This is the first of two stories on Class of 2025 graduates. Part 2 will run in the May 30 e-edition.

KEYANA LOUZON
Melbourne Central Catholic High School, Melbourne

Keyana Louzon’s academic resume displays her zeal for her studies, but the club she started in 11th grade reveals much more about her heart.

At school she is part of the National Honor Society, Quill and Scroll, Mu Alpha Theta (Math Society), Spanish Honor Society and Green and Gold Society – ambassadors that showcase the school for families and students. While a sophomore, she and her friend, Amelie Stacy wanted to launch a service club.

After some research, combined with the friends’ volunteering with organizations like Children’s Hunger Project, Daily Bread, Family Promise of Brevard, and with Social Concerns at Ascension, they decided to focus on the homeless. They discovered 0 to 5-year-olds in Brevard County have a higher rate of homelessness than individuals of other ages. The Food and Services Club debuted her junior year. To date they have donated more than $1,000 to Family Promise of Brevard and $500 to Ascension Parish’s Social Concerns ministry.

Louzon was raised by her grandparents from the age of 3 and said her Catholic upbringing, Catholic education, and parish community have helped form her faith and character. Dubbed “Mother Superior” by a family friend and priest who hopes she will become a nun, Louzon says although she loves being involved in the Church, as a sacristan and Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion (EMHC), she  also hopes to marry and have many children.

Before she leaves for school each day, she prays with her family. “That starts off the morning with a positive outlook,” she said. In school, her favorite class is Peer Inclusion Team, dubbed PIT Crew. “PIT Crew is a bunch of students who help students with Down Syndrome, Autism and other disabilities,” she explained. She remembers one student in particular who was very shy at first. Eventually he became more talkative and understood the subject. She noted, “The Peer Inclusion Team has taught me, even though I have things easy, other people have to work hard.”

She also learned this lesson on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic with several classmates in March. The group was divided into students helping teach English at a local school and those who helped finish a water project. She formed part of the teaching team. The students didn’t speak English, and she did not speak much Spanish. She laughed reminiscing how they called her “Americana, Americana” and she would respond, “Hola, hola!”

She was amazed young students walked two hours on steep dirt roads to get to school. “It put into perspective how much the students wanted to learn,” she said.

Making the long trek to a cross on top of one of the rural mountains, she recalled a little boy held her hand all the while. She thought, “If this boy can hike up this mountain every day, then I can. He kept telling me, ‘You’ve got this Keyana. You’ve got this.’ It showed me how God works in many different ways.”

She explained, “I live with my grandparents because my parents couldn’t really get their act together. So, I’ve had to work for what I do, but these kids have to work 10 times as hard, yet they are happy. And all they really care about is family and their faith. I think the takeaway for me was how much they appreciate God.”

Keyana will attend Gulf Coast University in Ft. Myers to study behavioral psychology. She’s already found a church there and hopes to continue serving as a sacristan and EMHC. On giving the faithful the Body of Christ she said, “It’s amazing. It’s always cute when the little kids come up because they feel so important. I always feel so lucky giving (Him) to them. Their faces light up. It’s something else.”

SANTIAGO RUBIO
Melbourne Central Catholic High School, Melbourne

Santiago Rubio has an equally impressing resume. Senior year he was class president, and president of National Honor and Spanish Honor Societies. He is part of Key Club and is a student ambassador – welcoming new students and giving tours of the school.

Last year he also started a charity to collect shoes for kids in our sister diocese in the Dominican Republic. He was among the students on the March mission trip to the D.R. “I absolutely loved it,” he said. “It was really beautiful to see how people who had so little were more welcoming than those who have more here in the U.S.,” he said. That revelation came full circle with mission students during their recess one day.

“I showed some of the kids pictures of my school life and things I’ve done. One of the kids saw me holding a picture of a Dominican flag and clicked on it. It was a picture of the shoe drive,” he said. “They all got super happy. Of the nine kids around me, seven of them started pointing to shoes in the picture saying, ‘I own this pair of shoes.’ One of them was wearing one of the shoes in the picture.

“It completely changed my perspective making me realize everything I do in the U.S. can change real lives. It helped me realize it’s so easy to make an impact. It was a beautiful thing to recognize I collected more than 100 shoes and changed lives without even realizing it,” he said.

His other favorite memory of the trip was partaking in the water project’s inauguration ceremony. He was moved to tears “to see adults so happy to have running water – to see grown adults, elderly people and children celebrating, dancing, reading poems.”

As a child of Colombian immigrants he thought, “It was crazy to think four generations ago that kid could have been me.” He felt unworthy of the gifts he received. Then he understood he received them for a reason.

He hopes to become a chemical engineer and change more lives. “I’m not sure if I want to study materials science or bioengineering yet, but I like the idea that I can help people in simple ways through environment control or improving drug delivery systems – in ways a lot of people might not think about,” he said.

He will attend Northeastern University in Boston in the fall. He hopes to join a Catholic campus ministry there and said, “I’m confident I’ll keep the values instilled in me. I’ll happily and proudly carry on the values and morals I’ve gained throughout my education in Catholic schools.”

By Glenda Meekins of the Florida Catholic staff, May 22, 2025