Million dollar grads

By Ana Rodriguez Soto - The Archdiocese of Miami

Photography: COURTESY PHOTOS

MIAMI | In the Archdiocese of Miami, the class of 2015 is worth a million bucks � actually, a lot more. Graduates of the 13 Catholic high schools in South Florida got nearly $152 million in scholarships to universities in and outside the state this year.

They also donated more than 600,000 service hours to school and community organizations. More than half the members of the class received some type of college scholarship. And nearly a third of the graduates attended Catholic school since kindergarten.

Those are the statistics for the nearly 3,000 students who graduated this year from nine archdiocesan high schools: Archbishop Coleman Carroll, Archbishop Curley Notre Dame, Archbishop Edward McCarthy, Cardinal Gibbons, Immaculata-La Salle, Msgr. Edward Pace, Our Lady of Lourdes, St. Brendan, and St. Thomas Aquinas; as well as four high schools run by religious communities:Belen (Jesuits), Carrollton (Religious of the Sacred Heart) Chaminade-Madonna (Marianists), and Columbus (Marists).

The data-driven stats were compiled from end-of-year surveys sent out by the archdiocesan Department of Schools. Other stats came in the form of honors or accomplishments.

Three members of the class won Silver Knights, and eight more got honorable mentions as a result of their academic excellence and outstanding community service.

A Lourdes Academy graduate claimed a spot among America’s Top 10 Youth Volunteers in the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards program.

Columbus’ CCNN Live team was crowned the best high school broadcast journalism program in the country as well as the #1 Daily High School News Show in the U.S.

Catholic schools also won state championships in girls’ soccer (St. Thomas Aquinas), baseball (Columbus), boys’ basketball (Gibbons) and water polo (Belen).

St. Thomas Aquinas High earned the distinction of having more of its football players drafted by the NFL than any other high school in the nation: Phillip Dorsett (Indianapolis), Rashad Greene (Jacksonville) and Bobby Hart (New York Giants) all played for the top-ranked Raiders before moving on to college.

Zuhayr Pigot, a swimmer from St. Brendan, won the state championship in the 50-yard men’s freestyle with the fastest time among all the competitors at the meet.

Catholic schools had 23 athletes make the All-Dade team in their sport and 49 make the All-Broward team; dozens more made the second team or earned honorable mentions.

But the true picture of the class of 2015 encompasses much more than numbers. It is revealed in the discipline and determination that enabled their successes; in the time and service they devoted to the less fortunate; in the financial sacrifices of their parents; and in the youthful enthusiasm that marked their work, their play and their faith. 

Class of 2015: This space (and the June edition of the Florida Catholic) is dedicated to you and your achievements, some of which appear in print, most of which do not.

May you never lose faith or hope as you enter the grown-up world.

May the love of God and your families keep you safe and give you strength.

And may you wear your Catholicism as proudly as your school colors wherever life takes you, for you have been entrusted with a mission: to be “disciples in faith and missionaries of hope” in a world sadly lacking both.

Onward then, with faith and courage. Godspeed and God bless.