Class of 2020 known for adapting to ever-changing landscape

India Hilliard’s family relocated from Oklahoma to Western Maryland for a job opportunity, only to have it disappear six months later.

Catherine Kinkopf’s interest in a career in pediatrics is reflected in the comfort she’s offered both a fearful child and her schoolmates.

For Kenny Clapp, cancellations and postponements included his baptism into the Catholic Church.

As those three will attest, the Class of 2020 will be known for its adaptability during a coronavirus pandemic.

Sacrament on hold

While an elite soccer program attracted Clapp to Archbishop Curley High School, he found himself fully engaged in the classroom, where his AP courses ranged from biology to literature, and other extracurricular activities.

They included being a peer minister in its Franciscan Youth Ministry, despite the fact that he had never been baptized Christian. That was to be rectified March 21 at St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Highlandtown with the entire senior class in attendance as it concluded its service week with an overnight retreat.

Of course, that was the first week of school wiped out by the pandemic.

His faith journey coalesced in a Franciscan Leadership class taught by Conventual Franciscan Father Christopher Dudek, the campus minister.

“I was fascinated by what he taught us about baptism,” Clapp said. “Friar Chris had an entire plan, and showed me what we had to do. We even found godparents.”

They are Jon Pressimone and Meeri Kangas, both of whom taught him theology.

The desire to join their faith was further fueled by immigration advocacy, in the form of service in the Refugee Project at Moravia Park Elementary School, and a summer encounter program at the University of Maryland.

A member of the Pipeline Soccer Club, Clapp lost his final youth season to the pandemic. He’s headed to Syracuse University, which like many colleges, will adopt an accelerated academic calendar in the fall, with no semester break.

He was to report even earlier than planned, as his summer courses started July 1. Before that, Clapp was finally initiated into the Catholic Church June 25, at St. Casimir in Canton, where he received the sacraments of baptism, first Communion and confirmation.

Miracle child

Hilliard was midway through her junior year at Valliant High School in southeastern Oklahoma when her stepfather took a job as an operations manager at a paper mill in Allegany County.

Before her first semester at Bishop Walsh School in Cumberland had been completed, however, news came that the paper mill in Luke was closing, taking with it approximately 500 jobs. Don Gross moved on to another position in Georgia, but his wife stayed in Maryland and India and her brother, Quil, remained at Walsh.

“I fell in love with this area, and school,” Hilliard said. “It would hurt to leave here. It reminded me of back home, it’s so close-knit. When I joined the basketball team, I didn’t have to introduce myself.”

She was the midseason roster addition with a hitch in her stride, the result of structural issues in an ankle and one leg shorter than the other. Diagnosed at two weeks with infantile fibrosarcoma, a rare strain of cancer, Hilliard has been a regular at St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis.

“I look at the scars and count,” Hilliard said, when asked about the half-dozen surgeries she has undergone. “I’ve always had to have a positive outlook, but this (the pandemic) put a damper on a lot of things. It’s dangerous for me, and we’ve been on lockdown quite a while. It’s a lot harder on me than other kids my age.”

Hilliard once had her heart set on attending the University of Texas. Now she’s headed to Towson University to study psychology.

Gratitude

Kinkopf was a member of four National Honor Societies and involved in student government, theater and choir at Notre Dame Preparatory School in Towson, but its Women in Medicine program reinforced her interest in pursuing medical school after her undergrad work at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.

Her role models include her own pediatrician and another she shadowed in the summer of 2018. Last summer, Kinkopf volunteered at Hopkins’ Pediatric Emergency Department.

“Being in that environment was so valuable,” said Kinkopf, whose mother, Kristen, is NDP’s executive director of institutional advancement. “Being able to talk with patients was the coolest part.”

Words weren’t necessary with one little girl, whose case history required a visit from child services.

“Even when we weren’t talking,” Kinkopf said, “there’s just something so powerful even in the silence, trying to show her … that she was safe in that place and that that we were there to take care of her and be there for her.”

In addition to having the highest GPA in her class, Kinkopf was the recipient of NDP’s White Blazer Award, presented to the senior “whose positive influence has been felt” over four years.

The administration shared her four-minute reflection May 8, when students learned that they would not return to campus during the spring semester. Kinkopf addressed fear and empathy, for grandparents, essential workers and the entire NDP community.

“Those negative feelings, we’re all going through them together,” she said in the reflection. “Even though we’re apart physically, we are united. … Our ending is unexpected and it’s it’s different, but that doesn’t make it inherently bad.

“We’ve had the memories and the accomplishments and the experiences, and this ending doesn’t devalue that.”

Email Paul McMullen at pmullen@catholicreview.org 

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