The Falcon that graces the cover of the 2022 Junior Ring Mass program, drawn by Samuel Matt ’23, has a Xavier class ring in one of its talons, and a scroll in the other which lists the five Xaverian values: humility, compassion, trust, simplicity, and zeal.
On Tuesday about 70 juniors will be receiving their class rings at a Mass celebrated by the Rev. Gregory Galvin, the former longtime chaplain at the school. The Junior Ring Mass had been scheduled for Friday but was postponed due to inclement weather.
Matt is one of the students who will receive a ring. He is an honors student who plays in the jazz band and is a gifted art student.
“It is a great honor to have drawn the logo for the Mass,” Matt said shortly before the juniors went through a practice session Wednesday after school. “The ring symbolizes the place where the juniors have progressed from freshman year to now and hopefully lived out the five Xaverian values … and will use them as life goes on and make an impact. I humbly thank Mrs. Keereweer [junior class moderator] for asking me to draw this.”
Matt has been interested in music and art since he was young. He took private art lessons from the age of 6-13, then backed off to concentrate more on another passion, the guitar. He has been playing since he was in the first grade and is recording a solo album now of his original music. This year he is taking an art class at Xavier.
“I decided to take a class with Ms. [Jayne] Vitale,” Matt said. “It has been very relaxing, and I have progressed as an artist.”
Matt also was among 25 students on the service trip last June to Camden, N.J. Some were asked to email a diary entry. This was part of a prayer offered by Matt on the first day of the trip that helps the needy.
“I feel a deep responsibility to help these people, my equals, to attain and maintain the dignity which we all have been endowed but has been stripped from these people … Let me never think I am better, smarter, or of any more value than those I will be serving.”
The trip is the kind that leaves an impact.
“It puts things into perspective,” Matt said. “l live a very, guess you could say, pampered life compared the people in Camden. It makes you sad but motivated to serve others. And hopefully it made me more humble as a person. Stuff I take for granted, I think I am more thankful for.”