We are excited to recognize Ti’Anna W. for our ACCESS Academies Student Spotlight program!

Current Grade: 8th
Ti’Anna has been a student at the school since the 4th grade!

Favorite Teacher: Mrs. Vogt, who teaches English / Language Arts

Favorite Subject: English / Language Arts
Ti’Anna is an accomplished writer and has written several poems, one of which was published in 7th Grade Poetry Foundation’s 2015 book.

Favorite Memory of St. Cecilia: “Making the friends I have now. Fernando and Tito are my best friends and we hang out.” We would also like to note that Ti’Ann is exceptionally brave. When students went to Camp Lakewood for their annual outing, Ti’Anna, who is afraid of heights, tried both the Alpine Swing and the Alpine Tower!

Current Academy Electives: Robotics, Cooking, Leadership, Career, and Study Hall

Favorite Academy Elective: Robotics
“I like learning how to program stuff and fix it. We are learning how to turn the robot and lift up its arms.”

Future High School: Accepted to Lutheran High School-South
“My sister went there so I already know some of people who will be there.”   Ti’Anna is proud to note that her sister is in college studying medicine.

Reason Nominated: “Ti’Anna has shown great academic improvement over her 8th grade year. She is a respected leader among her classmates, and friend to all. She is a talented athlete in volleyball as well as track.”

ACCESS Graduate has “Close Up” Educational Experience in Washington D.C.

The following story was published in Hallways, the official student-run newspaper of Nerinx Hall.

Nerinx Hall participated in the recent Close Up Trip in Washington D.C. from February 14th through the 18th. Six Nerinx classmates experienced a “close up” education on politics and the history of American government. Meridian McDaniel, CJ Donegan, Cassie Dawson, Kayla Arnett, Samantha Coleman, and Emilie Garza explored the monuments, museums, and memorials Washington D.C. has to offer.

During their Close Up experience, students were introduced to a variety of opinions and beliefs about different topics in government. They had the opportunity to interact with other teenagers around the country who came from places such as Iowa, Texas, Montana, California, Indiana, and New York. Before they knew it, friendships were formed and snapchats were exchanged.  Nerinx students expressed themselves in their workshops and with the instructors. Small debates were held among workshops and opinions were explained as  Nerinx girls sat in on a liberal vs. conservative debate. Their schedules were packed from 7 o’clock in the morning until 10 o’clock at night, with visits to the Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, seminars, The Library of Congress, and multiple Starbucks runs.

On Capitol Hill day, the students met with Senator Blunt and Senator McCaskill’s staff members. Here, they had the opportunity to ask questions and voice concerns about government topics. The girls had a fun and informal meeting with Emma Kenyon, an alumna from Nerinx who is Senator McCaskill’s Staff Assistant. Kenyon explained how Nerinx has greatly affected her life today. She told the girls that Nerinx teaches its students to never apologize for voicing their opinions. This lesson helped her achieve a great career.

The Close Up experience would not have been possible without guidance and encouragement from Ms. McSorely. Ms McSorely’s passion and excitement for the Close Up Program encouraged Nerinx students to step outside of their comfort zones and interact with other students around the country. Close Up is a thrilling educational adventure. So, bring out the blazers and Hunter Boots and represent Nerinx on Close Up next year!

A Close Up Experience

ACCESS is excited to welcome Jesuit Father Paul Sheridan to the Board of Directors

In 1977, Fr. Sheridan decided that he’d seen the promise of too many young lives extinguished by negative factors and decided to found an organization that would help children reach their potential through a holistic, whole-person, “arms-around” approach. He called the organization Boys Hope, and placed children in the top-rated schools best suited to their needs. He set high expectations—and gave his scholars everything they needed to meet them. As word of the program grew, interest in the program also grew, and Boys Hope expanded into Boys Hope|Girls Hope, encompassing 17 homes around the country and in Latin America.  After almost two decades of service, he retired in 1996.

From 1996-2005, Fr. Sheridan served as the president of St. Louis University High School. During his tenure at SLUH, Fr. Sheridan taught theology and coached the C-baseball team, in addition to his responsibilities as president. Perhaps his greatest achievement as president was to conceptualize VISION 2000, a community-wide endeavor that provided the strategy to secure the future of SLUH, beginning in 1997. This comprehensive campaign, which surpassed its $32-million goal, has made enhancements in the following areas: academics, technology and student life services; scholarship and debt retirement programs; community and campus development; and competitive, on-campus athletic facilities.

While at SLUH, he also helped to found Loyola Academy, a Jesuit middle school for boys in St. Louis that follows the Jesuits’ Nativity School model.

From 2005-2015, Fr. Sheridan served as the president at Bellarmine College Preparatory, an all-boys Jesuit high school in San Jose, CA. During his tenure, he successfully launched and completed a $90M campaign.

Fr. Sheridan holds a Master of Divinity degree from Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a master’s degree in History from Saint Louis University and a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Letters from Fordham University. He was ordained a Jesuit priest in 1975.

SLK Students Learn Coding Thanks to Academy Enrichment Program.

Students at St. Louis the King School at the Cathedral are having fun while learning about programming thanks to an Academy enrichment program taught by Sandy FitzGibbon, the founder of Arete Ed Tech.

Arete EdTech offers an engaging curriculum where students are taught the basics of coding through interactive game design. In fact, the students pictured are creating a “Pac-Man” style game, which has the added benefit of enhancing both critical thinking and problem solving skills.

 

We are excited to recognize Jerriah W. for our ACCESS Academies Student Spotlight program!

Grade: 7^th (arrived to the school in January!)

Current Teacher: Mr. Cherry

Favorite Subject: Science.

Science has been my favorite subject since the 4^th grade because not only do you learn about your body – you learn deep inside your body (genes and traits). Science teaches you phases and the difference between meiosis and mitosis. I am really looking forward to the science fair. In 6^th grade my friend and I earned 2^nd place for our science project on crystals. It was hard because it took two days. The crystals were forming but were forming incorrectly. They were to form around the rock, but they formed on top of the rock. It took us 5 tries to get it to work. This year my science experiment was going to be a rainbow rose- how fast water gets into the rose. However, it was too easy and I decided to do an experiment where I create Oobleck.

Current Enrichment Programs: Character Education, STEM, StuCo, and Chess Club

Favorite Enrichment Program: STEM

I like the technology. Right now we are programming games. We are trying to make our own Frogger game.

Prospective High Schools: Ursuline, Notre Dame, or St. Joseph Academy

These schools have nice science classes and art programs.

Future Career Aspirations: First, I want to study veterinary medicine, but am also considering engineering – specifically coding. I want to create a device to people to use. I would also like to study animation because I like to draw.

Prospective Colleges: I am not sure. Maybe ITT Tech, but I am not positive.

 

We are excited to recognize Madison W. for our ACCESS Academies Student Spotlight program!

Grade: Madison is currently in 6^th grade, and has been attending St. Louis the King since 3^rd grade.

Teacher: Ms. Lay

Favorite Subject: Science
“We are learning about space. Space is interesting because there is no gravity, and lot of stars, colors, and planets.”

Favorite Memory: End-of-the-year field day!  In third grade, Madison’s class played a game called Sponge Race Relay. According to the rules, organizers must divide the players into two teams and have them line up behind a starting line. Each team gets a small empty bucket and a large sponge. At the finish line, place two larger buckets filled with water. Tell the campers that on the word go, the first person in line must run to his/her team’s water bucket, dunk the sponge in, run back with it and squeeze all the water from the sponge into the team’s empty bucket. They then pass the sponge to the next person, and so on until one team fills up their empty bucket with water. That team wins.

Current Enrichment Programs: Building Futures, Robotics, Girl Talk, and Music Writing

Favorite Enrichment Program: “Robotics, because you get to build robots and program them at the same time.”

Activities Outside of School: “I like to play basketball. I play on a parish team called the Anointed Feet, and we are winning this season.”

Hardest Obstacle Faced this School Year: “Learning something new in Mathematics is hard. The first time I try something new in Math it is hard, but when I go back and try again it is easier.”

Future Career Aspirations: “A lawyer because there are many people wrongly accused of crimes, and I want to be there to help them.”

Prospective High School: Cardinal Ritter College-Prep High School

Prospective College: Harvard