Category: Youth

On
Kevin Wondrash

Sacred Hearts School begins iPad initiative

SUN PRAIRIE — Seventh and eighth grade students at Sacred Hearts School returned this year a little more enthusiastic than usual.

Two years of research and planning by Principal Kim Frederick and the IT and junior high staff culminated in the students starting off their year with individual iPads.

Loaded with more than 70 apps that have been carefully chosen by their teachers to support the curriculum and enhance the learning atmosphere, the new iPad Airs also enable students to communicate with their teachers through iCal, iLife, and iTunes U.

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Kevin Wondrash

Teens attend Steubenville youth conference

ST. PAUL, Minn. — More then 20 high school students from St. Clement Parish in Lancaster recently attended the Steubenville North Youth Conference in St. Paul, Minn.

They were accompanied by students from Queen of All Saints Parish in Fennimore and St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Mt. Horeb at the conference that had a grand total of 2,000 high schoolers from all over the Midwest.

Nine adults from Lancaster went along as chaperones as well as Fr. John Sasse, pastor of St. Clement, and Fr. Greg Ihm, vocations director for the Diocese of Madison.

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Kevin Wondrash

‘Fire On the Hill’ for teens at Holy Hill

HUBERTUS — On Saturday, Oct. 4, come out for the 14th annual “Fire On the Hill!” Find out why it’s the single largest youth event in the state.

Last year, 1,800 youth poured onto the grounds of the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians, popularly known as “Holy Hill.”

This beautiful fall event includes bonfire, speakers, sports, and sacraments.

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Nick Zimmerman, Graciela Tejeda, and Olivia Smithmier-Bohn, For the Catholic Herald

Tips for a better school year

Students from around the diocese took time out of their summer vacations to do something very unusual: come to school.

That’s right. For three weeks from Monday through Thursday, they spent their mornings at St. Ambrose Academy in Madison going to class, taking notes, doing homework, and preparing for a test.

Why would they do such a thing? The reason is simple: they want to be better students. They know that the school year is starting soon, and they know that Christ calls them to be the best students they can be.

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Kevin Wondrash, Catholic Herald Staff

Dressing for success — and modesty

For parents and students everywhere, “back to school” means shopping and lots of it, mostly for supplies and clothes. In both of those areas, there can be debates and battles between parents and children on what each thinks the student should have.

With fashions and trends always changing, buying “school clothes” becomes a yearly challenge.

Schools in the Diocese of Madison try every year to create a safe and comfortable learning environment while dealing with new fashion trends.

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Kevin Wondrash, Catholic Herald Staff

Edgewood’s coach combines faith with football

MADISON — For Edgewood High School football coach Al Minnaert, the start of his 23rd season is another opportunity to go beyond teaching Xs and Os, it’s a chance to teach young men about relationships.

“You’ll remember wins and losses, close games, and some of those things, but the real part that matters and that they get the most out of are the relationships they establish with their classmates, their teammates, and their coaches, and if it’s done the right way, even perhaps opposing players.”

Minnaert, like coach Bob Ladoucuer in the movie When the Games Stands Tall, is both football coach and religion teacher at Edgewood — teaching half of the freshman class each year.

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Kevin Wondrash

Dodgeville students place second in Odyssey world finals

DODGEVILLE — Amazing, unbelievable, impressive, and remarkable are all adjectives that describe the feelings from the students when they heard their team called for second place at the Odyssey of the Mind world finals.

St. Joseph School sent two teams to world competition recently in Ames, Iowa, at Iowa State University. There they competed against teams from all over the world.

Many teams had gone through multiple eliminations at sectional, regional, and divisional competitions, in order to get to world competition, so the competition was tough.

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Kevin Wondrash

Love Begins Here 2014 sessions

MADISON — Love Begins Here (LBH), an apostolate of the Catholic Diocese of Madison’s Office of Evangelization and Catechesis, works to provide the youth with an opportunity to encounter Jesus Christ in a life changing way through weeklong, local mission trips where they live in Catholic community and continue His work on earth.

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