Visitation Academy looks to attract new students

November 6, 2017 By Paula Katinas Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Visitation Academy Principal Arlene Figaro has served over the years as the school’s most vocal and enthusiastic booster. Eagle file photo by Paula Katinas

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New students are the lifeblood of any private school, which unlike public schools, are not free and have to work to attract newcomers each year to fill its classrooms. Visitation Academy, a Catholic school for girls in Bay Ridge, is hoping an Open House event this month will entice parents to enroll their daughters there.

The Open House will take place on Thursday, Nov. 16, at Visitation Academy, 8902 Ridge Blvd., from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

“Learn the tradition of academic excellence and the history of educating young women of faith, vision and purpose,” an announcement sent out by the school reads.

The Open House will include guided tours of Visitation Academy’s 7.5-acre campus and meet-and-greet sessions with teachers who will be ready to offer information on the school’s academic programs, as well as clubs and sports programs offered at the school.

Arlene Figaro is the principal of Visitation Academy. She is also a graduate of the school.

The school has partnerships with several educational institutions. Its reading program was developed in cooperation with Teachers College at Columbia University.

The school also has a strong science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), according to educators. The school has hosted STEM fairs in which students present their research projects.

Visitation Academy offers numerous extracurricular activities for students.

In the arts alone, there is a wide variety of programs to interest students, according to school officials, who said girls can join a brass band, take ukulele lessons and act in plays.

In 2015, a new Campus Ministry program was introduced at Visitation Academy. Figaro said the goal of the program is to encourage the post-9/11 generation to understand the importance of community service.

“These girls don’t remember Sept. 11 and the sacrifices that were made. And these girls will be our future leaders. We want to encourage them to give back to the community,” Figaro told the Brooklyn Eagle at the time.

The Campus Ministry has collected and donated blankets, diapers and baby bottles to the New York Life Center, a pro-life facility on Fifth Avenue in Bay Ridge that counsels pregnant women. The girls have also served Thanksgiving meals to the Sisters of the Visitation.

The school is located on the grounds of the monastery where the nuns live. The Sisters of the Visitation order sponsors Visitation Academy.

The “visitation” in Visitation Academy refers to the passage in Luke’s Gospel in the New Testament in which Mary, the mother of Jesus Christ, visits her cousin Elizabeth. Both women were pregnant: Mary with Jesus and Elizabeth with John the Baptist.

The religious order that founded the school is officially known as the Order of the Visitation of the Holy Mary.

The religious order was founded in France in the 17th century. In a tribute to the order’s history, Visitation Academy offers French as a foreign language course.

For more information on the Open House, call Visitation Academy at 718-680-9452 or visit the school’s website at visitationacademy.net.