The Official Newspaper of the Diocese of Little Rock
Jesus Deonate-Vasquez, 16, returned to the United States from Mexico last year.
With his parents’ hopes of a better education for their son, the U.S.-born student moved in with his aunt, attending St. Joseph Church in Conway. While Conway HIgh School provided the English-language program he needed, with his aunt working full time there wasn’t much beyond school. But thanks to SpringBoard USA Foundation based in Little Rock, he has excelled at Subiaco Academy as a junior.
“It’s better because in Conway, I just went to Conway school and that’s it, did the homework. Here in Subiaco I'm living with my classmates,” and playing football and soccer, he said.
Deonate-Vasquez is one of 12 students since 2017 who have attended a boarding school thanks to the SpringBoard USA Foundation. The foundation helps low-income families provide a stable, nurturing environment for their junior high and high school children without tuition costs by partnering with four Catholic boarding schools including Subiaco Academy and one Episcopal boarding school.. The partner schools in Arkansas, Tennessee, Kansas, Nebraska and Alabama reduced their annual tuition rates for these students to around $6,000 to $10,000, which is covered by sponsorships. SpringBoard also helps with travel expenses, uniforms and allowances, with parents chipping in as they are able.
“We’re true to our mission, which is simply saving kids,” said SpringBoard USA co-founder and executive director Patrick Weaver.
The idea has been brewing for years with Weaver, a parishioner of St. Edward Church and the Cathedral of St. Andrew in Little Rock, Thomas Sanders, a parishioner of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Hot Springs Village, and Augustine “Jay” Fredrich, who was a parishioner of Christ the King in Little Rock before he died Sept. 29. All three are graduates of Subiaco Academy, a seventh-12th grade Benedictine boarding school for boys, and remained active in school administration and alumni leadership.
In 2015, SpringBoard USA became a reality thanks to donors Pat Wardlaw, a 1946 Subiaco graduate, and his wife Vicki.
“We’re very aware of the difference it made in our own lives, how Subiaco was transformational,” said Weaver, a member of the Class of 1976.
He also helped open a new Catholic school in Nashville and worked there 10 years.
“It became a real mission of mine, especially financially, to make Catholic schools available to any kid or family who was looking for that experience,” he said.
Sanders, board president of SpringBoard, remembers as a young student being expelled, “relieved of my responsibilities of a Catholic school in Oklahoma City.” Subiaco Academy turned his life around. He graduated in 1958.
“When I went to Subiaco, tuition was $500 a year. The average family income was $5,000. Today, the average family income is $50,000 a year and $30,000 tuition,” at Subiaco Academy for boarding students, Sanders said. “While the average income has gone up 10 times, the average tuition has gone up 60 times. What I can see is the demise of these schools.”
Subiaco Academy headmaster Dr. David Wright said the school has hosted six SpringBoard Scholars, with tuition currently about $10,000 for those students.
“The connection is a really strong one because the gentlemen who started SpringBoard are Subiaco graduates, so their mission of finding students that are mission-appropriate and strong academically and wishing for them to go off and have a fabulous experience and develop into strong Catholic leaders in their community is an important mission that they share and we share,” he said.
Referred students, who do not have to be Catholic, must be academically at their grade level and have a willingness to succeed. The foundation can also provide extra tutoring if necessary.
“We’re not talking about the straight-A honor roll kids,” Weaver said, but “they have to have a desire.”
The foundation chose to partner with boarding schools specifically because many SpringBoard scholars do not have supervision after school and on weekends and a boarding school can provide stability, a routine and a moral compass.
Yorleny Carbajal, 14, a parishioner at St. Edward Church in Little Rock, came to Arkansas two years ago from Mexico. She now attends Maur Hill - Mount Academy in Atchison, Kan., after attending North Little Rock Middle School.
“I meet people from other countries, and I get to know them better, to know their customs,” she said.
Freshman McKeehan “Mac” Dilley, 19, is a double major in theater and business, with a minor in psychology at the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville. A 2020 graduate of Subiaco Academy, he became a SpringBoard scholar his sophomore year. Dilley’s involvement in the Subiaco Jazz Ensemble and theater fueled his desire to make it on Broadway or in films, but if that doesn’t pan out he wants to open his own boarding school for young actors.
“I’ve really grown up without a father figure. I’ve had multiple men in my life, but I was raised by a single mom. So going to a school that has monks there … it made me become a more rounded individual,” he said. “Subiaco taught me what it means to become a man, but not only a man, but a Subi man. If it wasn’t for Subiaco, I wouldn't have the motivation to do college.”
Father Tony Robbins, pastor at St. Joseph Church in Conway, recommended Deonate-Vasquez for SpringBoard and will be organizing a fundraising appeal at St. Joseph to raise the money for his tuition.
“He just looked like a totally different kid,” after seeing him recently while on a priest retreat at Subiaco. “He was out of his shell, he had a freedom about him, he could express himself. That’s a real struggle for students. They can get locked up in their own world and get in trouble that way.”
Father Robbins, whose late father graduated from Subiaco, said SpringBoard is a great organization, but it’s also sad that it has to exist.
“(The Church has) lost focus of our mission. So I see SpringBoard as kind of a call to refocus our priority. It’s the children and not just trying to run a business and make a profit,” he said of Catholic education. “It’s a call of hope and a refocusing on what our priorities are.”
To learn more about sponsorship, contact SpringBoard USA Foundation at or (615) 419-6699 or visit springboardusa.org.
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