May 23, 2017 // Diocese

Around the Diocese: May 28, 2017

Todays Catholic

Scheiber Family Endowment awards 2017 scholarships and grants

HUNTINGTON — The Huntington County Community Foundation is pleased to announced Melanie Lisinicchia, Shafer Garrett and Katie Hunt as the 2017 recipients of the Donald E. and Lou Rayne Scheiber Catholic Education Scholarship. Lisinicchia will receive a scholarship worth $1,500, while Garrett and Hunt will both receive $1,250 scholarships.

Lisinicchia will attend Indiana University, majoring in biology and molecular genetics with the goal of one day becoming a genetic counselor. She is the daughter of Brandon and Tabatha Lisinicchia of Huntington.

Garrett has been accepted to attend the University of Notre Dame, majoring in chemisty and business. He hopes to open his own medical practice, specializing in neurology and neurosurgery. He is the son of Robert and Paula Garrett of Huntington.

Hunt will attend Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, majoring in elementary education. She would like to return to Huntington after receiving her degree and work as an elementary teacher within the Huntington County Community Schools Corporation. She is the daughter of Christopher and Lisa Hunt of Huntington.

Also awarded were the Donald E. and Lou Rayne Scheiber Charity Grants to support Huntington Catholic School and the Bishop Luers High School Luers Night event.

Created in 1997, the Donald E. and Lou Rayne Scheiber Catholic Education and Charity Fund accomplishes dual purposes. First, the fund promotes educational opportunities for Huntington County students who are members of one of three local Catholic Church parishes (St. Joseph in Roanoke, St. Mary and Sts. Peter and Paul in Huntington). Second, the fund provides charitable grants to Catholic organizations that promote the accepted teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

Right to Life Honors teens for pro-life leadership

SOUTH BEND — Part of St. Joseph County Right to Life’s mission is to change hearts and minds, cultivating pro-life virtue in communities and encouraging a lifestyle that recognizes the sanctity of the gift of life. Pro-life teens take up a special role in living out this mission as future leaders who are committed to defending the inherent dignity of all human beings.

St. Joseph County Right to Life honored several of these teens and the fruits of their prayer and service on April 27 at the 10th annual Respect Life Prayer Dinner. As part of its annual essay contest, the organization asked teens to respond to real-life situations with truth in charity. Middle school students wrote responses to an editorial that argued, “My body, my choice!” High school students put themselves in the place of the pastor as they crafted homilies imagining that a new abortion facility returned to the local area. Silas Greathouse, homeschool; Mary Sgroi, Trinity Lutheran School, Elkhart; Felicity Nolan, Corpus Christi School, South Bend; and Benjamin Britzke, St. Thomas the Apostle School, Elkhart; were awarded for their exceptional entries.

In addition, St. Joseph County Right to Life recognized Bonita Murphy of Saint Mary’s College with the Brother John Lavelle, CSC, Scholarship. Some of the highlights of Bonita’s pro-life leadership were running the crib club store, creating ultrasound scrapbooks and designing and executing a six-week ballet class for children at the Women’s Care Center, attending countless local and national demonstrations to speak out as a voice for the voiceless unborn and taking an active role in the Belles for Life Club at Saint Mary’s College.

SJHS student earns Eagle Scout Award

SOUTH BEND —Skyler Mead, a student at Saint Joseph High School and a member of Boy Scout Troop 750, has earned the Eagle Scout Award.

To earn scouting’s highest honor, he refurbished a bridge at the Elkhart Conservation Club and made a set of nature trail steps.

“I chose to do this project because my troop camps at the Elkhart Conservation Club often, and I wanted to give back to the conservation club for allowing us to use it as often as we do,” said Mead.

He got involved in Boy Scouts in the first grade as a Tiger Cub, joining because four of his friends had joined. One of his most memorable moments was going to summer camp with his troop. It allowed him to interact with the other troops from the district and share different, yet similar, experiences, as well as advance through the scouting ranks. He has achieved 45 merit badges and several honors. Currently, he is in a Crew Troop and Order of the Arrow, along with being an active member of his own troop.

“Scouting has influenced my life by allowing me to be able to go out of my comfort zone and try something new like rock climbing, hiking, canoeing and many more activities that I probably would not do very often if at all if I wasn’t a Boy Scout,” noted Mead. His plans for the future are to attend college, become a mechanical engineer and remain involved with scouting as an adult leader.

Luers student’s mission work project awarded

FORT WAYNE — Bishop Luers High School freshman Jessica Hartmus has taken her science fair projects to the missionary lands of Africa. At the encouragement of Father Sebastian Twinomugabi, known in Uganda as the “brick priest” and who was the parochial vicar at Sts. Peter and Paul Church in Huntington, Jessica has been involved in a brick-building project that aids the people of the Diocese of Fort Portal in Uganda in building stronger homes and structures.

Father Sebastian approached Jessica with the idea of assisting him with the engineering needs of the Ugandan people when Jessica was in seventh grade at Huntington Catholic School. He noticed her engineering mind and tapped into her creativity to help with the brick-building project.

For the last two years Jessica’s science fair projects have involved designing a drying rack for the bricks. The bricks must cure for a certain amount of time to be utilized for building homes or other structures.

At the regional science fair Jessica received the University of Notre Dame College of Engineering Top Engineering Award, which was selected from all the projects at the fair in grades 4-12. She received a $250 cash prize.

Jessica said she purchases scrap wood at local home building stores to construct the models and uses her own funds to buy the wood. Because of the size of the projects, she assembles the models at the family’s business, Economy Machine Products Inc., in Roanoke.

Her goal at the science fair was to spread the word about her project and needs of the people in Uganda. Although she did not advance to the international science fair this year, several judges, even though she was not on their schedules to judge, wanted to hear more about her brick-making project.

St. Joseph-Hessen Cassel essay winner

FORT WAYNE — St. Joseph-Hessen Cassel School has announced fourth-grade student Bridgette Haynes as the runner-up essay winner in the Indy 500 Education Program Contest. Bridgette wrote her essay on why physical education teacher Tony Johnston should be the grand marshal of the 500 Parade, and honored his service as a veteran to our country. Bridgette competed against fourth-graders from across the state and won a large Indy 500 festival gift basket.

St. Jude takes first in chess tournament

SOUTH BEND — St. Jude School took first place in the Michiana Chess organization team event from among the six teams competing in the regional tournament Saturday, May 6.

The team was put together from the school’s chess club, which has 10-14 members. This was a special win because the team did not meet from February through April due a medical setback for coach Casey Major.

Team members were Darwin Kariuki, second grade; Camila Wasoski, third grade; Devin Weber, fourth grade; Andrew Muno, fifth grade; and captain Zach Caldwell, eighth grade. Three of the students had not played in a tournament before, much less five games over the course of six hours.

According to Major, “this group has a special love for chess and a deep tenacious attitude that helped them place first out of the six teams.” Zach placed fourth, with the rest finishing in the top 22 out of 30 players, winning the overall tournament by two points.

Gerardot added to USF Board of Trustees

FORT WAYNE — Jane Gerardot has been elected to the University of Saint Francis Board of Trustees. She has served as a director on the Development Committee of the University of Saint Francis Board of Trustees from 2004 until her election to the board in 2017, and also as an adviser for the physical therapy assistant program from its inception until 2016.

Holy Cross announces new leadership

NOTRE DAME — Holy Cross College is proud to announce that Justin Watson, Ph.D., previously vice president for academic affairs, has been appointed provost of the college, and Michael Griffin, Ph.D., tenured professor of theology, has been appointed senior vice president.

As provost, Watson will maintain his role as chief academic officer of the college and advise the interim president on major policy matters internal and external to the college.

As senior vice president, Griffin will oversee college programs and the teams that work in student formation, including admissions, as well as advise the interim president on major policy matters internal and external to the college.