By Aiden Murillo ‘26
On Tuesday, Nov. 18, Mother McAuley and Brother Rice hosted a memorial prayer service in honor of Veterans Day. It was hosted at Mother McAuley’s gym, and it was full of students, faculty, and veterans.
The service started with an opening prayer and continued with speeches by veterans who graduated from Brother Rice and Mother McAuley, students, and administrators. Many brave men and women who served in the military were honored.
Brother Rice alum J.J. Konstant ‘99 gave a wonderful and empowering speech about his time serving and what Veterans Day meant to him. J.J. was a Marine captain and is now retired. The speaker for Mother McAuley was Mary Claire Youpel ‘08; she also gave a great speech about her time in the Coast Guard.
Senior Andrew Straley said, “I enjoyed the speech from (J.J. Konstant), and took much out of his quote. He said ‘Everyone wants to be a leader, until it’s time to (be a) leader).’ It was very moving for me.”
“The speeches made me think about life and made me want to turn some things around. It was very moving to see everyone come together as one to honor veterans,” senior Desmond Nieto said.
The speech given by Mr. Konstant was very moving and powerful according to most of the students. The students seemed to really admire him and were grateful to have him not only as a speaker but as a Brother Rice alum.
Brother Rice and Mother McAuley don’t do many group things during the school year, so it was nice to see a large variety of students.
Senior Oliver McNichols said, “I thought it was interesting going into a new environment, and the guest speakers were great. They had my attention the whole time. When we honored the veterans there, it was cool to see the different branches that were there.”
It was nice to see both the students from Brother Rice and Mother McAuley unite together to honor the veterans on a wonderful day.
