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arondelet High School was selected as the National recipient for Outstanding Service by a High School to represent the Youth Service Initiative Program of the Jefferson Awards in 2008. In keeping the tradition of service, Carondelet High School was honored to receive the Silver Medallion as an Outstanding School of Service at the Annual National Jefferson Awards Ceremony in 2010. Silver Award winners for this year were Melissa Russi, Kayleigh Hunt, Justine Bie, and Courtney Gegg. 

Carondelet High School continues to participate in the Jefferson Awards, Students in Action as it cultivates a culture of service within the student body. Every year since 2008, Junior and Senior students have stepped up to be leaders on the Jefferson Awards, Students in Action team. These students attend a leadership workshop sponsored by Deloitte and other corporations who support the students in their efforts to be of service to the wider community. Students from all the classes serve as assistants to the leaders and together form an active and effective Jefferson Awards, Students in Action Team.

The students who respond to this call of service in a deep and broad way are recognized as Jefferson Award recipients during a special ceremony in their honor.

This school year The Jefferson Award Leadership team has taken on the challenge of collecting items on a “Wish List” for A Friendly Manor which was opened  by Sister Carol Anne O’Marie and Sister Maureen Lyons, CSJ in 1989.  A Friendly Manor, located in downtown Oakland, serves as a drop in center for women who are homeless or in need of a place to be during the day. There they have a clean and safe restroom facility, shower, clothes washer and dryer and a large room for socializing and enjoying a cup of coffee and something to eat. A favorite friendly place is the book nook where paperbacks are available to provide that ticket to a world beyond the everyday struggles of life.

Sisster Carol Anne O’Marie is also the author of the book Like a Swarm of Bees which  tells the story of the founding of the Sisters of St. Joseph at Carondelet, Missouri. We are honored to have this book as “Our Book, Our Community,” for the current school year. Sister Carol Anne entered into her heavenly reward in May of 2009 and is fondly remembered as the first Director of Development at Carondelet High School.

A Friendly Manor Project

The Jefferson Awards, Students in Action Team have taken on a project to collect items for A Friendly Manor, which is located on San Pablo Ave. in Oakland. A Friendly Manor was established by Sisters Carol Anne O'Marie and Maureen Lyons in 1992 to provide the homeless women of Oakland a safe place to use a bathroom, clean themselves and their clothing and enjoy a cup of coffee and some gentle companionship. The JA,SIA Team moves like a "Swarm of Bees" throughout the school collecting items on the "Wish List" from Period 4 Classrooms each Thursday. The items then are sorted and stored under the stairs in the Inner Court awaiting someone with a truck or van to take them to A Friendly Manor.