Milton Hershey School Offers Family, Academics, Opportunity

COURT HOUSE – Giuseppe Collia, 18, likes to tell people that attending Milton Hershey School (MHS), a residential, co-educational school in Hershey, Pa., is like having a family while being at school. 
“There’s a favorite quote I use by Milton Hershey that school is home and home is school, but sometimes it’s neither,” said Collia. “There’s so much to home life and scholastics here. You live with your peers and have very close relationships with them as your friends.
“The relationships that I have with my peers are what I treasure the most,” the MHS senior said about the seven years he’s spent there. “I tell other kids that these are lifetime relationships and friends that I have made. You want to call them your family. And like any family, they come with their quirks….but that’s family love.”
Prospective students and families are invited to a free event Oct. 22 at 6 p.m. at Bellevue Tavern, 9 South Main Street, Court House, to learn more about how the “school’s top-notch education could create a brighter future for their children, with small class sizes, extra study hours, hands-on learning, access to the latest technology and the opportunity to earn scholarships toward continuing education. The school provides a positive, structured home life year-round, giving children the skills necessary to be successful in all aspects of life,” according to a release. 
“When I was 9 years old, I was living with my grandmother in Wildwood,” Collia said, “and at a parent-teacher conference, the teacher told us about MHS. My parents were going through a divorce; it was a rough time.” 
Collia is one of 11 current students from Cape May County attending the cost-free, private, co-educational school for children from low-income families.
He said the school appealed to him and his grandmother because he wasn’t always being challenged in the public school that he attended. Collia applied for admission in the spring, and started classes that fall. The rest is history, as he noted, because he’s been challenged by the academic rigors and has had plenty of extra-curricular activities to take advantage of as well. He has been a part of the school’s marching band, student government organization, National Honor Society, health council, and agricultural and environmental areas, including horticulture and aquatics, and its animal center. 
“In sixth grade, I tested out of math, so I was taking eighth grade math then,” Collia recalled. “It really set me up for the future since last year I took Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus. Now, I’m taking Calculus I in a college class at Lebanon Valley College (LVC).” 
According to Kathy Smith, admissions marketing/recruitment coordinator at MHS, the average class size is about 15 students so “we are able to meet individual student needs. If a student is gifted in certain areas, we can meet those needs.” 
Collia said his smallest class was in eighth grade when he took geometry, typically taken in tenth grade, and his Spanish 4 class, which had four students. He started taking Spanish in ninth grade, taught himself Spanish 2 over the summer, and then took Spanish 3 and 4 in subsequent years. 
“We have alliances with several colleges so the students can take college courses while here,” Smith added, noting LVC and Temple University as two of those alliances.
“I’ll be graduating from MHS with 12 college credits,” Collia noted proudly. Those credits will help as he hopes to attend college after graduation, although he is still undecided on his field of interest and college of choice. “I like linguistics, but I also like environmental sciences and biology. I want to make an impact.” 
The school was established in 1909 by Milton and Catherine Hershey to provide children with a positive, structured home life year-round and gain the skills to be successful in all aspects of life, according to the school’s website.
Acccording to MHS’ historical records, Milton Hershey wanted to get away from “the idea of institutions, charity and compulsion, and to give as many boys as possible real homes, real comforts, education, and training, so they would be useful and happy citizens.
 “It isn’t much unless love is thrown in,” Hershey said, “any more than a boy’s home with his own family is worth much without love.”
 To be considered for enrollment, a child must come from a family of low income, be between the ages of 4 and 15, and be free of serious behavioral problems that disrupt life in the classroom or home. Enrollment is not guaranteed and prospective students must demonstrate the capability to benefit from the programs the school offers. Children are accepted year-round through a rolling admissions process.
Today, more than 2,000 boys and girls from across the U.S. attend MHS. They have access to unique, award-winning programs, experienced teachers and caring adult mentors, according to Smith.
MHS also offers the ability for all students to earn continuing education scholarships and offers post-graduate support to ensure their success after MHS. “We are graduating our largest senior class ever this year,” Smith noted. “About 80-85 percent of our students go on to two- or four-year programs, about 12 percent go to work, and about 5 percent join the military. 
“Our graduation is really quite special here,” she added, “because it’s quite an achievement that these students have persevered despite their circumstances and were able to achieve great things. While there is no financial cost for our school, the cost for a family can be challenging because your child is away from you all this time. Our graduation is really a triumph for both the child and their families.” 
Students live in homes supervised by a married couple who helps care for the 10 students under their care. Senior class members live in “transitional living” facilities, supervised by two adults but “live more along the lines of independent living,” according to Smith. 
“This kind of transitional living helps them with their life skills,” she explained. “They have to learn time management, budgeting, buying and making their own food for the morning and evening, laundry, chores, cleaning, all the things you need in life.” 
The school is open 365 days a year, although it does follow an academic calendar with holidays and vacation. Students are allowed to go home to visit family or they can stay on campus during school breaks. “We try to make it very special,” she said. 
Currently, there are more than 9,000 alumni across the U.S., including Garry Gilliam, a starting offensive lineman for the Seattle Seahawks who graduated in 2009; Deesha Dyer, who is an MHS 1995 graduate and is the social secretary for the White House; Dr. Anthony Graves, assistant professor of pediatrics in Hematology/Oncology at his own research lab at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, who was the 2015 Alumni of the Year, and Cape May County resident Susan Grippen, who graduated in 1983, and is a mother and owns a business in Seaville.
No registration is required to attend the Oct. 22 family event. For more information, call 1-800-322-3248 or go to mhskids.org.
To contact Karen Knight, email kknight@cmcherald.com.