TOWN OF TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WKBW) — This year is the first year of the St. Margaret's Scholars Program at Cardinal O' Hara High School. It is an inclusive special education program that helps student with intellectual and developmental disabilities integrate into regular cirriculum and social settings of school. The program is the first of its kind amongst Catholic schools in New York State.
One of the St. Margaret's scholars is Giovanni Mortellaro, a freshman who transferred to Cardinal O' Hara in the middle of this school year.
"Cardinal O’ Hara managed to make me feel happy. Especially with the people here. Especially my friend’s my peers. I feel happy nowadays," Mortellaro said. "If you’re one of those kids that wants to experience activities, peer mentors, or if you want just a teacher that you can talk to or a friend to talk to or hangout or whatever, then Cardinal O’ Hara is the place for anyone".
Each student in the program is paired with different mentors. The mentors are other students are Cardinal O' Hara who help the St. Margaret's scholars become more comfortable with the new school setting. Giovanni's art mentor is Junior Nicole Cleary.
"I’ve really had a really good experience with it," Cleary said. "I didn't realize how many people there actually were [in the program]. I realized that everyone wants to help. It tells me the school is a family-like, welcoming community".
The program started with only five scholar students and 25 mentors. Now, nearing the end of the school year, the program has expanded to eight students and 45 mentors. Next year, the program is expecting at least one new scholar to join.
For this work and dedication to inclusion, Cardinal O' Hara was awarded the Generation G Hereos Award by GiGi's Playhouse. GiGi's Playhouse is a non-profit that's dedicated to changing the way people view down syndrome by sending a message to accept everyone. This is the first time a school has been given the national award. Chief Belief Officer and Founder of GiGi's Playhouse Nancy Gianni paid a visit to O' Hara to see the program for herself and to present the award. With O' Hara being a Catholic school, it held a deeper meaning to Nancy and her daughter, GiGi.
"GiGi tried to go to catholic school in preschool and the parents didn't want their kids around a child like GiGi. Gianni said. "When I saw that a catholic school was embracing and leading the way in acceptance, I just couldn’t wait to celebrate this team, celebrate this school, this community."
Cardinal O' Hara Principal Joleen Dimitroff led the way in establishing the program. Dimitroff has an extensive background in special education over her 34 years in the field. Dimitroff's biggest surprise to the program is how much it's made an impact on the student mentors.
"Our students are building compassion, empathy, and becoming great advocates for people with disabilities," Dimitroff said. "We are so proud of them and their leadership here. This has been a fantastic first year and we can’t wait to see where it goes."
Leading the everyday operations of the program now is special education teacher Maria McGrath. While the goal at Cardinal O' Hara is to continue growing and add more students, McGrath hopes the program will be the start of a change in education overall.
"We don’t wanna just be a silo doing this and we don’t want to be the only one doing this in New York State," McGrath said. "We want this program to grow across the state in faith based schools and in public schools and we want this program to grow across the country."
