St. Joseph's Indian School

Preparing students for their sacred day

Richard and his Lakota (Sioux) students. — Richard reading a book to the kids!

In a little over two weeks, on Sunday April 15, we will be having 21 students receiving the sacraments of Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation.

It is an exciting time in their lives and a somewhat sad time for me as this will be the last time I prepare students for this sacred day. I will be leaving St. Joseph’s Indian School at the end of the school term.

I have been here for almost ten years and in those years have served in various roles, including teacher and houseparent. I have tried to bring passion, dignity and laughter to each different job I have done, but the time has come to bring in new blood and new ideas.

I have always believed in going out when you are on top and not clinging to a job because it is safe and secure. We see that often in sports, where athletes hold on for dear life to their career, even when they can no longer be an asset to the team. I am proud of the work I have accomplished here at St. Joseph’s and walk away with my head held high and, most importantly, with the love and respect of our students.

I will be moving to sunny Palm Springs, California where an earthquake lasts only thirty seconds, as opposed the three day blizzards we have here!

As I let the Spirit guide me, please keep me in your thoughts and prayers. I must say, I have enjoyed doing this blog and am glad so many of you have responded so positively to what I have written.

God Bless you all – Richard

On the road again

We met with the architect and contractors on the Akta Lakota Museum project today. They were planning to start pouring floors, but we got a heavy thunderstorm and the area is a muddy mess so they decided to wait for a drier day. They’re perhaps even a little ahead of schedule anyway, due to an unusually warm and dry spell since mid February. The rain was actually very appreciated, as area farmers and ranchers have worried about the low water table, and have been praying for moisture. Next week, crews plan to start the outside brick and masonry work, after which the project will really start coming to life.

In a short while, four staff and two students will start our journey for a donor appreciation luncheon to Miami, Florida to meet with and thank our donors in that part of the country. You’ll get a few guest blogs until I get back, and I’m sure I’ll have a story or two to tell of the adventure.

For those of you who support St. Joseph Indian School from a distance, I hope we are able to one day meet at a luncheon or one of our powwows.

We really appreciate your help and dedication.

Girls in Engineering, Math and Science

Our 8^th grade girls attended a Girls in Engineering, Math and Science (GEMS) workshop this past Saturday. It was held at South Dakota State University. The purpose of the workshop was to generate female interest in the fields traditionally populated by males. The girls listened to female students who chose different fields of engineering and what they enjoyed about their chosen major. All the girls participated in a series of activities exploring engineering, math and science.

They built and programmed robots, investigated the science of forensics with a “Who done it?” scenario – complete with fingerprinting – and built load-bearing bridges out of toothpicks. Each participant received a backpack from SDSU loaded with lots of stuff, a notebook, calculator, logo cup, pens and a flashlight, to name a few.

This was an opportunity that really opened a number of unexpected future options for them.

School and life

I went over to school for a while today. When I visit, I find that first grade is always one of my favorite stops. The day was winding down and the students had some self-structured time for learning activities. I helped Paite work on a jigsaw puzzle for a while. Once I helped him sort out the straight edges for the frame, he started to make speedy progress. Gavin asked if I wanted to help him build a tower with colorful plastic connectors. It fell over a few times on us, but we built it high and had fun. Other students simply read some favorite books, which is always a hopeful sign when kids learn to enjoy reading.

Mostly, I worked on materials for our Board of Directors meeting which will take place in two weeks. Budgeting gets complicated and takes not only good explanations, but careful checking. We have a great accounting staff that keeps the numbers balanced and true, which helps tremendously.

I stopped by Carola Home (high school boys) and shared a burger with the crew as they came in from sports practices and time with the tutor. The high school homes seldom have everyone together for dinner; they eat in shifts because of all the coming and going. But sitting with four or five guys at a time gave me a better chance to visit, asking about school and life.

Matter, adaptations and model volcanoes

As we enter the 4^th quarter of the 2011-2012 school year, I reflect upon the objectives we have covered in my 6^th-8^th grade Science classes. My students have done an outstanding job in the classroom and the Science lab; however we still have many more topics to cover in our last nine weeks. There will be many more activities completed this quarter to conclude the school year.

My 6^th graders will wrap-up their units on matter and energy and move into motion. This should be a great unit involving lots of fun activities. I am in need of stop watches for many of the lab activities as the students will be studying their own motion. Hopefully, the weather cooperates and we can do most of these assignments outdoors.

The 7^th grade continues with their exploration of Life Science, delving into natural selection and adaptations. These lessons contain some exciting group work. In one of the labs we will be demonstrating the importance of the opposable thumb by having the students tape their thumbs to their index fingers and attempting to perform daily tasks such as cutting a circle and writing their name. The students will also be required to complete the tasks with their thumbs so we can have a good comparison of differences. I will try to remember to take some pictures and post them on my next blog.

Eighth graders have started to look forward to their 8^th grade graduation ceremony. There are many great activities and opportunities during these last few weeks of school, not to mention we must continue our journey in the classroom. The 8^th graders continue on with their study of Earth Science, delving into volcanoes and earthquakes. They are already looking forward to creating their own model volcanoes. It should be fun and messy, but more importantly interesting and informative.

Thanks once again for all you do as donors to St. Joseph’s Indian School. Your generosity is so very important to maintain the day to day status quo of this wonderful educational and residential facility. You are greatly appreciated.

Thank you – Sarah

St. Joseph’s student receives prominent scholarship

Our student homes are separated according to grades. Grades 1 – 3 live in the same home, and when our Native American students move up to 4^th grade, they will move to a new home, with added privileges and responsibilities. Since the school year ends in a couple of months, our staff is beginning to prepare students for the transition. The children will spend more time visiting the new homes, and getting to know those houseparents.

Today a survey was sent out to the primary grades houseparents. Some of the questions included:

Do you have a preference as to where this year’s 3rd graders should be placed? (Please list names and reasons why.)
Do you feel any children who are 3rd graders this year, should be in separate homes next year? (yes, sometimes our students don’t get along with each other!)
Are there any 3^rd graders who will have relatives in the 4^th-5^th grade homes? Does the student want to be with his/her relative?
Are there any special needs of the students moving up?

There are a lot of dynamics at play – but our staff tries to place children in homes that respond to their developmental and relational needs.

Erin received the Davis-Bahcall Scholarship — Congratulations Erin!

Erin, one of our seniors in high school, was notified this morning she was one of six students from South Dakota to receive a Davis-Bahcall Scholarship. Erin gets to spend a month studying particle physics at some of the great laboratories in the world. Her first week will be at Sanford Labs in Lead, South Dakota. The next two weeks Erin will visit Fermilab just outside Chicago, and finish in northern Italy where CERN’s Gran Sasso lab is located.

Allan, the Chamberlain High School principal remarked that this is one of the two highest honors a high school student can earn in the science field. Way to go Erin!

Faculty vs. 8th grade

St. Joseph's Indian School had a "staff vs 8th graders" basketball game! — Nice drive JR!

The highlight of my day was our annual faculty versus the 8^th grade basketball game. We played a double-header after school. First the girls against our female staff, then the boys against the men. Everyone saw lots of playing time, and had good fun. The staff prevailed in two close games, but I think we had some extra help from the referees and scorekeepers.

While it’s hard to run with 14 year olds, we have some tall and athletic houseparents and coaches who carried the day for us. I’m a Hoosier and love my basketball, but my 52-year-old body doesn’t always cooperate in making the moves I used to make. A couple of times, I jumped to get a ball I’d normally grasp, but my vertical leap is higher in my memory than in today’s reality. Since it’s less than 3 weeks since I got out of the hospital, I limited my playing time to a few minutes here and there to give others a breather. But it definitely felt great to be on the court with students again.

The simple things in life

Today at church we had our final Rite of Christian Initiation ceremony for the students preparing for baptism, which we will celebrate April 15. Participants and their families are making preparations and getting excited.

Nice weather over the weekend means that we’re getting started with activities often pushed off until April and May. Once our American Indian students came back from spring break, all the bikes came out of winter hibernation, and the campus was full of pedal pushers. Some of the homes, like Ambrose (1^st-3^rdgrade boys) rode off in a supervised bike brigade into town to the local park. The soccer nets are coming out and rubber softball bases are spread over the football field.

Many of our teenage readers were excited that Chamberlain’s movie theater got the movie “The Hunger Games” for opening weekend. I myself read and enjoyed the series, though it is very heavy and thought-provoking. Friday night at the early show I sat next to a large group of our junior high homes, and when we exited the theater, ran into many high school students waiting for the late showing. One fringe benefit of living in a small town is they don’t charge big city movie prices. The movie ticket, soda and box of popcorn ran me a grand total of $7.25, and the movie theater actually gives our students a further discount.

Two couples graced my Saturday. While I was eating lunch, Pink and Edwina from the parish I used to serve in Promise, South Dakota, were in the area to visit their daughter and dropped by to surprise me with a visit. As a brand new priest, they were a widow and widower in their mid 50’s, with grown kids about my age. When they decided to get married, they came to me for preparation, and I felt humbled by their years of marital experience compared to my just-out-of seminary-knowledge about the sacrament. Still, I just facilitated their talking about many issues, and we had a simple but lovely ceremony when all was ready.

The second couple are college seniors, preparing for their marriage this summer. They bring a whole different set of questions, hopes and dreams for their marriage. I don’t do as much of that kind of preparation and ministry as when I was a full-time parish priest, but do enjoy getting to know couples and celebrating with them those special, unforgettable times in their life.

As I walked by the playground and toward the office, some students on the playground waved me down and called me over. The Dennis Home (1^st -3^rd grade girls) and Raphael Home (1^st– 3^rd grade boys) were having a picnic at American Creek park that night and invited me to join them. How can you turn down food, fun and an invite from an 8-year-old?

I couldn’t stay for the whole time, but we tossed footballs around, pushed swings, walked on the balancing logs and after a satisfying meal, got out marshmallows and roasted them on sticks. I haven’t done that for some time. Kids remind me of how fun and meaningful the simple things in life can be.

Goal completed: we walked 10,000 laps!

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!

Fulfillment and success at St. Joseph’s Indian School

The past few days have held a series of meetings. Before spring break, we collected letters of intent from our child services staff and know which employees will be moving on at the end of the school year. Now we have to begin figuring out how to replace them.

For some supervisory jobs, there are good candidates here who will want to move up and take on more responsibility. Some positions we will have to advertise for. We generally have need of qualified houseparents, and since we are opening another high school home next year that will be one definite need. Personnel requires more than just willing people, but must be about matching them to a position they can find fulfillment and success in.

We’re also in the ongoing process of budgets and planning for next year. The development office is particularly busy with the mail that comes in this time of year, and are also thinking ahead to the future. Our computer people have been incredibly busy preparing to switch over to a new software system that will allow us more personalization in meeting our donors’ requests and needs. We’re also exploring some corporate partnerships that will give us new possibilities of funding our programs.

On the student front, I met with high school students Errol and Kyran to prepare them for the presentations they will give to our donors next month at donor luncheons in Maine and New Hampshire. I’ve spent very little time in those states and am as excited about seeing the area and meeting folks as the boys are.

I resumed my culinary tour of the homes with suppers in Summerlee (4^th-5^th grade girls) and Stevens ( 6^th – 8^th grade girls). The students are excited that softball season begins next week, and the 3^rd – 6^th can take part in a week-long gymnastics camp if they wish – it’s not required.

The 7^th graders enjoyed their cultural field trip to the Middle Border Museum in Mitchell, South Dakota, which also houses the Oscar Howe art collection. It is on the campus of Dakota Wesleyan University, and they toured the school and started to consider if their future might include college or vocational tech training.