Power of Potential

In this episode, we chat with two Sisters of St. Joseph who have given decades of their lives to St. Rose High School. Sister Kathleen Boyle, SSJ, and Sister Marie O'Hagan share their stories of getting the call to a life of vocation, how they chose the Sisters of St. Joseph, and the next chapter in both of their lives. We will also find out how two seniors, Trevor Donnelly '21 and Christian Chinery '21 left Sister Marie speechless by giving her the greatest gift from one of her heroes. We also learn a little bit of history on how the Sisters of St. Joseph who founded St. Rose High School in 1923 got their start.

The Sisters of Saint Joseph of Philadelphia trace their origins and spirit to six women who came together in 1650 in war-ravaged LePuy, France, with great desires for union with God, among themselves and with their neighbors. Encouraged and aided by Jesuit Jean Pierre Medaille, they were among the first to create religious life for women outside cloister.

The Congregation flourished until the end of the eighteenth century when the French Revolution dispersed or imprisoned our sisters. Five sisters were guillotined, but on the eve of her execution, Mother St. John Fontbonne was spared. In 1807, she began the work of refounding the Congregation in Lyon. In 1836, in response to the needs of the Church in the Missouri mission, she sent six sisters to St. Louis. From this foundation, sisters like Julie Fournier spread all over the United States and Canada.

With three sisters, Mother Saint John Fournier left St. Louis in 1847 to administer Saint John’s Orphanage for Boys in Philadelphia. Their generosity in responding to each new call for assistance prompted Bishop Kenrick to describe them as sisters “ready for any good work.” In that spirit, we continue to respond to the sufferings and injustices of each particular time and place.

With the advice and support of Bishop John Neumann, the sisters acquired their first novitiate and academy in McSherrystown, PA, in 1854. In 1858, they purchased the Middleton family home, our current Motherhouse and administrative center in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, and the first site of Mount Saint Joseph Academy.

Today, our Congregation numbers more than 800 women serving largely in the Middle Atlantic states and in many other areas from Alaska to Peru.

The Sisters whole-hearted response to the educational needs of new immigrants, in both urban and rural settings, focused energy in schools of every kind and at every level.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, the sisters’ responses included the care of orphans, children with special needs, widows, formation of catechists, nursing during the Civil War, and the influenza epidemic of 1918. Our historical response to peoples’ needs has evolved into a variety of current ministries.

The Sisters of St. Joseph carry a special concern for those who are poor and work with others to provide for their needs and to change structures that cause poverty and oppression. Although the sisters cannot respond to every need, every good work is a possibility where God's great love heals divisions and brings people to unity.

These efforts have led us, our associates, and our lay partners to deepen our commitment to our common mission:

We live and work so that all people may be united with God and with one another.

MaryJean Martz started teaching at SRHS nearly 35 years ago & remains a beloved teacher of religion.  Whether you bonded during Kairos or for her love of dogs, diet coke, or her daughter Serena, everyone agrees it is Mrs. Martz's compassion that made her a true gift to our school community.  In episode 8 of the Power of Potential podcast, Mrs. Martz shares her journey at St. Rose High School and how she lived her full potential by helping other students reach theirs.  With a few surprises along the way, this episode will make you laugh and cry at the same time.  Congratulations to MaryJean Martz and thank you for your 35 years of service to the community of St. Rose High School.  You will be truly missed.

Watch the full episode here.

Watch the video tribute to Mrs. Martz here.

Director of Advancement, Nancy McGaughan and Alumni Coordinator, Erin O'Brien sit down with Arianna and Michael to showcase their annual College Collage Project.  Started in 2015, the Advancement Department wanted to highlight all of the wonderful colleges and universities are students who achieved 100% acceptance were heading to in the fall.  Working with their favorite photographer, Peter Chollick of Chollick Photography http://www.chollickphoto.com/, the College Collage was born.  Each May at the Senior Breakfast, students adorned with their college apparel step in front of the camera for Peter to work his magic.  During the few minutes Peter has with each senior he works quickly to capture the personality of each student.  Then back in his studio the photos are edited and added to a collage which is unveiled at the Baccalaureate Mass and Senior Award night.  

In episode 7 of the "Power of Potential" podcast, Nancy and Erin share the story of how the College Collage started, why students look forward to it, and how the Advancement Department nurtures relationships with alumni after graduation.

To support the St. Rose High School Annual Fund, please visit:  https://www.srhsnj.com/support-us

In a future episode, Nancy and Erin will be back to celebrate a huge milestone for their department this year.

Check out the show notes to see the College Collage and much more including the podcast in video form.

AP World Language students share the discoveries they made during an Immigration project for Spanish class.

On episode 5 of the "Power of Potential" podcast, we welcome teacher of Art, Mrs. Christina Sikorski, and her senior AP Artist, Susanna Testa.  Mrs. Sikorski teaches AP Advanced 2D Design and Drawing.  The class integrates both digital and hand-drawn art.  We explore Susanna's progression as an artist through her portfolio.  The most difficult part for students is coming up with the conceptual ideas behind their artwork.  For Susanna, her concept was portraying life through hands, which after reflecting back happened to be a concept that Susanna actually started as a Junior.   Susanna exemplifies pushing an idea.  Everyone can produce the first six pieces of art for their portfolio, what's difficult is those last pieces.  Susanna has embraced this concept and pushed herself by expressing her own research, use of materials, use of technique, and truly pushed the boundaries of all these ideas.  From her first piece illustrating a baby's tiny hands holding its mother's fingers to a father handing keys to the car over to his teenage daughter, Susanna's ability to show the progression of age in her portfolio is outstanding.  Take a look at the pieces highlighted in the podcast and a few more of Susanna's favorites below.

https://www.srhsnj.com/news-events/news/pop/~board/pop/post/s01e05-ap-art-work-of-susanna-testa

Mr. Falgares also gets a lesson from Mrs. Sikorski too. It's not about how much time an artist has taken to produce a piece of art. Time is not truly a factor when it comes to quality. It's the idea and how the artist represents their work that matters.

Mrs. Sikorski also made a point to mention that while Susanna's work was highlighted in this episode, she has many other very talented students in her classes and is extremely proud of their work this year.

What would you do if you were given $100,000? Would you spend it all at once? Would you think about putting some of it in the bank? We’d like to teach you how to invest it, so you might grow it. 

Through The Stock Market Game, you will gain a fundamental understanding of investing and how you might get your money to work for you.

On today’s episode, we welcome St. Rose’s Finance and Business Teacher, Mr. Anthony Attardo, and a few of his students involved in the Stock Market Game.

Value traps, P/E ratios and growth potential are often challenging concepts to learn on your own.

For students at St. Rose High School, they have the benefit of having a teacher with 30-plus years of experience on Wall Street to help them navigate the market and teach them the basics of what it means to be an investor.

Those lessons are put into practice throughout the year, as students in Anthony Attardo’s classes are pitting against other students throughout New Jersey in the Stock Market Game [SMG], a weekly student exercise created by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association to teach students the fundamentals of the market.

Students in Mr. Attardo’s accounting, economics and personal finance classes are broken into groups and assigned to manage a portfolio worth $100,000 as part of the game. One group of students, called Lululemon after the company of the same name, earned enough with their hypothetical investments, more than $110,000, to finish the week ending April 16 in sixth place among 750 such groups in the state, and fourth in the region.

“From the SMG game, I learned about the importance of stocks and how important it is to have a diverse portfolio that provides well-rounded returns,” Tom Lafferty, a student in the group, said. “What’s cool about it is that it provides you the money and you have to be the voice of reason and create an effective portfolio.”

The group, made up of Tom Lafferty, Max MacEachern, Victoria Wilson, Chris Huisman and Michael Fluhr, used its hypothetical $100,000 to buy into bluechip companies like Disney, Exxon Mobil, General Motors and Microsoft.

“There are a lot of factors that went into choosing stocks,” Michael said. “Our group researched the products, future plans, growth potential and P/E [price/earnings] ratios of many companies. It was important for us to evaluate how a specific company will continue to make money in the future. Another factor in our decision process was diversity. We wanted to make sure we chose successful companies from different sectors like entertainment, technology, and automotive.”

When looking at which companies to invest in, the students would have to make the case to their teacher before finalizing the transaction.

“When our team was picking and deciding which stock to include in our portfolio, we referred to our own practical anticipations of whether or not said companies stock would be profitable due to the company increasing in size, gaining popularity, and even if that company is recovering and making a comeback from the pandemic,” Chris said.

The group also took a chance by putting money into Roku, a video media streaming service that went public in 2017.

“When we added Roku to our portfolio we noticed that Roku TVs are very present in our lives,” Michael added. “This led us to research the high growth potential of Roku since they are such a relevant company during this pandemic.”

To their teacher, Mr. Attardo, the game works into the overall message of the class and the main lesson he wants students to take away at the end of the year.

“It’s extremely important, not just for students to know to invest money, but what I try to teach the students here is how to manage their money,” Mr. Attardo said, adding that the Stock Market Game precedes his own time as a teacher at the school. “What I hope the students take from our curriculum is to have adequate...

Congratulations to Michael Fluhr and Nick Xanthacos who have been awarded Evans Scholarships.

The Evans Scholarship is a full tuition and housing college scholarship for high-achieving caddies. To qualify, caddies must meet the requirements of having a strong caddie record, excellent academics, demonstrated financial need and outstanding character.

Scholarship applications are accepted at the beginning of an applicant’s senior year of high school. 

In 1930, the Western Golf Association and celebrated amateur golfer Charles “Chick” Evans Jr. established the Evans Scholars Foundation. The Foundation’s mission was to provide full tuition and college scholarships to caddies with limited financial means.

The first two Evans Scholars enrolled at Northwestern University in 1930, and since then, 11,323 outstanding young men and women have graduated as Evans Scholars. This year, there are 1,045 Evans Scholars enrolled at 19 leading universities nationwide.

This year St. Rose High School is proud to announce that Michael Fluhr ’21 and Nick Xanthacos ’21 were named as Evans Scholars. Both young men will be attending Ohio State University. Nick and Michael follow other St. Rose High School Evans Scholars: Nolan Boehmcke ’20, Sean Donohue ’20 and Samantha Boehmcke ’17.

St. Rose High School is proud of the hard work and outstanding character shown by these young people. 

Congratulations to Lindsey Byer for qualifying for the US High Development Team!

She is one of only 30 skaters across the nation who qualified for this opportunity! Congratulations to her coaches as well.

In January of 2020, U.S. Figure Skating launched the National Development Team Camp, a brand new initiative to enhance the skills of their developmental athletes (juvenile through novice).

Participating skaters were given the opportunity to observe the U.S. Championships with officials and other experts. The officials broke down the event's various routines and techniques with the athletes in hopes of motivating them to one day compete at such a level.

Want to see Lindsey's submission video? Click here.

To some it may just look like a patch of grass or a pile of dirt.  But to our next guest, Mr. Mark Fletcher, it’s the backdrop to the story we are writing here at St. Rose.  Please welcome from the Class of 1990, teacher of social studies and Director of our Athletic Fields, Mr. Mark Fletcher.

Mr. Fletcher is our unsung hero, the undefeated MVP, day and night, with the lights low, the fields emptied, he keeps working to make sure our fields are ready and always looking their best.  And that’s why they have been recognized, 7 years in a row and awarded the Fields of Excellence award.

The land at 5114 West Hurley Pond Road in Wall Township was donated by Edward Brown in 1990 after Mr. Brown spoke at the commencement ceremony where Mr. Fletcher was a senior. A decade later, Mr. Fletcher and his green thumb returned to St. Rose and he has worked to elevate the fields and make it what they are today.

These award winning fields are widely considered the nicest natural grass fields in the area. The Edward I. Brown Complex is a large facility that has two soccer fields, a field hockey field and cross country course in the fall, and three lacrosse fields, a baseball and softball field in the spring.