Everest students are formed to be Catholic Christian leaders. There are examples of this seen daily from our youngest Mountaineers to our seniors. Student leadership grows and develops from small initiatives and virtue committees to reach its apex as the senior class prepares for graduation. One example of that is an initiative undertaken by two members of EC’s student government, president Lucia De Nigris and vice president Celeste James. While there is a recycling dumpster for the academy building, these two students noticed that it wasn’t being fully utilized by the high school building, so they set out to change that and get both a dedicated recycling dumpster for the building as well as a system for collecting paper to be recycled in the high school classrooms and offices.
School counselor Mrs. Krogh shared more about the leadership she observed in these students, “They’re inexhaustibly determined to effect positive change in the community they hold so dear. It’s been over a year-and-a-half now since they originally proposed a recycling campaign for the high school building. They reached out during their summer break – summer, that most cherished time of freedom for a high school student – to express their concern about paper being thrown away at school, and to lay out their plan to fix it. They asked all the right questions, set aside time for several meetings to discuss details, drafted a formal proposal, and patiently withstood the myriad COVID delays that set their plan back for a time.
This year, if you step into one of the high school classrooms, you’ll see white bins next to the trash cans. Outside the high school gym there now stands a large paper recycling bin from Paper Retriever, which is emptied monthly by GFL Environmental. When Lucia and Celeste can’t walk the paper out to the bin themselves, they recruit other students – who in any event will have to take up the mantle in mid-May when the girls graduate. And therein lies the legacy, doesn’t it? For the younger students initiatives like this are not only a reminder of Christian stewardship and our impact on the planet, but also an example of the diligence, passion, and energy required to be a leader. The fact that Lucia and Celeste do these things with joy is just the icing on top.”
Thank you, Lucia and Celeste, for your example of living Semper Altius.
