• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Catholic Review

Catholic Review

Inspiring the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Menu
  • Home
  • News
        • Local News
        • World News
        • Vatican News
        • Obituaries
        • Featured Video
        • En Español
  • Commentary
        • Contributors
          • Bishop Robert Barron
          • George Weigel
          • Question Corner
          • Effie Caldarola
          • John Garvey
          • Father Ed Dougherty, M.M.
          • Guest Commentary
        • CR Columnists
          • Archbishop William E. Lori
          • Rita Buettner
          • Suzanna Molino Singleton
          • Christopher Gunty
          • George Matysek Jr.
          • Paul McMullen
          • Father Joseph Breighner
          • Father Collin Poston
          • Father T. Austin Murphy Jr.
          • Robyn Barberry
          • Hanael Bianchi
          • Amen Columns
  • Entertainment
        • Events
        • Movie Reviews
        • Arts & Culture
        • Books
  • About Us
        • Contact Us
        • Our History
        • Meet Our Staff
        • Photos to own
        • Books/CDs/Prayer Cards
  • Advertising
  • CR Radio
  • Printing
  • Subscribe
Partners in Excellence scholar alumna Alexis Watson at the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Partners in Excellence scholarship breakfast at the Legg Mason Tower in Baltimore Sept. 6. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

Mount St. Mary’s product: PIE scholarship ‘changed my life’

Paul McMullen September 7, 2018
By Paul McMullen
Filed Under: Feature, Local News, News, Schools

Alexis Watson needed just seven semesters to earn a degree in communication from Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, where last week she began work on her master’s in business administration.

The 22-year-old is employed by the Mount as a program coordinator in alumni engagement, and already knows her way around development and marketing, having served as the face of its “Live Significantly” campaign during the previous school year, which put her on radio, TV and billboards.

Dr. Donna Hargens, Ed.D., superintendent of Catholic schools, left, and Constellation representative, Janaé Lawson, meet following the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Partners in Excellence scholarship breakfast at the Legg Mason Tower in Baltimore Sept. 6. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

None of that would have happened, according to Watson, without the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Partners in Excellence (PIE) scholarship program. It allowed her to attend the former Seton Keough High School, which she said made for an easy transition to the Mount.

“This literally changed my life,” Watson told Archbishop William E. Lori and a room filled with benefactors during the annual PIE breakfast at the Legg Mason Tower Sept. 6. “There is no way I was going to a Catholic high school without it.”

Watson described growing up in Pikesville and thriving in public school, despite being bullied. Her single mom, Elizabeth, worked in an office where the supervisor’s daughter was “excelling” at Seton Keough. Before Watson’s “shadow day” there was done, she was sold on Catholic schools.

“In a Catholic school, you are never ignored,” said Watson, who shared an anecdote involving Kathleen Jauschnegg, one of her teachers at Seton Keough. “I remember my homeroom teacher scolding me for not wearing a hat and gloves on a cold day. Where does that happen?”

PIE’s investment in her aptitude and work ethic forecast her earning a presidential scholarship and the Agnes Cogan Waterman Memorial Scholarship to the Mount. Her college internships included Maryland Public Television; the Northeast Conference, which includes the Mount’s athletic teams; and the university’s athletic department.

Watson made history as the youngest member of the President’s Council at Mount St. Mary’s, a position she had to give up once she became an employee of the university.

“I also met my fiancé there,” Watson said, pointing to Josh Poole, an assistant track and field coach at the Mount and fellow MBA candidate. They are to be married in September 2019.

The Cardinal Shehan School choir sings the opening prayer for guests attending the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s Partners in Excellence scholarship breakfast at the Legg Mason Tower in Baltimore Sept. 6. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

The PIE program was launched in 1996. Through the 2017-18 school year, it had awarded more than $31 million in Catholic school scholarships to approximately 26,500 children from low-income families.

Some of its benefactors go beyond monetary donations, as the Partners in Excellence Award went to Constellation, which every other Wednesday sends 25 of its employees to Cardinal Shehan School, where they mentor 80 boys and girls in the seventh and eighth grades.

“Some weeks,” said Janaé Lawson, an executive administration coordinator for Constellation, “I don’t know who’s getting more out of it, me or them.”

Less than a year after it became an online sensation, the choir from Cardinal Shehan School, under the direction of Kenyatta Hardison, returned to offer the Prayer of St. Francis and its rendition of “I’ve Got Peace Like a River.”

In addition to Cardinal Shehan, the PIE program focuses its support on Archbishop Borders School, Holy Angels Catholic School and Ss. James and John Catholic School. Also in attendance were PIE scholarship recipients from Archbishop Curley High School.

Jon von Paris, chairman of PIE’s Board of Advisors, served as master of ceremonies. The breakfast was sponsored by Gaudreau Inc.

 

Email Paul McMullen at pmcmullen@CatholicReview.org

Print Print

Primary Sidebar

Paul McMullen

Paul McMullen

Paul McMullen has served as the managing editor of the Catholic Review since 2008.

The author of two books, Paul has been involved in local media since age 12, when he began delivering The News American to 80 homes in his neighborhood. He began his journalism career with the Capital-Gazette Newspapers in Anne Arundel County, and spent more than 25 years as a sports writer for The Sun in Baltimore. His favorite writing assignments have included the Summer Olympics in Australia and Greece, the Archdiocese of Baltimore's response to the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, and “Feet for Francis,” a 2015 walking pilgrimage from the Baltimore Basilica to Philadelphia to see Pope Francis.

View all posts from this author

For the latest news delivered twice a week via email or text message, sign up to receive our free enewsletter.

Latest Local News

Deacon Davis, who served Overlea parish for decades, dies at 84

Archdiocese of Baltimore plans ‘Safe Haven Sunday’ to fight pornography

Pasadena parish cites pandemic in decision to close preschool

Father Snouffer, information technology trailblazer for archdiocese, dies at 83

‘Blessing bags’ a focal point for merged St. Casimir Parish during pandemic

Latest World News

Health care chaplains in Baltimore and beyond embrace self-care in COVID-19 work

Religious order withdraws request to transfer founder’s remains to U.S.

Heroes of love: New pathway open for future saints

Bishops: If passed, Equality Act will ‘discriminate against people of faith

Cardinal prays on CNN program marking 500,000 COVID-19 deaths in U.S.

Catholic Review Radio

CatholicReview · Catholic Review Radio

Footer

Our Vision

Catholic Review Media communicates the Gospel and its impact on people’s lives in the Archdiocese of Baltimore and beyond.

Our Mission

Catholic Review Media provides intergenerational communications that inform, teach, inspire and engage Catholics and all of good will in the mission of Christ through diverse forms of media.

Contact

Catholic Review
320 Cathedral Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
443-524-3150
mail@CatholicReview.org

 

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Recent

  • A Lent full of promise, steak success, cooking with children, and more (7 Quick Takes)
  • Archbishop Lori reflects on the Year of St. Joseph
  • Health care chaplains in Baltimore and beyond embrace self-care in COVID-19 work
  • Religious order withdraws request to transfer founder’s remains to U.S.
  • Deacon Davis, who served Overlea parish for decades, dies at 84
  • Reason for celibacy/ Blessing for non-sacramental marriage?
  • Archdiocese of Baltimore plans ‘Safe Haven Sunday’ to fight pornography
  • Heroes of love: New pathway open for future saints
  • Some English Catholics object to transfer of nun’s remains to Philadelphia
  • Bishops: If passed, Equality Act will ‘discriminate against people of faith

Search

Membership

Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada

Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association

The Associated Church Press

© 2021 CATHOLIC REVIEW MEDIA, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED