Between the Lions Summer/Fall 2018

BETWEEN

Lions

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SUMMER/FALL 2018

NEWS and UPDATES for the St. Pius X Catholic High School Community...

60th Class GRADUATES

Campus NEWS

LX Alumni NEWS

School SPOTLIGHTS

This magazine is produced by the St. Pius X Catholic High School Office of Advancement.

Chad Barwick President Steve Spellman Principal Jenn Sedlack Director of Advancement Mary Vallés Jones Associate Director of Advancement Karoline Rumps Brennan ’82 Director of Alumni Relations Deanna Jones-Puig ’01 Communications Manager Kyle Snipes Communications Coordinator Mary O’Brien Beyer ’82 Advancement Coordinator St. Pius X, an archdiocesan high school, provides a college preparatory education for the formation of the mind, body, and spirit of each student in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church.

We would like to extend a special thank you to Billy Howard Photography, Cady Studios, and the numerous students, parents, faculty, and staff who submitted photos used in this publication.

Contents Letter from the President

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Letter from the Principal

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60th Graduating Class of St. Pius X

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Valedictorian Enjoys Success in Career

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Faculty Feature: Mr. Phil Cook

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Religious Vocations from St. Pius X

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Letter from the Chaplain

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From the Office of Advancement

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St. Pius X News

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Fine Arts at St. Pius X

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Parent Organizations Make a Difference

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Foreign Language Students Receive High Ranks

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ESPX Receives National Award

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New Athletic Director

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Spotlight on the Pius Community

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Alumni News

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Legacy Families: Continuing the Tradition

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Lion Lines

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In Memoriam

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From the President

Dear Golden Lion Families, This year, I’ve been making an effort to pray for you and all the benefactors of St. Pius X Catholic High School in my daily prayers as a way to be more aware of the great blessings our community has been given. This intention brings to mind the thousands of great partners, and most especially our parents, who made the 2017-2018 academic year such a success! It is humbling to think of you and how you make Pius such a family—different and special.

My favorite church document expresses the unique role the Catholic school has in our Church and in society. I have included an exerpt below and I invite you to read it at http://www.ewtn.com/library/ councils/v2educ.htm “The Council also reminds Catholic parents of the duty of entrusting their children to Catholic schools wherever and whenever it is possible and of supporting these schools to the best of their ability and of cooperating with them for the education of their children.”

GRAVISSIMUM EDUCATIONIS, Declaration on Christian Education Second Vatican Council, 1965

The quote talks of trust, support and cooperation— qualities given by parents in amazing amounts.

This year, parents have trusted us to try out a new drug testing program that we hope has encouraged students to make more healthful decisions.

Parents have supported the Annual Fund in higher percentages and at greater amounts than ever, providing current students with numerous improvements on campus. Parents have cooperated with nearly 100 faculty members to impart wisdom and guide learning, which shows greatly as the senior class graduated with higher scholarship numbers ($19 million plus) than any class in 60 years.

As Mr. Spellman likes to tell parents coming in: you have many choices for where you send your children and we want them to have as many choices on the way out! Parents make the investment of time, talent, and treasure to send their children to this school and that dedication makes St. Pius X a great home. Please know that I will continue to pray for you and all of our great benefactors, and ask you all to pray for Pius, the talented faculty and staff, and our Golden Lions as they prepare for the upcoming academic year.

Yours Gratefully in Christ,

Chad Barwick President

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From the Principal Dear Parents and Friends of St. Pius X, After the last test was completed of the second semester exams, I was walking down the hall following three boys who were singing, “Another one bites the dust” knowing that the school year was over. As another year closes, I am proud to share that it has been a great year for the St. Pius X family.

At this year’s graduation ceremony, I shared some data regarding the Class of 2018 and their accomplishments.

Spiritually, they kept the tradition alive of giving to others as they performed their Works of Mercy projects.

Highlighted by 127 of the seniors donating blood to our highly successful blood drives, making our event one of the best high school drives in the nation. Academically, they graduated with the second highest SAT and ACT scores in the 60 year history of the school. Completing a record number of college applications (1,502), they were accepted at 221 colleges and universities, and will matriculate to 76 different colleges with 53 percent staying in-state and 47 percent going to out-of-state schools. Their academic success was rewarded by earning a school record $19,337,924 in scholarships ($74,000 per graduate), a figure that does not include HOPE or athletic money.

I always love to observe the patterns of the schools they will actually attend. For example: in-state, 25 will attend the University of Georgia, 20 to Georgia Tech, Georgia State and Georgia Southern, 17 to Georgia College, eight to Kennesaw State, four to SCAD, Mercer, and North Georgia and three to Emory and Oglethorpe. Outof-state, 14 will attend Auburn, 11 to Ole Miss, six to Alabama and South Carolina, and five to Purdue (a new pattern this year) and LSU. Four will attend Samford and Clemson and three to New York University and Florida State. Nine students will matriculate to All-Catholic Universities.

What continues to impress is the diversification of the schools that they will attend. Two students are going together to: Arizona State, Kentucky, Loyola-Chicago,

Notre Dame and Western Carolina. While others are going to places such as: Delaware, Duke, Missouri, North Carolina, Maryland, Utah, William and Mary, Rhode Island, Wyoming, and Yale. Three are going to the west coast attending the University of California at Santa Cruz, the University of California at Santa Clara, and Washington State.

Aesthetically, our fine arts displays and productions would rival any high school in America as our students displayed their God-given talents in all phases of the arts—a joy for all to observe and admire.

Athletically, it was another outstanding year as 20 out of 22 teams advanced into the state play-offs and six banners were earned indicating a state champion or runner-up.

What a year.

The Class of 2018 was an amazing assemblage of talent, not just academically, but in every aspect of life here. We wish them Godspeed as they begin the next chapter of their lives knowing they will make us proud.

Over the summer, we took time to disaggregate all our academic data to determine areas of strength, and those areas we will focus on in an effort to improve.

Additionally, while the building is somewhat quiet, the never-ending task of maintaining the building takes precedence. This coincides with conducting summer camps, driver’s education, academic enrichment classes, and full bookstore operation. You have a busy summer.

We welcome the Class of 2022 knowing they will continue to add to the established tradition of St. Pius X. May God bless and keep you safe and I look forward to seeing you soon.

Warmest regards,

Steve Spellman Principal

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60th Graduating Class

Class of 2018 Receives Diplomas Congratulations to the St. Pius X Catholic High School Class of 2018! In a small change of scene, students walked across the stage at Greater Atlanta Christian’s Auditorium on May 19 to receive their diplomas and become the 60th graduating class of St. Pius X. Graduates, faculty, and families celebrated Baccalaureate Mass with the St. Pius X community on May 17 at St. Brigid Catholic Church. Father Bryan Small ’92 gave the homily and concelebrated Mass with a number of priests from throughout the school’s history.

The following day, the school celebrated the annual Honors Assembly, where students of all grades were honored for their hard work in the academic arena. The group joined together one last time for graduation the next morning. Following the invocation by Chaplain Father Michael Silloway and the singing of “God Bless America” by Mary Clare Bowden ’18, Principal Steve Spellman addressed the class by first acknowledging the parents.

“From the day this school opened in 1958 to the present day, one salient theme has stood the test of time: amazing parents. This school is successful today because of you and on behalf of everyone associated with

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the school. We thank you for all you have done for us during your time with us. You have added to the legacy of this school in all areas.”

He followed this by addressing the graduates, reminding them of their first day at St. Pius X, when he challenged the class to leave behind a rich legacy; a challenge that this class took to heart. The Class of 2018 helped save 921 lives through their participation in blood drives. The group graduates with the second highest GPA and ACT scores in the 60 year history of the school. They completed a record 1,502 college applications and were accepted at 221 colleges and universities across the country.

In the fall, the graduates will matriculate to 76 different colleges, 47 percent of which are outside of the State of Georgia. The class earned a record $19,137,924 in scholarships (not including HOPE or athletic money).

Through their time as students they treated the St. Pius X community to four years of unbelievable fine arts productions and displays in addition to the five new state championship banners which this class helped add to the gym walls-21 of 22 athletic teams advanced to the state play-offs.

Mr. Spellman left the graduates and their families with the hope that they will fall back on the faith foundation created by their

parents and reinforced by their experience at St. Pius X. “I truly believe that with your faith and your families, you can accomplish anything that you work toward. Hopefully, embodying the tradition of a St. Pius X education of prayer and academic rigor, you will be able to stay active in our church, lead lives of integrity, succeed professionally, become responsible citizens who will be “givers and not takers” thus becoming not only a blessing to yourselves and your families, but to others.”

The graduates listened intently to valedictorian Nick Poulos and salutatorian Matt Halbig as they addressed the group, reminiscing about their time as students and looking forward to their futures. The two exemplary students represent all of the best attributes of St. Pius X graduates.

Throughout his four years at St. Pius X, Poulos challenged himself with a rigorous curriculum, taking 10 AP classes. He has been the sole recipient of the highest award bestowed for excellence in every single core subject. Described by a teacher as a true Renaissance man, Poulos is equally adept at crafting poetry, tackling complex calculus problems, capturing the essence of a lead character in our school’s drama productions, and serving as captain of our highly successful Academic Quiz Bowl team.

This year’s valedictorian recognizes the value of hard work and does not take his abilities for granted. Destined to impact those around him, Poulos will attend Georgia Tech this fall.

Salutatorian Matt Halbig challenged himself to succeed at St. Pius X by taking numerous honors courses and eight AP classes. He has received a number of top academic awards, including being named to President’s and Principal’s List every semester, earning the Phi Beta Kappa Book Award, and serving as a member of the National Honor Society.

In spite of his rigorous academic load, he has been a diver on our state championship swim and dive team and captain on our state championship water polo team. He is also an altar server at his church, teaches vacation bible school, and holds a part-time job at Chick-fil-A. We know he will continue to make us proud as he looks forward to attending The University of Georgia in the fall.

During his valedictory address, Poulos described his own personal experience of growth while at St. Pius X, explaining how he knew he wanted to make a change and open himself up to new friendships and experiences during high school. “I want to show you all through the best example I know that we can affect the course of our lives. When we acknowledge the place where we are and the place where we’d like to be, we have fantastic power to change and develop for the better, so that we can more closely resemble the people we’ve dreamt of becoming...The change, then, is one of fundamental perspective, and as powerful as we all are to look within ourselves to shift and direct our perspective, it is entirely a communal process: we need each other just as much as we need ourselves.”

Prior to the awarding of diplomas, the Class of 1968 (see article below) was recognized

as recipient of the 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award. Members from the class sat on stage with administration and pinned graduates with special anniversary pins, fifty years after their own graduation.

Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory gave the final speech prior to distributing diplomas to the graduates. He proudly presented his annual Archbishop’s Award to Grace Berg and John Riley Heneghan and offered prayers for the graduates.

With a mixture of sadness and excitement, we bid a fond farewell to the Class of 2018 as they move forward in their lives. We know that they will continue to leave marks on society and the world, just as they have left us with an enduring legacy of excellence. We pray that God will always guide their ways, we wish each of them a lifetime of happiness and success, and we welcome them as the newest group of St. Pius X alumni!

Distinguished Alumni Class of 1968 It is fitting that we honor the Class of 1968 as they celebrate their 50th reunion and we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the school.

This class embodies everything that is St. Pius X. They share a love for their faith, family and for the future of St. Pius X. Their pride in our extraordinary school and the passion to keep its legacy alive and thriving is genuine. They understand and firmly believe in the importance of exceptional teachers.

As a result of their love for Pi-Hi, in 2008, the 1968 Memorial Fund for Teacher Enrichment was created by this group with the purpose of providing funds for teacher enrichment. Thanks to this fund, disbursements began in 2014, and have steadily risen each year due to the everincreasing principal. The following faculty members used award money towards the completion of degrees or certification: Trey Broussard (Masters Degree), Jan Collier (Masters Degree and Teacher Certification), Lindsay Dent (Masters Degree), Melissa Ginther (Masters Degree and Teacher Certification), Elizabeth Ross (Masters Degree and Teacher Certification), Laura Briscoe (Masters Degree and Teacher Certification), Matt Wineski (Masters Degree and Teacher Certification), Morgan Carney (Masters Degree), Rachel Braham (Doctorate).

You will notice that a fair number of teachers are working toward their teacher

certification. The Archdiocese only recently mandated that all archdiocesan school faculty be certified. Prior to this mandate, Catholic schools had greater flexibility in hiring prospective teachers as we could consider those who were not certified. This is no longer the case, and the 1968 Fund is helping ensure all faculty members are in line with the new Archdiocesan policy.

Rachel Braham, Dean of Students, is currently working towards her doctoral degree. “Quite simply without the support of St. Pius X—both personally and financially—I would absolutely not be able to accomplish this goal. I am willing to invest the time and energy, as well as what I can financially, but I need some assistance to make the tuition ends meet. My goal is to continue to serve this school for another 20 years and I sincerely appreciate that alums and other benefactors give financial help to us so that we can continue that service.”

In 2018, Robin Tanis, Head Librarian, attended two conferences that were partially funded by the Class of ’68 Fund. The roughly $2,200 from the distribution from last year’s earnings were used so that she could attend Digipalooza, an event hosted by the increasingly popular resource, Overdrive (online books and publications). In addition, money from this fund contributed to her ability to attend the annual conference for the American Association of School Librarians. In this digital age libraries are constantly changing and this conference covered the full scope of new best practices for libraries.

Our most sincere thanks to the Class of 1968 for your years of dedication and service towards St. Pius X Catholic High School.

You serve as a wonderful example to all classes on the importance of giving back to your alma mater in order to help it continue to reach new heights of excellence.

Class of 1988 Valedictorian Enjoys Success Flip through yearbooks and you will find yourself browsing class photos, including the pictures of the superlatives voted by the seniors of that year.

Opening the 1988 edition of Golden Echoes to the page on which the students elected Most Likely to Succeed, you will see a young lady and gentlemen posing in their Sunday best leaning on a Porsche. The young lady, Lara O’Connor Hodgson, laughs when she looks at that picture these days.

“It’s funny how in high school, we thought success was defined by the clothing you wore and the car you drove,” says Hodgson. “Today, I know that success is not a big enough goal. The greater goal is significance. A photo of significance would most certainly not have my car in it.”

Hodgson has clearly made a significant impact since graduating from Georgia Tech in 1993 with a degree in Aerospace Engineering with highest honors before obtaining her MBA from the Harvard Business School. She was featured in USA Today as one of the top 20 students in the nation, and was named Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK) National Leader of the Year, all while being a scholarship member of the Yellow Jacket Varsity Track and Field team.

card sales work great, business to business sales do not use credit cards, therefore, we created NOWaccount to allow businesses to get paid by other businesses as if using a credit card,” says Hodgson. “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy, so it didn’t make sense for the businesses to be a free bank while awaiting payment.”

But more important than the ability to create easier ways for businesses to get paid, Hodgson is more proud of the fact that the venture has enabled many of their clients to triple their business in less than a year.

In Georgia alone, NOW Corp clients have created or retained over 3,000 jobs because of their NOWaccount.

“The creation of these new jobs has helped create better lifestyles for families, which is far more important.”

Prior to her recent ventures, Hodgson founded Insomnia, LLC, which specialized in the investment, development and management of world-changing projects.

She was the Chief Operating Officer and Chief Marketing Officer at Atlanta-based commercial real estate giant, Dewberry Capital Corporation. Hodgson also served as Executive Vice President of DUNK, a performance footwear company, founded with Shaquille O’Neal and other professional Currently, Hodgson is the President and athletes, and as Senior VP and General CEO of NOW® Corp, a company that she Manager of an internet strategy and co-founded in 2010. Challenged by trying consulting firm. All of this following her to grow her company, Nourish, Inc., while start with Andersen Consulting as the first her customers took a long time to pay, and Business Analyst in the Strategic Services tired of being the free bank to her customers, South Practice. “I have never had a job Hodgson launched her latest venture. NOW someone had before me. While many try to Corp’s payment system, NOWaccount®, think outside the proverbial box, I guess I enables businesses to get paid immediately, never found my box.” similar to taking credit card payments even when a card is not offered by a business or Hodgson credits her time at St. Pius X as government customer. being instrumental in her life, saying that “Pius instilled the significance ’seed’ in me by “The challenge with Nourish came when stressing empathy in everything that we did. we started to move from shipping cases to People always say you have to be passionate shipping truckloads of products. Unlike a about what you do but I disagree. You have business to consumer model where credit to be passionate about the “so what” that

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you do. The impact is what matters and that is what St. Pius X was trying to teach us whether we knew it at the time or not.”

“Only at Pius could one person be class president, a three sport student-athlete and take all AP courses. The school encourages you to expand beyond your comfort zone, which has helped throughout my career,” said Hodgson.

A few years ago, when asked to speak to the St. Pius X student body about success, she challenged students to think bigger and to shoot for significance over success.

“Success is finite, but significance is infinite.

Significance is making an impact and creating a legacy, making things better for others. When you are the valedictorian at St. Pius X, you are positioned to be on the path to significance, not just success.”

In addition to her role with her company, Hodgson currently serves as an Entrepreneur in Residence at Harvard Business School, as a Trustee of the Georgia Tech Foundation and as President and founding board member of Atlanta Heights Charter School. Her service on other boards over the years includes the Georgia Tech Alumni Association Board of Trustees, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business Advisory Board, Georgia Tech College of Engineering Advisory Board, ACE Loans, Flag Bank, Georgia Tech’s Alexander-Tharpe Fund, Georgia Regional Transportation Authority Board, and Society of International Business Fellows. She has been honored by the Georgia Tech Athletic Association with the Total Person Alumnus Award and by the Georgia Tech Women in Engineering as Alumnus of the Year. She is a member of the Georgia Tech Young Alumni Hall of Fame, and is currently a Southeast US Finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year.

Faculty Feature

Getting to know...Mr. Phil Cook

Phil Cook, born in California, grew up with an active lifestyle, dabbling in all kinds of sports with his brother, from surfing and sailing to football and hiking. His father was a medical engineer while his mother was an administrator in the school district personnel office. Throughout high school, his teachers and mentors inspired him to pursue a career in education. Upon graduation from the University of Georgia, he struggled to find the “right place” to teach and after dozens of interviews, he decided to tutor and wait for the perfect job to open up. In 1997, his college roommate suggested he submit his resume at St. Pius X and soon, he was offered a position.

Phil has now been teaching World History for two decades, “It’s a great course because, while you kind of stick to a mainline curriculum, you can explore so much depth with each civilization…that keeps the course fresh and different almost every year.” He began teaching Economics in 1997. He enjoys talking to his students about how the Fed works, why stock prices fluctuate, debating the merits of one currency over another, and how to solve the global water crisis, among other topics. Finally, he also teaches U.S. History to juniors. He credits his love of this class to his mentor and his own AP U.S. History teacher, who impressed with his ability to relate his love and passion for history, get his students involved, and drive them to greatness.

Named Teacher of the Year in 2010, Phil’s insight into what makes St. Pius X stand out among other schools is a similar response to what so many others have stated, “It’s very much like a second home for everyone.” He also feels that parental support is unparalleled at St. Pius X, noting that the parents work hard to support the teachers and seem to have a great grasp of what teachers are trying to accomplish. When asked what change has had the best impact on our school, Phil’s response encompasses what so many feel, “In the 21 years I’ve been here, Pius has seen its fair share of change in the buildings. Things like the cafeteria being remodeled and the new Fields of Dreams are cool, the Roar Store is great, as are all the little touches. But it is definitely what has not changed that is remarkable. It’s truly touching to see how invested people are in this place. We will take the golf team on the road to some far corner of Georgia and we’ll bump into a Pius grad from a generation ago who will share all kinds of fond memories about their time at the school. Pius people connect so easily with people that you feel in sync on a totally different level than you’d be on with any other person. The way our grads come back home and share what they’ve done is special, too. And, as a coach, it’s always great to see the boys I work with take pride in wearing the Chi-Rho and representing the school with pride and honor!”

AT A GLANCE HOMETOWN: Newport Beach, California HIGH SCHOOL: Newport Harbor High School COLLEGE/DEGREES: Cal State University Long Beach for one year, then University of Georgia ’96 BS Ed. CLASSES TAUGHT/EXTRACURRICULARS: AP Microeconomics and Macroeconomics, CPA Economics, CPA US History, boys’ golf FAMILY: Wife (Darshananda); Son (Shaun, 14); Daughter (Erin, 11); two rescued Bull Mastiff hounds (Macchiato and Zeus) YEARS AT SPX: 21 FAVORITE BOOK: Tom Brokaw’s The Greatest Generation.

FAVORITE MOVIE: I’m not sure I can narrow it down to just one as Shadowlands, Field of Dreams, Inception, Good Will Hunting, and Finding Forester are all right up there.

FAVORITE QUOTE: “You’re going to need a bigger boat.” It’s kind of an inside joke as I get seasick really easily and my dad was a sailor.

LITTLE KNOWN FACT ABOUT YOURSELF: As a kid, I used to love to run cross country.

HOBBIES: Architecture, landscaping, keeping up with college football, and travel.

PERSON YOU’D MOST LIKE TO MEET: If we could go back and pull someone out of the grave: Alexander Hamilton. If it has to be someone still living: Oprah Winfrey.

FIRST JOB: Teaching assistant at Estancia High School.

FAVORITE ST. PIUS X MEMORY: Listening to Father Lopez’s homilies.

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Campus Ministry

News and Updates from Campus Ministry

Religious Vocations from St. Pius X In the sixty years since St. Pius X first opened its doors, several students have heard the call from the Lord to enter into religious life, consecrated life, and the priesthood. Of the thousands of students to walk the halls of St. Pius X, we interviewed one alum, Fr. Llane Briese ’03, about his time at St. Pius X, his call to the priesthood, and advice he wants to share with the community.

Fr. Llane Briese graduated from St. Pius X in 2003. “I am a math and science person… I love numbers,” he explains. But despite a gift for the mathematical sides of things, Fr. Briese expressed how one teacher really opened his eyes to a new love for a totally different subject. “I had Mary Martha Spear her first year of teaching at St. Pius X. In her English class, I learned to love literature, writing, and poetry. I never thought I would love poetry!” Fr. Briese, now a professor of Biblical Studies at St. Vincent de Paul Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida, attributes his passion for reading and studying literature (especially Scripture!) to that class. He describes the beauty of Catholic education, that it really is “holistic,” seeing the whole student, the whole person, from every angle.

When asked about when he began really thinking about the priesthood, Fr. Briese explained, “I thought about it but not seriously my junior and senior year of high school. If it was brought up, I would kind of chuckle and give a polite response.”

After graduation, Fr. Briese went on to Clemson University to study engineering, but would only remain there for a year. “After I graduated, I had an epiphany. ’I have my whole life ahead of me…’ and that was the first time I seriously considered seminary.” On the academic side of things, he explained, “I knew I was good at engineering. I knew I was good at math. But I find joy in the idea of serving the Lord as a priest.”

In the summer of 2004, Fr. Briese entered seminary and began studying at Franciscan University of Steubenville, where he graduated in 2006. In 2006, Archbishop Gregory invited Fr. Briese to study at the North American College in Rome, Italy. He

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was ordained a deacon in October of 2009, and was ordained to the priesthood in June of 2010. Since his ordination, Fr. Briese has served in multiple parishes as parochial vicar, a chaplain and teacher at Our Lady of Mercy. Now, along with teaching Scripture courses, he is a formation advisor for men in formation for the priesthood.

When asked to share with the St. Pius X community something beautiful that he has received in his priesthood, Fr. Briese replies, “I am called by the Lord to serve in small ways, and I might not see the end. I might teach someone for a semester in a class. I hear a confession and do not know the end of the story. The Lord uses those moments to bring people to Himself.” For Fr. Briese, any part of his day can be used for the glory of God “...even paperwork! I call it ’paperwork ministry.’” He also spoke beautifully about how the Holy Spirit is still alive and well in the life of the Church, and in our own lives. “Pay attention to the little things. Let the Lord be present in the little things.” The St. Pius X community continues to pray for all the alumni,

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“I am called by the Lord to serve in small ways, and I might not see the end. I might teach someone for a semester in a class. I hear a confession and not know the end of the story. The Lord uses those moments to bring people to Himself.”

and in particular, our priests, religious sisters, and consecrated religious. May there be an increase of vocations that are a beautiful fruit of the formation here at St. Pius X!

Farewell from Father Michael Silloway Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful, and enkindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created, and You shall renew the face of the earth.

Back in October of 2012, Archbishop Gregory came to the Cathedral rectory asking to see me. To be honest, it was more like shouting. The old rectory was a three-story home where the street level is the top floor of the house and you go down from there to access the kitchen, dining room, and the priest’s rooms, including my own. I could hear him shouting for me, so I ran upstairs, heart racing even before the physical exertion of climbing two flights. This is the Archbishop of Atlanta needing to see me! You don’t keep him waiting...and who knows why he was there in the first place!

We sat down and he said “Michael, there’s been some talk of sending you to Pius. Would you want to go and be their chaplain?”

Admittedly, I was caught a bit off guard. I knew relatively nothing of the school but what I had gleaned by living two doors down from Msgr. Lopez for almost two years in that very rectory. And that was mostly catching a glimpse of him praying in his room at 5:30 a.m. or having a privileged moment to snag a short conversation with him as he scoured the fridge for leftovers in the evening. I knew the school kept him busy, but that kept him happy.

I remember telling the Archbishop that I knew little of the school and its people but that it would be an honor to serve there. He smiled and said, “Just be a good young priest for those youngsters. You’ll start in December.”

And just like that, it was done. It felt a bit like what I imagine our Blessed Mother must have felt as the angel Gabriel left her after telling her she was to be the mother of Our Lord...it was a moment that contained fear, joy, excitement, hope, “wait...what?” all in one. My prayer quickly became hers...Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum... with my own addition: and don’t let me screw it up!

It’s been five and a half amazing years since the cold December day I came in as the Chaplain of St. Pius X Catholic High School. It was the feast of St. Nicholas and my first task was putting candy canes in the students crushed saddle shoes and worn-out Sperrys. The next

weekend our varsity football team came *this close* to claiming a state championship in the now demolished Dome. And every day up to the present has been a gift and grace, with countless deeply spiritual moments, gut-busting funny moments, tragic and challenging moments, busy moments, and tired-but-life-giving moments.

I’ve been on this trip down memory lane for a while now, as back in late April I got word, this time from a phone call, that Archbishop Gregory was asking me now to become the next pastor of Christ Our King and Savior Catholic Church in Greensboro, Georgia, out on Lake Oconee... giving me all the same “feels” as the couch conversation at CTK, but this time mixed with even more nostalgia and gratitude for the time the Lord has given me here at Pius.

These new “feels” made saying goodbye to the students at our last All-School Mass one of the hardest tasks in eight years of priesthood. As I blubbered my way through the announcement, memories of the times Our Lord showed up in big ways in kids’ lives came flooding back. My heart goes out all the more now to our retirees who’ve been here 20, 30, 40 years, for how hard it must have been to say farewell! It takes less than five for one’s blood to run Vatican Gold and White [with accents of blue]. I only hope I’ve completed the task that the Lord, through Archbishop Gregory, gave me...to have been a good young priest to these teens! It has been an honor and a tremendous blessing to have been your chaplain, and I humbly beg your prayers as I go out east to begin this next chapter, with you all knowing you will always be in mine.

Taking up the reigns as chaplain will be another Christ the King priest...Fr. Rey Pineda. He experienced a similar “shock” as he got the call telling him he’d be coming here.

He’s already loved by the CTK students who have been blessed to have him as their parish priest, and once the wider Pius family gets a chance to meet him, it’s going to be off to the races with what the Lord wants to do in and through him for this great community.

God bless you all!

It’s great to be a GOLDEN LION! St. Pius X, pray for us!

Fr. Michael Silloway Chaplain

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From the Office of Advancement News and updates regarding advancement efforts at St. Pius X

$50,000 Annual Fund Challenge Met!

Thanks to the generous St. Pius X community, the 2017-18 Annual Fund was the most successful on record, having raised more than one million dollars for the benefit of the school. More important, however, was the increased participation levels by both current parents and alumni. These increases were spurred on by a $50,000 challenge issued this past fall by several parents and alumni.

The challenge was to reach 80 percent parent participation or secure 700 alumni donors. If either of these two goals were met by the end of the school year, the school would receive $50,000. While simple in concept, the challenge required our parents and alumni to stretch themselves to step up and put their love for St. Pius X into action.

By year’s end, parent giving increased by 11 percent over last year, and alumni giving increased by 177 alumni donors. As of July, we achieved 78 percent parent participation and 841 alumni donors. St. Pius X wishes to thank the funders of the challenge for spurring our community on and for rewarding us with such a generous gift to the school.

2017 ANNUAL FUND

2018 ANNUAL FUND

Parent Participation

67%

78%

Alumni Donors

664

841

$851,873

$973,131

Gifts/Pledges Challenge Gift Total Raised

$50,000 $851,873

$1,023,131

GRACE Scholars Program Increases Cap to $100M

GRACE Scholars is one of 31 student scholarship organizations (SSOs) in the state that assist taxpayers with redirecting their tax dollars to scholarships. Qualifying students from K-12 public schools entering private or parochial schools are eligible for scholarships through these SSOs. St. Pius X is a part of this program and received nearly $210,000 in designations from taxpayers wishing to help send students to St. Pius X. The $58 million cap for the 2018 state-wide program was met and exceeded on January 2, leaving those taxpayers who participated with a tax credit of just 55% of the amount requested.

Thanks to new legislation passed into law in May, $100 million is being set aside for SSOs in 2019, and will be in effect for ten years. The impact of this legislation should be tremendous, with nearly twice as many dollars available for students seeking a St. Pius X education.

This school year 19 students will attend St. Pius X on a GRACE scholarship, including 12 females and seven males. Sixteen of the 19 students received the maximum award of $9,817 based on their financial need.

St. Pius X is grateful to the more than 200 GRACE Scholars donors who are making a Catholic school education a reality for our students. To learn more or to preregister now for the 2019 program, visit www.gracescholars.org.

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Legacy Gift from Ms. Klister Supports School She Loved

For 54 years Charlene Klister called St. Pius X home. Her passion for teaching and inspiring students is legendary. As Teacher of the Year in 2006, and a STAR Teacher six times over, Ms. Klister’s influence reached far and wide. Ms. Klister passed away in 2016, and thanks to thoughtful planning on her part, her influence will continue to be felt at St. Pius X for generations to come.

Last fall St. Pius X received a bequest from her estate, leaving it up to the school to decide how to use the funds.

Principal Steve Spellman, a longtime friend and colleague of Ms. Klister’s, knew of two ways her gift would be in keeping with her passion for St. Pius X. Ms. Klister taught English and was the creator of both the school’s literary magazine as well as the writing club.

With this in mind, the school chose to use the bulk of Ms. Klister’s gift for The Writing Center, a peer-to-peer tutoring program for students that was created in 2016.

The program was featured in the last issue of this magazine (Winter/Spring 2018), and it continues to support students seeking to improve their writing skills. According to Faculty Moderator, Ms. Lindsey Dent, “It’s really a pleasure to work with and watch the tutors grow and help their peers become more thoughtful, critical writers.”

During Ms. Klister’s time at St. Pius X, the school boasted 39 winners of the National Council of English Teachers Writers Award, which each year honors 500 of the best student writers in high schools across the United States.

“No one provided more leadership in regard to our writing program than Ms. Klister,” says Mike Scirocco, head of the English Department.

The remaining funds from Ms. Klister’s gift are being used to increase the principal of the Monsignor Richard Lopez Scholarship Fund. The Fund was established in 1998 by friends and former students in honor of the 25th anniversary of his Ordination to priesthood. This scholarship fund is awarded annually to a junior who exemplifies the values of hard work, caring and respect for life. Ms. Klister and Monsignor Lopez were close friends, and it is fitting for her legacy to live on through this scholarship fund.

Ms. Klister’s generosity was evident throughout her time at St. Pius X, and thanks to her planned gift, it will continue for generations to come. To learn more about planned giving, contact Jenn Sedlack at 404-633-4290 ext. 273 or jsedlack@spx.org.

Annual Fund Impact Felt Across Campus As its name implies, the Annual Fund is a yearly effort to secure much-needed funds for the school. Often referred to as “bridging the gap,” the Annual Fund balances the budget and allows St. Pius X to keep tuition rates reasonable, while still providing a quality education to students.

Although an easy concept to explain, it can be challenging to relay this message effectively year after year. At St. Pius X we are striving to delve a little deeper to help donors understand the true impact of the Annual Fund.

The 2018-19 Annual Fund begins in earnest in August with a goal of raising $900,000 in support of St. Pius X. Major initiatives for the new year include a complete overhaul of the school’s website. The school is adding security cameras around campus for expanded coverage, and the current air conditioning system is being refurbished.

The Young Center is undergoing minor upgrades, the Library is adding a small area for a student study center, and the journalism room has been completely redone.

Similar progress was made last school year thanks to your support. We kicked-

off the year by installing new lighting in Maloof Stadium. This six-figure project improved the system immensely, providing pin-point lighting of the field and reducing light spill-over by 80 percent. The lifespan on the new lights is nearly 40 years. Having proven effective in Maloof Stadium, the school is looking into these same lights for the Seaver Family Sports Complex lighting project.

The Master Plan was also supported through the Annual Fund. Consultants were hired to guide our school through a facility and land-use visioning process. The goal was to create a deliberate plan for our physical campus five, ten, even twenty years down the road. After input from numerous individuals across the academic, arts and athletics spectrums, consultants Collins Cooper Carusi created a detailed design outlining the campus master plan. This plan will be shared with stake holders to determine its viability and next steps.

Students benefited from improved infrastructure for the Bring Your Own Device program. The technology team replaced over 70 access points with newer wifi technology that increased the effectiveness of the wireless network.

During the summer of 2018, the school’s

internal bandwidth was doubled, from 500mb to 1gb.

Three safety beacons were installed on campus in the fall, providing quick access to Chamblee police should the need arise.

These beacons were spread across campus, providing coverage in the senior lot, near the practice gym, and by the sophomore parking lot. When tested, the Chamblee police have had an average response time of just two minutes.

While the Annual Fund supports numerous tangible efforts around campus, retaining quality faculty and staff remains our number one priority. We are constantly striving to make our faculty and staff experience here positive, and we are happy to boast an average of 19.2 years of tenure amongst our faculty. The Annual Fund also supports our full-time Chaplain, Father Rey Pineda, who guides our faith journey and provides for our spiritual needs.

St. Pius X is grateful to the more than 1,800 donors who contributed to the school so generously through the 2018 Annual Fund.

We hope to earn your kind support again with the 2019 campaign.

Join Us for the Second Annual FUN(d) Party We’ve established a new tradition here at St. Pius X and you’re invited to join in on the FUN(d)! Mark your calendar now for Friday, October 26 when we transform Maloof Stadium into an outdoor concert venue. There’s no ticket to buy – you simply make a pledge or gift to the Annual Fund and then come enjoy the evening at St. Pius X. This party is our way of saying thank you for your generosity!

Whether you are a current parent, alumni, parent of alumni, grandparent or friend, you are welcome to join us. We will have tables, chairs, and bottled water set up that evening.

You simply need to bring a picnic basket with all of the fixings, pack a cooler with your favorite beverage, and then sit back, relax and enjoy the music. See you there!

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St. Pius X News Mission Teams Work with Mustard Seed Communities

Two St. Pius X missions teams, made up of 41 students and ten chaperones, spent their spring break serving at the Mustard Seed Communities (MSC) in Nicaragua and Jamaica. Mustard Seed is a non-profit organization that provides a loving, lifelong home for residents who have been abandoned by their families because of mental illness, physical disabilities, and developmental delays. The organization desires to model Christ in their Catholic faith by serving the most vulnerable in society.

Our students spent a week serving the residents at these MSC locations through games, prayer, music, and fun. Our mission teams also served the community by assisting in work projects for the good of the community at large, such as landscaping projects and helping lay foundation for a second school building.

English Faculty Hosts Middle School Teachers

For the past eleven years, St. Pius X has hosted middle school English teachers from a number of our partner schools for a day of collaboration and information, based on a particular topic of interest involving pedagogy and Catholic identity. This year, the topic centered on “The Power of Story to Form and Transform,” and featured two distinguished speakers, Dr. David King, English/Film Studies professor at Kennesaw State University and film/book reviewer for The Georgia Bulletin, as well as our own Msgr. Richard Lopez. Dr. King spoke on the inspirational and transcendental power of story, and Fr. Lopez used his own personal plethora of stories to explore the classroom as “sacred space” for conveying virtues.

The afternoon involved a collaborative exploration of fairy tales as a relevant means of virtue and transcendence, using “Hansel and Gretel” as a stepping off point. A podcast and interactive exhibit on Grimms’ fairy tales and “Hansel and Gretel,” in particular, brought the story to life and tied in a way of finding the Gospel in the fairy tale genre. The exhibit stayed in place in the Flannery O’Connor Library for several

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additional weeks as a vehicle for students and classes to visit and even get credit for what they learned.

Volunteers Honored at Annual Mass and Breakfast

Special thanks to all of the volunteers who were honored at the 60th anniversary Volunteer Appreciation Mass and Reception.

This year, over 400 volunteers were invited to the event. These men and women handle various tasks from serving in the concession stands and working the gala to working in the Business Office and assisting with class pilgrimages. We honor these volunteers at the annual Mass in an effort to show students how our community gives of their time to support the school and serve through volunteerism. St. Pius X relies on volunteer support in order to keep things running as smoothly as possible. Thank you!

Going Out Golden

Last year, the Office of Advancement presented a challenge to the Class of 2017.

The soon to be alumni were asked to dig deep into their pockets, couches, and hearts and

give back to St. Pius X through the Annual Fund. They were challenged to be the first graduating class to “Go Out Golden” and have the highest percentage of Annual Fund giving in the history of St. Pius X. The gift was meant to be from them, not from their parents, to begin a culture of philanthropy among the student body.

Under the leadership of Shannon Kang, Brennan Quinn, Dan Mohr and Tommy Westenberger, the Class of 2018 surpassed the Class of 2017 to be the class with the highest participation in Annual Fund giving.

Their lion pride ran deep with 91 students participating over the course of the campaign, which ran from Homecoming week through the week of graduation. The second annual campaign was a success and the Class of 2018 earned the highest participation of Annual Fund giving from any graduating class, with 35 percent participation. The challenge will continue for the Class of 2019 and those to come.

St. Pius X Volunteer Appreciation Celebration

Fr. Lopez Speaks with English Faculty

Nicaragua Mission Trip

St. Pius X Welcomes New Chaplain Father Rey Pineda

At the start of the school year, St. Pius X welcomes a new chaplain to campus. Father Rey Pineda joins us from his most recent position serving as Parochial Vicar at the Cathedral of Christ the King.

Born in Guerrero, Mexico, his family emigrated to Los Angeles in 1990. In 1995 his father relocated the family to Atlanta at the height of growth for the 1996 Olympic Games. Fr. Rey felt drawn to the priesthood as he served Mass at St. Patrick’s parish in Norcross. With the support of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, he began his seminary studies in 2006 at Southern Catholic College in Dawsonville,

where he happened to room with Theology teacher Mr. Andrew Pudysz! After earning his degree in Philosophy, he continued his formation and discernment at Mundelein Seminary in Illinois. He was ordained a Transitional Deacon on May 25, 2013. In May of 2014, he graduated from Mundelein Seminary with a Masters in Divinity and was ordained a priest on June 28. His first assignment was as a Parochial Vicar at St. Lawrence in Lawrenceville and has since been at Christ the King.

We are thrilled to welcome Fr. Rey to St. Pius X and look forward the talents he brings to our school.

Bell Tower Receives Fresh Coat of Paint for 60th Celebrations Special thanks to CertaPro painters and parent Carol Pajer for teaming up with us to paint the Bell Tower for the 60th anniversary. In addition, CertaPro donated the paint needed for the lion paws throughout campus.

We sincerely appreciate Certapro representative Mike Glennon, who helped make this possible, and Brad Nichols from Premier Platforms, Inc., who worked to get us the best deal on renting the lift for the job.

Lion Leaders Congratulate Leader on Purpose: Gabrielle Valsaint

The Leader on Purpose award is an honor and title bestowed upon Lion Leaders who exhibit exceptional leadership skills, nominated solely by the students in the Lion Leader Program.

This is a peer-to-peer acknowledgment of student achievement.

Pineda

Bell Tower Receives New Coat of Paint

Pride Leader Gabrielle Valsaint ’18 earned this title for her ability to embrace leadership characteristics and grow the success of fellow

Jamaica Mission Trip

Going Out Golden: Class of 2018

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students. She is a walking example of the Lion Leader mission, values, and goals and has become an inspiration for many students to follow in her footsteps. Her selfless initiative is beyond compare. She is an extraordinary leader; because of her, the Lion Leader Program bar of excellence is higher, and many consider themselves fortunate to have witnessed her indisputable spirit of service and leadership. As Gabrielle graduates from St. Pius X and continues her leadership journey in college, she leaves behind her legacy as a Lion Leader.

St. Pius X Takes Home Two Awards at All Metro Track & Field Banquet

Tanner Duffin ’19 has been named the Bruce Yohe Outstanding Male Field Athlete of the year. Tanner won the 4A State discus title with a throw of 189’3” and recently broke 200’ to record the #3 throw in the nation.

donors. These students will each receive a $1,500 college scholarship.

Reading website, which connects students with bilingual authors.

Be sure to save the date for the Fall Blood Drive on September 27, 2018.

Following this project, the group decided to write their own poem, which has since been published in Revista Literal magazine.

The class of five students enjoyed working together on the projects. As they explained, their skills were put to good use outside the classroom and they have a further reach now that they’ve been published in several different arenas.

Joey Tarnowski Named State Champion in Lincoln-Douglas Debate Division

Joey Tarnowski ’20 was named state champion in second year Lincoln-Douglas Debate Division. Joey went 5-0 in Preliminary Rounds and won unanimous 3-0 judge decisions in the quarterfinal, semifinal, and final at the first and second year GFCA State Championships.

Coach Ryan McClay was given the Judo Brown Award for Outstanding Dedication: Boys Coach. Ryan has coached for nine years and has earned six state championships in cross country and two in track and field.

Joey joined the team in fall 2016 and coaches Sean Hiland and Charles Hicks knew he would make a great impact. In the eight tournaments he participated in this year, he put together a 33-8 record. According to Coach Hicks, “He has a winning percentage of over 80 percent on the varsity level, which is unbelievable, especially as a sophomore.

He has signature wins against some of the best debaters from several of the powerhouse programs in the state of Georgia.”

Red Cross Scholarship

Spanish Class Published

The American Red Cross sponsors a college scholarship for graduating seniors from schools that have achieved donations of over 300 units of blood in a year. Thanks to the students, staff and parents of St. Pius X, 311 units of blood were collected and Pius had the honor of awarding $3,000 in scholarships to two deserving seniors.

Ms. Debbie Guilbeau’s Spanish Four senior class completed two recent projects that taught them the impact of their studies in and out of the classroom. The group read and reviewed the book La Estatua.

Their review is live on the CI

Data was carefully gathered on student participants from the last six St. Pius X blood drives.

Two students, Red Cross Scholarship Winners Will Galvin and Lucky Provenzano, stood out as clearly the most deserving of the scholarship based on blood drive goals. At just 18 years old, Will and Lucky are already well on their way to becoming as lifelong Valsaint donors. Both believe strongly in donating blood to save lives and have become regular

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Google Expeditions

On February 27, St. Pius X students and faculty toured Ancient Rome, visited World War II battlefields and took a journey to the bottom of the ocean, thanks to the magic of virtual reality and the Google Expeditions Augmented Reality (AR) Pioneer Program.

This is the second time in three years that St. Pius X has participated in a Google Pioneer Program.

The Expeditions app was recently updated to include AR tours in addition to the virtual reality tours. Using certain Android phones, teachers can bring digital objects to life in the classroom.

Among the tours, Theology classes will visit Ancient Rome and examine artifacts from the era. Visual Arts classes will view the inventions of Leonardo Da Vinci, and history classes will take a tour of World War II Warfare and items from the Space Race, including a Mercury

Pius Players Reunion

Tarnowski

Google Pioneer Program

capsule. Some of the project contributors include NASA, the National Park Service, the United Nations and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Students are able to walk around and examine the items from multiple sides, giving a different perspective than simply viewing an image or video.

Feedback from our students and faculty will help Google make the final product better for everyone.

Pius Players Welcomed Alumni with 60th Anniversary Revue

Members of the Pius Players performed the Best of Broadway, a musical revue featuring selections from past shows in honor of the school’s 60th anniversary. The group performed show stopping numbers from The Sound of Music, West Side Story, The Wiz, Newsies, and Les Miserables. The show was dedicated to Msgr. Terry Young, whose support of the arts laid the foundation for what we see today. Bonnie Spark, in her 38th year as Director of Theatre, invited alumni for a photo on stage and then the group enjoyed a reception celebrating 60 years of the arts at St. Pius X.

Students Attend Latino Summit

Eight students from St. Pius X attended the annual Latino Summit at The Paideia School in April. The annual event allows Latino students to come together from different schools to meet, interact, and share experiences with one another. Students were told that they were not defined by the schools they attend, but rather, by the fact that they were all Latino. Students

listened as three speakers (Samantha Ramirez Herrera, Olivia Irlando, and Dr. Eric Cuevas) shared stories of their life and experiences, struggles, and successes.

“The most important thing she [Herrera] told us was about a meeting she went to in D.C., where are kid said, ‘We are our ancestor’s wildest dream.’ It has been nearly two weeks since the Summit and I still think about that quote because it holds so much truth. Her speech touched a raw nerve and it made me look at life differently. I saw myself in her,” says Montserrat Werner ’21.

The group enjoyed their time at the Summit and look forward to next year’s experience.

Pictured left to right: William Kibler ’19, Michael Lopez ’18, Nicole Castro ’18, Montserrat Werner ’21, Georgia Aguirre ’19, Valerie Garcia ’18, Victoria Gomez ’18, and Isabel Lavandero ’18.

Counseling Office

The Counseling Office at St. Pius X continues to provide a complete counseling program targeting emotional wellness and college preparedness. In addition to the signature programs parents and students are already familiar with and in an effort to address the continued changes and needs of the student population, the office has implemented several new programs: Parent Wellness Sessions: Topics such as depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and suicide prevention were covered during the morning and afternoon sessions.

Student Wellness Lunch De-Stress: Students came in to the counseling office during their lunch periods to color, play with play-dough, kinetic sand, and listen to music-all under twinkling lights!

Winterguard

Suicide Prevention and Awareness: A new prevention program was implemented through a ninth grade life choices lesson.

Mercer University hosted Suicide Awareness Informational tables during

Latino Summit

lunch hours, and a school-wide suicide prevention and awareness assembly was held for students.

Freshman Class Small Groups: For six weeks during their lunch periods, students came to Counseling and learned about transitioning to high school, peer relationships, and emotional wellbeing.

Girls Power Tech: Sponsored by Cisco, St. Pius X female students had the opportunity to spend the day learning and being introduced to opportunities in the information and technology field.

NCTE Winners

Congratulations to Monserrath Juarez ’19 and Anna Reigner ’19 who won Superior Writing Awards for the 2018 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Writing Award Competition.

Schools across the country nominated 462 students to participate in the Achievement Awards in Writing Program. Of those, 227 were selected to receive Certificates of Superior Writing and 235 received Certificates of Nomination. Congratulations on this wonderful achievement!

Winterguard Takes First Place

Congratulations to the St. Pius X Winterguard for earning first place for the second consecutive year as Novice Class Champions.

The team ranked first out of 30 groups from throughout the southeast region. This year’s performance was titled “Experience Life” and it was about the life cycle of a flower. The group learns their performance over a period of four months.

Dance Program Performs for Dresden Students

The SPX Dance Program’s dress rehearsal was transformed into a school show for the first and second graders of Dresden Elementary on March 21. Over 370 students attended along with their teachers and administrators.

The dancers chaperoned the students to and from Dresden Elementary, ushered them into the theater and interacted during intermission and after the performance. The dancers felt like celebrities by getting pictures with the students and signing autographs. Many thanks to Rita Glaser, Celia McCoy and the Dresden Elementary faculty and staff for helping make this day happen!

Guilbeau’s Spanish 4 Class

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Chorus Program Grows Under Direction of Ms. Millie Turek The 2017-18 academic year was a year of firsts for the St. Pius X chorus program.

Under the direction of second-year instructor Millie Turek, the program added a men’s vocal ensemble, fall and spring concerts and ventured to grade schools for performances. The groups also added awards, both as a group and individually.

With the addition of the men’s ensemble, the fall semester began as a one-semester class with eight students. By mid-semester, six students decided to remain in the class second semester and the class added another student, ending the year with seven gentlemen. The class is expected to grow to 12 participants next year. The class performed as its own ensemble, while also joining the women’s ensemble to create a mixed chorus.

The choruses presented the first Fall Concert in November, collaborating with the Pius Players musical ensemble for an evening of classic choral pieces as well as pop and Broadway tunes. Father Michael Silloway was the featured soloist on “How Can I Keep From Singing” with the women’s vocal ensemble. Later in December,

the groups joined the band and guitar in the annual Christmas concert, performing traditional sacred and secular songs of the season.

older pop and show tunes over many genres including country, rock n’ roll, top 40 hits and movie tunes from “The Greatest Showman” and “La La Land.”

“In continuing to build the chorus program at St. Pius X, it is my philosophy to teach the singers to develop their voices to the maximum of their ability through performing music of all genres, cultures, languages and time periods,” said Mrs. Turek.

The choruses continued participation in traditional school events during the year in addition to the concerts. The students sang at Open House, Morning of the Arts, and the Fine Arts assembly. The men’s ensemble joined with the men of Pius Players at the Veterans Day assembly to present “Tell My Father,” a song from the musical, “The Civil War.”

In March, the combined ensemble performed at the Georgia Music Educators Association (GMEA) Large Group Performance Evaluation. The mixed group scored the highest rating of “Superior” from professional judges in performance and sight-singing. The LGPE is an event where middle and high school students from around the state sing for an evaluation and rating from the judges.

Sophomore Daniel Buckley auditioned and was selected for the GMEA All-State chorus, where he sang with the Senior Men’s AllState Chorus. The performance was held in Athens and he was joined by 200 of the best senior high male singers in Georgia.

The final performance of the year was a student-led project presented during the school day in May to an enthusiastic crowd of students. Chorus members had input in selecting music, creating choreography, and designing the costumes and lighting. The repertoire featured current and

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We work to become a true ensemble of voices, not just a bunch of people who like to sing, although this is where we start.

Mrs. Turek says that the students are eager to work on perfecting their craft, “We work to become a true ensemble of voices, not just a bunch of people who like to sing, although this is where we start.”

Students do not have to audition to be in the St. Pius X chorus. Mrs. Turek is always in search of members who want to use their voice to spread the beauty of music in the world.

2015 Alumnus Enjoys Success in Notre Dame Marching Band Sam Porter ’15 is currently a rising senior at the University of Notre Dame majoring in physics and mathematics. Following a foundation set at St. Pius X, he has been part of the band program since his freshman year and his involvement continues to grow. He’s been a member of the drumline playing mallets (think xylophone) in the ND marching band for three years and will serve as the drum captain for the full drumline this coming fall. In addition to the marching band, he plays a number of different instruments for other bands and ensembles including percussion for the symphonic band, orchestra, and New Orleans brass band; piano for one of the jazz bands; and clarinet for the school’s community band, among others.

At last count his involvement in various bands and ensembles is greater than any other student at Notre Dame.

As part of the pep band, he’s enjoyed front row seats for sporting events of all kinds – basketball, hockey, soccer, volleyball, and lacrosse – and travels with those teams to post-season tournaments all around the country. A highlight this year was being court-side for the women’s basketball national championship game – and even cutting down the nets! The list of places Sam has traveled and the concert venues he’s played are impressive – on the field at Fenway Park and with the Boston Pops in Boston, in front of the Alamo in San Antonio, on the floor at Madison Square Garden in NYC, and many, many more….

On the service front, Sam is a director in Notre Dame’s Bandlink program, which is an outreach program that offers music and band instruction to local schools. Sam serves as band director for a band comprised of middle schoolers. He meets with the students once a week for practice. In addition, he has been a counselor each summer for Camp Kesem - a free summer camp hosted by colleges throughout the country for children who have been impacted by a parent’s cancer. This year, Sam will serve as a director of Notre Dame’s camp and hopes to expand their reach to over 100 kids.

2018-2019 Fine Arts Upcoming Performances The Pius Players Present: October 19-21 Antigone Fall Chorus Concert October 25

Fifteen Arts Students to Continue Pursuing the Arts in College

The Pius Players Present: December 1 Charlie Brown’s Special Christmas

Izzy Bautista (1) Savannah College of Art & Design: Fashion Design

John Huynh (6) Savannah College of Art & Design: Concept Design

Matthew Bielak (2) Savannah College of Art & Design: Fashion Design/Creative Writing

Anna Koch (7) Savannah College of Art & Design: Fashion Marketing

Mary Margaret Cozart (3) University of Georgia: Music Business

Joseph Manzo (8) Belmont University: Music Tech

Annalise Sutter (11) Eckerd College: Interdisciplinary Arts

Sophia DeLurgio (4) Georgia Institute of Technology: Industrial Design

Annie Martin (9) Georgia College: Bachelor of Arts in Theater

Sarah Tyner (12) Lousiana State University: Architecture

Grace Whitcomb (14) New York University: Art History

Mary Hays (5) Auburn University: Architecture

Ivanna Rodriguez (10) University of Georgia: Landscape Architecture

Gabby Valsaint (13) UCLA: Theater Arts

Kierra Williams (15) Indiana University: Contemporary Dance

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Christmas Concert Featuring December 5-6 Band and Guitar Christmas Concert Featuring December 13 Chorus

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Mothers’ Club Partners with Dresden Elementary By: Wynne Callaway

’“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the greatest and first commandment.

And a second is like it: ’You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Matthew 22:37-40 The Mothers’ Club and other parent organizations place a priority on the relationship with our neighbors at Dresden Elementary School. The St. Pius X community is blessed with so many resources and volunteers. At the core of our Christian values is to treat our neighbors as ourselves and St. Pius X takes this to heart. The Mothers’ Club Dresden Partnership Committee has been active for many years to support the teachers, students and families who are our closest neighbors.

Each semester, Mothers’ Club treats Dresden’s dedicated teachers to a “Coffee” Breakfast and a full luncheon cooked and served by our members. We try to show them the type of appreciation that they deserve. These four events are eagerly anticipated and much-loved by the faculty and staff. We help offset the expense of school supplies that these teachers personally buy for their students by sponsoring a schoolwide school supply drive every March. Our generous community filled over 10 totes of supplies this year! The Mothers’ Club also financially supports a special program for students each

Reminder! The Mothers’ Prayer Group meets monthly at 8:30 a.m. in the Chapel to provide prayer support for the intentions of our students.

All are welcome to attend!

Upcoming meetings will be held: Aug. 22, Sept. 19, Oct. 17, Nov. 14, and Dec. 12.

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year including Art Day and Honor Roll & Star Student incentives. Our members and students join other schools and organizations in the community for the annual Service Day in September to complete maintenance projects and improvements in the school and on the grounds.

One of our most generous and special events is the annual Dresden Christmas Project which is led by Mothers’ Club but involves the entire school family. We help to make a very special Christmas season for around 100 children of Dresden Elementary families by providing the children with uniforms, clothes, pajamas, coats and warm accessories, school supplies, toys, games and books, as well as gift cards for shoes and groceries for the family. Each child also receives a blanket made by St. Pius X students and personalized stockings filled with goodies. The culmination of the month-long project is the Family Pick-Up day in early December where the sentiment “for it is in giving that we receive” is felt by all in this joyous and meaningful experience. Some of our Spanish students join with volunteers and parent drivers to greet the families as they arrive for their gifts. The overwhelming awe, gratitude and appreciation these humble and sincere parents and joyful children express is priceless and melts the heart with true Christmas Spirit.

The Athletic Association supports the annual Dresden Elementary Field Day in May by inviting the entire school to hold their events in Maloof Stadium. The arts program treats Dresden students to an exclusive showing of the annual Spring Dance Concert by arranging a field trip to the Young Center for this special event. The excited children have a chance to talk to the dancers and love to get their autographs!

These are some of the multiple ways St. Pius X maintains a strong relationship with our neighbors and hope to continue building a strong sense of community.

Save the Date! Holiday Marketplace: November 17, 2018, 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

The Mothers’ Club, meeting in friendship, sharing in faith and working in service, has planned another exciting and productive year at St. Pius X. We are proud to have once again raised $50,000 towards scholarships and student assistance last year! Of this total, $40,000 funded the Mothers’ Club Scholarship, which is awarded to students who willingly serve our school and society with initiative and enthusiasm. Additional funds were directed towards student assistance, supporting immediate needs of students, and towards Mothers’ Club Endowment Funds, allowing us to continue building a solid foundation for the future. We broke another record with 384 members last year and supported over 20 committees and projects.

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One of the largest fundraisers held by the Mothers’ Club each year is the Holiday Marketplace. Last year, the event netted over $37,000 for the scholarship fund. We invite you to join us at this year’s 25th annual Holiday Marketplace on November 17 featuring over 170 artisans and our delicious Holiday Café!

Home & School Association

Home & School Association Strives to Connect Students with Speakers By: Christine Houk and Susan Piña

St. Pius X

One of the great privileges the Home and School Association has is the opportunity to bring speakers to campus whose life experiences will have an impact on students. This year, the Home and School Association hosted influential speakers for a fall and spring assembly.

In September, Investigator LaShonda Williams from the Chamblee Police Department came to campus. Investigator Williams discussed risky behaviors and safe strategies with the students. She reviewed several laws pertinent to teens as well as opportunities for students to be vigilant of dangerous situations.

In March, Chris Sandy (pictured below) and Eric Krug made a poignant presentation to students based on their lives after tragedies from drunk driving. Chris was the offender and Eric was a victim of a different accident while riding in a car with a drunk driver. These two engaging speakers shared the regret and unbearable guilt they live with based on bad choices they made as young adults. Chris spoke in soul-searching detail about his past and his journey of Enduring Regret (also the title of his book). His mantra of “choices matter” was stressed to students to help them understand that decisions made everyday can have a life changing impact and you can overcome adversity. Words cannot describe the power of their

!

Are you interested in watching Chris Sandy’s presentation?

Simply search his name on YouTube to find speeches he’s made in recent years.

message. The gym of over 1,000 students was completely quiet with all eyes and ears on Chris and Eric. If you would like to see a video of Chris and Eric’s motivational speech similar to what our students heard, search Chris Sandy on YouTube.

The Home and School Association looks forward to continuing the tradition of working with administration and the Counseling Office to provide interesting and thought provoking speakers. Parents are welcome to attend these assemblies and speakers will be announced in advance via the eSpiritus weekly email.

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World Language Students Attain High Marks on National Exams Each year our foreign language teachers work to prepare many students for the National Language Exams. In true Golden Lion fashion, our students performed exceptionally well in French, Latin, and Spanish.

Le Grand Concours (the National French Contest) is sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF), and students are evaluated for their written, reading, and listening comprehension skills.

More than 74,000 students in all 50 states participated in this year’s event. Of the 126 students from St. Pius X who participated in Le Grand Concours, 33 ranked nationally.

Our students competed and earned medals at all levels of the contest. According to AATF President Catherine Danièlou “French students who rank nationally in Le Grand Concours demonstrate a superior level of global responsibility, integrative cultural competence, language skills, and commitment to excellence and dedication.”

While most schools select only their best French students to participate, the World Language Department at St. Pius X chooses to enroll all French students in the competition, and earns higher than average marks in all five levels.

The National Latin Exam (NLE) has been offered annually since 1978. While it started with only 9,000 participants, it is now administered to over 100,000 students across the world in countries such as the

United States, Mexico, China, New Zealand, and Zimbabwe. It is a 40 question, multiple choice test that covers a variety of topics such as vocabulary, grammar, reading comprehension, and cultural knowledge such as mythology, history, daily life, and geography. The NLE separates by level from Introductory Latin all the way up to Latin VI. Participants can win honors and certificates for a high level of performance, and high school seniors who win a gold medal are also eligible to apply for a scholarship.

This year, 67 St. Pius X students earned recognition for their performance on the National Latin Exam, including four gold medalists and 15 silver medalists. When asked what made him successful on the test, junior and gold medalist Jared Druss said, in addition to what he learned in class, “I just use the usual testing tactics of circling and going back to difficult questions as well as educated guessing.”

The National Spanish Exam, sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese is administered every year in grades 6 through 12. This year, 86 students from St. Pius X participated in the exam and earned a total of six gold, 16 silver, and 16 bronze medals, along with 32 honorable mentions. “Attaining a medal or honorable mention for any student on the National Spanish Examinations is very

prestigious,” said Kevin Cessna-Buscemi, National Director of the Exams, “because the exams are the largest of their kind in the United States with over 150,000 students participating in 2018.” Students from St. Pius X Catholic High School have a long history of high achievement on these exams.

According to Jack Koenig, a sophomore who obtained a gold medal and first place in the nation in level II, he credits his success to “a fun and interactive class and a commitment to becoming bilingual and integrating myself into the Latino community.” Jack believes that learning Spanish has contributed to a better understanding of his own language and at the same time has helped him develop creative thinking skills. “I watch Spanish movies and shows. I have my phone setup in Spanish. I try to practice outside of class as much as I can.”

Congratulations to all St. Pius X students for earning such high marks and representing the school on a national level in these exams.

Junior Selected for Study Abroad Scholarship Junior Ansley Boykin was selected for the 2018 Junior Study Abroad Scholarship for her achievement on the National Spanish Examination and for her excellent skills in the Spanish language. This national award, valued at over $3,500, is given annually to 24 students across the United States who become eligible by earning high scores on the exam, then submitting samples of their written and oral work to a selection committee.

In July, Ansley traveled to Spain with 23 other winners to study the Spanish language and culture at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. “This two-week immersion program is designed to allow our top students to study university-level material during morning classes and then go on an excursion to see firsthand what they’ve learned in class,” said Kevin Cessna-Buscemi, Director of the National Spanish Examinations.

St. Pius X Catholic High School, which has a long history of excellence in academics, has participated in the National Spanish Examination for the last 12 years. Congratulations to Ansley Boyken and her Spanish teacher, Mrs. Emabeth Espinosa, who is very proud of Ansley’s accomplishments.

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ESPX receives honors from high school sports broadcasting network By: Megan Mittelhammer ’18, Golden Lines Co-Editor The St. Pius X webcast team works hard from fall to spring every year to broadcast over 100 sporting events in 180 days to loyal Golden Lion fans. Their afternoons and evenings are filled with long hours, intense focus and the occasional technical difficulty.

This year, the ESPX crew’s hard work has paid off, coming away with three awards from the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) Network: best marketing program, the title of an NFHS Elite school and a top-three finalist for best highlight reel.

The marketing award was the most meaningful to commentators Luke Winstel and Sebastian Giraldo. Both juniors started with ESPX as freshmen, and Winstel’s first job was to handle the social media.

“My job was to tweet during the football games to stay busy,” Winstel said. “We started out with 232 followers when I came in, and now we’re nearly at 900. That’s also part of why this award means so much, to be able to say we took it from a place where the account hadn’t been used in a year and the password was lost, to where we are today, is just really special.”

Giraldo took over as the social media coordinator this year, and has since added Instagram and Facebook pages for ESPX. “Facebook is our most popular social media

Produced and hosted by students, ESPX streams through NFHS High School Sports Network and is made possible through the Athletic Association.

To access broadcasts, visit spx.org/athletics and click Webcast-ESPX. Creating an account is free.

Follow us on: Instagram: @spxwebcast Twitter: @spxwebcast Facebook: ESPX Webcast

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site, just because we have about 1,300 friends.

This past March, our boys’ basketball coverage on Twitter received the most recognition from fans. We were ranging around 100,000 retweets, which is the best I’ve ever seen,” Giraldo said.

“Everyone is looking at coverage every four minutes,” he continued. “It’s a lot for our guys to put a team together to cover it all. We had a lot of people contribute. We report after every quarter, as well as a pre-game, halftime and post-game show. A total of six people are involved in our social media team.”

The NFHS Elite award is given to the top 50 best high school sports broadcasting programs in the country. This is the fourth year in a row ESPX has received this honor.

“The award is given to schools that have good commentators, stream in high quality and use a multiple camera setup, have social media coverage and promote their school well,” Winstel said.

To prepare for the games, the commentators complete a Google doc with all the basic stats for the St. Pius X team and visiting side. This includes team record, points scored as a team and individually and points scored against them. The camera crew tests each camera and gets ready to stream the game online through the NFHS Network.

“We end up putting in about six hours for a broadcast, from setting up to closing down.

Then you have to get home and eat dinner and do homework starting around ten, and then you’re up and back here by eight the next day to start all over again. But we wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t worth it,” Winstel said.

ESPX was also a top-three finalist in the country for best highlight reel. The clip the crew submitted was from a football game against Troup County where a St. Pius X player intercepted the ball and ran down the field to score a touchdown.

“The award is for best commentating on a single highlight play. I have to give credit to our crew too, because they covered the play well. That’s something that’s really hard to do and it’s underrated in football, and when it’s a big play you have to get the camera going fast, and they did a good job,” Winstel said.

These awards are yet another step in the right direction for next year’s crew. They recently purchased an instant replay system to be used for all home sporting events, and crew members will be trained this summer.

The webcast crew has begun to stream other events as well, such as the athletic signing day in late April and the annual Teacher Jam concert in May. “Our goal is to be the best in the country,” Winstel stated. “To be the best we have to branch out a little bit, because that’s something that other schools are doing who are top-ranked, and we have to match them.

And of course, if we match then we have to do it better, basically in typical St. Pius X style.

We have had streams from every continent except Antarctica,” Winstel said. “There’s a lot of people out there, mostly extended family members of players.”

“This program has become so important to the school,” head athletic trainer Mr. Gary “Schmitty” Schmitt said. “The kids run the whole thing. We just kind of get in their way.

These awards are big time stuff.”

The crew encourages alumni to watch the webcast if they live too far from George B. Maloof Stadium or the Mark Kelly Gym. “It’s always available,” Winstel added, “because the day after the state championship for every sport, all of our games are on demand and you can view the full season.”

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Athletics News

Golden Lions stats, scores, and news

St. Pius X Welcomes Athletic Director Todd Mooney With over 25 years as both a coach and administrator at both the college and high school level, Todd Mooney has been named the fourth Director of Athletics in the 60-year history of St. Pius X. After a thorough fourmonth search, Mooney replaces longtime Golden Lion Athletic Director Mark Kelly.

“It is my sincere honor to be joining the St. Pius X family and extremely humbling to be chosen to continue building upon the tremendous leadership, hard work, commitment and dedication provided for

by Mr. Mark Kelly for so many years. I’m excited and blessed beyond words to begin serving with such an amazing group of administrators, and faculty and staff,” said Mooney, “As a college coach, I was fortunate to learn that St. Pius X student-athletes are special and rightly targeted by college recruiters because they are committed students, talented athletes, and grounded in faith and discipline. I can’t wait to begin working alongside this coaching staff and group of student-athletes.”

According to Mooney, “I will be asking our student-athletes and coaching staff to prioritize preparation, leadership training, academic effort, acceptance of critique and self-reflection, technical/skill development, performance in and for Him, all year-round.

Previously, Mooney served as Director of We will work towards sport performance Athletics at King’s Ridge Christian School training that includes a commitment to rest in Alpharetta since 2014. In his time with and nutrition, multi-sport participation, the Tigers, Mooney led the entire athletic excellent sportsmanship, spiritual and program for the K-12 school. In just over worship growth, servant leadership, and unity four years, Mooney added lacrosse, while of purpose. These priorities will allow us to resurrecting both the girls’ basketball and create a culture that is completely committed softball programs. The baseball team captured to unity among players, teams, and our two GHSA state titles during his time leading parents toward the goal of GADA Region’s the department. In total, 11 sports qualified Director’s Cup. We want to compete at the for their respective state tournaments over his highest levels, in all sports, for the glory of tenure.

God.” he expresses his desire to serve our studentathletes’ needs and provide for them a Christcentered environment in which to succeed,” said St. Pius X President Chad Barwick.

Mooney added, “I would be remiss not to mention how grateful I am to the King’s Ridge Christian School community. The dedicated coaches, faculty, and studentathletes as well as the many parents that gave so much time and support over the past four years have been a true blessing.”

Mooney is taking over an athletic program that has won five Georgia Regions Director’s Cups in the past ten years. The Golden Lions also boast 59 state championships and 66 state runners-up in its history, as well as six Georgia EMC Cooperative Spirit Sportsmanship Awards in the past eight seasons. He assumed his new duties May 1.

Mooney established a Student-Athlete Advisory Council to represent all high school sports to mirror student-athlete involvement at the collegiate level. He also helped reestablish the King’s Ridge Christian Athletic Brand including updated logos and expanded color scheme, while overseeing the building of a separate athletic website for the school.

“We are blessed and lucky to have Todd come on board and share his wide range of athletic management experience. Most importantly,

Barwick said, “He had a great plan at the start that showed great affection for and knowledge of St. Pius X and has already

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started translating that into good meetings with our Pius partners. His Christian leadership and ability to see the big picture make him a great fit for our Golden Lions family. I know our community will enjoy his perspective and his willingness to push Pius athletics into the next five, ten, twenty years.”

Prior to his stint at King’s Ridge, Mooney spent over 20 years in intercollegiate athletics as a coach or administrator. Building the LaGrange College football program from scratch, Mooney guided the Panthers from infancy to an NCAA DIII playoff appearance in the programs third season. In addition to his duties as head football coach, Mooney served as an Assistant Athletic Director.

During his early career, Mooney served as an assistant football coach at Rhodes College, Oberlin College and Urbana University.

Originally from Westerville, Ohio, he earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Ohio University. Mooney and his wife, Kelly, are parents of a daughter, Jessica (who will attend St. Pius X as a sophomore this year) and son, Todd, Jr (currently in the eighth grade at IHM).

Cody Nelson ’21 Creates Lacrosse App By: Golden Lines Staff Writer Ellie Taube ’20

As technology advances, we are constantly looking for ways to take advantage of the opportunities it can provide. One example is virtual reality, an artificial environment which is experienced through sensory stimuli provided by a computer and in which one’s actions partially determine what happens in the environment.

Although virtual reality is a concept that has existed for many years, only recently has it become accessible to the general population.

Schools across the country are finding ways to incorporate it into their lesson plans, including St. Pius X. Many teachers have used Google Expeditions, a virtual reality teaching tool that allows students to immerse themselves in virtual “field trips” all over the world.

Cody Nelson ’21 has also found use for virtual reality in the world of sports. A member of the lacrosse team, Nelson has always been interested in technology. Earlier this year, Nelson and his father created a virtual reality app called Virtual Goalie that allows lacrosse players to analyze their movements and helps them figure out what they need to change to become a better player.

“The app is a virtual reality simulation of a lacrosse field, where a goalie can practice taking shots. They can also view their data to help them figure out what to work on,” Nelson said.

His inspiration to create the app came from his experiences on the lacrosse field.

“I created the app to help myself train. I had just recently switched to goalie and I wondered how I could use my virtual reality headset to help me train,” he said.

The virtual reality headsets that Nelson uses are HTC Vive and Oculus Rifts, devices that users connect to their computers which allow them to create simulations, such as a lacrosse field.

Although these types of, devices are easy to find, the cost is prohibitive for many potential users. According to the Oculus website, for example, prices for their virtual reality headsets start $199.

Despite potential drawbacks to his training system, Nelson sees a future in the relationship between virtual reality and the analytical side of training for athletes.

“I hope that virtual reality training becomes more popular and that not using VR training becomes a competitive disadvantage,” he said.

Nelson and his dad will have a booth at US Lacrosse LAXCON, the sport’s largest educational event, in January of 2019 to promote their app to other players, and is seeking seed funding to hire more employees.

In the meantime, Nelson will continue developing the app and goalies will continue using his virtual reality breakthrough to improve their performance on the field.

“I started playing lacrosse when I was 4 or 5, but I switched to goalie during the fall of 2017,” Nelson said.

While making this transition, Nelson found that he was struggling with certain techniques crucial to his new position.

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Who Knew

Spotlight on the Pius community

Faculty Member Liz Gulick Ross `85 Opens Center for Contemporary Arts When it comes to choosing a space at the Windmill, it’s simply a matter of black or white...

Liz and Sam Ross have dreamed the impossible dream - right up to naming their newly opened Art Center the Windmill, an homage to Don Quixote.

Liz Gulick Ross `85 began acting at age five and was one of the original Pius Players under Ms. Bonnie Spark. After graduating from The College of Charleston, she returned to St. Pius X to teach English and was the Drama Department Assistant for four years.

Meanwhile, Sam Ross co-founded Down Right Theatre in suburban Duluth. This theatre eventually became the highly successful Aurora Theatre. Ultimately, the kind of work they were doing at Down Right wasn’t the kind of work Sam wanted to be doing.

Looking for something more challenging than just producing conventional plays, Sam left Atlanta to attend the graduate program in acting at Trinity Rep in Providence, Rhode Island,

However, using someone else’s space restricted their creativity. “We were always at the mercy of someone else’s schedule or rules or even aesthetic” added Liz. While Matthew (Artistic Director) and Elisa (Producing Director) stayed in LA, Sam (Executive Director) and Liz (Education Director) moved back to Atlanta with the intention of finding and creating their

“

In 2000, Sam and Liz married and move to Los Angeles. Liz taught at an all-girls Catholic high school and Sam was a working actor. It was during this time that Sam auditioned for a play where he met Matthew Burgos. Sam and Matthew started working together and in 2008, they, along with Liz and Elisa Blandford, co-founded Vanguard Rep, a theatre company in LA. They were committed to producing original works.

“I’ve always been more interested in creating and developing new work that’s less commercial and more experimental than the usual realistic or naturalistic approach to theater,” said Sam.

Perform.

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“The building is the mill and the artists are the wind. We’re just trying to provide the facilities to produce art.”

own space. Liz worked as an assistant to the stylist at Neiman Marcus for a year before returning to St. Pius X where she replaced one of her favorite English teachers, Ms. Klister. Sam, who was and continues to be fiscally savvy, worked a non-acting job as a CFO. In 2017 the founding members added a fifth to the team: Kirin McCrory, Vanguard’s Literary Director.

After much research, they bought a building in East Point. “We just got a good feeling about East Point.

The city is committed to arts development and there was nothing like our theatre company in the area.

It’s the next area of growth in Atlanta and Vanguard wants to grow along with the rest of the community,” said Burgos. It’s also conveniently located near the airport and two blocks from the Marta Station. After almost two years of renovation, the space has been transformed into a stunning 2,500 sq. foot 80 seat black box theatre and a 1,000 sq. foot white box space.

Stream.

Record.

Learn.

This past December they staged four “workshop” play readings to solicit feedback from audiences before deciding on one to mark Vanguard’s Atlanta debut production. That play is entitled On the Third Day and will run from August 3-19. Both boxes have captured the attention of the artist community and have been consistently booked by various artists seeking a place to perform. Recently they teamed up with two top contemporary dance companies to permanently use their space. They include Fly on a Wall and Immerse ATL.

could take up to a year”, says Liz. Always the teacher, she also plans to offer student internships for those who love theatre and want to continue to learn.

They also want to find and cultivate other likeminded performing arts companies to call the Windmill home. Liz has a strong interest in developing new, fresh work about women and minorities. “It’s a true collaborative effort between the playwright, actors, and directors. The discipline of acting should be the same as an athlete or musician, they need to be continuously training and practicing, not just performing. Sometimes the rehearsal process

For more information visit www.thewindmillatl.com The Black Box – Theatre, dance, film, events The White Box – Classes, readings, fitness, events

And so the journey begins — or the quest continues, depending on how you look at it. Burgos noted, “We still want to make a point of doing relevant work, to keep improving ourselves and learning more about our craft, starting conversations and asking hard questions, and hopefully engaging people in the process about the importance and value of theater.”

“Magic happens when communities support the theatre.”

Celebrate.

Teach.

Direct.

Produce.

Host.

Inspire.

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Pius Pathways

Spotlight on St. Pius X entrepreneurs The following alumni are a true testament to the mission of St. Pius X, to provide a college preparatory education for the formation of the mind, body and spirit in accordance with the teachings of the Catholic Church. These alumni have given back to those in need and shared their talents and faith in the Atlanta community and beyond!

Susan Stachler Robbins `99 Her Story: I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma (cancer) one week before my college graduation. I came home to months of grueling chemo and radiation that left me feeling very sick and weak. My mom offered me my first “job” working for her small dessert and catering business. And, I’ve stuck around ever since! My mom created a recipe for gourmet gingersnaps while my Dad (Ken) and I were going through chemo. Ginger is a stomach soother and cookies bring smiles. What started as a little idea grew into something much bigger than my mom and I ever expected. While she perfected her recipe, I began working on logos and packaging. Fun side note: the logo for Susansnaps is a drawing I came up with during one of my painting classes at St. Pius X. My mom named her gingersnaps “Susansnaps” and the two of us worked on turning this one cookie into a company. Today, my mom and I are running Susansnaps where we’re baking up to 10,000 gingersnaps a day. In owning your own business, you find yourself doing all sorts of jobs and taking on different responsibilities. My main focus with Susansnaps is PR and marketing of our product, story, and now book: The Cookie Cure.

What’s been keeping you busy?

Along with my mom, Laura, I co-own Susansnaps – a specialty gingersnap cookie company. We bake the most delicious gourmet gingersnaps in a variety of flavors and they come in beautiful and fun gift packaging. Susansnaps are baked fresh daily in Sandy Springs and are shipped nationwide. We’ve been featured on ABC World News Tonight with David Muir, TODAY, CNN, O Magazine and most recently seen in Good Housekeeping and on The Rachael Ray Show. Along with Susansnaps, I recently wrote The Cookie Cure: motherdaughter memoir of cancer to cookies that was published by Sourcebooks.

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Education: Auburn University, Class of 2004 Favorite memory of St. Pius X: I loved my time at St. Pius X and I think it’s wonderful that the school has a strong emphasis on the arts. Some of my favorite times were in the art room taking painting, drawing, and pottery classes.

I also had a great time being a “Pius Player” and had lots of fun times participating in the spring musicals.

I think South Pacific was my favorite!

Advice for St. Pius X Young Alumni: As I share in my book, The Cookie Cure, I was a planner and thought I had things all figured out and then my life took an unexpected turn when I was diagnosed with cancer at 22. I learned that just because something doesn’t go exactly as you expect doesn’t mean that it is not something you should follow. I realized that life might not be perfect, but you can choose to carry on with a smile. You are stronger than you think.

Find us here: www.susansnaps.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SusansnapsCookieCo Instagram: @SusansnapsCookieCo

Thomas Brunner ’17 Education: SPX class of 2017, graduated from recruit school in November 2017 as a certified firefighter, completed EMT School in January 2018, and completed his first semester working towards an Electrical Engineering degree in May 2018.

Family information: Dad: Tom Brunner Mom: Mary Najjar Brunner ’80, Sisters: Colette ’14 and Christa ’20, Brother: Joseph ’19 Tell us about your college program: The program I am in is called the Student Firefighter program.

I work for the City of Auburn Fire Department as a full-time firefighter. After being hired, I attended 14 weeks of training to become certified as a firefighter and EMT. Now I work a 24 hour shift every third day and I am given time off to go to class as well. Student Firefighters must maintain at least a 2.0 GPA to remain in the program and can be reimbursed for tuition if they are a full-time student and maintain at least a 2.5 GPA. What led you to pursuing this?

I often think that someone was looking out for me from above when I think of how I found out about this program.

My friend Anthony Thomas was searching for ways to pay for college and found this program. He mentioned it to our friend Katherine Klinger who was a freshman in college and Pius alumni at the time. She happened to be on campus visiting friends one Saturday of my senior year. When she asked of my college plans I said I wanted to go to Auburn and she mentioned the program to me. Being such a random encounter, there are many factors that could have led to me never knowing about the student firefighter program and I consider myself very blessed to have ended up where I am today.

What steps did you take to make this happen?

Knowing the position was very competitive, I spent several months preparing for my interview and training for my physical test. A few days after my interview I got one of the best phone calls of my life when I found out I was hired. I soon began my 14 weeks of recruit school which consists of intense physical training every morning at 5:30 and classes on firefighting throughout the day. Getting through recruit school was probably one of the hardest things I have done in my life as it is both physically and mentally demanding. It was full of surprises such as spontaneous “fire drills” in which an instructor would yell “fire” and we would have to be fully dressed in our gear as fast as possible. We trained on a variety of topics such as connecting to hydrants, deploying hoses, search and rescue, firefighter rescue, confined space rescues, air supply management, Hazmat awareness and operations, ladder usage and deployment, ventilation strategies, vehicle extrication, and of course, fire attack. Recruit school training all comes together in the last week known as burn week when we get to participate in live fire training. It is both challenging and fun being able to finally fight real fire for the first time. After graduating fire school, I began a highly accelerated six week EMT course which required a lot of study time. I also went on shift at that time and began working 24 hours every third day. Life on shift is very enjoyable as it always presents new challenges. Since starting I have gone to several fires, car accidents, and numerous medical calls. This spring semester I was also able to start my first semester at Auburn University. Working for the fire department has improved many of my skills such as time management, leadership, communication, and teamwork. It has been a very enjoyable and rewarding experience.

Are there any stories you can share?

After responding to a fire alarm one day, one of the companies was preparing to head back to the station. Their driver, a younger looking student firefighter, hopped in the fire truck and started it up. A woman on scene said to our chief, “Sir, do you know that there’s a child about to drive your fire truck!?” Our Chief just smiled and said, “Yes ma’am I do”. I enjoy this story because, while very humorous, it also goes to show how Auburn fire trusts young adults to handle much larger responsibilities than most people may think they are capable of and they trust our abilities and the training they have given us to handle these responsibilities.

Any advice to give to St. Pius X young alumni?

Haha, I’m not sure I am qualified to be answering this as I am one of the youngest alumni there are. The most important thing I can say is to not give up on your goals. There is always a way to achieve what you’re working towards and while it often may require more work than expected, it can be done.

Favorite memory of St. Pius X: Definitely getting to play a solo in the guitar concert my junior year.

More about Auburn’s Student Firefighter Program: https://www.auburnalabama.org/public-safety/student-programs/

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Trivia Night Raises $13,000 for the Alumni Association Scholarship Fund Over 520 alumni, faculty, parents and friends of St. Pius X gathered for a night of fun, food and cheer! The sold-out 10th Annual event raised $13,000 for the St. Pius X Alumni Association Scholarship Fund. Michael Trujillo `01, a.k.a Willy Wonka, graced us for the ninth year as M.C. extraordinaire.

Thanks to Trujillo, the hard working volunteers and fun-loving St. Pius X community, the alumni fundraiser has come a long way since its inception in 2008. In 2017, due to the large fan base, Trivia Night moved from the cafeteria to the gym. This year’s event was sold-out two weeks prior to game night.

Mark your calendars for Trivia Night 2019 to be held January 19, 2019. Registration opens in October.

Second Annual George B. Maloof Lion Nation Classic Golf and Tennis Mixer Raises $35,000 Thank you to all who came out to play or support the second annual George B. Maloof Lion Nation Golf Classic and Tennis Mixer. The events took place on June 8 and 12, respectively, and successfully raised over $35,000 for the St. Pius X Football program and Alumni Association Scholarship Fund. In true Golden Lions fashion, parents, alumni, parents of alumni and friends of St. Pius X came together to celebrate the 60th Anniversary with a healthy spirit of competition and pride for our school. Save the date for the third annual George B. Maloof Lion Nation Classic to be held April 30, 2019, at Rivermont Golf Club. The Tennis Mixer will be held in June (date TBD) at Twin Lakes Swim and Tennis.

The winning foursome was Brian Finneran, Bo Zimmerman `04, John Zimmerman, and Ben Power. They are pictured left to right with with Coach Paul Standard `80 THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: Personal Touch Lawn Care, Inc. Bench Warmers Sports Grill Dr. Shawn Standard ’87 CINC Lakeshore Engineering Georgia Eye Associates, Frank L. Winski, O.D.

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Carrying on the Tradition of Excellence Congratulations to these Golden Lion parents and best of luck to their new young alums!

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Kate Beckwith and Teresa Hotard Beckwith ’71

Grace Berg and Kathy Conboy Berg ’81

Chris Bruce ’99, Taylor Bruce, Mackenzie Bruce, and Tanya Efimetz ’99

Mary Margaret Cozart and Todd Cozart ’89

Brandy Chadwick Graham ’90, Lucy Graham, and Judy Jenkins Chadwick ’63

Maggie Green and Stoney Green ’83

Matthew Jameson and Rob Jameson ’82

Bob Kelly ’82 and Wallace Kelly

James Martin ’82, Mary Grace Martin, and Mary Pat Warner Martin ’86

Frank Martin ’13, Annie Martin, and Bennett Ann Flattmann Arbour ’60

Sarah McGonegal and Matt McGonegal ’84

Katherine McGraw and Charles McGraw ’86

Lisa Groover McKenzie `77, Walker `12, Kathryn `18, Elizabeth `08, Daniel `18 and Kelly McKenzie `77

Dan Mohr and Michael Mohr ’79

Kyle Murphy and Elena Mowiser Murphy ’84

Sonia Aguirre Northway ’88, Lucas Northway, and Greg Northway ’88

Steve O’Reilly ’80, Michael O’Reilly, and Shannon O’Reilly ’14

Trish Reily Regan ’81 and Dorian Regan

Kathleen Rivers and Michelle Young Rivers ’84

Sydney Rodgers and Angelique Long Rodgers ’81

Alexis Scoggins and Teresa Felder Scoggins ’82

Hannah Sik and Sue Beyer Sik ’81

Max Spearman and Sparky Parks Spearman ’85

Annalise Sutter and Mary Anne Waddell Sutter `82

Emory Wegener and Carrie Boggs Wegener ’80

John Weir and Andrea Ruffin Weir ’79

Not pictured: Olivia Rodriguez and Ileana Casanova `86, Josh Sullivan and David Sullivan `80, Wesley Diamantis and Carol Wilcox Diamantis `77

Roni Winkeljohn, Patti Principe Winkeljohn ’83, and Tori Winkeljohn

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Lion Lines

Golden Lions Weddings & Births

Spellman

Austin

Shortal

Wildman

Weir

Stilson

Collins Spellman, granddaughter of Maureen Spellman `70 and Steve Spellman, St. Pius X Principal, was born January 27, 2018. Collins was born weighing 6 pounds, 9 ounces and was 18 inches in length.

16, 2017 in Philadelphia. He weighed 6 pounds, 15 ounces and was 21 inches long.

Alicia and Kevin are adjusting well to their new roles as parents. Grandparents Denise and David Hatter are over the moon in love with him!

Katie Bush Stilson `00, and husband Rob Stilson along with their daughters, Claire (6) and Evelyn (2 ½) welcomed Julia Leigh Stilson into the world on April 14, 2018.

Julia weighed in at 7 pounds, 14 ounces.

Rick Austin `01 married Heidi Stier October 14, 2017 at The Summeral Chapel of The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. Members of the wedding party included Best Men and Groomsmen Thomas England `01, Jim McGinn `01, and Kurt Hennick ’01. The newlyweds honeymooned in South Africa and reside in Columbia, South Carolina.

Alicia Hatter Weir ’00 and her husband Kevin Weir welcomed their first child, Benjamin David Weir, on December

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Claire Farnsworth Wildman `01 and her husband Craig Wildman welcomed Peter Alan Wildman March 21, 2018. He weighed 9 pounds, 6 ounces at birth and was 22 inches tall.

Andy Shortal ’02 married Jodi Finkelman on October 7, 2017 at St. Jude the Apostle Catholic Church in Atlanta surrounded by family and friends. Co-Best Men were the groom’s brothers, Brian Shortal ’88 and Matt Shortal ’90. The Nuptial Mass was followed by a reception at Villa Christina in Brookhaven. The couple enjoyed a honeymoon in Japan and visited the sites in Okinawa, Osaka, Kyoto and Toyko. They

Parr

Abbott

reside in Gilbert, Arizona and are both working for APL Logistics where Andy is a Trade Compliance Specialist and Jodi is a Senior Logistic Analyst.

Michael Abbott ’05, World Languages faculty, and his wife, Anna Duran Abbott ‘08, welcomed son Stephen Gregory on January 24, 2018. Stephen was born weighing 7 pounds, 14 ounces and joins brother Lucas (5) and sister Mila (3).

Katie Perez Parr `07 and Aaron Parr `06, St. Pius X Director of Admissions, welcomed Emory Rose on May 4, 2018, weighing in at 7 pounds, 2 ounces.

Dunn

Wildenburg

Bobby Dunn ’08 married Abbigale Sparks on July 15, 2017 in Savannah. Included in the wedding party were fellow Pius alumni and his brothers Kevin Dunn ’05, Erik Dunn ’11 and fellow classmate Erik Steinberg ’08.

Brittney Reeves `10 married Andrew “Mac” Cleveland `10 June 24, 2017 at the Cathedral of Christ the King. The reception was at the Piedmont Driving Club. The couple resides in Atlanta. Mac is a financial advisor at Merrill Lynch and Brittney is a Realtor with Harry Norman Realtors.

Wagner

Reeves Cleveland

Larissa Wildenburg ’12 married Landry Bennett on April 8, 2018 in Dahlonega.

The couple met while attending Georgia Tech. Larissa works as a Fuel Analyst and Landry is an Application Scientist.

Larissa coached the St. Pius X Varsity Dance Team for three years. They reside in Cabbagetown with their three cats.

Doug Wagner, St. Pius X Mathematics Teacher and Football Coach, is the proud grandfather of Luke William Wagner born April 25, 2018. Luke was born weighing 7 pounds, 8 ounces, and was 20 inches in length.

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Lion Lines

Golden Lions Alumni News

Sisters of Mercy Peggy Fannon `65, a registered nurse and education specialist has served 45 years at Emory Saint Joseph’s Hospital. Her order founded the hospital as Atlanta’s first infirmary following the Civil War in 1880.

Sharisse Azar Johnson `76 was the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation 2018 Spirit of Hope recipient. Along with family, friends and classmates, Sharisse and Anne Miller Seidel `75 formed Sharisse and Anne’s Cancer Crushers to raise money for research to fight Multiple Myeloma. Barbara Kennedy `76 led the charge in fundraising and sponsorships. The group participated in the 2018 MMRF 5K on May 12, 2018.

Nancy Devlin `76, Sharisse Azar Johnson `76, Lynn Azar Foley `74 and Barbara Kennedy `74 wear their Lion Pride in the St. Brigid’s bowling league.

Charles Gernazian `82 received his Masters in Sacred Theology Summa Cum Laude on May 10, 2018 at the Saint Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida. Charles practices Labor and Employment Law at Gernazian Legal Services, LLC in Atlanta.

Reverend Patrick Kingery `82 celebrated his 25th Jubilee of ordination to the priesthood June 2, 2018 at St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Lawrenceville, GA. Pictured from L-R: Charles Gernazian `82, Lisa Bird Frooman

Fannon

Christopher Eck ’84 has been selected by the Archivist of the United States to serve as the new Executive Director of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission in Washington, D.C. Chris will be leaving the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency where he was serving as the Terrestrial Archaeology Program Manager where he helped plan and organize teams conducting excavations and recoveries of the remains of missing American military personnel from sites around the world. Chris lives in Virginia with his wife, Tracy, and their two children, Griffin and Alexis.

MMRF Race

Gernazian

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`82, Father Patrick Kingery `82, Sr. Dawn Gear, Karoline Rumps Brennan `82 and Anne Reimer Craig `82.

Devlin, Johnson, Foley, Kennedy

Kingery

Alicia Barnes John ’91 and Amanda Trujillo McGill ’04 met by happenstance at a Junior Women’s Club of Lake Murray membership event. Alicia is the Distinguished Alumna from 2004 and was the commencement speaker at Amanda’s graduation. Both are Clemson University alumnae.

Andy Lichtenwalner `97 is the new Director of the Office of Formation and Discipleship (OFD) for the Archdiocese of Atlanta.His religion and philosophy undergraduate degree is from the University of Georgia (UGA). Andy received his MA in Theology from the University of Dallas and his Ph.D. from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Christina Stephens Evanina ’01 was named Assistant Principal at Baggett Elementary School in Gwinnett County. She has been working in the education field for 13 years and has taught special education in both Barrow and Gwinnett counties.

Augusto Michael Trujillo ’01 graduated with his MBA from the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. At the Honors Ceremony, Michael was awarded with the MBA Core Value Award for Diversity.

Michael earned his Masters degree while working full time at Catholic Relief Services.

at Emory, she joined the program as an assistant coach. Misha graduated from Emory with a degree in psychology in May of 2013. “I am extremely honored and blessed to have been named Emory University’s head women’s basketball coach. As an alumna of Emory University I am excited to lead the program that allowed me to grow. The support from the St. Pius X community has been phenomenal and I look forward to living up to the standards and values instilled in me through St. Pius X and Emory. I take great pride in being an Emory Eagle but it is [still] always great to be a Golden Lion!”

Misha Jackson `09 was named Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Emory University. After a three-year playing career

John, McGill

Eck

Trujillo

Lichtenwalner

Jackson

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Taylor Halbig ’12 (brother Matt ’18 and sister Sarah ’21) entered the religious community of the Daughters of the Virgin Mother in Charlotte, NC. On March 19, 2018, she received her habit and religious name, Sr. Mary Jacinta of the Holy Name of Mary.

Carolina. Brittany recently started a new career in Charlotte, NC as an Assistant Buyer.

Leah Hardeman ‘14 was named Sun Belt Conference Volleyball Player of the Year. This is her fourth consecutive player of the year nomination at Coastal Carolina.

his swimming career with school records in the 200 butterfly, 200 individual medley and three relays. He also ranked in the top 10 in school history in four additional individual events. Bentz earned 16 First-Team AllAmerica citations, setting the school record, and finished with 20 overall.

Joe Mohr ’15 and Callie Cardenas ’15 are currently working their second season as Athletic Recruiters for Auburn University.

They assist the coaching staff in recruiting high school players to attend Auburn for their college careers. They represent the school while potential students visit the university. The two are looking forward to enjoying their senior season back in the student section prior to graduation in December!

Tim Beck `17 graduated from Coast Guard Training Center Cape May Boot Camp May 4, 2018. He will be stationed on USCG Cutter Tahoma out of Portsmouth, NH. Pictured with him are his brother Josh Beck ’14 and his mother Lisa McBride Beck ’85.

It’s a small St. Pius X world! While traveling in Zimbabwe this summer, Brion Kennedy, Fine Arts Department Chair, and his wife Meggan Sweetnam Kennedy `09, ran into Mackenzie Bruce`18 and Taylor Bruce `18 on a tiny side street.

Gunnar Bentz `14 has been chosen as one of the 2018 recipients of an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, the Brad Davis SEC Community Service Postgraduate Scholarship. He has also been recognized as a Scholar All-American by the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association and has been named to the SEC and UGA academic honor rolls. He recently finished

Class of 2018 graduates Will David, Cole Einbender, Will Arnold, Wesley Diamantis, Adam Sitzman, Michael O’Reilly, Jackson Doyle, and Harris Callaway have played on the St. Pius X baseball program since their years on the middle school team. The group grew up with true Golden Lion spirit as all eight have siblings who are Pius alums and three have parents who graduated from St. Pius X.

Congratulations to Brittany Frederick `14, daughter of Gloria Bellospirito Frederick `81, for graduating Magna Cum Laude and a semester early from The University of South

Mohr

Baseball Graduates

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Beck

Halbig

Frederick

Bruce, Kennedy, Bruce

Brooks Bowling, December 28, 2017 Father of parent of alumni, Lynn Amoroso, and grandfather of Joseph Amoroso `14 and Brooks Amoroso `16

In Memoriam

We remember our loved ones

Susan Angelich Carlson `67, April 29, 2018 Wife of Lyle Carlson `67, sister of George Angelich `61, Tom Angelich `65, Paul Angelich `77 and Mary Angelich Rubright `79

Jim Honekamp, May 9, 2018 Father of Parent of Alumni, Kay Penter and grandfather of Payne Penter `11, Linde Penter `14 and Henry Penter

Raymond Brewer, January 19, 2018 Father of Meggan Brewer Wilcauskas (St. Pius X Media Specialist), Margo Brewer Wach `83, Mark Brewer `85 and grandfather of Ted Wach `19

Michael Houlihan, March 26, 2018 Father of Tom Houlihan `85 and Greg Houlihan `88

Kathleen Thomas Corcoran, January 1, 2018 Sister of Paula Fannon `82, aunt of Danielle Fannon `07 and Megan Fannon `09 Michael Bernard Dolan Jr., March 20, 2018 Father of Karyn Dolan `75, Michael Dolan `76, Kevin Dolan `77, Sherry Dolan Sawicki `82, grandfather of Colleen (Mulholland) Sanjurjo `00 and Casey Anne (Mulholland) Moore `02

Gary Kennedy, February 28, 2018 Brother of Mark Kennedy `68, Jackie Kennedy Morgan `69, Barbara Kennedy `74 and Kevin Kennedy `77 Patricia Lentini, April 19, 2018 Wife of Tony Lentini `83, mother of Brian Lentini `14, Frank Lentini `14 and sisterin-law of Sophia Lentini Clanton `85

Hiram Nichols, Jr., January 24, 2018 Father of Hiram Nichols III `82, Erina Nichols Lambert `83 and Fiona Nichols Dominguez `86 Greer Nicolson, February 8, 2018 Wife of Andy Nicolson `80 and sister-in-law of Swan Nicolson `84 John Parker `78, January 14, 2018

Stephen Leslie, May 10, 2018 Brother of Morgan Leslie `07

Michelle Pearson, 2011, Larry Pearson, 2016, and Armine Pearson, 2017 Wife, father and mother of Alan Pearson `83

James Donahoo, February 7, 2018 Father of Theresa Donahoo Hogan `79 and Jim Donahoo `80

Thomas “T.J.” Lozano, March 1, 2018 Brother of St. Pius X faculty member Jeff Lozano

Louise Therese Berry Reynolds, January 18, 2018 Mother of Nina Warren ’69 and Patrice Reynolds ’72

Valentine (Val) Dorsey `87 February 21, 2018 Brother of Valerie Dorsey Lister `79, Vicky Dorsey `81, Vivien Dorsey `82 and Verah Dorsey Turner `84

Dan Lynn `76, February 24, 2018

Peggy Shell `63, April 14, 2018 Sister of Bob Shell `69 and Marietta Shell Slemp `73

Jim Eichelberger, December 30, 2017 Father of Ted Eichelberger `77, Tom Eichelberger `78, Karl Eichelberger `89, Katherine Eichelberger Decker `90 and Steve Eichelberger `95 Malford (Mal) John Fagan `69, March 13, 2018 Father of Jack Fagan `06 and Helen Fagan `09 Jo-Ann Gertken-Guion, March 21, 2018 Mother of Jack Gertken `83 Lannie Harbin Hampson `60, April 15, 2018 Al Harkness `08, April 20, 2018 Millie Hart, January 17, 2018 Mother of Kathy Hart Hanofee `72 and Jim Hart `75 John Haughton `92, February 28, 2018 Mac Hollis `74, May 8, 2018 Cousin of Jane McLellan `71, Emily McLellan Cooper `73, Jim McLellan `77 and Fran McLellan Buis `83

Mike Maloof `63, March 3, 2018 Brother of Greg Maloof `65 (deceased), Christine Maloof Kempton `66, John Maloof `67 and uncle of Amanda Maloof Linn `89 Susan Mannen, April 12, 2018 Mother of Katie Mannen `12 and Michael Mannen `09 Jack Marsh `17, April 28, 2018 Kevin Mason `03, May 3, 2018 Brother of Becki Mason Miller `98 and Ryan Mason `01 Danny McCarthy `02, February 22, 2018 Son of Mary Ann Schladenhauffen McCarthy `69, brother of Maureen McCarthy McIntosh `97, Michael McCarthy `99, Maria Rodriguez Donaldson `00, Brennan McCarthy `03 and MaryKate McCarthy `09 Greg Mohr `77, March 2, 2018 Brother of Michael ’79, Lisa Mohr Bir `82 and uncle of Meredith Mohr ’14, Joe Mohr ’15, Dan Mohr ’18, Natalie Mohr ’21 and James Bir ’19

Jackie Sullivan, April 4, 2018 Mother of Muff Sullivan DeCelles `74 and Beth Sullivan Schladenhauffen `77 (Ben Schladenhauffen `77), and grandmother of Katie DeCelles Gifford `00 James Theriot ’98, June 17, 2016 Blair Tighe, February 17, 2018 Father of Blair `01, Shea `02 and Evan `04 Edward James Trainor, December 23, 2017 Stepfather of Brigid Foster Bartholomai `83 (SPX faculty), Amy Foster Williams `85 (SPX faculty), Dinah Foster Biggs `87 and Mark Foster `95 John Van House `63, February 19, 2018 Father of Father Joseph Matthew Van House `99 and Jennifer Van House Hutcheson `02 and brother of Marian Van House Adamson `61 Sandra Stockdale Weber `63, December 17, 2017

Eternal rest grant upon them, O Lord.

Let perpetual light shine upon them; for their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed. May they rest in peace.

Amen.

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NON-PROFIT U.S. POSTAGE PAID Permit No.104 Atlanta, GA

St. Pius X Catholic High School 2674 Johnson Road, NE Atlanta, Georgia 30345-1720 404/633-4290 www.spx.org

August

3 Freshman Orientation 6 First Day of School 23 Mini Class Night

3 5 24 27

3 4-5 12 13 14 19-21 23 25 26

4 17 18-23 27

1 5-6 12 13 24-1/4 27-29

September

Labor Day: No School Summer Works of Mercy Due Faculty Retreat Fall Blood Drive

October

Archdiocesan In-Service: Early Dismissal Archdiocesan In-Service: No School Homecoming Game vs. North Oconee Alumni Service Day Alumni Reunions Homecoming Dance Alumni Mass Pius Players Present: Antigone Athletic Association Golf Tournament Fall Chorus Concert Annual FUN(d) Party

November

Open House Holiday Marketplace Thanksgiving Holidays: No School #iGiveCatholic Day of Giving

December

Pius Players Present: Charlie Brown’s Special Christmas Christmas Concert Featuring Band and Guitar Works of Mercy Due Christmas Concert Featuring Chorus Christmas Holidays: No School Christmas Classic Basketball Tournament

Do you have news to share? We would love to hear from you!

If you have news to share with the St. Pius X community, please contact Deanna Jones-Puig, Communications Manager via email at djones@spx.org.