I've Got That Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy...

This past Sunday was Laetare Sunday, or joyful Sunday. Although Lent is a season of penance and sacrifice, Laetare Sunday provides hope that the Lenten journey is drawing to a close and that with the end of Lent comes salvation, hence a reason for true joy!

We have several reasons to be joyful at CKS. Over the past few weeks, our students have done some amazing work:

Athletics





Our Girls Flag Football team concluded their season last week.  After a rocky start to the season, they regrouped and finished in 2nd place. Our Boys Varsity Basketball Team also concluded their season last week. They punctuated a dominant season with a 20 point win over Nativity for 1st place and back to back championships.

Academics

Over the last two weeks, our 8th grade students who applied to private high schools have been receiving their acceptance letters. Students must take entrance exams for schools like Jesuit, the Academy of the Holy Names, Tampa Catholic and the IB programs.  Not all of the notifications are in yet, but as of today, I am proud to announce great news from our students:

• Four of our boys received Ignatian Scholarships from Jesuit: Bennett Andersen, Christopher Browy, Spencer Farfante, and Christopher Hill. This means they scored in the top 5% of the hundreds of applicants taking that exam. 
• Three of our students were awarded Pope Francis Merit Scholarships from Tampa Catholic:  Brennen Gil, Christopher Hill and Parker Maddox.  These awards honor students scoring in the top 1-2% nationwide on the High School Placement test.  
• The past several years have seen a rapid increase in interest for the IB high school programs.  We have also seen an increase in the number of our students applying to IB and are proud of the five CKS students who were accepted so far this year:  Bennett Andersen, Chris Browy, Brennen Gil, Parker Maddox and Brooke Rodriguez.
  

Faith

Each Friday during Lent the parish offers a meal followed by Stations of the Cross. Last Friday, 7th and 8th grade students on our Liturgy team performed Living Stations. This included narrations, commentary and a visual recreation of each step along Jesus' journey to the cross. The students made this 2000 year old journey real for our school students who watched them perform during the day and for our parish community who watched them later the same evening. It was a moving way to keep us going spiritually on our own Lenten journey. 

Service

One of the things I love most about being both the principal and a member of the parish community is that I get to keep tabs on our CKS alumni. We hope that our mission to inspire students to grow in the love of Christ, joy of Knowledge and spirit of Service allows students to be productive members of the community. This past weekend we saw that as numerous CKS alums participated in the Dance for Haiti. This fundraiser benefits our sister parish in Sainte-Suzanne, Haiti. It was organized by the group Teens for Haiti, whose co-presidents are CKS alums, Grace Casper and Emily Muscaro. Many of our school staff and parents volunteered their time to chaperone this 13.1 hour dance half-marathon. 

Speaking of alumni, CKS grad Carter Andersen (c/o 2014) was the recent JHS sophomore class winner of the St. Ignatius Gold Medal Essay contest.  You may recall that alum Joe Edgar won this honor last year at JHS.  Way to show your writing skills, Lions!

 

 

I am eager to share the other great things that our Lions will accomplish by the end of the year!