May 22, 2019 // Uncategorized

Joshua Dippold

Jeannie Ewing

Freelance Writer

Bishop Luers High School, Fort Wayne
Valedictorian Joshua Dippold

Joshua Dippold

Joshua Dippold, who graduates from Bishop Luers High School this month, knows how to incorporate his Catholic faith into everyday life. The Bishop Luers valetictorian attributes his faith formation from the foundation his parents offered to him from first grade onward. In many ways, his high school experiences have inspired him to study either theology or pre-health at the University of Notre Dame this fall.

Dippold described a unique experience related to his faith in this way: “Some of my friends joined me on spring break to Siesta Key and agreed to accompany me to Mass. The rest of the week was a blast, because we encountered the Son before the sun.”

Participating in a wide range of extracurricular activities, from sports to youth events to volunteering, Dippold is a well-rounded student whose life experience of service and team spirit now carry him into his chosen field of study. His extracurricular involvement includes baseball, serving as captain senior year; being a three-year Student Council member; participating in Sodalitas as a leader and a four-year member, and National Junior Honor Society as president, and a three-year member; Student Ambassador; four years of participation in Science, Math and Interdisciplinary Academic Super Bowl; Knights in Japan, for which his family also hosted a student; volunteering as a freshman mentor; participating in Future Business Leaders of America, Key Club, Knights for Life and World Culture Club; volunteering at Kingston Nursing Home, St. Mary’s Soup Kitchen, Project Linus, Community Harvest Food Bank and at St. Henry Church, where he built wooden box gardens, filled the boxes with dirt and soil and planted strawberries. He also volunteered with Agape Baseball League, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Fest, as a server at Mass during his freshman year, at the Franciscan Center and as a scorekeeper for Catholic Youth Organization basketball league.

He doesn’t have a lot of extra time for hobbies and personal pursuits, but Dippold has a few memories he cherishes from high school.

He was privileged to serve as a “Knight in Japan,” which he feels has expanded his appreciation for people of other cultures and languages. “They taught me that you don’t need to know anything about somebody to be welcoming and friendly to them,” he said.

Another unforgettable moment occurred during the seventh inning of what the Bishop Luers baseball team believed would be another loss for them in the 2018-19 season: Then Dippold struck out a Bishop Dwenger player, which resulted in Bishop Luers winning the game. He remembered this as “my first victory over Bishop Dwenger in any high school sport.”