2015-2016 School Year

Love is shared at the Grandparent Mass

By Jenny Lohr

On October 26, Assumption students and grandparents gathered together in the gym for the annual Grandparent Mass.

Principal Martha Tedesco began the service welcoming all. She talked about the significance of the name of our grandparents, tying in her own past experiences as a child and with how her own children have grown up learning from their grandparents.

Grandparents are major role players in our life and that was highlighted in the mass on Sunday. Senior Sarah Schweitzer thanked her grandparents for the love they have shown her and students were invited to thank their grandparents for everything they have done for them.

The mass ended with a blessing on the grandparents and granddaughters, keeping the theme of love in the hearts of all.

The Danish are coming!

By Emily Darnell

The Danish are coming! The Danish are coming! Each year, several Danish students come to stay at Assumption for two weeks with a junior and her family. This year’s students are Anna Zein staying with Melissa Caldwell, Linea Andersen Vogel staying with Lexi Campisano, Andrea Knakkergaard Knub staying with Shauna Ferguson, Aysha Malik staying with Claire Hook, Sofie Jonsbo staying with Chrissy Kaininberg, Cecilie Bitsch staying with Isabelle Knepp, Laura Dam Nybroe Lund staying with Brittany Nordhoff, and Michala Nim-Melchiorsen staying with Katelyn Stearman. The girls talked with Lisa Wieland’s senior English IV class about the different cultural aspects of Denmark and America.

It is no secret that Assumption girls love food, and this fact has not escaped the notice of the exchange students. According to them, Americans eat a lot more sweet foods: candy, cake, chips, etc. Americans snack a lot more, whereas in Denmark, they eat two or three larger meals.

The classroom setting is also very different. In Danish classrooms, the students feel they have closer relationships with their teachers than in American classes. The girls address their teachers by their first names and disregard proper titles like Mister (Mr.) and Missus (Mrs.). Some of the exchange students didn’t know their teachers’ last names. They do more independent work, reading for homework then discussing the material the next day in class. But while the atmosphere seems more relaxed, they spend about four hours on homework and take larger tests instead of frequent small quizzes and average tests.

There are many major cultural differences between Denmark and America, inside and outside of school. While the culture is incredibly different, they are still teenage girls just like Assumption students. They care about what they wear, gossip, and love to laugh, just like Assumption girls.

Green Dot Awareness Week

By Jennifer Buckman

Green Dot Awareness Week is held from Oct. 27 to the 31 and is run by the Green Dot Club and Mary Byron Scholars. Green Dot is a club committed to promoting the idea that we, as bystanders, can play an important role in helping create a culture of non-violence among peers.
The week is run to publicize the principles that surround Green Dot and it encourages the members of the club and the school as a whole to make a difference, and use their powers as bystanders to fight against dating violence.
The week consists of morning announcements, daily trivia questions with prizes, posters and decorations around the school, homeroom videos, a movie during study blocks, and a collection for cellphones done by the Mary Byron Scholars.
The Mary Byron Scholars are working with Verizon HopeLine to collect no-longer used cellphones. After the collection of the phones during Green Dot Awareness Week, Verizon will take the phones and dispose of them in an environmentally friendly way and then the proceeds from the donated phones will provide cash grants to non-profit organizations that support domestic violence victims and survivors. The money will also provide funding for education and prevention programs against dating violence. The homeroom with the most cellphones by the end of the week will also receive family points and a box of donuts.
Since 2001, HopeLine has collected more than 10.8 million phones and awarded more than $21.4 million in cash grants. In addition, Verizon has distributed more than 180,000 phones with over 543 million minutes and 207 million text messages to domestic violence victims. In Kentucky alone, HopeLine provides free wireless phones for shelter victims and provides grants for free legal services, Green Dot training for teen leaders, and elder prevention training.
Domestic violence affects almost everyone in some way. One in four women, one in seven men, and more than 3 million children have been affected by some form of domestic violence. The Green Dot Club puts on this week to expose Assumption to information about the violence that exists in our world and they want to be able to give the community the tools to make a difference.
“We can all do regular, everyday things as bystanders that can make a big difference, just as long as we all do it,” said Abby Asfahl, Green Dot Club moderator and counselor, said.

Freshmen Advice 

By Olivia Polston

By now the freshmen have been roaming the halls for a couple of weeks. Hopefully, most of them have found their way around the school, and don’t get lost traveling from the CAC to the old building. Even more importantly, that when they are traveling from class to class, they are walking on the right side of the hallway. Yet I’m sure there’s still a few things they may not have figured out yet.

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: headbands were made to go on your head, not your forehead. I cannot stress this enough; they aren’t sweat bands or little hippie flower bands, they are head bands. So once again, head not forehead.

While you are mostly walking on the right side of the hallway, which is good, using the right door goes along with that. Don’t use the left door, you will hit someone or make traffic in the hallway even more.

Also while walking down the hallway during activity period, be on the look-out for Bob Brown, science teacher. Most days he’s just chilling in the hallway with a big pad of detention slips, checking everyone and making sure they’re “legal.” So always make sure your skirt is long enough, you have socks on, and you have a lanyard, or else he will find you and give you the privilege of sitting with Paula Edwards at seven the next morning.

Aside from those few basic Assumption rules, one of the most important things to remember is to always be open to new things, don’t judge people before you know them, and try your hardest to always have a positive attitude. Trust me, if you follow through with these things, it’ll be pretty hard for your time here at Assumption to be bad.

Suicide Prevention Week hits Assumption 

By Abbey Sullivan

The week of Sept. 8 starts a nationwide suicide prevention week dedicated to promoting and recognizing suicide awareness. National Suicide Prevention Day is Wednesday, Sept. 10, but will be celebrated throughout the whole week of Sept. 8 to 12 at Assumption. This is the first year Assumption will recognize this week as a school.

There are popular activities that people across the map participate in during the week such as wearing yellow and writing “love” on their wrists in honor of those who have self-harmed or attempted suicide. Assumption will partake in these activities, as well as having speakers come in to the senior religion classes. The idea was thought up by Jennifer Buckman, senior, for her action plan in her Catholic Social Teaching class last year. Buckman says she is so passionate about the cause because she has had experience with friends and knows what it feels like.

A video will be shown during homeroom on Monday, Sept. 8, to kick off the week.