On March 16, the senior class along with several generations of alumni gathered in Bunting Dining Hall to honor Michael Abromaitis '58 as this year's Rev. Joseph M. Kelley, S.J., Medal recipient. Read more about Michael and his accomplishments here, and view photos and video from the event below.
On March 21, our National Junior Honor Society students filled and wrapped 115 Easter baskets, which were then delivered to children at St. Gregory the Great Parish in downtown Baltimore.
On April 5, 2016, the Archdiocese of Baltimore held its 24th Annual Distinctive Scholars Convocation at Mercy High School. This convocation honors the exceptional academic and co-curricular achievements of high school students in the Archdiocese. Bishop Denis Madden, Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore, presided over the ceremony, and each school was represented by three students. Loyola's Distinctive Scholars were seniors Ben Sullivan, Alex Wilson, and Evan Pham.
On Saturday, April 9, hundreds of Loyola faithful gathered in Knott Hall to honor 9 athletes and one coach whose combined athletic careers spanned across seven decades at Loyola. View photos from the night, and watch each honorees' acceptance speech below.
The Loyola chapter of the Maryland Junior Classical League (MDJCL) dominated the competition at the state convention this past weekend in Easton, MD. Our Latin and Greek students took home first place in the Advanced Level, 2nd place in Level III, and 3rd place in Level II. Brady Wright ’17, Andrew Barker ’17, Andrew Melvin ’18, and Ty Schumacher ’19 were singled out for individual awards. Brady Wright was also selected to be on the governing board of the state-wide organization for next year. Volvite, Equites, Volvite!
This week, students in Mrs. Pongchit's chemistry classes presented their projects on how to contain the Zika virus, which was originally discovered in Africa in the 1940s but as of late has spread to other continents including Asia and South America.
Students were tasked with researching a chemical compound that has in some way played a role in managing the virus. Each group created a model of their compound to understand the basics of its structure, produced a video to present the pros and cons of the compound including how it works, its use, history, future applications, and examples of its success, and then debated with classmates about which compound is more effective for the treatment or prevention of the virus.
View each group's model below:
Here is an example of the videos students had to produce to further explain the compound to their classmates:
The 4th Annual Runners For Others: An Ignatian 5K was a success thanks to so many members of the Blakefield, Cristo Rey, and Loyola University communities who came out this past Saturday. Senior Kevin Wegner even took first place with a time just under 17 minutes, beating out last year’s winner, Director of Campus Ministry Brendan O’Kane. Congratulations to Bill Macsherry '88 and Chip Cooke '92 on another successful year organizing this great event which raises funds for all local Jesuit social ministry programs.
Read a recap of the event here, and view photos from the morning here, courtesy of Coyle Studios.
On Saturday, April 16, more than 200 members from the Loyola community gathered in Knott Hall to hear from panelists Snuffy Smith '60, Pete Budko '77, and Tony Guy '78 as they paid homage to late Loyola Blakefield Hall of Fame Basketball Coach Jerry Savage. The panel was moderated by Paul McMullen of The Catholic Review.
All funds raised from ticket sales and sponsorships will go towards the Jerry Savage Merit Scholarship Fund, which was created in 2014 to help provide merit awards to incoming or enrolled students with exceptional talent in basketball and who meet Loyola’s high academic standards. To date, the initiative has garnered nearly $200,000 in support. If you would like to make a donation to the Jerry Savage Merit Scholarship Fund, please do so here.
View photos from the event, and watch the entire panel discussion below:
The Blakefield campus was booming with Dons old and new this past weekend as we celebrated our annual spring homecoming. On Friday night, we welcomed back members from the Classes of 1971, 1976, 1981, 1986, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006, and 2011 to celebrate their reunion years.
Saturday was filled with campuswide activities for all ages with varsity baseball and lacrosse games, the Dan McNeal '90 Family Fun Zone, the John H. Price '97 Alumni Lacrosse Game, our annual car show, and more.
It was a great weekend to be a Don!
-Ms. Elizabeth Olson, Classical Languages Teacher
On Friday, April 15, students studying Ancient Greece spent the day immersed in Greek culture in Mt. Vernon, the cultural center of the city of Baltimore. The day began with a walking tour of Mt. Vernon Place, identifying the Greco-Roman architectural elements of the park and the surrounding buildings. 
Pictured (L to R) at Mt. Vernon Place in front of the statue of Military Courage: Brent Peterson, Colin Stanton, Declan Aroh (kneeling), Dan Jerrems, Levone Ward, Joshua Glenn, Andrew Melvin, Stuart Schenking, Brady Wright, Grady Kuhn, Matthew Tan, Jon Pejo.
Students then enjoyed a class with Paul Espinosa, the curator of the special collections and archives at the Peabody Library, a branch of Johns Hopkins University. They were able to view and translate parts of a 14th century antiphonary as well as some Greek student textbooks from the first years of printing in the 15th century.
These textbooks are being studied as part of a project at the library called The Archaeology of Reading, by a group of international scholars who wish to “reconstruct reading strategies" and “stitch together various intellectual patchworks” in the annotations of early printed books.
The majority of the day was spent at the Walters Art Museum, viewing their fine collection of Greek antiquities and looking for other pieces in the gallery that owed their inspiration to the Greeks. What did we find? All the art in the museum has been inspired and informed by the Greeks, as this famous piece by Paul Delaroche and his pupil Charles Beranger demonstrates.
The best part of the day to some students? Lunch at Never On Sunday, a Greek fast-food restaurant on North Charles Street.
Congratulations to the newest members of Loyola’s Herbert O’Conor Chapter of the National Honor Society. The minimum grade point average requirement for consideration is 3.75 on a 4.0 scale. Leadership, service to the school and the community, and character also play an important role in the determination of a candidate for membership. The following students were inducted on Thursday, April 21:
Andrew Ankeny
Andrew Barker
Nicholas Battaglia
Ian Batton
AJ Carver
Nicholas Cecil
Thomas Dendrinos
Patrick Elfert
Alec Feurer
Devin Franke
Declan Franklin
Louis Gaucher
Nicholas Hipolito
Brenden Huegel
Ryan Jones
Paul Kinkopf
Andrew Lala
Alexander Mamo
Jacob McErlean
Thomas McLaughlin
Brett McLoughlin
Anthony Milando, Jr.
Grant Mobley
Thomas Moran
James Moses
Patrick Norris
Olufolabomi Odekunle
John Parks
Christopher Plimpton
Luke Scaletta
Jeanvier Soungwah
Joseph Staab
Giovanni Steckel
Joseph Szymkiewicz
Daniel Tadeo
William Thornhill
Theodore Turrall
Jake Volk
Matthew Warner
(photo credit: Anthony Feurer, P '15, '17)
Loyola Robotics kicked off their new season last Friday at the Baltimore City Robotics Center where students from all across the Baltimore-metro area were challenged to come up with robot designs for the new season. Both our upper and middle school teams designed and presented their ideas to a panel of judges.The judges were so impressed with the middle school team's design that they received a gift card and a drone as a prize. A great kick-off to the new season for our Robo-Dons!
On April 27, the cyber science program held its end-of-year banquet on campus to celebrate another amazing year, which included the expansion of the cyber lab in Xavier Hall, along with new partnerships with Edward St. John's Foundation and visits from Tenable Network Security, Exelon, and Textron. Students also took part in several competitions including the Maryland Cyber Challenge and the CyberPatriot National Youth Cyber Defense Competition. During the banquet, each senior was recognized by Mr. Steve Morrill, director of the program.
Watch the following video which recaps their year:
Please congratulate the following 2016 scholarship recipients:
Loyola Blakefield Ignatian Merit Scholarship
Clay Anderson
Victor Aybar
Max Bleach
Ian Bodyk
Garrett Busse
Cian Callahan
Michael Chorabik
Nathaniel Comi-Morog
James Connolly
William Cox
Ethan Delp
Dominic Dinoto
William Donahue
Michael Dorsey
Sean Engler
J.D. Funck
Jeremiah Hannon
Zachary Hipsley
Aidan Hrdlick
Austin Jameson
Edwin Keating
Marlo Lacson
David Lamarca
Ryan Lancaster
Bennett Link
Michael Lotz
Paul MacDonald
Austin Maultsby
Declan McGee
Noah Mercado
John Meyers
Dylan Monaghan
Conor Nicholas
Jacob Robinson
Bryan Rose
Julian Schmugge
Emmanuel Spanos
Benjamin Tomick
James Ugarte
Mark Wehland
Nathan Whitman
David Wilbourne
Marion I. and Henry J. Knott Scholarship
Spencer Lawrence
Nathan Prouse
Benjamin Rohd
Matthew Smolka
Francis X. Knott, S.J., Merit Scholarship
Joshua Aybar
Paul MacDonald
Taylor Randolph
Loyola Blakefield Ignatian Merit Scholarship Middle School
Joseph Balto
Patrick Brannon
Jameson Hawk
John Koebel
Ethan McKenna
Jordan Moore
Christopher Preller
Ethan Rohd
Senior Mac Kelly has been named the 2016 recipient of the Troy M. Vance '85 Endowed Scholarship. The scholarship is awarded annually to a senior who resembles Troy in that he excels in sports and academics and exemplifies what it means to be a Man for Others. Mac will be attending Auburn University next year to study business. He also plans to help out with the football team. While at Loyola, he has played lacrosse and has been involved with the Boosters Club. "I'm just so shocked and honored to receive this award in Troy's name," said Kelly.
On Thursday, April 28, we held our 8th Annual Join for Joe Bone Marrow Registry Drive sponsored by There Goes My Hero. Thanks to the 125 members from the Loyola community who joined the registry in honor of Joe Gorman '14, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 15 after battling leukemia for three years. Also, special thanks to seniors Bailey Gilmore,Tanner Selby, Alex Gloth, Alex Wilson, and Owen Haiber for leading this year's drive.
The 2016 Student Art Exhibition took place on campus Thursday, May 5. This year's collection included drawings, paintings, photography, animation, graphic design, film, prints, sculptures, and 3D designs from students across all grade levels. View photos of some of our students' amazing artwork below:
The following videos were also featured:
"Drone" by Brett McLoughlin '17
"Rhythm Project" by Mark Medija '16
On May 5, a group of Loyola and Maryvale architecture students taking part in the ACE (Architecture, Construction, Engineering) Mentor Program presented their final work at the Baltimore chapter's annual awards ceremony held at Notre Dame Prep. The team presented their blueprints and models that demonstrated their redesign for Cross Street Market in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, which they have been developing for the last two months. The team has had a great group of professional mentors from Rubeling & Associates, Whiting-Turner, and Brawner Builders helping them along the way.
The real excitement came when two team members were awarded scholarships. Jackie Kuwabara from Maryvale received $3,500 and John Seal '16 received $2,000 for their outstanding leadership and work within the STEM field. John and Loyola's architecture teacher Mr. Shapiro will attend the annual ACE Board Breakfast on May 18, where he will be presented with a check.
On May 5, we hosted Dons celebrating reunions of 51 years or more at our annual Golden Dons Dinner. View photos from the night below:
On Friday, May 6, our middle school hosted a variety of activities.
Our 6th grade students invited their grandparents to campus for breakfast and Mass:
Our 7th grade students and parents held the annual Loyola Fun Day carnival for students at Ridge Ruxton School:
The 8th grade hosted students from Saint Ignatius Loyola Academy in Baltimore for a spirit day: