| The Montfort Academy | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
| 99 Valley Road Katonah, New York, (Westchester County), 10536 United States |
|
| Information | |
| Type | Private, Coeducational |
| Religious affiliation(s) | Roman Catholic |
| Headmaster | Steven Terenzio |
| Grades | 9-12 |
| Student to teacher ratio | 5:1 |
| Color(s) | Blue and Gold |
| Team name | Fighting Knights |
| Tuition | $8500 (2011-2012) |
| Admissions Director | Dr. Elizabeth Rex |
| Website | www.themontfortacademy.org |
The Montfort Academy is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Katonah, New York. It is located within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York.
Formerly all-boys, the Academy added a girl's program in 2007. It is now a co-ed institution.
THE HONORABLE RICHARD GRECO, JR.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE NAVY AND WHITE HOUSE FELLOW 2002-2006
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD THE MONTFORT ACADEMY 1999-2010
Dear Friends of The Montfort Academy:
Priests, educators, businessmen, and I founded The Montfort Academy as a Renaissance in Education. In designing The Montfort Academy’s academic and extracurricular programs, we drew upon more than two thousand years of educational richness, tradition, and success, beginning with the paideia of the ancient Greeks and Romans, the development of the arts and sciences in medieval schools and universities, the unprecedented prospering of historical research, business innovation, experimental science, and global exploration in the Renaissance, and continuing through the great movements and discoveries of our modern age. Our classical Catholic education would allow students to join what Columbia University professor and scholar of government Mortimer Adler called the Great Conversation: the ongoing conversation of great ideas and minds down through the ages. Ours was a daring and joyous—but overwhelming—undertaking. No new Catholic high school had opened in the Archdiocese of New York in forty years. After we consulted with Dr. Catherine Hickey of the Archdiocesan education office, His Eminence Edward Cardinal Egan offered his blessing for our endeavor, proudly stating that our plan for Catholic education had a “glorious tradition.” We then started to speak with prospective parents and teachers even though we had not yet secured a building or funding. Our goal was to found a Catholic high school where students develop intellectually, spiritually, and physically, in an environment that respects and fosters the highest standards of academic accomplishment, morality, and discipline and whose religious education is faithful to the Church. Monsignors Eugene Clark and Donald Pryor offered their prayers and advice; Fr. John Perricone provided the religious and philosophical foundation; Joseph Pagnozzi proposed the pedagogical method; John Pilsner contributed to the Great Books portion of the curriculum based on the Princeton Latin Academy; Phil Bafundo, Thomas Lehrman, and Ellen Leigh helped develop the business plan and donated much of the founding financing; Marla Greco provided the necessary founding legal services; Lt. Col. David Petrillo USAF was chosen as the first headmaster; Riccardo Vicenzino designed the crest featuring a fleur de lis for the Blessed Mother, plumes and a flask for Knowledge and Wisdom, lions for Bravery, and a Crucifix for Our Lord and Truth; Karen Hanley, Frank Marchetti, Joseph Hopkins, Phil Bafundo, and Catherine Shaffer offered their support as founding trustees; Mary Wolff gave us nearly infinite energy and optimism; and many teachers applied for positions with universally shared sentiments that The Montfort Academy was exactly the kind of the school about which they had always dreamed. Weighing heavily on our minds was the seriousness of our mission. As Aristotle wrote, “All those who have meditated on the art of governing mankind have come to the realization that the future of civilization rests on the education of the youth.” Our approach to education, though mature, even ancient, was simple and proven: training in character and virtue along with an excellent and rigorous academic curriculum and a serious sportsmanship program would build a strong person – forever. Of paramount importance was the dynamic relationship between student and teacher. Our faculty members have been not only excellent teachers but also distinguished professionals in many fields, dedicated to classical education and character formation. We have always selected our faculty members having in mind the words of Dr. Henry Pritchett, the President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the turn of the twentieth century: "A good teacher calls attention to the moral, social, and intellectual qualities that lead to success in any field." Petrus Paulus Vergerius, a Renaissance education theorist whose treatises inspired fellow Renaissance educator Vittorino da Feltre to open the first humanist schools, said "We call those studies liberal which are worthy of a free man; those studies by which we attain and practice virtue and wisdom; that education which calls forth, trains and develops those highest gifts of body and of mind which ennoble men, and which are rightly judged to rank next in dignity to virtue only.” This is the inspiration of The Montfort Academy, where students begin to answer the life-long questions, "Who is God? What is man? What is man's purpose and relationship to God and His creation?" Central is our belief that part of man’s pure love for God is learning about His created world, both visible and invisible, and the deeds of man, His supreme creation. Through historical, literary, scientific, philosophical, and theological examples, students come to understand what is important in life—namely that our mission on earth is to practice virtue no matter what one’s chosen profession, work, or vocation is, in the hope of attaining eternal life as saints in Heaven. The Montfort Academy's education is therefore a rigorous study of man and the world through the ages. It is an education that helps a student understand humanity's past in order that he may better chart his future and take up his place in society. It is an exciting education based on the Great Books and scientific experiment, using the Socratic method of dialogue and dialectic in each classroom—from astronomy and mathematics to English and philosophy. This approach is the heart of our curriculum and excites and satisfies the Montfort students because they know they are doing something that is independent and fulfilling and receiving an education that they cannot get anywhere else. We have brought back to the classroom subjects that have all but disappeared in today’s modern high school curricula—astronomy, civics, geography, Latin, Greek, philosophy, debate, and rhetoric. We use the Socratic method in the classroom to encourage free but disciplined discourse; sponsor debates on the world’s major issues of economics, social and foreign policy; and encourage the development of critical thinking through analysis, comparison, and interpretation. We embrace but do not overuse technology, which has become a substitute—rather than a complement—to critical thinking. And we write, often by hand, to encourage a thought process that is integrated with the mechanics of bodily movement. We believe sportsmanship is not only about the exercise of body and winning games but about growing in virtue through training, team-work, determination, and fair competition. And we believe that high school is the most important time for a young man or woman to begin caring for and nurturing his or her soul. As a result, we encourage daily Mass and frequent reception of the Sacraments.
One might call our education old-fashioned; some even say it is out-dated or obsolete in today’s technology driven, fast-paced, and material world. We disagree wholeheartedly and call it proven, tried, and true—a veritable Renaissance in Education, a re-discovery of what Dorothy Sayers called already sixty years ago, “The Lost Tools of Learning.”
At first we opened The Montfort Academy on Saturday mornings, offering a 16-week seminar program called the Renaissance Man Invitational. Experts in astronomy, geography, physics, architecture, diplomacy, debate, Latin, civics, mathematics and many other disciplines gave seminars to sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students and helped us to lay the foundation for our full-time curriculum. It was out of the Renaissance Man Invitational that our first class of students emerged, and we opened our doors to full-time students in September 2002 with a class of just five boys.
In short order, The Montfort Academy was on its way to hiring teachers, recruiting students, selecting the right textbooks—often original works—and working very hard to raise what has totaled more than $3.5 million over the next ten years. And in these last ten years, our academy has blossomed and achieved a success beyond our expectations, one of which we can be enormously proud.
Since we opened, we have attracted a distinguished faculty of more than 30 full-time and part-time teachers, including, among other very talented and dedicated people, an Air Force colonel, a poet, a lawyer, a classics scholar, a Grammy-award winning musician, and a professional astronomer. These teachers do what no others would dream of doing—spending hours and hours with our students, for pay that is less than what they can earn elsewhere. They deserve our daily prayers and gratitude.
We have taught more than 125 students in our full-time program and 300 additional students in our Renaissance Invitational. These students will one day influence the world by their example of intelligence and virtue, knowing what matters most is not fortune, or power, or fame, but the use of his or her talents for the glory of God and the benefit of others.
We have hosted as part of our Lawrence and Irene Auriana Distinguished Speakers Series Senator Rick Santorum, former NYPD Commissioner Howard Safir, former vice chairman of Goldman Sachs and current Under Secretary of State Robert Hormats, a filmmaker who documented the heroic acts of 50 Italians who saved the lives of 50,000 Jewish people during World War II, a United Nations diplomat, and a world-renowned Latin poet, Joseph Tusiani—The Montfort Academy’s very own honorary poet laureate—who, as a boy, served at the altar of St. Padre Pio.
We have to date led five excursions to Italy, the heart of Western Civilization, where students have touched and felt the very beginnings of culture and civilization through actual archeological digs and architectural contests. One of our students even unearthed a surprise discovery—the remains of a young Etruscan who lived more than two thousand years ago—and another of our students designed the façade of a 17th Century building undergoing renovation in Abruzzi.
We have had a successful basketball team, a soccer-team, a baseball team, a lacrosse club, and a fencing club, and now cross country, swimming, softball, and girls’ soccer and basketball.
We established a robotics program funded by IBM and the L-3 Corporation, a chess club named after Henry Olynik, a first-place national chess champion of the blind and the grandfather of two of our students, a drama club, a cadet corps, even a movie club. Our students have interned at the prestigious Newington-Cropsey Foundation where they apprenticed under renowned sculptor Greg Wyatt, whose works are on display throughout the globe.
We have had a Gregorian chant and Renaissance Polyphony Schola, a pro-life club named after St. Gianna Beretta Molla, a Eucharistic adoration society, and a club dedicated to the life of St. Maria Goretti. Our extracurricular activities have all begun as ideas in the minds of our students and have been executed with the volunteer help of our very dedicated faculty members.
Further, we have achieved an average SAT score that is 147 points higher than the average New York State score and a 100% college acceptance rate. Our students have gained admission into New York University, Baylor University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Boston College, the University of Rochester, Manhattan College, Fordham University, Catholic University, and SUNY Binghamton—all Tier 1 ranked colleges and universities, some of them among the top 50 schools in the country—a truly outstanding record for a school so young. One of our students gained entry into the prestigious Norwich University, another is presently attending the Merchant Marine Academy, and another was awarded a four-year, full tuition scholarship to The Citadel and earned a nomination to West Point.
We have attracted financing from prestigious American and international sources such as the Raskob Foundation, the Columbus Citizens Foundation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Italy, and the Monte dei Paschi Foundation, the not-for-profit entity of the oldest banking institution in the world whose foundation dates back to 1472.
After five years as an all-boys school, we opened up our doors, curriculum, clubs, and programs to our daughters, the girls of The Montfort Academy, our Lady Knights—full and equal to our young men, the Fighting Knights.
What we have achieved over the past ten years—and what happens in our classrooms—is nothing short of remarkable and summarized by the fact that we have been ranked for four years by the Acton Institute as one of the top 50 Catholic high schools in America. This important designation is awarded by a committee of presidents and professors of some of the most prestigious universities in the country whose mission at Acton is “to promote a free and virtuous society characterized by individual liberty and sustained by religious principles.”
And in an unprecedented expression of support for an American high school, His Excellency Archbishop Celestino Migliore—then the Permanent Observer of the Holy See Mission to the United Nations—joined our board as an advisor by special permission of his superiors of the Holy See in Rome.
The success of The Montfort Academy, however, is best expressed by our students.
Our first graduate, Michael Dziedzic, said in his Valedictory address:
Throughout my high school years, I never really experienced learning as I found it to be at The Montfort Academy. Before coming here, I went to two other high schools, both basically the same. The usual Regents courses and pampered religion classes, the tests that one can commit to short term memory and pass, and all the cliquey groups and fads. Like most, I was blinded by this atmosphere to all that was good, true, and beautiful. . . If there ever was a place that allows for pure spiritual and personal growth, it is here. . . It is a place where young minds and spirits can blossom and forge their own way through the jungle of daily living based on the principles of just and fair conduct. It allows a young person to grow up in purity and safety as can rarely be found anywhere else. Yet another Valedictorian, Ian Richards, said in his address:
The Montfort Academy is a school unprecedented in its time, a true renaissance in the world of modern education for it teaches its students to be… virtuous…in the truest sense. The school removes many of the frills of the modern world, not to shelter its students, but to preserve them, to quiet their academic lives and focus their attentions, so that their high school education may be uncompromisingly devoted to education and formation.
And a parent recently wrote me,
Our son . . .is absolutely thriving at the United States Merchant Marine Academy. . .The foundation he received at The Montfort Academy has prepared him with the skills necessary to handle the tough schedule and regimen. We thank you for the opportunity you afforded our son. He continues to offer up his prayers, put God first, and live his faith by example.
G.K. Chesterton once said, “Gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” In complete wonder, happiness, and awe over what we have achieved together, I am forever grateful to our donors and benefactors, our teachers and administrators, past and present. I would especially like to thank our Chairman Stefano Acunto, our past President Joe Pagnozzi, our Headmaster Steven Terenzio, former Chaplain Fr. Justin Cinnante, former Dean of Girls Connie Pilsner, our Director of Admissions Elizabeth Rex, board members Sr. Marie Pappas, Gregory Woodward, and Catherine Hickey, our steadfast donors Thomas Lehrman and Lawrence Auriana, our students and their dedicated parents, and most of all, our Lord, on whom we rely for everything, His Blessed Mother, and our Patron Saint St. Louis de Montfort.
Happy Tenth Anniversary, Montfort.
Sincerely,
Richard Greco, Jr.