COLORADO SPRINGS. Dreaming big requires sacrifice. Maryn Pierce, a senior at St. Mary’s High School, knew this before the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world, but it is a lesson that has reared its head again and again over the last several months. Despite the constant adjustments, Pierce continues to pursue her dream of standing on the podium at the US Figure Skating Championships.

COLORADO SPRINGS. When St. Mary’s High School staff started planning the 44th Annual Golf Classic a few months ago, no one really knew what to expect. So much is different since March, as this year has brought changes to daily life that no one could have anticipated. Those changes have made it hard to use the metrics from past years to anticipate anything. So as the number of golfers continued to grow, the St. Mary’s staffers were surprised and excited.

LITTLETON. St. Katharine Drexel School, located a Pax Christi Parish in Littleton, now has students in preschool, prekindergarten, kindergarten and first grade. Over the summer, the school added a playground for kindergarten and first-grade students that includes swings, a climbing wall, a basketball hoop and a four-square court.

COLORADO SPRINGS. Roughly five months after the coronavirus pandemic caused them to switch to online instruction virtually overnight, Catholic schools in the Diocese of Colorado Springs welcomed students back for full-time, in-person instruction during the third week of August.

COLORADO SPRINGS. Mid-August is fast approaching, and with it comes the rhythm of back-to-school activities. Schools across the nation are grappling with how best to approach the start of the 2020-2021 school year as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect how we live our daily lives. The faculty and staff at St. Mary’s High School have been working all summer to prepare for the new year and the challenges it may bring.

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.