Exercises on Wednesday, June 5, 2013. The Baccalaureate Mass was held at Our Lady of Ransom Church in the morning followed by the Graduation in the early evening at Holy Family University.  The 173 members of the class of 2013 has recieved over 400 college acceptances, and earned over $14.4 million in scholarships.  

 

All Saint Hubert students will be required to read the two works listed beside their graduation year. The only exceptions are those students who are part of Advanced Placement courses where a separate assignment is required. Assessments on both works will be given to each student in class during the week of September 9^th . Only the sophomore Math assignment has an alternative assessment.

Copies of each book may be available for lending for a 3-week loan period at Northeast Regional, Bushrod, Frankford, Holmesburg, Katherine Drexel, Tacony, or Torresdale branches of the Free Library.

If you wish to purchase any of these books, Barnes & Noble has our reading lists. In addition, plenty of new and used editions can be purchased on Amazon.com. and Barnes and Noble.com.  Several are available as e-books.

Class of 2014:    English: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

                            Theology: The Great Divorce – C. S. Lewis

Class of 2015:    English: The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle – Avi

                            Social Studies: Until We Reach Home – Lynn Austin

Class of 2016:    English: Milkweed – Jerry Spinelli

                            Mathematics:  Select one chapter from one of the following:

                               Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers: and the Return of Dr. Matrix             

                                         by Martin Gardiner (or any other book by this author)

                                                                        OR

                               Math Trek: Adventures in the Math Zone

                                         by Ivars Peterson (or any other book by this author)   

Class of 2017:     English: Scribbler of Dreams – Mary E Pearson

                             Science: The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of                                                 

                                               Electricity and Hope – William Kamkwamba

Moved to cheers

One of 16 children born into a poor Honduran family, Iris Reyes-Bugg grew up in her adopted Philadelphia family -- and into a dynamic young woman determined to serve.

Phaith Magazine
Story by Lou Baldwin
Photos by Sarah Webb

Iris Reyes-Bugg, a junior at St. Hubert Catholic High School for Girls, poses proudly in front of her school.

When Iris Reyes-Bugg finished her presentation on the archdiocesan Catholic Charities Appeal at St. Leo Church in Philadelphia, the congregation spontaneously clapped. That’s unusual. People generally are not especially enthusiastic when someone is trying to get them to open their wallets. Maybe it was because she is so young – she is only a junior at St. Hubert Catholic High School for Girls but she certainly is articulate and passionate about her subject.

“Through Catholic Charities people can be a voice for people who can’t speak for themselves,” she said. “Whether you give time, talent or treasure, you are giving support for someone who needs it. As Catholics we act. We don’t just stand there, we do something. Catholic Charities is the best way for us to do something on a larger scale.”

If the congregation knew Iris’s background they probably would have clapped even harder. Born in San Juan Pueblo, Honduras, 17 years ago into a poor family with 16 children, she was adopted by her parents, Charlie Bugg and Estella Reyes-Bugg and brought to Philadelphia and raised in St. Hugh of Cluny and St. Peter the Apostle parishes.

The circumstances were an international calamity. Estella-Reyes Bugg, who works for archdiocesan Catholic Social Services, encountered the family in 1998 during a visit after Hurricane Mitch which absolutely devastated Honduras. In the course of her visit she befriended the family and ultimately adopted little Iris.

As a matter of fact she is now both her mother and godmother, because prior to the adoption she stood for her and a couple of her siblings at their baptism in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital. Iris’s childhood memories of Honduras are limited – for example visits to the nearby well for water, and the ride in the big airplane.

In Philadelphia Iris’s adopted  family included two older brothers and because her new mother was a native of Honduras, she grew up perfectly bilingual. Iris is comfortable speaking both English and Spanish, which is why she was chosen to give Catholic Charities presentations at St. Leo and Mater Dolorosa parishes, because both have English and Spanish Masses.

“Iris has been a blessing in our home, she is very good and very mature for her age,” Estella Reyes-Bugg said. “Whenever someone asks her to do something, she always volunteers.”

“My biggest motivation has been my mother since I was a little girl,” Iris said. “She would take me along to work when I didn’t have someone to babysit me. She has done a lot of community-service work and I shadowed her. My parents taught me to take leadership roles and be vocal about my opinions.”

Because Iris’s mother was a long-time director of the Cardinal Bevilacqua Center in Kensington, she also attended the after-school program there in her younger years, and it is one of the CSS programs she stressed in her Catholic Charities presentations.

It wasn’t just social service programs. Iris’s new family was thoroughly Catholic, with such things as prayer before meals, Mass and evening prayer a matter of course.  She knows many teens she encounters don’t have that training, but she said, “You have to be true to yourself. I grew up with spirituality.”

Becoming active in the parish and other outreach was also encouraged. Iris is a teacher in the PREP program at St. Peter’s, teaching the young children in grades one through three, another activity that keeps her centered.

Among her other role models, she counts Msgr. Hugh Shields, the former archdiocese vicar for Hispanic Catholics, and Redemptorist Father Kevin Moley.

“I call them my fathers,” Iris said. “If I was in trouble at home, my mother would say, ‘I’m going to call Father Moley or Msgr. Shields.’”

Two years ago her mother took her back to Honduras to become reacquainted with her birth family. Her dad is dead now, but she did meet her birth mom and her seven sisters and eight brothers, who range in age from their 40s to 11.  They gave her a book with everybody’s name, age, address, phone numbers and children of those who have married and now she keeps in touch.

Iris (left) chats with adoptive mom and dad Estella and Charlie, and adoptive mom Purificacion (far right), when Iris visited returned for a visit to her homeland in Honduras.

At St. Hubert she is a good student and a “Bambi Ambassador,” one of the students who welcome prospective future students at open houses or dances. Academically her favorite subjects are theology, English and Spanish. Even though she speaks Spanish very well, she studies it, she explains, to learn the grammatical structure and history. She has a passion for art, but knows that won’t be her career.

“I’m very interested in the medical field because I think through that I can continue to give back to the community,” she said. She doesn’t see herself as a surgeon, rather as a diagnostician. After establishing herself in the U.S., perhaps she would do some volunteer work in Honduras.

That’s way in the future. First there is college, and her preference would be a Catholic college, maybe St. Joseph’s or La Salle universities.

In the meantime there is volunteer work. She has helped out at archdiocesan Nutritional Development Services (NDS), where “she prepared a Power Point presentation on the challenges of living in Honduras for the Catholic Relief Services Rice Bowl Program and she helped with our fair trade sale,” said Anne Ayella, assistant director for Non-Government Services at NDS. “She is just a very sharing person, and you can tell she will go far and use her gifts very well.”

Meanwhile other volunteer programs Iris has worked with are at St. Edmond’s Home for Children and currently at a rehabilitation center on Roosevelt Boulevard in Philadelphia.

Clearly whatever the future holds it will include services to those with needs.

“I like to reach out to the less fortunate because I know someone reached out a hand for me,” Iris said. “You can never forget where you come from. I have eight sisters and seven brothers and I know there are times when they need something.”


http://phaithmagazine.com/2013/04/moved-to-cheers/ 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

School Ring Finds its Way Home After 70 Years 

MARCH 19, 2013, PHILADELPHIA – Arletta Pardoe Bateman, a member of the first graduating class of St. Hubert in 1942, visited the school today to retrieve her class ring.  Arletta gave it to a friend, John Dauplaise, in 1943. She hadn’t seen the ring since the day she gave it away over 70 years ago when she lived in Baltimore.

“I was thrilled to receive a call from John’s son, Mark, a few weeks ago telling us that he found a 1942 class ring,” said St. Hubert President Frank Farrell. “It was even more thrilling to hear that Mark wanted to return the ring to us so that we could try to find its owner.” John died about 10 years ago and his wife recently passed away. The ring was found in Mark’s parents’ home while looking through personal belongings. Mark believes the ring meant something to his father for having kept it for so many years and he felt as though he needed to make an effort to find the ring’s owner.

After Mark returned the ring to St. Hubert it was carefully inspected which exposed the unique initials “A.T.P”. This small detail was a key piece of information which allowed a quick search of the 1942 yearbook to reveal that “A.T.P” was Arlene Therese Pardoe. Amazingly, the Class of 1942 yearbook which was reviewed was donated by an alumna who kept tedious notes next to the names and photos of her classmates.  The name “Bateman” was handwritten next to Arletta’s photo.

This is where the Internet came in. “Once we knew her married name, the rest was easy,” said Farrell.  A Google search resulted in Arletta Bateman’s current address and phone number. Within a week of contacting Arletta, a meeting was arranged to return the ring to her today.

Arletta visited the school today accompanied by her brother, son and daughter, Bonnie Bateman Rambo, a 1963 graduate of St. Hubert. She was very emotional upon seeing the ring and commented, “Oh my God, I can’t believe it.” Making today’s event even

 more special for Arletta was having her great-granddaughter, Megan McGinley, a current Senior at St. Hubert, present. After 70 

years, a lifetime of memories, 10 children and over 80 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Arletta Pardoe Bateman is wearing her St. Hubert Class of 1942 class ring again. 

+++ Photos attached

CONTACT: Annemarie Szambelak, Director of Admissions, at aszambelak@huberts.org or Robin Nolan, Director of Institutional Advancement,  rnolan@huberts.org

###

Class of 2014- Diocesan Scholars

Sponsored by the Office of Catholic Education and local Catholic colleges and
universities, the Diocesan Scholars program honors students who excel academically
and who would benefit from beginning college work during their senior year. Each
scholar will be permitted to take, free of charge, two college courses each semester
on the campus of a nearby college or university. Scholars will complete the remainder
of the roster with regular courses at St. Hubert.

Hundreds of students, families, alumnae and friends of St. Hubert Catholic High School for Girls assembled at the infamous intersection of Cottman and Frankford Avenues in Northeast

Philadelphia on Sunday, February 24^th. The crowd walked in unison to a rally on the “Steps of Change” at St. Hubert. Our Bambies held signs, chanted "I believe that we are one..", sang the Alma Mater, the very same thing they did only one year ago.  St. Hubert President, Mr. Francis Farrell, St. Hubert Alumna and Advisory Board Chair Kathrine Ott-Lovell '92,  and Student Council President, Claire Ann Alminde '13 addresses the crowd.  The rally was  followed by a Mass of Thanksgiving in the school auditorium. This event was  in celebration of St. Hubert being saved from closure last February after dozens of similar rallies led by students and alumnae were held on the front steps of the school.  St. Hubert's Advisory and Alumnae Boards raised over $1.3 million in donations and pledges in the 51 days the school was slated for closure last winter. 

Thank you to everyone that joined us to celebrate this day, it was truly a statment that the tradition and sisterhood of the Bambies Spirit lives on. 

 2013-2014 Course Catalog
 

Team captured 3^rd place overall. Teresa Ortiz was named league MVP with 1^st place finishes in the mile and 3000 meters. 1^st team all-catholics were earned by Teresa Ortiz, Jessica Conway, Kelly Piecyk, Meghan Forsythe, Caitlin Stocklin and Carolyn Gerhardt. 27 all-catholics were earned overall by our team by the following athletes; CharCharel Saunders, Erin Love, Erin Fleming, Rosie Wilson, Allison Lorimer, Michelle Connerton, Marissa Olson and Kelly Bradley.