To honor graduating high school seniors in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, The Catholic Spirit asked three Catholic high schools – Chesterton Academy in Hopkins, St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights and Totino-Grace in Fridley – 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. The Catholic Spirit congratulates all 2022 high school graduates! — Stories by Barb Umberger, photos by Dave Hrbacek
Levi Meyer, Chesterton Academy
Learning ‘what it means to be Catholic’
High school senior Levi Meyer, 18, played the jester in performances of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” this spring at his school, Chesterton Academy in Hopkins. But he is serious about his future plans.
This fall, Meyer will enter St. John Vianney College Seminary at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul. “Since I can remember, people have always told me, ‘You’re going to be a great priest’ or they’d think I have a lot of attributes that would make a good priest,” Meyer said. “My mom’s always been open to the possibility and encouraged me, so I’ve always been open to it.”
Those thoughts re-emerged one day after Mass his junior year at Chesterton while he was waiting in line to go to confession. Meyer heard the words, “You’re going to be a priest,” so he thought he’d best ponder it more. He stayed open to the idea and started considering it more seriously. “So, I was excited to apply, and I hope it brings a lot of fruit,” he said.
Meyer has been involved in his home parish, St. Nicholas in Elko New Market, since second grade when he started as an altar server. He has enjoyed singing in the church choir, occasionally serving as a lector, helping with church dinners and other events, and he volunteered at vacation Bible school.
Meyer plays sports, too, especially soccer and basketball. He also enjoys hanging out with friends and serving the past two years in Chesterton’s chamber choir, which requires an audition. (All students at Chesterton are required to sing in the school choir, he said.) “I love singing,” he said. “I love music in general.”
Daily Mass at Chesterton has played a big part in keeping him on the right track and centered in faith every day, Meyer said.
He values “the foundations of knowledge” that Chesterton provided. “I think that’s a very important part of why I’ve grown to love Christ and his Church so much is that I’ve gotten such a good idea of what Catholicism is and what it means to be a Catholic,” he said. “I’m excited for the future.”
Brennan Crow, St. Thomas Academy
Valuing deep faith on campus
Growing up, Brennan Crow, 17, also felt a calling to the priesthood. “I kind of assumed that’s where I would end up,” he said, but in high school, he started “really discerning it because it was so close around the corner.”
The senior at St. Thomas Academy in Mendota Heights said he has had many conversations with St. Thomas chaplain Father Mark Pavlak and spent a lot of time in prayer. The more he thought and prayed about it, the more confident he feels, Crow said. “I’ve realized that’s definitely where the Lord is calling me for next year, which is very exciting,” he said.
Crow plans to attend St. John Vianney College Seminary at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul.
Serving as a sacristan at Nativity of our Lord in St. Paul bolstered his faith and helped develop a deep love for liturgy outside of school, he said. And at St. Thomas, Crow has gotten to know people of deep faith on campus, including Father Pavlak and his sophomore morality class teacher, Justin Matelski, whose class covered many “morality topics within the Church and within our daily lives,” he said.
Service is an important focus at the academy, Crow said. He served as a camp counselor for a week, for example, and is serving for a week in late May at a local Catholic school. Crow also served with the school’s Honor Guard, whose members have carried a statue of Mary as part of a Marian rosary at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul, for example, and attended funerals as a way to support families, he said.
Crow has been one of eight members of the STA Choir for three years, which he said helped him develop leadership skills and bring out his faith. “It’s through acts like that and serving at Mass, you start to find pockets of people that share the same values as you,” he said, “and it’s fun to … grow in faith with other people.”
Maggie Walsh, Totino-Grace
Passionate about helping people
Maggie Walsh, 18, a self-described “people person,” plans to attend St. Olaf College in Northfield in the fall to study what she calls “people sciences.” To the senior at Totino-Grace in Fridley, that means she is not yet certain of a major, but she does know she enjoys “community and relationship with people and understanding people.”
“So ‘people science’ is a good word for studying biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology, those types of things. And maybe even social work types of things, too,” she said. Not one to sit behind a computer screen all day, Walsh said she enjoys interacting with people and values the chance to learn at an “academically rigorous school” with “its sense of community,” which she also valued at Totino-Grace.
At her high school, Walsh served on a team that welcomes freshmen, including through orientation and throughout their first couple weeks at school. She also helps with open houses and tours for families of junior high students considering Totino-Grace.
Walsh played soccer all four years at Totino-Grace and on a club team since early childhood.
She recalled three religion teachers who impacted her life and shaped her faith, from one who welcomed questions and debate, to a second who taught about women’s voices in theology, including Dorothy Day, St. Katharine Drexel and Sister Thea Bowman, and a third who taught service and justice.
With her teachers providing a solid base in Catholic Church teachings, Walsh said she wants to turn that academic learning into “real action.” “Jesus was constantly with people,” she said. “He was one of the changemakers, someone who was with the poor, with people who were sick, with outcasts.”
“My academic learning is that you have to go out and do the work and form relationships,” she said.
One way Walsh does that is helping the Envision Community where her father is involved, which focuses on providing affordable housing for those experiencing instability. Her work is simple: hanging posters, completing paperwork, “random jobs,” she said. Envision leaders have shown her how to take teachings and put them into action, she said.
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