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Catholic Schools Foundation

What is the power of a Catholic Schools Foundation scholarship?

Friday, September 25, 2026Culture

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Behind every scholarship is a child with gifts, challenges, hopes and dreams. But behind that child is also a family, a school, and a community.

Michael
Reardon

The obvious answer is that it helps a student attend a Catholic school their family otherwise could not afford. This is true, but after almost three decades working with Catholic schools, I have come to understand that the real answer is much larger. A scholarship changes a student, transforms a family, and sometimes a scholarship helps change an entire community. This is true in Lawrence.
Just a few years ago, Lawrence Catholic Academy (LCA) was operating in buildings that were over a century old. Space was inadequate, the basement routinely flooded, and classrooms and tutoring areas were carved out wherever space could be found.
Today, the picture is quite different.
In the fall of 2025, students walked into a beautiful new school building, and this fall, the school opened the Tom and Jean Yawkey Recreation Center, providing students with a proper gym on campus for the first time in its 120-year history.
It is true you can look at these new buildings and see a great construction story and extraordinary leadership and generosity. Without these two things, there would not be a new LCA. However, what I see is the power of a scholarship.

In a city like Lawrence, one of the five most economically challenged cities in New England, scholarships allow students to enroll. This enrollment provides the resources necessary to pay teachers, maintain buildings, provide programs, and create a vibrant school community. In neighborhoods like this, many families desperately want a Catholic education for their children but simply cannot afford the full cost. Scholarships help bridge that gap.
In their book, "Lost Classroom, Lost Community: Catholic Schools' Importance in Urban America," Margaret Brinig and Nicole Stelle Garnett examine what happens when Catholic schools disappear from urban neighborhoods. Their research demonstrates the loss is much greater than a classroom or school building. When Catholic schools close, a place of community is lost, jobs are lost, and the whole feel and vibrancy of the neighborhood disappears.
Lawrence provides an opportunity to consider the opposite question: What happens when we invest in a Catholic school?
Enrollment grows. A new school is built. A gym opens. Teachers have the resources and facilities to do their jobs. Children have a safe place to learn and play. Parents become connected to teachers and other families. The parish and school become anchors in the neighborhood and form an extended family. This is why the work of the Catholic Schools Foundation is about much more than tuition assistance.
Each year, CSF provides scholarships to more than 4,300 students. Behind every scholarship is a child with gifts, challenges, hopes and dreams. But behind that child is also a family, a school, and a community.
For generations, Catholic schools have been anchors in communities like Lawrence. They educated generations of immigrant families, helped break the cycle of poverty and provided stability in neighborhoods experiencing enormous change. This transformative work continues today.
Walk through Lawrence Catholic Academy, and you can see it happening. The new gym is wonderful, the new school is beautiful, and the growing enrollment is exciting. But the buildings themselves are not the story. The students are the story.
Each day, over 500 students walk into a place of hope, where they know that Christ is present and they are called to believe in themselves and be the best person they can.
And for many of those students, the story begins with a scholarship. This year, CSF needs to raise over $15 million to keep our promise. It is a significant hurdle, and we need your help. There are more students, families, and communities where a Catholic school is the start of a better life, and it all starts with a scholarship.

- Michael B. Reardon is executive director of the Catholic Schools Foundation, www.CSFBoston.org.