Holy Names student honored for selfless service

Academy of the Holy Names ninth-grader Ella Schoenborn has received the NCEA 2022-23 Youth Virtues, Valor and Vision Award from the National Catholic Educational Association (NCEA) for selfless service, determination, innovation and ideals that are changing the world. 

“The very title of the award, Youth Virtues, Valor and Vision, tells us a lot about these young people. Each one is a witness to the risen Christ and the importance of Catholic schools,” said NCEA President/CEO Lincoln Snyder. “These students are the faces of our Christian faith at work in their communities.”

Schoenborn was chosen from more than 1.6 million Catholic school students across the country. Schoenborn was presented with the prestigious NCEA crystal flame and a Chromebook from Archangel Education + Technology during a Catholic Schools Week (CSW) presentation on Jan. 30. 

“We are so proud of Ella,” said Dr. Martin Kilbridge, president of Academy of the Holy Names. “She exemplifies the best in humanity and embodies the vocation to service we instill in our young women who aspire to be builders of a better world.”

Schoenborn founded “ProjectElla” in 2018 to feed the hungry when she was just 9. What began as a sandwich-making operation in her home (which she still runs with her father, Gus), making 250 sandwiches a week, has ballooned into the distribution of more than 7,000 meals and hundreds of thousands of food pantry items. By collecting bottles and cans, and with the help of donations, Schoenborn has been able to purchase and gather food and supplies to provide for thousands of underserved community members in six counties within the Capital Region and beyond. 16 different organizations and food pantries have benefitted from Schoenborn’s work, where she’s developed a network of distributors and agencies to ensure that goods are delivered to those in need, averaging 300-500 people helped every week.
For more information on Academy of the Holy Names, please visit www.ahns.org.