From Brooklyn to Beyond

Fontbonne Experience

Fontbonne Experience

Fontbonne Experience

FOLLOW YOUR HEART

The girl catches the R Train to Bay Ridge from Brooklyn Heights. She takes the school’s bus from Staten Island. She commutes with her Dad from Rockaway. She carpools south from Park Slope. She knew it after her Visit Day in 8th Grade – this was where she would go to high school. Some classmates were choosing bigger schools. But she decided to follow her heart, and not her friends. She chose Fontbonne, and it changed her life forever.

Fontbonne Experience

Fontbonne Experience

BECOMING

From FA, to her new classes, to that first lunch in the caf, she realizes none of the other 9th Graders knows anyone either. But she is surprised how easily she makes friends. Like her, the other girls have big opinions and bigger ideas, and everyone talks as they walk between buildings. She recalls needing to act and speak a certain way in middle school. Maybe it was the boys, but maybe it was her teachers, too. Here, she can finally be herself, and maybe even start becoming that bold woman blossoming inside of her.

Fontbonne Experience

Fontbonne Experience

SURPASS YOUR POTENTIAL

Arriving early to school, Fontbonne’s courtyard is empty and serene. Her teacher is already waiting in the classroom. They work through vector-valued and parametric functions, their focus broken only by their periodic laughter. They meet alone the next morning, too, and the next, until the girl understands the math behind the math. Never does she feel less than. Like so many students at Fontbonne, she and her teacher share a bond. It inspires her to not only recognize her own amazing potential, but to never give up until she surpasses it. She won’t.

Fontbonne Experience

Fontbonne Experience

CHANGE HOW YOU THINK

As she immerses herself in English class, her mind is opening to other possibilities. She imagines a not-so-distant future where she applies her passion for Physics to start a manufacturing business, or maybe her knowledge of Biology to launch a nonprofit for sustainable water solutions. She might even create an entirely new industry. Fontbonne’s school-wide emphasis on innovation isn’t just changing how she sees academics. It’s changing how the girl sees herself.

Fontbonne Experience

Fontbonne Experience

FIND AGENCY

Beyond earning more college credits than friends at other schools, Fontbonne has gifted the girl things that will never appear on her high school transcript. It gave her the confidence to take risks, and the backbone to persist when she fails. It taught her to stand up when others stand down, and to speak up when truth is held down. More than anything, Fontbonne equipped her with the fierce agency to not only prepare for tomorrow, but to shape tomorrow itself. It is a mindset that makes all the difference.

Fontbonne Experience

Fontbonne Experience

THRIVE

Standing in her white graduation dress, the young woman wonders if she looks like a finishing school student from another generation. It makes her smile. She received scholarships to all her first choice colleges and plans to go to medical school. She will miss Fontbonne. She will miss best friends who truly know her. She will miss endless hours strategizing for Sports Night. She will miss racing to soccer after last class, sometimes changing into her uniform on the car ride there. Mostly, she will miss her teachers. They enabled a once-shy and insecure girl to soar. More than a better student, they made her a more complete human being. She loves them.

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