Minnesota foundation provides boost for students at five Catholic schools in Baltimore archdiocese

The high school class of 2021 in the Archdiocese of Baltimore will include nearly 40 students whose education included the assistance of scholarships that began in, of all places, Minnesota.

The Flaherty Family Foundation is based in Eden Prairie, a suburb of Minneapolis. Four years after it began providing partial four-year scholarships to “high-achieving students with economic need” to Catholic high schools in the archdiocese, it will celebrate its first graduates here.

After it had established a presence in Washington, D.C., it was natural for the foundation to branch out to Baltimore, according to Beth Flaherty, its executive director.

“After making connections in the Catholic community, we decided to head to Baltimore,” said Flaherty, whose father, Ed, credits his success as a Twin Cities businessman to his Catholic education in Great Falls, Mont. “We help bridge the gap between the cost of high school and what a family can afford.”

Archbishop Curley, Calvert Hall, Mercy, Mount St. Joseph and Our Lady of Mount Carmel are its formal partner high schools in the archdiocese.

The Institute of Notre Dame was in that number until it closed last summer. The majority of its Flaherty scholars moved on to The Catholic High School of Baltimore; two others will graduate from Maryvale Preparatory in Lutherville, and St. Vincent Pallotti in Laurel, in the Archdiocese of Washington.

Nine of the 38 Flaherty scholars in the archdiocese’s class of 2021 came from one of its three tuition-free middle schools: St. Ignatius Loyola Academy, Mother Seton Academy and Sisters Academy of Baltimore.

Four hail from Mother Seton Academy, which has that same number of Flaherty scholars in the eighth-grade class it will graduate this spring.

“We’re blessed to partner with the Flaherty Foundation,” said School Sister of Notre Dame Peggy Juskelis, the president of Mother Seton Academy. “They’ve supplied emotional and financial support to our graduates. They make a quality Catholic education available to students who do not have the needed resources.”

Like Flaherty, those three middle schools track and support their graduates right through college.

“We’re all focused on students from low-income families,” said School Sister of Notre Dame Delia Dowling, the president of Sisters Academy, “and they know our students are prepared for high school. We follow our students once they leave here, so the Flaherty Foundation fits perfectly with our mission.”

Julissa Vargas, a graduate of Sisters Academy, earned a Flaherty scholarship to Mercy and a spot in its select Project Lead the Way program. Her older sisters, Rebecca and Yolanda, went to Mother Seton Academy. Rebecca was in the class of 2016 at Mercy High, and went on to UMBC.

Vargas, who is in the Mercy class of 2022, was just excited that someone from Flaherty came to Sisters Academy to interview her.

“This is an amazing opportunity,” she said. “Mercy was more diverse than some other schools; it reached me on a personal level.”

Mercy’s class of 2021 includes seven Flaherty scholars, who came from schools such as Cardinal Shehan, Holy Angels, Immaculate Heart of Mary and St. Ursula.

Nowhere is the Flaherty Family Foundation more popular than at Mount St. Joseph. Its class of 2021 has 12 Flaherty scholars, including products of St. Augustine, St. Louis, Monsignor Slade and Trinity, as well as St. Ignatius Loyola Academy.

Archbishop Curley’s distinguished students in art include Justin Fowlkes, another St. Ignatius Loyola grad. Curley’s six Flaherty scholars in the class of 2021 also hail from parish schools such as St. Clement Mary Hofbauer, St. Casimir and St. Philip Neri.

The upper school at Our Lady of Mount Carmel includes six Flaherty scholars. All came though its lower school.

For some, support from the Flaherty Family Foundation won’t stop at high school graduation.

“My dad asked, ‘What’s next?’ ” Beth Flaherty said. “This year, we’re launching college scholarships.”

Email Paul McMullen at pmcmullen@CatholicReview.org

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