Alumni Spotlight: Sarah Beetner

“I love how the teachers interact with the students, there’s just a lot of kindness here.” -Sarah Beetner

Sarah Beetner is a 2022 high school graduate that graduated from St. Patrick School in 2019. She graduated from Rolla High School a year early and has been a volunteer at St. Pats since 2022.

She went to St. Pats from preschool to 8th grade, and has had a lot of accomplishments in and out of St. Pats. She’s won essays and tennis matches, but one of her biggest accomplishments was a seven-week scholarship by the Department of State to travel to the country Jordan and learn the language Arabic. She attended a local school, looked at historical sites, and even lived with a host family, which is a family that takes in others for a specific period of time to give the student a place to stay while they are staying in a different area.

Sarah says that going to St. Pats really helped her on her work ethic and determination, which eventually helped her in her high school years academically. Some of her favorite memories at St. Pats were her 8th grade graduation–she said that she enjoyed seeing all those years culminate with friendship–and Mr. Arnold’s class–specifically his presentations that helped her get out of her shell. 

Her favorite teachers were (now principal) Mr. Arnold, Mrs. Starns, Mrs. Meusch, and Mrs Drallmeier. She says that their passion for teaching is what made her want to become a teacher. Sarah is definitely a gifted kid, and St. Pats is so excited to see what she will do in the future!  

Fun fact: Sarah went to St. Pats for 12 years, which is one more than the 11 years that St. Pats offers, because she took preschool twice.

“She was a hardworking student, I never had to worry about her grades, she didn’t want to just memorize the answers, she genuinely wanted to understand. She’s a good Catholic role model.” – St. Pats Principal Mr. Arnold