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January
23, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 2Oakland,
CA
Three honored with diocesan Mother Seton Award
An art teacher, a principal, and a school volunteer
have been named recipients of the 2006 Mother SetonAward, awarded annually
by the diocesan school department.
They are Carol Larkin of Holy Names High School in Oakland, Joe Siino
of St. Peter Martyr School in Pittsburg, and Mary Byrne Hernandez, a parishioner
at St. Joseph in Fremont.
The Seton Award is named for St. Elizabeth Seton, an 18th century socialite
from New York City who converted to Catholicism and founded the first
new community for religious women in the United States. She began St.
Joseph Academy and Free School for Girls, the first school staffed by
Sisters in the U.S., and she is considered the mother of Catholic education
in the country.
The Seton Award is presented to graduates of Catholic schools who exemplify
her values in example and service.
Carol Larkin
One year, during the annual diocesan student art festival, a parent remarked
that every year she could look across the room at an exceptional piece
of art and know instinctively that it came from the classroom of Carol
Larkin.
Notes the school’s principal, Holy Names Sister Sally Slyngstad:
“Carol is a consummate teacher, that rare instructor who can reach
inside students and reveal the gifts and talents within them.”
An art teacher at Holy Names for 35 years, Larkin’s “work
with the students has been celebrated by generations and every one of
her Advanced Placement students has passed the AP art examination,”
wrote Sister Slyngstad in nominating Larkin for the award.
Larkin, a graduate of both Holy Names High and Holy Names College, is
also known as a community builder, “the first to cry out at injustice
and the first to come to someone’s side,” said her principal.
When she first learned that a student was beginning intensive chemotherapy
this year, Larkin said, ‘Oh, we all need to know that we can pray
for her.”
Prayer figures prominently in Larkin’s life. She is part of a small
group of staff who gather before school every Thursday morning to pray
for both the students and the school.
She is also a champion for people who are poor, and she has initiated
efforts to serve individuals beyond the walls of the high school. She
has coordinated faculty Christmas toy drives, and collected bags to help
Oakland’s Mercy
Retirement and Care Center deliver food to low-income seniors.
As a lover of animals, she is known to rescue dogs and cats in her neighborhood
and spiders who’ve crawled into her classroom.
“To know Carol is to know the presence of simple goodness and to
feel the message of our God on earth,” said Sister Slyngstad.
Joe Siino
As soon as he graduated from St. Peter Martyr School in Pittsburg, Joe
Siino came back to volunteer. Then, after competing his studies at De
La Salle High in Concord and St. Mary’s College in Moraga, he returned
as a teacher. Eventually he became vice principal, and then principal.
Father Richard Chavez, pastor, describes Siino as the bearer of a “rich
tradition of Catholic education steeped in faith, doctrine and service.”
As principal he has added an extended care program, a licensed pre-kindergarten
and additional extra-curricular programs. He has also overseen much needed
repairs and upgrades to the school plant.
Rocco Enea, vice principal, said that Siino’s leadership goes beyond
the classroom and school. Alumni return to seek his advice, and many have
asked him to be their godparent at Confirmation.
Nearly 15 percent of current St. Peter Martyr parents are school alumni,
“a tribute to the service and dedication he has given in building
community and tradition at the school,” said Enea.
Siino serves the parish as a catechist and Eucharistic minister, and he
is a board member of several diocesan committees.
For more than 20 years he has been co-director of the diocesan student
leadership program that each June trains seventh and eighth graders serving
on their student councils. With its motto of “Leadership through
Service,” students are taught how to become leaders and faith-filled
servants in their schools and communities.
Mary Byrne Hernandez
The Gospel value of “opting for the poor” is front and center
in Mary Byrne Hernandez’s life. In 1992, Hernandez, a graduate of
St. Joseph Elementary and Holy Cross High schools in Mountain View, initiated
the Tuition Assistance Fund at St. Joseph School in Fremont. She helped
it grow to $650,000 by involving the school in the Fremont Art and Wine
Festival.
Today, she serves on the committee that analyzes the financial data provided
by families seeking tuition help and, along with the pastor and principal,
determines the amount to be allocated.
Hernandez has also organized Christmas holiday events and lavender sachet
sales to raise funds for Sister John Marie’s Pantry, a parish arm
of the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
“Whatever she has taken on as a leader as been measurably improved
by her involvement,” said Msgr. Manuel Simas, pastor. For this reason,
Hernandez was given the highest parent award at her son’s graduation
from St. Joseph School – the Mary Green Award.
When her son was at St. Joseph, Hernandez served as president of the St.
Joseph School Board, as coordinator of the parish spaghetti dinner, as
a room parent, and as chair of the Festival of Fortune. When he was a
student at Bellarmine Preparatory School in San Jose, she chaired a major
fundraising event to benefit the school’s Tuition Assistance program.
She currently chairs the St. Joseph School Advancement Board, the St.
Joseph Parish capital campaign drive, and the parish finance committee.
“She has worked tirelessly to make the ministry of the capital campaign
drive committee more than fundraising efforts for a new church,”
said her pastor.
He also applauded her for her sponsorship in the parish RCIA program.
Carol Larkin
Joe Siino
Mary Byrne Hernandez
