The Knights of Columbus Monsignor James S. Conlan Council #5329 is proud to announce that the winner of the 2018 Annual Pine Bush Central School District Scholarship is Shawn Burgos Jr. The Scholarship committee blindly reviewed a number of submissions. In a close vote Mr. Burgos’s essay was chosen as the winner.
Mr. Burgos’s essay submission was as follows:
Each day we face challenges that test our faith and drive to be the best version of ourselves. Many people who may not agree with our faith lack, in my opinion, a foundation of hope other than themselves. People that are not involved in faith can only rely on their own benevolence and conscious for guidance, and more often than not this is not enough.
My mother has a small book that includes a story alongside scripture to give us a lesson from God for the day. Each day when I come home I rely on this book for advice and reassurance. And it never fails me. An app on a smartphone would go perfect with this concept. Every morning, the app would notify you of today’s scripture and story reading, that you can view and indulge yourself with. Slowly, this will take habit and become an integral part of that person’s life. This person will then find comfort in the scripture, and be drawn into the Catholic message, adding a new member to our family.
In order to spread the message, we need to grab the attention of people. Music is a central part of culture, and through joyous music we can reach people that are out of range. There needs to be more prominent Christian music genres getting their name out there, whether through promoting on radio or even better: on Instagram. Christian artists need to capitalize on the use of Instagram to promote their personality and faith to secular society. The younger generation could benefit from viewing Catholicism rather than drugs and dissonance.
Snapchat is one the most popular apps that is used by teens and young adults. On snapchat there is this feature called stories, where the user can tap on the “story” to view a video or series of photos or both of whatever the owner of that story chose to post on it. However, news outlets and celebrities usually dominate this area, drawing in attention of kids to lust rather than the love of God. I would like to see a Catholic story, one where each day the host of that story can share experiences involving faith and teach lessons and give advice to people who watch. Snapchat has not made something like this available, and I see no problem with the idea.
These three methods are plausible and can easily be done with a dedicated group of individuals. Gods glory has to be made available to the younger generation to preserve our love for Christ through centuries.
We would thank all of those who submitted essays and congratulate Mr. Burgos. Please keep all our graduating Pine Bush Central School District Seniors in your prayers as they move on to college.
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