{"id":18690,"date":"2025-02-11T16:51:03","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T00:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/?p=18690"},"modified":"2025-04-22T18:49:55","modified_gmt":"2025-04-23T01:49:55","slug":"bridging-campuses-st-john-bosco-high-school-and-st-joseph-high-school-unite-for-a-day-of-fun-and-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/2025\/02\/11\/bridging-campuses-st-john-bosco-high-school-and-st-joseph-high-school-unite-for-a-day-of-fun-and-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"Bridging Campuses: St. John Bosco High School and St. Joseph High School Unite for a Day of Fun and Faith"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jesus Biag, Co-Editor-in-Chief<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Braves are celebrating their 85th anniversary this year, while the Jesters celebrated their 60th this past year. These two key milestones were part of why the schools came together to bring back this event, which last took place a decade ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last time Unity Day was celebrated, Mr. Sergio Esparza, theology instructor and Campus Minister, was just starting his teaching career at St. Joseph\u2019s High School. While he wasn\u2019t directly involved in coordinating  2015\u2019s Unity Day, which took place on our campus, he learned a lot and enjoyed watching the shared energy between Bosco and SJ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was crazy. There was a lot going on,\u201d said Mr. Esparza. \u201cThere were so many students interacting with one another, and it was such a fun time for students to hang out with one another.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten years later, as Bosco\u2019s Campus Minister, Mr. Esparza had to figure out how to combine faith and fun during Mass, the first activity of 2025\u2019s Unity Day, which started after students checked in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fr. Mel Trinidad, Provincial and President of St. John Bosco, presided over Mass. Classes sat together and celebrated in the Flynn Center, St. Joseph\u2019s gymnasium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Mass started, however, the presidents from St. John Bosco and St. Joseph\u2019s class boards brought up a flower to honor St. John Bosco on his feast day. Senior Board President, Josh Samonte, found the moment to be a particularly powerful one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBringing up the flower alongside one of my SJ sisters resonated with me,\u201d Josh said. \u201cBeing able to celebrate Mass with one another was extremely powerful, and [to me], that\u2019s what Unity Day was all about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of Mass, before everyone was dismissed, members of Bosco\u2019s Youth Ministry came up to ask Father Mel for the day off. Instead of directly asking, they presented a pre-recorded video that was played to enormous laughter. Fr. Mel obliged, granting the Braves a day off on Monday, February 10th.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After being dismissed from the gym, the true festivities started. While Mr. Esparza was behind the \u201cChurch\u201d aspect of Unity Day, Dr. Francesca Po, Bosco\u2019s Coordinator of Youth Ministry, wanted to focus more on a different part of the Oratory Model: the \u201cplayground\u201d aspect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to [have] a field day to celebrate the playground aspect of a Salesian school,\u201d said Dr. Po. \u201c[St. John Bosco] is one of the only schools that hasn\u2019t been having a field day to acknowledge [the playground aspect].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Dr. Po\u2019s opinion, Unity Day truly embodies the spirit of St. John Bosco. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[St. John Bosco] was a magician. He would do magic as he taught his students to show how playful he was,\u201d said Dr. Po. \u201cA huge part of Unity Day was to focus on that part of his character and personality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To embody the playground spirit, the Jesters and Braves gathered on SJ\u2019s field to play games, engage in conversation, and enjoy one another\u2019s company. There were carnival games and a jumper castle, as well as an ice cream truck for students to enjoy some sweet treats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that, everyone returned to the gym for a rally. St. Joseph\u2019s is famous for their rallies, which was reinforced by Mr. Esparza, who taught at SJ before coming to Bosco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing like [a St. Joseph\u2019s rally],\u201d Mr. Esparza said. \u201cThe girls come with so much energy, and you can feel the youthful spirit of someone like St. John Bosco when you\u2019re there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unity Day\u2019s rally parodied Disney Channel\u2019s Teen Beach Movie<\/em>, with members of SJ and Bosco\u2019s executive boards leading the way. They led games where different classes competed against one another and introduced the Winter Formal court, headlined by As\u2019ad Kashim<\/a>, the Winter Formal King.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After lunch concluded, signaling the end of the day, As\u2019ad remembered what he enjoyed most about Unity Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was very happy to connect with my Bosco brothers and SJ sisters,\u201d As\u2019ad said. \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s something I\u2019ll ever forget.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\u2019ad\u2019s statements were reiterated by Jolynn Hallum, St. Joseph\u2019s Senior Board President, who also competes as a member of their highly competitive cheer team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith an emphasis on inclusivity throughout Unity Day, I feel we were able to mend [the gap between our two schools], building lasting bonds that will last a lifetime,\u201d Jolynn said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The leaders of Campus Ministry don\u2019t want to let another ten years pass before they hold this event again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe plan on making this an annual thing, with both schools alternating who hosts,\u201d said Dr. Po.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By continuing efforts to unite St. John Bosco and St. Joseph\u2019s together, both schools hope to make the bonds between brothers and sisters even stronger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: The Brave News<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a brief video reel from the events of the day, visit:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/reel\/596905473115047<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jesus Biag, Co-Editor-in-Chief The Braves are celebrating their 85th anniversary this year, while the Jesters celebrated their 60th this past year. These two key milestones were part of why the schools came together to bring back this event, which last took place a decade ago. The last time Unity Day was celebrated, Mr. Sergio Esparza, theology instructor and Campus Minister, was just starting his … Continuar leyendo Bridging Campuses: St. John Bosco High School and St. Joseph High School Unite for a Day of Fun and Faith<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":10336596,"featured_media":18724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20310044,678324057],"tags":[35890],"class_list":["post-18690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-province-news","category-province-schools","tag-featured"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/salesianbulletin.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/screenshot-2025-02-04-at-10.27.41e280afam-1.png.jpg?fit=1023%2C643&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p59ePG-4Rs","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10336596"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18690"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18712,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18690\/revisions\/18712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salesianbulletin.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}