If you’ve ever walked the halls of Rosary, you have definitely seen the banners with Rosary’s core values draped along the rails. At Rosary, we strive to live out each one of our core values of faith, community, service and sisterhood; while many Royals exemplify these values, I have chosen only a few students to highlight.
The first core value I’ve chosen to explore is faith. According to Rosary’s website, faith is “a community of believers, guided by the Blessed Mother and nourished by the Eucharist connecting us to God enabling us to live out the gospel.” Celine Asido ’25 has demonstrated her faith throughout her time at Rosary. She has been a Campus Minister for four years and often serves as a lector at school Masses because she knows that “every reading is a reminder or a teaching” that she is able to apply to her own life. Thus, Celine takes the time to reflect on her reading in order to better understand and deliver it.
“Being on Campus Ministry has been nothing but spiritually fulfilling and fun—the program and people are truly a blessing and joy to experience and witness,” stated Celine. She enjoys helping out at the different Rosary and junior high retreats.
Off campus, Celine works on developing a stronger prayer life and participating in her faith in other ways like praying the Rosary, the Stations of the Cross and studying the Bible. One of the main reasons that faith is an important part of Celine’s life is because of the love God shows for us. She shared, “In 1 John 4:19, he writes that ‘We love each other because He first loved us.’ I have been so lucky and blessed to have experienced love and compassion from many people in my life—I’ve felt love; this, I’ve felt God.” We can all learn from Celine’s example by striving to illustrate God’s life, mercy and grace in our daily lives.
Then, as stated on rosaryroyals.org, community is a value “with the Holy Family and student families as a model” through which “Royals learn to appreciate and nurture human connectedness on a local, regional and global level.” Junior Parker Yee has developed a community both inside and outside of Rosary. At Rosary, Parker is very involved, participating in organizations like ASB; Red & Gold; sports and school clubs. Off campus, Parker is a part of her church and Girl Scouts. She enjoys volunteering with her church community and creating bonds within her Girl Scouts community. Parker’s community participation is not limited to herself, though. Parker’s whole family is heavily involved in both the Rosary and Servite communities. Her mom is the Co-President of Parent Council and volunteers a lot at Servite with Parker’s dad. Both of her brothers have graduated from Servite, but they still surround themselves with fellow Friars. On living out this charism, Parker said, “Community is important to me because it has allowed me to feel included as a member of something special.” Coming to Rosary, Parker knew no one; she quickly found an amazing Rosary community ready to welcome her with open arms.
Service is “a call to be the hands and feet of Christ, and to give of our self fully to others,” as displayed on the Rosary website. As a volunteer at St. Jude Hospital, altar server, and camp counselor, Melina Gonzalez ’26 actively serves the Rosary community as well as her local community. At Rosary, she is a servant leader in ASB, PAL, Campus Ministry, CSF and Ambassadors. Within Campus Ministry, Melina serves “by being a leader, planning retreats, altar serving during Mass and making posters to uplift our school.”
Outside of Rosary, Melina spends a lot of her time serving at the hospital. She shared, “During my time at the hospital, I accompany patients as well as help the nurses in any way that I am needed.” For the past six years, Melina has been serving her church as an altar server.
She also has served as a leader for VBS and another Christian summer camp. Often accompanied with Rosary’s core value of service, our charism of serving the dear neighbor without distinction is an important motto at Rosary as well. To Melina, this charism means spreading love and kindness to all, despite their differences, and living it out has helped her build connections with the people she is serving and serving with. Melina has also seen that her service activities help her “grow in virtues like empathy, gratitude and love.” Therefore, Melina values service because it allows her to lead by example, make a positive impact in others’ lives and grow as a person.
According to rosaryroyals.org, sisterhood is “a lifelong bond formed between young women allowing them to grow as sisters in Christ who respect and nurture each other’s differences, values, accomplishments and personalities.” Lexie Curtis ’27 has found some of her closest friends (and future bridesmaids) at Rosary. As a sophomore, she has felt very welcomed in such a short time. As a part of sisterhood, Rosary has a Big Sister/Little Sister program where a freshman is paired with a junior and a sophomore is paired with a senior. For Lexie, she has “grown closer with my big sister and was able to be her fashion captain for Red and Gold this year, strengthening our bond.” Not only has Lexie grown close with her big sister at Rosary, but it has also given her the opportunity to grow closer with her real sister, Lily Curtis ’24, who has taught Lexie what it means to be a sister and a Royal.
While Lexie has heavily experienced and demonstrated sisterhood, she’s definitely not the only one! Lexie has seen sisterhood all over campus. Whether it’s bringing a friend Starbucks or getting close with girls during Red & Gold, sisterhood is infectious at Rosary. Lexie explained, “Red & Gold is my favorite time of the school year because it allows for new friendships to blossom and unexpected experiences to go through with sisters by your side.” Lexie will always be grateful for her sisters at Rosary who love and support her; the same goes for many Royals, who have been greatly impacted by sisterhood.
Though some people might believe that Rosary’s core values are simply selling points for a school or organization, at Rosary, our core values of faith, community, service and sisterhood are truly lived out by Royals each and every day on and off campus.
