In comparison to an entire lifetime, four years seems like a small amount of time. Yet, in less than four years, Academy takes young, insecure girls and turns them into mature, grown women.  When I first considered high school, the thing that convinced me to go to an all-girls Catholic school was that every Academy girl I talked to always emphasized the way her school builds strong character.  This reasoning is what called out to my insecure eighth grade self. After attending Academy for four years, I am very happy to say that they were correct.  Academy has certainly made the class of 2013 who we are today.

Although I was already confident in my decision to attend Academy, it was my parents who “strongly encouraged” me to enroll at AHN. Our parents always encourage the best for us and work very hard to make sure the best is what we receive.  Our parents were always there to push us and ensure that we were giving our 100%, if not 110%, towards our Academy education.

There are many components to the Academy experience that builds us up into strong women.  First, the administrators ensure that our school maintains the best quality education and shows care for their students.  The teachers understand the importance of teaching academics in the core subjects of math, science, English, history, and language, yet still realize that we students are taking more than just one class.  They don’t forget to remind us that sleep is actually a necessary part of life for those times when we foolishly believe that pulling all-nighters every week to study would help us.  Our teachers are there for us when we run to them screaming our heads off about how our life is ending because of one C+.

One of the most unique and vital elements of Academy is its faith formation that is rarely found in any other school.  Through religion classes from freshman year to senior year, we learn how to take our individuality and our intelligence rooted in academics and use them in our everyday lives.  In a world that often becomes centered on conflict, it is hard to remember how we are supposed to live in this life.  However, Academy has formed us into women who have the strength to apply our morals and beliefs, or as we learned in Christian Lifestyles, live in a table world.  To live in a table world means being in a community, having shared power, shared leadership, and cooperation.  Rather than being centered on competition and being the best in the world, choosing to live in a table world focuses on being the best for the world.  Therefore, the class of 2013 has been given the knowledge to inspire others and follow in Jesus’ teachings and examples in love and service.  No matter how we rank in school, no matter what college we attend, no matter what career we choose, this class will succeed in being a positive influence in the world.  Learning from the examples of Jesus and of the Sisters of the Holy Names, we can safely transition into college and eventually into our careers while showing others that we are the future of the world.

Lastly, I’d like to leave one piece of advice that may be familiar to those who read my panicked tweets during the past stressful year, especially during exams: Proverbs chapter 16 verse 3 (Proverbs 16:3), “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and He will establish your plans.”  As we graduate today and move onto the next chapter of our lives, let us remember the support of the administrators, faculty, Sisters of the Holy Names, family, alumnae, and fellow sisters of AHN.  Let us take what we have learned here at Academy and use it to reach success in each of our lives.