Academic Support
Who We Are
Staff
- Gianna Galletta, CATS Director
- Pete Collins, CATS Learning Specialist
- Blythe Hurley, CATS Coordinator
Hours
- 8:30am-4pm Monday - Thursday
- 8:30am-3:30pm Friday
Location
CATS is located on the first level in the Student Center.
Contact Us
Director, Gianna Galletta, M.Ed., '06
ggalletta@siprep.org
or
About
The SI Learning Center is open to the entire SI community. Our major focus is to give students who have unique learning needs the appropriate academic support and accommodations they need to be successful at SI. Our collaborative approach includes administrators, counselors, teachers, students and parents. Although we do not modify our college preparatory curriculum or offer remedial courses, students with documented learning disabilities and/or ADHD work closely with The Learning Center staff to meet individual academic needs. Our mission is to empower students on their journey to become independent learners within the SI community.
Mission & Purpose:
- Guide students in understanding how they learn and devising strategies to cope with their learning styles;
- Encourage students to become self-advocates who access support and request reasonable accommodations when necessary;
- Connect students with faculty and peer tutors for academic support;
- Instruct students in study skills techniques and use of school resources;
- Coordinate academic accommodation services;
- Promote healthy self-image of students with learning differences; and
- Provide referrals for an educational assessment for students who have not been previously diagnosed but who may have a learning disability or ADHD
Services & Support
- Workshops to strengthen study and organizational habits
- Individual and group tutoring
- Academic support strategies specific to the student’s learning needs
- New technologies to support individual learning needs
- Means to develop self-advocacy skills
- Identify and support students with learning disabilities
- Personalized learning profiles when current educational testing is provided
- National Standardized Testing Accommodations (SAT/ACT)
- Grade level cohort meetings
Getting Started
Identification of Student with Learning Disabilities
- CATS provides services to those students who submit documentation indicating a learning disability or ADHD at the time the student applies to St. Ignatius College Preparatory. Documentation is reviewed for its appropriateness and completeness under the guidelines set forth by St. Ignatius College Preparatory.
- Students diagnosed midway through the school year, should first contact the CATS Director for initial steps in being evaluated and identified.
Once a Student is Identified:
A complete psycho-educational report is submitted to the Director of the CATS Center for review. The CATS Director will:
- contact the student and parent(s) to arrange an intake meeting.
- explain the goals of the program and the services available to the particular student.
- contact the student’s teachers to explain relevant strengths and weaknesses in the psycho-educational report.
- arrange and facilitate all meetings with regard to the student’s educational plan.
- facilitate reasonable accommodations such as extended time on exams at St. Ignatius, as well as assist with the process of applying for accommodations on high-stakes testing (College Board Tests and the ACT).
esting (College Board Tests and the ACT).
*For more information, go to our Accommodations & Support page.