By Sr. Ruthann Williams
           SOUTHAVEN — Sacred Heart School in Southaven has “bragging rights” to a number of its graduates. This summer, one more was added to the list: Abin Mathew, who has just participated in the People-to-People program. Begun by President Eisenhower in the 1950s, People-to-People selects Student Ambassadors from around the country and offers them the opportunity of visiting other places in the world.
          Abin was nominated by Sacred Heart School and was accepted for the program. “Then,” he says, “the work began!” In order to be part of People-to-People Abin had to raise the money for the trip. He washed cars, raked leaves, even did an occasional babysitting assignment.
          “I earned a lot of money, but I still didn’t have enough. I wrote to the Sacred Heart PTO to ask for help and they were great. They gave me a big check and so did the parishioners at Christ the King where we go to church.”
Abin and a couple dozen other young people his age set out for Europe and spent 20 days visiting France, Italy, and the island of Malta.
          Abin says the experience literally and figuratively broadened his horizons. “It’s a different way of seeing and understanding,” says Abin. “We met other teenagers, saw so many different places, and even ate food we’d never have at home. It was awesome.”
          Now when there’s news from France or Italy on television, “it’s more real,” says the teenager. “I can see those places in my mind.”
          Abin will attend Christian Brothers High School in Memphis this year and he’s already looking ahead to his future. “I’d like to be a plastic surgeon. And, when I make enough money, I’d like to send my parents on a trip around the world so they could have the same kind of experience that I did.”