Life after Mercy: How students are moving on after school’s closing

Karina Ellis
Grade: Senior
High School: St. John The Baptist

Karina Ellis of Jamesport was on a run when she received a text message from one of her peers at Bishop McGann-Mercy.

“You have to read this RIGHT NOW,” the text read.

Karina, 17, shrugged it off. When she got home, she said she started freaking out: Her high school was closing.

“I was wondering where I’d go, because the next Catholic school is so far away, it would be more than an hour for me to get there,” she said. “But, I’ve been going to Catholic school my whole life, I kind of wanted to graduate from one.”

She said she was torn between two options: St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School, a private Catholic school nearly an hour away, or early acceptance to Immaculata University in Pennsylvania. She had already completed the necessary credits to graduate, but she feared the abruptness of the transition.

But then, another roadblock. Immaculata told her because they didn’t have her SAT scores, it would be difficult to accept her.

“People already had their acceptance letters, so it would have been hard for me even though I already had all my credits ready, it all would’ve been very rushed,” she said.

With no other option, she fell back on St. John the Baptist.

Now, Karina wakes up around 5:30 a.m. during the week and drives five miles from her home in Jamesport to her bus stop in Riverhead. The bus picks her up at 6:10 a.m. for the trip to West Islip.

She said that once she started shadowing another student at St. John, she got the feel for the school.

“They were a little more strict than Mercy, they had more rules, different traditions, so I was like, ‘I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to adjust to this,’ ” she said.

During the transfer, Karina was able to maintain her status in the National Honor Society, but could no longer hold the position of student government vice president — one of her favorite roles while at Mercy.

“The position was already picked last year for St. John’s, so I wasn’t able to be a part of that this year,” she said.

But the long distance between Jamesport and West Islip hasn’t stopped Karina from playing tennis. Karina said she was on the tennis team at Mercy and the tennis season at St. John the Baptist just concluded.

“I knew three other girls at St. John’s from out east that did tennis, so we were able to carpool on days we had off when we had games,” she said. “When we had games, though, it was a long night. Games were in Queens, so I wouldn’t get home till 11 o’clock at night.”

While Karina said she’s well-adjusted to her new schedule, she misses Mercy’s tightknit community.

“I definitely miss the family-feel of it,” she said. “We were a lot closer, because it was a smaller school, so I got to see friends more often.”

Although some of her Mercy friends now attend public school, she said, she’s still in touch with them.

“Just the thought of not being able to graduate with them is kind of sad,” Karina said. “I wanted to since I’ve been with them for so long.”