Grant to provide support for existing program that brings in highly capable Pontiac-area students who may not have the means to attend Notre Dame Prep.
Kala Parker, NDPMA’s dean of diversity and associate dean of admissions, hosted NDPMA’s first Parent Diversity Collaborative Forum in October.
The $5,000 grant, which comes from The UPS Foundation, was made upon the recommendation of Renee Roberts, who is HR manager for the Great Lakes District of United Parcel Service.
Eduardo Martinez, president of The UPS Foundation, said that the funds will be used by NDPMA toward "providing a pathway for under-represented, diverse, socioeconomically-challenged students seeking to attend a challenging school that fosters 100% graduates attending college.
"And we are pleased that The UPS Foundation is able to make this grant to NDPMA," Martinez said, "and we extend our best wishes for your continued success in the future."
Notre Dame's Stepping Stones program is a six-week summer intensive "camp" followed by five mid-year check-in sessions designed to increase academic readiness and private school eligibility for rising 8th and 9th graders from the Pontiac community.
Kala Parker, who is NDPMA's dean of diversity and associate dean of admissions, said the program helps to prepare students for the academic rigor and pace of top private schools in the area, including Notre Dame Preparatory School.
"Stepping Stones will help reduce the loss of academic information and skills over the summer — a risk that typically increases in urban communities — and helps fill gaps in core subject foundational knowledge, which, in turn, will lead to admission to and success in strong academic high school programs like NDP's," she said.
"I would like to thank UPS for supporting Notre Dame as we take on the responsibility of preparing students from our local community to attend high-performing high schools like Notre Dame and others in the area," said Parker. "Our goal is to increase opportunities for highly capable students that have significant financial need."
For more than 15 years, Notre Dame has partnered with a community organization, Building Bridges, to provide bright and highly capable students from the Pontiac area the benefit of a tuition-free Notre Dame education. The program has grown from having just a few of these students attending Notre Dame Prep to now having 38, with the hopes of doubling that number over the next four years.
"As Building Bridges grew, it became necessary to build in more support for the students as they began and continued through our academic program, so we developed a cohort system that supports them from initial enrollment all the way to graduation," Parker said. "Four years ago, we decided that waiting until initial enrollment to begin support put some students at a disadvantage. Therefore, we developed a 7th and 8th grade volunteer-run mentorship program which provided core academic-, skills-, and character-based instruction throughout the school year and summer to local students from a variety of underperforming traditional public and charter schools."
Parker added that a mentorship program of the Building Bridges caliber and pace is difficult to sustain with only volunteers, which led to the application for The UPS Foundation grant.
"Our current plan going forward is to fund the program by providing a paid certified teacher for the summer intensive and mid-year check-in sessions to ensure its sustainability and longevity," she said.
Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org.
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org