Vanessa Valerio (Class of 2005)
was recently selected to participate in Nationals, Inc.'s 2005 Miss Junior Teen San Francisco Pageant competition held on November 6.
Vanessa will compete in the Miss Junior Teen division, one of three divisions that will have contestants between the ages of 10 and 19.
The contestants compete in modeling routines and interviewing skills. Congratulations Vanessa!

CONGRATULATIONS TO THESE ALUMNI OF SPN!

SPN Class of 2002

Saint Joseph Notre Dame Seniors Receive National Merit Scholarship Recognition

Saint Joseph Notre Dame High School senior Diego Flores ’06 has been named a National Merit Semi-Finalist. His scores on the PSAT were among the top one percent, representing the top 16,000 out of 1.3 million students who took the test nationwide. Diego hopes to advance to finalist level of the competition and earn a Merit Scholarship Award.

Diego comes to SJND from St. Philip Neri School and is currently enrolled in Advanced Placement classes in Spanish Literature; Calculus; English Literature and Composition; Physics; and, Government. His favorite class is AP Government as he plans on studying politics in college and pursuing a career in government service. He has already proven himself academically by passing the AP U.S. History Exam with the top possible score. Additionally, Diego was chosen to participate in an accelerated program at Brown University this past summer. Diego is the SJND Forensics Team Debate Captain, which is the school’s chapter of the National Forensics League, a national honor society for public speaking. Diego is currently applying to some of the top colleges and universities in the United States.

Nwabueze Ken Umeh ‘06 has been named a National Achievement Semi-Finalist. His PSAT scores were among the top 1,600 of African American students in the United States. Ken hopes to advance to finalist standing and complete for achievement Scholarships sponsored by the National Achievement Program.

Gerard Chapot ’06 and Peter Matarese ’06 have been recognized as Commended Students by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Their scores were among the top 50,000 nationwide.

All four of these seniors have demonstrated outstanding academic potential by their performance in the very competitive merit program. Principal Tony Aiello noted, “We are proud of these students as they represent the school in all their endeavors. It is especially gratifying that SJND has helped them soar.”

Saint Joseph Notre Dame High School is a Catholic, co-educational college preparatory, parish high school that is dedicated to the development of the whole person. Saint Joseph Notre Dame High School has a 125 year tradition of providing small classes, strong academic skills and a wide variety of student leadership and extracurricular opportunities.