As the eldest child of four, the decisions my parents made for me often affected my siblings. One challenging decision for my parents was whether to send me to a public or private school. My mother was adamant that we would not be able to afford a private education, especially with two younger kids and another on the way. However, my dad, a devout Catholic, insisted that I would benefit from a Catholic education and had a gut feeling that the finances would fall into place. Eventually, they chose to follow their intuition and send me to a small Catholic school called St. John the Baptist. My two immigrant parents, who work harder than anyone else I know, were willing to make a sacrifice because they knew it would launch my future.
Surely, as fate would have it, the next year, in 2011, Indiana rolled out the Indiana Choice Scholarship. My sister, who is a mere 14 months younger than me, began kindergarten the next year and was eligible for the Scholarship Granting Program. This meant that the following school year, both of us would qualify for the school choice program. Though at the time it was a huge sacrifice for my parents to pay my full private school tuition for two years straight, it is clear that my dad was right in his intuition. The finances did work out, and everything fell into place.
The Indiana School Choice program has had an immense impact on my life that means the world to me. Through this voucher system, I made my closest childhood friends who I still talk to daily and I was able to be a part of one of our area’s best high school gymnastics programs. I also had the opportunity to learn from some of the best teachers in the district. I will never know how much longer I would have been able to stay in the Catholic school system if it were not for this voucher program. For all I know, I could have only been there for a few more years before my parents would no longer have been able to afford the tuition. I am certain that I would not have had the luxury of attending Bishop Dwenger, one of Fort Wayne’s two Catholic high schools. Thankfully, the scholarship program extended into high school, which allowed me to continue receiving a private education.
While St. John the Baptist fueled me with a passion for learning and a tight-knit community with the students and teachers, Bishop Dwenger allowed me to take off and put that fuel into action. Though Bishop Dwenger was significantly larger than St. John the Baptist, I made it my home by joining many clubs and becoming class president my senior year. Alongside my involvement in clubs and sports, I took great pride in my academics and graduated with honors, ranking 11th in my class. This achievement granted me a spot at my dream university, despite its competitive acceptance rate. All of this was made possible through the Indiana Choice Scholarship program something I will forever be grateful for.
