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Liguori Academy, a private, independent career and college-ready high school, received a $1,000,000 gift from The Howley Foundation to enhance Liguori’s Career Cohorts program and postsecondary support for the next three years. Liguori Academy was founded in 2016 on the foundation of disrupting the bounds of the traditional education system. With The Howley Foundation’s endowment, Liguori Academy can expand its current work-ready credential program for students to earn and graduate with the tools and skills needed to excel in college or a career post-graduation.

“We are immensely grateful for Nick and Lorie Howley and The Howley Foundation’s generous investment in our Career Cohort program. This support will not only enhance the resources and opportunities available to our students but will transform lives by empowering young people to achieve their full potential and succeed in their chosen postsecondary path, whether that be college or a career right out of high school,” said, President of Liguori Academy, Michael Marrone.

Within the Cohort programs, students are introduced to courses that will develop and define students’ real-world skills, ensuring students are graduating proficiently in core academics while also earning credentials.

Thanks to The Howley Foundation, Liguori Academy students will now have the opportunity to receive accreditations working in: CAD or Adobe to one day be a graphic or fashioner designer while in the Arts Cohort; PC Pro and Comp TIA A+ to be an app developer in Technology; and or an array of medical-related accreditations that can allow a student the opportunity to graduate as a Certified Laboratory or Medical Assistant.

The full list of new certificates include:

In addition to the Career Cohorts, all students receive a rigorous core academic curriculum, social emotional development, and postsecondary support. The postsecondary program is offered for individualized guidance after graduation and is based on the exploration of the students’ interests as they enter the ninth grade, and advance as they rise in grade levels examining their values, skills, and goals. Now, with the generosity of The Howley Foundation, as well as Liguori’s three in-house experts, students will receive individualized support from a Postsecondary Manager, to access a range of resources to achieve their future dreams.

The Howley Foundation and Liguori Academy recognize that college is not for everyone, nor can everyone afford it right after high school. In 2023 alone, the college attendance rate dropped with 15.8 million fewer students enrolling due to a range of factors such as an increase in tuition and fee costs as well as a lack of accommodations for students due to cuts such as eliminating majors.

Through this partnership, Liguori Academy and The Howley Foundation are ensuring that students will not become a number in another statistic. Rather than focusing on the traditional assembly line that prepares students to attend college right after high school, Liguori can be agile through its use of technology to individualize content based on students’ ability and interests as well as their hopes and dreams.

Founded in 2001, The Howley Foundation began with a belief and the determination for change that education is the most vital and crucial pillar to positive change in the world. Turning belief into action, Nick and Lorie Howley started with one student scholarship in a Cleveland-based Catholic high school and have now supported hundreds of programs from elementary schools through collegiate level serving students in Philadelphia and Cleveland. Under the leadership of Meg Howley as Executive Director in Philadelphia, The Howley Foundation has successful partnerships with many impactful Philadelphia-based schools.

The prospering relationship between The Howley Foundation and Liguori Academy is extraordinary and unparalleled and is bounded by their missions, which are so firmly intertwined. With the commitment to individualized and high-quality education for youth who are underserved, The Howley Foundation and Liguori Academy have seen the major positive impacts their mission have had on the local community and the economy, and are both determined to keep on pushing the boundaries for more.