Life at St. John’s
The Cadets Go to Disney World This February, students from the St. John’s Music Department took a six-day trip to compete and perform at events in and around Disney’s Magic Kingdom in Orlando, FL. The Advanced Vocal Studies and Wind Ensemble groups each received a special invitation to participate in Disney Honors, a prestigious, noncompetitive music festival. Adjudicated by some of the best musicians in the country, this event includes performances, clinics and guest speakers. Student-musicians also receive constructive feedback and suggestions for improving their performance. To participate, vocal and instrumental groups must have earned the highest-possible rating of superior for their previous performances at Festival Disney. The Regimental Band and Competition Jazz Ensemble audi-
During each lunch period, students were randomly sorted into three groups: 55 percent low income, 30 percent middle income and 15 percent high income. The low-income group was given only rice for lunch and had to sit on the floor of Cassidy Commons, while the middle-income group received rice and beans and sat in chairs. The high-income group, who received the “golden ticket,” sat at tables for their feast and were waited on by members of the Mothers’ Club. Each student received a vignette from Oxfam International that told the story of a person living in their assigned income group, and many students got up to share their vignette during lunch. Shelley Brazier, who co-chaired the event with Tanie Guirand, also shared facts and figures about global poverty with students as they ate their lunch. “For the past five years, St. John’s College High School has sponsored a
The Regimental Band marches down Main Street in the Magic Kingdom.
tioned for and were invited to perform in and around Walt Disney World. The Regimental Band marched down the Magic Kingdom’s Main Street, and the Competition Jazz Ensemble performed at Downtown Disney, entertaining
thousands of visitors to the park and surrounding properties. To see performances from Disney Honors and more, visit our Performing Arts YouTube page at www.youtube.com/user/SJCPerformingArts.
Poverty Week, whose programs have been impressive in raising the awareness of its students to the devastating challenges of global poverty and hunger,” Brazier said. “These activities have also facilitated an awareness that each student can be an advocate to eliminate these social ills. It would be wonderful if SJC’s Poverty Week served to inspire other schools to find ways to also address these significant problems.” On March 8, the week’s final event saw the return of four alumni to campus – Michael Borger ’07, Chris Harlen ’06, Alana Koenig ’08 and Sally Evans ’12. They spoke to seniors about their service work and living the Lasallian mission beyond St. John’s. Borger attended Manhattan College, a Lasallian school, where he worked with the student government to organize clubs and build the community. He also participated in the college’s Lasal-
lian Outreach Volunteer Experience, traveling to Texas to help victims in the wake of Hurricane Ike. Harlen is a service coordinator for The Choice Program in Baltimore, MD. The program works with at-risk youth, often in troubled environments, teaching them job and life skills and mentoring teens as they transition to adults. Koenig spends much of her time volunteering in the Langley Park /Tacoma Park area where she grew up. She coaches a girls’ and boys’ basketball team, delivers meals to low-income families with terminal illnesses and tutors at a local elementary school. Evans took a gap year after graduating from St. John’s, which she used to take a service trip to South Africa. There she worked as a teacher and tutor and counseled drug-addicted mothers, learning ways to teach others to help break the cycle of poverty. St. John’s College High School 3