Above: Bishop Brennan blesses main school building after consecrating it to the Sacred Heart.Below, left to right: SMA Board President Martin Boles, Dan Murphy Foundation Executive Director Debra Kay Duncan, Headmaster Marguerite Grimm, Bishop Joseph V. Brennan, Dan Murphy Board Member Richard Grant and his wife Maria Grant, and SMA Board Member and Site Committee Chair Len Golbranson.

Bishop Joseph V. Brennan of the San Fer-nando Pastoral Region of the LA Arch-diocese blessed St. Monica Academy’s new

campus in Montrose and consecrated it to the Sacred Heart of Jesus on April 5.

After celebrating Mass for the community, Bishop Brennan stood at the main entrance of the school building and prayed, “Your Heart is the Divine School where we learn to live the virtues of love, humility, meekness, sacrifice, and peace. It is for this reason that we consecrate this Catholic School to your Heart, so that in this school and guided by your Wisdom, true sons and daughters of God may be formed.” Flanked by ten SMA altar servers, the bishop then blessed each classroom, the high school buildings, athletic field, and playground.

“I felt the grace of God descend upon the school,” says Headmaster Marguerite Grimm.

“He must have smiled as this grand building was re-consecrated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and dedicated anew to the transmission of the Faith to Catholic children. A historic day for St. Monica Academy.”

To conclude the event, SMA’s Board President Martin Boles thanked Site Committee Chair Len Golbranson, Site Project Manager Jill Short, all the donors to the Capital Campaign, and espe-cially the Dan Murphy Foundation for making the move to the Montrose campus possible.

After giving his episcopal blessing, Bishop Brennan, renowned for his beautiful tenor voice, led the school in the concluding hymn by singing the first verse of “Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow.”

Due to a steady growth in enrollment, SMA moved to the campus of Holy Redeemer Par-ish in Montrose in the summer of 2015. The newly renovated school site features a spacious elementary school building, new classrooms for the high school, a refurbished locker arcade, new landscaping, a computer lab and library, a science lab, and expansive outdoor space.

On Consecrated Ground At LastSpring 2016

The

Bishop Joseph Brennan Blesses New Montrose Campus

2 The Seraph Spring 2016 Spring 2016 The Seraph 3

Nine students represented St. Monica Academy at the 66th Annual LA County Science and Engineering Fair in March. SMA brought home a record five medals! Left to right: Daniela Nieva (12th grade), 2nd place, Senior Division, Microbiology; Clement Decker (10th grade), Honorable Mention, Senior Division, Physics; Peter Boldt (7th grade), 3rd Place, Junior Division, Behavioral Sciences - Non-Human; Jack Tierney (8th grade), 3rd Place, Junior Division, Physics - Electricity and Magnetism; and Steven Conaway (7th grade), Honorable Mention, Junior Division, Physics - Electricity and Magnetism.

Kristen Gates (left) in front of the Taj Mahal with her professor and fellow research assistant.

Board ofA D V I S O R SMrs. Laura Berquist

Dr. Don J. Briel

Dr. John C. Eastman

Dr. Robert P. George

Prof. Mary Ann Glendon

Mr. Nicholas J. Healy, Jr.

Dr. Alice von Hildebrand

Dr. Charles R. Kesler

Rev. Paul Mankowski, S.J.

Msgr. M. Francis Mannion

Dr. Ralph McInerny †

Dr. Timothy O’Donnell

Mr. Peter M. Robinson

Mr. Roy S. Rohter, S.F.O.

Dr. Kevin Ryan

Fr. Michael Scanlan, T.O.R.

Mr. William E. Simon, Jr.

Mr. James Stenson

Dr. Michael Waldstein

Board ofD I R E C TO R SMartin Boles, Esq. President

R. Scott Turicchi Vice President

Khushro Ghandhi, C.P.A. TreasurerKathryn Carey, Esq. SecretaryMarguerite Grimm

Headmaster

Daniel Collins, Esq.

Len Golbranson

Andrew Zepeda, Esq.

Striving For Excellence

Sophia Decker (’15) wins unprecedented trifecta of national classics competitions. During her freshman year as a classics and linguistics student at the University of Kentucky, Sophia competed in the nation-wide translation contest for undergraduates sponsored by Eta Sigma Phi, the national Classics honors society. She won first place in Advanced Latin, second in Advanced Greek, and first in Latin Prose Composition. According to the University’s Eta Sigma Phi advisor, Sophia’s three-fold accomplishment is unparalleled.

The College Board also recently notified SMA that Sophia was one of 55 students in the world to earn a perfect score on the AP Spanish Language exam last year.

In just three years of Architecture study at Notre Dame, Kristen Gates (’13) has appeared in an NBC video and presented her research at the Getty Center. Kristen garnered such prestige through her studies of the Taj Mahal, the Roman Forum, and the Vatican as part of an innovative research team called “Digital Historical Architectural Research and Material Analysis.” DHARMA works with national and international agencies to discover hidden structural damage of world heritage sites and make recommendations for how to reinforce them.

Over her fall break, Kristen travelled to Agra, India to carry out digital scanning and measure drawing of the Taj. Then back in South Bend, she worked on stitching scan data into 3-D models that were used for structural assessment and damage mapping of the mausoleum. This summer, Kristen will work out of Germany to help her professor publish the Roman Forum project, write up recommendations for the Taj’s structural reinforcement, and complete drawings of the evolution of the Vatican complex.

Kristen is the recipient of a research grant from the Nanovic Institute for European Studies and an international service award from the Kellogg Institute. She was featured in the Provost’s Report, a review of top undergraduate research projects, and starred in an NBC video about DHARMA’s work on the Taj Mahal. Kristen presented her work on the Taj at conferences put on by the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art in New York and the Getty Center in Los Angeles, and her work was published in Geospatial World. Kristen will graduate from the 5-Year Architecture program in 2018 with minors in Historic Preservation and Philosophy. After graduation, she plans to work for Ferguson & Shamamian Architects and pursue a Masters in Historic Preservation.

SMA Wins 5 Medals at LA Science Fair

Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night Set in the 20sFlappers and fedora-capped high-schoolers strutted across a speakeasy stage in SMA’s production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Under the direction of teacher Daniel Selmeczy, the student actors displayed fluent mastery of Elizabethan English. The audience guffawed at Shakespeare’s comedy and several new stars were born. Each year SMA students perform in a Shakespeare comedy, and virtually the entire high school absorbs the rhythm and beauty of Shakespeare’s writing, as the stage crew, set artists, prop masters, and others hover around the rehearsals and hear and re-hear the inimitable language of the Bard.

Matt Golbranson Signs with Santa ClaraSMA Senior Matthew Golbranson signed a National Letter of Intent to play soccer for Santa Clara University. Matt is SMA’s first student/athlete to sign to play a Division I sport. He is also an all-CIF baseball player for SMA and is a 2-time League MVP and team captain. Matt maintains a near-4.0 GPA.

4 The Seraph Spring 2016 Spring 2016 The Seraph 5

Justice Antonin Scalia: A Man of Faith, Reason, and Virtue and a Friend to SMA

Every other year, SMA’s juniors and seniors travel to Washington D.C. to enhance their studies of American History, Government, and Civics. During the planning for the 2012 trip, SMA board member Daniel Collins got in touch with a man he used to clerk for–Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He told Justice Scalia about the renaissance in classical education at St. Monica Academy and scheduled a time for the students to meet with the Justice on their trip to D.C. The visit was repeated on the 2014 D.C. trip.

During both meetings, Justice Scalia spoke at length about the structure of the Constitution as the real guarantor of freedom in America. Many countries are founded on the rhetoric of rights, and Justice Scalia said that other constitutions such as the Soviet Union’s bill of rights are often phrased more expansively than our own Constitution. But the question he posed to the students was, how are these rights actually preserved? What keeps power from being concentrated in the hands of the few, or of the one? How is the freedom of the individual and of the community maintained? His answer was the design of the Constitution,

with its separation of powers, checks and balances, and differing spheres of authority through federalism.

He spoke about his love of his work on the court, and his dedication to thinking and arguing clearly and convincingly, even in dissent.

The students concluded the visits by singing a few choral pieces for Justice Scalia, who was a great lover of sacred music. As the students sang, he stood behind his chair, leaning over the back and grinning from ear to ear. He seemed truly gratified by the performance. Justice Scalia was personable and funny throughout his presentation, but sharing music with him made for a surprisingly intimate moment.

After the visits, the students were visibly edified and impressed. In the days following his unexpected death in February, many of these now-alumni shared remembrances of their meeting with Justice Scalia, accompanied by words of thanks for his time and generosity as well as his larger legacy as a defender of the Constitution.

Excerpts from Rev. Paul Scalia’s Homily at His Father’s Funeral Mass

Justice Scalia’s Friendship With SMA

We are gathered here because of one man. A man known person-ally to many of us, known only by reputation to even more; a man loved by many, scorned by others; a man known for great contro-versy, and for great compassion. That man, of course, is Jesus of Nazareth.

It is He Whom we proclaim: Jesus Christ, Son of the Father, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified, buried, risen, seated at the right hand of the Father. It is because of Him, because of His life, death and res-urrection that we do not mourn as those who have no hope, but in confidence we commend Antonin Scalia to the mercy of God.

We look to Jesus Christ yester-day—that is, to the past—in thanksgiving for the blessings God bestowed upon Dad....We give thanks, first of all, for the atoning death and life-giving resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our Lord died and rose not only for all of us, but also for each of us. And at this time we look to that yesterday of His death and His resurrection, and we give thanks that He died and rose for Dad. Further, we give thanks that Jesus brought him to new life in Baptism, nourished him with the Eucharist, and healed him in the confessional. We give thanks that Jesus bestowed upon him 55 years of marriage to the woman he loved—a woman who could match him at every step, and even hold him accountable.

God blessed Dad with a deep Catholic faith—the conviction that Christ’s presence and power con-tinue in the world today through his Body, the Church. He loved the clarity and coherence of the Church’s teaching. He treasured

the Church’s ceremonies, espe-cially the beauty of her ancient worship. He trusted the power of the Sacraments as the means of salvation—as Christ working within him for his salvation.

God blessed Dad, as is well known, with a love for his country. He knew well what a close-run thing the founding of our nation was. And he saw in that founding, as did the founders themselves, a blessing. A blessing quickly lost when faith is banned from the public square, or when we refuse to bring it there. So he understood that there is no conflict between loving God and loving one’s coun-try, between one’s faith and one’s public service. Dad understood that the deeper he went in his Catholic faith, the better a citizen and a public servant he became. God blessed him with a desire to be the country’s good servant, because he was God’s first.

We look to Jesus today, in peti-tion—to the present moment here and now, as we mourn the one we love and admire, the one whose absence pains us. Today we pray for him. We pray for the repose of his soul. We thank God for his goodness to Dad, as is right and just. But we also know that, although Dad believed, he did so imperfectly, like the rest of us. He tried to love God and neighbor but, like the rest of us, did so imperfectly. He was a practicing Catholic—practicing in the sense that he hadn’t perfected it yet. Or, rather, that Christ was not yet perfected in him. And only those in whom Christ is brought to per-fection can enter Heaven. We are here then, to lend our prayers to that perfecting, to that final work of God’s grace, in freeing Dad from every encumbrance of sin.

After the Justice’s death, Mrs. Grimm spoke about his life at the school’s Morning Assembly and entreated the students to follow his example of faith, reason, and virtue. SMA alumni living in DC visited Justice Scalia’s casket as he lay in repose in the Supreme Court’s ceremonial hallway. SMA board member and former law clerk for Justice Scalia, Daniel Collins, stood watch for an hour beside the bier.

In his commitment to the Constitution and the principles of the American founding, his fidelity to the teachings of the Church, his devotion to his family, his wit, his brilliant writing, and his hearty geniality to everyone around him, regardless of their ideology or religion, Justice Scalia was, like his hero Sir Thomas More, a “man for all seasons,” and a model who will not be forgotten by the students and faculty of St. Monica Academy. Requiescat in pace. Courtesy of First Things

Read the full homily at firstthings.com.

Above: SMA juniors and seniors meeting with Justice Scalia during their D.C. trip in 2014.Below: Current SMA Board President Martin Boles and past Board Presidents Andrew Zepeda and Jeff Talbot with Justice Scalia at a 1995 Red Mass (a Mass in honor of judges, attorneys, law faculty and students, and public officials).

6 The Seraph Spring 2016 Spring 2016 The Seraph 7

Freshman Nick Nieva and sophomore Sarah Lizarde use the computer lab to prepare a presentation on

the genetic disorder Crouzon Syndrome for Biology class.

Senior Elena Ford drives to the basket in SMA’s game against

Mayfield.

Right: 5th grade student Elizabeth Grumbine coils rope aboard the tops’l schooner, Spirit of Dana Point, at the Ocean Institute. 5th grade teacher Marisela Miranda noticed that her students were having difficulty grasping the 19th century nautical vocabulary in their literature book, Carry on, Mr. Bowditch. So she took them on a field trip to the Ocean Institute in Dana Point for a day of hands-on experience of sail handling, helmsmanship, and navigation.

Above: Freshmen and sophomores in front of the “White Dove of the Desert”: Mission San Xavier del Bac in Tucson, AZ. The 6-day Arizona trip began with a hike in the Grand Canyon and included visits to Lowell Observatory, the Sonora Desert Museum, and the Indian ruins at Wupatki and Montezuma National Monuments. Students observed and learned about the animal and plant life and the geography, geology, archeology, cultures, and missionary history of the Southwest. The field studies were tied into and reinforced the students’ studies in their SMA history, science, theology, and literature classes.

Above right: Juniors and seniors on the steps of the Capitol building. The 6-day trip to the Eastern Seaboard included visits to Mount Vernon, Gettysburg National Battlefield, the Supreme Court Building, Ford’s Theater, the inside of the Washington Monument (only recently reopened after being closed since the eathquake in 2011), and a tour of the Naval Academy by SMA alumnus and future Navy Pilot Peter Goodwin (‘12). One of Jefferson’s quotations inscribed on his memorial reads “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” This summed up the significance of the trip for the juniors and seniors and reminded them of the importance of their studies in civics and government, in American history, and in the rights and responsibilities of living in a democratic republic.

Fully equipped with 20 21.5inch iMacs, SMA’s computer lab is up and running!

Middle school and high school classes have used the computer lab for a range of topics including researching genetic disorders for Biology class, preparing for the National Latin Exam with online practice questions, and researching European cathedrals from the Romanesque and Gothic period. Future plans for the lab include courses on computer programming and robotics.

The lab room doubles as the school library, a resource for many student projects. Every year, each high school student researches and writes a thesis on a character or event from the time period they are studying in history and literature. Having a computer lab and library on campus has enabled teachers to more effectively guide students through the process of finding sources, writing book abstracts and outlines, drafting their papers, and checking their MLA formatting.

With the computer lab and library, new high school classrooms, and new landscaping, SMA’s Montrose campus is becoming a more complete “home of our own.”

SMA’s girls basketball team earned the highest team GPA of all girls basketball teams in the Pasadena area. With a GPA of 3.88 (4.0 scale), the team had the second highest GPA of more than 500 girls basketball teams in the CIF Southern Section.

“These girls work extremely hard, both in school and on the court,” says coach Colleen Smith, “and that’s why they are such a pleasure to coach.”

The Crusaders’ hard work paid off again this year as they claimed their third consecutive league title and reached the quarterfinals of CIF-SS playoffs for the third year in a row.

Under Coach Smith, the girls basketball team has become one of SMA’s most successful teams, dominating in league play and beyond.

Learning Across the Nation

Girls Basketball Team Earns Highest GPA In Pasadena

Computer Lab Up and Running!Freshmen and Sophomores Travel to Arizona, Juniors and Seniors to D.C.

Grade School Field Trips Include a Day in the Life of a 19th Century Sailor

Mission StatementSt. Monica Academy, an independent, coeducational school for grades one through twelve, founded by parents in fulfillment of

their primary responsibility for educating their children, seeks to form students in faith, reason, and virtue through a classical education in the

Roman Catholic tradition.

(818) 369-7310 phone(818) 369-7305 fax

headmaster@stmonicaacademy.com e-mailwww.stmonicaacademy.com web After a year of preparation, Ginger Griffin and 15 other 2nd grade

students received their First Communion this May.

St. Monica Academy2361 Del Mar RoadMontrose, CA 91020

PRSRT STDUS POSTAGE

PAIDPASADENA CA

PERMIT 562