SEE VIDEO called “1 in 1600- Micheal Root″ (click link to RustlerNews on Youtube)

SEE VIDEO called “1 in 1600- Scott Hill″ (click link to RustlerNews on Youtube)

*Its 11:11 what do you wish for?

-To have a wolf hybrid

*If you were a unicorn, what color would your horn be and why?

-Rainbow, cuz colors are awesome…even though I’m color blind…

*What was your dream last night?

-I was a dragon; it was in 3^rd person and 1^st person. Right on.

*What would you do if you turned into a garbage can?

-I would go around eating cars. Lol. Oh God.

SEE VIDEO called “Kyle Shalloup 1 in 1600″ (click link to RustlerNews on Youtube)

CMR musicians pose in front of the Space Needle. Photo courtesy of Amy Peterson.

by Emily Peterson

According to senior Kayloni Arps, touring Seattle was all her idea.

“At the beginning of the year I was begging Swaby to let us go there for tour,” Arps said. “During the 12-hour bus ride I started to regret that, but once we got there I remembered why I’d asked for this.”

Truthfully, music teachers Barbara Swaby, Russ Kellogg and Dennis Dell needed a bit more influence than Arps’s go ahead when making the decision for tour.

Edwin Powell of Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash. was the guest conductor for AA Band festival this winter. By the end of the festival, Powell had gained much respect and admiration from the students of Symphonic band, and they too requested a trip to the Washington coast for tour.

So, with a musically educational experience in mind, the three teachers decided to listen to the students’ requests and put their hard earned fruit money towards an expensive but rewarding three-day venture to the Puget Sound.

On day one, the twelve hour drive to Seattle was split up by performances in schools in St. Regis and Frenchtown as well as an overnight stay in Ellensburg, Wash.

While in Seattle, students wandered around and took in one of the biggest and wettest cities in the nation. However, they did more than gaze at the ocean and shop downtown.

On Friday, students reveled in the Experience Music Project, a museum based on the artists who got their start in the northwest, featuring such stars as Jimi Hendrix and Heart and viewed the World’s Fair relic the Space Needle. They also took a jaunt through the Science Fiction museum adjacent to the Experience Music Project, which featured everything from the cast of Star Trek’s costumes to hand blown glass sculptures created by a local artist. That afternoon, students participated in workshops with three of Pacific Lutheran’s professors and retired to their hotel in Tukwila, right across from the theme park Bullwinkle’s.

On Saturday, students got up bright and early to shop in the famous Pike Place Market and experience everything the waterfront of Seattle has to offer. That afternoon, they got dressed up to attend the Broadway show Dreamgirls in the Paramount Theater. Afterwards, the students loaded the bus for the all night drive back to Great Falls and reality.

 Auto tech students win in first ever engine build-off

Cory Zigan, Drew Storrusten, Sean Lyle, Shawn Kohut. Photo courtesy of Shawn Kohut.

by Meghan O’Dell

 

 The powerful hum of a 350 small block Chevy V-8 is the source of a new found cross-town rivalry in Great Falls, and the Rustlers are supercharged.

“It was a typical cross-town rivalry and our build team really wanted to win,” auto tech instructor Shawn Kohut said.

Last week, build teams from the Rustler and Bison auto tech programs met in Black Eagle to face off in a heated, cross-town engine building competition. The teams were provided with identical 350 Chevy V-8 engines and a small budget for modifications. The goal of this competition was to assemble the most efficient engine. This was judged on six categories, and the Rustlers took five.

“Joe Wilkins of the ASE (Automotive Service Excellence) program at the MSU-COT came up with the idea,” Kohut said. “One of the big reasons was to get the kids more experience with engine building. With the economy how it is not many can afford doing it themselves. This gives them the hands-on experience without the issue of affording it.”

Each team was allowed four team members, and seniors Sean Lyle and Trent Oliver, junior Cory Zigan and sophomore Drew Storrusten took the project to heart.

“The team worked nights, weekends and holidays in order to make the engine what it is. They spent a lot of time discussing goals and modifications, looking at what they had to work with. The engines were really pretty limited, completely stock. The cylinder heads were probably the worst castings Chevy ever put on a small block, and the team made great choices on what they wanted to use and modify to make the engine productive,” Kohut said.

“I put in four hours every day after school along with class time for over a week and a half. I probably put in over 16 hours,” Zigan said.

Team selection was put up to a majority vote in the auto-tech classes, according to Zigan, and although a few who were originally chosen were unable to participate, a great team was selected overall.

“Our team was very cooperative, more prepared and took more interest than Great Falls High,” Zigan said.

“The shops in each school go unnoticed. There are a lot of skilled kids in the program and those skills don’t get showcased. This is their chance to stand in the spotlight,” Kohut said.

With factory parts and no modifications, this 350 V-8 produced only 210 horsepower, but changes made by the build team, specifically the adoption of an after-market cam shaft allowing for more air flow, brought it up to 301 horse and 376 ft lbs. of tork. Although Great Falls High’s engine was above stock as well, the Rustler team hopes for more challenging competition in the future.

“It was a fun experience,” Zigan said. “I’m glad to know I was part of the team.”

Teachers from both schools would like to continue this competition next year, according to Kohut, and it has district support. Funding, however, poses an issue.

“If we can find the money we will continue it next year,” Kohut said. “I’m really proud of the team for the time and work they put in. They were very professional at the contest and in the end , all their hard work paid off.”

 

 

 

 

 

Kerry, Kurtis and Kelly Parsons working together to get some studying done. Photo by Alex Goodwill.

by Alex Goodwill

Some things that normal students can get away with are found out right away by Burns’ mother, but Burns also gets reminders that normal parents wouldn’t be able to give.

“Every year she has had to remind me about the blue federal form,” Burns said. “If I completely forget about some important paper, she usually reminds me about it.”

It hasn’t always been easy to be in the same building. “Before I was 18 she bit down a lot harder.” Burns added. “But when I turned 18 I became more responsible for my own actions.”

Having a parent who works and teaches at your school may seem like it could be a completely different experience, but it’s a lot more normal than people would think. CMR graduate Nick Spencer, son of teachers Karen and Tom Spencer, says it never affected him socially and he still lived a pretty normal life.

“I definitely got a lot of pressure, but in a positive way,” Spencer said. “My mom would warn me specifically about due dates, and she knew when I should have been working on other things.”

Spencer was involved at CMR before he had actually attended, so he was more comfortable starting out his high school career.

“I knew the teachers as people instead of just teachers,” Spencer said. “There was a face to put a name to.”

Junior Kurtis Parsons is the son of presumably the most feared person at CMR, Kerry Parsons. Parsons said he has heard frightening stories about his father, Kerry Parsons, since he was a child.

“I don’t think I fear him too much,” Parsons said. “My dad isn’t as evil as he may appear.”

As if being the son of an associate principal weren’t enough, Parsons’ mother, Kelly Parsons, also teaches here at CMR. “My mom is the one on my side most of the time,” Parsons said, “She is more of the best friend role while my dad is more of a disciplinarian.”

Parsons said having his parents at school everyday helps academically; it provides a sort of structure that normal students don’t get. “It’s kind of like big brother is watching,” Parsons said. “I have to be on my tip top every day.”

Associate Principal Kerry Parsons said he and his son rarely cross paths, if at all, during the school day. “Unless he needs lunch money I usually don’t see him,” Parsons said.

After driving cross-country from Great Falls to New York City in a small Ford Escort, 2000 CMR graduate Jenna Ciralli has at last been driven back to the Big Sky by her life’s passion.

 ”Everybody has an actor inside them, because everyone is human and has human emotions,” Ciralli said. For Ciralli acting first allowed her to express the emotions she had been bottling up, too shy to express her true self.

Ciralli attended school at CMR and graduated in 2000. Even then she was heavily active in her community, playing soccer, writing for the newspaper, participating in speech and debate and even being voted homecoming royalty.

In 2005 Ciralli left for New York City to follow her dreams but she later realized the best way to accomplish this was to bring the art form she came to love back to her hometown.

Because of her desire to bring theatre opportunities to Montana, Ciralli helped to found the Great Falls Summer Arts Intensive. The programs consists of two programs each being two weeks in length. The first program focuses on drama and the second focuses on dance, both programs end with a student performance.

Ciralli herself learned many of the skills she needed to be successful in theatre from Teacher Stacy Berquist. “Mr. B gave me a great platform to start with and then branch out into other things.”

And for anyone who thinks that participating in drama inevitably leads to acting, in Ciralli’s drama class in New York only one student on average from each class went on to become an actor due to the number of other opportunities out there. But whatever path a student takes they need to start somewhere.

For drama students wishing to enhance their acting the Great Falls Summer Arts Intensive is a perfect opportunity. “A lot of you as beginning actors simply want to memorize lines, but when you want to move to the next level you learn to get inside a character head,” drama teacher Berquist quipped.

Furthermore acting is obviously not just for drama students and dance certainly isn’t either. “It’s like a piece of pie, everybody provides a slice and everyone can enjoy the pie as a whole,” Ciralli said. And the camp really is open to anyone as long as they pay for admission.

All in all drama is about heart, and for anybody who wants to work out their deepest emotion the Great Falls Summer Arts Intensive is the perfect fit for them.

Former CMR student Angela Rupnow has nothing but praise when it comes to Great Falls Central Catholic High School.

“I like it because everyone’s really close here and there’s not as much drama,” the sophomore said.

Rupnow transferred to Central the beginning of fourth quarter, partially because of her own decision.

“It was a mixture of my parents and me. I wanted to come because it’s smaller and you get more one-on-one time with the teachers,” Rupnow said. “You don’t have to worry about a lot of different [issues]. I think you can get a better education. The sports are great, too.”

Assistant Principal Sarah Zook, a 1994 CMR graduate, is not just in charge of the discipline issues at Central; she also is a teacher of math and robotics. Her favorite part of Central is “the atmosphere and being able to keep the faith.”

In addition to her administrative duties and teaching responsibilities, she also finds the time to advise DECA, and she previously coached the Speech and Debate team.

The faith-based curriculum at Central, which consists of religion classes and Mass every Monday, is not the only difference Central students notice.

Central is on a block schedule consisting of four 90-minute classes a day. This is an added challenge for the teachers.

“The most challenging thing is timing the curriculum to make sure you get through all the content,” Zook said.

For gym teacher Susan Olson, the block schedule is a blessing.

“I love the hour and a half. When they first started it here, I thought it was too long. But it’s great. And the kids love it.”

Six of those kids this year are foreign exchange students from countries as close as Mexico and as far away as Austria.

Korean exchange student Hojung Lee, a sophomore, is a non-Catholic going to school at Central. However, her religion has not been an issue at Central.

“Since most people are Catholic, I think they’re more kind,” Lee said. “There’s not very many bad kids.”

She has enjoyed going to a small school, and found it easy to adjust to.

“Since [I’m] very new to the American schools, you can learn things faster because fewer people are around you,” she said.

A major competition Central is heavily involved in is Envirothon. Envirothon is a national and international competition in which there are five categories: range, soils, aquatics, forestry, and wildlife.

At competition, students have to test their skills by taking a test. The competitors have teammates, and must become experts on one of the five categories, while having basic knowledge of the other four.

Science teacher Amy Schmechel is the advisor for Envirothon.

“I like to see the kids get exposure to things they might not get exposed to in a traditional environment.”

In addition to being the Envirothon advisor, Schmechel also teaches the science classes at Central. One of her favorite things about teaching at Central is being able to use the “G-word” (God). She tells her students “you can lie to me, you can lie to your parents, you can lie to your friends, but you can’t lie to God.”

One major difference between public and private schools that Schmechel points out is “we’re a family here. And we know each other’s business.”

“At the end of the day, the person who you wanted to rip their heads off at the beginning of the day, you’ll go to the mat for at the end,” she said.

Leon Bernard, the Social Studies teacher at Central, said the kids and small class sizes are what makes Central unique. He previously taught at CMR for 10 years, and had been involved in public education for 32 years, so he realizes how different Central is.

“[The job at Central and the block schedule] was something different, something I had never done before. When you’re trying something new and different, you’re not sure it’s going to work because you want something comfortable. This is my 40th year of teaching, and 90-minute periods are good. The 90 minutes go by very fast.”

Even though Rupnow has only been attending Central for four weeks, she appreciates the differences between Central and public schools.

“It’s really like a big family here and I like the closeness between people.”