Your words, a fond memory, a positive experience - all of these things cost NOTHING to share besides a few moments of your time and strokes of the keyboard, but they are an invaluable resource to St. Mary School. This Giving Tuesday, lend us a hand and GIVE to St. Mary School by sharing a review like Alyssa Fitzgerald recently did. Alyssa is a mother of two SMS alumni, and shared the following update on her daughter Makena, SMS class of 2020:
I enrolled Makena at SMS at the beginning of her 6th grade year, after she struggled with bullying and social pressures in public school. She talks often about her time at SMS, the teachers that impacted her, and the friendships she made. She has always said that her middle school years at SMS thoroughly prepared her for high school, especially in math and ELA, and much of her success in high school has been due to the academic, social and spiritual foundation she was given at St. Mary. She completed her senior year at Mount St. Mary, where she was an Oishei Scholar and Buffalo Prep student, on a full scholarship. She received acceptances and academic scholarships to Niagara University, Canisius, Geneseo, Cornell, University at Pittsburgh, St. John Fisher and RIT. She has committed to RIT for the fall, where she was accepted into the honors program, as well as the accelerated master's program for Accounting. She was awarded RIT's Presidential Scholarship, totaling $108,000 over 4 years, and through Buffalo Prep, she was nominated for and awarded with an additional $40,000 scholarship through Alkegen. With these two financial awards, she has been able to cover the majority of her tuition and room and board costs!
She was always a highly competitive athlete, but had to switch gears after an ACL tear in 2022. She became extremely involved in Mount St. Mary's Virtual Enterprises Club, and just recently competed in the first International Youth Business Summit in NYC, where her team of 4 came in first place against teams from all over the world. I'll attach a few photos from their competition.
SMS was such a wonderful community for my kids! As a single mom with 3 kids and 2 jobs, I wasn't able to be as involved in school functions and activities as I'd have liked, but I am incredibly appreciative of the teachers, staff and other SMS families that were there to support my kids.
Thanks for all you do, and please know the positive influence you all have as teachers and administrators persists even after these kiddos graduate.
Google searches, word of mouth, and school search & review platforms account for 72% of how parents first discover the schools they consider for their children. Furthermore, research has shown that word of mouth can have a significant impact on consumer behavior. According to a study by Nielsen, 92% of consumers trust recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising.
With this in mind, we're encouraging alumni, current school families, parishioners and community members to become "brand ambassadors" for SMS as Alyssa has. Talk to your neighbors & friends about SMS, share our social media posts with your networks, and share your personal review of the school! Let the impact that St. Mary School had on your life continue to impact others by sharing your story with us. There are a few ways you can do this:
Visit https://tinyurl.com/4269mbtb to share a Google Review.
Visit https://tinyurl.com/57jtaxcu to share a review on niche.com (the leading school search & review platform).
Email your review to rkisailus@stmaryschoolswormville.org to have it featured on our website. Feel free to include photos as well. We have a number of great reviews from families from the past, but would love to feature a few more recent alumni success stories, or anecdotes from families whose lives have been positively impacted by SMS.
Thank you in advance for the few moments of your time it will take you to jot down your thoughts - your positive experience with St. Mary School or your alumni success story could be the reason a new parent enrolls their child this year!
#givingtuesday