Local professionals gained insight into diocesan students’ achievements through school visits, then gathered with administrators for a lakeside lunch where they were served with good news about Catholic education in the Region.
At the Big Shoulders Fund Northwest Indiana’s Lend A Shoulder Day on Nov. 15, creative and scientific lessons were demonstrated by students at Andrean High School and Aquinas Catholic Community School in Merrillville and Queen of All Saints School in Michigan City as guests from education, banking and other sectors noted the characteristics of Catholic education.
A presentation and gourmet meal at White Lodging’s Lighthouse Restaurant on Cedar Lake wrapped up the day which exhibited the living tradition of faith-based learning and encouraged the public to support efforts to further its access.
“It’s always been about the kids; it always will be about the kids,” said Dan Kozlowski, managing director of Big Shoulders Fund Northwest Indiana. “Lend A Shoulder Day is an opportunity to bring together business and civic leaders to celebrate the work (of our organization) and also the work that our schools, administrators and teachers all do collectively to provide a quality education to the students of Northwest Indiana.”
Before a full upper banquet room, Big Shoulders Fund President and Chief Executive Officer Joshua Hale lauded the 9.5% year-over-year enrollment increase at diocesan Catholic schools.
Big Shoulders executive team members praised the healthy climate in the state for educational choice. Hale said the majority in the Indiana legislature and Governor Eric Holcomb continue to support laws that allow more than 90% of Region residents to qualify for financial assistance to offset tuition costs within the Choice Scholarship Program.
According to Eric Roldan, Big Shoulders Fund Northwest Indiana assistant director of marketing and enrollment, the state’s support for parents and students allows the organization to focus on its work with administrators and teachers in professional development and fiscal matters.
Looking over the glistening waves of Cedar Lake from the second floor of the Lighthouse Restaurant, diocesan superintendent of Catholic schools Colleen Brewer reflected on her longtime administrative experience in Illinois, where the Big Shoulders Fund makes a difference in a state whose majority lawmakers oppose school choice.
“(Big Shoulders Fund) is embracing the whole ministry, especially with our state’s opportunities with school choice. They’re spending their resources more on professional development and growing our leaders, teachers and students,” Brewer explained. “They are getting to know the schools really well, so they are invested; they want to take care of our schools.”
The Big Shoulders Fund was founded in Chicago in 1986 by Cardinal Joseph L. Bernardin and backed by business leaders to ensure the viability of Catholic schools. In 2019, the Northwest Indiana initiative, a parallel venture, was launched with the ongoing support of the late Bruce White and his wife Beth White, who supports that legacy for the Diocese of Gary.
Gathered at Andrean High School in Merrillville, guests cycled through biology teacher and head football coach Chris Skinner’s laboratory classroom. The visitors were guided by students including Gina Cappello, senior, and Morgan Cadwallader, junior, who volunteered for the Lend a Shoulder Day.
Morgan’s brother Mitchell Cadwallader, freshman, joined a classmate who shares his first name, Mitchell Myers, tending to a row of test tubes filled with green vegetation and comparing color charts.
“We’re measuring the rate of photosynthesis, based on time, amount of sunlight and temperature,” said Myers, as guest Nathan Shaw, business development coordinator for Notre Dame Federal Credit Union inquisitively looked on. “Basically, we have different environments we are placing the test tubes into.”
On the other side of the high school, art teacher Bridgette Ruehl said she was happy to showcase acrylic painting by her students as well as architectural models in her classroom where the cardinal rule is to be creative.
“One of my students was discussing with me how he wants to go into the culinary arts, and how he thinks this class is a great (venue for) his creativity, which he wants to showcase in his school applications,” Ruehl said. “I think art can touch base with everyone.”
Super PsychEd Support psychologist Charm K. Mosley toured art, English and science classes. So impressed by the respectful comportment of the students, she volunteered that her son would have attended Andrean, if not for their lack of a swimming program.
“In the classroom setting, we saw that the children were really open; they weren’t nervous about us being there,” said Mosley. “They were welcoming … and when explaining the (lessons) that they were going over, we were flustered by the instructions but they were not – they repeated them.”
Mosley continued, “With me working with multiple school districts, seeing this school and how everyone gets along, it was a breath of fresh air to me.”
Carl Kurek, Lakeshore Public Media vice-president of development, said that after seeing more of what Northwest Indiana Catholic schools are about and mixing with other local professionals, he believes that such a partnership is a worthy story that should be broadcast to a greater number of families.
“This really gets people to figure out how they can, in their professional world, support early education and child development,” Kurek said, noting his station’s many child- and youth-focused programs. “Big Shoulders is also an organization that honestly focuses on education and they are starting to look at how they can do things to (develop) pre-K, 0-5 age range (foundational learning.)
Helen Weber is an Andrean freshman from Crown Point (Lakes of the Four Seasons and Winfield area) who appreciated seeing the interest from the Big Shoulders and professionals from around the Region.
“I am definitely excited to see how Andrean ends up (benefitting),” said Weber, whose grandmother was a member of the first graduating class, in 1963. “Coming from a public school, especially a really small school, this is a huge step up for everything – definitely academics and athletics. I came here for both. It feels so much more like a family here. I love it, I’ve made a lot of new friends.
She concluded, “It’s a great school.”
Caption: Andrean High School freshmen Mitchell Myers (second from left) and Mitchell Cadwallader (center) discuss a science project with Big Shoulders Fund president and chief executive officer Joshua Hale (right) in a laboratory at the Merrillville school during Lend A Shoulder Day on Nov. 15. At the third annual academic and philanthropic event, three diocesan schools hosted professionals from throughout the Region who then attended a lunch presentation at the Lighthouse Restaurant in Cedar Lake. (Anthony D. Alonzo photo)