Moments at the Mount

The Mount moves from Howdy to … senioritis?

Now that the Mount St. Mary Catholic High School community, at the time of writing, has completed the first three weeks of the 2024-25 school year, it’s refreshing to not see as much chaos around campus compared to the first few days. With the absence of chaos, a greater atmosphere has emerged: Rocket Pride!

Howdy Week 2024

My Freshman Year … circa 2021: “Get your Howdy Week shirts!” echoed through the halls for weeks on end. 

An MSM tradition, “Howdy Week” is unofficially a rallying cry for school spirit. Sponsored by MSM’s chapter of National Honor Society, it ran from Aug. 26 to 30 this year. Lucy Rosenhamer, Class of 2026, a member of NHS and co-organizer of Howdy Week, shared some background.

“Howdy Week is at the beginning of the year and helps bring our community together. New students, having already been welcomed into the Rocket family, get to experience a broader sense of the community. One standout of the week is always the cowboy-inspired dress up days. It’s a big welcome party. The week is great for us to hang out as a community and foster Rocket Pride.” -- Lucy Rosenhamer’26

Staff Spotlight

 Betty Ray spends her MSM days crying “Hear ye! Hear ye!” to freshmen and seniors.(Of   course, the proclamation is about how to write in MLA format and tips for annotating.)

 When asked what her favorite thing about the Mount is, she happily noted that, “It is   challenging to choose just one thing I like about the Mount because this is a unique place.” In classic MSM style, she added, “The spirit of mercy pervades everything in what we do here,” honoring the Sisters of Mercy who founded Mount St. Mary in 1903. “There is such a sweet congeniality among my colleagues and our interactions with each other.”

Seemingly pointless questions are sometimes the best, so prompted with, “If you were stranded on a deserted island, what three things would you want to have on your person?” Ray didn’t need to think very hard. She said she’d love to have her Bible, a rosary and a photo of her family. She concluded with, “All would sustain me until my rescue by Mount St. Mary staff!”

Senioritis Attack!

The Class of 2025 has wasted no time in enjoying their spot at the top of the high school food chain. With designing for the seniors’ class hoodie underway and access to off-campus lunch, senioritis has spread quickly. 

After a campus-wide power outage on Aug. 26, Emma Bivens, Addison Schweinberg and Mirayah-Lynn McBride decided to pursue an art project that will serve as a memory of their last year at MSM. Their goal was to paint a pair of “senior jeans” for themselves. 

Addison originally planned to paint her jeans alone, but her dad pointed out, “The cool thing about painting jeans with your friends is that they look like the same story in your own personal font.” This prompted Addison to call up her friends to join in the endeavor. After many runs to Target and Hobby Lobby, they finished their masterpieces after about four hours of painting. 


L to R: Mirayah-Lynn McBride ‘25, Addison Schweinberg ‘25 and Emma Bivens ‘25. Photo Rebecca Lane ‘90.