Future Ready

By Colleen Peabody '05

All Marian Catholic alumni, myself included, were changed by our high school experience – the opportunities we received, the teachers we had, and the memories we made. We are the people we are today because we attended Marian at such a formative time in our lives. To this day, my closest group of friends are fellow Marian classmates, and I know I am not the only one. The relationships made and lessons learned at Marian last a lifetime. However, many alumni have not visited the school in years.

When I returned to Marian as the Vice President of Advancement in December 2019, I had a lot of questions: What does the school look like today? How does it compare to my experience? And what are the plans for the future? Marian has definitely changed since I graduated more than fifteen years ago, but it continues to deliver excellence and love to every student who walks through its doors. Moreover, the leadership at Marian recognizes the challenges facing our community and Catholic education overall, and is proactively looking to tomorrow.

Marian Today

Marian Catholic remains strong: its reputation is solid; its enrollment is stable; and its finances are secure. The school is committed to its mission and its Catholic, Dominican heritage.

Marian continues to deliver a second-to-none college preparatory education. Ninety-seven (97) percent of Marian graduates attend college. Ninety (90) percent of graduates attend a four-year college or university, compared to only 21 to 54 percent at the local public high schools. One out of four Marian graduates attends a top 100 college or university (based on US News and World Report rankings), and at least 25 percent of students earn college credit through our Advanced Placement courses. Graduates from the Classes of 2020 and 2021 attended schools like Harvard, Princeton, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, Cal Poly, and NYU. Our faculty is likewise accomplished, with 73 percent holding a master’s or doctoral degree (and 29 percent being Marian alumni!).

Marian remains the largest private high school south of the City of Chicago and Northwest Indiana. Even though our numbers have declined since their high point in the early 2000’s, enrollment has stabilized at about 900 students per year for the past few years. This is more than enough students to field competitive athletic teams, award-winning performing arts programs, and over 40 other clubs and activities. Our marching

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band has won the state championship (in class) for the last 40 years – an unheard of record – and our speech team holds 12 individual state championships. In the past five years, 95 Spartans have committed to play college athletics, including at the Universities of Michigan and Louisville; and Donovan McIntyre '21 recently signed with the San Francisco Giants.

Marian also remains financially secure. Because of the foresight of prior leadership and the Dominican Sisters, Marian is blessed with one of the largest endowments of any Catholic high school in the country. Although our endowment is largely restricted for scholarships (meaning it cannot fund everyday expenses or new facilities), it provides continued stability to our financial aid program and the school overall. Approximately 60 percent of Marian students receive some form of financial assistance. Without our endowment and the continued generosity of our donors, we would not be able to provide all the opportunities we do for our students.

Marian today is more diverse than ever before. While the majority of our students are still Catholic, they come from nearly 70 different zip codes and all socioeconomic, racial, and cultural backgrounds. Seventeen (17) percent of students are from outside Illinois, including a small international population. Seventy-one (71) percent of our students are of Latino, African American, or Asian descent. Our diversity is a point of strength, as our students enter college and beyond having already been exposed to, befriended, and learned from individuals different than themselves, all in the context of a loving environment.

Marian today is also, in many ways, more in touch with its Dominican heritage than ever before. As the number of Dominican Sisters present in the building grows smaller, Marian’s staff has made it a point to ensure students understand the importance of our Catholic, Dominican identity. The Four Pillars of Prayer, Study, Community, and Preaching adorn the walls. The Dominican blessing is recited at the end of each

school day; and Dominican Preachers, a group of senior students, play an active role in campus ministry. Kairos, class retreats, service projects, and religious education are a central part of the student experience. The Dominican Sisters, while not as physically present, remain extremely supportive of Marian and involved from a leadership perspective.

Looking to Tomorrow

Marian Catholic is determined to continue to be a leader in our community and for other Catholic schools.

Marian Catholic remains strong, but we are not immune to the challenges facing our community and Catholic education in general. We have seen many of our feeder schools close or consolidate over the last decade, including St. Ann in Lansing which closed recently. Taking a proactive approach, Marian’s Board of Directors and administration decided to use our time in lockdown this past year to take a hard look at the school. We partnered with Measuring Success, a firm that has worked with over 1,500 educational institutions, to conduct a comprehensive assessment of Marian’s operations and long-term sustainability.

Measuring Success, together with representatives from the Dominican Sisters, Board of Directors, administration, faculty, and staff, evaluated every area of the school: academics, extracurriculars, admissions, business operations, marketing, and fundraising. We surveyed students and parents, spoke with current and prospective families, and interviewed faculty and staff. We benchmarked our financial performance, compared our recruitment and retention efforts, and analyzed where and with what families we have the most potential to grow. Needless to say, we now have answers to questions like: How do we compare? What makes us different? And where can we go from here?

We received a great deal of information from our study but, overall, we found that families continue to choose Marian Catholic for its superior academic reputation and that, for the school to succeed long-term, we need to maintain and even expand upon that reputation. We need to be a destination school while continuing to serve students in our own backyard. We need to invest in our faculty, new curricula, and enhanced programs, as well as improve areas of perceived weakness (namely, our 60+ year old facilities). This investment will have to come from a variety of sources: tuition revenue, cost savings from non-essential operations, and philanthropy.

Marian’s leadership wants to share our excitement for the future and invite all our alumni and other community members to stay engaged as we take steps to advance our mission. We know relationships do and will play a key role in Marian Catholic’s success, and so we ask you to spread our enthusiasm to family and friends. Share what Marian is doing today and how it is looking to tomorrow. It is an exciting time to get involved as we look to shape the next generation of Spartans!

Look for more on the advancement of Marian Catholic in future issues of Marian Matters!

“Marian means the world to me! At Marian Catholic High School, I’ve been blessed with the chance to grow in my faith as well as push myself to be the best version academically and as a person. The people I have met and the experiences I’ve had at Marian will stick with me for the rest of my life. I’ve been extremely blessed to be in this school! –Jacob Medina '22

VINCE KRYDYNSKI '81

A Message from President Vince Krydynski '81

This issue of Marian Matters is focused on our alumni. I am proud to say I am one of them. As students, our class arrived as strangers. Four short years later, we left Marian Catholic more than friends. We had become a family. This is what I felt as a student, but it is also what I experienced as a parent of a Marian Catholic graduate, and what I witness every day as the president of our school.

Who we are and what we stand for as a family has deep meaning. We strive for excellence without ego. We take immense pride in our success, without being boastful. We answer the call, without hesitation, when someone in our community needs assistance. We recognize our imperfections, but work to be the face of God to others and to see the face of God in others.

Like any family, we have our traditions and celebrations which come and go. How many of you remember sock hops, home economics, or “bennies on the floor?” What about those of you who painted “the rock” before every home football game or know what P.R.I.D.E stands for?

Regardless of the generation we fit into or the traditions we knew, we are tied to one another. We are forever connected as members of the Marian Catholic family. Wherever life has taken you, please make time to come home. We could use your energy and support. Your encouragement and prayers sustain the mission, and I cannot fully express my gratitude. Your dedication is what allows us to talk about our family in the present tense when many other Catholic schools are becoming memories.

Whether you graduated from Marian Catholic, had a child attend, or are a supporter, you are more than a friend, you are part of the family.