School news: Women making headlines, scholarships and an Eagle Scout project

 

School Sister of Notre Dame Patricia McCarron, headmistress of Notre Dame Preparatory School, is one of six recipients of the National Catholic Education Association’s Educational Excellence Award, according to the Towson school. 

School Sister of Notre Dame Patricia McCarron

The award honors Catholic secondary school educators for their service and dedication, outstanding contributions to Catholic secondary education and achievements in Catholic secondary education at the local, diocesan, state and national levels, according to NDP. 

Sister Patricia will receive the award next month during NCEA’s annual awards luncheon in Pittsburgh.  

“I am deeply honored by this award and recognize that it is one I share with the entire Notre Dame Prep community,” Sister Patricia said in a statement. “Being part of NDP, a place which has educated girls for 141 years in the School Sisters of Notre Dame tradition to become young women who transform the world, is a great joy.”

Sister Patricia has served as NDP’s headmistress since 2005.

 

Mary L. Funke, president of the Institute of Notre Dame, has been named one of the 2014 Maryland Top 100 Women by The Daily Record, according to the Baltimore school.

The award recognizes “outstanding achievement by women demonstrated through professional accomplishments, community leadership and mentoring,” according to The Daily Record.

Funke was selected from among 370 applicants by a panel of judges that included business professionals and past Maryland’s Top 100 Women winners, according to the school. She will receive the award May 5 at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore. 

Funke has served as IND’s president since July 2011.

Loyola University Maryland has received a $1.5 million pledge from alumnus David Ferguson and his wife, Kathy, to create an endowed scholarship for Loyola students who demonstrate financial need, the Baltimore school has announced.

The Duard L. and Mary L. Ferguson Scholarship Fund is named for Ferguson’s deceased parents, according to Loyola.

“Our gift is a great way to recognize my parents, and it’s the beginning of something incredibly valuable to students over the coming decades,” Ferguson said in a statement. “We feel this scholarship will be especially pertinent as we think about educating the whole person, and about making Jesuit education specifically available to students who may not have that opportunity otherwise.”

The gift builds on and changes the focus of an existing endowed scholarship fund Ferguson created at Loyola after his father’s death, according to the school. For 20 years, the Duard L. Ferguson fund has benefited students with special physical needs. The new fund will support exceptional students who demonstrate financial hardship.

“As a Jesuit university, Loyola is particularly concerned with ensuring that our education is affordable and accessible for our students,” Jesuit Father Brian F. Linnane, Loyola’s president, said in a statement. “This gift from David and Kathy Ferguson makes a profound difference for students – and their families – who recognize the value of a Loyola education, but need extra support to make it possible.”

Ferguson’s career in private equity spans nearly three decades, including 15 years as a partner at JPMorgan Chase and a decade at Weston Presidio, according to Loyola. He works at Perella Weinberg Partners, an independent advisory and asset management firm in Manhattan, where he co-founded the private equity effort in 2012. Ferguson serves on Loyola’s Board of Trustees.

Taylor Nicole Lutz, a 2011 graduate of Mount de Sales Academy in Catonsville, was recently awarded The Elizabeth Wainio Memorial Communication Scholarship Endowment Fund Scholarship. Lutz is a third year student at Towson University.

The scholarship is named for Elizabeth Wainio, who was aboard United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in a Pennsylvania field on Sept. 11, 2001. 

St. John’s Catholic Prep sophomore Zach Foss completed his Eagle Scout project by piecing together floor baselines and the center court Viking emblem from the McSherry gymnasium floor, then hanging the large structures in the new SJCP gymnasium.  (Courtesy St. John’s Catholic Prep)

Zac Foss, a sophomore at St. John’s Catholic Prep, recently completed his Eagle Scout project at the Buckeystown school.  

Foss pieced together floor baselines and the center court Viking emblem from the school’s gymnasium floor at its former Prospect Hall campus in Frederick, then hung the large structures in the new gym, according to the school.

The Catholic High School of Baltimore recently started a networking skills training academy in collaboration with Cisco, a leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate, according to the school.

Courses are delivered in partnership with Cisco Networking Academy, a global education program that helps students prepare for careers in network security and administration, technical support and healthcare IT; professional certifications; and higher education in engineering, computer science and related fields, according to the school.

The academy at Catholic High will initially offer an honors IT essentials course, which will be administered through Cisco NetSpace, Networking Academy’s cloud-based learning and collaboration environment, according to the school.

Online course materials were developed by Cisco and global educators and include network simulation exercises, labs and assessments that provide remedial feedback to help reinforce important concepts, according to the school. Catholic High plans to partner with local businesses to identify internship and career opportunities for graduates.  

Sixth-grader Caroline Seay (from left), fourth-grader Will Archacki and sixth-grader George Carey participated in a faith-based challenge at St. Joseph School in Fullerton. (Courtesy St. Joseph)

 

Students at St. Joseph School in Fullerton celebrated Catholic Schools Week in January by participating in a faith-based challenge, according to the school. 

Students in third through eighth grade competed in teams against each other, fielding questions about Catholicism.

Sixth-grader Caroline Seay placed first, fourth-grader Will Archacki placed second and sixth-grader George Carey placed third.