The Talk on Tenth

Shadow Showcase Providing Youth with Taste of Marquette
7th/8th Graders Tour Campus, Shadow a Class, Break Bread with Administrators

After 11 long, lonely months, life is beginning to show subtle signs of normalcy. COVID-19 vaccinations are slowly but surely rolling out to our fellow Americans. Yesterday, the LaPorte County Health Department announced it is relaxing restrictions on indoor dining and retail establishments. Were it not for inclement weather, Marquette would have completed another successful week of in-person learning. We're not out of the woods yet, but there are reasons for optimism.

One welcome sight on campus has been the return of prospective students in and around the main building and Scholl Student Center. Beginning in mid-January, Marquette began to reaccustom local seventh and eighth graders as part of its Shadow Showcase program. 

Marquette packs a list of activities into a two-hour, 45-minute window starting at 9 am. Each child is assigned to a current student who takes the prospective Blazer on a campus tour. The child then joins their host to sit in on a class period: anything from Chemistry, to Intro to Business, to Young Adult Lit. After a brief meeting with director of admissions Jennifer Quinlan, the shadows sit down for lunch with principal Casey Martin and vice principal Katie Collignon. 

The goal is for seventh and eighth graders to walk a mile in the shoes of a current Marquette student. So far, it is accomplishing its objective.

"I love it here. I already feel like I am a student. I do belong here," an eighth-grader from Notre Dame Catholic School remarked following her January visit.

Marquette currently has four open dates between February and March: 2/18, 2/24, 3/10, and 3/16. To avoid overcrowding, Shadow Showcases are limited to five prospective students.

Those interested in signing up should email Jennifer Quinlan at jquinlan@marquette-hs.org.

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