Physic Team Places 2nd at Creighton Physics Field Day

On Saturday a group of 5 seniors took 2nd place at Creighton Physics Field Day. Their team consisted of Richard Woods, George Townsend, Jacob Kenney, Nick Cairney, and Harrison Engel. Overall, there were three teams of juniors and 1 team of seniors that competed. Other competitors included Ben Pape, Josh Rauterkaus, Josh Policky, Curtis Farmer, Benet Kinghorn, Joey Kucerik, Tommy Malizewski, Julian Pfeffer, Yoonho Kim, Albert Part, John Choi, Gabe Cohen, and D.J. Wooten. There were many prizes won by each of the teams for different events. Notable wins included Harrison Engel's 1st place in "Chalk Talk," and Josh Rauterkaus' 3rd place in "Chalk Talk" 

Kapusnick Shares Interesting Life Experiences with Mt. Michael Students

Randy Speer| Staff Writer "The Mount"

He is a man of mystery at Mount Michael. With his Spanish speaking skills and an impeccable swooping haircut, Joseph Kapusnick is also a man with many stories.

Originating from the east coast, Kapusnick went to a college prep school much like Creighton Prep. While there, he excelled in extemporaneous speaking. He stood out in his competitions, qualifying for Nationals, but the awards were not the only thing he gained from speech.

Kapusnick’s experience in high school speech was very formative, and changed the direction of his studies from the sciences to political affairs. He said, “This became the basis of my decision to go to Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service for college. More than my interests, though, speech was where I met my closest friends, many of whom I still keep in touch with today,” he said. Kapusnick had experiences in competitions. He qualified for final rounds at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, and was invited to participate in a national 16-person extemporaneous speaking competition.

“Along with being comfortable speaking in a crowd, this lesson of defeat was the greatest asset I gained from my forensics experience. As a co-president of the team, I had to deal with a poor performance at a large away tournament in a way that set a good example for the rest of the team, and especially for underclassmen,” Kapusnick said.

He then went off to college at Georgetown, which also had a large impact on his future.

Georgetown was a great experience for Kapusnick because of the people he met and the experiences that exposed him to more of the world than ever before. Classes were interesting and thought provoking, but two experiences stick out more than any others for him.

“The first was my study abroad semester in Ecuador. This time out of the country let me see the developing world that I had been studying in class, and forced me to question many assumptions that I—and my professors—seemed to have made,” Kapusnick said.

It was in Ecuador that he first started to delve deep into the Spanish language. He had taken some Spanish beforehand, but he was much more interested after he got back from Ecuador.

“I really developed a passion for Spanish, and language in general, through my study abroad experience in Ecuador. It was truly amazing to be able to communicate and experience daily life in a different culture and language,” he said. He was so inspired by his experience that he continued to take Spanish literature courses after returning and began intensive German courses at the same time.

Kapusnick is not only fond of the Spanish language, but also of the east coast. He loves the public transportation, the wide range of things to do, and especially being close to the ocean, but he has found the Midwest pace of life to be equally enjoyable.

“I have enjoyed the slower pace, the beautiful landscapes, and been pleasantly surprised by all of the rich and interesting activities the Omaha area offers. I’m looking forward this spring and summer to exploring some of western Nebraska and the Dakotas, which I have heard are absolutely beautiful,” said Kapusnick.

Overall, Kapusnick has enjoyed his first year at Mount Michael, and has high hopes for the coming years.

“I have enjoyed the welcoming attitude of the faculty and students, as well as the enthusiasm of students in learning and their willingness to be challenged,” he said.

Cormier Resurrects Academic Decathlon

Joey Kucirek |Staff Writer "The Mount"

Mount Michael is an extraordinary college prep school that excels in many fields. The students here work harder than many students in other schools to achieve the very best that they can. There are plenty of activities that are offered here to help them along the way. The Academic Decathlon used to be one of these activities. Yet it has been missing from the curriculum since the early 90’s. Now, the Academic Decathlon is coming back.

The Academic Decathlon is a competition that consists of six multiple choice tests, a speech, an interview, and the Super Quiz. These events are all designed to test the participants in every possible way over a particular topic. Next year’s topic will be the country of Russia. This will make the students strive to develop a deeper respect for knowledge, help them become a better learner, achieve their goals in academic excellence, and give them academic competition between fellow classmates and students from other schools.

Head dean Dave Cormier said, “It is a great way to create the classic renaissance man, a well-rounded person. They have to be good at almost anything, from science and math to history and literature to arts and music.”

Each team has to have at least six students, two honor, two scholastic, and two varsity. Each student is categorized into these groups by their grade point average. Honor students must have a GPA of 3.75-4.00, scholastic students must have a GPA of 3.00-3.74, and varsity students must have a GPA of 0.0-2.99. This gives any student that would like to participate in this class an equal opportunity, and prevents powerhouse schools from stacking their teams with all honor students. Also, all grade levels are accepted at the competition.

The Academic Decathlon has become a popular topic of discussion around the Mount. Students have become very interested in the competition and there has been a rush of people wanting to take this class. Senior Hunter Hottovy said, “I think people that have heard about it are excited, but once the others hear about it, then they will be even more excited.” These future competitors from Mount Michael will have a opportunity to go to the events and show what they have learned about Russia.

Cormier hopes to have a class for the academic decathlon five days a week for all grade levels, but is unsure at the moment what his course of action in the classroom will be. “There are a number of things that I can teach with confidence and there are others that I can’t,” said Cormier, “But I will have Ms. Theis and Ms. Sullivan help out, too.”

The advantages of taking this class is that the students are eligible for more scholarships and can put it on their college resume. It will also be a good life experience that they can benefit from for years to come.

Mount Michael is known for excelling in academics, and the Academic Decathlon will improve its reputation even more if next year’s team does as well as the old teams used to. But, to improve this reputation, our students will have to practice diligently and work as hard as they can.

May Day is Back!

After being retired for nearly two decades May Day has returned to Mount Michael. Today’s adaptation of yesteryear’s celebration has been adapted to the times. The day consisted of two parts. The morning was devoted to community service and the afternoon to fun and games.

The day began with an assembly in the chapel where the day’s activities were explained. From the chapel everyone dispersed to their assignments. The indoor projects included cleaning and clearing out accumulated junk stored in the attic and the storerooms on the stage. Outside projects included such things as washing and cleaning the buses and trimming trees while the baseball field saw crews work on various landscaping projects. Even the friendly neighborhood goat helped out with picking up liter on 216^th street.

At the end of the service projects lunch was served outside. Then it was time for Fun and Games! The school was divided up into teams which competed in Warball, Flag Football, and Frisbee Football.

Because of the heavily laden schedule of activities with Track, Soccer, Golf, Baseball, and Trap it is really very hard to find an “open” day to schedule such an event.

Even with the planning some students had to miss some of the afternoon fun to participate in a rescheduled track meet and the district music contest. Service Photos - Fun & Games Photos

Feichtinger presented with Athlete of the Year

This year’s father and son banquet was held at Indian Creek in Elkhorn. The featured guest speaker was Chicago Cubs owner Pete Ricketts.

At the banquet Mount Michael senior Thomas Feichtinger was presented with the “Athlete of the Year” award. Feichtinger’s notable accomplishments include an all class gold medal in the 3200 at the state tournament in 2011, an individual State Championship last fall in Cross Country. He currently leads all class B runners in the 1600m and 3200m distances in track. He also holds Mount Michael Benedictines school records in those same events. Photos

Acceptance speech by Thomas Feichtinger