With the start of the new year and semester, what better way to kick it off than celebrating the new addition to St. Dominic? The Wies Family Center for the Sciences is finally open after about four years of planning and 15 months of construction!

The first ever idea for the addition came out of the Strategic Planning process in 2018. The year of 2019 was used to collect necessary funds by fundraisers and start the designing process. After planning and raising funds, construction finally began in October of 2020.

The new center brings so many opportunities for better presentations and community events, with the largest part of the building being the open atrium. When you walk in through the brand new entrance, you are greeted with so much natural light throughout the many windows in the new atrium. There is so much open space which makes it easier to present because voices are carried out so clearly.

“I can’t wait to see how much we all can use the space. I think these new facilities give us the best science and technology learning spaces in our area and I think it will attract more families to our community. My very favorite part is the mezzanine. I love that area and how it looks over the atrium,” President Mr. Welby said.

The new building caters more towards the science department at St. Dominic.There are many more places to collaborate, interact and engage with classmates and teachers in the brand new labs. The labs now supply students and teachers with much more space and technology than before to spread out and be more successful throughout the learning process.

Mrs. Juergensmeyer, a biology and chemistry teacher here at St. Dominic stated, “The new addition to St. Dominic is amazing! I am most excited about the amount of space that each science lab now has! We will be able to collaborate and engage in labs without feeling cramped! Each set of students will be able to have their own space to utilize and work in.”

Teachers are not the only ones enjoying the new facilities St. Dominic has to offer. Junior Riley Robertson said, “I am most excited about the new labs because of the amount of space they created for groups to work well together. I am taking chemistry with Mr. Groaning in the new building, and we do labs all the time. So I am sure that they are going to be more fun and detailed because of the new materials we have!”

Science, however, is not the only subject that has benefitted from our new addition. There is a brand new filming studio and classroom for the journalism and broadcasting classes available in the new science wing. With the rapid growth of the journalism program in less than five years, St. Dominic is now offering three levels of Journalism classes as well as a Broadcasting class. The Crusader Nation News Broadcast is filmed every Monday and airs every Tuesday. Thanks to the help of the new state of the art cameras and teleprompters, the quality of video will only become better and better. The state-of-the-art studio allows all of these classes to become more student driven than they already have been in the past.

“The new building sends a message to both current students and prospective students that St. Dominic is committed to them. The school and its leadership are bound and determined to give them the best educational experience possible and to keep academics at a cutting edge pace,” Mr. Duncan, the journalism and broadcasting teacher, at St. Dominic said.

The Wies Family Center for the Sciences allows our school community to fully live out the four pillars of St. Dominic: prayer, study, community and service. The Eisenbath Atrium’s stadium chairs can be used for presentations, meetings, discussions, or lunch space. Lastly, the Schwendeman Family Mezzanine provides comfortable spaces for students to collaborate throughout the day and for meetings that are held during the evenings.

No matter the task you need to complete, the new building offers a plethora of resources and space for members of the St. Dominic community to grow and thrive for years to come.