Every year during Catholic Education Week, Niagara Catholic celebrates the very best of our students, staff, and alumni with the Celebrating Excellence Awards. This celebration brings together the recipients of the Catch the Spirit Student Awards of Excellence, given to one student from each elementary, secondary, and alternative education site, as well as one adult learner from our Continuing Education department, the Inspiration Awards, presented to staff for exemplary service, and the Distinguished Alumni Awards, recognizing former students who have made notable contributions to society through their chosen fields.
Niagara Catholic’s Celebrating Excellence Awards were presented at Central Community Church on Tuesday, May 6.
This year’s Catch the Spirit Award recipients, nominated by school staff for their outstanding commitment to their education, their faith, and to overcoming challenges, are:
Blessed Trinity Catholic Secondary School FOS
Blessed Trinity Catholic Secondary School - Maya Metelsky
Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Elementary School - Isabella Febbraro
St. Edward Catholic Elementary School - Christopher Bangert
St. John Catholic Elementary School - Denise Gapasin
St. Joseph Catholic Elementary School - Kaycee Hedley
St. Mark Catholic Elementary School - Luca Giammarco
St. Martin Catholic Elementary School - Shelby Parnell
Denis Morris Catholic High School FOS
Denis Morris Catholic High School - Daniel Hunt
Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Elementary School- Ryder Legault
St. Anthony Catholic Elementary School - Bryson Cujcuj
St. Christopher Catholic Elementary School - Hally Cepeda De Jesus
St. Nicholas Catholic Elementary School - Marri Lavigne
St. Peter Catholic Elementary School - Siena Felice
St. Theresa Catholic Elementary School - Bethany Misener
Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School FOS
Holy Cross Catholic Secondary School - Aine O'Neill
Assumption Catholic Elementary School - Kalista Dayaram-McKellar
Canadian Martyrs Catholic Elementary School - William Flamminio
Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Elementary School - Capreese Privat
St. Alfred Catholic Elementary School - Maxim Niculin
St. Michael Catholic Elementary School - Ella deSouza
Lakeshore Catholic High School FOS
Lakeshore Catholic High School - Lilly Greenan
Our Lady of Victory Catholic Elementary School - Raquel Vorstenbosch
St. Elizabeth Catholic Elementary School - Dylan Vanderlee
St. George Catholic Elementary School - Harley Pyke
St. John Bosco Catholic Elementary School - Alexander Hornak
St. Joseph Catholic Elementary School - Pandora Knarr
St. Patrick Catholic Elementary School - Kieran Maloney
St. Philomena Catholic Elementary School - Eleanor Van Koughnett
St. Therese Catholic Elementary School - Gracie Greenan
Notre Dame College School FOS
Notre Dame College School - Emilio Geremia
Alexander Kuska Catholic Elementary School - Sabrina Guglielmi
Holy Name Catholic Elementary School - Luca Iuliano
St. Alexander Catholic Elementary School - Nelka Kazmirsky
St. Andrew Catholic Elementary School - Mya Feaster
St. Ann Catholic Elementary School - Caitlyn Vasas
St. Augustine Catholic Elementary School - Jordyn Duerden
St. Kevin Catholic Elementary School - Gianna DeChellis
St. Mary Catholic Elementary School - Tiana Giudice
Saint Francis Catholic Secondary School FOS
Saint Francis Catholic Secondary School - Sydney Wakil
St. Ann Catholic Elementary School - Jesse Boland
St. Denis Catholic Elementary School - Elizabeth Rankin
St. James Catholic Elementary School - Serafina Martinelli
St. Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Elementary School – Andi Biancanello
Saint Michael Catholic High School FOS
Saint Michael Catholic High School - Paulina Labarta Meza
Father Hennepin Catholic Elementary School - Abundance Chidalu Okeke
Loretto Catholic Catholic Elementary School - Eleora McIntyre
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Elementary School - Julia Lukose
Sacred Heart Catholic Elementary School - Alexandr Maalouf
Saint Paul Catholic High School FOS
Saint Paul Catholic High School - Lorenzo Lopez
Mary Ward Catholic Elementary School - Amelia Santini
Notre Dame Catholic Elementary School - Jacob George
St. Gabriel Lalemant Catholic Elementary School - Joey Galotta
St. John Henry Newman Catholic Elementary School - Natalia De Simone
St. Mary Catholic Elementary School - Lia Villella
St. Patrick Catholic Elementary School - Mikayla Antoine
St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Elementary School - Natalia Spadafora
Alternative Learning Sites
Pope Francis Centre - Luka Herjavec
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha (elementary) - Jackson Lefebvre-Konyi
Saint Kateri Tekakwitha (secondary) - Johnathan Pearson
Continuing Education
Abbas Haider Jafri
Inspiration Awards
We are also very proud to recognize the following exemplary members of our staff, who were nominated by their peers for an Inspiration Award. This award recognizes Niagara Catholic employees for their outstanding contribution at work, and for going above and beyond for their colleagues, students, and families.
Congratulations to the 2025 Inspiration Award recipients:
Gina Antonio – Education Assistant, St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Elementary School
Carey Bridges – Child and Youth Worker, Saint Francis Catholic Secondary School
Grace Brochu – Student Support Facilitator at CEC.
Lori Carpino – Educational Assistant at Saint Michael Catholic High School.
Francesca Carrera Wood – Vice Principal, Alexander Kuska Catholic Elementary School
Anthony Di Toro – Behaviour Resource Teacher, Catholic Education Centre
Katy Douglas – Teacher, Our Lady of the Holy Rosary Catholic Elementary School
Ewelina Fanfara – Teacher, Lakeshore Catholic High School
Karen Ferrelli – Teacher, Blessed Trinity Catholic Secondary School
Paul Fratangelo – Educational Resource Teacher, St. Christopher Catholic Elementary School
Vito Gicante – Educational Assistant, St. Christopher Catholic Elementary School
Austin Huh – Teacher, Lakeshore Catholic High School
Joseph Kent – Caretaker, St. Edward Catholic Elementary School
Lauren Kimber – Teacher, Lakeshore Catholic High School
Megan Leighton – Educational Resource Teacher, Denis Morris Catholic High School
Dorothy Murtaugh – Educational Assistant, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Elementary School
Karen Oreskovich – Teacher, Saint Paul Catholic High School
Rick Oreskovich – Teacher, Saint Paul Catholic High School
Michael Reich – Educational Resource Teacher, St. John Henry Newman Catholic Elementary School
Christine Repar – Educational Resource Teacher, St. Mary Catholic Elementary School (Welland)
Jami Russell – Teacher, St. Mary Catholic Elementary School (Niagara Falls)
Nadia Santo – Educational Assistant, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Elementary School
Paolo Sirianni – Principal, St. Mary Catholic Elementary School (Welland)
Amanda Wagg-Boyer – Religion and Family Life Consultant/Literacy Consultant, Catholic Education Centre
Finally, we congratulate our 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients. This year’s recipients share many things in common: both are women, contemporaries, graduates of Saint Paul Catholic High School, and graduates of Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University). That’s where their paths diverged, until Tuesday night.
Miriam Valdes-Carletti
Tuesday night’s celebration was a full-circle moment for Miriam Valdes-Carletti (Saint Paul Catholic High School, Class of 2014). She attended an event very similar to this 15 years ago, when she was recognized as the Catch the Spirit Award recipient from St. Patrick Catholic Elementary School in 2010.
Today, she is a trusted Multi-Media Journalist and news anchor in Edmonton, and we recognize her with a Niagara Catholic Distinguished Alumni Award.
Miriam has delivered the news, in one form or another, since she was a child. It began with delivering Niagara This Week while a student at St. Patrick, then she joined the Saint Paul Catholic High School yearbook team in high school. During her time at Saint Paul, Miriam also joined Niagara’s local cable TV station, YourTV Niagara, first as a camera operator for city council meetings, and later as a reporter. The experience gave her an appreciation and understanding of the importance of local journalism and a strong foundation for post-secondary studies. After graduating from Saint Paul, Miriam maintained her role with YourTV Niagara while studying journalism at Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University).
At Ryerson, Miriam was a well-respected student journalist and teaching assistant. She received the Dennis Mock Student Leadership Award, the Hispanic/Latino Student Award when she graduated in 2018, and the Canadian Press/Eric Murray Award in 2017.
Miriam’s first industry job after graduation was on CTV’s national morning show, Your Morning, then she joined The Marilyn Denis Show. Soon after, she became a digital content editor with CTV News and filed many stories for the broadcaster’s website, including in-depth coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic and other national and international news.
Miriam made the move west in 2021, taking an on-air reporting role with CTV News in Saskatoon. During her two years in Saskatchewan, Miriam covered important stories in her community, including the discovery of unmarked graves at the site of residential schools. In 2022, she added weekend news anchor to her already impressive resume.
Miriam moved west again in 2023, this time to Edmonton, where she joined the CTV Edmonton news team as a Multi-Media Journalist and backup anchor. She covered the covered the record-breaking wildfires in 2023, even travelling to remove communities in northern Alberta to cover the impact there. Miriam also covered the Jasper wildfire evacuations in 2024 and had the good fortune to be on the anchor desk covering the Edmonton Oilers in their Stanley Cup playoff run.
Last year, Miriam was a featured speaker at NASH86, Canada’s largest student journalism conference, at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology. There, she shared her journey from working behind the scenes to working on the air.
From her years serving as a member of the Saint Paul yearbook team and the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Committee in Niagara Falls, to her continued service as a respected journalist in Edmonton, Miriam Valdes-Carletti is a worthy recipient of a 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award.
Alexa Jovanovic
Alexa Jovanovic (Saint Paul Catholic High School, Class of 2012) is the Founder of Aille Design (pronounced: eye), the braille fashion brand named by Newsweek as “changing the fashion game.”
A fierce advocate in the blind and low vision community, Alexa designs fashion-forward clothing and accessories featuring fully legible braille beadwork—pieces that are functional for braille readers, but so beautiful they can be worn and loved by all. Ultimately, they allow people to literally wear your values on their sleeve and promote conversations about the importance of accessibility.
Alexa has been passionate about fashion for as long as she can remember, drawn to anything with feathers and beads while playing dress up in her mother’s closet. While studying Fashion Communication at Toronto Metropolitan University, she discovered her true purpose: combining design with accessibility. Her “a-ha moment” came while window shopping when she saw a beautiful, beaded jacket and imagined how small beads could be arranged into braille phrases—empowering people who are blind to independently learn details about their clothing, such as the color, fabric, fit, or care.
That spark of curiosity became the foundation for Aille Design, which began as Alexa’s final university research project and officially launched as a business in 2020. The company’s name Aille Design comes from the French verb, Aller, which means to go, signifying that accessibility is the direction the fashion industry needs to further explore.
Its pronunciation is a play on words – I in the personal sense, given the increased independence and self-expression braille fashion provides, as well as the physical eye, since braille creates a new source of vision. Each piece is co-designed with blind and sighted collaborators—including braille readers, stylists, and disability advocates—who ensure both accessibility and style are at the heart of the brand.
Alexa went from sewing one bead at a time in her dorm room to being a clue on Celebrity Jeopardy and being commissioned to create custom designs for world renowned musicians Andrea Bocelli and Stevie Wonder. She has established lasting partnerships with major organizations including the American Foundation for the Blind, where she now serves on the board. Her designs have appeared everywhere from international red carpets to basketball courts where her braille beadwork was featured on NBA G-League jerseys for the Cleveland Charge.
Most recently, Alexa partnered with Barbie and Mattel to make disability history. Together, the brands launched a global campaign, co-branded braille fashion collection, and the first-ever Blind Barbie Fashionista Doll.
With a focus on accessibility, diversity, and using design as a tool for social change, Alexa Jovanovic exemplifies what it means to be a Distinguished Alumni of the Niagara Catholic District School Board.