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Mercy High School Burlingame alumna Natalie Cirigliano Brosnan, right, was installed as her alma mater’s head of school on June 14 in a ceremony led by Mercy Sister Regina Ward of the Mercy Education System of the Americas. (Courtesy photo)
Aug. 19, 2019
Christina Gray
When Natalie Cirigliano Brosnan graduated as valedictorian of Mercy High School Burlingame in 2002, school shootings, student anxiety and depression were an anomaly. Social media, with its well-documented influence on both, did not yet exist.
“Times have definitely changed for educators,” Cirigliano Brosnan told Catholic San Francisco Aug. 10 following her appointment as the first lay alumna to serve as head of the 88-year-old all-girls school, her alma mater. “You have all these new outside pressures from society.”
Most recently principal of Holy Name School in San Francisco, Cirigliano Brosnan was appointed to succeed Karen Hanrahan, who retired in June after six years at Mercy Burlingame.
“Anxiety and depression are such major issues for this generation,” Cirigliano Brosnan said, so much so that the school has formed a team consisting of academic, counseling and campus ministry department members to proactively “combat the anxieties and social pressures our students are facing.”
She said gun violence and the nation’s unrelenting occurrence of mass shootings has also completely changed the ways schools must prepare themselves for “new realities.”
“It’s not just the earthquake and fire drills anymore,” she said. “It’s the reunification drills, the active shooter drills.”
Cirigliano Brosnan said that school leaders on retreat recently agreed that enhanced safety protocols was the immediate priority for staff, students and parents as they enter the new school year.
“We’ll be educated on what we need to do together to keep everybody calm and safe,” she said.
Cirigliano Brosnan’s appointment as head of school followed an extensive search by the school’s board of directors. But her deep Catholic roots in Burlingame seemed to make her heir apparent.
A lifelong parishioner at St. Catherine of Siena in Burlingame, Cirigliano Brosnan attended St. Catherine of Siena School before enrolling at Mercy Burlingame where she graduated with honors as a student athlete. After earning masters and doctoral degrees in Catholic Education Leadership from the University of San Francisco, she returned to serve both of her former schools; as a teacher at St. Catherine of Siena and as Mercy Burlingame’s Dean of Student Life.
“Natalie is effectively coming home,” said Bob Grassilli, chair of the Mercy High School Burlingame board of directors, in naming her head of school.
“Faith is just who I am,” said Cirigliano Brosnan, who started two of the most important jobs she will ever have nearly simultaneously. Just one month ago she and her husband Neil welcomed their first child, Cornelius Timothy Jr., or C.J.
Current school families, alumnae and friends of Mercy attended the on-campus ceremony which honored Cirigliano Brosnan while paying tribute to her predecessor Karen Hanrahan, Mercy Burlingame’s longtime head of school. (Courtesy photo)
PAYING IT FORWARD: Steve Mendoza is the last in a succession of four siblings who all graduated from St. James School in San Francisco; Jacqueline in 1980, Wilfredo in 1983 and Marvin in 1986. He graduated in 1993 and from Archbishop Riordan High School in 1997. After becoming a firefighter and earning a business degree, Mendoza is a regular on the St. James campus once again, this time with his wife Ana, and sons Dominic, who is entering fifth grade, and Gabriel, entering third. (His oldest son is Giovanni, 19) Between drop-offs, he chairs the St. James Walk-a-Thon and family picnic.
St. James alumni Steve Mendoza, left, who graduated St. James School in 1993, is pictured with fellow Class of 1993 alumna Jennifer Caputo and their St. James second graders.
“I remember when my immigrant parents or my friends’ parents dedicated their time, money or support to make a difference in my life,” he said about his investment in the St. James community. “It’s now my responsibility to pay forward the gifts of my education and share the time and resources with my children and all St. James students.” (Courtesy photo)
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