The Class of 2024 gathered in the gym on May 24 for the annual Junior Class Mass, an opportunity to reflect on and celebrate the last three years at Prep and to prepare to take on greater responsibility and leadership as seniors next year.
Following a welcome from Director of Campus Ministry Dr. Susan Woolever, the Junior Class processed into the room and took their place among waiting family, friends, faculty, and staff for a service presided over by Rev. Robert O’Hare, S.J.
“God has given you great power. He’s asked you to use that power for the benefit of your brothers and sisters as you enter your senior year,” Fr. O’Hare said to the Class of 2024 in his homily. “Prep echoes God’s invitation to you and encourages you to take up the mantle of prophet, who proclaims God’s love for all the world and proclaims God’s love in all their actions.”
Following the Liturgy of the Eucharist, Ms. Cynthia Mustafa of the Math Department offered a blessing for the Junior Class as they prepared to receive their class rings or medals.
“We ask that, as these rings are an unbroken circle, that they may continue to bond together as a class both now and in the future as they join the many men who have received an education here under the shadow of Peter,” she said.
To much applause, the students then lined up with pride to receive their rings and medals from the Campus Ministry staff, Principal Mr. Christopher Caulfield, ’03 and President Dr. Michael Gomez, Ed.D., ’91.
In his own closing remarks, Dr. Gomez reflected on the last three years, looking back to Prep’s transition to virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.
The Class of 2024 entered as freshmen that fall.
Dr. Gomez celebrated the resilience of the Prep community and urged the Junior Class to always remember how far they too have already come.
“When you look ahead to your future at Prep, and I hope even beyond, instead of being afraid of the darkness, afraid of the unknown, let’s just own it,” he said. “Let’s just stare right into it and go confidently straight into it, knowing that we, my brothers, are Marauders, and we will find the light together, together, together.”