Photo By Michael Alexander

For Blessed Trinity High School senior Victoria Bonutti, attending a school with a Catholic focus is one of the most important things. So important that next year she will continue her college education at one of the most well- known Catholic schools in the country: the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio.

“I find it’s really important having the Catholic environment here,” said Victoria about her Roswell high school. “It’s really helped me to grow and develop in my faith.”

She is very involved with the campus ministry program at BT. Serving as an extraordinary minister of holy Communion and a retreat leader, Victoria is no stranger to what it takes to have a successful Catholic program at a school.

Her mother, Elizabeth, works as the director of religious education at St. Michael the Archangel Church, Woodstock, where the family worships. Her father, Anthony, is a pilot who has recently reached 20 years of service with Delta Airlines.

Victoria, who also assists with school Masses and other faith-driven activities on campus, plans to go on to study catechetics, theology and English at the Ohio university, building on the solid Catholic foundation she has found at BT.

But while high school has been a positive experience for her, she is open about her eagerness to move on to new things.

“I’m really excited to move on to where I’m going next,” she said.

“And I’m also a bit nervous,” she added, saying that she will be out of state and away from her family.

Victoria has been three times to visit the campus, twice with her parents, and each time she has had a positive experience.

“It’s a beautiful campus … a campus all to its own,” she said. “I was really impressed and I felt so welcomed by the community there. It really drew me in. It’s something that I want to be a part of.”

While Victoria knows the subjects she wants to study, she is still discerning where God is calling her.

“I don’t have a set career in mind,” she said. “I’m just really open to God’s plan for me, whatever that may be. So going into college … I’m just going to be studying what it is that interests me … to develop the gifts I believe I have in order for God to use in his plan for me.”

Victoria encourages rising freshman to get involved with a lot of different activities, so they have opportunities to meet like-minded people. Admittedly shy when she first arrived on BT’s campus as a freshman, she said she learned to open up and be herself no matter what her surroundings.

“High school is definitely a new experience, the next level,” Victoria said. “Coming here as a freshman I was pretty shy, but over the years I’ve definitely learned to open up.”

“Try to get involved in some school activity because … it will introduce you to new friends,” she added as advice to incoming freshmen.