Regina High School marks 50 years
Robert Delaney of The Michigan Catholic
Published October 20, 2006
Harper Woods – Observing that graduates of Regina High School add up to nearly 10,000 over the course of its 50-year history, Cardinal Adam Maida remarked last Sunday, "That's a small army!"
Many of those alumnae were among the 1,200 people in the auditorium at Regina last Sunday when Cardinal Maida celebrated the school's 50th anniversary Mass.
"I am delighted to be with you as we give thanks to God for the half-century Regina High School has been a setting for the spiritual, intellectual and social formation of young women," he said in his homily.
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Photo by Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic
Barbara (Billner) Van Hove locates herself on the photo from the senior class trip of Regina High School’s Class of 1960. | The cardinal expressed gratitude to the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis, who have operated the school from its beginning to the present. And Cardinal Maida noted it was 800 years ago that St. Francis of Assisi began his ministry.
The all-girls college preparatory school proclaims that heritage in its goal statement: "Transforming girls into women of faith in the Franciscan tradition."
Barbara (Billner) Van Hove, a member of the Class of 1960, Regina's first graduating class, said, "I just had to come back today, because I just loved Regina.
Van Hove was delighted to find a copy of a photo of the Class of 1960's senior trip to Washington, D.C., and pointed out her picture to husband, Don, who was a 1958 graduate of Austin Catholic Preparatory School.
More recent alumnae are just as enthusiastic. Mona Habib Haurani, a 1997 graduate, said she loved Regina and has many good memories from her student days.
"It prepares you for the real world. As a woman, you become stronger, more eager to take leadership roles."
Beline Obeid, a Grosse Pointe Farms real estate agent, said she readily agreed when she was asked to join Regina's board. "I have hired women who have graduated from Regina, and they have always been my best employees," she said.
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Photo by Robert Delaney | The Michigan Catholic
Cardinal Adam Maida pronounces the final blessing at the 50th anniversary Mass. | Another board member, Dennis Clark, said two of his daughters have graduated from Regina and a third is a sophomore. "They really do an excellent job here, when it comes to the girls' academic, spiritual and physical development," he said.
Sr. Leanne Leszczynski, SSJ-TOSF, the fifth of her order to run the school, has been its principal for 31 years. Now, she looks forward to the school's move to a new site in Warren at the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year. Regina is renovating a former Prostestant school and church property at 13 Mile and Schoenherr roads.
"It is a blessing that we will continue to be involved in Catholic education for young women in the Archdiocese of Detroit, rather than having to close, because we so believe in our ministry," she said.
Sr. Leszczynski attributed the school's survival and ability to make the move to its board's insistence on fiscal responsibility. "Our board insists on a balanced budget, and we have tried to keep a balanced budget all these years," she said.
Regina had been facing some of the same problems as other Catholic schools, but one day Patrick Adams, principal of De La Salle Collegiate in Warren, called to tell her about the former school property on 13 Mile Road becoming available.
Now, with the approval of Regina's board and financing from the Mount Clemens-based Community Central Bank, Regina is looking forward to its next half-century of service at a new 10-acre site, and of becoming the sister school to the all-boys De La Salle, Sr. Leszczynski added.
Regina High School is at 20200 Kelly Road, Harper Woods 48225, telephone (313) 526-0220.
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