Gratitude was the overriding theme Saturday, May 28th, when CRSM celebrated many historic achievements, including 100% of the senior class being accepted into four-years bachelor’s programs, for the third year in a row!
It was a joyful day with family, friends, teachers, staff, board members, Corporate Work Study partners and about 30 alumni packing the new gym to cheer for and bless the 101 graduates during the Baccalaureate Mass and Commencement Ceremony.
“It has been an honor to walk the journey with these seniors the last four years,” said Mike Odiotti, PhD, principal. “The hard work from the students of the Class of 2022 has paid off and this phenomenal class will leave a mark and example for many classes to come.” He cited the numerous challenges facing this class during the pandemic, including a junior year of remote and hybrid learning and checked off a list of benchmarks:
- Graduating seniors are headed to universities ranging from Brown, Fairfield, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Stanford, along with Grinnell. Holy Cross, Loyola, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and many more.
- 3.6 average G.P.A.
- 101 seniors is the biggest graduating class in CRSM’s history
- Launched the first Black Student Union
- First fine arts program
“In this room, I see so much hope,” said Emily, Valedictorian, who is headed to Washington University in St. Louis. “We did pretty good for a class who spent their junior year on ZOOM calls. But the bright side, we never gave up. This is a minority success story as well because we faced many obstacles. The world said this could not happen for us. But now, that world is full of possibilities that await all of us. Let’s make it happen.”
Senior Ezequiel who is headed to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the fall is the first recipient of the Fr. John Milton Science Scholarship. “Before Fr. Milton dedicated his time to CRSM we had very few students interested in STEM fields, but he figured out how to create a curiosity and passion in the sciences for our students,” said KumKum Bonnerjee, Science and Math teacher. “He would be so proud.”
“Here is light,” said Fr. Corey Brost, C.S.V., presider. “I am so grateful to be here today to celebrate the light these young men and women have brought to the hundreds of families you’ve fed in the parking lot, the vaccines you volunteered to help protect hundreds of people, to the immigrants you’ve helped at the border and who are facing deportation. You are bright lights in a time of so much darkness and our nation needs people like you to go out into the world and shine brightly.”
Dr. Odiotti shared a final message with graduates: “In the words of St. Ignatius, ‘Go forth and set the world on fire.”