An Insight into Newport Central Catholic and Newport Independent Schools

Because I am from Boone County, I have witnessed Newport's education system to some degree. As I mentioned earlier, I played basketball against Newport Intermediate, and I, a sheltered and private-Catholic-school-educated eleven year old, was surprised by the amount of cursing and by the immense physicality of these girls. As a result of this experience and the research I found about the very low ranking of the Newport Independent School System, I wanted to learn about Newport Central Catholic, a private Catholic school that is a part of the same diocese as my high school. This school specifically interested me because I was curious how the landscape of being a Catholic school and the landscape of Newport has shaped its students differently than those at my high school and those at Newport Independent School System. 

To learn about the Newport Central Catholic, I interviewed a current first year student attending Northern Kentucky University who graduated from NCC last May. The student, who I will keep anonymous, also had an almost entirely private Catholic education like me; he attended St. Joseph Coldspring for grade school and NCC for high school. Even though he lives in Wilder, he is very familiar with the Newport area because of the closeness of his home to the city and because of his high school experience and friends. Newport has given him many fond memories: hanging out with friends, visiting the Levee, going to school; he, however, does not believe the city has shaped his identity much.

Regarding his education at Newport Central Catholic, he does not believe that NCC prepared him well for college since it failed to teach him what college would be like; regardless of this belief, as he stated, NCC taught him how to be responsible and helped him earn many scholarships. This reminded me of a friend from high school whose sister graduated from NCC and felt unprepared for college. That is why my friend attended my high school because she wanted to be challenged, so it was strange hearing the correlation between these two people's experiences. 

At NCC, many of his friends lived in Newport, and they had a different lifestyle than him because of this landscape. Unlike my interviewee who grew up in a suburban area outside of Newport, his friends and classmates grew up in closely knitted houses that were ruled by basic city streets. Because of this difference, he stated that they grew up walking to places instead of driving to them and mainly found entertainment indoors. In addition, despite the expensiveness of private schooling, he stated that 50 percent of the students lived in less fortunate circumstances and were on student assistance. Thus, just like the Newport Independent School System, many of the students experience difficulties financially, but, unlike Newport Independent, a large majority of graduates, 96 percent, from NCC went to college.

Regardless of the fact that the interviewee believes that NCC did not prepare him well for college and has a decent population of those needing financial assistance, NCC is, at the very least, getting a decent amount of graduates into college. Newport Independent School System, thus, is most likely struggling from internal conflicts within homes. Similarly, the interviewee discussed how he did extracurriculars with students from Newport Independent and was told by a second grader the number of weapons within her home. This reminded me of when I completed a service opportunity with UpSpring, which serves girls experiencing homelessness at Newport , and there was 13 of them experiencing homelessness. 

Thus, perhaps there is a strong correlation between the landscape of Newport and the lack of preparation for college, but, at the end of the day, NCC is not struggling as much as Newport Independent due to its better family-home conditions.

An Outsider’s POV of Newport

Over the past few weeks of taking trips to Newport, I have come to the conclusion that Newport is trying to improve and become a better community, but it is attracting outsiders more than the ones already living there. I have talked to many people who live both in Newport and outside of Newport. I have gotten some perspective from the people who live in Newport from talking to them and my team members on this blog, but I wanted to ask a friend who lives right outside of Newport in Fort Thomas what he is excited about. I asked him simple questions and here is part of the conversation:

Q: What is your favorite part about Newport?
A: Strong’s Pizza. It is perfect walking distance from Newport on the Levee, it is a nice relaxed environment, and it’s a family style restaurant that I’ve been going to for years. Plus the prices aren’t that bad at all for how good it is.
Q: Are you excited for the new renovations in Newport?
A: I am, I have been going into Newport for years to hang out and shop: the pavilion, Levee and friends that live there. It’s going to be cool to see some new things to try in Newport.
Q: How do you view Newport? What are the words you would use to describe it right now?
A: It is a growing city, it is entertaining, and it has good business. It is a hub of activity that attracts younger people.

From just these few questions I can see that as an outsider he really likes Newport, but that is because he goes there to hang out rather than actually knowing the Newport community. This is an example of young people being attracted to Newport, but the next step is how do they learn about Newport’s future and hope to become part of the community?

Present Trend: Being a VSCO Girl in Newport

As I embrace my last few months of being a teenager, one important question remains about Newport: can it fulfill a VSCO girl's needs? For you uncultured and out-of-the-loop folk, VSCO is a photo and video editor app that anyone can use for free and share their creations, and a VSCO girl is a stereotype of a teenage girl who wears scrunchies, oversized sweatshirts/t-shirts, Nike shorts, Birkenstock shoes, Crocs, Vans, shell necklaces, tube tops, and jean shorts and always drinks from a hydro-flask. Fortunately, if you are a VSCO girl, Newport can satisfy your present VSCO needs. 

First of all, it can satisfy your consumer VSCO needs. Even though there is a Claire's still open on Newport on the Levee to satisfy your scrunchy needs, I do not recommend going there because it smells awful, and, in addition, there are almost no other stores to shop at on the Levee in general, especially for you particular aesthetic desires. Instead, I recommend visiting the Newport Pavilion; the area, unlike the majority of Newport, is spaced out and has newer buildings and stores. Not a single building appears to be run down, and the whole area is visually appealing with greenery and stone walls to make the entire shopping experience more enjoyable. One of the stores is Target, which every teenage girl knows can satisfy any aesthetic need; Target sells scrunchies, a variety of clothing options, the iconic hydro-flasks, and Starbucks coffee, which can fulfill your stereotypical Starbucks photos. Furthermore, other stores include Famous Footwear, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Ulta to purchase your shoe, Nike shorts, and make-up necessities. 

Second, among the construction of the city, there are some places to take aesthetically pleasing VSCO photos. One example is Press on Monmouth, a restaurant that specializes in making paninis, salads, gourmet soup, breakfast food, and pastries and serving espresso, coffees, and beers (https://pressonmonmouthnky.com/). Before you even walk into the restaurant, it already stands out among its surroundings. In contrast to the older and bland bank adjacent to it, the restaurant's exterior includes vibrant red brick, sturdy and bright blue window awnings, and a modern appealing hanging sign. Once you walk into the restaurant, the interior takes you by surprise. Once inside, I discovered mason jars and flower vases, a hanging and flashing blue "coffee" sign, wooden boxes of vegetation, and many other aesthetic decorations that make for great VSCO posts and creations. In addition to the decorations, the food and drink options also make for great photos. I personally only ordered an iced latte, which was attractive in its clear container, but the food and drink options around me and on the website all appeared to be created with visual care to enhance your VSCO game.

Thus, despite the hot mess of Newport construction and poverty, there are some gems within the city that can satisfy your VSCO desires and young needs, and this shows that the present Newport and the future Newport are attracting a younger audience.

Sources: https://pressonmonmouthnky.com/

A Long Time Journey: An Interview with a Newport Citizen

When looking into Newport, while I am unfamiliar with the area of Newport overall, I decided to turn to a great friend and long-time resident of Newport to see into what he thinks of the city overall. For the purposes of privacy I will be referencing my friend as "C". C has always been an individual who has been wanting to try new things and to expand his reach. Below is his opinions about the city that

My first question I asked him surrounding Newport as a home. 

He describes Newport as, "the home you want to leave. It is home because everyone knows everyone. It was because this that my time in Newport was great, but I knew from the moment I moved there that I wanted to leave it after high school. I wasn't like everyone or the co culture. So my time was great, but lonely.

My second question I asked him about the schools of Newport.

He describes the schools of Newport as, "bad, worse than bad, they're awful. A bunch of kids raised to not care what anyone tells them and to rebel. My honors class had the same 20 people in it every year. Newport schools showed they didn't care. Matter of fact, a teacher once told my class we were all numbers."

My third question I asked him about the sights and sounds of Newport.

In this response he specifically talked about the the levee section of Newport. He described this area as, "Great. I spent my childhood and teens walking Newport and the levee. I seriously gained and lost friends there. Its a great place to be when you're bored, with friends, or on a date.

When giving this interview with my friend C, I wanted to truly hear how he thought of the place he grew up at. While he was personally not a fan of living there or the school system that is currently there, he did say that Newport is a great place to explore in. He was very positive about the impact places such as the Levee had on his childhood. All in all, he concluded to me that Newport is like every other city, it has its highlights and it has its problems. He also said that this was only his personal opinion and that for someone else Newport could mean something different. However, for an individual who is wanting to explore, he felt he was confined there, but coming into Newport to explore? He absolutely liked it.

The History of the Future of Newport

Newport is becoming a fresh new space that is changing everyday. One of the really cool things about the these changes are the projects that are coming along. I have looked into them looking at Newport on the Levee, Newport’s Ovation Site, and the Westside clean up.
The Levee renovations are the most talked about among the projects: the Barnes and Nobles is gone, most of the shops in the mall are empty, and the place is overall just empty and waiting to be filled. Here are some renderings that show what they are moving towards:

As you can see there is a lot of work that needs to be done, but it is really cool to see how these places are changing into that I am excited to check out when the renovations are finally finished.

The next biggest site is Newport’s Ovation Site. It is a mixed use site that is was just 35 acres of unused lots by the river (13 years if not being used). The project will bring about 5,000 jobs and is intended to help both the people currently living in Newport and the people who will potentially move into Newport. It was supposed to be done in spring of 2019, but was pushed back. The project will be starting with the concert venue that costs $40 million. Here are the renderings looking the future of Ovation:

The last part is the westside of Newport. The neighborhood community is trying really hard to make it a great place to live and grow. They are seeking investments, it’s a good location and two of the streets , York and Columbia streets, are being turned into historic districts. Unfortunately I not have renderings because the projects that need to be done do not have the backing and may be slowed done because of all the Ovation site projects. But now is the time for westside of Newport. The big thing to focus on is bringing history into the future for Newport.


https://www.rcnky.com/articles/2019/05/09/40-million-music-venue-coming-newports-ovation-site

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2019/07/16/newport-concert-venue-construction-underway-ovation-site/1732662001/

https://www.cincinnati.com/story/money/2019/06/10/newport-levee-offers-first-glimpse-new-concept/1410351001/

https://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/newport-west-side-newports-west-side-thinks-of-itself-as-on-the-upswing-as-it-cleans-up-and-draws-investment_

Under the Bridge: A Newport Melting Pot

While travelling through Newport and its bustling streets, we came across Newport High School. Newport High School has a long standing history for over the past 50+ years; however, that wasn't what intrigued me the most about the area. Under 471 towards Cincinnati is an often populated utopia filled to the brim with many ramps, rails, and stairs. Here in Newport, Kentucky, is the community's skate park. This skate park is a haven for many local residents of Newport ,whether in Newport High School or not, to come to skate, socialize, and compete.


While I do not have as much familiarity with the importance of this skate park to the local community of Newport, I could tell by my observations how important and impact its lure can truly be. The skate-park used to be parking, however over time, they eventually converted the old parking lot into the skate-park that can be seen today. In fact, the skate park is owned by the owner of the Galaxy Skate Shop. What I saw within my quick observations of the skate-park was a sense of community. I saw individuals socializing and presenting their skating skills to fellow friends and possibly strangers. I saw a community of individuals who have come together to skate.

There was no judgement, they did not see differences, in fact, what I saw with this skate park was a sense of unity. A passion for the sport they truly cared about in skating. While I am not much of a skater, the skate-park was constantly there, tempting me to go and try skating for the first time. While I couldn't go to the skate-park and skate due to time constraints and not having a skateboard, the community interaction I saw there truly impressed me. It impressed me in a sense I am starting to want to learn how to truly become a skater and become a part of a community that feels truly united in their hobby.

That is what I got from my experience observing the bustling skate-park below 471. A community that regardless of differences, have come together to interact and skate.