At our 2025 Graduation Mass, a number of 8th grade students received special awards. We are so proud of all of them, and wish them the best as they continue achieving great things as SMS alumni! Read more about the award winners below.
2025 Salutatorian: Lillian Barwell
2025 Valedictorian: Jacob Puckett
The NYS Attorney General Triple âCâ Award is presented to students in recognition of their tremendous commitment to bettering themselves, their school and their community; their strength of character which has helped them to achieve their goals and will guide them in making the right decisions in the future; and their remarkable courage which will aid them in meeting all of lifeâs challenges ahead. The attorney generalâs award for commitment, character and courage was awarded to: Quinn Hayden and Brendan Donohue
The NYS Comptrollerâs Achievement Award is presented each year to a student or students who have excelled academically and have also shown leadership potential by volunteering his or her time to serve the school or community. Comptroller Dinapoli sends his sincere congratulations and best wishes to the graduating class of 2025. This achievement award was presented to: Lillian Barwell
The NYS Civic Ambassador Award goes to one student from each school who has demonstrated a passion for and knowledge of civics and government. This is the first year that NYS added this award and it is presented to: Jacob Puckett
The Charism of Mary Award is awarded to a student or students who show the gifts of Mary, our Mother. As the mother of Jesus, she lived her life with forgetfulness of self so that the grace of God could emerge through all she did. This student serves other students consistently, helping others without being asked and without seeking any recognition. The Charism of Mary Award was given this year to: Manny Ruiz
The Presidentâs Award for Academic Achievement is awarded to the following students for the efforts and commitment to learning, growing, and putting effort into their education: Quinn Hayden & Noah Valentine
The Presidentâs Award for Academic Excellence is given to any student who embodies the stated mission of promoting student achievement and preparing for global competitiveness through educational excellence. These students maintained an average of 90% or above in their core classes in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades as well as mastery level scores on NYS assessments: Brendan Dohohue & Jacob Puckett
The St. Maryâs Chapter of the Knights of Columbus has become more and more active in support of our school over the past few years. This year, the Knights wanted to award two $250 scholarships to one boy and one girl attending Catholic high schools in the fall. Each year our students, under the guidance of Mrs. Leong, create and present a capstone project highlighting their elementary years. They create a web page and reflect on their time at St. Maryâs and how their years here have impacted their walk with Jesus. The Knights see the importance of academics and faith, and decided that these scholarships would be awarded to the students who achieved the highest scores as awarded by several teachers on the scoring panel for their presentations. These scholarships were awarded to: Brendan Donohue and Lillian Barwell.
The Sister Sheila Anne Burke Memorial Award was awarded to the graduating student who best exemplified the following characteristics:
He/she must follow Sister Sheilaâs philosophy of starting each day anew
He/she must persevere through hardships and never give up on him/herself
He/she must learn through life experiences and demonstrate growth from the experiences that he/she has had
This winner of the sister sheila award this year was: Quinn Hayden
This yearâs Principalâs Award was given to a student who has stood out through the years with some very special qualities: an individual who has grown in quiet strength and humble discipleship; an individual of constant compassion, effort, goodwill, humor, and deep faith; as an individual who serves; who is talented academically â and on stage; who is poised, and who has a heart of gold for all around him. In consultation with the teachers, it was Mrs. D'Angelo's pleasure to recognize a very special young man: Brendan Donohue
The Home School Association (HSA) 8th Grade Family Award is given to a family of an 8th grade graduate who is that familyâs last 8th grade graduate at the school. Our parents are incredible examples of service for our whole school community, most importantly our children. The recipient of this yearâs award has been a quiet contributor, but a consistent contributor. Every time there has been an event or a Sign Up Genius, she was almost always one of the first to sign up to donate something, attend and help out at our events. She even donated for events and occasions that her own student wouldnât be participating in. If there was a need, she was there to help. She volunteered many hours for our HSA events, always with a smile. Her small acts of kindness and the joy with which she contributes, add up in great measure. So in recognition of and with gratitude for her small acts of kindness, filled with great love for and dedication to our school community, HSA was pleased to present this yearâs family award to Trista Hayden.
HSA Essay Contest - the HSA recognizes three graduates each year. Each 8th grade student submits a written reflection on a question chosen by HSA. This year they asked our students to describe the positive impact that their faith families have had on their relationship with God and St. Maryâs. The responses were reviewed and winners selected by HSA officers completely anonymously.
3rd place: Lillian Barwell. Lily wrote about how the faith families taught her about connecting with other students and our faith. She explained that the Friday morning video discussions with her faith family helped the students learn more about God and connect with each other in the process through their group discussions. She remarked that the faith families gave students the opportunity to get to know new people who they may not have otherwise met and allowed her, as the oldest student in the group, to be a leader and role model to the younger kids.
2nd place: Brendan Donahue. Brendan wrote about how going to Mass with his faith family helped him and the younger students learn about attending church in a meaningful way. He remarked that he learned to pay more attention to the readings, followed the homily more closely, and found that his example lead to the younger students to paying more attention in Mass as well.
1st place: Lilly Wadhams. Lily wrote about the meaningful interactions she experienced with the younger students in her faith family. She shared how impactful her experiences explaining Bible stories to the younger kids were, and how her knowledge of the Bibleâs teaching has grown because of it. She wrote about singing at Mass with younger students, acknowledging how amazing it is to know that even though we are so different, we are all children of God.
We are so proud of all of our new graduates! Click here to see more photos of our award winners and the Graduation Mass.