Detroit — The number of graduates from local Catholic high schools enrolling at the University of Detroit Mercy has increased significantly since a special grant program was announced with the Archdiocese of Detroit in 2014.

According to the university, enrollment among Catholic high school graduates has increased 32 percent in the past year. Of the 516 freshmen enrolled at UDM in the fall of 2015, 114 graduated from a Catholic high school, compared with 77 Catholic high school graduates in 2014.

In 2014, the university announced a special grant initiative in collaboration with the Archdiocese of Detroit to offer up to $20,000 toward tuition at UDM for local Catholic school graduates who completed first through 12th grade at an archdiocesan school.

The grant was designed both to help encourage enrollment in local Catholic schools and to foster a “K-16” environment with the local Catholic university, Brian Dougherty, Ph.D., superintendent of archdiocesan schools, said at the time.

In total, 107 students are receiving the Catholic Education University Grant at UDM, which has paid a total of $376,888 so far. Of those receiving the grant, 44 students have qualified for the full amount, the university said.

“It’s been a very successful initiative,” said UDM president Antoine M. Garibaldi, Ph.D. “We certainly know there are a lot of students who applied to the university from some of the Catholic high schools who may not have applied if we did not have that incentive.”

Applications to UDM from Catholic school students have increased by nearly 55 percent since 2014, according to the university, and 37 students from seven high schools are dual-enrolled in college courses at UDM.

The university and archdiocese have collaborated in other ways, Garibaldi said, with UDM representatives meeting personally with students at several schools, conducting classroom presentations and hosting field trips. The university has hosted the archdiocese’s teacher in-service day for the past two years and has recently begun providing professional development for the entire archdiocesan school system.

Garibaldi said he’s visited nearly 20 archdiocesan schools during his five years as president.

“It’s given us a chance to reconnect with some of our alumni teachers and counselors, many of whom will tell you whether they are parents or grandparents of students in the Catholic high schools and that they wish they would consider coming to their alma mater,” Garibaldi said.

Garibaldi said UDM has enjoyed an especially close relationship with Gesu Elementary School, located next to the university’s campus, and has received interest from other Michigan dioceses in partnering with the university in a similar way.

“I view the grant as a lure to the students to at least look at us very, very seriously,” Garibaldi said. “Once they come to the campus and some of the visit days and see some of their classmates who are also thinking of coming to us, that helps them think about it much more seriously than they may have before. And they feel comfortable being at a Catholic institution.”