St. Joseph Catholic High School Class of 2022

Intermountain Catholic

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The St. Joseph Catholic High School commencement exercises were held May 20.

OGDEN — Although the Saint Joseph Catholic High School Class of 2022 excelled academically and in the sports arenas, it was their character that Valedictorian Bjorn Mauritsen praised in his May 20 commencement speech.

“Sitting in front of me right now is a group of some of the best people I know,” he said. “One of the first things I noticed when I came here was the bonds you had with each other. You were all really good friends. Everyone talks to each other freely and there aren’t any of those cliquey barriers that high school is kind of famous for.”

When Mauritsen sat down to write his valedictorian speech, his first draft was filled with cliches encouraging his fellow graduates to follow their dreams, he said. In the end, however, he chose to focus on five things his fellow graduates could do “right now that will hopefully achieve those same goals,” he said. They included petting a dog, giving bear hugs, inviting a neighbor over to dinner, not taking pictures of every sunset, and cheering the loudest at graduation.

“To cheer for someone else isn’t just to show your excitement at their achievement,” he said. “It helps to express how valuable your relationship with them has been. … It remains a wonderful way to practice empathy and describe love.”

Salutatorian Ellen Rickerd urged her fellow seniors to live life outside their comfort zone, something that she didn’t learn to do until her last year and a half at St. Joseph’s, she said.

“A lot of times it is easier and even preferable to not take the risk and to just live a comfortable, stable life, but the most incredible experiences come when you venture out of your comfort zone,” she said.

“Really, growth is always accompanied by pain, so why not accept that it might be painful?” she added. “It might be painful, it most definitely will be difficult, but it will be worth it. Find what makes you happy and enjoy your time here because none of us make it out alive anyways, so you might as well have fun while you’re here.”

In his remarks, Teacher of the Year and keynote speaker Jay Hart tried to follow a formula he found on Google for a successful speech: tell a joke, be personal and share some advice, he said. Hart regaled the graduates with some of his best dad jokes, shared personal experiences he had had with many of them and gave two pieces of advice. He encouraged the graduates to take at least one class during college just because they wanted to, explaining that he had unexpectedly taken an Introduction to Wines class the last quarter of his senior year, which led to a love of the subject and 35 years teaching wine appreciation courses.

“Wine has been the means to making so many friends and has brought me such joy — all because I took a class for no particular reason,” he said.    

Hart also encouraged the graduates to “continue to find value in things that many others claim are slow and inefficient.”

“Slow and inefficient are not terms our society embraces, but there’s value in both occasionally,” he said. “Reading is such a thing. So are friendship and love. So is the marvel that is our classroom education here at St. Joseph Catholic High School.”  

Hart also praised two members of the faculty who are leaving St. Joseph’s: Shane Reinhart and Peggy Barker.

Reinhart is “precisely the kind of teacher and human being around which the school should be built,” Hart said, while for Barker “as a school, we have always cherished her enormous patience and kindness; and for my part I have treasured my hallway confidante and friend.”

He then led attendees in a standing ovation for Barker.

The St. Joseph Catholic High School Class of 2022’s 43 graduates experienced many challenges during their time at the school, including a last-minute move to the school gym from the soccer field for commencement exercises when rain came in, Principal Clay Jones said in his congratulatory speech. He went on to share experiences he had had with each individual graduate.

Ninety-six percent of St. Joseph graduates are headed to four-year colleges or universities. Cumulatively they received more than $4 million in scholarships. Graduates have been accepted to top-ranked academic institutions such as the University of Notre Dame, San Diego State University, the University of Utah and Utah State University.