PIE students show impact of giving

The students stole the show at the 30th Partners in Excellence Breakfast Sept. 29. 

The breakfast, sponsored annually by PIE to support Catholic students in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, invites local business leaders to network, hear about the impact on students and schools, and – the organizers hope – contribute to the cause.

The formal program featured a “fireside chat” format guided by emcee Mark Viviano – sans the fireplace – with a parent, a school president and a business leader. 

Samantha Shivers-Gudger, parent of Kennedy Gudger, who is in fourth grade at Mother Mary Lange Catholic School in Baltimore, said PIE supports not only a student, but what that student can do in the future to help the community. She said that every day, her daughter regales her with tales of what she learned and the fun she had. 

“Being able to see the joy she got from going to school, her interactions, what she learned, reading and everything – I love that. I knew that I made the right decision seeing that,” Shivers-Gudger said.

Dr. Mindy Imes, president of Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Essex, said the support for students from PIE allows the educators at her school to have a greater impact on more students. 

“It’s really witnessing the small miracles that happen every day in Catholic schools because we care. We watch, we support, we step in when needed, but we also celebrate them and help them find their God-given talents,” she said, noting that includes, for example, OLMC’s ukelele class that entertained the attendees at the start of the program.

For many families, the PIE scholarship “is going to make it possible for you to come. And the family has sacrificed so much for it to make it happen. And then they can actually pay it forward in whatever capacity that they can that makes a difference in the world,” Imes said.

Tyler Tate, president of Lewis Contractors and a member of St. Joseph Parish in Cockeysville, has supported PIE for more than a decade. He said that, from a business perspective, supporting Catholic education makes sense.

“I can think of few more profound and impactful things on a young person’s life than their education,” he said, adding that supporting a young person to attend a Catholic school can make a profound change on their lives at a very granular level.

“And it’s one that lends itself to scale. If you can support more and more children, you know that you are helping specific people in something that will change their lives for the better,” Tate said.

He said when he talks to people about Catholic schools in business terms, he sometimes refers to numbers – such as graduation rates and matriculation rates to college. But he likes to look at it from another perspective, because businesspeople often see themselves as problem solvers. “This world of ours is full of many problems – problems that don’t easily lend themselves to a single human solution.” 

A healthy sense of inquiry, respect and appreciation for God’s creation, love of fellow people are all values that lend to solving problems. In addition to rigorous academics and sports, Catholic schools espouse these values, Tate said..

“When you give a child an opportunity, you are in fact shaping or creating a person who will go into the world with those values and be better positioned to help solve those problems,” Tate said. 

Since its inception in 1996, PIE has awarded more than 30,000 scholarships totaling more than $40 million. Overall, PIE scholarships cover about 30 percent of tuition, so parents must contribute, and some schools find additional support as well.

Viviano, a retired sportscaster and current Catholic Review columnist and radio host, engaged two students in a lively conversation about their experiences as PIE scholarship recipients. He noted that children don’t belong to us. 

“We know this, they are not ours, they are God’s, and they are our responsibility,” he said. “We have been entrusted with their care to protect them, to correct them, to lead them, to bring them into the light and life of God.” 

The pair of students brought down the house with their confident enthusiasm.

Kennedy Gudger, whose mother was on the earlier panel, expressed her appreciation for the leaders assembled. “I’m so happy to be here with everyone who wants to help children like me to get into better schools like mine,” she said.

“Going into the school makes me feel like, oh, I am going to have an amazing day at school, because the teachers are nice, they have amazing techniques, and it’s very fun. That’s one of the important things that I like about my school. It’s fun, it’s welcoming, the teachers are nice. I’ve never had a bad teacher ever in my life at my school,” she said, drawing some laughter from the audience about her experience in less than a decade on the planet.

She said she loves to read, sing and help people, noting that she was part of a group that went out to provide food to people who are unhoused. “I didn’t even know them. It was off on a busy street in the middle of the night, and I just wanted to go out there and give to them because I’m a giving person,” Kennedy said.

Semauri Lewis, a senior at Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore, hopes to become a computer engineer. He said his teachers have a system that they want students to learn but also encourage critical thinking. “Being around them has helped me improve in my learning,” he said.

He has done some computer animation for games and eventually wants to start a company to build websites and use his engineering skills. “I want to support people as they grow along into that field of engineering and learn how to become simple computer engineers along the way. Also, I want to help people outside of who don’t know how to use simple computers and stuff like that,” Semauri said. 

Viviano summed it up: “Folks, for anyone considering support of Partners in Excellence, you see right here the results, the impact of your investment. You see it in Kennedy, you see it in Semauri, and in many other students.”

The breakfast raised more than $225,000, which can help cover the cost of approximately 90 scholarships. PIE averages about 600 scholarships per year. The program supports students at 13 K-eight schools and four high schools.

Email Christohper Gunty at editor@CatholicReview.org

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