America's Largest Catholic Newspaper
All Hallows High School in the South Bronx has been selected as the National Hispanic Institute’s (NHI) School of the Year. All Hallows was selected from some 300 schools nationally and was honored Nov. 15 at a ceremony at the Dallas Convention Center in Texas.
Five All Hallows students, seniors Ricardo Gonzalez, Olufolarin Olubajo and Joel Gomez and juniors Ariel Gonzalez and Steven DeVargas, accompanied Paul Fontana, vice-principal for academics, to the ceremony. The National Hispanic Institute, founded in Austin, Texas, in 1979, has as its mission “to support young Latino leaders to develop the mindset and wherewithal needed to advance the quality of life in the Latino community.” All Hallows student population is 72 percent Hispanic.
All Hallows students have been engaged in NHI-sponsored programs for five years. The school has annually sent 20 to 30 students to NHI summer programs, and this past summer 22 students, sophomores to seniors, attended programs at Villanova University, the University of Rochester, Elmhurst College, Cabrini College and the University of North Texas. All Hallows Principal Sean Sullivan has been a proponent of NHI programs. He said he was pleasantly surprised to learn of the school’s honor.
“I was thrilled when I heard it,” he told CNY. “I’ve been around here for a lot of years and when we get stuff like this it’s always exciting. I mean it’s a pretty vibrant organization.”
It isn’t the first time the all-boys high school has been honored.
“Well, if I can toot the horn a bit, we’re rated one of the top 50 Catholic high schools in the United States 2004 to 2014 (by the Catholic High School Honor Roll) and we’re the only Catholic high school getting invited back to Ireland (for the Albert Schweitzer Leadership For Life Conference) this summer to represent the United States,” said the proud principal.
All Hallows, which this year has an enrollment of 615 students in grades 9 through 12, has maintained a 99 percent graduation rate for the past 10 years, with 97 percent of its graduates being accepted into four-year colleges or universities. This year 98 percent of graduates were awarded financial aid to attend college. Sullivan is himself an All Hallows graduate, class of 1973.
“I had a boy in here not 20 minutes ago, filling out paper work for Notre Dame,” said Sullivan rattling of the names of other prestigious institutions. “I’ve got one in Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, Syracuse, Catholic, B.C., B.U., N.Y.U. I just demand a lot and I’m kind of a tough guy to please, whether it’s from a discipline or an academic standpoint, we throw a lot at them and we tell them, ‘Yes you can, yes you can, yes you can.’”
Sullivan, principal since 1996, described his school as a beehive of activity with every student strongly encouraged to participate in an extra-curricular activity and to get involved in the surrounding neighborhood. The tuition of $6,100 is kept reasonable because so many alumni give back financially to the institution in gratitude, Sullivan said. He credits school President Paul Krebbs with keeping the school financially strong. Class sizes are small and each student receives personalized attention.
“There’s a lot of energy here,” the principal said. “There’s a strong sense of, ‘I’m one of these guys.’ I’m a very hands-on principal. I’m constantly in the building. I tell the parents when they come to visit me, the kids don’t remember this show but the parents would, I say we’re like that old TV show “Cheers” from the 1980s. The theme song was “Where Everybody Knows Your Name” and that’s the atmosphere we have here. I know all the kids’ names. It’s a sense of community here.”
