Even though the school year isn’t quite over, the class of 2019 is preparing for their new leadership roles as next year’s seniors.

After the rigorous application process, 30 senior advisors and 24 peer ministers have been chosen to lead the school. Narrowing down the applicants was no easy feat for Mrs. Lang and Mr. Struttmann.

“It was a difficult process because they were all good. We had great candidates. Trying to go through the selection process, meeting with teachers, and seeing who would fit our student body the best and lead them closer to Christ was very difficult,” said Mrs. Lang.

The new peer ministers will be in charge of planning retreats, masses and other faith-based activities around school next year. Although they are a group of people with diverse interests and backgrounds, one thing is clear: they are all very passionate about helping others grow closer to Christ.

“I’m passionate about sharing my faith and helping others grow closer to Christ. I’ve always liked bringing joy to other people and through peer ministry, I’ll be able to do that. Someone once told me everything you do should help the other person get to heaven. I feel like a big part of peer ministry is, in this hostile, crazy high school environment, giving time to help kids spend time with Jesus and help them get to heaven. Most of all, I love Jesus, so that’s probably the biggest reason I chose to apply for peer ministry,” said peer minister Nick Bone.

“I chose to apply for peer ministry because this year’s peer ministers have really opened my eyes to a lot of things I didn’t know and helped me grow in my faith. I’d love to connect with the other grades and help them to grow as well,” said junior Mackenzie Ballard.

While the campus ministers were busy choosing new peer ministers, another group was hard at work to choose the senior advisors for the incoming freshmen.

“We had a great deal of seniors apply this year which made it really difficult because they all were really, really good applicants. We also have to work with the peer ministers applicants and fight for who we want. We look at their applications, their recommendations and their resumé of their leadership and their work to find who makes the best fit. We then look at the number of incoming freshmen and decide how many senior advisors we choose. This year was really hard because we had a number of great applicants we had to say no to,” said Mrs. Findley.

The senior advisors help create a welcoming environment for the incoming freshmen. The candidates are driven and want to make a difference in the lives of their advisory.

“It would be so cool to be a role model for someone because my senior advisors were a role model for me. I love being friends with underclassmen, learning more about the struggles that they face and helping them to get through it. I’ve gone through a lot of hard times in high school so I’d like to be there for my senior advisor class and let them know that they have someone to talk to and somewhere to go that is a safe place,” said junior Alyssa Niehaus.

“I think the most rewarding part of being a senior advisor will be knowing that I am helping others to automatically have a friend that they can talk to and feel comfortable around,” said Maddie Herbert.

The soon-to-be seniors are certainly ready to accept their new roles. We as a school are in good hands.