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For many, Ursuline is a multigenerational tradition
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From left, Brooke Conlin, Sammantha Bonacci and Katelyn Shells are all smiles at their graduation from Ursuline High School in Sunday’s Stambaugh Auditorium commencement. Ninety-five graduates received their diplomas.
YOUNGSTOWN
For many families, attending Ursuline High School is a multigenerational tradition. Lea Carroll and Molly Woodford, both of Austintown, who graduated Sunday, represent the fourth continuous generation of their families to have attended the 108-year-old Roman Catholic high school on the city’s North Side.
For Woodford, who attends St. Christine Church, the religious aspect of Ursuline is of great significance. “Our entire family is very devoted to our faith. We go to church every Sunday,” she said. “Everyone is bonded together at Ursuline, and it’s just passed down. ... It’s just something special.”
Woodford will study nursing at Kent State University and hopes to become a nurse anesthetist.
Past Ursuline attendees in the family are her mother, Debbie Woodford, and her late grandmother, Judy Roche McBride, and late great-grandmother, Katherine Coyne Roche.
“Tradition, respect and discipline are the intangibles that you get from an Ursuline education, combined with excellent academics and excellent athletics,” Debbie Woodford said. “Ursuline has it all. I couldn’t imagine putting my kids anywhere else.”
“I think it has very superior education compared to other schools, and also the tradition. When I was younger, I used to always wear my grandpa’s old Irish Ursuline hats,” Carroll said.
“It’s just such a family atmosphere,” she said, adding that the religious aspect of Ursuline is also important to her. Carroll attends Immaculate Heart of Mary Church and attended its grade school for eight years. “I like the continuance of a Catholic education,” she said.
She will attend Walsh University, a Catholic University in Canton, where she has a full-tuition scholarship and intends to major in government, foreign affairs and English, with a minor in communications. Her goal is working in government or attending law school, she said.
Her father, William Carroll; grandfathers, William Carroll and the late Donald Dobrindt; her grandmother, Ruth Coleman Carroll; and her late great-grandmother, Rose Conway, attended Ursuline.
“The Catholic religion is a big thing with our family. There’s a lot of spirituality in our family,” William Carroll said, explaining the family’s Ursuline attendance tradition. Catholic schools deliver a quality education with discipline, he said. “The religion ties in with the education and the discipline, so it’s a well-rounded tradition,” he added.
“Every single person at Ursuline counts,” Ruth Coleman Carroll said, referring to the individual attention students receive there. The quality of the education and the friendships students make there also make Ursuline special, she added.
Ten other graduates, who received their diplomas, represented the third continuous generation of their families to attend Ursuline.
They are: Marina Bermann, Sammantha Bonacci, Meghan Buckley, Ryan Cox, John Crowe, Tom Jones, Christine Kerrigan, Austin Kennedy, Daniel McClurkin and Anthony Rohan.
“I think that spirit of Catholicism and how it permeates the work of the teachers as well as the students makes that a very special home to so many people, and they want to keep coming back and experiencing that,” Dr. Nicholas Wolsonovich, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Youngstown, said of Ursuline. Dr. Wolsonovich is a former Ursuline principal.
With Mary Hafely playing the newly restored majestic organ, the graduation standard “Pomp and Circumstance” reverberated through the 1926-vintage Stambaugh Auditorium as the 95 graduates marched in the commencement processional.
John Tomko was the valedictorian. A state finalist in swimming during his junior and senior years, Tomko will study electrical engineering and computer science at Case Western Reserve University.
Christina Eusanio, a member of the student council executive board and National Honor Society Leadership Board, was the salutatorian. She will attend Mercyhurst University.
Commencement speaker was Dr. Clayton C. Petro, a 2003 Ursuline graduate and a general surgery resident at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland.
“We’re all brothers and sisters of Ursuline. You are from Youngstown, Ohio, and say that with pride, and you’re the Fighting Irish.
And when you walk out those doors, the rest of the world’s going to hear your thunder. God bless. Make us proud,” Dr. Petro exhorted the graduates.
“This school and the teachers in this room are the best in the area,” Dr. Petro said. “Parents, you got every penny’s worth because you cannot put a price tag on what these teachers, coaches and administrators bring to the table every single day, year after year.”
Dr. Petro earned his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from John Carroll University and his medical degree from the University of Cincinnati.