COLORADO SPRINGS. St. Mary’s High School speech and debate team members Ben Bodnar and Daniel Zill had one goal going into the 2019-2020 season — qualify for nationals. That goal had been set last year, when they narrowly missed qualifying for the 2019 National Speech and Debate Tournament. The first weekend in March 2020 Bodnar and Zill accomplished their goal, finishing first in the region in duo interpretation at the Colorado Grande District NSDA National Qualifying Tournament. A week later the world began to change.

DENVER. The Colorado Catholic Conference issued an “Action Alert” on June 9 asking people to contact their state legislators to request that the Colorado Department of Education release COVID-19 relief funds for nonpublic schools based on federal guidelines.

COLORADO SPRINGS. Very little about graduation for the St. Mary’s High School class of 2020 was what they had imagined it would be. However, in her valedictorian speech Katie Morales said the class has always considered itself to be special, so it was only fitting that the class go out in a special way.

COLORADO SPRINGS. Working full time at a homeless center in Boulder was not how Hannah McReavy envisioned spending the last months of her sophomore year at college. In February, McReavy, who graduated from St. Mary’s High School in 2018, was at Providence College in Rhode Island; a month later, she was in Boulder, where her parents now live, finishing the semester virtually as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

COLORADO SPRINGS. St. Paul School has expanded its Early Education Program for the 2020-21 school year to include full-day options for preschool and pre-kindergarten. Full-day preschool for ages 3-4 will be offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m.-3 p.m., while full-day pre-kindergarten for ages 4-5 will take place Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. To schedule a tour or register, contact Candy at 719-632-1846.

LITTLETON. St. Katharine Drexel School, which is located at Pax Christi Parish in Littleton, will add a fi rst grade class consisting of 10 students for the 2020-21 school year. The school recently graduated its first kindergarten class, said director Mandi Lupher, and plans to continue adding one grade per year.

COLORADO SPRINGS. When Colleen (Walker) Berenguer ‘11 graduated from St. Mary’s High School, a career in nursing wasn’t on her radar. Yet, nine years later, her days have been filled with caring for patients in Meridian, Idado, with a virus that just a few months ago no one could have imagined. Berenguer is one of several St. Mary’s graduates who are on the frontlines caring for COVID-19 patients across the nation.

COLORADO SPRINGS. A famous quote claims that “attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure,” a theory that has been tested during the last seven weeks of rapid change. When schools shut down their campuses in mid-March due to the COVID-19 outbreak, everyone was hopeful that the shutdown would be short lived. That included the events staff at St. Mary’s High School, who at that time were just weeks away from their annual gala.