Adopt-A-Student gala raises funds 
for scholarships; students recognized

By Tanya Connor
The Catholic Free Press

WORCESTER – Our country needs a moral compass – and Catholic schools help provide that.

Bishop McManus made this point at the Adopt-A-Student Recognition Reception Dec. 4 at St. Paul Diocesan Jr./Sr. High School.

A college president and a scholarship recipient also hailed the value of Catholic education in their talks.

Despite some changes in date and content this year, the recognition reception is “still a night for celebrating our students, schools and our supporters; it’s their generosity that allows us to run the [Adopt-A-Student] program,” David Perda, superintendent of Catholic Schools, told The Catholic Free Press.

“For more than 35 years, this program has been committed to our mission to assist students whose families would otherwise be unable to send their child to a Central Catholic school in the Diocese of Worcester,” Bishop McManus said in a letter thanking supporters, which was printed in the reception’s program booklet. “Since this program began under the direction of Bishop Timothy Harrington, third Bishop of Worcester, we have granted over 1,300 scholarships.”  

More than $4.3 million in tuition assistance grants has been awarded, says the website adopt-a-student.net/ourhistory.

A total of $150,000 is being applied to the tuition of the Adopt-A-Student scholars during the present school year, according to Jeannie MacDonough, director of school support for the Catholic Schools Office.

“With increased demonstrated financial need among our applicants, the Adopt-A-Student Steering Committee has increased the number of scholarships … by 60 percent over the past year,” says a letter on the website.  

“Our greatest challenge is engaging new donors … to help us meet the ever-increasing demand for aid,” said the bishop’s letter to supporters, noting that, in addition to providing financial support, they can help by “spreading the word about how we are changing lives.”

School heads recommend scholarship candidates, and the Adopt-A-Student Steering Committee’s Selection Committee chooses recipients, based on the students’ financial need, academic merit, extracurricular involvement, adherence to their school’s code of conduct and desire for a Catholic education. Each family must pay a portion of the tuition.

In his talk at the reception, Bishop McManus, a product of Catholic schools himself, said that in 1884 U.S. bishops decided that each Catholic parish should have a school.Although that dream wasn’t realized, in the 1960s, at the enrollment peak, there were nearly six million students in Catholic schools. Through the work of religious sisters and brothers, who made little money, schools took poor, Catholic, immigrants from the peripheries of society to its center, gifting society too, he said.  

He rejoiced that there are priests at St. Paul’s – Father Jose F. Carvajal, head of school, and Father Donato Infante, campus chaplain and director of the diocesan Office for Vocations – who participated in the recognition reception.

Speaker Sean J. Ryan, president of Anna Maria College in Paxton, also a product of Catholic schools, who has worked in Catholic higher education for decades, said he has seen what that education can do for young people. Catholic schools “refuse to separate intellectual excellence from moral formation, career preparation from character development, individual achievement from social responsibility,” he maintained.

He spoke of Anna Maria continuing the mission of the Sisters of St. Anne by making a college education accessible, and told Adopt-A-Student donors, “The support you provide is an investment in the future caregivers and community servants our world needs.”

St. Paul’s senior Michael Herrera said in his talk that being accepted into the Adopt-A-Student Program was one of God’s greatest blessings for him and his family. He told how his mentor from the program, Robert T. O’Connor, was always there for him, and “never stopped believing in me.”

Mr. Herrera said he’s looking forward to what God has in store for him, and hopes to be a role model, like leaders of the Adopt-A-Student Program were for him.

He is one of this year’s scholarship recipients – 18 from St. Paul’s, 14 from St. Peter Central Catholic Elementary School.

He was one of these students who received a recognition award at the reception: the Paul & Dorothy Kervick Award for Leadership.

The other award recipients were: Ana Costanti of St. Paul’s, who got the Wilfred & Bette Iandoli Award for Service; Lyncee Estime, of St. Paul’s, the Bill & Kay O’Brien Award for Best Exemplifying the Values of the Adopt-A-Student Program; and Trenaya Leshore, of St. Peter’s, the Charles & Beth McManus Award for Academic Excellence.

Father Carvajal and Meg Kursonis, St. Peter’s principal, presented their students for the awards.

Superintendent Perda praised steering committee member Joseph J. Bafaro, absent due to an injury, and said he will receive the diocese’s St. Paul Award later.

The full-tuition scholarships from Anna Maria College, Assumption University, and the College of the Holy Cross, each for a qualified St. Paul’s senior who is accepted and enrolls, are to be announced later, because of changes in college admissions processes, Superintendent Perda said.  

Another difference in this year’s recognition reception was that it was held in December, with a winter theme, instead of in the spring. Superintendent Perda said that was to avoid having two fundraisers held close together.  

The other major fundraiser, the Bishop George Rueger Memorial Adopt-A-Student Golf Tournament, was moved from August to June this year, with the change in location from Wachusett Country Club in West Boylston to Blackstone National Golf Club in Sutton.
Making changes, at least for this year, “allows us to try things out,” Superintendent Perda said. “We want them to be fun events that highlight the good work of our students and our schools.”  

Another Adopt-A-Student fundraiser is an end-of-year letter to donors.

“People are getting ready for the tax season,” and might be able to reduce their taxes by making charitable contributions, the superintendent said. “I can’t think of a better cause than Adopt-A-Student.”

The reception raises money in various ways. Superintendent Perda said this week that donations are still expected and proceeds are not yet tallied.

Event sponsors listed in the program booklet consisted of five Platinum sponsors, three Gold Sponsors and seven Bronze Sponsors.  

The $5,000 that Platinum Sponsors donated subsidizes tuition for one student. Gold Sponsors donate $3,000 and Bronze, $1,000.

Individuals, businesses etc. can also just advertise in the program, purchase tickets, and/or make a donation, Superintendent Perda said.  

Prizes for this year’s raffle for the Robert R. Pape Memorial Scholarship Fund were donated gifts from businesses and supporters instead of money. Superintendent Perda said this fund named for Mr. Pape, a steering committee chairman who died in 2022, is one of the funds within the Adopt-A-Student Program.