20 times • JULY 9, 2015 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.timesnewsweekly.com St. Margaret Church’s newest priest is a Middle Village native BY ANTHONY GIUDICE [email protected] @A_GiudiceReport A son of Middle Village has just been ordained a father. Nicholas Colalella was raised in Middle Village and attended Saint Margaret School as a youth. It was there that he began his journey of faith, which has just come full circle. “It was great growing up in Middle Village,” Colalella said. “We used to walk and ride our bikes all over the place. I was always in Juniper Park. I always came to church at St. Margaret with my grandparents to the Italian Mass. I participated in their St. Joseph’s feasts. I am very much a product of the Italian community in Middle Village.” On June 27, at the age of 24, Colalella was ordained a priest and was assigned to his home parish of St. Margaret for the summer. The next morning, he celebrated his first Mass at St. Margaret before family, friends and members of the community that have helped him on his journey to priesthood. “It came very naturally, it all came naturally,” Colalella said of celebrating his first Mass. “It was a very joyous and happy occasion. It was quite fulfilling. The church was packed. There were a lot of people who haven’t been to Middle Village or St. Margaret’s in a long time that came back for the Mass. It was a nice occasion for the community and the parish to come together.” As a teen, Colalella attended Xavier High School, where he made the decision to join the priesthood. “Probably in high school is when I made the serious decision,” Colalella said. “I was in the military program and there was an image of St. Ignatius that always captured my imagination. It was Ignatius taking off his armor and putting it in front of a statue of Mary … and that kind of spoke to me because I was thinking about military and we were encouraged to think about a military career in high school and that image made me think about the priesthood.” Colalella is currently enrolled in the Biblical Institute in Rome where he is studying biblical languages. He was sent to work in St. Margaret Parish for the summer before returning to Rome in September to continue his studies. As part of the St. Margaret parish, in addition to saying Mass on a daily basis, Colalella makes Communion calls, visits the homebound, offers prayers at wakes and, as a priest, will be able to offer funeral Masses and officiate weddings. “I would love to come back and be in the parish,” Colalella said of his future. “I would like to teach what I’ve learned; maybe teaching would be an option.” RIDGEWOOD TIMES/Photo by Anthony Giudice Father Nicholas Colalella in front of the altar in St. Margaret Church in Middle Village. Local students accepted to US service academies BY ANTHONY GIUDICE [email protected] @A_GiudiceReport Seven recent high school graduates from Queens will be all they can be in their college years after being accepted into various U.S. military service academies with the assistance of Congresswoman Grace Meng. The academies consist of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point; U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland; U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colorado; U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point; and the U.S. Coast Guard Academy at New London, Connecticut. Kate Gerodias from Middle Village graduated from Forest Hills High School and will be attending the Naval Academy; Zachary Kurre from Glendale graduated from Archbishop Molloy High School and will attend West Point this summer; Selah Cho of Fresh Meadows finished school at Marion Military Institute in Alabama and will attend West Point; Kevin Guo from Rego Park graduated from Hunter College High School and will be continuing his education at the Naval Academy; Julia Hsu from Flushing graduated from West Point Prep School and will go on to West Point this summer; John Makiling of Flushing graduated from Naval Academy Prep School and will continue on to the Naval Academy; and Daniel Zakrevski from Richmond Hill graduated from Bronx High School of Science and will be attending the Merchant Marine Academy. “I am honored to congratulate these seven exceptional students,” Meng said. “All are outstanding individuals who will be future military leaders of our country. I have no doubt that they’ll make Queens and the nation proud.” Students looking to attend the service academies are required to be nominated by their Congress member. The institutions then evaluate the nominations from across the nation and decide which nominees to accept. The students nominated by Meng compete against students from across the country and must meet the highly competitive educational, physical and extracurricular standards set by the institutions. Meng’s Academy Review Board, which is a panel of local community leaders, assists Meng in the nomination process for students looking to attend the academies. This year, a total of 33 students applied to be nominated by Meng. Of those 33 students, 20 were nominated by the Congresswoman. To congratulate the students for being accepted to the service academies, Meng hosted a reception for them and their families at her office in Flushing. She also presented each student with a certificate of Congressional recognition. Meng plans to continue her “U.S. Service Academy Information Night” for Queens students who are interested in applying to the U.S. Service Academies. The day and location will be announced in the near future. Photo courtesy of Congresswoman Grace Meng’s office Congresswoman Meng congratulating Queens students attending the nation’s U.S. Service Academies. From left to right: Julia Hsu, Selah Cho, Zachary Kurre, Congresswoman Grace Meng, Kate Gerodias, John Makiling, Daniel Zakrevski and Kevin Guo.
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