COLORADO SPRINGS. Working full time at a homeless center in Boulder was not how Hannah McReavy envisioned spending the last months of her sophomore year at college. In February, McReavy, who graduated from St. Mary’s High School in 2018, was at Providence College in Rhode Island; a month later, she was in Boulder, where her parents now live, finishing the semester virtually as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

COLORADO SPRINGS. St. Paul School has expanded its Early Education Program for the 2020-21 school year to include full-day options for preschool and pre-kindergarten. Full-day preschool for ages 3-4 will be offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m.-3 p.m., while full-day pre-kindergarten for ages 4-5 will take place Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. To schedule a tour or register, contact Candy at 719-632-1846.

LITTLETON. St. Katharine Drexel School, which is located at Pax Christi Parish in Littleton, will add a fi rst grade class consisting of 10 students for the 2020-21 school year. The school recently graduated its first kindergarten class, said director Mandi Lupher, and plans to continue adding one grade per year.

COLORADO SPRINGS. When Colleen (Walker) Berenguer ‘11 graduated from St. Mary’s High School, a career in nursing wasn’t on her radar. Yet, nine years later, her days have been filled with caring for patients in Meridian, Idado, with a virus that just a few months ago no one could have imagined. Berenguer is one of several St. Mary’s graduates who are on the frontlines caring for COVID-19 patients across the nation.

COLORADO SPRINGS. A famous quote claims that “attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure,” a theory that has been tested during the last seven weeks of rapid change. When schools shut down their campuses in mid-March due to the COVID-19 outbreak, everyone was hopeful that the shutdown would be short lived. That included the events staff at St. Mary’s High School, who at that time were just weeks away from their annual gala.

COLORADO SPRINGS. Education didn’t stop when Colorado Governor Jared Polis ordered all schools closed because of the Coronavirus pandemic.

COLORADO SPRINGS. When the 2019-2020 school year started seven months ago, no one in the St. Mary’s community could have fathomed how the spring semester would unfold. In August it would have been unthinkable that the week before spring break, the entire school would move to distance learning from home as schools closed statewide in an effort to suppress the spread of the COVID- 19 coronavirus.

COLORADO SPRINGS. In the last month, life has changed for Americans. Our current situation of social distancing and stay-at-home orders has, at the very least, disrupted plans and, at the worst, has completely changed lives. Life for those who attend St. Mary’s High School has, of course, also been affected. As plans are shifting, one thing remains consistent for those associated with St. Mary’s — the community.