Fourteen years ago, Sienna Adducci started preschool at Providence Academy in Plymouth. Now a senior at the school, she reflected on the significance of her Catholic elementary school education.
Q: What elements of Catholic elementary and middle school education shaped your life?
Siena: Providence Academy helped to shape the Catholic faith that I have carried with me all my life and in my life beyond school. To learn and practice your faith at a young age in a supporting community is more beneficial than I could have ever imagined, and helped me become the faith-filled woman that I am today.
Q: Who at Providence Academy was the most influential in helping inspire your faith during your elementary and middle school years?
Siena: My third-grade teacher, Mr. Brian Dudley, was my biggest inspiration. He consistently put God in every subject we learned whether that be the complexness of math or the beauty in literature. He made it a priority for us to visit our chapel every week and say a rosary. These routines gave me leverage for the future of my faith. He instilled a love in me for wanting to pursue and grow my relationship with Christ and also gave me the courage to live out my faith by his example. Little did I know that five years later, Mr. Dudley would become my confirmation sponsor and one of my most significant life role models.
Q: In what ways did Providence Academy nurture you to become a community leader?
Siena: Attending a school that encourages you to live your faith allowed me to seek out different opportunities where I could make a gift of myself and my faith. There were many ways to make a difference. I volunteered at Sharing and Caring Hands, and collected items for food drives and for children in need and babies in crisis. I participated in Providence Academy’s lower school family service projects, and we ministered to the residents at a local nursing home, which started my love of working with the elderly.
Q: How did your Catholic K-8 experience prepare you for high school?
Sienna: You go through a complex curriculum that teaches about the life of Christ, how to pray, the Catholic faith as a whole, and how to apply this to life. By the time I attended high school, I felt very prepared and confident in the foundation of my faith and all that I held to be true.
Q: What are your plans for after graduation?
Siena: I plan on attending college and majoring in religion and history. Providence Academy helped me decide what was important to me, and this encouraged me to want to live that out as a disciple for the truth.