By Peter G. Sánchez, Staff Writer
& Mike Bress, Special Contributor
Marlyn Roman shed a tear as she prepared to watch her daughter accept her diploma and graduate from Camden Catholic High School.
“This Catholic school, it’s always been a family; they’ve all been there for her, in anything she needed,” Roman said during the Baccalaureate Mass and commencement June 7 in Cherry Hill. Her daughter, Lyneidi Colon, will begin her college studies at Rowan College of South Jersey’s Cumberland County Campus, with eyes on a career as a pediatric doctor.
“It really is the gift of a lifetime,” Roman said of Catholic education.
Indeed, hundreds of students from the Diocese of Camden’s five Catholic high schools celebrated that gift as they collected their diplomas and turned their tassels at graduation ceremonies across South Jersey the week of June 2-7.
Though they attended schools that span from the Jersey Shore to the Delaware River – Holy Spirit, Absecon; Wildwood Catholic Academy, Wildwood; Gloucester Catholic, Gloucester City; Paul VI, Haddonfield, and Camden Catholic – a common thread in addition to their faith connected these Classes of 2024. Beginning their high school careers in Fall 2020, they learned in the midst of a global pandemic. They were introduced to masks, dividers, hybrid learning and other guidelines that separated them from their classmates.
In her senior address, Camden Catholic’s Isabella Dain praised her fellow “strong, resilient” graduates “who have not only succeeded, but will continue to succeed in the real world. … I am filled with nothing but optimism for what lies ahead.”
Bishop Dennis J. Sullivan, who celebrated the Baccalaureate Mass at each of the high schools, preached on a similar theme. “Do not live isolated in this world [but] have a responsibility for it. … As Christians, we look beyond ourselves and see others and reach out to them. … You have to give to others to grow.”
Nearly 900 graduates total – from both the Diocese’s five Catholic high schools as well as the three religious order Catholic high schools within the Diocese – will be going out into the world to heed Bishop’s advice. Together, 89% of the graduates are going on to a four-year college. More than $182 million in combined academic and athletic scholarships was distributed.
Those graduating leave good memories behind.
“I’m going to miss the students every day. They have become part of my family,” teacher Amy Evans noted during Holy Spirit High School’s graduation June 2.
Not only is Evans a proud graduate of Holy Spirit’s Class of 1994, she is a proud parent. Her daughter, Delaney, was among this year’s graduates.
Evans, who teaches French and Spanish and is director of musicals, shared her hopes for the Class of 2024: “[that] they always explore their talents, develop their abilities, and always grow and broaden their horizons.”
Spartan graduate Elizabeth Saunders, who is headed to Stockton University to major in education, said she is “grateful that Holy Spirit has given me so many opportunities to become the best version of myself.”
More Photos of the Class of 2024
Fellow graduate Mariah Nell said she appreciated what she learned in her years at Holy Spirit: “the emphasis on hope, compassion and loving others around you.” She said she was grateful to have been “surrounded by God and peers who hold Catholic school and Catholic education in utmost importance. … Working along others who hold those ideals helps you keep those values.”
For Joe Cray, principal at Wildwood Catholic Academy, getting to see the Class of 2024 overcome any obstacle these past four years is proof that “they’re ready to take on whatever life throws their way.”
With Wildwood Catholic’s longstanding tradition of inviting alumni to return to their alma mater, Cray said he is excited to follow the graduates and their accomplishments, and have them share their college experiences with current Crusaders.
Also excited to connect with her Catholic school family was Bernadette Janis, a graduate of Paul VI High School’s Class of 1985, whose son, Andrew, now joins his mother and five siblings as an Eagle alum.
“I’m thinking of staying connected as an alumni parent, and helping other families on their Catholic school journey,” she said during the school’s graduation June 6.
“Catholic schools have always raised the standards,” she continued. “My kids got an outstanding, faith-filled education, just as I did, [through] outstanding teachers and administrators who facilitate instruction grounded in our Catholic faith. [That] influences who they are and what they do.”
After entering fully into the adventure of learning in Catholic schools, as Bishop Sullivan said in his remarks, the Class of 2024 graduates must now get used to “leaving something behind and the journey of meeting something new.”
“The transition to college is different for everybody,” said Tom Iacovone Jr., principal of Gloucester Catholic High School, who helped send off graduates at the school’s June 5 commencement. “Wherever the journey takes them, I hope they can find the love we passed on to them.”
Michael Bress is communications and marketing manager for the diocesan Office of Catholic Education.
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