Catholic schools in the Diocese of Allentown have traditionally educated students in faith and academics, and now, many Catholic schools are also teaching students innovation and entrepreneurial skills to prepare them for a 21st century economy.
According to Forbes, teaching students innovative and entrepreneurial skills builds critical thinking, creativity, and initiative, which can benefit students regardless of career path.
The students are learning “hands-on experience,” said Karen Rolston, assistant superintendent for the Diocese of Allentown, and in the process, “giving back to their communities. So they’re making an impact.”
St. Thomas More School, Allentown has an “STM Greenhouse Project,” which broke ground on the school campus in July 2023, and a prefabricated greenhouse was erected and put into use later that year. It even received a blessing from the parish’s pastor, Father John Pendzick.
The school uses the irrigated and temperature-controlled greenhouse to grow food to donate to those needing food assistance in the Lehigh Valley. The greenhouse teaches students about conservation, agriculture, food sustainability, and feeding the hungry, one of the seven Corporal Works of Mercy.
Last year, Sacred Heart School, West Reading started an “Outdoor School” experience for eighth grade students. About once a month, students spend the day at Anewalt’s Landscape Contracting, Bernville, learning and exploring nature, thanks to Sacred Heart parishioners Lori and Eddie Anewalt.
At the Outdoor School, students, who largely come from urban neighborhoods, can take off their shoes and have “serenity walks” in a pond, learn the proper way to climb a tree from an arborist, and ride horses in a corral. They even created a pollinator garden, which resides behind the church’s rectory.
According to Principal, Joan McNeil, students learn about environmental science, and Lori Anewalt, a former teacher at Sacred Heart, connects the lessons to the Catholic faith. The Outdoor School “reconnects students with God’s nature to ensure a strong future for both the upcoming generation and our environment,” said McNeil.
Students at two Berks County schools, St. Catharine of Siena School, Reading and St. Ignatius Loyola Regional School, Sinking Spring, participate in Alvernia University’s Total Experience Learning, a hands-on experiential learning model that makes lessons more engaging, meaningful, and future-focused.
Students work with teachers and advisors to select and conduct scientific experiments. St. Catharine’s seventh and eighth grade students, for example, recently completed a study on natural dyeing techniques for textiles, including blue indigo and purple logwood dyes. They created posters and presented their findings to over 60 educators and community members at Alvernia’s campus earlier this month.
Marian Catholic High School, Tamaqua has a fully student managed and monitored store in the school building, called “The Corral,” where fellow students can purchase snacks and drinks during class breaks.
The Corral has been in operation at the school for many years, even back when Principal Michael Brennan was a student in the early 2000s, and it had previously been run by parent volunteers.
Brennan said the Student Council took on management and operation of The Corral three or four years ago, along with help from the school’s Director of Finance, Andrea Feathers. “They took it to another level,” said Brennan. “They have the drinks and snacks that we always had and tied it in with having (stock items) inventoried and having a point-of-sale system,” which students upgraded to accept purchases by credit cards and digital wallets on smart phones.
The Student Council members, who work on a volunteer basis, have responsibility for scanning purchases, counting the drawers at the end of each day, and performing bookkeeping and monthly inventory.
Through a partnership with Alvernia University’s O’Pake Institute for Economic Development and Entrepreneurship, the John Paul II Center (JPII) for Special Learning, Shillington plans to open a café at the university’s American House location (Fourth and Penn streets, Reading) in late 2025/early 2026.
The café, to be named “Special Blends Café by JPII,” will be an educational work-site experience for students and adults associated with JPII, along with assistance from Alvernia students.
Rene Berkhammer, JPII Transitions Coordinator, said the café will provide students with the “ability to get out of the (school) building and see how they can transfer (their) skills in an actual fast-paced environment.”
“Our Catholic schools have all the values and traditions of the Catholic identity,” said Rolston, “but we’re also preparing kids for the real world as it’s evolving. We’re preparing them to be good Catholics and citizens in the world.”
By Gia Myers
Featured photo: Signing of agreements for the Special Blends Café by JPII, Facebook, Alvernia University.
