Since graduating from OLSHA in 2016 I have completed my bachelor’s degree in Medieval History and have been working as an assistant in property management. I am taking the next year to save and work on graduate school applications. In the future I hope to continue in the field of history at either Loyola University in Chicago or Northern Illinois University. My goal is to eventually earn a doctorate in Medieval History. As hobbies I enjoy drawing, singing, and playing guitar—that is, while I'm not studying or working.

I still involve myself in the community by helping to chaperone students going to the March for Life in DC, and by attending Crusaders for Life events. In addition to that I am involved in Civil Air Patrol as the Squadron Commander (visit gocivilairpatrol.com), and am an active member of the St. Mary's Oratory Choir.

OLSHA broadened my understanding of the Faith to a more philosophical level than I had before. It has also shown me how connected the liberal arts are to life and faith, and given me an appreciation for the humanities that I did not have before. And of course I cannot forget to mention strong friendships that have lasted beyond our time at OLSHA!

I think the best memories I have are of some of the fascinating field trips, such as the 2013 trip to Connecticut to visit Yale and hear Donald Kagan’s retirement address, and the visit to the Union League Club in Chicago to hear a presentation by historian Richard Brookhiser.

After graduating from OLSHA in 2015, I studied English Literature at Hillsdale College, where my favorite classes were Augustine the Teacher, Dante's Divine Comedy, William Shakespeare, and Classical Children's Literature. While I was there, I actively participated in the Hillsdale College Catholic Society, and had the privilege of serving for one year as its vice president.

Since I attended the academy from Kindergarten through twelfth grade, I have quite a few favorite memories. I am above all grateful to the academy for instilling in me a life of prayer. The habit of praying before each class and dropping everything to pray the Angelus and remember the Incarnation sustained me through college and have stayed with me to this day. Praying the Rosary every day for twelve years with my teachers and fellow students quite simply changed my life. My favorite memory of grade school has to be celebrating All Saints’ Day as a whole school, partially because I loved the upper school students (including my elder sister) and greatly looked up to them.

As for a favorite memory in high school, it has to be class with Mrs. Altham. Every year the high school was made up of very different kinds of students from very different backgrounds, some of whom had never been taught most of the ideas we studied at the Academy. I will never forget the day that Mrs. Altham got the class really excited about Homer, including one student who didn't seem to care before. Mrs. Altham's teaching struck me and so many other students with how important what we were doing each day was. What a gift it was to be drawn into the Ongoing Conversation, one that is both age-old and timeless. That is why I will be teaching the third grade at a classical charter school in Indiana, with the hopes of being able to draw more young minds into that conversation.

After I graduated from OLSHA in 2013, I pursued a degree in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). While there I encountered many viewpoints which were the antithesis of what I had learned and assimilated in high school. Because of the lessons I had learned and the discipline I had cultivated while at OLSHA, I was able to stand up for what I believed and to inform others of my knowledge and understanding of Western Civilization. I was also able to use the uniquely Catholic perspective of the world that was bolstered by OLSHA to gain a better understanding of the technical intricacies and beauty of the physical world created by God. The technical abilities I learned in college, along with the spiritual and intellectual competencies I had gained in high school, equipped me to advance my engineering career through positions with large aerospace companies. I worked on a myriad of aircrafts including passenger airliners, attack helicopters, and advanced air-dominance fighter jets. Throughout my years at UIUC I resolutely held my faith thanks to the firm bedrock reinforced in me at OLSHA. At college I served and assisted at the ordinary form of the Mass regularly, and was the master of ceremonies for the extraordinary form of the Mass. The strong faith that I was able to cultivate through the teaching at OLSHA has assisted me in my endeavors, both great and small. I regularly attend Mass, and I am a member of the parish council and men's group at my parish. The Catholic community, although secondary to the sacrifice of the Mass itself, is of the utmost importance and must be a breachless bulwark upon which the foundations of future Catholics and nations rests. I am grateful for OLSHA instilling this understanding in me. My favorite memory is class with Fr. Bartolomeo.

Achievements: ACT: perfect score of 36 in reading and overall score in the top 2% of the nation; Team-lead for NASA-sponsored RASCAL competition.