Catholic School faith ~ love ~ learning

2015-2016 NEWSLETTER

Community is at the heart

of Catholic

Education

Thank You Mrs. Halasz

Dear St. Andrew School Families, Greetings from your former principal! Retirement is wonderful, but I do miss my St. Andrew family. Dedicated colleagues, supportive parents and most of all the children, made my 26 years at St. Andrew School a true joy. I believe there are few professions in this world as satisfying as that of an educator. Watching and guiding children as they learn about God’s amazing world and their place within it, is truly a meaningful privilege! On my return visits to school, I have found things to be humming along nicely under Debbie Wilfong’s leadership. She is effectively planning for the present and future needs of our school and making some fine changes. I couldn’t be happier with the direction in which she is guiding St. Andrew School. I am also energized by the progress on the construction of our Catholic high school. How wonderful it will be to have a distinctly Catholic option for our children upon graduation from St. Andrew School! Kudos to Fr. Jim and the Board for their tireless work to make this dream a reality. I am sincerely thankful to everyone for my lovely retirement celebrations. I still look back upon that time with wonder and gratitude. I continue to be overwhelmed by your generosity. Finally, retirement has allowed more time for personal prayer…..I assure you that St. Andrew families are on my list. May God continue to bless each of you! Sincerely, Molly Halasz

From Our Principal From Our Principal

From Our Principal From Our Principal

Dear St. Andrew,

I am excited and privileged to be serving you in the role of Principal. As our fearless leader for 26 years, Mrs. Halasz certainly left this school in excellent shape! We have a fantastic team of faculty and staff and it is an honor to work with them. We are all most excited about the upcoming school year! Faculty, staff, parents and students will continue to work together to fulfill our Mission. Together we will continue to grow our academic programs and increase our Catholic identity. We will also pilot new programs that will encourage the differentiation of learning. Determining specific learning needs for our students will continue to encourage an environment where every child is known and loved. Thank you for this exciting opportunity, I look forward to serving this beloved community.

Debbie Wilfong

2015 GRADUATES

May The Lord Be With You

Our Student Council has been hard at work this year! The entire student body, faculty and staff have been enjoying a one day per month, N.U.T. day: No Uniform Today day! With the dollar donation from each student we have been able to sponsor Gabriel, a nine year old student from the Philippines.

Every year, as a culminating activity to the Heritage unit in our reading series, fifth-grade stu-dents, with lots of parental help, compile information from various sources and learn about one side of their family history. It's fascinating to the students to look into the past and find information about where their family came from, why and where they settled in the US, and how they came to Myrtle Beach. They may find out that they have an interesting (maybe even famous) ancestor and come to realize why certain customs are followed in their fami-ly. Each day, several students share their information with the class, which often includes many photos, family trees, letters, and legal documents. To end the week, students may bring in a dish from their country of origin, and many get a taste of a new and delicious food. The class gains an appreciation of how many different cultures have blended together into America's 'melting pot'. ( We share our projects during the last week of January - Catholic Schools week)

Duke TIP Scholars

Every other year our 7th and 8th graders have an opportunity to participate in a Science Fair held in our very own CLC. Students begin working on their projects through the steps of the Scientific Method early in the school year.

The project requires the students to research a topic, conduct an experiment on the topic, and write up a research paper that contains the results of the experiment.

Our Science Fair is judged by members of our local community who have a background in the field of science. Last year we were fortunate to have

two professors from the CCU science department as well as a former Gifted and Talented teacher from the Horry County School System.

Our winner last year was Nicholas Andrews. Danny Saad placed 2nd and Carly DeSantis 3rd.

Honorable Mention was taken by Amy Leak, Myia Brumfield, Elana Jones.

JoLynn Prochaska Middle School Science Teacher

Eighth Grade Home Room

SCIENCE FAIR

Mrs. Sedota, Anna Phillips, Sarah Greenlee, Blake Wiggins, Claire McCaffrey, Victoria Morrell, Eva Patenaude, Mrs. Plecha, Izabella Shavitz, Natalie Andrews, Lane Westerlund, Molly Rion, Amy Leak.

Keller Hollingsworth, Julia DeSalvo, Tommy Riga

Congratulations

Heritage Week

The Designation is based on

outstanding 2015 SAT or ACT scores

Family Fellowship Fun

Pelican Game

Beach

Our First Holy Communion

Holy Week

Meet our New Teachers

At the beginning of this school year we welcomed Ms. Anna Lauren Meeks as our middle school Spanish teacher. She is a highly energetic teacher who graduated from Clemson University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Spanish and International Trade. She taught Spanish for the Horry County School system for 3 years at Carolina Forest High as well as at the Academy for Arts Science and Technology. She was with us for half a year and then went on an international mission trip where she could bring her faith and

help to many in need around the world. Her mission trip will bring her all over Africa. Please follow her on her blog at annalaurenmeeks.theworldrace.org We are proud of her work and wish her all the best!

I was born in Tandil Argentina, and lived there till I was 10. My family still lives in Argentina so borrowing a cup of sugar from mom is a little tricky. When I was 10 we moved to British Columbia, Canada and I spent the next 10 years learning English and freezing to death. I went to St. Mary's College in North Carolina for two years and, then finished up at the College of Charleston. I majored in Spanish literature, cute boys (just kidding) and taught Spanish conversation classes. I also met my better half and married him. While he studied medicine, I worked with the Hispanic community at Our Lady of Mercy Community Outreach Center in Johns Island. I taught ESL, translated for the Hispanic community, and helped with fundraising and special events. I was offered a job as a medical interpreter at MUSC (Medical University of South Carolina), and could not pass up the chance to work close to my hubby while still helping out with the Hispanic community. I worked at MUSC until we moved to Oklahoma. We spent four years in OK, while Alex did his orthopedic residency, we moved to Charlotte for one year, and then made a permanent move to MB. We have since had two adorable children and are proud to be part of the St. Andrew family!!!

Mrs. Pappas

Middle School Spanish Teacher

Ms. Meeks

Middle School Spanish

Hola! I was born and raised in the beautiful Mexico City, it is one of the largest cities in the world with 25 plus million people just in the city! I am married to Tim Papa, he is an engineer, and we have one child, his name is Ben. He is in first grade here at St. Andrew Catholic School. All my education was in Catholic, bilingual schools, I am a kindergarten teacher and I have masters in Education. I was the principal of my own Preschool - Kindergarten in Mexico. We served children from Preschool 1, 2 and 3, and Kindergartners, and I couldn't done that without my parents help! I had to get a second job to support the first years of my school, so I joined EF International Education, where I was able to travel, to learn and practice my English during the summers while I was in elementary and high school. EF International Educa-tion has language schools all over the world, and they believe, as well as I do that immersion is the best way to learn a language and the culture of the place. I started working with EF, first as a chaperone of groups from Mexico that were traveling to USA, Canada, England, then I was a tour guide with the same company. Years and several positions later, I was in charge of The International Language Schools Program and that gave me the great opportunity to travel all over the world. They moved me to head-quarters for North America that is located in Boston, MA. I finished my career with EF and then I joined Head Start, I was the manager of the Migrant Head Start Program in Western Kentucky. Being bilingual Spanish-English has opened the doors and has been giving me so many great and unique opportuni-ties. My goal as a Spanish Teacher is to plant a seed in our students so that will grow and they will experience a life-long love of Spanish and other languages and cultures.

I am very excited to have the opportunity to teach Kindergarten at St. Andrew Catholic School! I attended the University of South Carolina, and earned both my Bachelor's and Master's degrees there. We are proud Gamecocks! This is my tenth year of teaching, and I previously taught Kin-dergarten in public school. My husband, Stephen, and I recently moved from Lexington, SC to the Myrtle Beach area. We have three children: Bella, Will, and Joseph. Bella attends first grade at St. Andrew. We are so pleased to have the opportunity to send her to a Catholic school, and I

am overjoyed to be able to live out my Catholic faith by teaching kindergarten at St. Andrew. I look forward to a year of living, learning, and loving Jesus with our class!

Mrs. Kosydar

Kindergarten Teacher

I am so happy and thankful to be teaching at St. Andrew Catholic School. I know firsthand the blessings and benefits of a Catholic education through my own children attending St. Andrew. My husband Chris and I are blessed with a twenty-two year old son and a nineteen year old daughter. I love my Catholic faith and I have a passion for teaching. I am originally from Norcross, Georgia and received my Bache-lor of Science degree in Upper Elementary Education from Georgia Southern University. I have taught

in Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina and South Carolina. I love seeing children grow in their faith and helping them to reach their highest academic potential. Mrs. Crowl

3rd Grade Teacher

Mrs. Papa

Elementary School Spanish Teacher

Girls Basketball

Team Cheerleading

Squads

Golf Team

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic High School Groundbreaking.

On Saturday, November 7, with 75 supporters of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic High School in attendance, Robert E. Guglielmone, the Bishop of Charleston, blessed our building site on Carolina Forest Blvd. The Groundbreaking inaugu-rated our project to construct the first phase of our school, a 15,400 sq. ft. building. During the ceremony our first Principal, Mr. Theodore “Ted” Hanes, signed his employment contract. Mr. Hanes currently serves as Vice-Principal of Elk County Catholic High School in St. Marys, PA. and his tenure at Seton will begin in mid-January 2016. The project is funded by the many parishioners and friends of our Horry and Georgetown County Parishes and also grant-making foundations. Harrington Construction Company of Myrtle Beach has been named as the General Contractor to build the school. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic High School will open its doors in August 2016 to our first 9th grade class. Each year an additional grade will be added until the full four – year program is attained. For more information, call 843-839-2245 or go to our website: www.setonhighschoolsc.org.

Tea with Mom In May the first graders put on a Mother’s Tea Party for the moms. Each child read a special report about their mom on the stage. The mom’s wore spring hats for the occasion and we even sang a beautiful song. It was a tear jerker for sure! We ended our special day with cookies and juice. In a few weeks we will be having Donuts For Dads which will honor the dad’s in a similar way.

The 32nd annual Taste of the Town will go down in history as the first ever event requiring a last minute date change due to the catastrophic floods that hit South Carolina. The Octo-ber 2015 storm was one of the most prolific rainfall events in the modern history of the United States. The TOT team did not panic and quickly rearranged all the details to make what could have been a disaster - a huge feat. The date was moved to Thursday, Novem-ber 6th at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. This year’s event was a tremendous suc-cess and will be recorded as one of our most profitable years ever! We would like to thank our sponsors, volunteers and parish for their support. Also a great big thank you to our restaurants as this event would not be possible without them. When dining at one of these establishments, please give them your thanks for their generous support of our largest fundraiser. See our complete list of sponsors, restaurants and winners at TOTMB.COM and mark your calendar for Tuesday, October 18, our next Taste of the Town.

In the Fall 50 of our 7th and 8th graders went to beautiful Camp Kanuga in Henderson-ville, NC. During our 3 day and 2 night stay we had the opportunity to observe pond and mountain ecology, learn about the rock cycle, and discuss the importance of water-sheds. The outdoor classroom experience was top notch. Students were also chal-lenged to step outside of their comfort zones and try a high ropes course where they had to face some fears and learn to work together. We are thankful for our chaperones and parents who made the trip possible. Special thanks to our vice principal, Mrs. Sedota and Coach Rollings for also being willing to spend the night with our middle schoolers and get us home safely.

Mrs. Prochaska

Girls Basketball Team

Cheerleading

Squads

Soccer Team Girls Volleyball Team

Jr. Boys Basketball Team

Sr. Boys Basketball Team

St. Andrew Catholic School Honor Code

As a student of St. Andrew Catholic School:

I pledge to be an example of Christ to all those around me through both my words and actions.

I pledge to respect and show kindness and consideration to my fellow students and teachers.

I pledge to use honesty in all situations.

I pledge to always work to the best of my ability.

I will put God and honor above all.

3601 North Kings Highway

Myrtle Beach, SC 29577

843-448-6062(office) 843-626-8644(fax)

www.standrewschoolmb.com

St. Andrew Catholic School