Mount Aviat hosts special visitor
CHILDS, Md. – Andrew Szczerba, a tight end with the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League, visited Mount Aviat Academy on April 9 to share his story of making it to the professional ranks. Szczerba attended Mount Aviat for two years (1993-95) as a young child. He played in high school at Salesianum and collegiately at Penn State University.
Szczerba relayed a message of faith, family, focus and friends, according to the school. He credited his Catholic education and his faith for his success.
St. Elizabeth graduate receives academic honor
ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. – Mackenzie McCracken, a 2013 graduate of St. Elizabeth High School, was one of 13 members of the Elizabethtown College field hockey team to earn a spot on the 2013 National Field Hockey Coaches Association National Academic Squad. That earned the program “Gladiator” status by the NFHCA for the eighth time in the last nine years.
To receive a spot on the National Academic Squad, players needed to attain a grade-point average of 3.30 during the first semester of this academic year. Elizabethtown was also recognized as a National Academic Team.
On the field last season, the Blue Jays finished 14-6 and lost in the Commonwealth Conference championship game.
Ursuline students recognized for service
WILMINGTON – Three Ursuline Academy students were recently awarded a Gold Banner from the Jefferson Awards at its Students in Action spring competition at the University of Delaware. Seniors Hailee Strickland and Emma Derr, along with junior Kate Goorland, received the award.
Students in Action is a high school service and leadership training program sponsored by the Jefferson Awards, which was founded in 1972 by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Sen. Robert Taft Jr. and Sam Beard.
Goorland also recently was named a winner of the Governor’s Youth Volunteer Service Award, which she received April 23 at the Dover Downs Hotel ballroom. She will add that award to the Widener Youth Leadership Award she received in March and the DuPont Co.’s Martin Luther King Day Award earned in January.
Local female athletes receive honors
Four local high school athletes – two each from St. Elizabeth High School and St. Mark’s High School — were honored April 6 at a luncheon sponsored by the Delaware Women’s Alliance for Sport and Fitness. St. Elizabeth senior Sabrina Hackendorn and freshman Alanna Speaks, along with St. Mark’s senior Jenna Fannon and sophomore Madison Burnham, were recognized.
Hackendorn and Fannon were recognized as DWASF outstanding female athletes who rank in the top third of their class; portray the qualities of dedication, leadership and sportsmanship; and participates in sports in at least two seasons per academic year. In addition to basketball, Hackendorn played volleyball and is on the track team at St. Elizabeth. She also received the Senior Scholarship Award for the outstanding female athlete in the northern part of the state.
Fannon was first-team all-state and all-conference in soccer last year and has twice been named all-conference in field hockey.
Speaks and Burnham were named a DWASF Athlete of Promise as a ninth- or 10th-graders who excel in academics; have begun to show the qualities of dedication, leadership and sportsmanship; and participate in sports in at least one season per academic year. Speaks plays basketball, while Burnham was first-team all conference as a freshman in soccer and also plays basketball.
St. Elizabeth teachers receive honors
WILMINGTON – Two teachers at St. Elizabeth High School have been recognized recently for their work.
Chemistry teacher Kammas Murphy was selected as a National Science Academy fellow through the National Science Teachers Association. She is one of two academy fellows from Delaware. Murphy received online mentoring from the NSTA, as well as the opportunity to participate in a number of web-based professional development activities. She also recently participated in the NSTA National Conference on Science Education in Boston.
Melissa Pollio, a theology teacher and youth ministry director, has been chosen to travel to Rwanda this summer with Catholic Relief Services as part of the “Call to Witness” program. She is one of eight people selected from more than 200 applicants.
Ss. Peter and Paul students take part in Maryland March for Life
EASTON, Md. – Thirty students from Ss. Peter and Paul High School traveled to Annapolis March 10 for the annual Maryland March for Life. The day started with Mass at St. Mary’s Church celebrated by Archbishop William Lori of Baltimore, followed by a march to Lawyers Mall, where pro-life advocates spoke out against the state’s abortion laws.
“We had one job to accomplish, to speak for the ones who can’t, and that’s exactly what we did,” freshman Berkley Andrews said.
