St. Aug’s Golden Dome connection paying dividends

By Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald

With a goal to remove all obstacles that its graduates might have to attend college, St. Augustine High School is establishing close relationships with colleges and universities throughout the U.S. that will offer summer learning opportunities as well as scholarships to qualifying students.

The University of Notre Dame was the first to step on board this spring, said Aulston G. Taylor, president/CEO of St. Augustine, followed by the University of New Orleans, Louisiana State University, Southeastern Louisiana University, Austin College, Houghton College, Canisius College, Stillman College, Texas Southern University and the University of Detroit Mercy. 

Includes summer program
While the relationship with each college is different, the University of Notre Dame has not only offered academic scholarships to a minimum of three top students at St. Augustine but also offered up to 10 slots for rising seniors and select juniors to attend an all-inclusive, pre-college studies program over the summer before senior year in the Alliance for Leadership Scholars partnership.

The average value of this experience is $4,500 per student. It’s considered part of Notre Dame’s overall strategy to increase “enrollment opportunities for top students at Catholic high schools serving historically underrepresented students.”

“This will give students a college experience (taking rigorous courses and living on campus) before they officially become high school graduates,” Taylor said. “It is Notre Dame’s way of evaluating our young men and students going on their campus and getting an intense 10 days of learning.”

Of those students, at least three will be selected to study on scholarship at Notre Dame based on academic achievement at St. Augustine over four years and their family income, he said. This program begins this fall semester.

“The first set of three boys will be going in the fall to Notre Dame,” Taylor said. “Two of the three have a full ride. Everything is covered – tuition, room and board – and everything is completely paid for for four years. The remaining student, based on family income, will pay $8,000 a year.”

A visit solidified partnership
Taylor said he reached out last fall to Don Bishop, the outgoing associate vice president for undergraduate enrollment at Notre Dame. He visited St. Augustine in October 2021 and recognized its historic value and the fact that both institutions share Catholic traditions and that St. Aug graduates have attended the University of Notre Dame since the late 1970s. St. Aug is one of two historically Black high schools that Notre Dame has aligned with.

“Together we will foster the development of top scholars and servant leaders,” Bishop said. “St. Augustine High School has built a legacy serving as the training as the training ground for leadership through academic excellence, moral values and Christian responsibility. Notre Dame’s mission as a force for good will have an enduring impact in the lives of these scholars and their communities.”

St. Augustine’s campus ministry leaders and 45 students traveled by bus and stopped along the way at Notre Dame in February, Taylor said, to visit five St. Augustine graduates studying at Notre Dame. They were immersed in “all things Catholic” during an information session hosted by the office of undergraduate admissions and a tour of campus with current Notre Dame students. The trip concluded with a prayer and song session at the university’s renowned Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes.

“Notre Dame looks to continue this tradition by hosting a cohort from St. Augustine’s administration in the fall of 2022,” Taylor said.

Summer students in awe
Seven rising students completed their summer session – June 25-July 9 – at the University of Notre Dame. Among them was rising senior Malcolm Ferrouillet.

“The campus is beautiful,” he said, as was the atmosphere he was exposed to in a law course at Notre Dame. He aspires to be a legal analyst on CNN, combining his career interests in journalism and the law. He was inspired to learn that Alvin McKenna, a 1959 St. Aug graduate, was the first African American to graduate from Notre Dame’s Law School. McKenna established a law school scholarship fund, and Taylor said he has high hopes that Ferrouillet will be a recipient.

Ferrouillet said his classmates chose other concentrations in life sciences, entrepreneurship and marketing.

While skeptical of being so far away from home for the summer program, Ferrouillet said the brotherhood he shares with six classmates there made the experience easy.

“The University of Notre Dame has always been an option, but for me, just being here these two weeks has pushed Notre Dame into being among my top schools,” Ferrouillet said. “I believe that our brotherhood will continue here at the University of Notre Dame when a couple if not all (of us) will attend in the fall of 2023.”

College made possible
Taylor said his goal is to have 25 college alliances by 2023. If each college or university offers a minimum of two scholarships, that’s 50 scholarships for St. Aug students – equating to half its graduates having college paid for.

“It’s opening access for our young men to see their future prosperity through education,” Taylor said, and the established relationships with colleges will allow Taylor to reach out to parents to invest in their son’s future by sending him to St. Aug.

Taylor thinks the alliance with several Catholic institutions of higher education will also help his students stay rooted in their Catholic faith.

“With our young men being immersed in that type of culture, right in front of them, it will make them aware how God is present in their lives, buildings, education and their everyday walks of life,” Taylor said.

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