otherwise wouldn’t have: dance, poetry, book and track clubs and one-on-one tutoring. By always talking to students about high school and college, they have a goal to work toward.”

ACCESS makes a seven-year commitment to its students by easing the transition from middle to high school and providing assistance with the college process through one-on-one counseling with their graduate support director, ACT test prep, college tours, college application and essay support, and FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) counseling. All services and programs are free, made possible by donations from foundations and individuals, and by fundraisers. The largest of these, the annual scholarship dinner, takes place June 1 at the Four Seasons Hotel. All money raised is shared among the high school students and goes directly toward their tuition scholarships. ACCESS awards scholarships based on need; the balance is paid by the families themselves and school financial aid.

“We exist because we want to end the cycle of poverty through education and make sure our kids attend quality high schools,” says Terry Mehan, associate graduate support director at Saint Cecilia School and Academy. “In the city of St. Louis, going to a public high school is not always the best fit.” Graduate support directors build strong relationships with parents, teachers and counselors, often serving as advocates for families, some of whom don’t speak English (96 percent of all ACCESS students are African-American or Hispanic). Many students are the first generation in the family to go to college. The process is new and hard to navigate. “Some of our families have pretty daunting challenges, but they all want a better life for their kids,” Mehan says.

Like a proud parent, Mehan (a volunteer) has seen 109 of his students off to college; 94 percent of graduates are admitted to post-secondary institutions each year. Although the support director’s official role comes to an end at that point, Mehan says he and former students often stay in touch via Facebook and other means.

“Our message to all our kids is that a successful future is possible,” Dubuque says. To give students a taste of that possibility, ACCESS leads field trips to colleges like Saint Louis University, University of Missouri-St. Louis and Ranken Technical College. “We give them exposure, we show them what to reach for.”

The eighth annual ACCESS Academies Scholarship Dinner, sponsored by the Vatterott Foundation, takes place June 1 at the Four Seasons Hotel-St. Louis. Pictured on the cover: Students Leslie V., David T. and Evett A. For information and tickets call 314.898.0430 or visit accessacademies.org.

Cover design by Julie Streiler | Photos by Colin Miller of Strauss Peyton Photography
Pictured: Terry Mehan, Joan and John Vatterott