Will Hellmers - 2020 Open House Speech

Good evening, my name is Will Hellmers. I am a senior at Jesuit High School; and graduated from St. Catherine in 2015.  It’s never really dawned on me how well St. Catherine prepared me for high school until I was asked to speak at Open House tonight. When I take a look back at my high school career, three specific areas come to mind of how St. Catherine prepared me for life at Jesuit. Academically, spiritually, and socially I was already ahead of the game. These three crucial foundations helped me have a smooth transition into high school. Academically, transitioning from St. Catherine to Jesuit was effortless. I can vividly remember my first few weeks at Jesuit as an eighth grader. As many of my fellow classmates had trouble adjusting to the workload and material, I found myself calm, cool, and collected in the classroom. I promise it wasn’t an easy transition because I was a great student, but rather because St. Catherine had prepared me properly for the amount of work and types of material I had learned from an early age. Spiritually, St. Catherine instilled in me a strong faith life, which still resides in my present life in a very strong way.  Even the little things such as prayers in each class and monthly mass, gave me the ability to stay strong in my faith even today. Throughout my entire St. Catherine career, I was given every opportunity to grow in my own Catholic faith. Transitioning this faith I had learned from a young age at St. Catherine to my life at Jesuit allowed me to continue growing a true relationship with God and the Catholic Church. Socially, St. Catherine gave me the opportunity to have a very close-knit group of friends; all of whom I am still very close with today. When I arrived at Jesuit, I never found it difficult to make friends in any aspect. I already had a few close friends from St. Catherine but growing socially was never a true task. It always seemed easy because I had learned social skills from St. Catherine since I was young. Now, baseball has always been a huge part of my life, and it was even here at St. Catherine. I learned how to be a true leader here at St. Catherine because of the many sports teams I played on. Leading teams to baseball championships here taught me how to be the leader I am today. At Jesuit, I’ve played baseball every year and continued to lead with the skills I learned from St. Catherine.  Fortunately, I have been truly blessed to be able to continue my athletic career by signing to play baseball at LSU.  As I look forward to embarking on this new chapter of my life at LSU, I can’t help but look back onto my younger years at St. Catherine and the foundations this school has instilled in me. I hope to carry all my academic, spiritual, and social skills I learned at St. Catherine into this new chapter of my life at LSU as well as on the baseball field. It’s actually quite funny, as I was participating in a workout for the San Diego Padres MLB team this past weekend, someone reminded me of one of my favorite baseball quotes. Rick Maksian once said, “Life will always throw you curves, just keep fouling them off . . . the right pitch will come, but when it does, be prepared to run the bases.” With that said, I urge you all to let St. Catherine of Siena be that right pitch in your life, and once you make that decision be prepared for it to change your life, like it did mine.  Thank you!

Dowen Fife - 2019 Open House Speech

A question I have always been asked is “Did you think St. Catherine of Siena prepared you for high school”? And of course, I have always said yes, but to tell the truth I never really thought about it until recently. Looking back at my high school career, I can see how my time at St. Catherine lead to my success at Jesuit. This school developed a foundation for me to enter high school with to ensure that I was able to excel in all aspects of high school such as: academics, faith, and leadership. Academically my transition to Jesuit was smooth. I was already experienced with the amount of work assigned, and I was also able to understand the material that was being taught because I already been exposed to it at St. Catherine. Additionally, throughout my time here as a student, St. Catherine helped me form a mature faith life. I say mature because the faith life I had developed at the time was not just saying prayers to God; rather, this school taught me the importance of keeping a faith and also taught me other ways to practice the faith outside of normal prayer. However, the school never imposed the Catholic faith on me; instead, it was presented to me; so, I learned at an early age that my relationship with God was my own choice. And I can proudly say it has grown ever since. Now, what about leadership? For me personally, St. Catherine had the biggest impact on my confidence and leadership ability. It was during my seventh-grade year when I was elected vice president of the student body when my formation as leader began. Having the opportunity to run for this office was an experience that changed my life because without the introduction of student council, I would have never participated in it at Jesuit, and actually it has been something I have participated in my entire high school career. And as it turned out I became president of the student body at Jesuit. As proud as I am to be president, I know that it was this school that exposed me to student council and that it was school that shaped me to be a leader. St. Catherine not only formed me into a leader, but also my fellow classmates. This year alone the presidents of Jesuit, Rummel, and Mount Carmel are all graduates of St. Catherine, and they too are examples of what St. Catherine can do for your child, and without this school I wouldn’t be the person I am today. So, if I am ever asked “Did St. Catherine prepare you for high school?” I can confidently say, YES.    (Dowen was a member of the Class of 2014 at St. Catherine of Siena in 2014 and a member of the Class of 2019 at Jesuit High School.)

Jacob P. (3rd Grade) - 2019 Catholic Schools Week Essay

I am thankful for my Catholic School for many reasons. First of all, I like Church. I like the homily in church. In the homily, the celebrant asks funny questions. I also like Communion. In Communion you get to receive Jesus. The last thing I like is the readings. In the readings, I listen to the stories from the Bible because it talks about Jesus. 

Also I like Religion class in my Catholic School. In Religion class I like to learn about the different Saints, like St. Francis. Also, I like to learn new prayers, like St. Michael’s prayer that we say in the announcements and at church. Then 3^rd of all, I also love to learn about the Mysteries. I like to learn about that because I like to learn about Mary and what she did in her life, with Jesus in Mary’s belly. 

In addition, Sacraments are one of my favorite things to learn. In Holy Communion, I received the Eucharist for the first time in my life. I felt really happy to receive Jesus. I also like Reconciliation. In Reconciliation, I got all my sins off me, I was really happy because I got all my sins off me and I had a clean heart for a couple of weeks. I receive Communion every week, Wednesday and Sunday. I do Reconciliation every five months or more. In conclusion, St. Catherine is the best Catholic School ever!!!!
 

Avery D. (7th Grade) - 2019 Catholic Schools Week Essay

Picture this, a school where you’re so close to Christ to where he seems to almost be a friend. At Catholic school our Mass, sports teams, and kindness make the school. I have gone to a Catholic school for 10 years now! Think,  that’s a whole decade! I would not be who I am today if it were not for this school.

One way this Catholic school has shaped me is by having Mass. Our mass is mandatory and weekly, which helps Christ stay with us. Every week, we participate in Mass in different ways. Different grades do mass on different Wednesdays. Even though not all grades do Mass, we participate by singing beautifully at mass. We have also recently started doing journalism. This includes us writing about something that stood out to us in Mass that day. I find this very relaxing and a time for us to just write in silence.

Another way this school has changed me is the sports teams. At SCS our sports hardly lose, but when we do, we are good sports about it. We always congratulate the winning team. And if we win, we tell the other team how great of a game they played. We also support the teams we are not on by going to their games and cheering them on. Finally, we do all our sports with God in mind.  For example, before every performance the cheerleaders say “In God with God we cheer!”

Finally, the kindness at the school has made me who I truly am. At our school we live by something called the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule is a saying that is “treat others how you want to be treated.” This means do not say or do something you would not want someone to do to you. I remember one time in Pre-K 4,  in Mrs. Jan’s class, I took someone's toy away at toy time; she took me aside and told me the Golden Rule. I was astonished by the meaning and it has stuck with me ever since. Not only are the students kind to each other, but so is the faculty. I have a great connection with my teachers and coaches that makes me want to be more like them everyday.

Catholic school has shaped me as a person. It’s the Masses we attend, the sports teams, and the kindness that have made me who I am today. What I have learned art SCS I will remember forever.
 

Vito E. (7th Grade) - 2019 Catholic Schools Week Essay

A Catholic school should be just like a church; a sanctuary. It should be a safe place where you feel at home with the Lord. I believe Catholic schools achieve this. When I go to school, I see this amazing community which can never be separated. If something does happen in the community, it just brings us closer together. We bond through things like sports, academics, and sometimes, sorrow. These make us meet new people and form new relationships; these relationships can last for a lifetime. 

Sports to a lot of people is just moving a ball from one spot to the next, but those people fail to realize that being on the team that you’re on makes you trust one another, learn from one another, and just enjoy yourselves together.  In the sport that I play, Lacrosse, the team needs to trust each other for just about everything. The goalie needs to trust the defense to get the ball away from the goal, the midfielders need to trust that the attackers will catch the ball, and so on. Everyone has this mutual respect for one another, even if we do make a mistake, and if a mistake is made, then the team learns from it. It’s also just fun to get together with your friends and do something active. Even though things like sports are fun, academics are more important

Being a good student is a hard thing to do. You have to study, do homework, write essays, do projects, and so much more. I’m not going to tell you that school isn’t hard, because it is, and I’m also going to tell you why that is a good thing. If you don’t try your best every class, you’re not going to do well. School shouldn’t be easy, because if it were, you would never know what you’re truly capable of. Catholic schools excel at this because their grading scales are harsher, you have to think about religion as an academic subject that you need to learn, and you have amazing teachers who motivate you to do better. We all help each other out with academics; we help each other study and do better. We are a community, and sometimes, we as a community suffer hardships. 

These past two years of my life have been full of many things. Many people I know had family members who passed away these last two years, but through the pain and anguish I noticed something; it wasn’t just the family members crying, it was the whole church. Everyone treasured their relationship that they had lost. After the many funerals I had to attend, all the memories of those who have perished lived on; they lived on through this community. This amazing community that I call home last year raised a whopping 8,000+ dollars for Pennies for Patients. Also, every single year, every last seventh grader feeds the homeless. I think these acts of kindness show how important this community is to those in need. 

Catholic schools do these amazing things, and that’s what makes them truly special. They have a community that cares. It doesn’t matter if you're good at sports, academics, or anything else, the Catholic community will take you in for who you are; a child of God. You will soon come to see the church as your home.