“It was an awesome weekend.” Uplifting. Powerful. Motivational. Inspiring. An amazing weekend. These adjectives and many more were shared by two faith formation leaders and several teenagers from the Diocese of Belleville who attended the Steubenville STL Mid-America Conferences. The Steubenville Youth Conferences are a series of 25 conferences across North America that help teens encounter the love of Christ. Steubenville STL Mid-America Conferences (also called SteubySTL) are two of the conferences that are held every year in July on the campus of Missouri State University in Springfield, Mo.

Three recent high school graduates were chosen by the administration at their respective schools to receive the Bishop’s Discipleship Award. The award is given for exhibiting Catholic identity in knowledge, attitude and behavior both within school and in the wider community. The awards were presented by Bishop Michael McGovern at their combined Baccalaureate Mass, held May 3 at the Cathedral of St. Peter in Belleville.

“As a Catholic going to a Catholic high school, I feel that participating in my school’s Theology Club is a great way to deepen and further my education in religion,” says Julia Nugent, 18, a senior from O’Fallon. “It exposes me to other people’s thoughts on religion and other theological ideas,” she says. Nugent attends Althoff Catholic High School in Belleville and is co-president of the Theology Club.