VOICES
Meet the Winners of the NPM Academic Scholarships for 2020
VOICES
Julio DeLeon
Recipient of the La Beca Juan XXIII Scholarship (for Spanish speaking students)
Julio lives in the city of Santa Monica, California, and has had a passion for being involved in pastoral music since he was very young. He primarily ministers at Holy Spirit Church directing the music for weekend Spanish and English Masses, and he also plays for events at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, ESNE TV live weekday Mass broadcasts, and the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress.
Julio teaches music and directs ensembles at three parochial schools in the Archdiocese, and he is following his undergraduate studies in music performance with pursuit of a master’s degree in Pastoral Teology at Loyola Marymount University. He says, “I love being a pastoral musician because it allows me to be an evangelizer and mediator of God’s grace through music. Serving God and playing music are my two greatest passions in life; being a pastoral musician beautifully combines the two and has allowed me to find my vocation.” Julio is also a visual artist; when he is not playing music (or ping- pong!), he enjoys creating realistic pencil drawings of people. He has been a member of NPM for three years.
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Maria Milazzo
Recipient of the Dr. James W. Kosnik Scholarship
Maria Milazzo is
Director of Music & Liturgy at Nativity of Mary Parish & School in Independence, Missouri, which is a suburb of Kansas City. She is currently working on her Masters of Divinity Studies at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota— she visited the campus for the first time two years ago during the One Call Institute and knew immediately it felt like home. She is grateful for the opportunity to further pursue her studies through this scholarship and values the support of her brothers and sisters in ministry; she says, “I love being a pastoral musician because I love to bring people together helping them to find and use their God-given talents in service to God and others.”
Maria found NPM through her local Kansas City-St. Joseph NPM chapter, and she has been a member for almost 5 years; she now serves on the board of her chapter’s programming committee. In addition to ministry, Maria—a first generation American whose parents came from a small town in Sicily—enjoys singing classical art songs, arias, and musical theatre pieces, and sharing this music with her students.
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