June 20, 2008

Dear Parents and Seniors,

This letter is to introduce and explain to you the Senior Seminar Experience for seniors. It is a two week internship to enable our seniors to explore a profession, a vocation, or a social justice program. This is a graduation requirement, and it does not replace the senior community service requirement of 20 hours.

We piloted this program during academic 2007/08 to great success. Students, mentors in the community and parents gave us very positive feedback and urged us to continue the program. Additionally, we are following the suggestions of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and the Diocesan Schools Office to become more involved with the community at large, as well as the dictates of our mission statement to “respect… the dignity of the individual through service to the local and wider community”.

The Senior Seminar Experience is scheduled for May 11-22, 2009. Seniors will spend five hours per day at their seminar sites instead of at school. Sponsoring businesses will not pay these students, and they should not be businesses that are connected to a student’s immediate family. At the end of the experience, each senior will make a presentation to other seniors and a faculty panel. To adjust for changes in class time, we have divided the shortened second semester into 2 equal quarters that are different from the third and fourth quarter dates for all other students.

Throughout the year, seniors will be given specific guidelines, directions on how to locate and approach a seminar provider, and how to fit into the adult world of work. Additionally each senior will be assigned a teacher/moderator who will guide the student through the experience and who will be the liaison with the site mentor. We will have a basic Mentor’s Handbook on our website as of July 1 for any potential mentor to view.

We are truly excited about this program. It gives our seniors a unique opportunity to “try on” a profession, vocation or social agency for a limited time under very controlled circumstances. It also gives the larger community the opportunity to experience our seniors, and we know they will be impressed.

More detailed information will be distributed in the fall. However, summer is a very good time to start looking around to see what type of placement each senior is interested in pursuing. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to call any administrator.

Sincerely,

Sr. Cornelia Roy, SSJ

Principal