Prince of Peace student receives 1st Werszner Memorial scholarship

The Prince of Peace Knights of Columbus Council No. 11537 awarded the first Patrick Francis Werszner Memorial Scholarship to Hoover resident Michael Grondin.

Grondin, who just finished the eighth grade at Prince of Peace Catholic School, will attend John Carroll Catholic High School next year.

Grondin is an all-around star student. He has a 4.0 grade-point average, is the vice president of National Junior Honor Society and is a member of the band, choir and musical theater groups. He is also a cantor for school masses, an altar server, a member of the church’s middle school youth group and a Vacation Bible School volunteer. He also plays on John Carroll’s middle school basketball and soccer teams.

The $1,000 scholarship is designated for a student planning to attend John Carroll. It is awarded based on scholarship, service and extracurricular activities, as well as an essay. This year’s essay question was, “What is the importance of Christ’s resurrection?” 

The scholarship is renewable for $500 for each of the next three years as long as certain criteria are met.

This scholarship was established to honor Patrick Francis Werszner, who suffered a fatal fall from a ledge at Stephen’s Gap Caver Preserve in Scottsboro on Sept. 6, 2015. 

Werszner was 19 and a member of the Prince of Peace Council 11537, a 2014 graduate of John Carroll, a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a member of Prince of Peace Catholic Church and St. Stephen the Martyr Catholic Chapel at the time of his death.

– Submitted by Jill Spero.