La Salle Institute female grads reflect on making history

TROY, N.Y. (NEWS10) -- In 2021, La Salle Institute in Troy made a historic change by allowing female students to enroll for the first time since it was founded in 1850. Ten of the around 85 seniors graduating Saturday, May 18 are young women. NEWS10’s Cassie Hudson sat down with three of the graduating female students to hear about their high school experience and share the hurdles that came with rewriting history.

"It was definitely an adjustment. There's still like times where you're the only girl in class and you have to like kind of find your way to fit yourself in the conversations and all of that," said one student.

For 170 years, the private school had only accepted boys. In fall 2021, the school transitioned to coed. NEWS10 was there to meet some of the first female students to walk down the hallways of the school back then.

The ladies said they transferred to La Salle to improve their education experience. For one student, it was the opportunity to benefit from the resources a private school can offer.

"I feel like it made my college application look so much better [be]cause I did things here that I don’t think I would ever do if I was still at a public school,” she said.

While all three students said they would transfer to La Salle in a heartbeat, they add it didn't come without its challenges. After they heard comments from online users who spoke out against the change, they all had a response.

One student said, "I just feel like a lot of those comments are very single minded, traditions are important but also tradition can change and change is a really big part of life, something that everybody is going to have to go through. So I think this big of change was really good for everybody, I know it was really good for me. I think the only way to really learn is to expand your perspective and I don’t think they could have ever done that without girls in the school."