Guest blogger: Pam S

Three Native American girls working together as a team!
The two girls standing had to verbally guide their third teammate to get the lampshade on her head. Great job girls!

St Joseph’s Indian School pushed the 6th-8th graders to face their biggest fears!

On May 14th, students broke up into their class sections and participated in the first annual Fear Factor Challenge Day.

Classes started the day with a lot of spirit as they were dressed in their team colors and designed their class flags.

The contestants signed up for certain challenges but really had no clue on what they were signing up for!  Some of the challenges involved strength, speed, strategy, smarts and let’s not forget courage!  The gross food challenges made the day a hit!

Students proved that fear is not a factor for them.

 

Fear Factor at St. Joseph's Indian School.
The team that spelt out the most words, with the most letters won! Alphabet soup anyone?

Good camaraderie and collaboration

Houseparents are beginning the end of the year clean up in the homes. The Summerlee and William Home (both 4th-5th grade girls) are packing as much as they can into storage pods so that extensive remodeling can begin as soon as school is out.

Frank, our Residential Coordinator for the junior high homes gathered all his staff together and, as a way of saying thanks, cooked them all breakfast in the Speyer Home. There’s good camaraderie and collaboration between the homes for each particular age group.

This evening after supper in the Perky Home (4th-5th grade boys) one of the students got very upset and started into something of a temper tantrum that demanded the houseparents full attention. Since it was homework time I stayed and worked with the other boys in math, reading and spelling. Helping Anthony memorize a few new Lakota words for his Native American Studies class helped refresh some of my limited vocabulary.

Busy weekend for Fr. Steve

One of Chamberlain’s most beloved landmarks is the bridge that spans the Missouri River from Chamberlain to Oacoma. Yesterday afternoon, a group of local bridge builders came home to a hero’s welcome. After one full year of deployment in Afghanistan, the 200th Engineer Company of the National Guard based here in Chamberlain returned. Many of our students lined the streets to offer their appreciation as fire trucks with sirens blaring, motorcycles and police cars  escorted the troops  on a parade through town. Afterwards prayers and words of appreciation were offered at a program in the armory. Several of our staff had joyful reunions with family members we have prayed for since they’ve been gone. The unit built five bridges in their time overseas. Sadly, one member, SPC Jared Roe, lost his life in a construction accident, and he was remembered again with a time of silence.

Today at mass we honored many groups of people. Our Distinguished Alumni Award was presented to two men, Casmir LeBeau and Orville Webb, who were two of the original group of 47 students who started St. Joseph’s in 1927!

Orville’s son Bud came in his place, but 95 year old Casmir stood up to receive his award and talked about the old days with our students, eliciting both laughter and wonder. He has been one of our St. Joseph’s historians, gathering and preserving many memories from those early days. After serving in the Coast Guard in WWII, Casmir worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs until his retirement. What amazed me was the small staff the school began with – two priests, three dorm supervisors, two teachers and a maintenance man.

Fittingly on Mother’s Day we honored all the mothers, and women who work as houseparents with a flower and a prayer of blessing.

We honored our eighth graders who will graduate in two weeks. Their just-completed class banner for 2012 advises “We are strong as individuals, but as a class we are invincible.” There is great power in community and working together, and I hope they keep that attitude throughout life.

And we honored our four high school graduates, all of whom have been at St. Joseph’s for many years. We’ve seen D’Kera (12 years) Danisha and Nick (11 years) and Erin (8 years) grow into fine young adults with lots of gifts to offer the world that needs so much. They will walk up the aisle next Sunday at the Chamberlain High School to receive their diplomas. All plan to attend college next year.

After a tasty dinner prepared in our dining hall, we viewed a slide show and video message from each student that helped us remember their years here. Family and staff members who wanted to share a reflection or memory were invited to do so, and there were a lot of emotional moments as our students prepare to move on. But that is our goal, to get young people ready to leave us, and move on to what the future can hold for them.

St. Joseph’s Minute to Win it

Tonight the Rec Center hosted a “Minute to Win it” fundraising event to benefit our local Relay for Life Chapter. As a cancer survivor myself (2 years now!) I am grateful for the generous efforts of people in our community in solidarity with those battling the disease. Many of our campus homes baked treats to sell in the concession stand and folks made a free will offering as they came in the door. We had plenty of laughs as students, staff and people from the community competed in fun and silly games.

I arrived in the middle of the competition, and was immediately dragged into a game where I had to bounce a pencil on the eraser end and land it in a plastic drinking glass ahead of me. I astounded myself and the cheering crowd by landing all eight pencils into the containers in under a minute. (Now people know what I truly do in my office all day!) I didn’t fare so well later in trying to slide a cookie from my forehead into my mouth. But, everyone had lots of laughs for a great cause.

 

Only two weeks away

As I reflect back upon the 2011-2012 school year, it is difficult for me to believe the end of the school year is only two weeks away.  It does not seem as though we have already gone through 38 weeks of school!

I know many of the students are counting down the days until their summer vacation arrives however, as a classroom teacher, I get a little down around this time of year.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy my summer vacation just as much as the students, but I also miss the kids and wonder how they are all doing at their homes.  I sometimes come out to St. Joseph’s campus during the summer and think to myself,

“Wow, it sure is boring here without all the students running around and chatting.”

Eighth-grade graduation is upon us. Some of our students will be attending our high school program, while other students have made alternative plans for their future.  It is a time of excitement and pride, but also anxiety for both staff and students.  As staff, we have known some of these students since they were in first grade.  We have developed relationships, shared stories, shared laughter, had disagreements over rules or assignments, and sometimes even listened through our students’ tears.

Regardless of what our students have gone through in their lives, they can look back on their time at St. Joseph’s and realize they have grown, whether it be physically, emotionally, or simply that they are graduating from eighth grade.  They have had many accomplishments; they have formed many bonds, both with adults and their classmates that will continue no matter where they choose to go in their lives.  They should be proud of themselves, for they have made it.  It may have been difficult, but they have fulfilled the requirements for their first eight years of schooling.

On May 25, there will be a chapel full of people watching as each student is handed their diploma and shares their favorite memories of being a student at St. Joseph’s.  As I look forward to that day, I can’t help but smile.  For I, too, have a feeling of accomplishment.  I was given the wonderful opportunity of being a part of these students’ lives and I have helped them grow.  I can only hope I’ve done my best because more than anything these children deserve the absolute best, as they are our future.  The smiles on the graduates faces as they receive their diplomas is my motivation to continue on with my work here at St. Joseph’s, as I can see by both the piece of paper in their hands and the twinkles in their eyes that I have made a difference.

This difference would not be possible without the donations from our many generous benefactors.  I want to take the time to thank you for your generosity and kindness over the 2011-2012 school year.  Without you, none of this would be possible.

Sincerely,
Sarah

Pilgrimage to Rome

In Our Lady of the Sioux Chapel, we have a prominent stained glass window of Kateri Tekakwitha from the Mohawk and Algonquin tribes who lived near Auriesville, New York. On October 21, Blessed Kateri will become the first member of a North American tribe to be canonized and made an official saint in the Catholic Church. Bishop Paul Swain of Sioux Falls gave this exciting news to two Native American Deacons with St. Joseph’s connections. Deacon Bud Jetty (Spirit Lake tribe) is a member of our Board of Directors. Deacon Steve McLaughlin (Standing Rock Sioux) works with the SCJs on the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Indian Reservations ministering to the pastoral needs of the people there. Bishop Swain told the two excited men the diocese would sponsor them on a pilgrimage to Rome being organized by the Rapid City Diocese and the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions so they can participate in this landmark ceremony.

I also heard that Fr. Tom Westhoven, SCJ, plans to be there as well. For many years, Fr. Tom was St. Joseph’s Director of Development. Now retired, but still very active, he has been asked to chaperone a pilgrimage for the same exciting event being organized on the East Coast. His group will leave October 19. For anyone who might be interested, information on that trip is available by emailing bettybuteratravel@yahoo.com.

Circle of Courage: belonging, independence, mastery and generosity

A group of 14 college students and faculty members from Penn State New Kensington visited our area. With a grant from Rotary International, they gifted and installed new computers for the Cheyenne River Indian Outreach  (also known as the Sacred Heart Center) in Eagle Butte. They spent the day on St. Joseph’s Indian  School’s campus here learning about our programs and interacting with students. This evening all our high school students gathered in the dining hall, with our visitors interspersed throughout the tables to talk about college life and encourage our kids to consider pursuing higher education. One young woman spoke about what it was like to be the first in her family to attend college, which many here could identify with.

Our 1st – 4th graders engaged in a Battle of the Books via telephone conference with our two sister schools in Mississippi. Each class read five books and the students were quizzed on the contents. All the battles were close, with about 85% correct answers. Even those who were not perfect still came out ahead by the very fact they read the books, processed, remembered and advanced their critical thinking abilities.

We are working with a group called Child Trends to gauge our student achievements during their time with us at St. Joseph. Two researchers were on campus to hold focus groups with different age groups.  Several families have also been interviewed. We aim at instilling the values from the Circle of Courage – belonging, independence, mastery and generosity. We want to help students mature in life skills as well, which goes beyond the standardized testing we can measure in the classroom. Child Trends is helping us find ways to measure if we are able to actually help students grow in those areas of values. I’m very interested in reviewing their findings.

New recipes and new ideas

Houseparents work for a six day shift and then get three days off, which gives them personal time to recharge their batteries and keeps them fresh over the long haul. Every three days, a third of our houseparents start a break and a fresh group takes over. Each home has one set of six day houseparents, and two homes share a set of three-day houseparents. Changeover days like today, are one occasion when all of the houseparents are here at the same time, and have a chance to exchange information about the students in the homes. It’s also a day when we can do staff training once in a while.

As the school year winds down, today’s changeover featured a fun gathering – a healthy recipe exchange. About a dozen staff created platters of healthy snacks they’ve found the students in their homes enjoy. Everyone could sample them for themselves, and pick up recipes and new ideas. I enjoyed the time to wander and chat, as people start to make their end of the school year summer plans. When the votes were tabulated, Wanda from the Stevens Home (6th – 8th grade girls) was awarded Best Tasting, Daniel from the Matthias Home (6th – 8th grade girls) was proclaimed Most Creative and Theresa from Cyr Home (4th-5th grade boys) had the Most Student Involvement.

While stopping by the Akta Lakota Museum, I ran into Sally and Matt from Wisconsin. Their parish priest, Fr. Pat used to be our chaplain and recommended they visit. I had some time to show them around. Sally is the parish Director of Religious Education, so I made sure she got to hear from our Religious Education teacher. When we stopped in the Art room we got to see some beautiful creations. Bob Miller is our Artist in Residence for the week and he is working with our students to make art that glows fluorescently under black lights. Our students generally like art, but have gone at this work with a real passion. Some are using highlighters or paint, and the work definitely jumps out and make a favorable impression. After school, we stopped by the Afra Home (1st-3rd grade girls) where the students proudly showed our guests around the home before they hit the road with many memories.

Day trip for the William’s Home

It is hard to believe that the school year is coming to a close and our fifth graders will be moving on to new homes next year.

Some of our Native American girls standing at the zoo entrance.
The William’s Home had a great day trip!

The William Home has been busy. Last weekend we took a day trip to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to visit the Washington Pavillion and the Great Plains Zoo.  The weather tried not to cooperate at first but by the time we were ready to get to the zoo it had cleared up for us.

The Pavillion is a very interesting and educational place and the girls are able to do a lot of hands on activities dealing with science.  They really enjoyed getting into the tornado demonstrator where they were able to feel 78 mile per hour winds and their hair really told the true story.

The zoo is always a great experience and we spent a lot of time feeding the animals in the petting zoo area.  We have had a great year with this group of fourth and fifth graders. Though it is always sad to say goodbye to our fifth graders, we are just as excited for the girls that will be moving up next year.

Summer preparation at St. Joseph’s Indian School

When I finished morning mass I ran into 2nd grader, Dorian on his way back from the Health Center. Dorian had bruised his forehead and was coming back with an ice pack. He smiled about the frozen gel pack with a colorful picture of Garfield the Cat on one side. I remember the old days when nursing our owies meant ice cubes wrapped up in a wash cloth. Our nurses have created a child friendly area to help the youngsters through life’s bumps and bruises. We work with the local hospital to provide a doctor or physician’s assistant each morning for checkups and to make sure our students’ health needs are addressed. If kids are too sick to go to school, they stay in the health center with our two school nurses. After school, evenings and weekends, our houseparents take charge, just as you would do with your own kids at home. With spring in full bloom and outdoor activity increasing, the health center is less about colds and coughs this time of year than it is about healing cuts and scrapes from the playground.

A couple of college students that have worked here in the past summers showed up today to begin another round of summer work. With colleges already letting out, our graduations are not far away at all. Our facilities crew has an ambitious summer schedule that includes finishing two home renovations and beginning another two, in addition to all the ongoing maintenance, painting, landscaping and preventative work that keeps St. Joseph’s Indian School’s campus looking beautiful. The extra help is already hard at work.

As our 8th graders prepare for the transition to Chamberlain Public High School next year, two of the coaches from high school visited with our aspiring athletes to get to know them. Students had a chance to learn about expectations and practice schedules. Some are excited about the chance to play on a bigger stage, but most are nervous and wondering if they are up to the competition.

It will take dedication and lots of practice, but I know many of the kids do have it within them to succeed not just in sports, but in life.