Boston Volunteers Help Catholic School Students Prepare for College
Senior year of high school can be a challenging time for students, especially when deadlines approach for applying to college. To aid in this process for one school in Boston, members of the Boston Advocates for Catholic Education (BACE) volunteered their time to make the college application process just a little bit easier.
BACE, a region of the ACE Advocates initiative comprised of graduates and friends of the Alliance for Catholic Education, recently hosted an Essay Night at Cristo Rey Boston High School in partnership with the Catholic Schools Foundation (CSF). They met with twenty seniors at Cristo Rey to help them write and edit their college application essays.
"The idea was that the BACE volunteers wanted to directly serve students in Catholic schools," Liz Fennell, an ACE 12 graduate and member of BACE, said. "We thought that working with the students on their college essays would give them a set of fresh eyes on this important part of their college application process."
Before Fennell moved back to her hometown of Boston, BACE had established Essay Night at a different Catholic high school. Three years ago, Fennell approached CSF to co-sponsor the event, and the two organizations together decided to move Essay Night to Cristo Rey Boston.
According to Mike Mansfield and Teresa Battaglia, college counselors at Cristo Rey Boston, students reported that Essay Night encouraged and reenergized them in to finish their college essays. One even described the help given by the BACE members as phenomenal.
The students are not the only ones who experience the blessings of Essay Night, however, Fennell said.
"Essay Night is one of BACE members' favorite events. As volunteers, we get to work directly with the high school seniors. It is a gift to listen to their stories and work with them to get their message across to the reader. Every year, both students and volunteers are grateful for the experience. These students have incredible stories and will be assets to the college campuses they call home next year."
If you are interested in beginning an Essay Night at a Catholic school in your area, contact Liz at BostonLovesCatholicSchools@