One of history’s great utterances, by Churchill, one of history’s great orators, surely fits well in describing the rite of passage that is high school graduation.
Logan Collier
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
Abigail Cawyer
And, so, it is with Nolan Catholic High School’s Class of 2024, which walked the stage in May at the College Park Center at UT Arlington. The school’s traditional robing ceremony took place on May 17.
Left behind, too, was a great little friendly rivalry between the class’s top academic finishers.
“It’s really great,” says Abigail Cawyer, the salutatorian. “There is nobody I’d rather be second to than this guy.”
That guy is Logan Collier, valedictorian, who is headed to TCU to study neuroscience. It’s a pre-med path he is planning. Cawyer is heading south, down the interstate to Austin, where she plans to study biology at University of Texas. She, too, is planning to blaze a path to medical school.
In short, there appears to be more good competition left in these two. It’s competition that has driven academic ardor among these high achievers.
“Right when the [last] report card came out, the first thing I did was text her to find out her GPA to see if she had passed me,” joked Collier.
Nolan Catholic opened in 1961 as Our Lady of Victory High School on a site donated by the Amon G. Carter Foundation. It was ultimately to be a merger between the all-girls Our Lady of Victory and all-boys Laneri High School. It began with all the girls moving over from OLV and a freshman class of boys. The last boys graduating class at Laneri was 1964.
The school was renamed in honor of Msgr. Robert Nolan in 1963. Nolan served as pastor of St. Patrick’s Cathedral for 31 years, until his death in 1939. At the time of his service, Fort Worth was part of the Catholic Diocese of Dallas. Fort Worth became its own diocese in 1969.
The senior Class of 2024 earned more than $15 million in scholarships.
Collier, a member of the band, said he and bandmates used some of their Christian Ministry hours — Nolan requires at least 75 hours of volunteer work over four years to graduate — teaching music to younger kids. It’s putting faith to work.
“My favorite one was at TCU,” Collier said. “It’s ‘Acing Autism.’ We teach kids with, not just autism, but other mental disorders, to play tennis and other games. It was really rewarding. A lot of them don't really care about the tennis aspect because they're young. They just want to have someone with them and give them encouragement. It's really rewarding.”
Cawyer, a member of the cheer team, spent her most productive volunteer hours at Cook Children’s Medical Center. (Both students were active in a number of clubs, too. Cawyer was involved in Fort Worth Sister Cities and the Fort Worth Youth International Board.)
In his valedictory address, Collier asked his classmates to put eyes on both the present and future. Both are important in leading fulfilled lives.
“I think I’ve had reverse senioritis,” he said. “The closer graduation got, the more I wanted time to slow down, so, I could savor each moment. Nolan has shaped us into the amazing people we are today and has given us countless memories and friendships that will hopefully last a lifetime. It is with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to Nolan and the Class of 2024.”
He praised his classmates for persevering through the beginning of a high school career under the shadow and uncertainty of a global pandemic.
“If I had to describe our class in one word, it would be resilient,” he said. “We pushed through all the obstacles that the past four years put in front of us, and we never complained or faltered or failed to achieve. I hate to focus on it, but it cannot be overlooked that our freshman year was probably the strangest freshman year that Nolan has ever experienced.”
Cawyer encouraged her classmates to continue to embrace change as an opportunity to grow. She also guarded against comparing themselves to others and creeping resentment that can damage the soul.
“Be happy at the success of others,” she said. “Someone once told me that comparison is the thief of joy and it's a saying that's stuck with me ever since.”
She went on to story tell about her first encounter with her rival, Collier. Freshman year, she had climbed to first place in the Catholic Math League.
Collier, however, in the final test moved into first, knocking her down to second, “taking the victory right out of my hands.”
“At that moment, I could’ve never imagined that I would be standing on this stage recounting this defeat as my first encounter with one of my very best friends,” Cawyer said at graduation. “Our rivalry turned to friendship when our sophomore year schedules looked nearly identical, and we sat next to each other in every class because our last names are so similar. Over the years, we’ve made so many memories and I’ve gotten to see firsthand how much of a hard worker he is. There is no one I would rather be second place to.”
