Overview of the Banquet

Just this past Thursday the 19th of May, the Jesuit Roundup held an award ceremony for its members to highlight and honor certain writers for their commitment to the newspaper daily. Also, to commemorate the senior staff and celebrate this year’s writers and their outstanding accomplishments along the way.

Sage catering served a Mexican-style meal packed with fajitas, beans, rice, cookies, and an assortment of options to put on top of your fajitas for dinner for all alumni, parents, guests, and writers. It was a very special night because Sage does not take many requests and was a rare treat to enjoy!

Photo of the new Roundup Staff for the 2022-2023 school year

There was a fascinating panel speaker former Editor-in-Chief and alum of the class of ‘2017, Martin Flores, who graduated from Loyola Chicago. He discussed how and what the Roundup provided for his success at Jesuit. He mentioned how at first as he walked into Dr. Degen’s door one day during the beginning of the school year, thinking it would be a rigorous, time-consuming club. But over time, that changed significantly eventually finding a passion and reason to write articles. It was quite interesting to hear his thoughts and advice presented and enjoyed listening to his Jesuit story.

Awards and Announcement of New Staff for 2022-2023 School Year

The current Roundup staff announced the commemoration and also the gratitude towards the senior staff through all their hard work and effort put into the paper. A  new beginning happened tonight, as Managing Editor Ajay Bhavan announced our new upcoming senior staff, including editors from the classes of 23 and 24. Logan Thompson ’24 will be the first-ever junior EIC of the Roundup (Editor in Chief), while Kevin Babu ’23 takes initiative for the Managing Editor role, Peter Loh ’24 covering the Viewpoint editor role, Anthony Nguyen ’24 becoming the News Editor covering a variety of local and global news, Austin Keith ’24 as the Media Editor, and Peyton Bristow ’25 covering the category of current sports whether that be from an organized sports league such as the NBA, NFL, and NHL or Jesuit.

Also to mention, shoutout to Nick Morris ’23 for winning Burger Correspondent of the Year. It was truly a moving moment to witness an outstanding award be presented!

Additionally, Peter Loh ’24 won Article of the Year with his piece “Breaking Russia invades Ukraine, the Best Associates by grade level were senior David Plocica ’22, junior Kevin Babu ’23, sophomore Logan Thompson ’24, and freshmen Peyton Bristow ’25. Lastly, for best video of the year went to Saad Zulqarnain ’22 for his Ranger Day 2021 video.

Durham Award

The Durhan Award was first awarded in 2016 and originated in the Durham family, who desired to offer scholarships to talented writers in the Roundup. Speaker Blake Woodard detailed the background of the award.

“The Durham Family Award this year honors and acknowledges students, upcoming seniors ’23 or juniors ’24, for their notable commitment to The Roundup, both in producing content and providing significant leadership to the newspaper staff.”

“The award underscores the contributions of the three Durham sons who played a primary role in establishing and developing the online newspaper, along with Suzanne and Clark Durham who donated generously of their time and treasure to support the early growth of The Roundup.” This year’s Durham Award winners were Logan Thompson ’24, Austin Keith ’24, Peter Loh ’24, Anthony Nguyen ’24, and Griffin Taber ’24. It recognizes the individual hard work put forward towards the paper, ultimately for people that committed to go the extra mile in terms of editing articles, covering their beats regularly, and the amount of consistent effort each day. Each person was granted a two thousand dollar scholarship.

I asked Peter Loh ’24 about his thoughts on winning the Durham Award and this is what he had to say…

“Winning the Durham Award meant a lot to me as I reflect on my journey with the Roundup in the spring semester. I really enjoyed working with my fellow associates like Griffin Taber, Logan Thompson, and Anthony Nguyen to work on delivering the articles to the Roundup. In order to win the award, we had to show commitment, drive, and writing skills throughout the year. Even after winning the award, we have to continue our commitment to the newspaper which I definitely plan on doing. It was an honor to receive the award with my Jesuit brothers.”

And I also got the chance to ask Anthony Nguyen’s ’24 thoughts about receiving the award, and he had to say…

“I feel honored and humbled to have received the Durham Award. I have always looked up to the Durham brothers as an inspiration for me to write and contribute selflessly to the newspaper. During my time as an associate editor, I have tried my best to cover news topics from school and worldwide as much as possible. Honestly, it takes a tremendous effort and consistent patience to write and lead The Roundup. I hope that I can use my experience to assist new writers in their journey of writing.”

Martin Flores Address

Right after the lovely dinner, Mr. Martin Flores spoke to writers, guests, teachers, and parents about the impact of the Roundup, and expressed how much of a blessing and voice the Roundup gave him. Here is a glimpse of his keynote speech.

“Good evening everyone. First, a thank you to Dr. Degen and the staff of the Roundup for kindly inviting me to speak tonight. It’s great to be back on campus and with you all in person!

“As was mentioned my name is Martin Flores, I’m a 2017 graduate of Jesuit College Prep. I recently graduated from – another Jesuit school -​​ Loyola University Chicago in May of 2021, where I earned my Bachelor’s in Political Science. Since then, have been living and working in Chicago as a Legal Case Manager with a social security disability law firm. This Fall, I’ll be making another geographic shift to Virginia, where I’ll be attending Washington & Lee University School of Law, pursuing my persistent goal of being an attorney. My accomplishments are, of course, a product in large part of my strong academic foundation at Jesuit, and the Roundup has helped in molding me into the person I am today, both professionally and personally. 

“As an alumnus, I am both impressed and inspired by the progress made at the Roundup since I served as Editor in Chief. A viewer even taking but a few minutes to browse the site will see articles that highlight your brothers’ ordinary and extraordinary accomplishments, provoke thoughtful debate, and show care for widely documenting the people and events that make Jesuit so special. I saw an article about Jesuit Rugby advancing to a State Championship for 2nd time in two years. It wasn’t long until I found myself reading a viewpoint article explaining and arguing against a sports streaming service that has drawn fire for paywalling various games behind steep prices, and then finishing up with an interview with Dr. Patrick Walsh, the former commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and a Jesuit grad himself. This article – quite impressively – wasn’t simply a survey of Dr. Walsh’s accomplishments and memories from his time in the armed services, but a nuanced and focused discussion on contemporary foreign policy issues – namely, Chinese aggression in the Pacific, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the genocide of Uyghur Muslims in China. These are just a sampling; there are many more articles like this on the site and I’m certain that there are many more to come. The Roundup continues to display a substantial amount of preparation, responsibility, and maturity that is worth celebrating tonight. Bravo, gentlemen. 

I’m honored to be speaking to you all tonight, though my appearance here feels a little coincidental. I joined the Roundup because I loved to write my first semester at Jesuit in 2013 – but I didn’t know where my strongest passions were at the time as a young man. Coming into Jesuit, I had played parochial school baseball and had aspirations to play on Jesuit’s team. I tried out for the Jesuit baseball team just before Freshman year but had to quickly get clear-eyed about the fact that I’m just not a natural baseball player. I was trying to play in a league, literally, that I simply couldn’t be in and succeed. A true, sobering wake-up call given to a 14-year-old. 

So, where did that lead me? My curiosity eventually led me to Dr. Degen’s classroom for my first Roundup staff meeting. But my initial assumptions about a high school newspaper also didn’t comport with my idea of a league I could play in at the time. I wasn’t in Pre-AP English, I didn’t consider myself an aspiring journalist, and I didn’t want to be boxed into a singular extracurricular club. I thought I’d be an outsider, but quickly found community because many of the guys on the Roundup were also in my shoes. They had come to the Roundup on happenstance and stuck with it to make it a very special and successful organization on campus. 

Just after that, universal irony and probably my own naïveté made it so that my first interviews as a reporter were with the coaches who cut me from the baseball team. But, I had discovered a passion that I’d keep throughout high school and my trajectory would be changed completely. This change paid off. 3 years after that interview, I’d be serving as the Editor-in-Chief overseeing the daily operations of the paper and providing strategic direction to a staff of nearly 50, working closely with Managing Editor Will Aberger. The irony goes deeper – and this is true – Will and I played baseball together in 8th grade before Jesuit. And we’re here, quite coincidentally, here tonight. 

My remarks tonight aren’t about divine intervention or fate as a human condition – it’s tempting, but I don’t have that much time. My remarks are about something more concrete and surefire – the skills, memories, and direction that you’ll glean from your time with the Roundup. 

It doesn’t take long to guess that the writing skills learned in the Roundup pay dividends. I carried practices of good writing into college, quickly realizing how important it was to write well in every college class or any profession you’re entering into. Dr. Degen’s classes remain some of the hardest I’ve taken, and I can say that the addendum of The Roundup on top of Jesuit’s outstanding writing curriculum will provide a toolbox for you to do just about any job. Put simply: you learn how to be an excellent communicator in the Roundup. You’ve likely already discovered that newspaper writing is not like essay writing – and adjusting to that reality can be difficult. But you’re concurrently exposed to a new reality of talking directly with teachers, staff, and administrators in interviews. That’s an experience not a lot of folks get, and I’m glad I got that early. 

At Loyola, I served as the Vice President of the Student body from 2020 to 2021, with our term coinciding nearly exactly with the COVID-19 pandemic. The President and I regularly presented to and met with the Board of Trustees; the University President, Provost, and Deans of the University. We also met with ground-level folks like faculty, student groups, and student support staff that were critical to our advocacy in one of the hardest times in higher education. Our ideas had to hold water at the adult table in a time of legitimate crisis – serious proposals, concise questions, and prior preparation were a feature of our day-to-day, and I can trace those skills back to my time at the Roundup easily. 

But the people skills you gain are just as important and effective. Interviewing folks for an article enhances your sense of empathy and appreciation for the diversity of human life. Community Profiles show this the best, in my view. People at Jesuit are great with this – they give you as much time and attention as a colleague or peer. When I interviewed the late Fr. Edwards S.J., a Jesuit priest 90 years old at the time, I knew I had to take great care of displaying his story, his accomplishments, and his reflections on his life. I was petrified, to say the least, as this was the biggest story I had worked on as a young writer – oh, and we were filming it. Yet, I was at ease in our interview and felt as if I was interviewing a classmate, friend, or family member – he explained the ordinary origins of his extraordinary life story. I realized: he’s just a person. Diane Camara in the records office described it best when I interviewed her for the story, talking about Fr. Edwards: “you feel like you’ve known this person your entire life… he’s so easy to talk to. He makes himself available for you.” She went on to comment about how “seemingly untouchable people become touchable” – only through the Roundup could a student relate and speak to a 90-year-old Priest about his life. 

My point here is that you’ll discover that when you scratch the surface of someone’s life – no matter who -you’ll find that you have much more in common and share more similarities than differences with them. That’s a very special human truth that the Roundup showed me. And appreciating that truth makes you more comfortable with lots of different people – because you recognize a common humanity. And you can take that anywhere, I used that in interviewing a distinguished alumnus, I used that teaching English to refugees in Rome, I used that in persuading the University President on an issue about racial justice, and I used that comfort in talking with my clients from vastly different walks of life every day. That skill isn’t told or explained in a classroom; it’s shown and lived in real life. 

The Roundup regularly tells stories that are seemingly small and shows their value to our audience. Your brother’s quiet accomplishments, unique talents, and interests – that’s the stuff that makes this place so special as much as the big profiles. Our Jesuit tradition calls us to the richness of every person’s story and to relay that is a true privilege. The Roundup understands that very well – keep seeking those stories and don’t take the responsibility of storytelling lightly. 

You’re an incredibly lucky group and I’m excited to see you all keep growing. You have the unique spot in the Jesuit community to be multi-passionate, and serve others through your talents of writing and storytelling. You’re also getting a phenomenal interdisciplinary education – there isn’t a subject area you’re not prepared to tackle. The killer combination of your talents put simply will bring you great success no matter what field you go into. But don’t forget that the 500-year-old practice of Jesuit education is also directional – it wants you to use those otherwise neutral talents to help others, to extend a hand rather than a sword, and to do what’s right. 

Give thanks. Have hope. Have fun. Remember where you came from, and don’t quit. Onward, thank you.”

Conclusion

And what a year it has been! I want to give a big thank you to the senior editors for all their leadership and help from the beginning of the school, which will soon be departing soon for college. Thank you for assisting me and helping me learn the ropes of how the Roundup operates.

Thank you to Dr. Degen, Mr. Nava, and Mr. Asche for setting up the banquet and enjoying a paramount day in this year’s 2021-2022 school year! And also EIC Blake Woodard ’22 and Managing Editor Ajay Bhavan ’22 as well!

Thank you to Mr. Martin Flores for the panel! It was very uplifting and interesting to listen to a great message!