by Chrissy Snerr ’24 (De La Salle House)

This past month, the Trinity faculty and students voted in their school captains for the 2022-2023 school year, and selected Lauren Shook and Ben Frantz! Lauren and Ben made a great campaign and are excited to take up the challenges of being school captains.

You might know Lauren Shook as a member of the tennis and lacrosse teams at Trinity, which she has been part of since her freshman year. She enjoys surfing and attending Trinity football and basketball games. Lauren was inspired to run for school captain by the examples of the current and past captains. Seeing the work previous captains have done for the school pushed Lauren to ensure that their work continues on and expands. One of Lauren’s priorities is to get all students involved in school happenings. Lauren will be high energy, hard-working, and driven as a leader to make Trinity an environment for everyone. She will make changes by first listening to the feedback of her peers, and then working alongside the administration to facilitate her plans. Lauren is in the middle of her college search, and is looking for a school that resembles Trinity in its outstanding academics and great student body.

Ben Frantz has been an active member of the Trinity soccer team since his freshman year. He is a member of many school clubs, as well as the National, Math, and Foreign Language honor societies. Additionally, Ben plays CYO basketball and enjoys watching sports, playing video games, and hanging out with his friends. Ben was encouraged to pursue leadership positions by his parents and teachers. He aims to restore Trinity’s environment back to its pre-pandemic state, with more events and activities, as well as more house-vs-house competitions. Another plan of Ben’s is to create more leadership opportunities within the house system for students who are interested. Ben values the input of his fellow students, and will use their feedback to make changes that ensure everyone can have the positive high school experience that he has had so far. Ben plans to study business in college, and maybe run for president someday.

Lauren and Ben both hail from the same mentor group at Trinity and have known each other since freshman year. They have gotten to know each other very well and are able to work together efficiently and effectively. A high priority of both Lauren and Ben is the involvement of all students and creating an enjoyable environment for every student. They are able to identify each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and assist each other in making sensible decisions. Most importantly, they are both enthusiastic about the betterment of Trinity and are excited to get to work together for the whole of the Trinity community.

We wish them the best of luck as the 2022-2023 Trinity school captains!

Robbie Root ’22 is a Trinity student taking a different path for his future with the help of Faulkner Subaru of Mechanicsburg. Three days a week, Robbie leaves Trinity early to participate in a program with Faulkner to learn the skills required to become a Master Automotive Technician.

A couple of years ago, Robbie planned to follow in his family’s footsteps and work in education, specifically music education. He has a deep love of music, and at Trinity he plays in nearly every musical group: concert band, concert choir, jazz band, indoor percussion, marching band, and pit for the musical. However, when he was home at the start of the pandemic, Robbie’s mom noticed that he didn’t reach for his instruments as much, and instead spent a lot of time watching automotive tutorials on YouTube.

This realization—that perhaps he had a different calling—led Robbie to investigate a career in the automotive industry, and he found a lot to like. For one, taking a non-traditional path would save him from building up debt, and working with Faulkner Subaru meant that he would be paid as he learned. Plus, Robbie found, that in a way, working on cars is helping people, through maybe not in a way that comes immediately to mind. The work has the added benefit of being able to see immediate results: his work improved things and made them able to run better than before.

These confirmations—that Robbie liked the work and found purpose in it—was made possible through the hands on experience he gained at Faulkner, all while maintaining his full course-load at Trinity. The experience was made possible for Robbie, in part, by the partnership between Faulkner Subaru of Mechanicsburg and Trinity. “Faulkner Subaru of Mechanicsburg has been instrumental in providing our student-athletes with opportunities through financial support, and has also stepped forward to help our students break into vocational work,” said Trinity principal, John Cominsky.

His work at Trinity, especially the practice of following steps logically and methodically learned in his science courses, has helped him in the automotive trade. “I feel that I’ve been coached in how to think, not just told what to do, and that has helped tremendously as I’ve worked at Faulkner,” Robbie said.

As for his experience at Faulkner Subaru, Robbie describes the experience as “great, with lots to learn from every single guy there and with a fun atmosphere. Without fun,” Robbie says, “ it’s hard to do a job well.” The positive atmosphere has made it “easy to ask for help when needed.” In just a few months, Robbie’s already been able to take responsibility for jobs and is looking forward to acquiring more skills.

Thanks to Faulkner Subaru of Mechanicsburg for their work in enriching our community and providing opportunities for our young people.

Congratulations to Lucas Puig ’22 (Immaculata House) and Zachary Varner ’22 (Loyola House), who were named Semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program as a result of their PSAT scores! They are among 16,000 students out of 1.6 million entrants nationwide. They have the chance to advance as finalists, which will be announced in February of 2022.

Lucas’s top three choices for college include West Point, MIT, and Vanderbilt, where he plans to pursue a degree in the STEM field, likely computer science or computer engineering. He credits his parents for “pushing me to do the best I can.” He says he tries to “bring this mindset in and out of the classroom each day and work as hard as I can to succeed.” At Trinity, “Mr. Carr’s class really shaped my math (specifically calculus) skills. I thoroughly enjoyed his class and his lessons each day.” Lucas is excited for this year and all of the opportunities to come.

Zachary Varner is applying to many universities, but his top choices include Johns Hopkins, Stanford, MIT, and Georgia Tech, where he hopes to study biomedical engineering. He says that his success has been “influenced by a group of wonderful, talented teachers and my friends and classmates at Trinity.” Additionally he says that “the rigor of Trinity’s classes and the high standards expected of a Trinity student have inspired me to be a better learner and person. I am honored to have received this award, and I would like to thank Trinity for playing such an important role in helping me to achieve it.”

Congratulations to these students on this impressive academic achievement!