What’s recently happened:
The Marquette Catholic High School (MQTT) community is prepared for the season of Lent. MQTT started off the season with an Ash Wednesday Mass.
Religion classes are teaching students the meaning behind Lent and the importance of giving up something for the Lent season.
While MQTT’s students are used to giving up something small like soda or candy, they are being taught to give up something that is preventing them from developing a meaningful and strong relationship with God.
What are you giving up for this season of Lent?
On March 4, MQTT’s cafeteria began a "no meat Friday" to promote abstaining for Lent. This abstinence will continue every Friday until the season concludes.
As the weather grows warmer, new service opportunities are beginning to open up for students. One of MQTT’s theology teachers, Amanda Boyd, is starting spring cleaning with her students. Her and her students will be doing service work by cleaning up around the building.
MQTT students have also encountered new opportunities such as the Michigan City Promise Scholarship, which officially expanded its eligibility to MQTT students on March 2. This will give MQTT seniors the opportunity to receive a $5,000 per year scholarship for college.
While MQTT seniors are preparing to depart for college and future opportunities by applying to scholarships, universities, and jobs, the juniors prepared for their next steps by taking the SAT. They took the SAT on March 3, and the rest of MQTT participated in a virtual learning day (VLD).
What’s happening:
MQTT’s staff and students are excited for the two-week-long spring break at the end of March going into the beginning of April.
Every year, MQTT offers students an opportunity to travel abroad during spring break. For this year’s break, students and staff will be going on a World War II historical trip. They will be visiting significant landmarks related to World War II and learning about the American connection in Europe during that time.
They will be starting their two-week journey in London by going on a guided tour, visiting the Imperial War museum and Winston Churchill's war rooms.
From London, they’ll be traveling by faerie to Normandy. There they will have walking tours as well as visiting the Normandy American Cemetery and D-Day beaches where the fighting took place.
They will then head to Paris where they will have another guided tour and see touristic landmarks. Students will break off into groups with a chaperone to have a chance to explore the City of Paris freely.
After Paris, MQTT will depart to Berlin where they will continue more guided tours as well as visit memorials of concentration camps.
This will give the students an opportunity to not only acquire more knowledge about World War II, but to see other cultures beside America, and possibly even put their second language they’ve been learning at MQTT to use.
Teacher spotlight:
Angie Williams has been the French teacher at MQTT for four years now. She previously taught in Cincinnati before she moved back to her hometown and began working at MQTT.
Williams became a language teacher because her language teacher in high school created a fun, positive environment for the students and got to know the students on a personal level. These are methods one can see Williams using in her own curriculum.
Williams knew teaching French was meant for her after her first time studying abroad.
“I believe promoting the learning of a second language is important," said Williams. "It makes you a more well-rounded person after you learn a new culture. It makes you appreciate your own culture by developing empathy for those who do not have the same luxuries we as Americans have. You can see that even on the news right now with Ukraine. We take a lot for granted, but by knowing what’s going on in the world around us we can appreciate everything a lot more."
Williams plans on joining the World War II trip during spring break. While she’s been to the majority of these places, except for Berlin, she’s excited to see it from a historical perspective.
On a more personal level, Williams is excited to be going abroad with her sister Tracy Wagner, MQTT’s academic advisor. Though they’ve both studied abroad, they haven’t done so with one another.
She’s also excited to see her upper-level French students take in all that France has to offer. She’s anxious to see how they react when they see the historical landmarks, such as the Eiffel Tower, or if they’ll be able to comprehend bits of conversation from passing native speakers.
“You want your students to be exposed and immersed in the language and they’ll be able to experience a level of that that you can’t provide in the classroom,” said Williams.
Williams has learned from her own personal experience that learning a second language gives one the confidence they need to study abroad.
Student spotlight:
Ally Henrich is a sophomore student at MQTT. She plans to go to college after she graduates and wants to major in criminology and forensic psychology. After college graduation, she plans to become a profiler.
“I’m interested in criminology because I like to analyze crimes and connect them to a person based on the way crime was committed. I guess it could be considering connecting a cause to its effect. I’ve always been pretty good at that,” Henrich said.
Henrich is in Williams' French II class and will also be going on the World War II spring trip. She decided to go on this trip because she enjoys traveling and the opportunities that come with it.
Her ever-growing interest in history also drew her attention to the trip. Henrich believes that it’s very important to learn about big historical events such as World War II because one should know the history of their country.
Henrich has visited a lot of places, but not Europe. When asked, Henrich stated that her favorite place she ever visited was either Las Vegas or Canada.
“I really like the carefree environment of Las Vegas, but I feel like the trip that I took to more was to Canada. It was more impactful to me. While I really liked the food and sites, the best part of the trip was actually a simple park I went to. It was right next to the beach and there was a playground. I was with my two brothers and my parents and we played around and acted childish. It was probably the happiest I’ve seen most of my family because we just kind of let go, and no one was worrying about anything,” said Henrich.
She’s excited to make more meaningful memories like the one she made in Canada. She can’t wait to travel and see other cultures as well as new places during such an exciting opportunity provided to MQTT students and staff.