Collin Grossenbaugh, an eighth-grader at St. Ambrose School in Brunswick, is one of 12 students nationwide who were chosen to receive a 2023-2024 Youth Virtues, Valor and Vision Award from the National Catholic Association.
The award recognizes students who are making a difference in their communities and honors them for their selfless service, determination, innovation and ideals that are changing the world.
He and the other winners were selected from among more than 1.6 million Catholic school nominees nationwide.
Collin was celebrated at St. Ambrose’s recent all-school Mass. He received Chromebook table from Archangel Education.
“Collin is a true example of the type of student our St. Ambrose Catholic School forms and graduates. I am proud of him for knowing that his future includes and depends upon Jesus Christ and our awesome Catholic faith,” said Lisa Cinadr, St. Ambrose principal. “Collin is a talented young man who seeks to be the best version of himself by learning and honing the gifts and talents God gave him – and who also seeks to share Jesus Christ who is Everything for us. Our modern culture needs many more young men like him.”
Collin was nominated in part for a service project he led that involved collecting toiletry products to make personal hygiene kits called "Blessing Bags" for the men at St. Herman House, a shelter for homeless men on Cleveland’s Near West Side. Cinadr said with Collin’s leadership and support from Maria Grama, St. Ambrose campus minister, the school community “crushed its goal of 200 kits by providing enough toiletries to make 318 hygiene kits for the guests of St. Herman’s.”
“Knowing that these toiletry packs are going to people who truly need them was so impactful on me,” Collin said.
He took on the toiletry collection because he said he was moved by a connection he made last summer while serving at St. Herman House.
“Collin embodies what it means to be a servant leader,” said remarked Father Bob Stec, St. Ambrose pastor. “The best part of his leadership is that he consistently invites his peers to serve with him. He helps bring out what is best in each person and our school community.”
Lincoln Snyder, NCEA president/CEO, said teaching the whole child is not just about what the student learns in isolation; it’s about how they relate to their community.
Cinadr said St. Ambrose School “operates through a uniquely different lens. We empower each student to reach his/her full potential while ultimately finding and sharing his/her God-given gifts and talents.”
Collin is active in both St. Ambrose School and Parish. He is a member of the middle school campus ministry, Ablaze, and leads the training of new altar servers. He also serves as a sacristan for school Masses, directs ushers and greeters and practices with them for school and parish Masses. Collin is a leader in the Acts:29 school ministry, a group that works to be the next “chapter” of the Acts of the Apostles. Its members meet to pray, plan and lead service-learning and prayerful experiences through the school.
He regularly serves weekend Masses at St. Ambrose as well as serving at special prayer services, funerals and weddings.
“The students who have won the NCEA Youth Virtues, Valor and Vision Awards articulate the goal of Catholic education to educate and nourish the whole person, to understand that Jesus loves us so much and he asks us to do something great for others. These young people have answered that call in light of our faith and are examples to us all,” Snyder added.
Cinadr, Father Stec, Collin’s parents and two members of the diocesan schools’ administrative team, Tracey Arnone and Joe Waler, attended the Mass and celebration along with the St. Ambrose School community.
Click here for more information on the 2023-2024 NCEA Youth Virtues, Valor and Vision Award winners.