AN E-NEWSLETTER FOR BORGIA ALUMS
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A Message from Fr. Mike Boehm
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Dear Alumni,
As we approach Thanksgiving, I am full of gratitude for the gift of being here at St. Francis Borgia Regional High School. I am also thankful for your prayerful and financial support of your alma mater. Without your help, we simply could not provide our students with a solid education and formation in our Catholic faith.
Indeed we have much to celebrate and be grateful for around Borgia these days! Our girls volleyball team and cheerleaders won State! Our girls cross country team qualified for State, as did three runners from the boys team. The swim team had several individuals and relays qualify for State, and our football Knights made it to the District Championship game! Our Theatre department just finished their outstanding performances of the Fall plays,
Plays in 10,
directed by Clayton Smith '01 and
The Distracted Scholars Guide to Literature and Drama
, directed by Veronica Weiskopf '20.
We also celebrate the successes of our students in the classroom daily and do our best to help them develop their intellectual gifts and moral responsibility to be strong Catholic and Christian leaders. Borgia continues to do what it has always done – bring out and celebrate the best within all of us! We can certainly be grateful for that!
Know of our gratitude for you. Please continue to pray for our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends who make up our Borgia Family so that we can all grow in faith, hope, and love.
I wish you and your families a blessed, safe, and happy Thanksgiving!
Fr. Mike Boehm
President/Chaplain
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Make A Difference This Christmas
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As Christmas approaches, we hope that you remember St. Francis Borgia Regional High School in your holiday giving. It is during this joyous season that we reflect on the blessings we have, and for many of us, the time we spent at Borgia as students has made a huge difference in our lives. Please consider making a personal gift to our school, or for the person who simply has everything, make a gift to our school in his/her honor.
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Every gift matters!
Won't you decide to make a difference
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Each year St. Francis Borgia Regional High School gives away $25,000 in cash prizes through our annual Borgia Mega Raffle. There are $1,000 drawings on the 1st and 15th of each month and an additional $1,000 drawing in October to celebrate the Feast of St. Francis Borgia. In addition, each student who sells a winning ticket receives lunch credit for a week.
Tickets for the 2020 drive are being sold now until 11:59 p.m. on January 6! You may purchase your ticket(s) from one of our students or online by clicking the link above. Our goal is $136,000, which will significantly help to keep our tuition affordable for all of our families.
If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact Bridget (Schulte) Callahan '92, Director of Advancement, at 636-239-7871 ext. 123 or bridget.callahan@borgia.com.
October Raffle Winners
October 1 - Mike Banderman sold by Jenna Ulrich '22
October 10 - Aaron Dobsch '21 sold by Hannah Dobsch '20
October 15 - Karen Day sold by Scott Bonastia '19
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This year's annual dinner auction will be held on Saturday, February 15, 2020.
Luau Knights is being chaired by Christine (Groeper) '97 and Chad Skornia '96. Their children are Courtney '21 and Connor '22.
Our co-chairs for this year are Carla and Alex Filla. They also have two children here. They are Gabriella '21 and Cecilia '23.
Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks.
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Our grandparents are a huge part of our Borgia Family, and we are thrilled to have an opportunity to honor them!
One way we do that is with our annual Thanksgiving Mass and Grandparent Gathering. This year's event was held on Friday, November 22. This special day included Mass and a reception with our students and their grandparents.
The Mass also featured a slide show of photos of our students with their grandparents.
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Annual Catholic Appeal Essay Winners
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Each year, juniors in every Catholic high school throughout St. Louis are invited to write an essay on the Annual Catholic Appeal and stewardship. The students describe how they learn from those who have made sacrifices for them and other people in their lives who inspire them to give back.
This year's winners from SFBRHS are juniors Maria Hellebusch ($1,000 scholarship), Gabrielle Mattli ($750 scholarship), and Jacob Lierman ($500 scholarship).
Each year Borgia receives $130,000 from the Annual Catholic Appeal. These funds are earmarked toward keeping our tuition as low as possible. The generosity of this gift affects every family at Borgia.
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Class Gifts to our School
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In celebration of their 50th Class Reunion, the Class of 1968 made a $500 donation to our school. This gift was used to refurbish and reupholster five of the ten church pews throughout our building.
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The Class of 1969 made a generous gift of over $1,700 to our school in celebration of their 50th Class Reunion held in September. This donation made it possible for us to refurbish and reupholster five of the ten church pews throughout our building. In addition, we were able to replace an old park bench in the front of our school and add a beautiful cherry tree to our campus.
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After celebrating their 20th Class Reunion, the Class of 1999 made a financial gift to the Borgia Annual Fund in honor of this milestone. This gift will help keep the tuition at our school affordable for all families.
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In remembrance of their deceased classmate, Owen J. Lamb, the Class of 2014 dedicated a newly-planted cherry tree in his memory. This gift was a special way to commemorate their 5 year reunion.
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CHEERLEADING
STATE CHAMPIONS!
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VOLLEYBALL
STATE CHAMPIONS!
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GOLF
10-4
Sectional Qualifiers
Hannah Dobsch
Kennedy Lange
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SWIMMING
State Qualifiers (Team)
Cole Fletcher
Andrew Haberberger
William Jett
Ryan Kluesner
Carter Lange
Jonah Little
Zach Posinski
Alan Weidemann
State Qualifiers (Individual)
Aidan Garlock
Gabe Rio
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CROSS COUNTRY
State Qualifiers (Team)
Lauren Dickhut
Natalie Guehne
Sarah Matt
Hannah Menges
Grace Turilli
Ainsley Virtudazo
Callyn Weber
State Qualifiers (Individual)
Ben Juengling - Medalist
Drew Snider
Nicholas Weber
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Click logo above for details.
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What are you currently up to?
Currently, I run Apogee Promotions, a concert promotion company that I founded in 2017. While I attend Belmont University in Nashville, TN, I run the company full time. We are based out of Nashville, but also operate in St. Louis. We are dedicated to keeping Nashville’s thriving music scene alive, while bringing “big name” talent to St. Louis as well. We operate similar to the major concert promoters such as LiveNation or AEG Entertainment. Concert promoters bring the whole concert together, therefore, we book the talent through the agents, book the venue, and then sell the tickets. Our job is to sell enough tickets to pay off the artist, venue, advertisements, etc. We work with most major venues in Nashville and St. Louis, and this summer we launched St. Louis’ first premium rooftop live music experience atop Angad Arts Hotel, the brand new, nationally acclaimed arts hotel in the Grand Center Arts District of St. Louis. The series is a ten date intimate rooftop concert series on select summer Fridays that has featured Rayland Baxter, Great Good Fine Ok, Christone “KINGFISH” Ingram, and more. The company has expanded to five individuals. We have a production coordinator who handles all the production such as lighting and sound, a media director who’s focused on photo/video and social media, a creative advisor, legal advisor, and then myself. I handle all the artist and venue relations, as well as being the President of the company. Recently, I have been focused on booking our upcoming schedule, and we are looking forward to a busy fall and winter.
Tell us about your education post high school?
After I graduated from Borgia, I began attending Belmont University in Nashville, where I am a Music Business and Entrepreneurship Double Major. During my time at Belmont, I have learned much about the music industry as well as being exposed to a plethora of industry professionals. Being in a city such as Nashville, that is currently exploding, is very exciting, especially for my business. Nashville has always been “Music City,” but the growth is still extremely exciting. Through Belmont, this past May I had the opportunity to go to New York City for a few weeks and meet with industry professionals, including those at WME and Paradigm (Talent Agencies), LiveNation (Concert Promoters), Madison Square Garden, and Hammerstein Ballroom (Venues) and many more. The trip gave me a chance to further my relationships in the industry. Belmont does a great job at connecting their students with current industry professionals as well as giving them great experiential learning opportunities. I feel very blessed to be able to attend such a great institution, and I am looking forward to my Junior and Senior years.
What was your favorite memory of high school?
It’s extremely difficult to choose a favorite memory from high school because I have so many. I genuinely enjoyed my time at Borgia and will forever be grateful to have had such a great high school experience. While it’s impossible to narrow it down to one memory, I will say that some of my fondest memories come from the Friday nights in fall where I got to play the drums alongside some of my best friends (L. Boland ’17, M. Kleekamp ’17, S. Haddox ’17, C. Kriete ’17, J. Politte ’18, J. Hellebusch ’18, N. Levinson ’18 and many more) while watching my brother (D. Raftery ’15) on the field play football. Anyone who knows me knows that I love music, drums in particular, and football. I have a lot of wonderful memories from those nights, and I will cherish them forever.
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How has your Borgia education helped you in your life?
My Borgia education has helped me in countless ways. What I learned from the classes, as well as the connections I made at Borgia, have positively impacted my life. The courses I took at Borgia gave me a strong foundation in my general studies and have helped me excel in all my Belmont courses. Being able to take the SLU 1818 classes my junior and senior years was a great way for me to learn advanced topics and save time and money in college. The clubs and organizations Borgia has available to join are exceptional as well. Having the opportunity to join Future Business Leaders of America, and eventually become the President, gave me a chance to learn about entrepreneurship early in my high school career. Not only have the classes and clubs helped me, but the teachers have made an effort to connect me with those in my desired industry. Mr. Bitzer connected me with three contacts in Nashville, one of whom I regularly do business with, before I even got to Belmont.
What is the great takeaway from your Borgia education?
I learned so much from Borgia. While I feel as if it provided an above average education, I learned so much more. I believe education is much more than what one can learn from “the books.” Borgia taught me so much about life, relationships, etc. While the video production program taught me how to operate a camera, it also taught me how to work in a team to achieve a big goal—a live studio news program, The Knightly News. Being in the band bettered my skills of playing the drums, but it also helped me learn how to become a leader, when I became section leader my senior year. Mr. Caldwell did a phenomenal job of teaching me American History, but he also taught me how that history relates to today’s society and how we can become a better U.S. Citizen and human. So, if there is to be one great takeaway from Borgia, it’s that there is so much more to learn than what is learned from the textbooks, lectures, etc, and Borgia did a great job of doing that. Borgia helped me become who I am today.
If there is one word I would use to describe Borgia, it would be ?
PASSIONATE - Whether it be the passion Mr. Caldwell has for history, Mr. Jasper’s passion for music, or Mr. Bitzer’s passion for teaching, everyone in the school has a passion for what they do, and it’s truly inspiring. Seeing the teachers and other staff be so passionate about what they do, made me want to pursue something in my life that I’m passionate about. I believe it helped me immensely in starting my company and what helps me operate it on a daily basis. Everyone at Borgia made it a priority to give their all to help the students succeed, and being able to witness that has inspired me to try my best in everything that I do today. Not only were the teachers passionate about what they do, but the cafeteria ladies always showed up with a smile and seemed to thoroughly enjoy preparing meals for the students, Fr. Kevin seemed so enthused to deliver his sermons to the students, and the alumni are so passionate about giving back. Most everyone in the Borgia family is passionate about the school and what they do, and I feel lucky to be a part of one big family that I know will forever be there for me.
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Audrey (Weyer) '42 and Fred Fuller '42
Make a Gift to Our German Class
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German teacher Andy Gross and his German II students recently welcomed Diane Accurso to Borgia. Diane is the daughter of Audrey (Weyer) ’42 and Fred Fuller ’42. After Audrey’s death in 2017, Borgia received a donation from the Fuller estate. Mrs. Accurso wanted to ensure that the donation symbolized the life of her parents, and in a way that could impact the most students long-term. Mr. Fuller spent several years in Germany working for the international division of Aldi’s, so a donation to the German department here at Borgia seemed the most fitting. Mr. Gross got to work improving his classroom space with comfortable seating and lighting for reading and studying, and purchasing some quality shelving to house his existing book collection. Over time, Mr. Gross has also used the estate gift to add to his library, purchasing books in German that are translations of English works or are unique German books in the German language. He’s also purchased books for entry-level readers, some with side-by-side translation, and some small book sets. Additional books were purchased that focus on German culture, language, and history which are written in English.
Mr. Gross has included his students in the book selection process, letting them pick books based on their interests, which they have enjoyed. The students love how the classroom environment has become more inviting and conducive to relaxed reading and learning. Future purchases with the estate gift include more books and additional shelving, and supplies and technology to include German learning tools for eBooks, eReaders, and programs for the iPads. After the German II students and our visitors enjoyed some German sweets, they gave a presentation, sharing their enthusiasm for the books and the classroom supplies, concluding with a tour of the classroom and the campus.
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Welcome to another exciting year of Borgia Athletics. Together, let’s always, and in all ways, celebrate the efforts of our players and coaches as they strive to make Borgia #1 in class, style, sportsmanship, and competitiveness. Go Knights!!
Click on the logo at right for a comprehensive sports schedule.
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Matt Pickens '00 (Nashville, South Carolina) was named the 2019 Championship Goalkeeper of the Year.
Click on the photo (left) for more details of this award.
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St. Francis Borgia Regional High School
1000 Borgia Drive, Washington, MO 63090
P: 636-239-7871
F: 636-239-1198
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