Dialog reporter
Seniors at St. Elizabeth High School envision transforming classroom for younger counterparts
WILMINGTON — When the current senior class at St. Elizabeth High School was approached about giving a gift to their soon-to-be alma mater, the Class of 2018 jumped right on board with the idea. But the students wanted to make sure that whatever they presented to St. Elizabeth was not only long-lasting, but would have an impact on others.
The seniors’ gift will not be something very apparent to visitors, unless they happen to step inside a first-grade classroom during open house. The class hopes to renovate one classroom in the elementary school, transforming it from vintage early 1970s into a modern learning environment. They want to redo lighting, flooring, storage, desks, you name it.
By helping out the younger grades, the students believe they can position St. Elizabeth for a stronger future.
(Photo courtesy of St. Elizabeth School)
“We need to start at the preschool and kindergarten and see that growth continue on up into the high school. We don’t want class sizes to get smaller and smaller,” said Matt Gray, one of the seniors spearheading the effort.
When they toured the grade school, Casey Rock said, the limitations in the classrooms were apparent.
“When you walk in, you’re like, ‘This is an old classroom,’” he said.
The students talked about the project while in the high school’s MakerSpace and Innovative Learning Lab, a year-old ultramodern classroom that has portable whiteboards, storage easels, interactive whiteboards, 3D printers, mobile chairs, LED lighting and a hypoallergenic floor. That served as an inspiration for the students, Rock said.
“When you go into the MILL, you know it’s a place where people learn,” he said.
That environment also is conducive to learning for students of varying abilities.
“We also want to cater to different kids’ learning abilities and their needs. We all talked about how we all learn differently. We talked about different chairs and tables and ways for kids to learn for every different need so that they are not just sitting at a desk for eight hours a day. They can sit on the floor, sit on beanbags, go in spinning chairs that make it more suitable for each person,” Demi Rubincam added.
“We put a lot of work into it from the teacher’s perspective, too. You know, how to make it better for her to teach and get the kids to absorb more,” Lauren Desmond said.
St. Elizabeth advancement director John Pierson approached the students earlier this year about having a class gift. These Vikings all see St. Elizabeth as one big community, and they saw a need in the elementary school. They also wanted to leave a legacy and inspire other graduating classes to make this a new tradition.
“Most seniors at this point are thinking about graduation, not thinking about how to better the community. We’re trying to help others while finishing up our senior year,” Rubincam said.
Austin Figliola describes himself as a St. Elizabeth “lifer.” He wants the school to be there for others like it has been there for him. “A lot of seniors, they don’t look back. They just go forward. They don’t come back home once they go to college. That’s not what we want to do.”
Pierson and the students have been planning the rollout of the fundraising campaign — they hope to raise $20,000. Gray and Marissa Kegelman are in charge of video production. Rubincam said the team is working on a website, and she will do much of the writing to explain where donors’ money will go and “why it’s important to all of us.”
There will be a big kickoff the last weekend of October, when the school will celebrate homecoming. The parish will have an event on Oct. 27 where it will honor former longtime athletic director and football and golf coach Joe Hemphill. Pierson said he has an alumni team that is participating in the fundraising campaign as well.
For Figliola and Lauren Desmond, St. Elizabeth is all they know, and they want others to have the opportunity to have that experience.
“St. Elizabeth means everything to me,” Figliola said. “If you see what I am now as a person, as a leader in the school. I used to be really shy. It really means a lot to me, this entire school. I’m always going to come back, in the church, the parish. I want my kids to get baptized there, I want to get married there.”
Desmond said the parish is a family tradition.
“St. E’s is pretty much my life. My mom and dad met here, my brother and sisters went here, my aunts and uncles went here. It’s like a really big family tradition to come here. I didn’t apply to any other high school. This is where I was going to go.”
She became a leader at St. E through the encouragement of teachers who knew she had the ability, but didn’t see it in herself.
“The teachers helped me jump out of my comfort zone and get those leadership roles.”
Kegelman, who transferred in as a sophomore, remembers spending a day at St. Elizabeth. “Everyone made it feel like home, like I thought they would.”
The students are charged by the idea that something they want to do could have such a lasting effect and grow with future graduating classes. The entire school could be renovated by students.
“We want to leave our legacy, our mark, on the school. So when people come back, they say, ’They made a change. They made a change that impacted us,’” Rock said.
Figliola added, “And then they can say to themselves, ‘Well, if they can do it, then we can do it, too.’”
And in a school with so much history and tradition, they don’t mind starting a new one, Kegelman said. “We want it to be like a tradition now because all of St. E’s is like a tradition. It’s just going to be a new tradition for us.”
It’s an ambitious undertaking, but the senior leaders are encouraged by the response they have received from their classmates. Gray, for one, is not nervous about raising the funds to complete the classroom.
“St. E’s always circles the wagons. It’s what we want to have done. We need a new classroom, and I’m confident that we will have that.”
