High school orientation

Hello again; my name is Shana and I’m the High School Residential Director here at St. Joseph’s Indian School. We’ve had a great two days for our HS Student Orientation on Monday and Tuesday!

All of our HS students returned Sunday in order to participate in our HS Student Orientation and get ready for the upcoming school year. Students are happy to be back on campus; seeing their St. Joseph’s friends and staff that most of them didn’t get to see over the summer months (after our HS Summer Program ended in June). It’s great to see all of our high school staff and students get together for a welcome back, announcements and a full two days of reminders, learning and new program items. These days can get long, but they are stress free since no one is worrying about studying or doing homework (YET!).

The ninth and tenth graders meet with our Transition Specialist to talk about College Visits and Career Explorations, and also meet with our tutor to review study skills. The juniors and seniors meet to discuss Senior Planning and Transitional Living. These older students (along with tenth graders) meet with our garage staff to review car care and maintenance. A representative from Wells Fargo comes to campus to talk to all of our HS students about bank accounts. I review Internet Safety and new program changes for the upcoming year and, finally, all of our students go up to Chamberlain High School to get their laptops.

The students are eager (and nervous) for the first day of school on Wednesday! And after several weeks of preparation, all our staff are eager to begin another great year in the High School Program!

This weekend, high school fall sports kick off with the first football game on Friday, followed by the first volleyball game and cross-country meet on Saturday. Our student athletes are pumped up and everyone is full of school spirit! The motivation and inspiration at the beginning of the school year is amazing!

I would like to say a big thank you to all of our donors that make our High School Program such a success!  We couldn’t have such amazing staff, homes, resources (not to mention happy, successful students) without the generosity and care we receive from all of you.

God Bless!
Shana
HS Residential Director

Festivities at St. Joseph’s Indian School

Our high school students started two days of orientation. They will review the student handbooks and expectations, set up house responsibilities for chores, and do some settling in.

After their meetings, I got together with two of our juniors, Michelle and Amber, who will represent the school next weekend at donor appreciation luncheons in Boston. They’re both nervous and excited, and we went over what they can expect, and practiced what they want to share with the folks who are able to join us.

School staff did a double take when they saw me walking to my car carrying a big bowl of summer garden soup and wearing a bright and loud Hawaiian shirt over my usual black cleric shirt. Today, our development staff held their end of the summer pot luck meal. Our culture committee wanted to liven things up and chose a luau theme at American Creek Campground, just a few blocks south of campus.  Staff members got to vote for which supervisor was in charge of flipping burgers on the grill, and Mike and Kory did the honors.  The hula hoop and limbo contests added a fun flair to our time.

One nice aspect of having the pot luck at this time of year is that so many people have fresh vegetables coming ripe in their gardens, and we did indeed have a feast. The office also had three staff birthdays to celebrate, one from Saturday and two today, so that added to the festivities.

God’s blessing on our school year

We had our first weekend mass with the students.  Some of the students who attend St. Joseph’s aren’t all that familiar with church and it takes a while for them to learn the songs, find their places in the book and get used to the routine. But there was a good and lively spirit in the pews as we gathered to pray and ask for God’s blessing on the new school year.

While the grade school students have completed a full week, our high school students didn’t have to be back until today. The students staying in the two homes open early for those participating in sports moved from their temporary quarters into the rooms they will have for the year. In the Giles Home (freshman boys) everyone was back early. The supper table was full as they wolfed down Aaron’s homemade vegetable beef soup. Melissa remarked that they worked with 1st-3rd graders last year, and they are going to have to adjust the quantity of food they cook considerably!

The upperclassman straggled in a little later, and one or two called in because of transportation difficulties. But it’s good to have the campus mostly full again and coming back to life.

Overcoming obstacles

This weekend the Crow Creek Indian Reservation held their annual fair and wacipi – powwow. I view powwows much like a family reunion. Since I worked in that community before coming to St. Joseph’s, I know quite a few folks when I go.

Last night, besides taking in the dancing and ceremony, I enjoyed walking around the arena and visiting with familiar faces and catching up with old friends. I noticed several St. Joseph’s students with their families. A few of our St. Joseph’s homes also loaded up a mini bus and came for a few hours.

Today I had to drop some items off at the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center. Glancing at the visitors log book, I was tickled by the number of overseas tourists who visited us. The notes told of folks hailing from Japan, Germany, Brazil, the Netherlands and France, besides a great number of different states in the good old USA.

The "Trust Fall" was very successful!
The “Trust Fall” was very successful!

As I walked back to the office on a lovely Saturday afternoon to finish up the weekend homily and prepare for Sunday, I heard laughter coming from atop the hill behind the Dining Hall. I followed the path to the area where we’ve developed our Project SOAR obstacle course. Mark and Nate were working with a group of boys from Fisher Home (6th-8th grade) at the nylon stringed spider web. The group was trying to help everyone cross from one side to the other, which involved lifting, carrying and passing teammates. The object was to help them learn to work together, and develop needed social and life skills such as cooperation, communication and planning. I even joined them in the next activity – a trust fall – where each of us had to fall backwards from a short ledge into a tangle of arms waiting to catch us.

On the playground, I noticed the Dennis Home girls (1st – 3rd grades) arguing about someone calling another student a cry baby, and hurt feelings escalated until they were mad at each other. One of the third grade girls was upset to start with. She  asked me to pray for her two-year-old cousin, who sadly died in a drug related accident. When our students act out or misbehave, all of our staff are trained not to overlook the possibility that there is a deeper issue or problem that may be upsetting the child. In their young lives, many of these children have know a lot of sadness and difficulty.

Guest Blogger: Claire

Hi again!  My name is Claire, and I am a houseparent in the high school program. I’m excited to be back, starting my fifth year here at St. Joseph’s Indian School. This week is all-staff orientation.  Those of us that have been gone part of the summer rejoin our hard-working year-round colleagues for a week of training, refreshers and refocusing.  This can be pretty exciting, especially when we all arrive in chapel on Monday morning and someone holds up a “free hugs” sign.  Woo hoo!

We usually start off with smudging—the Lakota tradition of burning sage—which is a symbolic cleansing of our minds, hearts and bodies with the smoke.  This sets a prayerful space and atmosphere for our work together in the upcoming year.

Our orientation theme this year was “Nourishing Mind, Body, Heart and Spirit.”

How cool is that?

After all, we are not just about teaching reading, writing and arithmetic.  Our goal is to prepare kids for life outside of St. Joseph’s, so they can be strengthened by relationships, faith, a sense of culture and history, and skills for living.  In order to do that, we have to bring our whole selves into the equation—which is why we start the year with prayer, sage, free hugs and even some darn good bread which the Pastoral Care staff handed out.

A lot of this week is about remembering our mission, and focusing on what we hope to accomplish in the upcoming year.  For us houseparents, one challenge is to bring the oyate values outlined in our Circle of Courage into our daily routines.  Those values are: Belonging, Independence, Mastery and Generosity.

We all agree that we do a great job at building a sense of belonging.  We are very good at building relationships with our kids, their families and with each other.  We are turning our attention to other areas where we are not so strong.  Sometimes, in our efforts to build relationships, we end up doing too much for our kids, to the detriment of their sense of mastery, independence and generosity.  We had some serious and thoughtful discussions on how and where we can work on these areas.

Not all of orientation is fun, I will admit.  Our newly hired staff have already completed a full week of training, and their heads are about to explode with facts, figures, rules and guidelines.

Veteran staff members groan a bit when we get to the part that we have heard every year.  Over and over and over.  For those of you who are uninitiated in the joys of orientation, let me sum up Day Two as briefly as possible:

  Rule #1:  Treat your co-workers with respect.  Play Nice.

Rule #2:  If you make a mess, please clean it up.

Rule #3:  If the mess involves blood or other body fluids, use gloves.

Rule #4:  If the mess is on fire, call 911.

Rule #5:  If you can’t seem to follow Rule #1, make SURE you follow Rules #2-5.

I think I can manage that!

Thank you for continuing to hold the kids and staff at St.  Joseph’s in your prayers as we kick off the 2012-2013 school year.  So far, we’re off to a good start.

 

 

 

Powwow preparation

Though our Lakota students have only been back a few days, powwow preparation has begun in earnest. Both the boys (grass, traditional and fancy) and girls (fancy shawl, jingle dress and traditional) have been busy learning to dance. Once they decide on the style they will focus on, LaRayne (our Native American Studies teacher) and a few helpers will match the many children who don’t have their own regalia with dance attire.

Besides the dancers, Mark, our Rec Center Specialist called an organizational meeting to gather all the drummers and singers. A strong group of eighth grade singers graduated last year and moved up to high school. But, there has been good interest in the next grades of boys who want to step up and sing out and learn the traditional songs.  As Mark reviewed their commitment and responsibilities, he reminded them that in learning how to respect the drum, they will also learn to respect and care for one another. Eleven singers signed up, as well as five girls who will learn the songs and circle around the drummers to support them.

Guest Blogger: Julie H

Over the last few weeks, St. Joseph’s campus has been noisy with construction.  But campus has begun to ring with a new and happy noise… The noise of students returning to campus!!  I had the opportunity to visit many of the students I work with over the summer and most of them are ready to come back to campus and go back to school.  What a great thing to hear!  The students are excited to return and staff is just as excited to see them.

I have worked at St. Joseph’s Indian School for close to 11 years.  I have often been asked “What brought you to St. Joseph’s Indian School?” or “Why have you stayed at St. Joseph’s Indian School?”  The answer is really pretty simple.  I came to St. Joseph’s Indian School because I was excited about the opportunity to work with Native American youth.  I have worked with kids since I was in college and that is where I found my niche.  I love working with kids.  So the opportunity to work with Native American youth was something I just could not pass up.

Why have I stayed?  Well, that answer is pretty simple too.  What brings me back to St. Joseph’s Indian School, as well as most staff you will ask, year after year, is the students and the families I am blessed to have the opportunity to work with.  I have the opportunity, each year, to work with some of the greatest kids on the planet.  They are creative, fun, out-going, resilient and all around good kids.

I grew up in a wonderful environment and I feel God has called me to help be a part of the great environment we offer the students and families we work with here at St. Joseph’s Indian School.  Every day is not great, sometimes our students struggle, but being able to be a positive role model and helper for our students and families, humbles and honors me.

As we come to the close of summer, I would ask for prayers for our students and their families, as well as the staff of St. Joseph’s Indian School, as we return to school.  We will all keep you in our thoughts and prayers as well!  Have a wonderful rest of the summer and if you are ever in the area, stop by and say hello!

Julie

Family Service Counselor

Bikes, ABCs and peaches

Today, I again visited the first grade classroom, where I have the most new names to learn. I was confused, and got a few of the names switched around. The first graders were also confused about my name.

“Are you really our teacher’s Father?” one asked!

They were reviewing the alphabet, and learning the letters by learning a chant and clapping pattern. While there are some things kids learn that we forget over the years, I was still pretty solid remembering my ABCs, and joined along to help them review. While most of our students have returned and breathed new life and energy into the campus, something was missing, and I couldn’t identify it until today. After school I saw the procession of the bicycles from their storage place in the picnic pavilion. The children parked them in their rightful places in front of the homes, and now the place is looking more like it should. It does my heart good to see the smiles of glee on youngster’s faces as they pedal around Wisdom Circle.

While on my way across campus, I came across a kickball game among the Afra Home (1st-3rd grade) girls. They got excited when I jumped in to take a turn. I kicked the ball over their heads, but ran slow enough for them to throw at me and get me out between second and third bases, before I went on my way toward another meeting. While I can’t always spend long blocks of time with the students, it’s those brief moments for a little fun and joy in life that create lasting memories and give meaning to my role here.

For our school lunches in the dining hall, as well as in meals served in the homes, we have been trying to emphasize more fruits and vegetables. Parts of South Dakota, especially Indian reservation communities, are often classified as a “food desert,” which is an area where choice and variety are limited and located more than one mile from the nearest grocery store. That point was brought home to me tonight in the Speyer Home (6th-8th grade boys). One of our new students was really enjoying the bowl of freshly frozen mixed fruit set before him.

“These orange things are pretty good – what are they again?” – the answer was peaches!

It was his first experience with peaches. If we’re going to help the next generation stave off diabetes and other health issues, we need to get them to try a variety of foods rich in vitamins and minerals. Without too much homework to rush off to yet, and sports practices still a week away, the guys sat around the table without rushing off, and talked about fun things they got to do over the summer.

The first day of classes at St. Joseph’s

The first day of classes! I enjoyed looking out my office window and seeing the playground, full of laughter and playfulness again.

I waited until later in the day to make rounds of the classrooms. The teachers need some time to get students settled and organized. The first graders especially will take some time to feel at home here and get used to the routine. As I walked into each classroom, I had our returning students help me meet and greet our new kids. I welcomed them and worked on remembering a few more names. We still have a few students who haven’t arrived, but know they’re on their way. By the end of the week when our high school students return, we should have everyone in place.

For supper I joined the girls of Stevens Home (6th-8th grade). They are enjoying the brightness and spaciousness of our newest remodeling job. The five 8th grade girls remember living in the home two years ago before the upgrades, and proudly showed off what they had done with the new spaces. While few of the students particularly enjoy cleaning, the houseparents, Frank and Wanda, told me the students have a little more pride and put in a little extra elbow grease to keep things looking nice.

After school the houseparents took the girls to Central Receiving, where all the new clothing that generous donors have dropped off or mailed in has been sized and sorted. They got to “shop” for a half hour, and were showing off their fashion finds. They were especially pleased to find a nice, dressy outfit or two for “church clothes”.

As I walked back to my office, I saw groups of the younger children playing in Wisdom Circle. I noticed that a good-sized group of Dennis Home (1st-3rd grade girls) were seated at the picnic table. Three were on the bench, and four others were sitting on the table, hovering above them and combing their hair.

A fair number of kids have returned from summer with head lice. It’s so commonplace here that it isn’t embarrassing, but a back-to-school routine that we have to plan for. Their housemates were gently and carefully combing and pulling nits out of hair. It seemed to build a sense of care and community among the girls, and they were enjoying the great outdoors, talking and getting to know the new students.

The 1st day back at St. Joseph’s Indian School

The day our Lakota students return for the start of the new school year is among my favorite days of the whole year.

Siblings Anthony (5th grade) Samantha (4th grade) and Nevaeh (2nd grade) were the first students back on campus a little before 11:00 this morning. Anthony asked his houseparent Luke, “Are we the only ones here?”

Since the homes don’t officially open until noon, Luke replied, “Yes, but we’re ready for you and excited that you’re here.”

The rest came trickling in throughout the day. Central offices were abuzz with Family Service Counselors on the phone with families having trouble getting in – for instance, car trouble, no gas money or family events. Lower Brule Powwow is still going into the night, so we expect those students late or even possibly not until tomorrow.

We’ve heard of a few families changing their minds about having their children enroll here, so we go to the waiting lists and invite the students we have prioritized, and whom are happy to be told of the opening.

I made an early round of visits, and saw some of the families arriving with suitcases, tubs or plastic garbage bags with clothes for the new school year. All their clothes are inventoried when the kids arrive. Next stop is the health center for a checkup which includes an eye exam, check of any medications the students have been prescribed over the summer, checks of hair for head lice and notation of any cuts or bumps and bruises. The Health Center staff will be especially busy these first few days making sure all the health care needs are attended to.

Once settled in, I saw lots of game playing. Some tossed a baseball or shot baskets. The tetherball post was crowded. Other kids checked out inside play like building blocks or computer games. Older siblings got passes to other homes to check in on younger brothers and sisters.

As of right now we are bringing in 39 brand new students to our program. As I stopped in the homes, I started the ongoing task of learning names, and a little about their family or home community. Since I see students in the homes, classroom, playground and in church throughout the week, it really doesn’t take all that long to link a name to a face, and make them feel that much more welcome and accepted.

The first night is often the most difficult in terms of homesickness. While that is always sad when a child feels so lonely, our houseparents are prepared and try to build the comfort and trust that will help a youngster grow and flourish as the year goes on.