Academics: Challenge and Strive
The true reason so many young men desire to attend Mount Michael is because of the college preparatory curriculum. The rigorous schooling your son will receive in his four years at Mount Michael will overly prepare him for life in college. Majority of students who have attended Mount Michael took college level courses while in high school which allowed them to skip lower level courses during college. In this article, I will outline what academics means to Mount Michael, specific classes offered, and my experience learning during my time at Mount Michael.
Mount Michael would not be where it is today without such a strong focus on its curriculum. Before you are admitted into Mount Michael, your son will have to pass admission tests, provide grades from middle school, and go through multiple interviews. Mount Michael only admits the students that they feel live up to the standard and will succeed in their intense academic environment. From the start of your sons freshman year to the last class of his senior year, he will constantly be intellectually stimulated to the highest possible degree. It is in this nature that provides the Mount Michael community with maintaining one of the best academics throughout Catholic schools in the entire Midwest.
The tradition and standard of having such a seasoned level of academics stems deeper than just from the time that Mount Michael has operated. Benedictines have been educating the highest class of society since the 500s. During the Medieval Ages, Benedictine monasteries provided education to the top class of society which would primarily be royalty or those that had the necessary means. The education that your child will be receiving is of the same element that those children had received so many hundreds of years ago.
The core of the academics at Mount Michael has everything to do with the quality of teachers that the school employs. Majority of the teachers have their masters degree or are currently studying to attain their masters. These teachers have been teaching at Mount Michael for decades and understand how to correctly educate your sons in the specific curriculum. The part that I appreciate about the teachers at Mount Michael, is that some of them attended Mount Michael as young men. It is special to have your sons educator be an alumni so that he can truly understand what it means to be a Mount Michael man, and to truly understand the material. Below is a quote from current school counselor Christy Cernkovich about how the academics at Mount Michael has affected her and her family.
From her professional perspective: “As a counselor I have seen the growth of kids that come into our school. I hear from parents how they are amazed by how their son now takes his studying seriously, how he wants to do his best in his classes. Smart kids will be smart no matter where they go to school. The kids that are in the middle of the group are the ones that we see the most growth in. These are the kids who embrace the opportunity that is placed in front of them. They don't necessarily compete with each other, but the playing field is more even because they are in a space where being intelligent is the norm, it is what the students expect of each other. It is a culture that gives them permission to try to be the best they can.”
From her parent perspective: “the boarding aspect of MM was part of our decision to send our boys to MM but not the reason for sending them. The boarding school component came after we saw and understood the academic standards of the school. Historically, young men don't mature as quickly as young ladies. MM, being all boys, challenging academics, small size, and boarding all contribute to our sons success. The expectations at MM are higher. I would say that it is not necessarily the boarding aspect but that it is a school that strives to foster a community that is intellectually driven and instills personal responsibility. The boarding forces kids to become more self-reliant and start to learn how to be an advocate for themselves. When my boys went to college, they were ready to live away because they had already done it, they knew how to manage their time and how to take care of their business.”
You will find that the classes offered at Mount Michael are slightly different from those at other public and private schools in Omaha. During your sons freshman year, he will take the core classes of Biology, Theology, English, World History, Physical Education, Algebra I/Geometry, Spanish/French, and a Freshman Seminar. This is specific to Mount Michael because many of the other high schools around Omaha make their freshman students take a beginner level science course before biology. Majority of the students feel that biology is one of the tougher courses during freshman year, and gives them a good idea to what their next four years at Mount Michael will be like. The students do not just have their core classes, they are able to take some electives also during their freshman year. These include: Pottery, Band, Guitar Lessons, Speech, Art, Introduction to Theater, Robotics, Chorus, and Architecture/Engineering. These elective courses will only meet a couple times a week, but will still challenge your sons workload.
Sophomore year has many of the same courses, but as higher level such as Algebra II, English II, Theology and Spanish/French II. However, during the sophomore year, your son will be taking new courses which include: Civics, Economics, and Computer Science. Just as freshman year, these courses will continue to make your son work harder to learn. The time of studying each week increases and majority of the students work through study hall to complete the course work. The electives offered during sophomore year are also higher levels of the ones offered during freshman year. Those include: Pottery II, Advanced Speech, and Advanced Art. The new electives available to sophomore are Journalism, Honors Academic Decathlon, History of Rock and Roll, Music Appreciation, Residential Engineering, and Strength and Conditioning. Mount Michael believes that your son will be able to handle the upper level electives as he works through his assigned coursework during sophomore year.
The junior and senior years of Mount Michael truly will make your son strive for greatness because this is when college has become to be a constant pressure. Starting junior year, AP classes become available which will help your sons resume as he prepares for applying for college. During junior year, Physics is the new science course and your son will chose whether to take American History or AP American History. He will continue with Theology, English, and a Math course. However, College Planning will be an integral course in your sons junior year at Mount Michael. College Planning will allow your son to research which college might be best for him and start to schedule visits to these colleges. By the time your son enters his junior year, the list of electives becomes large in size and great in favor. Some of the most popular electives during junior year include Creative Writing, Philosophy/AP, AP Chemistry, and Strength and Conditioning. However, the newest additions to this list of electives include Holocaust studies, Film studies, Classical studies, and AP Human Geography. Most of these electives are classes that most freshman in college will be taking while your son will be completing them in high school. Mount Michael strives to offer courses that are unique in their curriculum and provide an all encompassing understanding to your sons academic development.
Senior year, your sons last year as a Mount Michael student, will be the last step of his academic career before he enters the doors of college. During senior year, your son will have unlimited possibilities when it comes to choosing his classes for the year. He can choose with Theology course he takes in both semester which include either Vocations or World Religions in one semester and Church History or Catholic Social Teaching in the next. The new science classes for seniors include Forensic Science, Anatomy/Physiology, and Applied Biology and Chemistry. They continue with the AP classes of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. There is a wide variety of English courses available to seniors; some include Horror and the Supernatural, Nebraska Literature, Dystopian Literature, and British Literature. The Social Studies requirements for seniors are those that include Holocaust and Classical studies, Philosophy/AP, AP Human Geography, and AP US Government and Politics. Some of the electives that are only offered to seniors are Personal Finance, AP Computer Science Principles, and the top level courses of Spanish and French.
Lastly, my experience learning at Mount Michael prepared me for college in so many different ways. I spent my entire life at private Catholic schools that focused on teaching the most challenging curriculum, but Mount Michael is a different beast. When I entered into my freshman year, I was immediately hit with a wave of coursework that I had never seen before. My mandatory study halls were filled with studying, reading, and asking my classmates for help. The course that I struggled with the most was Biology with Mr. Crnkovich. I had never learned or tasted what that material was about before I sat in my seat at the beginning of freshman year. There were many afternoons where I would be in Mr. Crnkovichs classroom asking for help and going through the material again. That also shows the willingness of the teachers at Mount Michael to make sure their students grasp hold of the information. I thankfully made it through freshman year by studying hard and relying on the help of my fellow brothers going through the same experience.
Sophomore year came easier to me because I knew the teachers and understood how to be a successful student. I took a special interest in Theology and Chemistry, but struggled with Algebra II. As always, I went in during the teachers office hours or before/after school to get extra help as needed.
Junior year is the year that challenged me the most during my time at Mount Michael. The classes were most difficult especially dealing with Physics and American History. Physics was the hardest class I had taken during my time at high school, and majority of my classmates felt the same. I had never learned physics before, so it was a very new experience and one I am glad I am over with. There were many late nights trying to figure out the material that we were learning in physics and trying our best to pass the midterms. By the grace of God, I passed Physics. American History with Mr. Roshone was also unlike any class I had ever taken in my schooling career. He recited all the material from memory and wrote all his notes on the whiteboard. All the other teachers usually have power points that allow you to follow along. However, Mr. Roshone taught the whole class orally. This was an interesting challenge because I had to be extra vigilant in my note taking and paying attention in class.
The unfortunate part about my junior year is that during my spring semester, COVID shut everything down and in person classes were suspended. I had to move out of the dorms and continue my studies at home for the rest of that semester. This was a mentally taxing time for me because I could not see my classmates and missed being in the dorms. After two months of online learning, I made it through my junior year and senior year was staring at me with the upmost seriousness.
Senior year was finally here and I could not be more excited for all the advantages that were available to me. I was invested in the classes that I was taking especially Nebraska History and Sociology. I was taking an extra serious approach to my studies because I was preparing for my college applications as was everyone else. Preparing for college was very easy and stress free which can all be accredited to the wonderful advisors at Mount Michael. They were able to talk whenever needed and give advice accordingly. I had a special relationship with the counseling department and they celebrated my victories which made me that more motivated for life after high school. I got accepted into the Universities of Wyoming, Omaha, Nebraska, and Montana. After each acceptance letter came in, the counseling department was there for me and supporting me through every step of the process. They made it easy for me to schedule visits to these colleges and were able to get me the time off school.
During the fall of my senior year, I made the trip up to the University of Montana with my mother marking the first college visit of my year. I absolutely fell in love with the campus, city, and overall school. I immediately decided to attend the University of Montana and that marked the end of my college visits for the year. Many of my classmates went on lots of college visits to universities all across the country. There was a certain buzz in the air of my senior class that felt like growth and independence. Everyone was asking about college and future plans, and the excitement continued to build as the months flew by.
Before I knew it, graduation was on the horizon and I was slowly drawing closer. I could not believe my time at Mount Michael was coming to an end. I knew I would miss my teachers and the lesson they taught me throughout my four years at Mount Michael. I knew I would miss the times in class where we all struggled together but also when we celebrated each others successes as we passed our classes. Yet, through all of this, I knew Mount Michael had prepared me perfectly to be successful in college. The growth that sprouted in me from my freshman year to senior year was unreal. I was a different man from when I started school and from when I ended. I hope and pray that your son will get to experience the same lessons that I learned when I was a student at Mount Michael.
