Monroe Catholic celebrates 50th graduating class
Published Monday, May 12, 2008
Senior Theresa Wallace said her graduating classmates at Monroe Catholic High School were “quite convinced” they’d top other schools in this year’s canned food drive.
They won.
Wallace, the class salutatorian, said some seniors were so confident they’d get into their respective dream schools, they declined to apply anywhere else. And Monroe seniors, who graduated Sunday, collected a variety of athletic, musical and scholastic awards, including an undefeated season for the school’s senior-heavy football team.
Talk about confidence — a trait Wallace and class valedictorian Hannah LaBelle-Hamer said characterizes the 25-student class.
“We will not let anything get in our way of accomplishing what we have set out to do,” Wallace told teachers, parents, school administrators, brothers, sisters and schoolmates at Sunday’s graduation ceremony.
LaBelle-Hamer, who plans to attend the University of Denver next year with an eye on medical school, said her classmates are also passionate about learning.
“We know our class will pursue their dreams with the same passion they had at Monroe,” she said. “We hope we continue to learn from our experiences and from other people throughout our lives, and that we find our callings if we haven’t already.”
Monroe’s graduates were notably active in after-school and extracurricular activities. Some, for example, participated in Saturday’s annual Clean-Up Day, drawing thanks from the mayor of Fairbanks. They were a diverse bunch, including students who had moved to Fairbanks from around the world — Canada and the Czech Republic, Mexico and Germany.
A few elected to show their colors Sunday, with one wearing pink shoes, and another no shoes, on stage to collect diplomas.
“There are people who do everything, and people who do only a few things — but do them well,” class president Mattie Ringstad said.
Monroe got its beginnings as a day school in the basement of the Immaculate Conception Church in 1946. It grew to high school status in 1955 and fielded its first graduating class four years later, making Sunday’s its 50th.
Robert Nelson, one of the school’s original six graduates, attended Sunday’s ceremony.
So did ’71 graduate Doug Bloom, a developer and entrepreneur who challenged seniors to “break on through” to success, adopting the class’ motto. He told them his time at Monroe taught him true success is found beyond individual wealth, — through close relationships with friends and family and help offered to the less fortunate.
“I hope that your time at Monroe has taught you the same thing,” he said.
Many of the 25 graduates said they plan to attend college outside Alaska next year. Class members have secured a combined $526,000 in scholarships over the next four years, school officials said.
The outgoing senior class has created two scholarships for future needs-based students and athletes at Monroe, graduate Ceon Harris said.
Community Discussion
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It was the grade school, Immaculate Conception School, that started in 1946. Monroe did start in 1955, also in the church basement, and moved into the present (new) building in 1956, the year I started at MHS.
Bob Nelson, MHS '59
I attended the graduation and believe that the students and staff deserved a better article than what is written here. Mr. Nelson came all the way from Austin, Texas to speak to the graduates and was a memorable part of the ceremony. His involvement constituted a weak, one sentence paragraph from the News-Miner. Ceon Harris did not say a word, his fellow graduate Alexandra Harris explained the senior gift.
For the second year in a row, the Monroe graduation did not merit a color photograph in the News-Miner. Yes, the photographs included are sizable, however, I am willing to bet that every other commencement in the area will have a color picture. Small details, yes, but important to the students and parents.
It appears to me that this story was written from field notes of a photographer, not a reporter. Was there one in attendance?
I note the comment about color photography above. This is an annual concern about graduation photographs in the newspaper: "Your school got a color photo but ours didn't rate high enough."
We do our best to cover every graduation in town, even the smaller schools with a half-dozen or fewer graduates, and each gets at least one photo. These are placed on the front of the Interior/Alaska section, however that section is a black-and-white section on Mondays and Tuesdays.
This is a factor that has to do with our press configuration and the number of people required to operate the press to accommodate color. As a result, if a graduation takes place on Sunday or Monday night, the photograph in the paper appears in black-and-white on the Interior/Alaska section front. The decision has nothing to do with priorities or favoritism, it's simply the way the paper is configured each Monday and Tuesday.
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