Giving

Parater Scholarship

Attending a Superb Catholic High School Made Affordable with Parater Middle-Class Scholarships

The Parater Middle-Class Scholarship was introduced in Benedictine’s 2017-18 school year with one objective in mind: to make attending a superb Catholic high school affordable for middle-class families. After the unification of Saint Gertrude and Benedictine in 2020, this scholarship is now available to both Saint Gertrude and Benedictine students and is awarded annually to incoming freshmen. The scholarship is funded through an annual Day of Giving.

The Day of Giving is held each year in conjunction with Frank Parater’s death (February 7, a day the Benedictine community hopes will be a feast day in his saintly honor one day). That single day’s activities, and the generosity that accompanies it, are the sole means by which these scholarships are funded.

Data shows that middle-class families are increasingly pinched and the most burdened. They make too much money to qualify for financial aid but don’t have enough expendable income to afford rising tuition costs for private schools.
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Why Support Middle-Class Families?

Middle-class families are the backbone of this country. They are also under increasing stress resulting from the situation of making too much money to qualify for financial assistance programs and not enough money to access high quality education. The can-do, working class spirit of their children is what makes these families so worthy of your support. Your charity is providing a hand-up, not a hand-out. - Jesse Grapes, BSoR President

Day of Giving

Parater Scholarship FAQs

List of 5 frequently asked questions.

How many Parater Scholars does BSoR currently have?

Between Benedictine and Saint Gertrude, there are currently over 100 Parater Scholars enrolled at the Benedictine Schools of Richmond.
Why is the Day of Giving on February 7 each year?

February 7 is Frank Parater's feast day, in the Proper of the Saints (and coinciding with the anniversary of his death).
Where can I learn more about this scholarship?

The legacy of Frank Parater and the Scholarship bearing his name was featured in the a recent edition of the Towers magazine.
Why does the scholarship support middle-class families?

Data shows that middle-class families are increasingly pinched and the most burdened. They make too much money to qualify for financial aid but don’t have enough expendable income to afford raising tuition costs for private schools.

When the award was conceived it was done so following the realization that there was a “donut hole” in the way that private school education is funded. Families in the upper-income brackets were “full-pay,” in that they could afford the cost without benefit of any financial assistance. Those families in lower-income brackets typically received substantial financial-based assistance.

What became clear, after studying BCP demographics, is that Benedictine was lacking a middle-class presence that was representative of the general population. The Parater Middle-Class Scholarship was introduced with one overarching goal: to make attending a superb Catholic high school as affordable for middle-class families as was parochial grade school. Thus, the award wasn’t one directed solely at Catholic students. In fact, a substantial number of awardees have been non-Catholic graduates of local parochial schools.
Who is Frank Parater?

Frank Parater was born into a working-class, devout Catholic Family on October 10, 1897. He graduated from Benedictine High School in 1916, top of his class and valedictorian. After high school, Frank began studies for the priesthood at Belmont Abbey Seminary College in North Carolina. In the Fall 1919, he was sent to study in Rome. In late January 1920, Frank came down with rheumatic fever and passed away on February 7, 1920. Decades later, in 1960, Most Reverend Walter F. Sullivan, D.D., having received authorization from the Holy See, initiated the cause by establishing a Tribunal to examine the reputation for holiness of the Servant of God Frank Parater, Seminarian. We all hope that some day Frank Parater will be our first Saint, which would make us one of three schools in the country to have a Saint graduate from their school.