Affiliation of Sister Clare Wagstaffe, AFSC

On May 4, 2001, Sister Clare Wagstaffe, Director of Parent Relations at Saint Mary's College since 1994, received the highest honor given by the Christian Brothers when she was named an affiliate member of their Institute. Sister Clare joined the Saint Mary's community in 1980, and has served in Campus Ministry and as Dean of Student Development. Sister is the 32nd affiliate honored by the San Francisco District since 1888. (Photo courtesy of Saint Mary's College. With Sister Clare, l-r, Brother Craig Franz, FSC, Saint Mary's President, and Brothers Jerome West and Mel Anderson, FSC)

La Salle High School, Yakima, Graduates Its First Senior Class

In 1998, the District of San Francisco opened La Salle High School in Yakima, Washington, bringing Catholic secondary education to the Yakima Valley. In its first two years, La Salle became the largest private high school in the Valley, and its 140 students began the 2000-2001 school year at a new campus in nearby Union Gap. The first class of eleven La Salle seniors graduated on June 9, 2001. (Photo courtesy of La Salle High School)

District Sponsors Third Annual Adult Immersion Program Abroad

Twelve District of San Francisco educators traveled to Brothers' ministries overseas in June 2001 for a month of service on construction and renovation projects and in recreation programs for youngsters at Boys Town in Ragama, Sri Lanka, Boys Village in Batalagundu, India, and Boys Town, Madurai, India. Brother Mark Murphy, FSC, Delegate to India, described the volunteers' service as a major contribution to these important self-sufficiency programs. (Photo: Susannah Ruffu, left, Janis Hoffart, middle, and Gabriele Truhitte, right, faculty and staff members from Christian Brothers High School, Sacramento, at Boys Town, Madurai, June 2001. Photo by Janis Hoffart)

De Marillac Middle School Opens in San Francisco

Principal Catherine Ronan welcomed 20 sixth graders to the new De Marillac Middle School, which opened in San Francisco's Tenderloin neighborhood on September 4, 2001. The school is jointly sponsored by the De La Salle Christian Brothers and the Daughters of Charity, who together also conduct nearby Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory, and is named for the Daughters' founder, Saint Louise De Marillac. Signs of Faith, Spring 2002, will feature an in-depth article about this newest District initiative. (Photo courtesy of Catherine Ronan, Principal. De Marillac Middle School is directly right of the St. Boniface Church tower.)

Marek Zelazkiewicz of the Kosovar Refugee Student Support Project (KRSSP) at Berkeley's First Congregational Church sends word of the four young people who came to California from war-torn Kosovo and spent their senior year at Saint Mary's High in Berkeley in 1999-2000. Grese Sefaj worked for a year after high school, and has since returned to her hometown of Pristina, while Kujtesa Bejtullahu is leading a summer camp in Kosovo, training high school students in debating, "versus fighting," Marek stresses. She returns to Stanford with a full scholarship this fall. The young men, Er‘blir Kadriu and Ligrid Begolli, are working to earn tuition money to continue their studies at Diablo Valley College in Walnut Creek, and finished their first year there with 3.6 grade point averages. Grese shares, "Life gave me hard lessons, but I think they will just make me stronger and make me appreciate the good new days; I believe it will be easier for me to resolve problems and not lose faith." (Photo: Signs of Faith, Winter 2001)