Thursday, May 29, 2014

New Scoreboard for Baseball Field Donated

Don Wilson '79, Brandon Copple '01, Brent Suing '00, Harley Swanson
A few  people were on hand before the Mount Michael Junior Legion Baseball game against Blair on Wednesday evening to accept a generous donation from Copple Chevrolet-GMC of Louisville for the new scoreboard. Copple helped Mount Michael Baseball and the Mount Michael Booster Club by holding a "Home Run" Test Drive Event at Mount Michael on May 3rd during which $20 was donated for every test drive taken. Over 150 test drives were taken by families, friends and alumni of Mount Michael, but the Copple's generously donated additional funds to round up to the $4000,00 needed to complete the scoreboard project! On hand were (L-R) Don Wilson, out-going Booster Club President; Brandon Copple '01 of Copple Chevrolet;  MM Head Baseball Coach Brent Suing '00;  and Harley Swanson, Booster Club Board Member. Also on hand were in-coming Booster Club President Bill Miklas and his wife Gina, also a Booster Club Member.


Many thanks go to Brandon and Bob Copple, the Mount Michael Booster Club and the Mount Michael Baseball Program.


Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Still at Work

In case the Mount's students wonder what some teachers did to kick off their summer break... the answer is grade essays.  As part of our continuing improvement plan for accreditation by the Nebraska Department of Education. Mount Michael several years ago set as one of its goals the continuous improvement in writing across the curriculum. One of the ways this is evaluated is every student writes an essay on a given topic each spring.   

The Tuesday after Memorial Day, Sister Carol Jean, Mr. Cormier, Mr. Gathje, Mrs Masek,  Mr. Roshone, Ms Sullivan and Mr. Wilberding graded those essays!  

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

National Academic Decathlon Banner & Trophy

The National Runner-up Banner arrived the last day of school!
National Academic Decathlon scholarship winners pose with National Academic Decathlon 2nd place banner.

 Jon Collins (Top team score), Alex Hotovy Scholastic Bronze Medalist, and Adam Terasinski Varsity Silver Medalist

Monday, May 12, 2014

Class of 2014: 57 New Alumni


Mount Michael Benedictine School Class of 2014 Accomplishments
Mount Michael is proud to announce the accomplishments of the 57 young men of the class of 2014.  The average ACT score for this class is a 26.8, compared to the average ACT score in the national is a 20.9 and for the state of Nebraska is a 21.5.  The Omaha World Herald’s All-Academic Team recognizes graduates with a cumulative GPA of 3.5 and a minimum ACT score of 32.  Those chosen are in the top 4% of the state of Nebraska; however, Mount Michael had 13 young men meet the qualifications, representing 23% of the class of 2013.  They are Cameron Engel, Jacob Eyth, Rowan Gruber, Alex Hynes, Eun Woo Jee, Ha-Seul Jeong, Kevin Jewell, Andy Johannes, Thomas Kalil, Moon Sup Kim, John Mikulicz, Will Sleddens and Scott Townsend.

                Additionally, the 57 graduates were accepted for admission to 77 different colleges and universities in 35 states and two countries.  They will be attending 28 colleges in 21 different states and two countries; 54% of our graduating class will be attending college out-of-state and 33% will be attending private colleges.  Among the students choosing to remain in-state, five will attend Creighton University and 22 will attend either the University of Nebraska-Lincoln or the University of Nebraska-Omaha from which nine have earned Regent’s Scholarships from the University of Nebraska System.  This is the most ever for a class at Mount Michael. There are also three Mount Michael graduates who will be attending Iowa State University and another three who will pursue their college career at the University of Notre Dame.

                The Class of 2014 was offered $4,001,926 in scholarship money.  Of this total, 27% of scholarship offers have been accepted.  This means our graduates will use $1,478,540 toward their college costs, which calculates to $43,000 in accepted scholarship money per student.


                We are very proud of the Mount Michael Benedictine School graduating class of 2014 and wish them all the best future success.

Bro. August's Graduation Homily - Senior Plans - Dr. Peters Speech
Speech by valedictorian Moonsup Brian Kim - Video - PDF


Saturday, May 10, 2014

Academic All State

Congratulations to the following Knights who have been recognized by the Nebraska School Activities Association  as Academic All-State Award Winners during the 2013-2014 school year.


Cross-Country
Jarrett Crnkovich
Thomas Kalil
Football
Will Ernst
Kevin Jewell
Tennis
Alex Hotovy
Griffin Willer
Baseball
Will Ernst
Kevin Jewell
Golf
Cameron Bretsen
Luke Krajewski
Journalism
Harrison Hohman
Brian Kim
Music
Eun Woo Jee
Will Sleddens
Soccer
Marcus Cronin
Logan Larson
Track & Field
Chase Goddard
John Mikulicz

Nebraska School Activities Association

Friday, May 9, 2014

Knights 2nd Place Nationally in Online Competition

United States Academic Decathlon
The United States Academic Decathlon is a ten-event scholastic competition for teams of high school students. Each high school enters a team of nine students: 3 "A" or Honor students (3.750 - 4.00 GPA), 3 "B" or Scholastic students (3.00 - 3.749 GPA), and 3 "C or below" Varsity students (0.00 - 2.999 GPA).

In the small school division Mount Michael’s Academic Decathlon team placed 2nd nationally against schools from across the country.  In a score comparison of divisions, the Knights would have even placed second among the medium sized schools.

Representing the Knights in the National competition were: Jon Collins, Ben Connealy, Collin Donahue, Cameron Engel, Zach Frevert, Rowan Gruber, Alex Hotovy, Jacob Ramaekers, Adam Terasinski.

For overall individual national honors Adam Terasinski placed 2nd for a silver medal at the varsity level while Alex Hotovy placed 3rd for a bronze medal at the scholastic level.

In individual subject areas the Knights received the following:

Art:
Alex Hotovy:  1st place (scholastic)
Adam Terasinski:  2nd place (varsity)

Economics:
Benjamin Connealy:  2nd place (varsity)

Essay:
Rowan Gruber:  1st place (honors)
Jonathan Collins:  2nd place (honors)
Collin Donahue:  1st place (scholastic)
Adam Terasinski:  1st place (varsity)

Language/Literature:
Alex Hotovy:  3rd place (scholastic)
Adam Terasinski:  1st place (varsity)
Benjamin Connealy:  3rd place (varsity)

Math:
Jonathan Collins:  2nd place (honors)
Zach Frevert:  2nd place (scholastic)
Adam Terasinski:  3rd place (varsity)

Music: 
Alex Hotovy:  1st place (scholastic)

Social Science:
Alex Hotovy:  2nd place (scholastic)
Adam Terasinski:  1st place (varsity)


The team has already begun to prepare for next year’s competition. The theme for 2014-2015 season is New Alternatives in Energy: Ingenuity and Innovation.

Wayne State Math Competition

In Algebra I, Christian Burbach took 4th place and Joe Melia took 7th place.
In Geometry, Zach Cairney took 1st place and Jackie Wo took 2nd place.
In Algebra II, Edwin Huang took 1st place.
In Pre-Calculus, Jae Jun Park took 1st place and Fletcher Lin took 2nd place.
In Calculus, Jonathan Collins took 1st place and Young Joon Park took 2nd place.


There were 23 schools at the competition.

Congratulations Knights!

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Alum Works on Robotic Space Surgery

Mount Michael Benedictine 2007 graduate Tom Frederick is currently working with a team of graduate students on a project to perfect robotic space surgery for long term space travel.

Tom is currently a doctoral student an UNMC's Center for Drug Delivery and Nanomedicine.

Nebraskans work on robot to do surgery in outer space

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Incoming Knight: Impressive Pianist

Joey Recker, son of Alum Dr. Bob Recker '84 and brother of Jake '13 was recently feature in an article from the Omaha World Herald.  Joey is a member of the incoming class of 2018. 

Mesmerizing teen pianst very humble and sees future in music
By Janice Gilmore / World-Herald correspondent


At first glance, Joey Recker, a 14-year-old eighth-grader at St. Mary Margaret School, appears to be a typical, involved young man. His favorite sport is basketball, and he plays baseball. He competes in speech and plays the guitar and piano.
My impression of him as he walked to the piano at a recent recital was that he seemed an amiable young man.
Then he played.   

Monday, May 5, 2014

Artomobiles: Jin Seo Kim Sketches the Future

Young-Joon Park | Features Editor

Kim has used 43 ball point pens for his designs since the
start of the Year. (photo by Kevin Jewell)
  There are sketches everywhere. Coupes on his desk, SUVs on his shelves, sports cars in his bag, sedans on his computer and even buses on sporadic pages of his assignment notebook. Junior Jin Seo Kim aspires to be car design’s next top star.

   To his classmates, Kim is an oddball out of the junior class. Like a tonic of a little cynicism, fashion, wit, and bursts of craziness, none of the juniors can say that they never enjoyed his company. But above all, his love for car design sticks out. “It started with hot wheels.” Kim said. “and maybe the Audi toddler car I had when I was six.” For the fledgling designer, it did not take long to realize his goal. Ever since, Kim has drawn cars every single day for three years.

   With years of car design under his belt, he boggles onlookers with his ease when drawing intricate side views and detailed ¾ views of his latest vehicle. “I draw about four or five views of twenty different cars a day.” Kim remarked while flipping through his pile of sketches on his desk. “I pick out a few good designs and scan them into my computer to add some color and texture with Photoshop.”

   Kim’s design process is far from simple. “It starts with thinking of the need of the person. You select a lifestyle and the image of the person and try to follow it throughout his day. If you continue to follow this image, you can visualize the type of car he needs.” Only after this does the creative process come in.

   Kim looks for inspiration from artwork, nature, architecture, and everything else in the world to find the perfect design. Once his theme is set, he begins drawing, starting with the side view of the automobile and working his way around the vehicle. “The whole process involves a lot of failures until you find that harmonized and artistic design you want.” Kim said.

Kim churns out sketches like the one above in a matter of minutes.
(Photo by Mickey Coughlin)
   This March, after (literally) repeating this process about 10,000 times, Kim completed his college portfolio for his dream school - Art Center College of Design at Pasadena, in California. All this he accomplished by himself without any help from the school administration. “For students going into the arts, portfolios are extremely important, so it was a disappointment that the Mount doesn’t have a solid system to support art students.” To make up for the shortcoming, Kim attended art classes on car designing in Korea over the summer. The teachers there helped Kim set conceptual ideas on the themes of his portfolio and wrote him a letter of recommendation to attach to his application.

   Though his forte is the arts, Kim never slacks when it comes to school work. He brushes off his good grades as “pure luck”, but his close peers say otherwise. “It’s not luck. It’s diligence.” Junior David Choi said. “I take a lot of classes with him this year, and he always has his homework finished days before the due date. He’s always the first one to finish.” As to prove this statement, Kim has gotten straight As ever since his freshman year -- and in style as well.

   Kim stands at the vanguard of fashion at the Mount, with his gaudy Thom Browne shirts and modern Dsquared Jeans (they are American and Italian design houses by the way).  “I believe the Mount is at least thirty years behind in fashion. Work needs to be put in there.” Kim remarked with a hint of irritation. “I hate it when people wear plain white socks with dress pants. It just annoys me. And guess what I always see at the Mount.”


   Nonetheless, Kim is bound for a career in car design after graduation and is already visualizing where he wants to be in twenty years. “There are a lot of wonderful car makers out there, but a personal goal of mine is working for Volkswagen. Head Designer might be a little far-fetched, but I am going to try anyways.”

Sunday, May 4, 2014


2014 NATIONAL SPANISH EXAM
NATIONAL PERCENTILE RESULTS
BRONZE – 75% - 84%
SILVER – 85% - 94%
GOLD – 95% - 100%

BRONZE
Henry O'Callaghan
Nick Carson
Alec Gregerson
Daniel Woodward
Broden Kaps
Patrick Halpin
Corbin Merkel-Evans
Thomas D'Aquila
Elliott Heineman
Christian Keller
Joseph Budd
Randall Esquivel
Thomas Farhart
Andrew Ernst
Thomas Wooten
Zachrey Starman
Sung Han Yoon
Jin Kim
Eun Woo Jee
Mohamad Elradi
Michael Steier
Zach Frevert
Marcus Cronin
Alexander Hynes
SILVER
Alexander Earsley
Zachary Cairney
Reilly Jackson
Nicholas Huetter
Michael Ecker
Peyton Hottovy
Luke Mixan
Benjamin Hynes
Sam Bohart
Matthew Coghill
Dylan Johnson
Luke Krajewski
Colin Svoboda
Mason Lewis
Sam Van Haute
Alex Stoupa
Lucas Tucker
Cameron Bretsen
Jared Mikuls
Elliott Fay
Cameron Engel
Andrew Johannes

GOLD
Benedict Murray
Andrew Ahn
Logan Baumberger
Tyler Degener
Elijah Buckhold
Jackson Thompson
Brendan Nicholas
Young-Joon Park
Harrison Hohman
David Choi
Thomas Kalil
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2014 NATIONAL SPANISH EXAM
NEBRASKA RESULTS
Medals for 1st – 5th place in Nebraska:
LEVEL 1 (358 students)
1st Ben Murray
4th Alex Earsley
10th Zachary Cairney
13th Reilly Jackson
14th Luke Mixan
20th Nicholas Huetter
LEVEL 2 (344 students)
REGULAR
1st Logan Baumberger
3rd Tyler Degener
4th Elijah Buckhold
6th Jackson Thompson
8th Andrew Ahn
9th Brendan Nicholas
11th Ben Hynes
13th Sam Bohart
17th Matt Coghill
18th Dylan Johnson
19th Luke Krajewski
LEVEL 2
EXPERIENCED
3rd Randall Esquivel
7th Alex Stoupa
8th Sam Van Haute
9th Elliott Heineman
10th Christian Keller
13th Joe Budd
16th Jack Hitzemann
17th Nathan Hazard
18th Jacob Bova
20th Paul Forget
LEVEL 3 (165 students)
REGULAR
2nd Young Joon Park
3rd Harrison Hohman
5th David Choi
9th Luke Tucker
11th Cameron Bretsen
15th Jared Mikuls
20th Elliott Fay
LEVEL 3
EXPERIENCED
2nd Marcus Cronin
3rd Zach Frevert
5th Gus deMayo
6th Logan Larson
9th Zachary McBride
11th John Gutsmiedl
13th Stefano Tarantolo
14th Anthony Taylor
20th Chase Goddard
LEVEL 4 (95 students)
REGULAR
4th Cameron Engel
8th Andrew Johannes
19th Alex Hynes
LEVEL 4
EXPERIENCED

1st Thomas Kalil

Friday, May 2, 2014

Knights Receive Honors at SAME Competition

Under the guidance of instructor Marilyn Theis and engineering advisors from local business,  The Knights' drafting students year long projects won numerous medals at the Annual Society of American Military Engineers (SAME) competition. There were a total of 18 teams from Bennington, Prep, Gross, Millard West, Mount Michael, Central, North, Papillion-La Vista, Papillion-La Vista South, Skutt, and Westside.

Junior Team 3 Medals
 Two silver medals in applied sciences & innovation and a gold medal for research.

The Junior Project involved working  with the Henry Doorly Zoo to help design/plan a future project they have for a Conservation Academy that would have a 9-12 high school and a Pre-K and Kindergarten classes as well.  The purpose of the facility would be to educated those attending the zoo, the Omaha area community and the next generation in conserving our natural resources.


The Junior Team consisted of Reed Tiwald, Luke Tucker, Cameron Bretsen, Jake Batenhorst, Eric Sullivan, Logan Kalkowski, Andy Ernst, Fred Guernsey, Ashton Legenza, Zach McBride, Elliott Fay, Chris Riddle, and Oliver Jarosik.

Senior Team 6 Medals & Award of Distinction
Four silver medals for applied sciences, technology, sustainability, proposal.  Two gold medals for team work and presentation. The Award of Distinction included a $500 prize which will be used for upgrades to the Mount Michael drafting program. Only five Awards of Distinction were given at the competition.

The senior project was with HETRA Heartland Equine Therapy Riding Aacdemy.  They work with handicapped children and adults by using horse back riding and carriage driving improving their quality of life.  HETRA currently works out of 2 rented facilities.  The Team found a new site and designed a new larger facility that would combine the two current facilities.


The Senior Team consisted of Ben Connealy, Austin Ramaeker, Andrew Carpenter, Chris Bierman, Elijah Buckhold, Rowan Gruber, Garrison Emsick, John Mikulicz, Dan Pavlik, and Giffin Willer.



Thursday, May 1, 2014

Knights’ Recognize & Honor a Year of Accomplishments

Garrison Emsick, Jon Borer, Preston Hendricks
The Mount Michael Community gathered in the “Palace” to celebrate and honor the great accomplishments of the 2013-2014 school year.  Awards in Math, Science, Language Arts and many others were presented.

The Activities Director Jon Borer presented the  first major honor, the Athlete of the Year Award  to 2 individuals this year, Garrison Emsick & Preston Hendricks.

Rowan Gruber with Dr. Peters
This year the Hugh O'Brien Youth Leadership Award went to Sophomore Max deMayo  and the Omaha Exchange Club/Sophomore of the year award went to Luke Krajewski.

To the delight of the assembly the Journalism & Academic Decathlon teams also revealed their Championship Banners to be hung in the Palace.

The awards wrapped up with the prestigious Mount Michael Award presented by the faculty, which is given to the senior who most epitomizes the ideals & characteristics of a Mount Michael Student. This year’s award winner was Rowan Gruber. 




Max deMayo                           Luke Krajewski

State Championship Banners