MaST student gains big honor
MaST Community Charter School senior Brendan F. McLaughlin has been named a Commended Student in the 2016 National Merit Scholarship Program.
About 34,000 Commended Students throughout the nation are being recognized for their exceptional academic promise.
Commended Students placed among the top 5 percent of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2016 competition by taking the 2014 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
“Brendan is an asset to MaST and has established a work ethic to succeed at all levels. I have no doubt he will do amazing things in the future and this recognition is an example of his hard work being rewarded,” said MaST CEO John Swoyer. ••
Four local students honored
StoneMor Partners L.P., in partnership with Faith in the Future and the Office of Catholic Education, honored 17 Archdiocesan high school freshmen as inaugural StoneMor Scholars at an event in the Victoria Theater at Archbishop Ryan High School.
The local honorees were St. Hubert’s Haylie Klose (St. Matthew Parish), Father Judge’s Daniel Lodes (St. Jerome), Little Flower’s Kristina Tran (Our Lady of Ransom) and Alexa Kellinger (St. Mark).
The StoneMor Scholars initiative was announced in August 2015 and provides one freshman student at each Archdiocese of Philadelphia high school with a partial scholarship, in the amount of $3,000 per scholar, during the 2015–2016 school year. ••
BVM students earn grants to LF
Maternity BVM eighth-graders Caitlyn Clark, Gina Cantoral and Amanda Sweeney earned academic grants from Little Flower Catholic High School for Girls.
Only 20 girls throughout the diocese qualified for the grants.
In the fall, Amanda will receive $16,000 for four years, and Gina and Caitlyn will receive $12,000 for their four years at Little Flower.
“We are very proud of the girls. This is a tremendous achievement,” said principal Mary Zawisza. “These three girls are carrying on Maternity BVM’s tradition of high academics.”
The girls qualified for the grants by taking a test at Little Flower on Halloween. The test included quantitative reasoning, verbal skills, math, reading and language.
“I am happy to receive this scholarship because not only is it my first choice of schools but also it will help my family pay for tuition,” Amanda said.
Caitlyn added, “I had no idea I would get the scholarship.”
Amanda, Caitlyn and Gina have attended Maternity since preschool and look forward to attending an all-girls school. Gina also received a merit scholarship to St Hubert.
“It is a thrill to not only get one scholarship, but to get two,” she said. “It will be a hard choice.” ••
