What is Catholic Schools Week at St. Bede?

You can see the differences just by looking around the school first thing in the morning during the last week of January. Students walk in the doors dressed like their favorite teachers, sporting plaid shirts, sensible skirts, fake beards, and other regalia of their academic stewards. There’s an excited chatter as students show off their interpretation of the day's theme. Faculty and staff members chuckle as they see their proteges walking around, marveling at the creativity and mirth of their students.

This sense of levity can be brought about by any number of spirit weeks at schools across the American midwest. But at St. Bede Academy, this is a feature of a week that means so much more to the school at large. Amid the fun and excitement of a dress-up week is the “reason for the season”; the celebration that comes at the end of every January. This is Catholic Schools Week.

According to ADToday, Catholic Schools Week was established in 1974 through promotion by the National Catholic Education Association and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The week was originally created to highlight schools in the Catholic tradition, often employing catchy phrases and other fun activities. As the years pass, each Catholic Schools Week highlights different themes and causes near and dear to those in the schools. Weeks normally begin with the celebration of Mass and emphasize community within the school itself. The ultimate goal is to celebrate the community found in a chosen school and highlight the positive academic, social, and spiritual impact that a Catholic education can have on a student.

At St. Bede Academy, our student government and campus chaplain, Fr. Dominic Garramone, lead the festivities of the week. Each class has a Mass celebrated, with a breakfast for the group after their communal worship and reflection. Fr. Dominic leads each class in worship and reverence for our shared community, while Mrs. Theisinger and SBASG organize a spirit week for the school to celebrate. Themes this week have included Decades Day, where we pay homage to the parents who sent our students to Catholic Schools, and Role Model Day, where students dress like an adult at St. Bede that they look up to.

When a student chooses to attend a school like St. Bede Academy, they ultimately become a member of something bigger than themselves. They join decades and generations of proud Bruins who unite in a pursuit of higher learning and an environment that encourages them to strive for excellence. During Catholic Schools Week, we celebrate this institution and so many others like it that give students a foundation in learning, faith, and community.

2024 Tax Credit

The 2024 Summary of Tuition and Fees paid to St. Bede Academy is now available from FACTS Management Co. The report is only available on-line.  Families must log in to their FACTS account on-line to print a Payment Summary for tax purposes which serves as your Receipt for Qualified K-12 Education Expense.   

To retrieve and print your Payment Summary visit, www.factsmgt.com and sign-in to your account.  Select View Details to the right of Payment Plan & Billing, and then click on the blue box, View Payment Summary. Once on the Payment Summary page verify the year is tax year 2024.  A printer-friendly report is available by clicking the Print button in the upper right-hand corner.

The report that is generated will provide fees, both extra-curricular and registration, and tuition paid both on-line to FACTS and to St. Bede Academy in the calendar year 2024.  

These instructions and the link to FACTS can also be found on the homepage of the St. Bede Academy webpage at st-bede.com.   If you have questions or difficulties logging in to your account please contact FACTS Management Customer Service at 866-412-4637. Other general questions can be directed to me at 815-250-0344 or jmarks@st-bede.com.

It is important to note that not all payments made to St. Bede for fees are eligible for the State of Illinois tax credit.  Only the Registration Fee which covers textbooks, lab fees and materials is deductible.

To claim the tax credit, you will need to complete the Education Expense Credit Worksheet in the Form IL-1040 Instructions.  Please refer to IL-Publication 132 if you need additional information or call the Illinois Department of Revenue at (800)732-8866.

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St. Bede Academy announces first semester honor roll

Melissa Bosnich, principal of St. Bede Academy in Peru, has announced St. Bede’s honor roll for the first semester of the 2024-25 school year.

Freshmen - Hope Antkowiak, Maks Baker, Landon Balestri, Alicia Barreras, Jackson Bogatitus, Gabriel Bunch, Isabella Camacho, Ty Carls, Tzu-Tao Chang, Kylie Coons, Ayla Coventry, Jameson Daley, David De La Torre, Nicholas Del Pilar, Olivia DePue, Sadie Dugosh, Quinn Entrican, Luke Fess, Bear Fitzpatrick, Gavin Fivek, Hannah Fritz, Leah Griggs, Haozhe Guo, Yitong Han, Nicolette Hanck, Mason Haskell, Connor Holly, Jieming Huang, Yizhe Huang, Jacob Inman, Areesah Joop, Payden Kelly, Sadie Leffelman, Kijah Lucas, Jyzel Martin, Gaby Martinez, Parker McClain, Valeria Mendez, Morgan Mercer, Johnathan Michael,  Yoltzin Morales Sanchez, Max Moreno, Teagan Mullane, Maksymilian Niedzwiedz, Lien Phan, Allyn Phillips, Brock Pikul, Nelle Potthoff, Olivia Raef, Addison Raffety, Graham Ross, Finley Rue, Mary Simonetta, Rayna Skinner, Elsie Soliman, Josephine Trujillo, Elida Untz, Preston Vasquez, Hanna Waszkowiak, Yitong Xue and Ryan Zusefin.

Sophomores - Faith Ankiewicz, Yesenia Avila, Demian Baker, Caleb Barto, Chloe Brandt, Sean Brayton, Brody Burris, Calen Cass, Geno Dinges, Kate Duncan, Jaylynne Finley, Kyra Finley, Grace Gahan, Eden Galvan, Daniel Garcia, Cecilia Giacalone, Raudel Hermosillo Jr., Brennen Hirst, Emma Huffaker, Yejun Jang, Lila Koehler, Ella Lamboley, Chenxuan Lin, Landon Marquez, Lucy Maus, Emma Mavity, Stuart McGunnigal, Stephanie Ni, Niko Pappas-Anniballi, Chase Riva, Olivia Ross, Ranbir Saini, Alaina Schulz, Ishvir Singh, Mackenzie Stanbary, Bryce Stuepfert, Alexandrew Tillman, Alec Tomsha, Judith Torres, Maleigha Trench, Ariana Villava and Kerstin Williams.

Juniors - Margaret Arkins, Alp Arslan, Ava Balestri, Genavyve Barnes, Landon Boggio, Lily Bosnich, Noah Buck, August Burr, Drew Carboni, Caden Carls, Chuanyang Chen, Anna Cyrocki, Emerald De La Torre, Jose De La Torre, Simona Desai, Haoxuan Du, Madeline Fabish, Gino Ferrari, Harrison Fess, Christopher Gedraitis, Ashton Gonzales, Mae Hagenbuch, Brody Hahn, Weston Heersink, Aiden Hermes, Zachary Husser, Isaac Kang, Bokyung Kim, Wanyu Liu, Breanna Martinez, Lili McClain, Ruby Michels, Ella Mudge, Thanh Nguyen, Sophia Ni, Jillian Pinter, Trajan Raffety, Xiangyi Ren, Carson Riva, Chipper Rossi, Sara Ruiz, Alyssa Savitch, Emma Slingsby, Lillian Soliman, Ryan Soliman, Shujie Song, William Sramek, Devin Steil, Miranda Torres, Julian Villava, Peiwen Wu, Xindi Wu, Hongsheng Yang, Ayla Yeske, Yannis Yong, Kian Zeller, Ruihan Zhang and Yijing Zhang.

Seniors - Teer Ao, Haiden Ator, Andrea Brandner, Adriana Buchanan, Qiyu Chen, Ziheng Chen, Garrett Connelly, Jordan Coventry, Trayger Davis, Alondra Delao, Lorelei Denny, Madalyn Dittmar, Ashlyn Ehm, Bailey Engels, Yibo Fan, Grady Gillan, Phillip Gray, Mirella Haskell, Halden Hueneburg, Elizabeth Huffaker, Kathleen Hunter, Tyler Jordan, Yuno Kawai, Maci Kelly, Sadie Koehler, Jaxon Kozak, Lin Le, Violet Lopez, Haohongze Ma, Haiqing Mao, Gavin Marquez, Jack Maschmann, Quinn McClain, Victoria Mendez, Jake Migliorini, Grace Millington, Adeline Mitchell, Mason Moreno, Aidan Mullane, Kaden Nauman, Ryan Nawa, Alivia Payne, Logan Pineda, Mason Ross, Analia Salas, Emma Smudzinski, Zixuan Song, Alan Spencer, Nhi Ton, Mina Trandinh, Arthur van den Berg, Samantha Wagner, Tyler Walsh, Abraham Wiesbrock, Kefei Wu, Solomon Zhang and Jinhao Zhao.

From the Chaplain's Office: Teaching Courtesy & Gratitude

This year, the chaplain’s office is emphasizing “Courtesy, Accountability and Reverence,” which ties in beautifully with the religion department’s annual exercise in gratitude. Each year, students in every religion class are issued greeting cards, notepaper and envelopes in order to write thank you notes: one for a teacher, one for a coach or moderator of a club, and one for a member of the administration or support staff.

“As a society we could do a better job at traditional practices of courtesy,” says Academy Chaplain Fr. Dominic Garramone, OSB, “and this is one way we can train our students to express gratitude in a formal but sincere way.”

Fr. Dominic began this practice with his own religion classes some years ago, but for the past few years has expanded it to the whole school. Students were allowed to choose the recipients of their notes, and many chose to write to more than one teacher or coach, or to write to parents or to grandparents as well. Many members of faculty and staff expressed how meaningful it is to receive these notes of gratitude.

Civics teacher Mrs. Manning expressed it this way: “We encourage the writing process with our students so they understand the importance of expressing ideas, and we use our words to show respect to them as an example of how others want to be treated. We use hundreds, if not thousands, of words daily yet not all of them have the same impact. I received some notes, and the time students took to write the message, however short or long, meant more than they will ever know. I hope they, in turn, realize the impact they have on me.”  

With the upcoming season of gift giving, Academy parents might extend the lesson beyond the classroom and encourage their children to write and send thank you notes in the days after Christmas.

Saint Bede hosts 7th graders for NET Day

One of the most enduring and beloved facets of the Illinois Valley community is its pronounced commitment to Catholic education, from preschool through high school graduation. On Dec. 3, seventh graders from Holy Family, Peru Catholic and Trinity Catholic Academy gathered in the Abbey Church for a day with NET Ministries.

The students participated in a day centered around Christ in the Eucharist and how to recognize God all around us. Saint Bede students participate in these day-long retreats each year, and this year we had the chance to partner with our fellow Catholic schools to share the experience. The NET Ministry team hosts small group discussions, relatable skits and activities and even partnered with Saint Bede’s Student Chaplain, Fr. Dominic Garramone, OSB, and Fr. Paul Carlson of Holy Family to host Adoration for students. From top to bottom, this retreat gave students a chance to grow in their faith in the same way Saint Bede students do each year.

“In talking about shared goals with principals and priests at other Catholic schools, our focus is to find ways to build alongside each other academically, spiritually and as a community. Hosting a NET day for seventh graders gives them a chance to learn about their faith in an accessible way, meet others in a Catholic school setting and find commonality with their peers”, said Director of Enrollment Management Jon Steben.

Want to learn more about Christian formation at Saint Bede? Reach out today to speak with Student Chaplain Fr. Dominic Garramone, OSB!