VILLA ANGELA - ST. JOSEPH HIGH SCHOOL

Located on the shores of Lake Erie, Villa Angela-St. Joseph (VASJ) High School was founded in 1990 after the merging of Villa Angela Academy (1878-1989) with Saint Joseph High School (1950-1989). It has a rich past and is celebrating over 140 years of educational excellence in the Diocese of Cleveland. VASJ also is proud to be the only school in the world that’s co-sponsored by the Ursuline Sisters and Marianist Brothers.

Over the last several years, the campus and school building have seen renovations to the gymnasium, Founders Chapel, courtyard and Tech Building.

VASJ is accredited by the Ohio State Department of Education, the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, and the Ohio Catholic Schools Accreditation Association. campus remains vibrant and interesting. Offerings include a full range of athletics, Campus Ministry, Drama Club, Girls Empowerment Meetings, Kairos, National Honor Society, Red Cross Club, Student Ambassadors, Yearbook and more.

VASJ provides a broad and rich curriculum tailored to individual student needs and interests for college preparation and life.

Advanced Placement and Honors classes are offered in a wide range of disciplines. With a lower student-to-teacher ratio, personal attention, especially for students who need academic support, is always available. And the College Credit Plus (CCP) program offers eligible VASJ students the opportunity to earn high school and college credits.

VASJ is proud to be certi ed by the Ohio Department of Education as a provider of educational services for students with mild to moderate learning differences who hold the Autism Scholarship. Students with the scholarship, who are accepted to VASJ, experience the same inclusion, resource room and support services as non-Autism Scholarship students who have IEP/SPs.

In addition, VASJ students with learning differences are provided with assistance from licensed intervention specialists within a dedicated resource room space and are supported in their dayto-day learning and standardized test preparation.

VASJ is proud that 21% of faculty and staff are alums of the school.

VASJ has a long history of 97% or more of graduates receiving further education at distinguished colleges and universities across the country.

VASJ makes every effort to keep tuition affordable for families. Approximately 93% of our families receive tuition assistance. Numerous scholarships and tuition credits are available as well.

VASJ has a wide variety of clubs and activities that ensures its

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18491 Lakeshore Blvd., Cleveland

Grades Served: 9-12 Total Enrollment: 475 Annual Tuition: $9,300 Average Class Size: 20 Year Established: 1990

• Thomas M. Carone, president • Lorenzo M. Jones, principal • Patti Marxen, dean of academics • Michael Gavin, dean of students

• Patrick Gliha ’03, board chair

GRADUATION RATE: 100%

COLLEGE ACCEPTANCE RATE: 97%

Mission Statement: “Villa Angela-St. Joseph High School is a Catholic, comprehensive collegepreparatory school rooted in the Ursuline and Marianist traditions and commi ed to the spiritual, academic and personal growth of each student.”

Cleveland Central Catholic High School’s Link Crew aims to empower, encourage and build solid bonds.

(continued from page 9) Strong communication skills are integral to building leadership capabilities in St. Ignatius High School students.

But it’s not just about public speaking. It’s learning when to listen as well, says Marilyn Arundel, dean of faculty and academics at Magnificat High School in Rocky River.

“Leadership is about having a voice and being able to respectfully communicate those views, but also how to respectfully listen and engage with other people,” Arundel says. “Collaboration is a key part of leadership.”

Students at Magnificat, an all-girls school, are encouraged to take part in the planning of student events. As juniors, they all take part in the Agape Experiment, which encourages students to not just study an issue in the world today, but develop an action plan to address it.

“Some students write bills for state and federal lawmakers,” she says. “We had a student take old blouses and repurpose them into masks.”

One student worked with the Cleveland Clinic on a pull-tab system that enables victims of human trafficking to send messages to health care providers that they didn’t feel safe, she says.

Similarly, students at Gilmour Academy in Gates Mills raise funds for other schools in the Holy Cross network, and raised money for COVID relief in India earlier this year. The school’s Praxis project, which allows juniors to create action plans on social justice issues, also provides opportunities to hone leadership skills. similarly, leadership is embedded into the school’s mission.

“It’s about being able to look out beyond yourself to see problems and opportunities, and take action,” she says.

Montessori schools are structured around the idea that students learn independently and at their own pace, providing leadership skills of self-determination from an early age.

“We’re student-led learning with adult guides,” says school head Paula Leigh-Doyle. “Students are trained to be independent thinkers and interdependent collaborators.”

Scott Looney, the head of Hawken School, says leadership is a reflection of purpose. Happiness and success are correlated, he says, because both occur when people have mastery of a skill, they think they matter and they feel their work has some sense of importance. And that sense of purpose can only be found through trial and error, Looney says, making experiential learning vitally important.

“If you want someone to be a leader, they have to have a sense of their own strengths, a sense of their own purpose and a sense of their own agency,” he says. “Your education should be a necessary, useful component of finding and fulfilling your purpose.”

Looney points to the establishment of Hawken’s new master school in University Circle, a space that will cultivate leadership skills through hands-on learning. And Laurel has carved out space in its upper school for a think tank, designed to encourage collaboration between students – and between students and school administration.

“We want our students in the Upper School to be an active part of leading the school and not an echo of adult voices,” Berndt says. “Our goal is for students to understand their capacity to collaborate with adults using their voices and their minds in meaningful and impactful ways.”

Leadership starts in the classroom, says Bridgette Nadzam-Kasubick, world geography teacher and social studies chair at University School.

“Leadership is modeled first,” she says. “Sometimes I’ll ask students to start the lesson, or if they’ve considered running for class president. The nudge is important. Leadership doesn’t mean you have to be a CEO. It can mean guiding the conversation. It can mean supporting people and doing the right thing when no one’s looking.”

Sharon Baker, the middle school director at Hathaway Brown, notes that leadership comes in huge moments – public speaking, running meetings – and smaller ones that might not as obvious.

“Leaders have to have judgment to know when to collaborate as a team player or when to take charge,” she says.

Leadership opportunities at Hathaway Brown include a variety of clubs, class offices and sports. And because Hathaway Brown is an all-girls’ school, all the leadership roles are filled by girls – vitally important as women fill a disproportionately small amount of leadership roles in government,