For the fifth year in a row, Saint Stephen’s Latin students returned from the National Junior Classical League’s annual convention with national championship recognition. Sophomores Tyler Kadivar and Michael Thomas were part of the Florida team that won the title at the Intermediate Level of Certamen – a Jeopardy-style quiz. The convention in late July brought together more than 1,200 students from around the nation in Fargo, N.D. for academic testing, creative arts projects (including oral and written competitions) and athletics. As usual, Saint Stephen’s students shone brightly in all three parts of the competition, with 19 students collecting at least one top-10 finish. Kadivar and Thomas added their names to the list of consecutive Saint Stephen’s national champions that already includes: Joseph Class, Ethan Leuchter, and Maryann Placheril (Advanced 2015); Kassandra Haakman (Novice 2016), Matthew Thomas (Advanced 2017), and Sophia Berry (Novice 2018).

Thanks to the many generous donations from parents at the end of the 2018-19 school year and the inventory that remained following the closing of the Community Thrift Shop, we have dozens of used – but still very good quality – Saint Stephen’s logo uniform shirts, pants, pullovers, and more available for new and returning Lower and Intermediate School families. If you are interested in these items, please plan to stop by on Thursday, Aug. 1 in the Campus Center Library starting at 9 a.m. The clothing will be available at no cost for as long as it lasts.

The 71 members of the Class of 2019 proudly received their diplomas on May 25 at Neel Auditorium on the campus of State College of Florida. The class was highlighted by four National Merit Scholar finalists and a National Hispanic Scholar. As always, every member of the class was accepted to a college or university. Of the graduates who identified a first-choice college, 92-percent were accepted to that college. Two graduates were awarded their university’s top academic scholarship, paying full tuition plus research and/or study abroad grants. Nine graduates were offered Honors College/Leadership program enrollment at their chosen college/university. Five graduates were recruited to play intercollegiate sports: football, golf, soccer, and swimming. In all, the class earned more than $6-million in merit aid and $1.1-million in Bright Futures awards.

Falcons head baseball coach Mike Verrill has been selected for induction into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame. Mike coached high school baseball for 20 years in the state and also led the program at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. The induction ceremony is set for July 28 in Portland and he will also be recognized on July 27 at a Portland Sea Dogs (Boston Red Sox AA minor league affiliate) game at Hadlock Field. The Maine Baseball Hall of Fame was founded in 1969 to honor players, coaches, umpires, organizers and benefactors who have achieved prominence in, or made valuable contributions to, baseball in Maine. Verrill has coached baseball, softball and girls basketball at Saint Stephen’s.

The Falcons boys and girls tennis teams dominated the 1A-District 9 tennis tournament (April 15-16) at the Payne Park Tennis Center in Sarasota, winning all four doubles titles and nine of 10 singles to advance to regional play. The boys (Kevin Jiang, Max Damm, Gleb Ibragimov, Max Bonte and Max Petrov) registered a complete sweep to capture their first district championship since 2017. The girls (Paradise Traub, Laura Perazzolo, Maria Petrova, Autumn Sun and Ella Dalzell) won every match but No. 5 singles to defend their crown. St. Petersburg Shorecrest (boys) and Cardinal Mooney (girls) finished a distant second in the tournament to also advance. The Falcons will host regionals next Tuesday and Thursday (April 23 and 25).

For the first time in school history, Upper School Latin students took first place in Senior Division Academics at the Florida Junior Classical League state forum in Orlando, April 3-6. Competing against 47 other Florida schools, Saint Stephen’s took home the trophy for academics and finished third overall – also a school record. The Middle School team placed third in Academics and third in the overall sweepstakes of the Junior Division. All 42 Falcons in attendance placed in the top 15 in their chosen contests and three students (Tyler Kadivar, Matthew Thomas and Michael Thomas) took first place in both of their contests. The four SSES certamen teams also had impressive results that included a third-place finish in the Advanced Division, and second place in the Intermediate Division.  The four seniors on the team (Carter Beckstein, Graham Beckstein, Colton Melnick and Matthew Thomas) were members of the team that captured first place in Academics five years ago in the Junior Division. It was fitting that they went out achieving the same accolade in the Senior Division. In addition to these impressive accomplishments, sophomore Annie Class was elected to the office of parliamentarian for the FJCL. This marks the eighth consecutive year that a Saint Stephen’s student has served as a state officer.

Eighth grader Jackson Nealis finished first on the U.S. History Bee Exam, third in the National History Bee Quiz, and fourth in the International Geography Bee Exam at the 2019 Central Florida History Bee and Bowl Championships at Shorecrest Prep in St. Petersburg on March 23. Those results qualified him for the upcoming JV National Tournament in Washington, D.C., the Middle School Nationals in Chicago, and the International History Olympiad Bee. Jackson competed at the Junior Varsity level (7th, 8th, 9th and 10th grades). The U.S. History Bee is a social studies competition for primary and secondary school students across America and consists of two stages. The first is the National Qualifying Exam, and second The National History Bee is a buzzer-based history quiz competition. Students compete in a series of rounds where they attempt to be the first to ring in and answer paragraph-length questions about various topics in history. Congrats, Jackson! #worldclasseducation