Alberta’s Adriana LaGrange has been elected as the CCSTA Vice President and it couldn’t be a more fitting role.

Following the passing of Vice President Tony Sykora in January, the CCSTA felt the void of Tony’s passion for education. Sykora, who hailed from Alberta, played a big role in Alberta’s Catholic education platform – as does LaGrange.

“It’s such a meaningful fit to have Adriana accept the Vice President role to fill Tony’s spot,” says CCSTA Executive Director Julian Hanlon.

Adriana LaGrange was first elected to the Board of Trustees of Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools in 2007 and has spent three of those years as Board Chair and Vice Chair for another two. She has long been involved in Catholic education and her community taking on numerous volunteer and committee opportunities. Adriana currently lives in rural Red Deer with her husband of 32+ years, is a mother of seven children and a grandmother of three. She holds an honours diploma in Rehabilitation and Disability Studies and also owns and operates a family farm in addition to managing the trucking of a large hog partnership.

Adriana was elected to be the President of the Alberta Catholic Trustees' Association (ACSTA) in November 2015 and re-elected to the president's position in November 2016. This put her in to serve as the Alberta representative for the CCSTA Board of Directors.

Read more: CCSTA Welcomes Adriana LaGrange as Vice President

Since it first launched six years ago, and online Catholic Schools run out of BC has garnered province-wide – and international – attention.  

Founded by Bishop David Monroe in April 2011, ASCEND Online, which stands for All Saints Catholic E-school Network Delivered Online, is the sixth school to operate under the direction of the Catholic Independent Schools of the Kamloops Diocese (CISKD) and is the first Catholic homeschool option in Canada directly supported by a diocese. Its mission is to support Catholic families in their role as the primary educators of their children. 

Kelly Tries, Superintendent of of CISKD and Principal at ASCEND Online says the idea for an online Distributed Learning school for Catholics was discussed among the Catholic superintendents of BC for a few years before ASCEND came into being. 

Read more: Online Catholic School offered by Kamloops Catholic Schools sees growth

Seven students from an Ottawa Catholic high school have garnered national attention after launching their own clothing line.

That’s because the seven students have incorporated an inspiring message of diversity and equality into their brand.

Calling the clothing line, Oscar Tango, which is military code for O and T, the St. Joseph High School students have prescribed a message that comes from their original roots from across the world. The students include: Jay Mills, Justin Park, Hassan Hamed, Kristian Toscano, Eric Batali, Melanie Ni-Lan and Kallel Coltess.

Jay said the idea to start their own clothing line started at a friend’s house.

“We’re all into fashion, but realized with the brands we’re wearing, there’s not a special meaning behind it,” he explains. “We wanted to have a clothing line with an inspiring message that represented each of us and show it from our roots and where we’re from.”

That’s when the Oscar Tango brand was born and they adopted the slogan, Diversity Through Design.

Read more: Ottawa Catholic School students promote diversity through clothing line launch