Minooka Resident Named Student Laureate at St. Francis

The University of St. Francis announced that senior Brandon Collofello is this year’s Student Laureate of The Lincoln Academy of Illinois.

Collofello will be honored on Saturday, Nov. 2 at the 39th Annual Student Laureate Award Ceremony in the Hall of Representatives of the Old State Capitol in Springfield. During the ceremony, Gov. Pat Quinn will present Collofello with the Student Laureate Medallion, a certificate of achievement and a monetary grant.

Student laureates are honored for their overall excellence in curricular and extracurricular activities. Collofello is completing a bachelor’s degree in biology and a chemistry minor. He plans to attend medical school after graduation from USF.

He is a biology and theology/philosophy tutor on campus and is involved in numerous campus groups and honor societies including University Ministry, USF Sustainability Committee, Duns Scotus Honors Program, National Residence Hall Honorary, Beta Beta Beta National Biological Honors Society, Delta Epsilon Sigma and National Scholastic Honor Society. Collofello is also an Arthur J. Schmitt Scholar.

Service is Collofello’s passion. He volunteers in the emergency rooms at Silver Cross Hospital and Presence Health Saint Joseph Medical Center. More than 100 service hours have been dedicated by Collofello to Joliet organizations including Warren Sharp Learning Center, Spanish Community Center, Daybreak Homeless Shelter, Morning Star Mission, Giving Tree and Farragut Grade School.

In November 2012, Collofello became a local celebrity for service when he set a Guinness world record for “Aztec pushups” to help raise money for the Feed My Starving Children organization and its Mobilepack event at USF last spring. He is currently helping to plan another Guinness record-setting event, slated to take place in spring 2014.