ONTARIO—The Office of Catholic schools presented awards at its 14th annual banquet, held February 1 in Ontario. Receiving awards were:

Good Shepherd Award

 Rev. Paul Schmidt, SVD, Chaplain, Notre Dame High School, Riverside. The Good Shepherd award acknowledges a leader of leaders, a spiritual leader who serves. The person is patient and receptive with a listening heart. One who speaks truth, models courage, and challenges our Catholic School leaders to live the diocesan vision within Catholic Education embracing hospitality, collaboration, faith sharing and reconciliation.

By Jeffrey Lethcoe
Language Arts Teacher

PALM DESERT—A Sacred Heart 12-year-old student stands with confidence before her junior high school peers as she presents a one-paragraph summary from published articles on eco-friendly building materials and the trend for commercial businesses to use them. 

 Her summary delineates her objective research and logically deduced insight on how this information will impact our society.

A group of Notre Dame High School students sprang into action during a hike in the Box Springs Mountains near Riverside on Jan. 4, helping a seriously injured woman get timely medical care. The seven boys, pictured left to right, were Adam Ruiz, Chris Romero, Sam Norton, Alex Acero, Justin Waterman, Lorenzo Pena and Johnathan Oliaze.

By Gina Roquet

SAN BERNARDINO—A vicar is a representative of a religious leader or community. Thus the Student Vicariates of Aquinas High School are amazing young women and men who are encouraged to be bold and secure in their faith, unafraid to share their stories, opinions and words of encouragement to their peers.  This gives support and healing to students who struggle to share their fears or problems. And when the light at the end of the tunnel is revealed, when their peers pull them into this place of love and acceptance and understanding, a new place of joy and peace is found.

ONTARIO—For the second consecutive year, St George Parish School has been selected for the 2013 Best of Ontario Award in the Private Schools category by the Ontario Award Program.

 Nationwide, only 1 in 70 (1.4%) 2013 Award recipients qualified as Two-Time Award Winners. Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2013 Ontario Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Ontario Award Program and data provided by third parties.

SAN BERNARDINO—Catholic schools in the diocese saw a tiny overall increase in enrollment this year thanks to strong gains at the three high schools.

 Aquinas High School reported 40 students more than last year’s enrollment while Xavier College Preparatory High School has added 29 students and Notre Dame High School 15. Overall, elementary schools in the diocese reported 36 fewer students than last year with 13 schools experiencing  a decline in enrollment.