Monthly archive for May 2019

St. Louis Catholic High School awarded English and Latin teacher Mary Villaume the 2018-2019 Teacher of the Year Award on Thursday, May 23, at a faculty luncheon at Harlequin Steaks & Seafood.

Faculty and staff members cast their votes for this award to honor the school’s best educators.  Villaume said her grandmother first inspired her to pursue education, and she began teaching at St. Louis Catholic five years ago.  Villaume’s husband, Nick, is a Saints alumnus, along with her son George (2017), and her daughter Celia will graduate in 2020.

“My grandmother was a teacher, then she went back to school in her 70s to get her master’s degree in library science, so being around her love of learning really sparked my love of learning,” Villaume said.  “I hope to inspire others to love to learn as well.  When I approach education, I don’t approach it as, ‘Look at all these things I can teach you.  I approach it as, ‘Here are some things; let’s learn together.’  There’s that quote – ‘not the sage on the stage, but the guide on the side.’  I tend to lean more toward guide on the side.”

Villaume taught English III, Latin I, Latin II and Latin III this school year, and she moderates the Junior Classical League and co-moderates National Honor Society at St. Louis Catholic.  She said integrating technology and cross-curricular collaboration are big priorities for her in the classroom.

“Mary approaches her teaching ministry with incredible zeal,” said Andrew R. Bradley, Principal of St. Louis Catholic High School.  “She represents St. Louis Catholic as an enthusiastic follower of Christ to everyone she meets.  Her commitment to her craft inspires us all to work harder and be better.  She loves all of her students, and they know it.  We are proud to honor Mary Villaume with our Teacher of the Year Award.”

On Thursday, May 16, the St. Louis Catholic underclassmen gathered in Krajicek Gym to celebrate another year of student accomplishments and awards.

With the Class of 2019 graduating May 14, the juniors who participated in the traditional Ceremony of Lights at Senior Honors Night began by claiming the leadership of the school community for the upcoming year.  The Ceremony of Lights has served as the seniors’ way of passing on tokens of loyalty, scholarship, leadership and Christian community to the next class.

The St. Louis Awards were also presented to the outstanding male and female freshmen, sophomores and juniors, as chosen by members of their class and approved by the administration and members of the faculty.  Sponsored by the Lake Charles Serra Club, the senior awards were given Tuesday to Meredith Owen and Christopher Zareck.

The winners are chosen based on the following criteria: love of God and neighbor, strong moral character, desire to serve the community, courage to stand up for Christian principles, a daily Christian lifestyle and proper use of God-given talents.  The 2019 freshman St. Louis Award winners are Alyssa Morton and Luke Courville; the sophomores are Trinity Foret and Wesley Maze; and the juniors are Abigail Fontenot and Brenon Nash.

Other underclassman awards presented Thursday are as follows:

Liturgical Choir: Aidan Primeaux, Anna Broussard, Brenon Nash, Emma Oertling, Julian Jones, Lay’Sha Turner, Christian Wise, Melisa Vo, Macie Bennett, Amerie Guillory

FBLA: The following members will be attending the National Leadership Conference this June in San Antonio, Texas, and will be Louisiana FBLA Voting Delegates:

Juliana Broussard (Help Desk; Attend Institute for Leaders), Peter Obluda (Computer Problem Solving; Attend Institute for Leaders) and Xander Kihlken (Attend Institute for Leaders).

IBCA: Merit Awards

Students enrolled in Introduction to Business Computer Applications (IBCA) worked on their keyboarding skills, including posture, technique, speed and accuracy. By the end of the year students achieved at least 40 words per minute with 97-100% accuracy.

Top Three Typists: Canyon Vallier: 75 WPM with 99% accuracy; Myca Trail: 73 WPM with 99% accuracy; and Tyler Tran: 72 WPM with 98% accuracy

Most Improved Scores: Tyler Tran: Increased by 30 WPM; Sarah Jones: Increased by 29 WPM; and Tyler Guillory: Increased by 27 WPM

Avengers:  Juliana Broussard, Grant Couste, Andrew Desormeaux, Michael Desormeaux, Joshua France, Luke Monlezun and Nicholas Spicer

The Avengers program is one in which students are tested and trained to help both students and teachers use and troubleshoot Microsoft OneNote. Students begin as a OneNote Avenger but can become a Tech Avenger by helping at least 10 people and logging their work time in Class Notebook. Tech Avengers demonstrate expertise and leadership with additional technology.

The following One Note Avengers were recognized for documenting help given to more than one student in the OneNote Avenger notebook: Kyle Churchman, Eli Crawford and Rivers Vallier.

Key Club: 2018-2019 Outstanding Key Club Member – Jonah Reggie

The Key Club is sponsored by the Southwest Contraband Kiwanis of Lake Charles and is dedicated to community service.

Rally Awards:

Advanced Mathematics I -PreCalculus: Ethan Hebert- 1^st @ District and 2nd @ State

Advanced Mathematics II – Functions & Statistics: Nicholas Velueman- 1st @ District

Algebra I: Grant Couste’- 3rd @ District

Algebra II: William McNally- 3rd @District

U.S. History (American): Stratton McLaughlin- 2nd @ District

Biology I: Kyler Cart- 4th @ District

Biology II: Maggie Bruchhaus- 2nd @ District

Chemistry: Aidan O’Neal- 1st @ District

Civics: Carter Guillory- 2nd @ District and 3rd @ State

English I: Emma Freeman- 2nd @ District and 4^th @ State

English II: Matthew Aleshire- 3rd @ District

English III: Caroline Obluda- overall winner @ District and 2nd @ State

Fine Arts Survey: Abbie Lechtenberg – 3rd @ District

French I: Elizabeth Neck- 1st @ District

French II: Reem Husein- overall winner @ District

French III: Madeline Stickell- 1st @ District

Geometry: Jacob Weaver- 2nd @ District

Introduction to Business Computer Applications: Kristen Goodly- 2nd @ District

Nutrition and Food: Gabriellle Keuhn- 2nd @ District

Physical Science: Saizar Berlanga- 2nd  @ District

Psychology: Katherine Jester- overall winner @ District

Spanish I: Sofia Reggie- 4th @ District

Spanish II: Trinity Foret- 1st @ District

Spanish III: Lily Derouen- 1st @ District and 1^st @ State

World Geography: Andrew DesOrmeaux- 5th @ District

World History: Aidan Primeaux- 1st @ District

French III Interpretive Reading: Elizabeth Achée- excellent rating at State

Spanish II Interpretive Reading: Vean Rademeyer- excellent rating at State

Spanish III Interpretive Reading: Kya Duhon- excellent rating at State

Spanish IV Interpretive Reading: Juliana Broussard- excellent rating at State

Government: Ivan Appleton- overall winner @ District and 4^th at State

2^nd place Team Sweepstakes at Play and Speech Rally: Nick Spicer, Darren Metoyer, and Juliana Broussard

Oratory: Nick Spicer- 2^nd at Speech Rally

Impromptu Speaking: Nick Spicer- 2^nd at Speech Rally

Most Promising Actor at Play Rally: Sydney Smith

Perfect Attendance: members of the student body who were in class every day for this academic school year

Alex Aguillard, Matthew Aleshire, Dillon Anderson, Nicholas Berryhill, Logan Bertrand, Anna Broussard, Benjamin Burguieres, Patrick Cameron, Aaron Castete, Haley Curol, Mary Dempsey, Lily DeRouen, Andrew DesOrmeaux, Michael DesOrmeaux, Blake Evans, Emma Freeman, Evan Fruge, Kristen Goodly, Amerie Guillory, Andrew Hancock, Jake Hanks, Ethan Hebert, Gabe Johnson, Evan Joubert, Conner Kingery, Emily LaBiche, Cody LeBato, Grant Manuel, J-Allen Manuel, Wesley Maze, Nathaniel McNally, William McNally, Carson Mixon, Peter Obluda, Molly Ortego, Vean Rademeyer, John Reina, Walter Rubin, Timothy Thomason, Tyler-Albert Tran, Melisa Vo and Shelby Willis.

UN Global Goals: Anna Broussard

Principal Andrew R. Bradley presented the Merit National Community Service award from the United Nations Association for commitment to others and driving progress toward the UN Global Goals.

AP Scholars: Claire Brescher, Maggie Bruchhaus, Jake Hanks, Ethan Hebert, Katherine Jester, Lucas Manuel and Caroline Obluda

Each year the College Board honors students who perform well on multiple AP exams. As these scores aren’t released until August each year, these designations are based on cumulative scores from 2018 and earlier. 

The AP Scholar designation is granted to students who receive scores of 3 or higher on three or more AP Exams.

Outstanding Academic Achievement: These students have excelled in academics by earning outstanding grades and ranking in the top of their classes.

For 9th Grade: Andrew Desormeaux, Kyler Cart, Aliya Kattash, Sofia Reggie and Emma Freeman

For 10th Grade: Ivan Appleton, Caroline Broussard, William McNally, Hannah Comeaux and Sarah Upshaw

For 11th Grade: Ethan Hebert, Maggie Bruchhaus, Katherine Jester, Lucas Manuel and Caroline Obluda

Captain James W. Bryan U.S. History Award – Stratton McLaughlin

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St. Louis Catholic High School’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) held their sixth annual banquet April 30 at Treasures of Marilyn’s, where they honored all chapter members and recognized three Outstanding Members of the Year.  Saints alumnus Chris Primeaux ’86 also spoke to attendees about the economic success of Waitr in Southwest Louisiana.

Congratulations to FBLA Members of the Year – freshman Peter Obluda, sophomore Torey Washington and junior Celia Villaume.

The 2018-19 chapter officers are Juliana Broussard – President; Emma Faul – Vice President of Community Service; Claire Brescher – Vice President of Membership; Katie McCall – Vice President of Public Relations; Jorden Robinson – Secretary; Lucas Manuel – Treasurer; Julian Jones – Parliamentarian; and Historian/Chaplain – Xander Kihlken.

St. Louis Catholic’s FBLA chapter started in 2013.  It will participate in the FBLA national conference in San Antonio this summer.

College Board has invited St. Louis Catholic faculty members Kim Foreman and Tiffany Metoyer to be National Advanced Placement Exam readers/scorers for the second straight year.

Foreman teaches AP Government & Politics, and Metoyer (St. Louis Catholic Class of 2001) teaches AP Human Geography.  Both women will travel to Salt Lake City and Cincinnati in June to read the National AP exams.

They will join approximately 18,000 college faculty and AP teachers from around the world to evaluate and score about 25 million free-response answers.  This honor is by invitation only from College Board and gives them valuable opportunity to come together and exchange ideas with peers while gaining valuable insight into the quality and depth of student responses from the entire pool of AP Exam takers.

“It’s the best professional development that an AP teacher can participate in,” Metoyer said. “I think it is an honor for our school to have more than one teacher chosen by College Board the past two years.  Kim and I will represent our school and community with pride.”

Ethan Hebert, son of Roland and Kayla Hebert and a junior at St. Louis Catholic High School, earned the highest possible ACT composite score of 36 in April 2019.

Only around two-tenths of 1 percent of students who take the ACT earn a top score. In the U.S. high school graduating class of 2018, only 3,741 out of more than 1.9 million graduates who took the ACT earned a top composite score of 36.

The ACT is a curriculum-based achievement exam that consists of tests in English, mathematics, reading and science, each scored on a scale of 1–36. A student’s composite score is the average of the four test scores. The score for ACT’s optional writing test is reported separately and is not included within the ACT composite score.

In a letter to Hebert recognizing this exceptional achievement, ACT CEO Marten Roorda stated, “Your achievement on the ACT is significant and rare. Your exceptional scores will provide any college or university with ample evidence of your readiness for the academic rigors that lie ahead.”

Hebert said he focused on time management during his ACT preparation, but a perfect score wasn’t a priority.

“Achieving a 36 was something I perceived as literally impossible, but I learned that hard work and practice can lead to achieving just about anything,” Hebert said.  “I also never could’ve done this without the support from my friends, my parents and loved ones, and some really phenomenal teachers growing up. I prayed daily leading up to the test not to ace it, but for guidance and for me to do it all for God and not my own glory. God blessed me with way more than I ever asked for, and all the credit goes to Him.”

ACT scores are accepted by all major four-year colleges and universities across the U.S.  Students who earn a 36 composite score have likely mastered all of the skills and knowledge they will need to succeed in first-year college courses in the core subject areas.  Hebert said he likely will attend Louisiana Tech University after graduation from St. Louis Catholic and major in engineering or computer science.

“We are incredibly proud of Ethan’s perfect score on the ACT,” said Andrew R. Bradley, Principal at St. Louis Catholic High School. “It is a testament to the hard work and dedication he has put into his studies. Ethan embodies the character and work ethic we are trying to foster in every student at St. Louis Catholic High School.”

As for advice to other students taking the ACT, Hebert said not to stress out over it too much.

“I actually read a Bible verse (Romans 8:28) around the time of the (ACT) that says, ‘In all things God works for the good of those who love Him,’” Hebert said. “This definitely does not mean that loving God means an instant 36 for everyone, but the verse gave me confidence that no matter the outcome of the ACT, it’s just a test. I would suggest to other students to work hard on the ACT, but to not stress themselves out over it. Why put your faith in a “perfect” score when you can put it in a truly perfect God?”