Holy Cross: Home sweet home
Lillianna Evans
Home in the mind of a Holy Cross student is not one filled with the image of a bedroom, kitchen or TV. It is not the image of their cat waiting for them or video game consoles. To a Holy Cross Student, home is Holy Cross. Home at Holy Cross is the caring teachers who stay after school to help you understand a topic or finish a test, classmates who make each other laugh and encourage each other to try their best and staff who pass students in the hallway with a smile and a hello. Home is not just a place for these students, but the people, love and support that Holy Cross provides all its students.
Home is filled with family. At Holy Cross, everyone becomes your loving family each morning at 7:50 a.m. Every student wants their peers to perform to the best of their ability. Every teacher wants all of their students to learn and grow into mature, deep thinkers. Every faculty member wants all of Holy Cross to prosper into the future. Families joke, laugh, triumph, cry and cheer together. Holy Cross will always be the rock that its students can lean back on.
Home is where you can truly be yourself. One of Holy Cross’ mottos “find your unique” can genuinely be seen within its walls. Here, students have the freedom to be themselves as they would within the comforts of their home. Holy Cross is the home in which students develop into who they wish to be and who they truly are. Uniqueness in both personality and ideas are not criticized at Holy Cross. Instead, they are encouraged to add to the diversity of the campus.
Home is filled with memories. Students make memories at Holy Cross cherished in their hearts from orientation freshman year to graduation senior year. Students here not only have cherished memories of large events such as prom, ring ceremony or field day, but also everyday memories. Memories of getting an A on a test you studied hard for, sitting at lunch with your best friends and hearing your classmates read aloud Shakespeare’s Macbeth in a failed Scottish accent are the memories that stick out in the brains of Holy Cross students as they walk across the graduation stage.
Holy Cross is more than a school; it’s a home filled with family, self-expression and memories. A home is never a place you want to leave or find yourself distanced from. Nowhere on earth can you find such a place like it. Home is Holy Cross.
There’s no place like ‘the Cross’
Marco Vazquez
Everyone at Holy Cross is dedicated to inspiring its students. Teachers care about every single one they teach, and staff members like Mr. Foushee and Mr. Thornsberry make sure that you participate in extracurriculars and become a more active member of our family.
Holy Cross often calls itself a family and that is because we are one. At Holy Cross you will never sit alone at lunch; everyone has a friend and that is one of the great benefits of our small school and Guild Activity Block system.
Guild Activity Block or GAB is a block of the day when we get the unusual opportunity to socialize with students from all four grade levels. It is like having a second family or team in which everyone tries to help each other, not just with homework, but socializing and general important real-life advice.
When it comes to reading, there are many teachers who make it real: Mr. Rawlins, Mr. Phelps and Mrs. Smith. They all make a constant effort to teach students to analyze, understand and ultimately fall in love with classical literature, from “The Divine Comedy” and “The Brothers Karamazov” to Shakespeare and “1984.” These novels and our teachers’ guidance through them, which include many class discussions, have made students curious about philosophy and the importance of communicating our ideas through writing.
Holy Cross’ theological education is a privilege. Our teachers masterfully show our church history, its structure, morality and what steps we can take to be logical people. Holy Cross teachers make it real by bringing awareness to our own community here in Louisville. For example, Mr. Carney invites some wonderful students who attend a Muslim school to have a conversation with his class. Mrs. Hilbrecht has students contact their representatives in Congress and companies that are fighting for causes connected to Catholic social teaching.
Holy Cross has a multitude of programs to help students become more advanced, including AP, Dual Credit with Colleges, Reading Plus and online courses.
Students are encouraged to hustle forward in their career and improve as individuals. Not only through these programs, but through a variety of clubs and sports, students become more talented and proficient in their personal interests.
Internship is one of those things you only learn to love as you experience it. Through internship, Holy Cross students become real, active members of their community. There is no other Catholic school with the privilege of taking their students into the adult world and no other group of students better prepared to face it early on.
Unfortunately, there is a word limit so I cannot continue explaining all the amazing things about Holy Cross. However, the only way you can truly get to know the Cross is by really taking in the experiences that the school has to offer to its community of students.
Holy Cross builds its students through the theological virtues
Sarah Recktenwald
At first glance, Holy Cross is a Catholic college preparatory school in Southwest Louisville. After further evaluation, it’s clear Holy Cross serves to provide students with experiences that will guide them on the path of their lives. Holy Cross builds students to fulfill the three main virtues of theology: faith, hope and charity.
Theology classes educate students on all aspects of Catholicism.
Freshman year, students can learn the fundamentals of the Bible. Sophomores dive deeper into the life of Jesus Christ through the Paschal Mystery. In junior year, students are faced with the hard-hitting questions of Catholic morals and are guided through the curriculum to learn about the sacraments.
Students apply these ideas through the current social justice themes and issues as seniors. Outside of the classroom, students experience a yearly retreat with their classmates, a time for them to grow closer to their peers and into their relationship with God.
Holy Cross brings hope for the future through the Corporate Internship Program. The unique opportunity is given to juniors and seniors, where they work in a real corporate setting once a week. Each student meets with the Director of Internship to discuss their career interests, enabling them to partake in positions they’re specifically looking for. The program is developed on competencies such as business etiquette, productivity, collaboration and persistence, skills they will grow throughout the two years. Many students find their future careers through Internship and make connections with employers before graduating high school.
Students learn the importance of charity through service to the community. In the Service Program, students are inspired to find their passions and to serve issues they feel a connection to. Underclassmen service teaches that even the small acts of generosity can make a difference — an impact made on one person is still an impact made. Freshmen and sophomores specifically immerse themselves in a day of service once a year to learn about different opportunities throughout the city. As a senior, students take on a larger project, focusing on bringing awareness, analysis and action to a specific social injustice. The Holy Cross Service Program brings meaning to charity and fosters a lifelong relationship with helping others.
Even beyond its programs and curriculum, Holy Cross provides excellence. Students are not seen as a collective number, but rather by their individual values. The variety of sports and clubs ensures that any student can find an activity to be involved in. Leadership opportunities sprout courageous and compassionate individuals ready to take charge. AP and Dual Credit courses provide an academic rigor that prepares students for life after high school.
GAB, also known as homeroom, builds a mentor relationship for the student and allows them to grow within their smaller community.
Ultimately, Holy Cross High School fulfills students by leading them to Christ through its daily education and surrounds the community with warmth and care.
