St. Joseph High School holds graduation ceremony

Intermountain Catholic

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A St. Joseph High School graduate receives congratulations from Fr. Ken Vialpando and Louise Price, principal.

by Timothy Bell

OGDEN — Thirty-six graduates of St. Joseph High School approached the ornate altar of St. Joseph Church June 1 to participate in the school’s 51st commencement ceremonies. Surrounded by the saints and the Stations of the Cross, each graduate came forward and bowed to the cross. Each woman carried a yellow rose; each man wore a boutonniere of wheat.

All of this year’s graduates will be attending a college or university this fall. The majority of them will be entering either Weber State University in Ogden or the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. A number of graduates will be leaving the state for schools such as the University of Oregon and Gonzaga University, both in Oregon; the United States Navel Academy, Annapolis; and even the University at Albany, State University of New York. Five of the graduates were "lifers." They have spent all of their elementary and high school years in Ogden’s St. Joseph schools.

In an invocation, Holy Cross Sister Genevra Rolf, associate superintendent of Catholic schools, spoke of the sense of service to others each graduate will carry away from the northernmost Catholic high school in the Diocese of Salt Lake City’s school system.

The keynote speaker was John Iacovelli, a math teacher at the school for years. He wanted to make it perfectly clear that, "I’m a classroom teacher and could not teach without the proper material," he said. Therefore, his speech was not endowed with scholastic wisdom, but the simple revelations the common man learns by living life to the best of his ability. Humility was his revelation and the focus of his speech.

Like all great revelations this one did not come easily to Iacovelli.

Iacovelli said his discovery began with the death of his mother. It was at her funeral that he and his brothers decided they would spend Thanksgiving with their now widowed father.

"I go to Massachusetts every year for Thanksgiving. We watch the Patriots and Celtics, and talk about the Red Soxs. There is a good time had by all," he said. "This upcoming year was going to be different. "I decided that I don’t really want to fly those 2,000 miles to spend Thanksgiving with them. Then I found out my father has cancer, and he is too old to be treated for it. My brothers and I made plans to take turns visiting him throughout the year so he wouldn’t be alone. I called him up to tell him that I was planning to visit him this summer. I told him about all the things that I was planning to do with him during that trip. He thanked me for calling him, and then he asked if this trip would interfere with my Thanksgiving in Utah. A wave of guilt swept over me, and those 2,000 miles disappeared. I felt ashamed of my selfish desires to spend Thanksgiving in Utah."

It was then his revelation hit him; when he learned what it meant to be a humble man. His last statement to the graduating class was, "I hope that all of you take the opportunity to humble yourselves when life presents you the opportunity."

There are no two people who represent the class of 2007 better then the salutatorian, Eli Kenny, and the valedictorian, Patrick Abel. Kenny, in his speech, commented on how much he has learned about respect from his fellow classmates, and how much they all respect each other. "It is great no one has a lock on their locker because we respect each other so much." Abel spoke about the social lessons he had learned from the school. He claimed the school taught him about friendship, loyalty, and compassion.

The moderately filled church looked on as Father Kenneth Vialpando, pastor of St. Joseph Parish, and Mrs. R. Louise Price, principal of the school handed out diplomas to graduates.

The ceremony closed with an address from Holy Cross Sister Catherine Kamphaus, superintendent of Catholic schools. Sr. Catherine reminded everyone in attendance; "This years theme for Catholic Schools week was Catholic schools are the good news. Each student who attends a Catholic school is the good news of that school." She ended her address by telling the graduating class; "You are the good news of St. Joseph’s Catholic High School."