The Catholic Standard and Times

Bishop Shanahan students:
‘Kids with noble hearts’

By Jo Ann Alicia Foley
Special to The CS&T

Because the motto of Bishop Shanahan High School is “People of God, People for Others,” Teri Lahey, moderator for the school’s Community Service Corps activities club, recently decided to demonstrate that prayer is an important form of service for people of God.

Lahey organized a special trip on Martin Luther King day to the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters (SSpSAP), a cloistered community on Green Street in the Fairmount section of Philadelphia. The nuns are known affectionately as “the Pink Sisters,” because of the soft rose color of their habits.

Speaking from behind a grill that separates the Pink Sisters from the outside world, Sisters Maria Trinadas and Marie Louise talked about how they have shared in serving so many people through prayer.

“We get letters of thanksgiving — not only for petitions that were granted but also for our Web site [www.savior.org] which displays the Holy Eucharist online live, so that people can adore Jesus in their own home whenever they want,” Sister Maria Trinadas told the girls.

When the students left this special place, sophomore Courtney Brozyno considered the school motto in light what the Pink Sisters do every day for the Church and the world.

“What really counts is what is internal,” she said. “Sharing faith brings people to a deeper connection with each other and with Jesus.”

That trip, and what the students learned from it, are an example of what another Shanahan sophomore, Katie Shurer, describes as the essence of the school’s method of teaching: “In every class, my teachers weave [in] the Catholic faith.”

In fact, Shanahan’s faculty regularly encourages the students to participate in social justice issues, such the annual March for Life in Washington D.C.

“I’m going again this year,”Shurer said of the march. Her sadness over society’s culture of death has not dimmed her excitement about walking once again with hundreds of thousands who share her convictions.

Sharing those convictions makes students such as Heather Imparo, a junior, feel at home at Bishop Shanahan: “I can be open about my traditional religious views.”

Shanahan teacher Paul Peterson added, “Teenagers are very spiritual. They are aware of God’s active presence in their lives.”

It is that awareness in Shanahan’s more than 1,450 students that the administration, faculty and staff make sure to address.

“Now that we’re in high school,” observed student Cara Brindley, “we understand the world a little better and can apply what we been learning ever since grade school.”

Shanahan offers its students varied opportunities to apply their faith, gifts and talents. “From sports to music to service opportunities, there is a team or club for everyone,” said Larissa Esmille, a senior. “If someone can’t find an activity to join, he or she just isn’t looking.”

Esmille participates in the school’s mock trial program, newspaper, Math- letes, the National Junior Honors Society and the Community Service Corps.
Shanahan, a Mid- dle States Association-accredited high school, also awards its students $13 million in scholarships, and offers 13 advanced-placement college courses. Some 97 percent of its graduates go on to four-year colleges or universities.

But it is the goal that is stated in the school’s brochure that articulates Shanahan’s real identity. That goal is to develop “committed, compassionate, and competent Christian leaders for the 21st century.”

After four years of joint effort, Principal Sister Maureen McDermott said, she and President Sister Regina Plunkett — along with the faculty and staff — can see the fruits of their work in the students “when they address their peers in both formal and informal settings. … [demonstrating their] Christian identity as people of God [and] people for others. … It is who we are, here at Shanahan.”

Sister Plunkett agreed: “This is a blessed environment, and we are mindful that we need to help make this world a better place, both locally and beyond.”

Dorothy J. Stranix, the assistant principal for student affairs added: “Every organization in the school includes a service aspect so that the students can internalize their motto in addition to making friends.”

The Community Service Corps, for instance, has more than 400 members, and a list of activities for every season: Operation Santa Claus, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Habitat for Humanity, Warm the Poor, the Thanksgiving drive, and Hoop’n for Life.

“Our kids have noble hearts,” Sister McDermott said. “They are truly people of God — people for others.”

Jo Ann Alicia Foley teaches ninth-grade English and theater for the North Penn School District and is an adjunct faculty member for DeSales University. She holds an M.A. in theology from St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.