Henry Davidson, Therese Lagarde, and Bridget Haselbarth have been named the winners of Christendom’s 2024 Padre Pio Full-Tuition Scholarship Competition.
101 students participated in this year’s Padre Pio competition, making it the largest and most competitive event in the college’s history. As part of the Padre Pio competition, each participant had to write a timed essay examining an article by G.K. Chesterton and also interview with a scholarship panel.
Davidson, who hails from Leesburg, Virginia, has been studying at Dominion Christian School for high school. After participating in the college’s high school summer program, The Best Week Ever, Davidson felt that Christendom was the “intelligent, joyful, and unabashedly Catholic community,” he had been searching for and eagerly applied to attend the college.
“I am honored to have received the scholarship, and I am delighted to be attending Christendom,” says Davidson. “When I participated in the college’s summer program last year, I had a sense that something was fundamentally right at Christendom that I hadn’t experienced before. Over the last few centuries, movements from the Reformation to the Enlightenment have set people against each other and turned them away from truth. Christendom College is the antithesis of that—an intelligent, joyful, and unabashedly Catholic community. I can’t wait to move in once August arrives.”
Like Davidson, Lagarde is excited to attend Christendom in the fall thanks to the college’s rigorously and faithfully Catholic curriculum and environment. She grew up in Midlothian, Virginia, studying at Cardinal Newman Academy. She is the sixth member of her family to attend the college and is looking forward to following in their footsteps by learning the truth, living the faith, and thriving at Christendom.
“I’m so excited to attend Christendom next year because the liberal arts program is both academically rigorous and faithfully Catholic,” says Lagarde. “The college’s mission “to restore all things in Christ” permeates every aspect of campus culture. With the amazing faculty who are great Catholic role models, the beautiful chapel, and the daily access to the sacraments, the Faith is not just another part of your life at Christendom; it impacts everything you do. I am so grateful for this opportunity to join other young Catholics of my generation in fostering personal relationships with Christ through studies and reception of the sacraments so that we can go out into the world with Christ in our hearts and bring His light into our darkened society.”
Haselbarth, meanwhile, hails from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was homeschooled in high school. She sees Christendom as the gateway to her reaching her full potential, thanks to the college’s combination of challenging academics and spiritually enriching environment.
“In a world continually forgetting what truth is, it is so important to train a generation ready to go into the world defending it,” says Haselbarth. “Christendom College will build on the strong Catholic foundation which I have previously received, and will prepare me to fight for truth, rather than to conform to the shifting ways of the world.”
The college also awarded $5,000 runners-up scholarships to Perpetua Phelps, Alexander Cohen, Trista Cridler, Bruno Kouatly, Richard Whitfield, and all participants who did not receive the full-tuition or runner-up scholarship received a $1,000 competitors scholarship.
The college looks forward to welcoming these exceptional scholars to campus in August, along with the rest of the Class of 2028, where they will learn the truth, live the Faith, and thrive.