Celebrate & Remember!

I remember spending countless recess periods on the blacktop playing kickball with my classmates. This was before the coverage was put up so it was hot! My favorite middle school classes were art with Michelle Lyczak and religion with Ms. Kennedy. Grand Tour was always a blast and the highlight of the spring was going to Volente Beach water park as a reward. I remember 8th grade lunches at Dobie Mall with Mrs. Slater and Mrs. Johnson who were also two of the best teachers I've ever had. My 5th grade class had the honor of being taught by our substitute Mr. James Dziedzic for an extended period of time, during which he assigned everyone in the class super hero names and only referred to us by our assigned name. My time at St. Austin Catholic School formed me into who I am today. I fell in love with the Mass during my years at St. Austin. School Mass was my favorite part of the week. I learned how to love and serve others with a sacrificial love. 

I went on to study theology and catechetics in college and then to embrace my vocation in youth ministry. I attribute my deep faith and roots of a personal relationship with Christ to St. Austin and the family that taught me to love as Christ loves. St. Austin is one of the few impactful institutions that holds true to their motto, Non scholae sed vitae, we learn not for school, but for life. I truly do not believe that I would be who I am today and have an identity so deeply rooted in my faith if it were not for my time at St. Austin Catholic school and for the people there who loved me as family. I am still friends with many of my classmates. It's been amazing to see them grow, get married, have children, and do amazing things. We have lost classmates, staff, and clergy over the years but we hold onto the hope that Christ promises us that we will be reunited with Him in Heaven. 

Thank you St. Austin Catholic School for not only teaching us academics, but for cultivating the faith in us, and helping us to encounter Christ and form a personal relationship with Him. I hope to send my own children through the doors of SACS one day. GO EAGLES!

~ Milan Chaump,
SACS, Class of 2009 

Photo by Frankie (Francesca) Cimino Moore, SACS Class of 2006

When you spend 9 or more years together, meeting every school day morning on the blacktop, at Parents' Club events, sporting events, Advent Cantatas, birthday parties, and the like, friendships form that you'll cherish for a lifetime. Kids grow up, graduate, find new friends, get married, move away, come home, yet the bonds between SACS parents endure. We support one another in times of challenge and great joy. This group gathered to toast the Blacktop on August 25, 2021.

And the SACS Class of 2014 gathered this summer to catch up at this special place.
 

I lived at Newman Hall while attending UT from 1985 to 1987. My roommate became like a sister. We are still very close. Great memories at Newman. One the best times of my life. I remember the priests coming to eat lunch with us at the dining room. In particular I remember Father Bob Scott who was a true friend, always very happy to see me and would mention my name when I approached Communion. Years later my daughter received her First Reconciliation from him! I remember spending time in the back of the Church at my favorite pew, the Church in silence. Great peace to be found in between classes. Then in 1993 when my husband whom I met at UT and I decided to get married we chose, St Austin's, of course. Married July 10, 1993 by Father Bruce Nieli! St Austin's and Newman Hall are very special in my life!

~ Stephanie Sauder-Andrade