To honor graduating high school seniors in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, The Catholic Spirit asked three Catholic high schools — Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul, Hill-Murray School in Maplewood and Holy Spirit Academy in Monticello — to nominate students for the following profiles.
The three students selected credit their Catholic education with deepening their faith and commitment to living out its principles.
Son of refugees from Laos thriving at Catholic high school
Sean Xiong’s parents are refugees from Laos who haven’t practiced a formal religion. But they recognized the value of sending their son and his brothers to Cretin-Derham Hall in St. Paul, initially for the academics. Xiong’s older brother graduated from the school and his younger brother is a sophomore there.
“My parents always said that education was perhaps the greatest opportunity that we can take,” said Xiong, 17, a senior.
Many Catholic teachings are core values that align with what his family believes, he said.
“We’ve always felt that Christianity and Catholicism has always been something that we can relate to,” he said. Some Hmong refugees have committed to Christianity, he said, and some, like his family, are “kind of in the middle and trying to find our faith.”
Going to a Catholic school and learning about Christianity has opened opportunities for the family to convert to the faith, something the family has considered, he said.
Essential Catholic beliefs and teachings most important to him include “just that sense of love for one another,” Xiong said.
“I believe we all have the ability to respect and offer that sense of dignity to another person,” Xiong said. “I learned that from day one at Cretin-Derham Hall, recognizing the dignity of the human person.”
The Catholic emphasis on family and community participation also resonate with him, Xiong said. “I think those really reflect who I am as a person,” he said.
“My mother says I’ve always been like this from a very young age — helping others and lending a helping hand to people first,” Xiong said.
Xiong played intramural basketball in high school, led school assemblies, helped with school Masses and enjoys “doing as much service” as he can. Part of that has been feeding the homeless at Catholic Charities’ site in downtown St. Paul.
A cadet colonel in CDH’s junior ROTC, Xiong is on the rifle team, honor guard and color guard. He volunteers at funerals, graveside services and banquets. He said he joined JROTC to develop leadership skills.
School peers chose him as a recipient of the John Ireland Award, which recognizes a senior male for his “faith (zeal), leadership, integrity and commitment to service and social justice.”
With hopes of becoming a physician, Xiong will study pre-medicine, likely majoring in biology this fall at the University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences.
Hill-Murray School senior prioritizes kindness, values
Ellie Wagner, a senior at Hill-Murray School in Maplewood, has devoted 14 years to learning dance techniques, performing and competing for an elite dance studio, but she maintains her priority: to be a good person.
Wagner, 18, and her sister, Ava, 15, a sophomore at Hill-Murray, won the World of Dance Competition broadcast on network television in 2020. During a round called “duels,” which features head-to-head competition, she recalled show producers goading the sisters to say something on air about their competitors, but the sisters declined.
“It wasn’t talking bad about each other, but more about the competitive part of it,” Wagner said. Producers asked questions including, “Do you think you’re better?” and “Why do you think you’re going to beat them?”
“My sister and I were looking to make sure we stayed true to ourselves and what we believed in, and our values,” Wagner said.
Wagner said she believes that even a small act of kindness can help someone else. “You don’t know everyone’s story, what they’re going through, so just being kind to them can make their whole day,” she said.
Wagner attended Transfiguration Catholic School in Oakdale from kindergarten through sixth grade, then Hill-Murray since seventh grade. She and her family are parishioners at Transfiguration. She said her teachers at Hill-Murray influenced her by sharing their wisdom in class, including religion classes, and leading by example.
Wagner dances seven days a week and has been competing since she was 4. In grade school, she had a little more time for activities such as golf, tennis, soccer and gymnastics.
She made time to work on the school yearbook this year and she participates in Hill-Murray’s CARE program, which she said brings awareness to issues related to mental health, drugs and alcohol.
“I just want kids to know that with hard work and belief in faith they can do whatever they set their minds to,” she said.
Wagner said she feels a need to help people who are sick or hurting. She had hoped to go on a mission trip before college, but the pandemic quashed that plan. Wagner will study nursing this fall at The Ohio State University in Columbus, hoping to focus on pediatric or neonatal intensive care.
And she will be on the university’s dance team.
Holy Spirit Academy senior inspired by teachers
Russell Jarvis, 17, is one of five seniors at Holy Spirit Academy in Monticello, which he entered freshman year after being homeschooled. The school, which has an enrollment of 41 today, gained formal recognition from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as a Catholic school last fall.
Jarvis, a parishioner of St. Luke in Clearwater, said the school has deepened his faith in several ways, starting with attending Mass three days a week and going to confession weekly, and praying the morning offering and Divine Office daily. Beyond that, Jarvis said what makes Holy Spirit Academy so special is its community, which is prayerful and devout.
“There are a lot of virtuous students,” he said, “which has been a really positive influence on my life.” A few students started a prayer group called the Angelic Warfare Confraternity, which prays for chastity for members of the confraternity and the broader world, Jarvis said. He is part of the group.
“It’s a good example of a student initiative started and run by students,” he said.
Holy Spirit Academy teachers have been the biggest role models in his life, Jarvis said, which is directing him to a career in education. “They’ve inspired me,” he said.
The school’s curriculum is ordered toward the study of theology, Jarvis said, with more of the basics of the Catholic faith in freshman and sophomore years, and junior year classes focusing on philosophy for a grounding in logic and clear thinking. In senior year, “you go back into theology using what you learned in philosophy to study Catholic social teaching, Thomas Aquinas” and other great thinkers, he said.
Jarvis said he has enjoyed reading material for classes that emphasize “the great books” in Western literature. “We read from St. Augustine’s ‘Confessions’ this year for theology. It was a really formative experience to go through it” with a knowledgeable teacher, he said.
Principles of the Catholic faith learned at school from teachers, books, classroom study and classmates who are good friends will make a positive impact on his life, he said — not just because of knowledge, “but also ‘common sense stuff’ like being a good, virtuous person.”
Jarvis has served on the student council for four years, including as vice president last year and president this year. He played basketball for the school in the three years it has offered a program, which is combined with a charter school’s program.
Jarvis will attend Thomas Aquinas College in Massachusetts this fall for a degree in liberal arts, which he said is equivalent to a degree in theology, philosophy and a minor in math and science. He plans to become an educator.
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