St. Monica Catholic School Graduates Outstanding Students

St. Monica Catholic School is proud to announce the 8th grade class of 2016 valedictorian, Chelsea Jane Abad and the class salutatorian, Sarah Eilene Sotelo.

Chelsea is the daughter of Michael and Clare Abad, and has attended St. Monica since Pre-Kindergarten. She has won the St. Monica Spelling Bee five times since she started competing in the 3rd grade. Chelsea was an officer in the Spanish and Technology clubs as well as a violin player in the school choir. She received the Outstanding Christian Athlete award as a player on the school basketball team and served St. Monica Church as an altar server. She participated as a student mentor in the P.A.L.S. program and on the PSIA Academic Team. She broke the school typing speed record four times, with her final speed being 128 words per minute with no mistakes. Next year she plans to attend the NEISD Engineering and Technologies Academy.

Sarah Eilene is the daughter of Stanley and Evelyn Sotelo, and she started attending St. Monica in Pre-School. She has competed with the PSIA Academic Team for the past 5 years, winning first place at district four times, and first place at the Texas state competition for the past three years in a row. Sarah Eilene is an officer in the Beta, Spanish, and Technology clubs. She participated as a mentor in the school P.A.L.S. program. She was an All-District player on the school basketball team and played piano and guitar in the church choir. Sarah Eilene was the recipient of several scholarships including the St. Monica PTC Scholarship, a Texas PSIA Honorarium Scholarship, and the St. Joseph the Benevolent Scholarship. She plans to attend Incarnate Word High School in the fall.

School vice principal, Mrs. Webster said, “The entire class of 2016 was such a blessing to our school, these two girls were just the icing on the cake. We are really going to miss these students next year.”

In addition to Chelsea and Sarah Eilene; Xoe Cano, Cody Castilleja and Matthew Valesquez were named in the top five students. Matthew also received the Msgr. Patrick J. Flanagan Christian Growth Award, and Cody was the eighth grade nominee for the James V. Mollicone Outstanding Leadership Award.