DETROIT — When one thinks “Catholic school education,” thoughts turn to sisters in habits patrolling the hallways (depending on one’s age, of course), weekly Mass, religion class, high-quality college preparatory academic programs and — high-cost tuition.
But thanks to the Archdiocese of Detroit, students from low-income families don’t have to abandon the dream of a parochial school education for their children, even as they get into their college years.
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Five scholarship programs are available for students of all ages. Four are administered by the archdiocese’s Development and Stewardship Office. Those include the Children’s Scholarship Fund of Detroit, The Brighter Future Fund, The Del Papa-Grimaldi Scholarship Fund and the Lilo Wendell Memorial Scholarship Fund.
But another source of financial aid is the Private School Aid program, which offers $800 grants to Catholic school students in grades 1-12 throughout the Archdiocese of Detroit. It is a need-based program funded by the $70 million Archdiocesan Endowment, which during the 2011-12 school year provided 1,722 elementary-age students from more than 1,000 families a total of $1,377,600 in financial aid. At the high school level, 850 students from 691 families were awarded $595,000 in assistance.
Since its inception, the Endowment Foundation has distributed more than $35 million in Catholic school tuition assistance. It also supports Sacred Heart Major Seminary, provides financial aid for the education of catechetical instructors, supplementary income for retired priests and in funding to Catholic organizations responding to emergencies such as building fires, natural disasters and humanitarian assistance. The majority, 62.5 percent, provides tuition assistance grants for students at Catholic schools in the archdiocese.
“The (Private School Aid) tuition assistance program is based solely on financial need,” said Joe Tremblay of the archdiocese’s Department of Evangelization, Catechesis & Schools. “There isn’t a hard income limit. It changes from one year to the next depending on how many people apply, how much money we have to distribute, the size each individual award, et cetera.”
The Children’s Scholarship Fund serves K-8 students attending private schools in Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park. These awards can be as much as $1,850 per child, and recipients are selected in a random drawing. The Brighter Future Fund offers the same monetary award for students in grades 1-5 attending schools in Wayne County, and these also are selected by random drawings from the pool of applicants. The Del Papa-Grimaldi Scholarship is for high school seniors and college freshmen and offers $2,500 in aid to recipients selected by committee. Also chosen by committee are winners of the Lilo Wendell scholarship, a $3,000 grant offered to Catholic college-bound senior daughters of single mothers.
