Marian Center: Educating 'God's little ones'

By Cristina Cabrera Jarro -

Photography: CRISTINA CABRERA JARRO | FC

MIAMI GARDENS | During Catholic Schools week in January 2023, the Marian Center School and Services held a performance highlighting their 60-year anniversary. A small group of students and faculty, dressed in white frocks and wearing white handkerchiefs to cover their hair, stood before an audience of peers, family and friends.

The attire imitated that worn by the 11 Sisters of St. Joseph Benedict Cottolengo, who in 1963, at the request of Miami’s first bishop, Coleman Carroll, left their native Turin, Italy, to come to South Florida on a mission: to establish a place for children with developmental disabilities.

Dressed in a black frock, and wearing a cross on his necklace, student Octavis Williams, playing the role of Bishop Carroll, explained, “We do not have a school in Florida that serves these needs. I would like to build one.”

Listening intently was Elena DiCiccio, a teacher at the Marian Center, who played the role of the founding superior of the group, Sister Lucia Ceccotti. In her best Italian accent she replied, “This will be a big project, but Divine Providence tells me I cannot say no.”

She then turned to her group of sisters and shared the news that they were coming to America. After expressing their concerns, including that “we don’t speak English,” the group recalled their faith and cheered, “Divine Providence!”

And so, through song, dance, and photo displays, student performers celebrated the Marian Center’s 60-year history, which is summed up in this brief description: “With love and devotion, they have cared for, educated and served God’s little ones entrusted to their care. Their courage and their love built more than the Marian Center. It built hope.”

 

‘MOUNTAINS OF TRASH’

Neighbored by Msgr. Edward Pace High School and St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens, the Marian Center campus began in 1964 with one building, which served as the convent and classrooms. The surrounding property was a combination of pines, overgrown grass, wildlife, and “mountains of trash.”

Somehow, “Sister Lucia saw it and said it was beautiful because in her mind she was looking at the future and what it could be,” said Sister Filomena Mastrangelo, who arrived at the Marian Center in 2012.

With the aid of friends and benefactors, the sisters cleaned up the area and construction continued on the 50-acre property. In 1965, a separate school building was dedicated. In 1967, the pool house and two swimming pools were completed, followed in 1968 by the multi-purpose building, and in 1971 a permanent residential cottage for women.

Today, the Marian Center is a fully accredited school for students ages 6 through 21, with no more than 12 students per classroom, and unique individualized plans that touch on the essentials of language development, communication, reading and writing, math, science, religion and more.

The Marian Center also offers an adult training and work program.

Extra-curriculars include Special Olympics, urban farming, culinary classes, jewelry-making, photography, art classes, and a music program whose hand-bell choir played for Pope Francis in Rome in 2018. Each program welcomes students from all background and religions. The Marian Center also provides financial aid to those who qualify.

 

‘NOTHING WAS HAPPENING’

In June 2023, Meilani Perdomo, 22, donned a cap and gown for her graduation from the Marian Center, where she studied for 15 years. She dreams of being a vet, even though she also likes computers.

“She’s detailed and responsible. They show them that here,” said Carrie Perdomo, Meilani’s mother.

The Marian Center’s continuous encouragement for often unrealized and unseen potential in their students is why Perdomo enrolled Meilani at the school years ago. Previously, Meilani attended pre-K through first grade in a public school, which “failed tremendously.”

“I was told they were giving her speech and other classes and nothing was happening,” Perdomo said.

Her daughter’s needs required modification of assignments, but even so, no homework ever came home. When an open house at the school displayed the work of every student except Meilani, a livid Perdomo knew she had to make a decision. A friend with a son enrolled at the Marian Center had recommended the school, and she decided it was time to visit.

She was impressed by the academics, taught almost one on one by a teacher and an assistant, and geared to each student’s individual learning level and pace. She also saw that living and social skills were taught, including table manners at lunchtime.

“Our children do need discipline. They need to be nurtured and loved. And when you have all of that together, then you have a product for a child who looks forward to school and who learns,” Perdomo said.

On the tour she also saw the bathrooms, with all the cubbies for the toothbrushes. “I looked at the long hall with all the cleanliness, and I told my husband, I think this is the place for her.”

In a “3-o’clock in the morning” email to the Marian Center, Perdomo requested to enroll Meilani.

“Obviously, it is expensive. Within a couple of hours, I got a call back, and I was kind of scared to pick up the phone,” she said.

But Sister Lucia, whom Perdomo remembers as feisty, disciplined, and having a heart of gold, “would move heaven and earth for her children.” She assured Perdomo that they would find a way to help pay for Meilani’s tuition (over 80% of the Marian Center’s students receive financial assistance regardless of income), and there was no doubt she would be a student at the Marian Center.

“Sister Lucia would say, ‘Divine Providence will always provide,’” Perdomo recalled.

Sister Lucia also wrote that the Marian Center “has borne fruit beyond imagination.”

Though she died in September 2013, her legacy, and those of the founding sisters, lives on.

“We are really on the shoulders of a big giant,” said Sister Lidia Valli, principal of the Marian Center School. “They came, and we continue with joy and with passion.” 

FIND OUT MORE

• To find out more about the Marian Center School and Services visit www.mariancenterschool.org or call 305-625-8354. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram @mariancenterschool.