8 THE QUEENS COURIER • SEPTEMBER 13, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Photo courtesy of Holy Cross High School
Trailblazing class has fi rst day at newly
co-ed Holy Cross High School in Flushing
BY JENNA BAGCAL
jbagcal@qns.com/ @jenna_bagcal
Excitement radiated throughout Holy
Cross High School on Th ursday morning
as the Flushing institution offi cially welcomed
girls for the fi rst time in its history.
Th e group of 200 trailblazing members
of the freshmen Class of 2022 had
their fi rst day on Sept. 6. Since it fi rst
opened its doors in 1955, Holy Cross
(26-20 Francis Lewis Blvd.) was an allboys,
college preparatory institution, but
the school announced in May 2017 that
it would welcome young women for the
2018-19 school year.
Th e school’s decision to become co-ed
came aft er the board of corporate members’
unanimous decision to accept the
board of directors’ recommendation to
admit young women to the school.
On their fi rst day, the young men and
women of the Class of 2022 experienced
a full day of orientation activities, including
buying supplies and uniforms, learning
to use their school-provided Google
Chromebooks and meeting their new
teachers. Last week, the students participated
in the “Freshman Experience,” a
day of games, relationship building and
team building.
“Our goal was to make sure that we
welcomed the community, our new students,
in a manner that the congregation
would have liked us to,” said Holy Cross
Principal Edward Burns, who graduated
from the school in 1983. “We just really
focused the day on activities that would
allow the students to interact with our
staff and their peers.”
“Th at day I was actually really scared
because I didn’t that I was gonna make
friends,” said incoming freshman
Khaliyah Jennings.
Despite her trepidation, Jennings said
that she was able to make friends and
ultimately enjoyed the activities including
a giant game of Jenga and various
ice-breakers like Two Truths and a Lie.
Another new student, Armani
Montaque said that he enjoyed the day
getting to meet and get to know his fellow
classmates.
“We did a basketball shootout and ran a
race,” Montaque said.
Th e school, in addition to 22 secondary
and post-secondary academic institutions
across the country, is sponsored by the
Congregation of Holy Cross in the United
States. Currently, 18 of the 22 institutions
are co-educational.
According to James Conboy, the
school’s vice president of institutional
advancement, Holy Cross wanted to
spread the mission of the Congregation’s
founder, Blessed Basil Moreau, to provide
young people with a solid Catholic education
regardless of gender.
“In order to expand the mission of
what he put out there, we felt that going
to co-ed would be benefi cial to not only
young men,” Conboy said. “To give
young men and women a Holy Cross
education would be very rewarding for
our congregation.”
Conboy added that fi nancially, the
move to coeducation was the right decision
for Holy Cross. Due to the number
of parochial schools combining, Conboy
said that their “feeder pool” of schools
from which their students came has been
declining.
Th e impact of earning a Holy Cross
education stayed with alumnus Paul
Viollis, Class of 1979, who said that allowing
girls to attend the school was “long
overdue.”
“I think it’s a refl ection of the diversity
of the vision that Holy Cross has
always had and continues to have, in
looking at, not just what’s best for the
school, but what’s best for the community,”
said Viollis, the current counter-terrorist
analyst for CBS. “Even back when
I went, Holy Cross was about inclusion
in the ’70s when people didn’t talk about
inclusion.”
Th e new students expressed the same
excitement for being part of the Class of
2022.
“I thought that it would be a better
experience than other schools to be the
fi rst girls,” said new student Kimberly
Johnston.
“Th ey had a lot of new things for the
girls and especially because we’re gonna
make history by graduating as the fi rst
co-ed class,” added Jennings.
For Charles Antell, the prospect of adding
young women to the student body
strengthened Holy Cross’ feeling of community.
“It was a good feeling knowing that
there was gonna be more people, meeting
new people, people from everywhere,”
shared freshman Miguel Pineda.
Robert Botero, an alumnus from the
Class of 2000 and the school’s director
of admissions said that it was “amazing”
that girls were now getting the same
opportunity to receive the same education
that he and so many others were
aff orded.
“As a parent of two girls, that’s exciting
for me because now I know that my
children would have an opportunity to
be a part of something special also. To
say ‘everyone’s excited’ is an understatement,”
he said.
On Monday, Sept. 10, the entire Holy
Cross student body came together for
their fi rst offi cial day of classes.
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