EMC Corp., a leading data-storage software package and hardware business, and insurance giant Liberty Mutual Group have each and every donated $1 million on the Pope John Paul II Catholic Academy in Boston.
The gifts are going to be employed to boost the math, science, and language curriculums at the academy, a five-campus school with about 1,325 pupils in prekindergarten as a result of eighth grade.
With these gifts, the Campaign for PC Pro School Minneapolis, an effort to rebuild and revitalize the Catholic educational facilities of the Archdiocese of Boston, has raised $48.5 million from the $70 million required to complete the academy, which consolidated seven parish colleges into a regional academy.
The Campaign for Catholic Educational facilities has also undertaken college consolidation and revitalization in Brockton, Gloucester, and South Boston. All told, it has secured nearly $58.8 million on the virtually $85 million to finish every one of the projects it has planned.
The eighth-grade science classroom on the academy’s Columbia Road campus, exactly where a press conference announcing the latest gifts was held yesterday, showed what the fund-raising advertising campaign has currently aided to purchase. The spotless classroom had new windows; bright, wood-paneled floors; well-equipped science labs, and walls lined with textbooks.
Students of each race and ethnicity, wearing navy blue uniforms, sat at their desks and listened attentively. According on the archdiocese, 99 percent of them will graduate, and 97 percent will go on to attend post-secondary school.
This school along with the salesmanship of retired advertising executive Jack Connors, chairman on the Advertising campaign for Catholic Colleges, assisted persuade Liberty Mutual’s chief executive, Edmund F. Kelly, and EMC chief executive Joseph M. Tucci to dig into their corporate pockets.
Connors brought Kelly and Tucci to the Columbia Road campus about a year or so ago, plus they were definitely impressed with what they saw: well-prepared, disciplined college students, some from the poorest corners in the city, who have been eager to talk about what they were being studying.
“They fell in love with you, the way you might be, the fire inside your eyes,’’ Connors told the pupils yesterday. “… And they gave this income mainly because they believe which you are and which you is going to be even a lot more exclusive inside close to future.’’
Kelly and Tucci, noting that Catholic schools welcome pupils of any religion, stated that by supporting the educational facilities, they could achieve youths who most require better educational opportunities and make sure they get them.
“You’re genuinely helping families that need to have assist,’’ Tucci explained. “You get the feeling we’re changing lives.’’
Kelly stated: “It is really a model that creates results.’’
Both guys attended Catholic educational institutions, Tucci in New York state, and Kelly in Ireland.
Pope John Paul II Academy saw enrollment drop slightly during the recession previous yr. Even though it truly is projected to rise up coming 12 months above 1,400 college students, concerning the range it had previous calendar year, the academy is closing its central campus in Dorchester when the university 12 months ends. Nearly all the students from that campus will move to one on the other four campuses. Additionally for the Columbia Road campus in Dorchester, the others are in Lower Mills, Neponset, and Mattapan.
The 5 campuses had capacity for 2,200; the four-campus arrangement has room for 1,800, explained Kathleen Driscoll, president of the Campaign for Catholic Schools. “It’s a reality check,’’ she explained. “The economic recession hit our families deeply last yr.’’
Posted on Wednesday, 12 May 2010
EMC, Liberty Mutual donate $1m each to Catholic school
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