Throughout my four years at Scranton Preparatory School, Jesuit education remained pretty much the center of everything. From classroom lessons to athletic endeavors, we were taught to be compassionate, intellectually competent, have a developed conscience, and be men and women for others. At my high school, I believed every student had the opportunity to reach his or her own potential for every one of those qualities.

From my first day at Prep, I was shown the compassion of our student body. Walking into the Bellarmine Theater the first day of orientation, I was officially alone. No one from my old school had made the decision to come to Prep, and I had no idea what things would be like without my life-long best friends by my side. I was already terrified, and to make matters worse, my schedule had gotten mixed up with another student with the same last name. As soon as the bell rang, I became a lone freshman, extremely lost and confused in the seemingly endless abyss of staircases and empty hallways. When an upperclassman wandering the halls saw my confusion, he instantly reached out to me and directed me to my next class. I was eternally grateful. Since then, I have tried to embody compassion in the same ways I have been shown it. The simplest gesture such as making someone feel welcome can make the greatest difference in someone’s day.

I was always told that academics at Prep would be “hard”. At my middle school, I had easily glided through my classes with A+ averages, barely doing my homework or studying. Soon I realized that not only were the rumors about classes being more difficult true, but also I could not maintain my average from my old school without doing some serious work. At first, I thought it would be impossible to keep up. Through many instances of trial and error, I came to realize that these “hard” classes could be dealt with by simply doing the work and utilizing time management skills. Now, I am tremendously grateful for going through learning to be intellectually competent in high school rather than in college.

Junior year, I was lucky enough to be chosen for Junior Kairos. Words do not do Kairos justice, which is why it is best not to talk about it, but all I can say is that I was forever changed. Looking back on my years at Prep, I am a little disappointed that I wasted so much time without a developed conscience. I walked away from Kairos with a greater sense of all that I have to be grateful for in my life, a method for finding God in all things, and a number of irreplaceable insights into the lives of my peers that I had never had the opportunity to see before. I truly believe I could not have had this experience at any other high school.

Of all the things Prep has given me, I would say that becoming a woman for others has been the greatest gift. Throughout my years of service work, I have always had a sense that I wanted to help others. In my senior year, I had the opportunity to go to South Dakota for over a week to work with the children of the tribe there and help in any way I could. To say that this service work has been rewarding would be a great understatement. It was truly eye opening. When I came back, I had never felt so grateful in my entire life: not only for all that I had in my own life, but also for all that I had experienced in the past ten days. It changed me as a person to realize that I could be the driving force to change a child’s life, or help build a home that would hold so many memories that although I might not physically be a part of, but spiritually I would be.

Scranton Prep has helped me reach my personal potential spiritually, emotionally, and mentally in every way throughout my time there, and I think that Jesuit education has everything to do with that. I am so lucky to be able to say that my high school has provided me with once in a lifetime opportunities to help others and be the best version of myself, and because of that, I will never forget my Prep experience.