Bishop Hendricken launches Leadership Academy this fall

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WARWICK— Beginning this fall, Bishop Hendricken High School is proudly launching the Bishop Hendricken Leadership Academy (BHLA), a comprehensive leadership development program designed to provide a diverse range of project-based opportunities to students.

Rooted in the teachings of Jesus Christ and guided by the Charism of Blessed Edmund Rice, BHLA’s aim is to introduce and cultivate Christian leadership qualities in students, including advocacy, ethics, and strategic planning with an emphasis on decision-making in service of the common good. Via the project-based curriculum, students will be challenged to provide realistic and applicable issues to real problems that face their school, local community, country, and globe.

“The Bishop Hendricken Leadership Academy is a great opportunity for our young men to be in an educationally structured leadership program to develop a variety of skills,” said Vincent Mancuso, Dean of Academics and the program’s architect. “It is our hope that these young men become socially conscious and inspirational leaders that strive toward addressing the unjust gaps that exist within our society by working in service of others.”

BHLA enables sophomores, juniors, and seniors the opportunity to serve as mentors and role models for incoming 8th and 9th graders. Students enrolled in BHLA will be responsible for presenting quarterly seminars on specific types of leadership to the newest members of the school community. Sophomores will focus on character leadership, and more specifically, identify and plan to address school-related issues. Juniors and seniors will focus on organizational leadership, and more specifically, identify and plan to address a national or international problem using our school’s mission and the Essential Elements of Blessed Edmund Rice as a guide.

BHLA also features “Leadership through the Arts,” a collaboration with the honors-level Arts Academy program, with student artists working on interdisciplinary projects that encourage organizational and collaborative leadership skills.

Taking place outside of the traditional school day, BHLA students commit themselves to the academy everyday prior to school from 7:45 a.m. until the end of the homeroom period at 8:25 a.m. This model allows students who are interested in pursuing leadership development the opportunity to do so while maintaining their full college preparatory course load.

BHLA is modeled after similar leadership development programs at Christian Brother high schools across the United States, including Iona Preparatory School (New York), St. Laurence High School (Illinois), and Brother Rice High School (Michigan). Mancuso serves as the program’s co-director, along with Ms. Claudine Davenport, Math teacher and retired Air Force veteran.

For more information on the Bishop Hendricken Leadership Academy, or any other academic and extracurricular opportunities at Hendricken, visit Open House on Sunday, October 20 from 12-3 p.m., or schedule a visit by calling

(401) 739-3450, ext. 163.