When I found out my husband and I were expecting, I experienced unexplainable joy, along with an immediate shift in my thought process. Things I had never given much consideration in the past now seemed vital. An expecting mom’s brain is controlled chaos at best but from day one she begins to contemplate the best way to raise her child. I had to ask myself what mattered most. What are the best qualities of my husband and me? How do I pass ONLY those parts onto my child? My immediate thought was that I am who I am because of the choices my parents made for me and arguably the best decision they made was for me to attend Holy Trinity Catholic School and then go on to St. Thomas Aquinas High School.

The education and values that were instilled in me then have stuck with me over the years and now have significant bearing over the decisions I am making for my own child and our future. A faith-based education is much more than religion class. It’s remembering that we are all human, one person can make a difference and kindness costs nothing. Can you imagine what the world would be like if all children were taught those basic values all throughout their school-aged years? The beautiful world that you just envisioned is the world I want my son to grow up in.

For that reason, I joined the CEF Futures Committee, a group of young professionals working to support the mission of CEF to ensure that all children in our Archdiocese have access to a Catholic education, even if their parents can’t afford it. I want every child to have access to the same opportunity that I had, and that my husband and I hope to provide for our son when he reaches school age.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” Catholic Education Foundation Futures maybe can’t change the entire world but we can change the world for a child, one scholarship at a time!