NEW HAVEN, Conn. — “Sometimes we want to create what we didn't have. And so that's what I'm doing,” said Patrica, “Patty” Nicolari.
Nicolari spent years inside the Ansonia school district as an educator and school principal. Beyond her passion for education is the desire to provide a safe space. It’s personal.
“As a teacher in the 80s as an “in” teacher, meaning not out about my sexual orientation, I knew how uncomfortable it felt for 15 years to have to pretend to be somebody else. Being called less and we have a dyke for a teacher and scratching in my car created a very unsafe space. So that began the process of me thinking, if I'm not feeling safe as the adult, I can't imagine how my students feel,” said Nicolari.
From here blossomed the PROUD Academy, the first private school in the northeast designed for LGBTQ+ students.
For Nicolari, it is a dream 15 years in the making.
“Unfortunately, my generation had to check a box. You're either gay or straight. And I was bisexual. So I was in relationships with women for years. And when I was going to start the school years ago, I fell in love with a guy out of left field. And I thought I can't run a school now when I can't even answer my own question. When people say, "Are you straight now?”
She credits Gen Z's for their fierceness in making this dream become a reality.
“This generation actually helps us realize we don't need to check a box. today. I'm pansexual tomorrow,” said Nicolari.
Tarin Degnan was the first openly transgender student at his high school. He is advocating for a place like PROUD for students just like him.
“I feel like it’s going to give them an extra feeling of security, like freedom to be themselves, freedom for freedom of self-expression. And I'm honestly so happy that the school’s opening up,” said Degnan.
The school is set to open in September, accepting 20 7th and 8th graders during the first year. Nicolari said the home for PROUD Academy is the Boys and Girls Club in Ansonia. It’s the same town she grew up in and the same town that embraced her when she came out in the 90s.
“So here I am at 65 I'm not retiring I'm rewiring and opening proud Academy,” said Nicolari.
She said the need for a school like PROUD Academy has never been greater.
More than 400 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced across the nation since the start of 2023. Many target schools.
“There is absolutely a need for it. And you know, I always thought if we build it, well, they come or they are,” said Nicolari.
A place for students to be proud of who they are while getting their education.
For more information about the school, click here.
DeAndria Turner is a multi-media journalist at FOX61 News. She can be reached at dturner@fox61.com.
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