Catholic schools throughout the Diocese of Camden are bidding a fond farewell to their eighth-grade classes with joyous pomp and circumstance. A few schools are sharing their unique traditions to make the occasion more memorable and faith-centric. Others are paving the way for their underclassmen to keep up their faith-filled work.
Recognizing Very Important Persons in Williamstown
Sometimes, a simple “thank you” just isn’t enough.
The June 9 eighth-grade graduation presentation for Saint Mary School, Williamstown, honored the successes of not only the Class of 2023, but also the sacrifices and steadfast faith of a group of adults integral to their education. As part of a long-standing tradition, parents of multiple students who had attended the grammar school were awarded “V.I.P. awards”: Very Important Person certificates marking their support for Catholic education.
Principal Patricia Mancuso explained, “Some of these families have been with us for 11-plus years. Though they now have no more children in our school, they are dedicated and part of our story.”
V.I.P. parents in attendance were bestowed certificates and recognized as partners in education for their children. Mancuso revealed the reasons behind the public display of gratitude for the parents of multiple Saint Mary School graduates.
“They walk hand in hand with us on this journey and really believe in what we do,” she said. “They get to know everybody [at the school], and share our values, morals, care and importance of academic success. We are blessed.”
Melissa Ortiz Barnes agrees. A mother to 2021 graduate Isabelle and new graduate Olivia, she is a 1996 graduate of Paul VI High School, Haddonfield. She noted that Catholic education has been an integral part of her family’s faith for three generations.
“It was a common theme in our family that we all went to Catholic schools,” said Barnes. “Catholic school always felt like home no matter where we moved. I continued the tradition of sending my children to Catholic school knowing they will have the foundation of faith and learning that as a parent in this day is hard to come by.
“I am not a perfect Catholic or parent, but I know that the Catholic school community is there to help me,” Barnes continued. “I hope that my children feel this and continue the tradition with their children one day.”
Spreading the Good News, one pixel at a time
Rather than dissuading students from traveling on the World Wide Web, fraught with negative content, a project in Saint Peter School, Merchantville, is encouraging them to be a positive force in developing wholesome content.
“Since our children are inundated with aggressive, hateful or just flat-out false information, I wanted to give the students a voice to show the world the good things they are doing here at Saint Peter School,” said Jen Marisi, the school’s STEM teacher and creator/facilitator for the “Digital Saints” project. The weekly class for seventh- and eighth-graders enables the students to create and disseminate positive content, and teaches them what to post and what not to post, she explained.
This year’s “Digital Saints” mission statement – to provide young kids with positive internet content while also promoting Catholic values – is fulfilled as the children select their weekly project, take pictures, record audio and interview students and teachers. Marisi disclosed a popular page on the site is the student-created podcast; the students decide upon a topic for discussion and write a loose script with talking points to record, then upload onto the “Digital Saints” webpage.
“The students have created great content exhibiting the love and talents of the entire school,” she said.
The link for this school year is sites.google.com/stpeterschool.org/digital-saints
Faith with a side of pickles
It might seem a bit unusual for children in grammar school to write their last will and testament, but the eighth-grade class of Saint Mary Regional School, Vineland, has long considered how they want to be remembered in a document outlining their wishes.
Each member of the graduating class selects someone in the school to whom they wish to leave something important – whether it be a concrete item, love for a particular activity, kind wishes for a younger sibling, even sports prowess. At an end-of-year assembly, each then invites the recipient forward to receive the gift. At times, a bit of whimsy creeps into the ceremony, admitted Principal Steve Hogan.
“This year, a group of eighth-graders left to some sixth-graders, and the sixth-grade teacher, a giant stuffed pickle,” he chuckled. “Our sixth-grade teacher loves pickles.”
Following the Last Will and Testament assembly, the student body lines the hallway, shaking pom-poms and cheering on the eighth-grade class as they walk the school halls one last time.
Saint Mary students also retire their eighth-grade school theme and song and introduce new ones at a year’s end prayer service. The theme, derived from Scripture, is recited each morning with the school’s morning prayers; the song is used as a recessional for each school liturgy.
Hogan explained, “For kids in Catholic school, their eighth-grade graduation is a milestone. They may not be connected physically in the same place ever again. It’s nice that the last gathering is done in prayer.”
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