‘Our future is very bright’
Larry Savoy, the president of Archbishop Carroll High School, has a special perspective on leading the school, and on the pride of being a Carroll Lion.
In 2018, Savoy – a member of Carroll’s class of 1993 – returned to the school as its president, after earlier serving as a teacher and administrator at his alma mater for 14 years.
“It’s an honor to grow the place that formed and shaped me,” said Savoy, who is leading Archbishop Carroll as it celebrates its 75th anniversary and embarks on an ambitious effort to modernize its facilities and expand its academic and extracurricular programs and its support for its students and teachers.
While he was a student at Carroll, Savoy played soccer and baseball and was very involved in the school’s theater and drama programs. “That stage was my second home,” he said.
During his junior and senior years at Archbishop Carroll, Savoy dressed up as the school’s Lion mascot at games. “People still remember me as the Lion,” he said, laughing.
Taking the train and bus to school from Prince George’s County and learning to navigate the city taught him independence, he said. His social justice class changed his perspective on the world, teaching him “we have to be servant leaders. We have to be there for others,” Savoy said.
He added that his teachers at Carroll “wanted the best for all of us,” and that foundation inspired him to earn a bachelor’s degree in theater arts with a concentration in education from Temple University in Philadelphia, and later earn a master’s degree in administration from Trinity Washington University.
Before returning to Archbishop Carroll as the school’s president, Savoy served as the principal at Don Bosco Cristo Rey High School in Takoma Park and in that role at St. Michael the Archangel School in Silver Spring.
Since 1989, Archbishop Carroll has been a coed Catholic high school, after it was founded in 1951 as an all-boys’ school, one of Washington’s first fully integrated schools. Savoy said the school’s African American students from those early years “were very determined, because they were the first… This was more than just an experiment for these guys. This was a chance to change their lives.”
Many of the school’s graduates entered civil service, the military or other professions where they served others, shaped by the foundation of the Augustinian order that staffed the school in its first decades and the lay teachers that have continued their work.
Archbishop Carroll High School, known for its championship basketball and football teams over the years, is now also known for its Jim Vance Media Program and its Project Lead the Way engineering program.
“I’m very excited about these programs, because we’re giving our young people an opportunity to explore their curiosity,” Savoy said.
This fall at a 75th anniversary gala, Archbishop Carroll will publicly launch a capital campaign that aims to continue to modernize its facilities, expand its educational programs and scholarships, and provide funding to support the work of its faculty and staff. Its student athletes will soon be competing in its renovated gymnasium.
“Our future is very bright,” Savoy said, adding that Archbishop Carroll will continue its mission of providing a Catholic education that teaches students to grow closer to Christ and be servant leaders with “respect for all,” a mission that the pioneering school has had since it opened its doors 75 years ago.
Letting that light shine
Brandy Hawes says serving as the new principal at Archbishop Carroll High School is a full circle moment for her. Raised by devout grandparents in Washington who taught her the value of faith and education, Hawes said being a leader at a Catholic school “just gives me so much joy, to be part of a learning community where I can let that light shine.”
Perhaps being an educator was her destiny all along. She noted how her grandfather built her a wooden desk for her to do her schoolwork, and how she used to “play school” with younger cousins. Her grandfather also bought a typewriter for her.
Later she graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, earned an undergraduate degree from St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh, North Carolina, and a master’s in educational leadership from Central Michigan University.
She recently served as a community outreach manager for Center City Public Charter Schools, and was a finalist for the Washington Post’s Principal of the Year Award in 2018 when she led that school system’s NOMA campus in the nation’s capital. She also served as the principal of the system’s Shaw campus and taught at its Brightwood campus. Her experience spans K-12 education and includes leading literacy initiatives, STEM programming and international service learning opportunities.
Helping to lead Archbishop Carroll as it marks its 75th anniversary “is a pivotal time,” Hawes said. “It’s an amazing space to be in, to help young people flourish.”
Hawes, who believes in the importance of helping students develop as scholars, athletes, servant leaders and people of character, said, “I really want to help them to realize their potential to be change agents.”
She said the anniversary also offers students the opportunity to help build the school’s legacy for its next 75 years, “to design what Carroll will look like for the next generation of Lions.”
“Archbishop Carroll is going to be the place to be. That is my goal,” Hawes said.
Living out the mission
After working in retail banking, Sonya Wilson, the business education chair at Archbishop Carroll High School, is in her 23rd year teaching there. Wilson teaches courses in entrepreneurship, financial literacy and marketing with integrity, and also a law and justice class and a legal issues in contemporary society class.
“Every day I come here, I get to live out the mission of empowering students with knowledge, helping them to become critical thinkers, finding their voice, and becoming servant leaders,” Wilson said.
Working with a program offered by the Busch School of Business at The Catholic University of America, she also teaches a Catholic Entrepreneurship and Design Experience course to Carroll students, who earn three college credits for the class.
Wilson serves as the moderator of the Women of Carroll Mentoring Program. “I want them to get to know graduates who walked the halls and became successful in their own right,” she said.
She is also the moderator of the Lady Lions Mock Trial Team at the school. “I want them to be able to speak up for themselves and others, and know when they’re needed and where they’re needed,” Wilson said.
A lesson that the veteran teacher tries to impart to her students, she said, is, “Find something you’re passionate about, not just your work, and discover how all of you can make the world a better place, by putting in your time and your talents and your efforts in your own community.”
Program named for media legend
Just before the COVID-19 shutdown of schools in mid-March 2020, the ribbon cutting was held for the new Jim Vance Media Program at Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington. The state-of-the-art center, named for the legendary NBC4 news anchor who was a longtime supporter of the school, then became a lifeline for that community, providing livestreams of key school events like Masses, the honors convocation and graduation until Carroll reopened for in-person classes.
“It was built just in time,” said Dr. Cherie Ward, the program’s founding director.
Jim Vance, who died in 2017, had given Ward her first internship when she was a freshman at Howard University in Washington earning her undergraduate degree in broadcast journalism. She went on to work at local media outlets for more than 25 years, including as a reporter and producer. Then while producing her own children’s television show, she returned to Howard to earn a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction.
“Part of that experience was student teaching. When I saw the need for teachers, I felt that I had walked into my purpose,” said Dr. Ward, who then went on to also earn a doctorate in communications culture and media studies at Howard University.
In 2018, she was hired to be the director for the new Jim Vance Media Program, which was made possible by a $5 million donation from Steven Newby, a retired stockbroker and longtime benefactor of the school.
“The great thing about this position, it was like being given a ball of clay, because I had the opportunity to work with a team of people to help create a new space, to write curriculum and to teach,” Dr. Ward said.
Students participating in the program are called “Vance Scholars” and receive four-year scholarships to the school. The welcoming space at the Jim Vance Media Center includes a mural of the journalist, and its studio space includes a control room and broadcast-quality cameras. Students are guided by media professionals as they learn audio engineering and skills like directing a program, video editing and how to operate a teleprompter. The Vance Scholars produce school newscasts and learn how to produce press conferences, and they work behind the scenes to broadcast school Masses and other events. The center also includes a classroom, conference room and library.
The courses offered in the program include public speaking, introduction to journalism and fundamentals of journalism, broadcast production, sports journalism and classes to reinforce writing skills.
Not all of those students will pursue a career in media, but Dr. Ward said the communications and technical experiences that they gain through the program give them a valuable skill set for the future.
And she said the program continues the legacy of Jim Vance, who believed “everybody is important,” no matter what the story was that he was covering.
Real world skills
As the opening school year Mass for Archbishop Carroll High School was unfolding on Aug. 28, senior Raegan Richardson was with other students in the control room of the Jim Vance Media Center making sure that the audio and video were turning out well for the livestream.
Through the program, the 17-year-old member of Carroll’s class of 2027 from Washington has gained public speaking and media skills that she’ll take with her as she plans to major in communications in college and perhaps some day work in a career “in front of or behind the camera,” or in photography or writing, she said.
At Archbishop Carroll, Richardson has also enjoyed being a student ambassador and participating in cheerleading. “I think our cheering helps the teams keep their energy up… and also helps the fans get that energy as well,” she said.
She praised the school, saying, “We have a diverse community… We’re learning from different perspectives.”
Key things that she will take away from her school experience, she said, are the importance of “helping people feel included” and offering a helping hand to people in need. During her years there, she has taken part in the school’s Thanksgiving Food Drive and also volunteered with the Special Olympics.
Reflecting on the skills that she has learned through the Jim Vance Media Program, Richardson said, “I’m excited to leave here with the knowledge that I have and take it and apply it in the real world.”
Leaving a legacy
Senior Da’Mari Winters says a key thing that he has learned at Archbishop Carroll High School is “to be a leader at all times, in class and out of the class.”
For all four of his years there, the 16-year-old resident of District Heights, Maryland, has participated in the school’s Project Lead the Way program, which offers classes in engineering principles and design, digital electronics and AP computer science principles. Winters said that through his classes, he has gained coding skills, learned about different types of engineering, how to build 3D models, and taken on individual and team hands-on projects that involved designing, building and analyzing prototypes. Along the way, he’s made close friendships with classmates as they worked together on those projects.
His experiences there provided a springboard for an internship with Visionary Solutions, an IT company in Herndon, Virginia. In college, he hopes to major in computer science and minor in cybersecurity, and be part of an ROTC program with the Air Force, possibly leading to future work as a cybersecurity analyst for the military.
At Archbishop Carroll, Winters has been a defensive end for the Lions football team for the past two years, after playing basketball there as a freshman and sophomore.
The student athlete said when he puts on the uniform, his mindset is to “represent our school the best way possible, and go out there and win… Being a Carroll Lion is like (being part of) a giant brotherhood.”
The member of Carroll’s class of 2027 added, “You have to first be a student before you’re an athlete. That’s one of the biggest lessons I’ll take to college.”
Winters said continuing the school’s legacy is important, as Archbishop Carroll marks its 75th anniversary. “We have big shoes to fill. We have to leave a great legacy for everybody to follow, and I believe that’s what we’ve been doing these past few years.”
