Saviour Girls Write from the

Heart and Win

Jane Haddad, Robert Amato, Alana Devine-Dunn.

Jane Haddad, a recent graduate, and Alana Devine-Dunn, a rising sophomore, are the winners of the annual Duffy Essay Contest, conducted at St. Saviour H.S., Park Slope.

Since 1995, Joseph G. Duffy Funeral Home, Park Slope, has sponsored an essay contest at the high school as part of its commitment to young people in the community. Students are shown a video about the gift of life and are then asked to reflect on it and write about a personal experience.

This year, students watched “David’s Story: A Teen Suicide,” which explored many complex personal relationships and David’s downward spiral of despair, which resulted in the breakdown of these relationships.
After viewing the video, Robert Amato, a representative of Duffy’s Funeral Home, asked students to write an essay on “How to Make Sense Out of the Tragedies in Life.”

Students opened up and shared the wounds they have endured as a result of experiences in their own families — death, divorce, suicide and leaving their native lands. Many related the film to the Virginia Tech tragedy.

Religion and English department teachers judged the essays and selected one winner from the freshman and sophomore classes and one from the junior and senior classes.

Haddad won a $250 prize, Devine-Dunn received a $100 gift check, and all of the girls were commended by Duffy Funeral Home and their school for opening up and sharing their insights. ”

Xavier H.S. Grad Reports for Duty

Best wishes to Michael Richard Nilsen who reported to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, on July 2.

Nilsen, a parishioner at St. Saviour, Park Slope, and alumnus of the parish school, graduated in the top five percent of his class at Xavier H.S., Manhattan, in June.
His fellow Xavier graduates included two classmates from St. Saviour: Joseph Caputo, Xavier valedictorian with a 96.8 average, and Mathew Cantirino, who won the bronze medal for the third highest GPA 93.8.

Nilsen, whose military heritage dates back to the American Civil War, is pictured on his graduation day, second from right, with his family. From left, paternal grandmother MaryAnn, mom Diana, brother Patrick, sister Victoria, and paternal grandfather Richard, a Korean War Army veteran, who fought at the Battle of Bloody Ridge and the Battle for Heartbreak Ridge.

St. Francis Xavier’s ’07 Scholars

Congratulations to the 15 eighth-grade graduates of St.Francis Xavier, Park Slope, who won 22 scholarships to Catholic high schools in Brooklyn and Manhattan for the fall. The students, pictured, and schools to which they were awarded scholarships, are: Carlos Allen, Nazareth R.H.S., Flatbush, and Bishop Loughlin M.H.S., Clinton Hill/Fort Greene; Brandon Craigwell, Bishop Ford H.S., Park Slope, and LaSalle Academy, Manhattan; Anamaria Gonzalez, Bishop Ford; Terrence Gorman, Bishop Ford, and Xaverian H.S., Bay Ridge; Stephen Heron, Bishop Ford; Sascha Lewis, St. Joseph H.S., Downtown Brooklyn; Schae Lewis, St. Joseph H.S.; Randy Louisdor, LaSalle Academy; Jennifer McAlmont, St. Joseph H.S.; Taylor Merced, Bishop Ford, St. Joseph H.S. and St. Saviour H.S., Park Slope; Anthony Roldan, Bishop Ford and LaSalle Academy; Shima St. Germain, Bishop Ford and St. Joseph H.S.; Jenifer Tanisma, St. Joseph H.S.; Carolina Torres, Notre Dame H.S., Manhattan; and Erica Varela, Bishop Ford.

Midwood Catholic

Academy Artists Honored

Three students at Midwood Catholic Academy, Midwood, were first place winners in an art contest sponsored by Midwood Development Corp. of Brooklyn earlier this year.

Rechelle Abalos, rising eighth-grader, placed first in the seventh- and eighth-grade category; Marrayah Borcena, rising seventh-grader, placed first in the fifth- and sixth-grade category and Jalynn White, rising fourth-grader, placed first in the fourth- and third-grade category. Winners received a certificate of participation and a $100 U.S. Savings Bond.

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