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April 3, 2025Jessica Abshagen, a junior of Mount St. Mary Catholic High School, launched herself headfirst into the athletics department on the first day of her freshman year.
When enrolling in classes each year since, her top two priorities have been: “What would I need to take this year for graduation?” and “What sports can I get into?”
Abshagen landed in the halls of Mount St. Mary in August 2022. Her family has a faithful attendance history with the school. Abshgen’s eldest sister, Katie, and her parents attended The Mount. She also has another older sister, Kristina, who is currently wrapping up her senior year.
An avid lover of volleyball on and off the court, she joined the team her freshman year, hoping to quickly establish a group of friends she could float with to classes and spend time with outside of school.
“I played on the team, but it wasn’t quite the fit I needed,” she said.
She also reflected on her experience of high school friendships.
“I thought I would find all my friends on the volleyball team,” she said. “I found a few, but I mostly found friends from different grades through Kristina, my sister.”
Before sophomore year was in full swing, she decided to take a shot at running around a court while flailing a tennis racket.
“I found lots of friends in tennis as well,” she said. “I still love volleyball, but tennis feels like the sport I was made to play.”
This year, she is continuing her career in tennis, in addition to taking on strength and conditioning.
“I’m officially in the girls beginning weights class since it’s actually a prerequisite for strength and conditioning, but I push myself as if I were already in the more challenging class,” she said.
Outside of athletics, Abshegen spends the majority of her time fulfilling her primary responsibility: being a student. She enjoys the occasional art class and the freedom it provides her to articulate her thoughts and ideas into colors, shapes and sizes on a page.
When asked about her favorite class and teacher combination, she did nothing short of chuckle for several moments before responding with a wide smile.
“Oh, that’s so easy but also so hard,” she said. “My top two favorites are Ms. Arteaga and Mr. Carey.”
Nancy-Marie Arteaga Nancy-Marie Arteaga is an algebra teacher, while Jeremy Carey
teaches sophomore history.
“They both know so well how to engage with their students and
meet their learning needs,” she said. “Ms. Arteaga is so
dedicated that she stays after school almost
every day for one-on-one tutoring and she makes sure that every
student in a class understands the material before passing out a
test.
“I’ve never seen a teacher make a history class fun in the way
Mr. Carey does. We think his class is fun because he thinks
history is fun.”
With her senior year approaching quickly, Abshagen explained a newfound goal before she graduates from The Mount: obtaining as many college credits as possible so she can quickly obtain an associate’s degree.
Jeremy Carey “I want to be a firefighter eventually, but I also want to at least
have some college education, as that will open more doors for me in the future,”
she said. “Mount St. Mary has provided me with so many opportunities to grow
academically and athletically … I can’t even begin to explain how grateful I am for
the community we have here.”
Emma Bowman is a senior at Mount St. Mary Catholic High School.