The PEGASUS program is a unique asset offered to LaSalle Academy students. PEGASUS is an acronym that stands for a Program that Enhances the Gifts, Aptitudes, and Skills of Unique Students. This exclusive program provides students with the opportunity to express their knowledge and creativity outside of the classroom beginning in their sophomore year and extending throughout their senior year. Students who are admitted must maintain a Grade Point Average of an 85 or above and be recommended by a teacher who can attest to their academic excellence, expressive creativity, determination, and commitment to all that they do.

As sophomores being accepted into the PEGASUS Program, myself, Chris Stabile, and partner, Shanelle Reilly, decided to take an approach on our project to help better the community at LaSalle Academy. By raising awareness of teen dating violence in the students, we knew that the administrators and student body could become a safe haven for those students battling these defiant relationships. Raising awareness against relationship violence became the basis of our project because a close family friend's daughter was murdered by her ex-boyfriend in 2005. The family had not been previously educated about the warning signs of abusive relationships, and certainly did not realize that abuse can be in the form of verbal and emotional distress with just as damaging and long-lasting effects that physical abuse can impair on an individual. The victim's parents started The Lindsay Ann Burke Memorial Fund, a non-profit corporation founded to honor the life of their beloved daughter with the mission of breaking the silence and working towards ending relationship violence through education. The fund works to raise awareness through education to teens, parents, educators, and the general public about all aspects of Domestic Violence as well as Teen Dating Violence.

My partner and I have worked closely with the Lindsay Ann Burke Memorial fund and continue to help them in their fight to break the silence. This year, as seniors, Shanelle and I are hopeful in taking great strides. We have lined up multiple classes to speak to and educated, and have many events lined up as well with underclassmen to provide education and awareness on this very serious issue. 

Although Shanelle and I work on the project together, our perspectives are somewhat different, merely because of the gender difference. As a male learning and educating people about domestic violence, I look upon things in a different light. I look at things from a male persepctive, and after learning all the facts and signs of abuse, I started to look and notice the relationships of my male friends. The different perspectives between Shanelle and I allow for the project to be that much greater by showing both sides of the story.