Goshen High School senior Alison Sapp feels blessed to grow up in a faith filled Catholic home where her parents are incredible role models. She also feels blessed to have a twin brother Jeremy to help in her faith journey.
"To have someone to rely on---it's almost like a reassurance that we are doing this together," Alison explains. "It's almost comforting in a way."
Ask pretty much anyone that knows the Sapp twins and you will hear a glowing review.
"These two young adults exemplify what it means to be a devout Catholic young adult," says Goshen resident and family friend Brian Krider. "They are two of the most giving and pro-Catholic, pro-life young adults I know. They are devout and are very faithful."
The Goshen High School seniors and St. John's the Evangelist parishioners are our Redeemer Radio 95.7FM Student(s) of the Month for November. Redeemer Radio’s Student of the month, presented by St. Joseph Health System, recognizes Michiana high school seniors who excel in the classroom, show a strong Catholic faith, and are involved in extracurricular activities at school or in the community. The Sapps are both ranked in the top 25 of Goshen High School's senior class, they are active at their church and their extracurriculars are centered around music.
Jeremy and Alison are two of Goshen High School's three drum majors in Goshen's outstanding marching band.
"The thing you see on the field from an outside perspective is the person conducting for the band and keeping them on time," Jeremy explains of the role of the drum major. "It's really more than that but you don't really see most times, but the drum major leads the band and is the example for everyone. There are a lot of eyes on you."
Alison says it's been a really cool experience to be a band leader with her twin.
"We know each other better than anyone else," Alison says. "There is no tension between us in terms of who should be doing what but then we also keep each other accountable if one of us is doing something we don't think is the best thing to do or if we think one of us is not pulling our weight at a rehearsal or something, we can push each other to work harder and do better."
Being a leader in the band as a drum major comes with tons of responsibility and pressure. Alison says her faith helps guide her through that.
"It allows me to be a lot more open to all the different people in marching band," Alison explains. "It's helped me to understand where they are coming from and build good connections with everyone without any drama or holding anything against them. In another sense, it is a little scary at times in both a leadership sense and when you are conducting out on the field, you are in charge of all of the tempo. Sometimes I'm like, 'I trust you God. I trust you will help me keep everyone together.' Sometimes I just have to trust him because I don't feel like I can do this myself because it's a big job."
The Sapps musical interests come from their mom (although dad did play saxophone in middle school). Jeremy sings in the high school choir and recently joined his church choir where his mom and sister already sing in. For Jeremy, he sees singing in the Church choir as a connecting point for him with God. He recalls in Religious Ed class, being taught to think about what the prayers say. He does that with music too.
"It's kind of like the readings, you take something from it," Jeremy says. "Each song you sing there are different lyrics so you take a new thing and you learn new stuff."
Jeremy and Alison both enjoy being members of the Youth Group at Church but they didn't always feel that way.
"I kind of want to relate it to Religious Ed," Jeremy says. "I used to not like going at all but as I got older, it started to make more sense...
