Hillary Rivera might be a new Sacred Heart University (SHU) first-year student among the Class of 2028, but she is hardly unfamiliar with SHU. When she recently started her first semester, she had already spent more than a decade on campus.
“My friends will ask, ‘Hillary, how do I get here, and how do I go there?’ I tell them, ‘You go here, then there and then there. How can you not know?’” Rivera said. “They’ll laugh and say, ‘Because we didn’t grow up here, Hillary.’ My situation is unique.”
Rivera, 18, was in the first class of kindergartners in the Horizons at SHU program, when it launched in 2012 on the SHU campus. This year, she became the first Horizons at SHU student to attend Sacred Heart.
The tuition-free Horizons at SHU program provides qualifying K-8 Bridgeport students with an immersive summer experience on the SHU campus. The program features academic, enrichment and social-emotional learning opportunities, as well as year-round mentorship, homework support and tutoring.
Horizons at SHU addresses the lack of access to out-of-school programs that some families face, which can lead to summer learning loss, or the “summer slide.” By providing these opportunities, SHU offers students a chance to be better prepared for the upcoming school year and poised for academic success.
Rivera, who is studying psychology and sociology, credits Horizons at SHU with giving her a clear path to her future. She says the minute her mother, Juana, dropped her off on that first day of the program, Juana knew this was where her daughter would go to college. “She thought the campus was beautiful, and she was so grateful,” Rivera said.
For Rivera, that realization was not immediate. However, by fifth grade, she had set her sights on SHU, and she was also looking forward to four years of parochial high school. She is a 2024 graduate of Notre Dame Catholic High School in Fairfield, which SHU purchased in February, and which is now called Notre Dame Prep of Sacred Heart University. It is where Rivera’s two sisters go to school: Rachel, a high school freshman, and Naomi, a junior, also participate in the Horizons program.
For years, SHU has offered a 50% tuition scholarship to Notre Dame students who are accepted to the University. Since 2018, approximately 20% of each Notre Dame graduating class has gone on to study at SHU. “I couldn’t imagine where I’d be if I didn’t go to Notre Dame,” Rivera said, adding that her teachers provided immense support throughout her four years, particularly in her first year, 2021, given the challenges of starting high school amid a pandemic. “I still visit them and thank them for believing in me.”
As the second-largest Catholic university in New England, and one of the fastest-growing private doctoral institutions in the U.S., Sacred Heart University is a national leader in shaping higher education for the 21st century. It stands out from other Catholic institutions as it was established and led by laity. The contemporary Catholic university is rooted in the rich Catholic intellectual tradition and the liberal arts, and at the same time cultivates students to be forward thinkers who enact change — in their own lives, professions and in their communities.
