A Letterman Jacket Rep will be here on Wednesday, Sept 29th at Lunch (11:05AM) to take orders in the quad. There is $150.00 deposit due at the time of the order. If you have any questions please contact Mrs. Watson in the Athletic Office at 818-654-1301 or email Mrs. Watson at dwatson@crespi.org.

 

The new September issue of CresCom is now available online in the School Publications Center.

Click here to download the September CresCom.

 

Crespi Carmelite will be hosting it's annual Back to School Night on Wednesday, September 1, 2010. The evening will begin at 7:00 PM in the Alumni Memorial Gym, and will commence roughly around 9:45 PM. We look forward to meeting will all of you soon!

 

Click here to read the annual letter from Fr. Tom Schrader.

 

By Erik Boal, Daily News Staff Writer

Local student-athletes receive state honors

Led by a trio of Harvard-Westlake girls, nine local student-athletes were recently recognized by Cal-Hi Sports for their success during the 2009-10 school year.

Although none of them received athlete of the year honors in their respective grade or division, they were on the short list of honorable mention selections.

In the Div. IV enrollment grouping, Harvard-Westlake graduate Nicole Hung was recognized for her accomplishments in basketball - helping the Wolverines capture a state championship - and tennis, where she reached the third round of the Southern Section doubles tournament with Isabelle Heller.

Chaminade's Brando Tessar, a football and baseball talent, was also recognized in the Div. IV category.

In Div. III, Oaks Christian had two individuals selected on the honorable mention list in USC-bound swimmer Chase Bloch and running back Malcolm Jones, a UCLA signee.

Crespi's Blake Stanton was also a Div. III honoree for his achievements in basketball and football.

On the list of the state's most accomplished sophomores, Harvard-Westlake's Cami Chapus and Amy Weissenbach, along with Royal pitcher Nancy Bowling were selected.

Chapus was the Div. IV state cross country champion, with Weissenbach placing fourth, both leading the Wolverines to their first team title and the division's fastest time in state meet history. Weissenbach was also the state 800-meter champion and Chapus helped Harvard-Westlake capture the Southern Section Div. II girls' soccer crown.

After being selected the state's top freshman softball player in 2009, Bowling received the same honor for the sophomore class this year.

Notre Dame freshman Khalfani Muhammad, who helped the Knights win their seventh Div. III boys' track and field title in nine seasons in addition to excelling on the football field, was honored among the state's top ninth-graders.

 

Curran brothers, Harry Welch to be honored by Crespi

Encino Crespi will hold its latest Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Oct. 9, and among the honorees will be pole vaulters Anthony and Tim Curran. Former football assistant Harry Welch, now the head coach at Santa Margarita, will receive the "Crespi Man Award."

Other inductees will be Dave Sehnem (baseball), John Cummings (golf), along with the 1973 championship track team and the 1962 football team.

-- Eric Sondheimer, L.A. Times

 

'Visions, Trips and Crowded Rooms' David Kessler's latest book chronicles what we experience before we die.

By R. W. Dellinger

David Kessler had to author three books on grief, the needs of the dying and death, meet Mother Teresa and work with acclaimed thanatologist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross before he could develop the maturity and muster the courage to write "Visions, Trips and Crowded Rooms - Who and What You See Before You Die."

"When you're starting out in your professional life, you want to make sure that you're doing credible work," says the vice president of patient support care services, which includes overseeing end-of-life care, pastoral care and social work, at Citrus Valley Health Partners. "If I would have said to anyone early on, 'You know, I've been noticing there's some visions going on here with our dying patients,' they would have thought I was crazy.

"After writing three books and being around people like Kübler-Ross and Mother Teresa, I hope that people will realize I'm just always reporting from what's happening at the end of life. I mean, if anything, I see myself as an end-of-life reporter because I know everybody's not going to be around the bedsides of the dying.

"I think there's a part of me that's become more courageous and more mature to say: 'You know what? Not only should I find the courage to share these stories, but it's actually a disservice by letting you believe your grandfather or grandmother, who was a very sane person, became crazy in his or her last moments of life,'" he points out. "I actually have a responsibility to say: 'Nope. This is a common phenomenon. I can't explain it. Don't have any interest in arguing about it. Accept it or don't.'"

The 51-year-old modern-day student of death, who runs the Citrus Valley Hospice program for the group of three hospitals in the San Gabriel Valley, conducted in-depth interviews with healthcare professionals, members of the clergy as well as individuals who had lost loved ones. They told him what it was like being at the deathbed of a patient, relative or close friend.

Eyes fixed on mom

The first shared experience reportedly was deathbed visions, most often of the dying person's mother or mother figure. Their eyes became fixed on something no one else in the room could see as they reached out their hands passionately, according to many witnesses of deathbed scenes.

A hospital supervisor who Kessler calls Nina in the 168-page book said her dying husband suddenly started talking to someone in his hospital room, although no one else was present. She clearly heard him say, "Mom, I can't believe you're here." Then he told his dead mother all about his living family. But the supervisor said the "most amazing part" was how her husband kept his eyes focused upward on a particular spot, like his mother was hovering there.

An oncologist was at the bedside of his brother, who had terminal cancer, with their mother. The patient began talking as if there was somebody right in front of him. And it soon became apparent that he was speaking to his father's parents, whom he'd been particularly close to. The conversation lasted for a couple of hours, with the patient smiling and calling both of his grandparents by name.

"As a doctor, it's very easy to dismiss this sort of thing until you see it firsthand," the oncologist told Kessler, adding, "Before the episode, there was a sense of struggle and tension in the air, but now there seemed to be only peace surrounding my brother. I truly believe that it was a result of my grandparents' visit as he died."

Kessler found that deathbed vision happenings shared a number of things. First, death had to be imminent, within at least a week and sometimes the same day. Only really dying people, in short, had visions. And these end-of-life visions were remarkably similar, with mothers or mother-like figures being the most likely apparitions.

"The more I thought about it, I wasn't as surprised as I might have been, because our mother ushers us through this threshold into life - and wouldn't she be there at the end?" he muses.

The healthcare administrator and former nurse stresses that the visions were more than hallucinations or the result of oxygen deprivation. He explains that hallucinations feel unsafe and don't make a lot of sense. The same can be said for the ramblings of people who are oxygen deprived. But the deathbed witnesses he talked to reported that the dying patient carried on a coherent conversation with the unseen visitor and then had no trouble switching back to people in the room.

Standing room only

Dying people spoke a lot about getting ready for a trip, which was the second commonly shared deathbed experience, Kessler found. And he emphasizes that the journey was a real concrete trip versus an abstract notion of heading into eternity. People asked "Where's my ticket?" or "What happened to my passport?" not "I'm about to go into the abyss of death."

A social worker at a major hospital shared a story about a woman in her 80s dying of congestive heart failure. After not talking for days, she sat up, waving at her daughter to look where she was pointing. "Don't you see them?" she declared in a steady voice.

"See who?" the daughter asked.

"I see a dock; and there are your dad, grandmother, grandfather and uncle."

When the daughter said she still didn't see anybody, her mother exclaimed, "Well, they're all there! They're standing on the dock, waiting for me to come across." After a pause, her gaze fixed again on the wall, she directly addressed the people in her vision. "There's no boat at the dock," she said. "How can I get to you?"

The next day, the elderly frail woman uttered her last words with an expression of complete contentment: "The boat is finally at the pier."

The final kind of deathbed experience reported to Kessler was crowds and crowded rooms, or what he likes to call the "standing-room-only experience." The dying often reported being in a room - or about to enter one - full of people, some of whom they didn't even recognize.

"We may think we only have a handful of friends, but what about all the people we've interacted with or shared a kindness with during our life?" he notes. "What if there's a lineage that we do gather with once again in the afterlife, in heaven? There was an awe of how many people were present for many of the dying."

Like the account a hospital chaplain told him of a middle-age woman who was losing her battle with ovarian cancer. Focusing her eyes upward at a corner of her bedroom, she said, "Oh, it's a door. A lovely golden door."

Then she told her mother, who was present, there were more and more people trying to push the door open. "Mom, look how many are here for me," she said. "They're going to help me."

The chaplain, who was also at her bedside, remarked at how happy she looked, especially when her mother said, "Dorothy, you can go with these folks if it's time."

Placing her hand on the dying woman, the chaplain assured her, "It's all right to go. I'll take care of your mom."

Shortly after, Dorothy died peacefully.

'It changes everything'

"You hear people say, 'we're born alone, we die alone,' but from the deathbed it doesn't seem like a lonely experience," observes David Kessler. "It feels like we're not going into the emptiness but arriving into a fullness."

After a moment, he confides, "One of the most starling things for me in hearing these stories is what if death isn't that lonely experience that we should all fear? What if we are comforted and loved and cared for - and there is standing room only? It changes everything. I mean, it reaffirms our faith."

You may have read or heard about the “Father’s Day” article published in the ATLANTIC last month.  It was titled, Are Fathers Necessary?, and subtitled, A paternal contribution may not be as essential as we think.  The article tries to dispute children’s need for fathers, providing opinion, rhetoric, and “studies."   One of the study authors is quoted as saying that available science cannot prove fathers’ usefulness as parents.  The article concludes: “The bad news for Dad is that despite common perception, there’s nothing objectively essential about his contribution. The good news is, we’ve gotten used to him.”

This article has garnered a great deal of blogging, with most people agreeing that it is a strange and sad thing for a national magazine to publish on Father’s Day.  The noted author Warren Farrell asks, “Can you imagine an article on Mother’s Day titled, ‘Are Mothers Necessary?’” His point is well taken:  it would not happen, nor should it.  Mothers and fathers are crucial to children of all species, in their own ways, and with various degrees of proximity and closeness to their offspring.  There is no “available science” that proves fathers are not as useful as mothers, just as there is no science that proves mothers are less useful than fathers.
Why, then, publish an article that bends and twists to try to make dads relatively useless?  What cultural impulse encourages that kind of rhetoric in an egalitarian, democratic, compassionate society?  Most difficult to answer:  can authors dislike children so much that they try to take people away from children’s lives whose main purpose for living is to protect, provide for, nurture, and advance those children?

A misandry (contempt for men) exists in our culture that needs to be talked about.  It is becoming entrenched, and dangerous to children.  “Contempt speech” lies in a gray area between free speech and hate speech.  While the Atlantic article can’t be called hate speech in a legal sense, we may need to talk about articles like these as “contempt speech,” if we are going to fully deal with the problem before us.  To publish “Are Mothers Necessary?” on Mother’s Day would be called misogyny (contempt for women).  We must realize that “Are Fathers Necessary?” is contempt for men.

-A newsletter from The Gurian Institute

 

The Gurian Institute

Over the last month, we have been fielding interviews regarding single sex classrooms in public schools.  A powerful and controversial innovation, single sex classrooms are growing in use, with such classrooms in more than 500 public schools as of spring 2010.  Media stories have been coming out over the last few weeks, most of which look at two questions:  Why the controversy?  Are single sex classrooms effective? 

We hope you’ll find our answers useful.  They are based on delivering professional development on how boys and girls learn differently to many of the schools utilizing single sex classrooms.  To get more detail , you might enjoy  SUCCESSFUL SINGLE SEX CLASSROOMS (Jossey-Bass/John Wiley, 2009), which grew out of our work in single sex schools and classrooms.

First question:  Why the controversy?  There is a belief that “separate” inherently implies “unequal.”  This is a belief based on past educational systems (forty or more years ago) when boys had more educational opportunities than girls.  Since, during this same past, boys and girls were sometimes separated, it was logical to assume that if they are separated now, in 2010, boys will get better education than girls.

Our answer to this fear and its base logic is relatively simple:  the past is past.  In our work in schools, the Gurian Institute has gathered success data from both co-ed and single sex classrooms.  We appreciate the hard work of the individual schools and districts that have provided evaluation and statistical data.  This data proves that the test scores of both girls and boys rise when teachers are trained in how boys and girls learn differently, and how to innovate on their behalf, including innovation in the single sex classroom option.

If you see people in the media or in the legal system attacking a school that is providing an optional single sex classroom, their major argument will be the look back into segregation models of the past.  Challenge that group to provide 1) more than their ideological opinion, and 2) data regarding actual harm to students in single sex classrooms that are run by well trained teachers.  We have seen no such data, and don’t expect to see it.

Second question:  Are single sex classrooms effective?  The answer is “Yes, if the educational culture around them—school staff, teachers, and parents—have been adequately trained in how to utilize the option.”  In SUCCESSFUL SINGLE SEX CLASSROOMS, you’ll find success data from schools in various states throughout the US.  Single sex classrooms can help increase test scores, increase grades, improve math/science teaching for girls (and boys) and literacy teaching for boys (and girls), and lower discipline referrals for both genders.  In urban areas of 90% or more free and reduced lunch, the positive results can be especially startling.

Everyone arguing for or against single sex classrooms is caught right now in an American culture that is transitioning beyond gender stereotypes into a real and deep understanding of what it means to be both female and male.

The Gurian Institute’s stand on single sex education is one based not only on common sense and belief in the reality of the present, but two decades of experience providing training to both co-ed and single sex teachers and schools.   Both co-ed and single sex classrooms can be highly effective.  American parents and kids deserve both options.

 

The Tidings Online

Following is a list of Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, listed by region, and including the class valedictorians and salutatorians. (Some schools accord comparable honors under different titles; others confer no such honors.)

SANTA BARBARA REGION
Bishop Garcia Diego HS, Santa Barbara (co-ed): 65 graduates on June 5. Valedictorian: Megan Leicht. Salutatorian: Scott Grimes and Julia Johnson.

La Reina HS, Thousand Oaks (girls): 90 graduates on June 12. Valedictorian: Janet Lee. Salutatorian: Kate Grode.

St. Bonaventure HS, Ventura (co-ed): 142 graduates on June 5. Valedictorian: Monica Gray. Salutatorians: Andrew Frank and Philip Digiglio.

St. Joseph HS, Santa Maria (co-ed): 133 graduates on May 30. Valedictorian: Mary Clare Rigali. Salutatorian: Zachary Gastelum.

Santa Clara HS, Oxnard (co-ed): 106 graduates on May 28. Valedictorian: Elizabeth Cabana. Salutatorians: Anthony Fleck and Janel Raab.

Villanova Preparatory, Ojai (co-ed): 63 graduates on May 29. Valedictorians: Natalie Pierson and Joshua David. Salutatorians: Simone Berkovitz and Casey Siuniak.

SAN FERNANDO REGION
Bishop Alemany HS, Mission Hills (co-ed): 352 graduates on June 5. Valedictorian: Andrew Noyes. Salutatorian: Christopher Barlog.

Bellarmine-Jefferson HS, Burbank (co-ed): 72 graduates on May 29. Valedictorian: Briana Escamilla. Salutatorian: Shannon Apsay.

Chaminade College Preparatory, West Hills (co-ed): 272 graduates on June 5. Valedictorian: Neal Cotter. Salutatorian: Christine Odabashian and Neeraj Chandra.

Crespi Carmelite HS, Encino (boys): 151 graduates on May 27. Valedictorian: Aaron Yuengert. Salutatorian: John Houselog.

Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, La Canada (girls): 98 graduates on June 6. Valedictorians: Mallory Howe and Marisa McKently. Salutatorian: Amy Trivers.

Holy Family HS, Glendale (girls): 78 graduates on June 4. Valedictorian: Marissa Fernandez. Salutatorian: Chynna Ladage.

Louisville HS, Woodland Hills (girls): 130 graduates on June 5.

Notre Dame HS, Sherman Oaks (co-ed): 268 graduates on June 5. Valedictorian: Erin Kilduff. Salutatorian: Yasamin Azarakhsh.

Paraclete HS, Lancaster (co-ed): 181 graduates on May 27. Valedictorians: Shanes Abeywardena, Vittorio Banez, Gerome Bermudez, Suzanne Craig, Andrew Dowling, Lyndsay Evans, Huda Farrukh, Arielle Gutierrez, Siera Hearne, Bradley Higgins, Kelsie Hitchler, Nikko Mendoza, Shannon Mies, Stephanie Miles, Steven Munassi, Tori Norville, Branden Owen, Bernardine Perez, Alyssia Plata, Maya Pocker, Kyle Rector, Jeleena Santillana, Jason Worden and Shivam Zaver.

Providence HS, Burbank (co-ed): 108 graduates on June 5. Valedictorian: Justine J. Ko. Salutatorian: Anna Cosima Cabrera.

St. Francis HS, La Canada (boys): 162 graduates on May 29. Valedictorian: James Jeffrey Krasner.

St. Genevieve HS, Panorama City (co-ed): 129 graduates on May 14. Valedictorian: Michelle Labininay. Salutatorian: Laura Rey.

SAN GABRIEL REGION
Alverno HS, Sierra Madre (girls): 57 graduates on June 11. Valedictorian: Melody Bueno. Salutatorian: Lana El Farra and Cheryl Iwamoto.

Bishop Amat HS, La Puente (co-ed): 325 graduates on June 4. Valedictorian: Samantha Mojica. Salutatorian: Anna Dimitruk, Alexander Pimentel and Jessica Gonzalez.

Bishop Mora Salesian HS, Boyle Heights (boys): 110 graduates on May 28. Valedictorian: Uriel Rafael. Salutatorians: Patrick Crespo and Sergio Talome.

Cantwell Sacred Heart of Mary HS, Montebello (co-ed): 132 graduates on June 10. Valedictorian: Valerie Carrasco. Salutatorian: Jobanna Castro.

Damien HS, La Verne (boys): 266 graduates on May 22. Valedictorian: Cory Cooney.

Don Bosco Technical Institute, Rosemead (boys): 145 graduates on May 22. Valedictorian: Jason Wang.

La Salle HS, Pasadena (co-ed): 176 graduates on May 28. General Excellence Award: Julia Barrero.

Mayfield Senior School, Pasadena (girls): 77 graduates on June 6. Mr. & Mrs. Thomas P. Pike Award: Nicole Ming Chee Chang. Cornelia Connelly Award: Sang-Min (Angie) Kim.

Pomona Catholic HS, Pomona (girls): 48 graduates on May 25. Valedictorian: Mary Miller. Salutatorian: Alexandria Alba.

Ramona Convent Secondary School, Alhambra (girls): 91 graduates on June 5. Salutatorian: Shanna Salvador.

Sacred Heart HS, Lincoln Heights (girls): 70 graduates on June 2. Valedictorian: Patty Medina. Salutatorian: Grecia Ramos.

St. Lucy's Priory HS, Glendora (girls): 195 graduates on May 23. Top students: Jennifer Kavak, Stephanie Gutierrez and Veronica Jove.

St. Monica Academy, Pasadena (co-ed): 10 graduates on June 10. Valedictorian: Molly Boles. Salutatorian: Rebecca Bessette.

San Gabriel Mission HS, San Gabriel (girls): 60 graduates on May 28. Valedictorian: Nathalie Sanchez. Salutatorian: Klariz Lazo.

OUR LADY OF THE ANGELS REGION
Bishop Conaty-Our Lady of Loretto HS, Los Angeles (girls): 73 graduates on May 28. Valedictorian: Gladis Romero. Salutatorian: Christina Romo.

Cathedral HS, Los Angeles (boys): 178 graduates on May 29. Valedictorian: William Velazquez. Salutatorians: Aaron Sandoval, David Tababa, Joel Solis and John Castellanos.

Immaculate Heart HS, Hollywood (girls): 136 graduates on June 2. Distinguished Scholar: Alyssa Capili.

Loyola HS, Los Angeles (boys): 191 graduates on June 5. Valedictorian: Ike Moses Dashiell Silver. Salutatorian: Kenneth Albert Patricia.

Marymount HS, Westwood (girls): 105 graduates on May 29. Graduation Speaker: Heather Regen. Invocation: Adrienne Zubia.

Notre Dame Academy, West Los Angeles (girls): 106 graduates on June 5. Valedictorian: Katrina Kardassaksi. Salutatorian: Bridgette Barden.

St. Bernard HS, Playa del Rey (co-ed): 88 graduates on June 4. Valedictorian: Ernesto Nunez. Salutatorian: Temilade Adesina.

St. Mary's Academy, Inglewood (girls): 68 graduates on June 12. Valedictorian: Jeanne Nwagwu. Salutatorian: Stephany Santoyo.

St. Monica HS, Santa Monica (co-ed): 126 graduates on May 27. Valedictorian: Deborah Mariscal. Salutatorian: James Thomason.

Verbum Dei HS, Watts (boys): 62 graduates on June 10. Valedictorian: David Price. Salutatorian: Rodrigo Morales.

SAN PEDRO REGION
Bishop Montgomery HS, Torrance (co-ed): 282 graduates on May 28. Valedictorians: Elizabeth Arevalo, Kevin Di Pasupil, Erika Holmbeck, Anthony Lubbers, Annette Martin, Edward McLaughlin, Viraj Panchal, Andrew Petersen, Teresa Puente, Leslie Salisbury and Stephanie Zamora. Salutatorians: Taryl Crabtree and Leslie Salisbury.

Junipero Serra HS, Gardena (co-ed): 147 graduates on June 3. Valedictorian: Faye Villaroman. Salutatorian: Melina Oden.

Mary Star of the Sea HS, San Pedro (co-ed): 118 graduates on June 4. Valedictorian: Katrina Ang. Salutatorian: Gabriele Szeibert.

St. Anthony HS, Long Beach (co-ed): 66 graduates on June 5. Valedictorians: Breana Panaguiton and Tian Walker. Salutatorian: D'Ante Brown.

St. John Bosco HS, Bellflower (boys): 206 graduates on May 22. Valedictorians: Travis Athougies, Robert Alvarez and Jason Pillon.

St. Joseph HS, Lakewood (girls): 199 graduates on June 6. Valedictorian: Gemalene Sunga. Salutatorian: Judith Martinez.

St. Matthias HS, Downey (girls): 70 graduates on June 6. Valedictorian: Maritza Garcia. Salutatorian: Sonia Garcia.

St. Paul HS, Santa Fe Springs (co-ed): 164 graduates on June 4. Valedictorian: David Chavez. Salutatorian: Alejandra Reynoso.

Ed. Note: Photos were provided by the schools.