Alumni Stories

Fred Hijazi
Fred Hijazi, a Montessori student from 10 weeks old through 9th grade graduated from St. Catherine’s Montessori in 2003. He attended Bellaire High School in the APIB Program and graduated from there this past May. During his years at Bellaire, Fred was on the cross-country team where he served as captain of the team for two years. He belonged to several clubs, including the American Red Cross Club, the Amnesty International Club, where he was the secretary, and the National Honor Society. Fred graduated from Bellaire as a distinguished AP scholar as well as graduating cum laude in the top 10% of his class. Fred earned the IB diploma from Bellaire as well. During his 9th grade year at St. Catherine’s Fred did an internship in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Rice University. He continued this work throughout his high school years and ultimately wrote his IB research paper about this work.

Fred is a freshman this year at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He received grants and an academic scholarship for engineering students. He has joined the cross country team, a prestigious Division I team. Fred is also doing an internship in the Chemical Engineering Department at Vanderbilt. The lab he is working in is trying to achieve a more efficient process for converting radiant energy to electric current using photo system I from plant cells.
In addition to all of the above, Fred also earned the rank of Eagle Scout last year!! Fred is the son of Kathy and Mahmoud Hijazi. Kathy is one of the Adolescent Community teachers and Fred’s brother Zach is also a student here at St. Catherine’s. We are very proud of Fred and all of his accomplishments.

Matthew Chapman
Matthew Chapman graduated from St. Catherine’s Montessori in 2001. During his high school years he attended The Kinkaid School, graduating cum laude. Matthew was a member of the Latin Honors Society, the Cum Laude Society and the Senior Year Service Award Committee. During his junior year Matthew was chosen to do a summer internship with the Stanlin Foundation working on cancer research.

Matthew is now a sophomore at The University of Chicago where he is majoring in Biochemistry. While at school Matthew is a member of the University Symphony Orchestra as well as the University Motet Choir. For the last two summers Matthew has worked at the Reproductive Genetics Lab at Baylor College of Medicine.

Matthew stopped in to see the new school recently and was amazed at how beautiful everything was. He reminisced about his memories of the old school and even had time to take a picture with his past primary teacher, Sr. Edna Ann.

William Simpson
William Simpson graduated from St. Catherine’s Montessori in 2005, after spending 13 years here. He attends St. Pius High School and is in the 10th grade. During his 9th grade year, William was able to travel and work as an intern in the Youth Ministry office of St. Vincent de Paul Church. He was in charge of updating their web site. William feels that he would not have been able to do this internship at a traditional school.

At St. Pius William felt very prepared by his Montessori education. He found a group of friends within the first few months. During his first semester at St. Pius he made the honor roll. He is a member of the Junior Statesman’s Club. In his second semester, William ran for sophomore class representative and won!! Recently, he has been accepted into the National Honor Society.

William has also had a long time interest in scouting. He has completed his Eagle project and is finishing his last requirement to receive the rank of Eagle Scout.

Congratulations to William on all of his fine accomplishments! We are very proud of him here at St. Catherine’s.

Chelsea Willingham
Chelsea graduated from St. Catherine's Montessori in 2004 after starting here in lower elementary. She attended St. Catherine’s through the ninth grade.

Chelsea is now a junior at Incarnate Word Academy where she is very active in drama. Last year she performed in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and this year she is in The Odd Couple (female version). Her experience and love of drama comes from her performances in the Upper School productions. She was in Godspell, The Seussical and Guys and Dolls.

The experiences that Chelsea had here at St. Catherine's riding and supporting the MS 150 have given her the opportunity to start a Bike Club at Incarnate Word. The girls will continue to train for the ride and do fundraising on behalf of the MS Society to support their research. Their team will join ours for the ride in April, 2006.

Chelsea is very active in the youth ministry at her church and also serves as an Extraordinary Eucharistic Minister. Her summer was spent working as a lifeguard at Waterworld. She attributes her work skills to the internships that she did at St. Catherine’s during her ninth year. She worked at a Veterinary Clinic and the Museum of Natural Science. One of the study trips that Chelsea took during her time here was to the Florida Keys. She became very interested in Marine Biology and would like to continue this field of study in college. She is currently researching programs at The University of Hawaii @ Hilo, The University of Maine and Texas A&M at Corpus Christi.

Chelsea says she misses St. Catherine’s, especially the traveling and the close community.

Matthew Morris
Matthew Morris graduated from St. Catherine’s Montessori in 2000 after attending school here for 10 years. He is the oldest of the three Morris boys, all of whom have graduated from St. Catherine’s.

Matthew attended Strake Jesuit during his high school years and graduated suma cum laude from there in 2004. During his years at Strake, Matthew was a two year letterman in cross country and track, captain of the track and cross country teams during his senior year, a national merit scholar and an Eagle Scout. His summers during high school were spent life guarding at Willow Pool and then as manager of the pool. He was also a junior volunteer counselor at the YMCA Camp Pine Tree.

After graduating from Strake Jesuit, Matthew was accepted at the University of Notre Dame where he is a sophomore, majoring in mechanical engineering. He was on the dean’s honors list both semesters of freshman year. The summer after his freshman year he did an internship at Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. Currently he is an office assistant in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Notre Dame. In his spare time at school, Matt is involved in the Texas Club, where he is the social chair. He also helps with freshman orientation, and he plays baseball and basketball for his dorm’s intramural teams. He is a volunteer in the South Bend Community, leading a Cub Scout den comprised of less fortunate kids from the surrounding areas.

Matt writes to us and says - “When I am not in the library or computer lab, I enjoy hanging out with my friends and watching football every Saturday.
I think the best thing I learned while at St. Catherine’s was how to learn independently and work without direct instruction. I also think it taught me a lot about how to manage my school work.”