Serviam Girls Academy
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In the news
The Dialog
February 14, 2008
Middle school for girls still plans September opening
Wilmington News Journal
August 18, 2007
Proposed girls academy shows how communities solve real-life problems
Wilmington News Journal
August 16, 2007
In the news
The Dialog
February 14, 2008
Middle school for girls still plans September opening
By Gary Morton
Staff reporter
Wilmington —
Serviam Girls Academy, a tuition-free, private Catholic middle school for girls from low-income families scheduled to open in Wilmington in September, has hired its first president and received “start-up mode” status from its parent network. Anne Weber, a former teacher and counselor at Archmere Academy in Claymont, began duties as Serviam’s full-time president last month. Her immediate responsibilities, she told The Dialog this week, are to secure a site for the school, raise $570,000 still needed to meet a $1 million goal, and hire a principal. Weber said she hopes to announce a location for the school by the end of this month. “In my heart, there is no doubt that we are going to open,” she said. “I’ve heard the excitement and the enthusiasm.”
Serviam is slated to open with between 30 and 40 girls in grades five and six and expand through eighth grade over the following two years, Weber said. Founded by a coalition of Ursuline sisters, lay educators, parents and graduates of Ursuline Academy, Serviam will emphasize character, discipline, cooperation and community service in the Ursuline tradition as it seeks to prepare its students for admission to college preparatory high schools. The school is part of the NativityMiguel Network, an association of more than 60 schools serving over 4,300 middle school-age boys and girls in 27 states. The network also includes Nativity Prep, a tuition-free middle school for boys that opened in Wilmington in 2003 and is operated by the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. Serviam’s acceptance by the NativityMiguel Network “legitimizes” the need for more academic opportunities for girls, Weber said. “Serviam” is Latin for “I will serve,” the motto for schools operated in the Ursuline tradition. But the new school will operate independently from the Ursuline Sisters and Ursuline Academy, which serves girls from age 3 through high school and boys from age 3 through third grade.
Sustainability is goal
Once a site is selected, Weber said, Serviam will focus on fund-raising. “We have yet to go out with a big initiative because the first question everyone asks is, where are you located?” she said. The $1 million goal will cover the academy’s anticipated expenses for one and a half years, she said. “Our goal is not just to open but to be sustainable.” Weber is confident Serviam will meet its financial goal. Even without a major fund-raising campaign, she said, the academy has received $430,000 in pledges. Work on a feasibility study helped spread the word among potential students, Weber said, and Serviam is receiving admission inquiries. Application guidelines are being developed, she said. Weber, 47, was born in New Jersey and moved to Indiana after eighth grade. After she earned a finance degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, she worked for NCNB, a North Carolina-based banking company that was a predecessor of Bank of America. Her job took her to Florida, where she met Bill Weber, a DuPont Co. employee. They’ve been married 21 years and have two children — Katie, a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame, and Tim, a junior at Archmere. Weber developed what she said was a “passion for social work” as a hospital volunteer working with aborigines in Australia, where her husband’s work took the family. She was a stay-at-home mother until she began teaching religion at Archmere. After she earned a master’s degree in counseling in 2003 from Neumann College in Aston, Pa., she became a counselor at Archmere. Weber left Archmere last spring with thoughts of becoming more involved in prison work. She had volunteered with Thresholds, an ecumenical prison ministry, for several years at the Young Correctional Facility, also known as Gander Hill. Instead, she heard about Serviam and worked as a volunteer before being named president. “I thought it would be lovely if one day I could marry my business background with my passion for social work,” she said. “I’m incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to do that.”