A Rite of Passage

Our Eighth Grade class breathed a collective sigh of relief on the evening of Thursday, May 16, with the completion of this year’s Graduate at Graduation Panel Presentations.

This rite of passage is something these students have been working toward since they started here at Saint Patrick Catholic School. Over the course of their Eighth Grade year, students were challenged to reflect and, with honest self-discernment, write an essay about their growth in The Life of Mind, The Life of Spirit, The Life of Vocation, The Life of Relationship, and The Physical Life. To help them remember their time at Saint Patrick, students used their Journey Portfolios, a collection of schoolwork, photographs, awards, and reflections that they had collected through the years.

Using their essays as a guide, the students then created an oral presentation to present to a panel made up of parents, teachers, board members, community members, and alumni. It might seem impossible to sum their time at Saint Patrick in 10 minutes, but the Eighth Grade students rose to the challenge and spoke with eloquence, confidence, and honesty about their triumphs and struggles as a Wolfhound.

Not only did our Eighth Grade students prove that they are ready for the next chapter in their lives, but these panel presentations helped bring our Wolfhound community of parents, grandparents, alumni, and friends together to support these young men and women. We would like to thank all of our panel members for their time and our Middle School advisors and mentors for shepherding their respective students through this important process. We would also like to give a special shout out to our Middle School Counselor, Dan Batkin, for his hard work and leadership. It truly takes a village to create this special moment! Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on a job well done!