Future Leaders Scholarships of $5,000 will be awarded 20 students this fall.
A grant of $500,000 from the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company will allow Cathedral High School to award $5,000 in scholarship money to 20 Springfield students enrolling for the first time at the school this fall.
"We are very excited," said Ann Southworth, Cathedral president, of the MassMutal grant that will fund Future Leaders Scholarships. The scholarships, which will help students defray the school's annual tuition cost of $9,300, are renewable for four years, and in the fifth year, another 20 new students will be awarded scholarships.
"It is an exciting time because it looks like our attendance is also going up, our endowment fund is moving along in a positive way and we have been authorized to also award the International Baccalaureate Diploma," Southworth said.
The Cathedral Endowment Fund for Tuition Assistance, which was established in December with a goal of $10 million, currently has $4.5 million "in pledges and/or strong commitments," Southworth said.
She noted that the private Catholic school, whose Surrey Road campus was destroyed by the June 2001 tornado, will continue to be housed in a leased school building in Wilbraham, until the school is rebuilt on its former site. However, she said the grant money from MassMutual, which also gave money toward helping the school become authorized for the International Baccalaureate, along with construction on the new school expected to begin this fall, amounted to the "Phoenix rising from the ashes."
"Sometimes if you tackle disaster head on, it makes you stronger," Southworth said. "We mapped out our strategy in Wilbraham, implemented it and it has been good."
In the release announcing the grant, Nick Fyntrilakis, vice president of community responsibility at MassMutual, made reference to the company being "proud to support" the school as "it embarks on a new chapter in Springfield."
"This grant will provide deserving Springfield students the opportunity to challenge themselves and pursue their educational aspirations, as Cathedral continues to demonstrate its commitment to preparing strong leaders for tomorrow’s workplace," Fyntrilakis said in the release.
Until insurance claims and federal disaster aid agreements were reached with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield, as well as the establishment of the tuition endowment fund, it was unclear whether the diocese would rebuild Cathedral.
Southworth said she currently expects at least 244 students to enroll at Cathedral this fall, an increase of 10 students from last year, and noted that more than half the student body receives financial assistance. She said the grant from MassMutual, which has in previous years awarded scholarships to middle school students to attend private high schools in Springfield tuition free, will help the school further broaden its student body.
"We do have some pretty good diversity and we have many, many students -- 57 percent - on tuition assistance," Southworth said. "We are very interested in increasing our number of Hispanic students, and Vietnamese students who live in Springfield. We have a number of African American students. We are reaching out to students who have not come our way before. We have some of them, but not as many aw we would like. The scholarship, however, is open to anyone who meets the criteria."
Interested scholarship applicants must apply by Aug. 11. Criteria includes being a Springfield resident, being a B average or better student, a proven interest in at least one extra-curricular activity and financial need.
For more information, visit http://www.cathedralhigh.org/