Success Stories
Project GOAL’s First Female Graduate Heads to Providence College on Full Academic Scholarship
Catalina entered the Project GOAL program in 6th grade while attending St. Anne’s School in Providence. In May 2015, she was accepted to Providence College. A two-time All-State and All-Division selection, Catalina Mazo has found both academic and athletic success with the help of Project GOAL and will receive a full scholarship at PC.
“What we do really works,” states Darius Shirzadi, Project GOAL’s Executive Director. “96% of the kids in our program graduate high school and over 90% go on to college. No other program in the country has those numbers.” Among these statistics is the first ever female to enter the program, Catalina Mazo. She is now graduating from Moses Brown and will be attending Providence College this fall.
Catalina Mazo has been admitted into the honors applied physics program, a rigorous subject that demands a high work ethic, something that Mazo has mastered through her experience with Project GOAL. “I loved soccer and knew school work was important,” said Mazo, “the whole program has constantly reminded me to strive to become the best student-athlete I can possibly be.”
As fall approaches, Catalina Mazo will be just one of the astonishing 90% of Project GOAL participants to advance on to college. But she will leave an inspiring and motivating legacy onto the young females following in her footsteps. “I cannot express my profound appreciation for Project GOAL,” she states, “I don’t know where I’d be today without this program.”
PG Grad Delivers Address at Clark University Commencement
Miguel Angel Lara, a seventh-grader who joined Project GOAL (PG) in 2005, not only attended and graduated Clark University on a full scholarship but was selected to deliver its Senior Address in Worcester, Mass. He was the first male Latino to give a student speech on the Clark campus.