Congratulations to our Seventh Class students who qualified for the Duke TIP talent search this year by having achieved a qualifying score at or above the 95th percentile on a grade-level test. Seventeen students were invited to take the ACT or SAT college entrance test alongside current high school students. The results are in—four students achieved Grand (national) recognition and seven received State recognition. They have been invited to take part in recognition ceremonies at Duke University (Grand recognition) and  Drury University (State recognition). We are very proud of all participating students and applaud their hard work and determination. Well done!

Read more about Duke TIP

A recent Book Night for First and Second Class students and their parents was a big hit! All participants had read the Newberry Award winner The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. The evening was filled with excitement as a “gorilla” met the children as they arrived and posed for a photo. The event began with a video clip of the real gorilla that inspired the story, followed by small group discussions with Second and Third Class teachers leading the questions. Mrs. McGrane then read an excerpt from the book that led into the children and the parents putting together a giant floor puzzle. The guests enjoyed banana splits in honor of Ivan. Lastly, the children painted a water color to take home because Ivan loved to paint!

Donations from the evening are going to sponsor a gorilla at the St. Louis Zoo. Thanks to Mrs. Metcalf, Mrs. Brakensiek, Mrs. Glenn, Mrs. Grojean, Mr. Laracuente, Mrs. McGrane, Ms. Tyree, and all participants for a fun evening filled with laughter and friendship! 

Author/illustrator Dan Killeen is coming to the Academy of the Sacred Heart on Wednesday, May 18. He will be reading his latest book, Derrick and the Dinosaurs, and talking about the process of writing/drawing. Read more about each of his books and pre-order signed copies via this order form (10% of all proceeds will be donated back to ASH). To get a sneak peek of his work and free coloring pages, please visit HappyFunBooks.com.

Last fall, 7th grade students in 18 states began writing poetry for a contest sponsored by the 7th Grade Poetry Foundation, a group dedicated to transforming young lives through poetry. The 104 participating schools each selected one winning poem and those student poets were celebrated yesterday afternoon at the Missouri History Museum. Congratulations to Cassie Smith, the Academy’s winning poet.

Although not 100% complete, here is the major project that Middle School students worked on together in Mr. Taylor’s Global Studies class since last year.

MINECRAFT PROJECT of ACADEMY GROUNDS

All Fifth through Eighth Class students took turns, adding his or her own creativity to build the school, block by block. Next year the project will be updated to represent new changes to the school and will also include what the school looked like in the 1950s, 1900s, 1850s and 1818 when Philippine arrived.

Did you know that our St. Philippine Duchesne Shrine Gift Shop (besides its inventory of Mater, Philippine and Sophie medals) also carries medals of St. John Francis Regis?  These medals, struck in 2014, depict the image of the painting in the entrance to Regis Hall.  St. Philippine Duchesne had a deep devotion to this French Jesuit saint and promised that his image would be honored in her schools in America.  The medals are available in sterling silver ($55) or silver plate ($6).

Fifteen of our Seventh and Eighth Class students will fan out across the country this summer to take part in Network of Sacred Heart Schools’ summer service projects.

• Caroline will live for a week on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. She and 23 other Network of Sacred Heart students will serve the Native American Indians from the Lakota Tribe. They will be building decks, skirting trailer homes and doing minor repair work as well as learning about Native American culture and customs.
• “Helping Hungry Hearts” will take Kenneth to Michigan. He will volunteer at Gleaner’s Food Bank in Detroit or Pontiac and Forgotten Harvest in Oak Park. He and other students from Sacred Heart schools will serve dinner at the Capuchin Soup Kitchen and visit Crossroads of Michigan in Detroit to prepare bag lunches for children.

Congratulations to Paul McClain, Sixth Class, who received a perfect score in the second of three meets for this year’s WordMasters Challenge—a national vocabulary competition involving nearly 150,000 students annually.

Competing in the difficult Blue Division of the WordMasters Challenge, Paul earned a perfect score of 20 in the recent meet. Nationally, only 11 sixth graders achieved a perfect score. Paul and his classmates were coached by Mrs. Laura Craig, Fifth and Sixth Class Literature and Writing teacher.