Gabriella is a sophomore at DeLaSalle High School in Minneapolis. Gabriella is also a CSAF scholarship recipient. Read her testimonial below for her take on why Catholic education is so important.

“I’ve gone to a Catholic elementary school, middle school, and now high school and just having that constant presence of God and always having Him in our classrooms and at home, it helps me to really think about what I am doing and the good deeds that should be done.

I would say that at DeLaSalle, you feel so welcome when you walk in and I think that it has to do with the Catholic faith and the fact that the faith is what keeps us together—it’s what keeps us as a community, as one, all together. You feel God’s presence between everyone.

It makes me feel special [to have received a grant from the CSAF]. I feel that people care about how kids are doing in life because society and high school [in particular] are so different now than they used to be. It helps a lot to know that there are people out there that are helping us to be able to go to this Catholic school and get a Catholic education so that we can live a good, Catholic life.

I think students should all have a fair chance of coming here because it is a great school and it does enforce the fact that God is always present. Some kids just don’t have the opportunity to get that at home so when you do come to a school [like DeLaSalle] that has religion class, [for example], it enforces the fact that God is always present. You really get that message [as a student].”