Many young people aren’t blessed with the opportunity to attend Catholic elementary or high schools, but some of these students still manage to persevere in their faith and deserve credit for doing so despite having to deal with cultural challenges in a radically changing world.
Whether by choice or lack of options, some families must choose traditional public school, homeschool, charter school or online school. Oftentimes, financial considerations factor into the decision, or a Catholic school might not be near a student’s home.
So, when a young man or woman in that situation makes it through high school with a long list of academic achievements and, much more important, with a strong sense of their Catholic faith, they deserve to be commended along with their families.
Grace Plummer, a 2023 graduate of Wellston High School in Jackson County, is one of those individuals.
Not only was she the valedictorian of her graduating class and the commencement speaker, she also has been prolifically engaged in school and community activities and in the Jackson-Vinton Catholic Consortium of parishes.
A description of her high school honors on the Wellston City Schools’ website follows:
“Grace is the daughter of Jeff and Cecilia Plummer. Grace is a Saints Peter and Paul School alumni and a member of Saints Peter and Paul Parish. Grace has been involved in many school clubs and community organizations throughout her high school career. Grace has been the President of the National Honor Society, Art Club, and Cultures Club, and the Vice President of her class. She was also an active member of Student Council, Senior Representatives, Project 7 Bible study, Rotary Interact, Youth and Government, Symphonic Choir, Yale Leadership Lab, and volunteered with the Ohio State Family Engagement Board. She has volunteered for numerous community endeavors, earning more than 750 service hours, including her volunteerism with nonprofit organization Make Wellston Beautiful. Grace is certified in financial management, project budgeting, grant seeking, and volunteered as a grant writer for the WHS Art Program and Make Wellston Beautiful. Grace’s awards and achievements include, but are not limited to, being selected as a Regional Scholar, selected Rotary Senior of the Month, and an iBelieve Delegate. Grace is also the Wellston High School Heisman Scholarship Winner, a National Honor Society Scholarship Winner, and is a recipient of the OSU Land Grant Scholarship.
“Grace will be attending the Ohio State University and plans to earn a degree in biology and then attend medical school. Her ultimate goal is to earn her M.D. and come back to Wellston to support the community through her work as a pediatrician.”
Even more impressive than those accomplishments is an exuberance for her Catholic faith that she’ll carry with her to Ohio State in Columbus when she starts classes in the fall.
She attributes her academic success and her embrace of the Catholic faith to the formation she received at Wellston Ss. Peter and Paul School from pre-K through eighth grade.
Sadly, Ss. Peter and Paul School closed in May after serving Catholic and non-Catholic children in the area for 115 years. The nearest Catholic elementary school is now more than 30 miles from Wellston, and the closest Catholic high school is an hour away.
Like many of the school’s supporters, she is disappointed to see its demise. She and many others benefited from the efforts of dedicated lay staff members, administrators and volunteers who were committed to educating the students while following in the footsteps of the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity, based in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, who had served at the school from its founding until 2003.
“It’s been vital to me, especially when it comes to my faith life,” she said. “Had I gone to public school (in her elementary and junior high years), I don’t know that I would have the faith I do now. And even in academics, the programs there were fantastic.
“I do appreciate public school, and that was a much-needed experience, but, for me, with Catholic school nothing compares to it – just having that foundation from such a young age.”
For students to be exposed to the faith and having the opportunity to go to Mass in a child’s formative years “just opens up kids’ hearts,” she said.
“When I was in elementary school, I learned about the importance of life at conception and traditional marriage and all of those beautiful things,” she continued. “And had I not had that school experience, I don’t know that I would feel that way today.”
Academically, she credited her participation in Power of the Pen and MathCounts programs, the opportunity to do public speaking at Ss. Peter and Paul and the importance of community and service learning for allowing her to excel in high school.
In her commencement address, she mentioned her time at Ss. Peter and Paul.
“It was a very bittersweet moment, especially with the closing of the school, because it felt like my childhood kind of ended in that moment,” she said. “But I was happy I was able to go up there. I spoke a lot about my time at Ss. Peter and Paul. We had just about every student who graduated from Ss. Peter and Paul get honors.”
The spiritual formation through eighth grade provided her with the tools to navigate what can be a crazy stage in life during the high school years.
“It’s on that campus that I learned that I really wanted to keep pursuing my faith throughout high school,” she said. “Going to high school, there are so many worldly influences, and it’s hard because there comes a persecution with that, too.
“The normal prayer that we would do before meals at Ss. Peter and Paul and the time worshiping at Mass and singing Christian songs and loving on Christ, when you do that in public school, it’s not always looked highly upon.
“Because I was able to spend so much time and see the good through my years at Ss. Peter and Paul, I was like, ‘OK, even when people don’t happen to agree with me in high school, I still know it’s the right thing.”
Throughout her school years, she remained actively engaged in parish life at Ss. Peter and Paul Church as a volunteer. She attends Mass frequently and engages in daily Scripture study on her own. And she wants to continue to serve the local church, particularly the youth.
“I do not want them to lose faith because they are the next generation,” she said. “There are a lot of young children who come to Mass. If we can get them involved and excited about learning and help them to see the light of Christ on a Sunday and all throughout the week, I would love to help.”
She is spending the summer volunteering with Make Wellston Beautiful and the high school art club while gaining experience in pediatrics and working in her family’s restaurant before heading off to college in August.
Her academic prowess and community engagement helped her land a full-tuition scholarship to Ohio State and additional scholarships, including one from a local ministerial association.
“I was able to write about my confirmation day for that one,” she said. “It was such a great essay to write, and it was so rewarding to get. It’s been such a blessing and something I’ve prayed over so much.”
As soon as she arrives on the Ohio State campus, she plans to become involved with the nearby St. Thomas More Newman Center, which is undergoing renovations this summer to better serve the large student population.
Her older brother, Grant, a student at Ohio State, “showed me the campus and told me about all of the church programs he’s involved in with the Newman Center,” she said. “I just fell in love, and I knew it was the place for me, too.”
While many young people from smaller communities go off to college and choose to remain in large cities where more job opportunities exist, she is committed to her local roots.
“I’m hoping to come back to Wellston after getting my degree, do some pro-life work and maybe work with kids because they have so much potential,” she said.
The Church needs more graduates like Grace Plummer to set the world on fire with faith.
