IN HER WORDS: "My name is Aubrie ( Remember, it's spelled IE not EY!) Kletzel. I am in eighth grade at Holy Child. I started there in fifth grade when Saint Mary's closed. It was hard to leave after being there since Pre-K, but I met a lot of new friends at Holy Child. I am a first honor's student in advanced math. My favorite subject is writing. I am also involved with the Junior National Honor Society as well as the secretary on student council. I always like to be a part of my school community and interact with the other students. It's nice to have to younger kids look up to you and see you around at school, especially the ones I worked with over the summer at Camp Acaraho. Every time I turn around, someone's yelling, "Hi, Miss Aubrie!" (That's what they called me at camp) I'm a part of Saint Mary's Youth Group, and I always enjoy my time with the group. We volunteer a lot of time for community service and partake in many fun activities. Community service is a regular part of my schedule, as is altar serving. It makes me feel good when I donate my time and effort to others. I'd have to say my favorite thing to do is Operation Santa Clause, where we wrap gifts for unfortunate children in Philadelphia. When I grow up I want to be a special education teacher, or anything that works with children, and I like to volunteer my free time for the little kids. I have been playing CYO volleyball since fifth grade and CYO softball since sixth. When I get to high school I'll definitely continue to play softball, but I'm giving up volleyball to play field hockey or ice hockey. It'll probably be field hockey because the boys on the ice hockey team are three times my size. I personally think I could take them down, but my parents think I'm too clumsy. Besides school and community service, I like to hang out with my good friends and listen to music. I am a HUGE Pittsburgh Penguins and Philadelphia Phillies fan.

As I said before, I'm in eighth grade. And, it has turned out to be an extremely busy year between getting my school work done, visiting high schools, taking scholarship tests, writing essays for scholarships, and just having time to hang out with my friends. I knew when choosing a high school I wanted to continue my education at a Catholic high school. My religion is very important to me and I wished to continue learning about my faith in high school. I was also trying really hard for a scholarship to give my parents a break on tuition. So from September to December, I had taken three tests and written about four essays. Then I got my test results after Christmas break. I got a quarter scholarship to Bishop McDevitt and a half scholarship to Archbishop Carroll. Therefore, I'm going to Carroll. Along with the scholarship from the school, I qualified to take the Neumann scholarship test. I was one of eight students who took it from Holy Child. I had to write another essay for that and take another test. I will not know the result of the test until March. But if I do get a Neumann Scholarship, I can use it at any Archdiocesan high school.

And last but not least, what my religion means to me. For as long as I can remember, my Mom and Dad took me to church every Sunday and I have always gone to a Catholic school. At a young age I realized I'd rather be a part of the Mass rather than some fidgeting little kid in a pew. For quite a while I was in the bell choir, and I always had a great time at Monday night practices. Once bell choir stopped, I became an altar server. Being a part of the Mass makes me feel like I'm closer to God. I feel you're praying to God on a different level when you volunteer to be a part of the Mass. And I think that pretty much sums me up. Thanks for asking me to be parishioner of the month!"