ATLANTA—Catholic Charities Atlanta recently honored 42 graduates of its 2012 Leadership Class. The class is an opportunity for young and mid-management professionals to enhance their leadership skills and integrate their Catholic faith in the workplace.

A graduation ceremony for the 2012 Leadership Class was held at the Georgian Club in Atlanta earlier this month. The event featured several speakers, including Auxiliary Bishop Luis R. Zarama; Allen Hunt, nationally known author and speaker; and 2012 class member Kyle Pietrantonio, associate head and lower school principal of Holy Spirit Preparatory School, Atlanta.

In its second year of the program, the success continues to grow as young faithful Catholic leaders look for opportunities to learn servant leadership. The new class members were nominated for their accomplishments as leaders in the workplace, in their parishes and in the community.

“The mission for the Catholic Charities Leadership Class is to provide these individuals with an opportunity to gain valuable tools to grow as Catholic leaders, to connect and network with other professionals who share the same faith and values, and to be paired with a mentor to help them live out their faith at work on an ongoing basis—despite the challenges of living in a secular world, ” said Cindy Nofi, senior vice president for Wells Fargo Private Bank and co-chair of the Leadership Class steering committee.

This year’s class represented a group of 24 men and 18 women, who are active members in 19 parishes across the Archdiocese of Atlanta. They are involved in some 115 community, academic and social volunteer organizations. Class members represent 42 different companies, working in the fields of engineering, sales, accounting, non-profit, public health, social service, marketing, finance, television, law, recruitment, and development. Six own their own businesses.

The 2012 class collectively volunteered over 150 hours of their time to Catholic Charities Atlanta. They helped sort and distribute gifts for the Christmas Connections program, and held coat, book and clothing drives. Class members became agency advocates by serving as parish talk speakers for the archdiocesan Christmas second collection. They hosted tennis tournaments, parish movie nights, an improv night at the Village Theatre, a Christmas Carol van and pub crawl, and an upcoming Valentine’s Day Dinner.

The class began in September of last year. Over the last several months, the class members attended five presentations given by Catholic speakers that focused on developing servant leadership skills.

According to Catholic Charities Atlanta, graduation is not the end of the class member’s journey, but just the beginning. Each of the class members has been matched with a senior Catholic business leader to serve in a nine-month mentorship program. The goal is that the 42 members of the 2012 Leadership Class will lead by example as persons of faith through their words and actions during their career.