CHARLOTTE — Charlotte Catholic High School announces that seniors Mary Cecilia Polking, Connor Blaise Ruff and Matthew Louis Weber, named National Merit Scholarship Semi-finalists earlier in the school year, have all advanced in the competition and are now Finalists.
Polking has served on the Student Council, is in the National Honor Society and the CCHS Color Guard, and has competed on the track team. She has volunteered as an assistant catechist at her church, as a tutor at the Missionaries of Charity Convent, and as an assistant teacher with Vacation Bible School. She works as a grader/assistant at Kumon of Charlotte. She won an AP Scholar award as a junior, and earned highest honors on the National Latin Examination four years in a row. She is the daughter of Christian and Jean Marie Polking of Charlotte, and the eldest of eight children.
Ruff is the president of the CCHS Speech and Debate Team, as well as the captain of the team’s Public Form division. He has had a volunteer internship at Levine Children’s Hospital and has volunteered at the Pineville Firehouse. As a sophomore, he served as Captain of the JV Soccer team. He has played soccer at CCHS all four years, and also played club soccer during his freshman and sophomore years. He works as a soccer referee and at AutoBell as well. He is in Honors Choir and was chosen to perform with the “Singing Sergeants” of the U.S. Air Force Band. He has earned the Bronze Award from the President’s Council on Service and Civic Participation, and studied abroad through Oxbridge Academy. He is the son of Michael and Jenifer Ruff of Charlotte.
Weber attended the Niner Academy Leader Institute at UNC-Charlotte, a summer program focusing on leadership and community engagement. He has played alto saxophone for six years, and as a member of the CCHS Marching Band, he played in the Limerick International Band Festival and the Dublin St. Patrick’s Day Parade. He was awarded first chair in the CCHS Symphonic Band. He has volunteered with Servants with a Heart, PurpleStride, and the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. He has run winter and spring track at CCHS, as well as cross country. He won the Cougar Award for Academic Excellence as a freshman and sophomore, and earned First Honors three years in a row. He s the son of Mark and Patti Weber of Charlotte.
“Mary, Connor and Matthew are outstanding students,” said Principal Kurt Telford. “More importantly, they are outstanding people, and we are very proud of them.”
Nearly 1.6 million high school juniors from more than 22,000 high schools nationwide entered the 2018 competition by taking the Preliminary SAT / National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test in the fall of 2016. Approximately 16,000 students qualified as semifinalists, representing less than one percent of all U.S. high school seniors. This group includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state.
From this group of students, approximately 15,000 finalists have just been named, and more than half of all finalists will receive either a Merit Scholarship or a Special Scholarship from a corporate sponsor. Winners will be announced between April and July. They will join more than 300,000 other distinguished students who have earned the National Merit Scholar title.
The National Merit Scholarship program was founded in 1955 to distinguish and honor academically talented American high school students and to encourage them to develop their talents and skills to the fullest. The competition is very rigorous, and scholarship winners are chosen based on their skills, abilities, extracurricular accomplishments and potential for future success.
— Carolyn Kramer Tillman
NEW YORK — Charlotte Catholic High School’s Honors Choirs recently completed their 2018 Performance Tour of New York City.
From March 2 to 5, more than 70 students offered sacred music for Saturday’s 5:30 p.m. Mass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral on 5th Avenue. They performed with hundreds of other students in the National Youth Choir at Carnegie Hall.
Led by Dr. Robert Ridgell, the Choirs of Charlotte Catholic sing monthly all-school Masses at Charlotte Catholic and have recently begun a new initiative of singing throughout the Diocese of Charlotte.
“For our students at Charlotte Catholic, music is a ministry. Most especially, during this season of Lent – music is often that spiritual lens through which we can connect with God. We give glory to God through our voices and we hope to help others in prayer” said Ridgell.
This semester, students sang at Holy Trinity Middle School and will perform at St. Gabriel and St. Matthew churches.
“We look forward to visiting other parishes in the future as we bridge the rich choral tradition of choral music” said Ridgell.
Dr. Ridgell has worked with students around the country – most recently for the Archdiocese of Houston where he conducted over 200 Catholic School youth at a special Mass on Feb. 24.
In April, Dr. Ridgell will conduct the National Catholic Honors Choir in New York City.
— Photo provided by Charlotte Catholic