Guest Bloggers: Mike and April

This past mid-term, five of our boys were on the honor roll and two were very close, which is awesome for freshman. We call that success!!

Hey everyone, this is Mike and April from the Carola Home.

This time of year our boys are balancing school and athletics as well as preparing to go home for the holidays. This can be an overwhelming time for all the boys, but especially the freshman.

Freshmen have already been adjusting to new houseparents, new school, new curriculum and new friends. Our four Juniors have had a couple of years to learn what works for them to succeed in all areas.  However, our three Freshmen still have a lot to learn and this is usually the hardest time of their high school years.

Thankfully, our Juniors have taken our Freshmen under their wings and given them advice on how to deal with homework – number one being do not get behind with missing assignments – classes and teachers, where to go and who you may have to be extra nice to. And of course advice on their houseparents – don’t try that, they won’t let you get away with this, handle your business and they won’t make it theirs.

Each student has their own ways to succeed and all seven of our boys are doing just that, succeeding. With all that high school life brings to offer our boys, they are doing an amazing job keeping up with it all.

In our eyes my boys are all number one!!!!

St. Joseph’s gives the boys a lot of support with the learning center, which is run by our High School Academic Advisor, Steve. Steve works with Chamberlain High School to help them with their homework.  Our Transitional Specialist, Pam, helps our Juniors with upcoming college trips and helps them plan for the future after St. Joseph’s.

Basketball season has started with Errol, Cody, William and Kyle playing for the Chamberlain Cubs. Our home will be attending many games in the next couple of months to support their fellow classmates.

Shawn is involved in CHS’s Wrestling Team.  We also have one student Dean, who has been actively preparing for the past several weeks to attend LNI (the Lakota Nation Invitational), to participate in the Knowledge Bowl Competition. Trey, one of our Freshmen, is not in any sports. He thought it would be best to give all his focus on his schoolwork, so he can continue his streak of no missing assignments and A honor roll.

 

Guest Bloggers: Mike and April

The Carola Home won the high school trophy for with least missing assignments!!

Working hard and having fun!

Hello again from the Carola Home! A new year has begun and our boys are doing a wonderful job with all they have to do. This year we have four Juniors and three Freshman boys in our home. They have worked hard with school work, homework, tutoring, football, other activities and home responsibilities.

First quarter we had five boys make the honor roll and two who were just short of the honor roll, giving our home a GPA of 3.32. Besides studying hard, part of their success is not getting behind in their school work and not having many missing assignments.

The boys had a great time at Wild Water West!

With all the hard work they put in so far, they really enjoy having some downtime. With donors helping provided for St. Joseph’s Indian School, each home has a budget that they go by. Part of this budget goes to home trips. Home trips are a great time to relax and have fun and build relationships. At the beginning of the year, our home went to LifeLight Music Festival and Wild Water West. They had a great time camping and enjoying some wonderful music, go carts, going down the water slides and swimming in the wave pool.

With funds for a trip already spent, the boys had to come up with a way to make money. Our boys decided to do a car wash to raise funds for another home trip.

The car wash was a great success.

The boys used a no school day for the car wash. They asked for a freewill donation to support their home trip. They washed many cars and they spent all day with such a positive attitude and worked very hard. They made enough money for the trip – hiking at Harney Peak, shopping at the Rushmore Mall, and dinner and movies in Rapid City.

The boys are always saying “thanks for dinner” and while we were out at the restaurant they said, “Thanks for dinner.” We reminded them that they earned this themselves and thanked them for dinner.

They were very proud and so were we. They also realized how working hard can pay off.

Big smiles from the Carola Home.

 

Goal completed: we walked 10,000 laps!

The William Home

Hello everyone, this is Mike from the William Home (4^th and 5^th grade girls).  It is hard to believe, but we have started the fourth quarter of school here at St. Joseph’s Indian School!

The last time I was here I told you about the William Home and their walking.  Well, we made our goal of walking 10,000 laps with a day to spare.  The girls did a good job of getting their laps in and finishing what they started.  10,000 laps is equal to 500 miles.

As we set our sights on the last quarter of school we are also preparing to take a day trip with the girls.  We are very excited about going to Sioux Falls. We will visit the zoo and the Washington Pavillion to see the science exhibit and the I-Max Theater.

The weather has also allowed us to get some outside play time, and softball season will be starting in the next couple of weeks.

We hope you are all enjoying our blogs as much as we enjoy keeping you up to date on the things we do at St. Joseph’s!

 

Responsibilities and opportunities

Four of our Carola Home boys and two boys from the Sheehy Home played for the very successful  JV Chamberlain basketball team this year (their ending record was 14-1). Our guys have truly enjoyed earning their success through hard work and practice. They have learned valuable skills not only on the court but also off. They have discovered the importance of teamwork, dedication, time management and keeping up with their class work. The coaches have a strict policy of school work before playing time in the games. For most, it only took one game of sitting on the bench and not getting to play before they realized the importance of keeping their assignments caught up. They have learned how to manage practices, games, school work, friends, home life, as well as, finding time to rest. With the basketball season nearing an end, our boys are already looking forward to track and baseball.

This year we have three boys who have earned their driving privileges. This is a new thing for our home. They boys have taken drivers education, drove, with very nervous houseparents:), passed their driving test at the local DMV and then passed the “dreaded” driving test and safety speech from our safety and security man Mr. Clark.  The boys were given a 1993 Ford Taurus wagon to drive and take care of. It has been around the block more than once, but our guys drive it with a smile on their face.  I smile as I watch them drive away remembering my first car and how I still remember the color and smell. They know that if they take care of it they will be able to drive a nicer car next year.  The boys are allowed a set number of miles each week. This will get them to and from school and to and from practices. They can pay for additional miles if they work. This past Sunday I couldn’t help but laugh when one of the boys asked me to drive him to the store because he was tired of driving. I would like thank all of our donors who make these experiences possible through their generous support. Each new privilege brings new responsibilities and opportunities to teach life lessons.

Pray for us as we continue to encourage our American Indian students to become the men God wants them to be.

Mike

 

Greetings from the William Home

Greetings from the William Home!!

Hello everyone!

This is Mike from the William Home, (4^th and 5^th grade girls).  We have been keeping busy since the Christmas season and have started on some new activities.  Six of our girls are participating in cheerleading now and they are excited to provide some school spirit for our 4^th and 5^th grade boys’ teams during home games.

We have also started a new fitness program with our girls and they have really taken pride in their accomplishments.  We set a goal to walk 10,000 laps (500 miles) in the rec center by March 6th.  We are getting up in the mornings and off to the rec center by 6:30 am and walk for 30 minutes.

The girls enjoy keeping track on our sign at the rec center. We will be going over 5,000 laps this week! Hopefully, our next update will let you know that we have reached our goal.

We hope you all had a safe and merry holiday season!