Voices Ringing
Carroll High School Blog
Connecting Community Through Language and Leadership: Meet Roberto Coronel Ramirez ‘26
Even as a freshman at Archbishop Carroll High School, Roberto Coronel Ramirez ‘26 has shown a desire to help and to be a mentor to his peers.
“He was a born leader when he walked in the door,” recalled Director of Community Engagement & Inclusion, Tara Knopp. Seeing that potential in him, she approached Ramirez to assist her at admission, enrollment, and other Carroll community events. Ramirez, along with fellow freshman Natalee Correa Quiroz ‘26, would help Knopp welcome Spanish-speaking families and to translate important information to them from English to Spanish at these after-school events.
Of the many translating experiences, Roberto most enjoyed the Open House events. There, he would be paired up with a family and would tour the school with them, helping them get to know Carroll and answering their questions in Spanish. “I really enjoyed walking the families around being able to speak to them in a language they understood,” said Ramirez. He also really enjoyed getting to connect those families to others in the Patriot community.
Ramirez and Quiroz would go on to interpret for almost every public event held during their four years at Carroll, and they would soon motivate and mentor other students to assist in translating with them. “They showed up every step of the way,” said Knopp, and she noted that they also set “an example for other students to sign up and show up to be present for the Spanish-speaking community.”
His passion for Spanish and serving others has been a significant part of his high school career. Knopp recalled that Roberto “always helped his peers in class when they needed guidance”. He happily volunteered to be a part of a four-day long world language summer camp, and he also participated with his peers in organizing canned goods for a food drive to help the local community members facing food insecurity. Knopp said that he gives so much of his time to help his peers and his community “not because he wanted the service (hours, but) because he knew he could be a servant leader.”
Roberto worked hard to be a leader in other capacities as well. His senior year, he stepped up to take on the role of House Captain for Mercy House. “I really enjoyed the time in my family room,” said Roberto. He also found setting up various games, participating in activities, and simply seeing his peers in Mercy House have fun together to be very fulfilling.
His dedication to the community and commitment to his education earned him a coveted Montgomery County College Promise Scholarship that will cover the cost of tuition for four years at the university of his choice. Roberto stands out even among other outstanding students from the College Promise Program as the organization’s winner of the John N. Taylor, Jr. Memorial Scholarship. This additional scholarship is named for the College Promise co-founder who passed away in 2025. Roberto is one of two recipients of the award in its first year.
Roberto hopes to take his translating skills and leadership tools that he’s gained during his years at Carroll with him to Ohio Wesleyan University, where he will major in Spanish and pre-law. He hopes that this path will allow him to continue to work with the Spanish-speaking community and to serve those who are most in need.
Roberto credits the caring teachers he has had at Carroll with playing a significant role in his future plans. Said Roberto, “They really care about you a lot…That's why I chose the college I'm going to for that same reason…their student/teacher relationships.”
Looking back at this time at Carroll, Roberto feels incredibly thankful for the time spent at Archbishop Carroll High School. Said Roberto, “I'm just grateful for all the teachers and for all the skills that Carroll implemented in me.”
Class of 2026 Artist Showcase
Seven members of the Class of 2026 are displaying their works of art at the Wilmington/Stroop Branch of the Dayton Metro Library. Stop by the library through April 30 to see their creations!
Ava Ford
I believe that art is a gift from God. Today, we live in a world that moves so fast. Being able to sit back and create is a blessing. Art is the most universal form of expression, has endured since the beginning of time, and is infinitely changing, evolving, and adapting. It transforms the way you think and feel. Art takes you through tunnels of dark and towers of light. It is an emotional beam that shines and highlights each and every soul. Just as art is always evolving and changing, so is humanity. We are learning and growing in ways that are unimaginable. We observe, adapt, and we create. Every human grows and develops, each of us creative beings made in God's image and love. The beauty of art is eternal and can be moved and bended in every which way.
Art is my bliss. It is an escape from the everyday, superficial, and overwhelming world. When society is constantly moving and rushing, art slows it down. It is a form of expression that serves as a mirror, reflecting the artist's views on a personal and puzzling perspective. Many say it enriches and brings color to life, but I believe that art is life. The world around you is art. Every detail woven into nature, music, fashion, and even emotions, is art. The Almighty Himself created a universe so vast and a planet so large yet each detail drawn down to a single atom was designed and created.
Art shapes our inner lives and connects us to one another, making it an indispensable part of the human experience. Humans connect with one another through art. When viewing my art today, I hope you feel connected and transform your view on the world, art, and yourself.
Thank you for coming to view my artwork!
Cameron Mercuri
I've been interested in art since before I can remember. I've always loved doing anything artistic such as painting, drawing, and really bringing art into everything I do. I enjoy adding charm to the things around me such as decorating my room or even picking out cute outfits. I've always loved expressing myself and with my art.
I can remember being young in elementary school drawing in class and never doing my work because all I wanted to do was draw. My teachers loved that. Art was a way for me to be creative and create my own little story in a drawing. Someone who helped me in my art journey was my Uncle Nathen who I call Nay Nay. He would babysit me when I was little and always made sure we did some sort of painting or craft. Now that I'm older, I've still always carried this artistic value. Art is important to me because it's always been something I can go do if I'm stressed to just relax and express myself.
I hope one day I can make a career out of my artistic talent. I would love to be an art teacher, interior designer, or a fashion designer and express my creativity. Art has brought so much joy to my life and I'm so grateful for the ability to create.
Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my art!
Grace Mosher
Art has played an important role in my life for as long as I can remember. The act of creating and making something I value out of plain materials captivates me, whether that be paint, pencils, or random scraps.
As I've gotten into high school, creating art has become a significant tool for exploring aspects of myself. Art allows me to enter a state of total awareness of my environment. I found that I see the world differently. Colors mean more, and the world around me enables my creativity and the drive to capture it.
I hope my art will continue to allow me to create things that make me proud. My ultimate goal is to continue exploring techniques and mediums and hopefully improve my skills. Thank you for your time, and thank you for viewing my work!
Evangeline Moylan
Ever since I was in kindergarten, I have had a love for drawing. I always tried my hardest whenever we had a project that had drawing in it. By the time I was in third grade, all my classmates had labeled me as “the artist” (even though I wasn’t really that good.) I loved drawing ponies with my friend, and as I got into fifth grade, I started drawing more people, mostly mermaids. I always had a love for girly things, and mermaids were at the top of my list.
During 6th grade, which was during COVID, I started to draw digitally. It all began on my dad’s old Samsung Galaxy S8. It had a hole in the side, and I’d draw art for characters I made for different shows and movies.
At this point, I started wanting to make my own things. I made my own characters for my own world as well as stories and writing them to go with drawings. I wanted to be an animator, a story board artist, or an illustrator. I wanted to do anything that would get my stories out to the world. I wanted to be influential like Walt Disney, James Baxter, or anyone who I thought were the coolest people ever.
Now, I’m a senior in high school, and I still have a dream to get my stories somewhere. Whether I make my own graphic novel, comic, show, movie, or something to share my thoughts and stories. I want to inspire people that are just like me to follow their dreams.
Thank you for viewing my artwork!
Matthew Petty
I’ve always had a hyperactive imagination, devising stories and developing characters. For me, art is an extension of this imagination, a method of preserving and understanding the worlds I create.
Animals are usually the main subjects of my artwork. My older pieces focus on animals and nature more generally, and both topics arose from my love of hiking and zoology. Throughout my senior year, I’ve combined this focus on nature with disasters or post-apocalyptic situations, attempting to portray a world where nature survives and adapts to destruction, albeit permanently changed. I hope these pieces inspire perseverance.
In my sketches and recent projects, I’ve expanded on my love of zoology by anthropomorphizing the animals in my works, placing them in situations commonly experienced by humans. I find that the unique instincts and biology of animals can provide new perspectives on our own thoughts, actions, and beliefs. The large abdomen of bees combined with an extravagant feast of honey can convey themes of excess in a fantastical way, merging imagination with relevant and relatable issues. I adore having the opportunity to share my stories with you and I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I enjoy making them.
Thank you for viewing my art!
Dominic Sellers
I have been doing art for most of my life. My art started out as mostly scribbles. All kids' art starts out this way, so it's no surprise mine did, too. However, it's through these random lines and curvy lines that my artwork truly began to shine. Basic shapes can become something beautiful if you learn how to manipulate the shapes and colors in certain ways. For the first 14 years of my life, I would experiment with the shapes and lines to create little stick figures and basic houses.
This is where my art really started, and it's where all artists' art truly starts. However, I never actually got into art as a hobby until I came across the person who inspired me to work harder at it. It didn't come from my grandfather or my own parents. It came from a YouTuber, Jazza. He taught the basics of both environmental drawings and anatomy, or figure drawings, through his videos. Ever since then, I have been big on creating figure drawings as my main form of artistic expression.
Art is something you can pour your entire heart into: something that has a true meaning behind it. With AI on the rise, art nowadays will definitely look and feel fake because there isn't an artist spending hours or days of their time making their piece because of something they were inspired by. Art means being inspired by the most random things, whether it be birds, environments, or people, and interpreting that emotion or story into a well-thought-out, emotional piece.
AI is just one of the motivations, as of today, for me to keep doing art because there aren't many actual, physical artists left. A lot of artists today use AI to create images, music, or even videos as a form of their “art.” Another reason I keep doing art is my Grandpa. He would always push me to be better, even though he wasn’t an artist himself. He saw my potential and told me to keep going at it, to try again, and to use tips on how it should look. I always took his creative criticisms seriously because I knew he meant it. I know that he meant every word he said with the purest of intentions. He could say, “That eye needs work, but otherwise it's great, Dom!” However, since he passed away a year ago, it's been hard to keep going. He can't give me those same tips and criticisms he used to give anymore.
Over the past few months, I have found God, and since then, I have found a newfound desire to spread His Word. So what I want to leave behind with the amount of art I put out is that no matter what happens in our lives, Jesus will always be walking alongside us, saving us from ourselves. That is the big message that i want to put into every piece as well.
Stella Sharp
Art is something that I have always surrounded myself with in many different facets. When I was younger, I always watched my cousin draw and do art. Watching her inspired me to start drawing with her, as well as starting to grow as an individual artist. After I got inspiration from her, I started watching videos on YouTube that helped me to try different forms. Throughout my trials, I found that my favorite medium revolves around the use of markers and microns.
Art is important to me because it is a time in my life where I can relax, rather than be stressed. In life, my grades and sports are very important to me and can put a lot of stress onto my everyday life. When I have downtime, I can turn to art to express myself in a facet that is not stressful. In college, I am planning to major in Biology and Chemistry. I know this will be a very stressful time in my life, but I know that I will be able to turn to art in order to help me calm down.
In my personal life, not many people knew that I did art for a while. It is nice having a hobby that can keep me grounded and calm that I can also use for projects in school. Although I will not be using art for my future career, I will continue to use it as a hobby that will allow me to relieve stress.
Thank you so much for viewing! I hope you enjoy it!
Charity Champions: A Winning Tradition and Lasting Impact
Editor's Note: This story originally appeared in the Fall 2025 edition of Reflections. Click here to read more stories from this issue.
In the House System, each House event, fundraiser, and point-awarding activity that occurs throughout the year leads to the ultimate goal: The Patriot Cup Championship. Charity House has won the most championships, with three wins to its name thus far. For Charity House students, however, the community-building and goal-setting opportunities are what make the lasting impacts on its alumni.
For Julia Roberts ‘23, being a part of Charity House was something that she looked forward to, especially watching her older sisters take part in the Charity House events, like the Lip Sync Battle. Once she entered high school, she enjoyed being a part of a community within her family room that allowed her to grow closer to and connect with students in all four grade levels.
For Julia’s senior year, she was chosen to serve as both Captain in her Family Room as well as Communications Captain for her House. Within those positions, Julia worked and bonded with her fellow Charity Housemates over things like creating social media content, running House events, creating Charity’s dolphin mascot, and ultimately winning the Patriot Cup Championship in 2023.
“Being able to be a senior leader… and helping mentor the younger ones and show them how much the House community at Carroll meant to us was so much fun,” said Roberts, “It was always competitive, but everyone was so supportive of each other’s House.”
Julia not only graduated from Carroll with a House Cup Championship to her name, but she took valuable leadership skills with her as a current student at the University of Dayton. She currently holds multiple leadership positions, including Vice President of Inclusion of UD’s Kappa Delta chapter, where she plans events, mentors her peers, and works with creating digital content for social media, among many other responsibilities on campus.
Roberts also gives a lot of credit to the teacher leaders and role models she had during her time in Charity House as inspiration for her future career as a school Intervention Specialist. “The teachers at Carroll have made a very lasting impact on me,” she said. “They all were super supportive.” She hopes to provide that same support to her future students and lead them to their own classroom victories.
Coming Home: Meet Brooke Butler 17, Dana Kosters '17, and Mitch Weitz '17
Editor's Note: This story originally appeared in the Fall 2025 edition of Reflections. Click here to read more stories from this issue.
Three Genesis Captains from the Class of 2017 serve today’s Carroll students as full-time faculty and staff members. They shared their memories of building the House System’s foundation, its evolution, and how their time as student leaders prepared them for careers in Catholic education.
Brooke Butler '17, Charity Genesis Captain and current Trinity House Member
Brooke Butler had no reservations about stepping into a leadership role, even one that was evolving with each new day. With leadership positions as a section leader for the Marching Patriots, editing the Yearbook, and serving as an officer on Class Council and in National Honor Society, she felt prepared to help establish the House System as a Charity House Captain.
“I was comfortable in positions where I was expected to do more,” Butler said. “I still feel like they put a lot of faith in us.”
That investment of faith has paid off as Carroll enters the tenth year of the House System. Butler and the other Captains spent much of the first year as ambassadors for the new program and defining what it meant to be a House Captain. With strong examples to follow, today’s Captains are able to focus on character and leadership development that helps the House System continue its growth.
“I’m really big on helping new people come in, and when old people leave, making sure the organization and its quality keep going,” Butler said.
That approach to leadership made Butler’s transition back to Carroll as the Assistant Director of Bands a smooth one. As an alumna of both the Carroll music program and House System, she draws on her experience connecting with diverse groups of people to serve her students.
“The House System taught me about planning and being comfortable speaking with people who don’t necessarily share my interests. It’s easy to be a leader in an organization where you share the same interests. In this situation, you’re not bound by interests, you’re bound by fate. It taught me how to connect with people who don’t share.”
Dana Koesters '17, Baltimore Genesis Captain and current Mercy House Member
Each group of House Captains is full of leaders, but the Class of 2017 were trailblazers. Dana Koesters remembers that first year as one full of unknowns and learning.
“We were the guinea pigs. We had no idea what was going on.”
All Captains learn leadership skills in real time because of the emphasis on planning ahead needed to succeed as the head of a Family Room. The responsibility of managing a classroom, adapting, and responding to unforeseen changes gave Koesters a headstart on her career in education. Thanks to her service as a Captain and total experience as a Carroll student, Koesters felt more prepared for college life at the University of Dayton than the other members of her cohort. Koesters continues building new branches of community through the House System, now as a member of Mercy House when she returned to Carroll as a Spanish teacher in the 2023-24 academic year. She draws on her experience as a Genesis Captain with no previous examples to help new Captains find their footing at the start of each new year.
“It brings a better sense of community and inclusion to our school. It gives seniors and juniors a chance to mentor the freshmen.”
Watching the House System grow into a vital part of the day for all students and witnessing students create their own legacy of leadership has been a rewarding experience for this Genesis Captain who embraced the unknown challenges of building its foundation.
Mitch Weitz '17, Baltimore House
Fostering an environment rooted in family values at Carroll was nothing new for Mitch Weitz. The grandson of longtime English teacher Jim Hemmert and son of Bookstore Manager and Freedom Players Director Toni (Hemmert) Weitz ‘86 says he grew up at Carroll and jumped at the opportunity to write a new chapter in Carroll history. Weitz led Baltimore Family Room 113 with fellow Captain Dana Koesters, another Genesis Captain whose vocation would bring her back to Carroll. Connecting familiar faces with their unfamiliar voices still stands out as Weitz’s favorite part of the House System’s inaugural year.
“I didn’t know most of the kids in my Family Room, but I was always outgoing and able to talk to people,” Weitz said. “I still talk to people today that I was in a Family Room with, just because of those experiences.”
Today, Weitz takes care of our home at Carroll as a member of the facilities team and is still a proud member of Family Room 113 with its original adult mentors, Mr. Todd Tayloe and his mother, Toni. He draws on his experience as one of the first Captains to foster relationships with current students.
“I get to see how these new Captains take over and help if they have any questions. I can definitely tell when I show up that they’re excited. They grab me and pull me in, and I get to talk to everybody. I’ve taken on a lot of roles in adulthood. In each one, I’ve found myself as a leader or somebody that can take charge, and it’s mostly because of the House System.”
Welcome to Baltimore House
Faith, Academics, and Community – these are the three pillars of the House System that have supported Archbishop Carroll High School for a decade now. When Carroll students step foot on campus, we’re called by name to take part in their House. Within these Houses is where a Carroll student becomes a Carroll Patriot and learns to use faith, academics, and community to become a better part of the world. My name is Ella Westgerdes, and Carroll’s House System inspired me to be a true Patriot through the communities we build and lead.
Allow me to set a scene: children are gathered around a table where they ask their counterparts to crack jokes and tell stories as their guardian pleads with them to clean up their mess. I’m sure that this scene might be reminiscent of your times of childhood, gathered beside your brothers and sisters, but it is also exactly what a day in Family Room looks like. When we call it “Family Room”, we mean it. Spending every day with the same students for four years can make you feel like they are your siblings.
When I talk to students of other schools, they seem surprised that Carroll gives up a half hour of precious time every day for the House System. I don’t think it should be surprising at all. I formed little families throughout the school with my friends, in my classes, and with teammates. None of these little families reflected the bond of a true, sometimes chaotic, family like our times in Family Room. Watching your classmates grow up and flourish at Carroll is truly a gift. It’s no secret that a lot of transformation happens between freshman and senior year, and I am so proud of my family room brothers and sister– Addison, Preston, Blake and Jack– for the Patriots they have become.
Not only does the House System provide comfort while at school, it helps us apply skills we learn in class to the community. Mr. Todd Tayloe and Mrs. Toni (Hemmert) Weitz ‘86, our Family Room Mentors, can vouch for me when I say that I was quiet and reserved as a freshman. Scared to seem too eager or stand out, I sat in the corner and only participated if necessary. After I realized that my House was there to support, not judge, I fully embraced Baltimore House. Soon enough, I became a Captain and tried my best to make Baltimore a place where students truly felt like they had a family. In other words, we made our Baltimore House a Baltimore Home.
The House System provides a space that students can call their home base. We grow our faith through service and prayer, practicing Catholic Social Teachings and bringing comfort to marginalized groups outside of the Carroll community. We support each other academically in helping tutor our family room classmates on academic days and keep each other accountable. And finally, we build communities that bring students of all different grades, sports, clubs, and academic abilities together to create chaotic, unique Family Rooms. I know that I will use the skills that I gained and the love that I learned in my next steps, always being a Carroll Patriot at heart.
Editor's Note: This story originally appeared in the Fall 2025 issue of Reflections. Click here to read more stories from Reflections.