By Maureen Smith
Almost 200 young men and women graduated from the four Catholic high schools in the Diocese of Jackson the week of May 18-24. The schools logged graduation rates of 95-100 percent, well above the state’s public school average and at least three of the schools report that all graduates are going on to college.

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The theme for Catholic schools this year was communities of faith, knowledge and service and this year’s graduating class reflected that in their achievements.

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Seniors took on a variety of service projects in 2013/2014, from Madison St. Joseph School’s dance marathon, which raised more than $11,000, to a Filipino-themed dinner to benefit Typhoon victims held in Vicksburg. In Natchez, students boxed more than 80,000 packages of food together. One senior at Cathedral took on the challenge of collecting a toy for every single child at Baton Children’s Hospital. These are just a few of the many tasks, large and small, that graduates completed to make their communities better places to live.
This year’s class was not lacking in academic honors either. They are going on to the Massechusettes Institute of Technology, Washington Lee University, Rhodes College, Spring Hill College and, of course, Mississippi State, Ole Miss and Southern Miss. At least two schools reported $3.9 in scholarships, an impressive number given the size of the classes.
In the following pages, Mississippi Catholic features some statistics from each class as well as highlighting the top students of each school. The staff of Mississippi Catholic offers congratulations and a wish for many blessings upon the class of 2014.