By Dc. Tom Cuskey
Editor
Family tradition; it’s a journey from one generation to the next. Children sometimes grow up in the same schools that their parents did. And every now and then, history kind of repeats itself.
Meet Faith Vavra Bergman and her son Nickolas from Binghamton. One is a Seton Catholic grad, and the other is about to be. The journey, though, went around the country, followed prior footsteps and shines a light on what Catholic schools are all about.
By the way, Catholic Schools Week is January 28 through February 3 in the Diocese of Syracuse, and this is just one of thousands of success stories, one that’s still in the process of being written.
Faith – a perfect name for a story like this — attended Seton Catholic from tenth grade until graduation in 1992. She transferred in from public school where her mom was a teacher, but that fact didn’t help her.
“I was just doing terrible,” she admits. “So, when I transferred to Seton, it was like a new world for me.” She says that from her first visit to Seton and going forward, she fit in thanks to the welcoming school culture. “People didn’t care what I looked like, what my social status was, anything like that. Everybody was just really accepting.” She credits that atmosphere with fueling an about-face in her academic and personal directions. “Before that I don’t think I was really going to go anywhere or do anything.” She went somewhere at Seton, though, and it was all good. Her grades improved and life in general was just better. “I ended up playing tennis … a sport that I had played, but never really excelled at, but excelled at it at Seton.” She also got involved in student government and other activities.
Nickolas’ baptism at Seton Catholic. Photos are from a vintage Broome County Catholic Schools newsletter
These were three years she describes as “pivotal” and her curriculum vitae bears that out. After graduation from Seton Catholic, Faith went on to complete undergrad studies at Seton Hall University (note the “Seton” trend here) and went on to earn two master’s degrees.
News about schools in general today is often unfortunately focused on negatives: bullying, violence, exclusion, declining test scores. Faith feels blessed that her experience at Seton Catholic was a polar opposite. “I did not see that at all. And it seemed like everybody was respectful. I respected that so much at that point in my life.”
And now, her son Nickolas is walking in his Mom’s footsteps, experiencing a very similar path to hers. Nickolas, though, did make a visit to Seton Catholic much earlier in life than Mom did.
While in graduate school, Faith married an Air Force officer and that started a typical
Mom and son during his Seton Baptism. Another photo from the school newsletter.
military family journey from one assignment to the next. While they were living in Oklahoma, Nick was born. About a week before that blessed event, Faith was looking at the wealth of birth announcements on a wall in her doctor’s office. One of the names posted there was Timothy Seton.
“And I looked at it, and I looked at it again, and I thought that I could use that as his middle name!” So, before the little guy’s first name was decided on, Nickolas had his middle name in place, Seton, honoring the school that changed his Mom’s life. “My whole life has revolved around this.”
Shortly thereafter, Faith’s mother suggested that she reach out to the school and share the good news about the newborn son named after her high school alma mater. “Mrs. (Kathleen) Dwyer was principal then, and she was my principal when I was there,” Faith says. There were many teachers and administrators still on staff as well, and they all remembered Faith. “They immediately reached out and said, ‘Have you baptized him yet? We’d love for you to baptize him here!’”
The family traveled to Binghamton from Oklahoma and, during a special Mass that the whole school community attended, Nickolas Seton Bergman became the first and only baby to be baptized in the gym at Seton Catholic School.
“I graduated in that gym,” she adds, “he will graduate in that gym … it’s very overwhelming.”
The family returned to Oklahoma and life happened: more moves and an eventual parting of ways of husband and wife. That led to Faith and her young son coming home to Broome County where he eventually started at Seton Catholic. A later desire to play football – a sport Seton didn’t offer – resulted in a switch to public schools. With that move Nick fell into a bad place academically. “Almost the same experiences that I had at public school, “ Faith shares, “and he was like, ‘I want to transfer back to Seton.’”
Young Nickolas played lacrosse but wanted to try football.
“It was my freshman year, and I was not doing well in any of my classes,” Nick shares. “I was bored. I was having social problems. It was an overall really bad time for me.” A chance meeting – Spirit inspired, no doubt — with a Seton teacher at a graduation party led to sharing of a prayer card. “Anima Christi … he said that this is the big one, this is really important.” The “soul of Christ, sanctify me” prayer started Nick back on the path to a strong Catholic culture, something he was now missing but that Seton offered.
Fortunately, he had the same positive experience his Mom had and experienced tremendous welcoming support from faculty and staff to get him back on track. He was back in Seton for sophomore year and all good came from it: grades are good, he excels at lacrosse now instead of football and is looking forward to graduation and college with scholarship support. Faith is already seeing that their investment in Nick’s Seton education will result in thousands of dollars in college scholarship dividends.
There is so much more to this story than space allows to detail here, but the pervading theme remains the same: Catholic school education can be a life changing experience that
Heading into his senior season Nick has interest from several college lacrosse programs.
inspires young people to thrive.
“I realized that the graduates from Seton are going to play pivotal roles,” Faith believes. “These are the leaders of our community, in our world. And in my class, same thing.” Faith hears it today in talks with admissions counselors at colleges Nick is visiting.
“We know that Catholic schools produce great students. That’s what they say!”
