St. Mary Immaculate Parish School

Celebrating more than 65 Years of Educating Tomorrow’s Leaders Today

Sixty six years ago in the quiet village of Plainfield, St. Mary Immaculate Parish School was founded to serve the needs of educating Catholic youth in the growing community. Built on the teachings of Jesus Christ, the school incorporates three pillars of success: a focus on faith, a pursuit of academic excellence and an abundance of opportunities beyond the classroom. St. Mary Immaculate Parish School provides this solid foundation in a safe and secure family environment. We are also the first school in the area to have so many extra staff members to enhance the learning culture in special needs, technology, reading, and religion, faith, and spirituality.

Our focus on faith enables teachers to help students connect with and embody the Catholic faith through daily Bible readings, prayer and classroom instruction. We nurture strong faith in the students and foster integration into their family faith life. In addition, our caring, enthusiastic teachers consistently guide our students to achieve their fullest academic potential, preparing them well for high school and college. Graduates of St. Mary Immaculate Parish School achieve academic excellence at both public and private high schools. The names of our graduates are regularly seen on the honor roll of all the local high schools, both public and Catholic. Our state of the art STEM lab and 1:1 program sets our school apart from many others.

Finally, we provide a wide variety of extra-curricular activities and encourage students to discover, develop and share their talents. Outside the classroom, our students participate in athletics. Inside the classroom building students can explore fine arts, student council, and various clubs.

The children who attend St. Mary Immaculate Parish School are successful because of the dedication of their teachers, involvement of their parents, and their own hard work and accountability combined with the loving atmosphere that fills our school. St. Mary’s is also Recipient of “The Best Pre-School in Will County” award three years in a row and the last two years voted “Best Workplace for Education” from the Herald News Readers Choice Awards. For more information contact the school at 815-436-3953 or visit our website at www.smischool.org.

We live in an unprecedented time that has caused us great adversity and uncertainty. However, what remains are the important things: faith and family. We at St. Mary Immaculate Parish School cherish the role we play in working with you and your families to share the gift of our blessed faith with your wonderful children. Thank you for trusting us to play that role.

Herald-News/TheHerald-News.com • Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Madison Hogeveen, Luis Sanchez, Mason Gadomski, Lauren Sullivan pitch their idea at the MVP pitch event

Josh Ditzler Laura Moss Mia McElree

Providence Class A Real Shark Tank

Providence Catholic, in collaboration with INCubatoredu, is offering students an authentic entrepreneurship classroom experience this year.

“We were looking to enhance our business course offerings,” says Josh Ditzler, who co-teaches the program along with Laura Moss. “The end goal of the class is that each student will develop an actual product or service and test the viability. Currently, there are 48 students enrolled in the class - that make up 12 teams - that are developing products and/or services.”

“One of the highlights of the class is the participation of our wonderful volunteers,” says Moss. “There are three types of volunteers in the INCubator: Coaches, Mentors, and the Board of Advisors. Mentors are business professionals who commit to working with an assigned team of students, weekly. Coaches come in once during the semester to act as subject area experts. The Board of Advisors is a select group that serve as ‘Sharks’ during the pitch events. They play the role of investors and provide teams with valuable feedback. Our outstanding volunteers have been a mixture of alumni, parents of students/alumni, and friends of Providence.”

At the end of the first semester, groups took part in a MVP Pitch Day event at Providence. The Board of Advisors listened to presentations and asked questions to assist the groups in enhancing their presentations and building their products. Advisors included Nancy Dye (Economic Development Coordinator for the Village of New Lenox, Illinois), Ryan Meegan (Co-Founder of DUDE Products and Shark Tank Contestant), Steve Morrisette (Managing Director of Providence Advisors, Inc.), Mark Orlando (Co-Founder and CEO of Bionic Cyber), and Frank Santoro (Co-Owner of Frankie’s Ristorante).

There is a balance of both products and services being developed. “Students are building brands in clothing retail, tech accessories, health supplements, and even creating mobile apps to serve the general public,” adds Moss.

Senior Mia McElree says, “Our guest speakers have given us great insight from their own personal experiences that we take into consideration while developing our businesses. In the INCubatoredu class, we learn different aspects of creating a new business and how to apply them, while also getting great advice from our mentors each week. My team and I, by the end of the year, hope to accomplish a successful app that will be easy for all to use.”

For more information on INCubatoredu at Providence Catholic, visit online at www.providencecatholic.org.