Greetings! It’s a pleasure to bring you our second monthly parent news-

letter. You’ll notice that we’ve switched to a horizontal format to better fit on a computer screen and eliminate the need to scroll. We want this newsletter to meet your needs so please give us feedback as we go along.

We’ve been having a lot of fun with your kids this first quarter of the school year. We’ve camped in Glacier Park, soaked in the boiling river, scaled Mount Ellis, mucked it up at Mud Bowl, and played our hearts out at the Fall Classic Tournament. Even better, we’ve studied and learned together. Best of all, we’ve worshiped together. Thank you for giving your child the opportunity to study and grow at a Christian school.

Since you have a student attending MEA you have probably met a few of our foreign students. Our international stu-dent program has become an important

aspect of the school both in terms of pro-viding a rich diversity as well as an impor-tant revenue stream. In that vein, Kevin Emmerson and I just made trip to Brazil. No, we were not there to take in Carnival or lie on the beach. We went to promote our international program at several Seventh-day Adventist academies. What an awesome time we had meeting great kids and interacting with our schools in another hemisphere. I anticipate that we’ll have several of these students join-ing us for the coming semester and a steady stream continuing after that. It’s an awesome thing for our Montana kids to be able to attend a Montana school and yet rub shoulders with students from all over the world.

While growing the foreign student program we are acutely aware that Mount Ellis Academy is first and foremost a Montana Conference school that is here to serve our Montana students. You have

a big role to play in making sure we grow the Montana segment of our student body in equal proportion. There is no bet-ter marketer for a school than a satisfied parent. If you are satisfied with the educa-tion and environment MEA has provided for your child, tell your friends. You can make our school even better through your positive PR. If there is something holding you back from tooting our horn, please talk to us and help us improve our service. You can make a big difference to your child’s school. Help us spread the word.

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MON // 10.24.11 Week of Prayer

SAT // 11.5.11 Community Families

Music Tour

THU // 11.10.11 Senior Play

FRI // 11.11.11 Senior Recognition

SAT // 11.12.11 Senior play

Kohl’s Grand Opening Many of you may remember the Facebook frenzy that swept through MEA last year. This September our school had the opportunity to show Kohl’s a small portion of our gratitude by participating in the ribbon cutting ceremony of the new Kohl’s department store in Bozeman. With the promise of a warm breakfast and no first period classes the dorm students loaded the coach bus at 6:15am to be there in time for the 7am opening. While there, three students were interviewed by a local TV network that featured a story about MEA in the 6pm news. Jiyao Li, enjoying his third year as a foreign exchange student, shares his reflection on the impact this miracle had on his life.

I It was a cold Wednesday morning, September 28th, and I was sitting in my English teacher’s car watching the sunrise clouds. We were heading

to the new Kohl’s store in town and I began thinking of the great miracle that happened last year.

I remembered when we came out of the bus from Senior Survival trip all dirty and smelly, and Mr. Emmerson, MEA’s Director of Development and Alumni Relations, rushed to us, hugged us, and updated us about the contest. “Hey you guys. Welcome back,” he said. “I know you are tired and I hate to ask you to do this, but if any of you have time this afternoon, can you go to Montana State University (MSU) later? We have a booth at their registration and we need your help getting students to vote.”

I went home, took a shower, rushed to MSU and began handing out the advertisements to people, trying to get them to vote for our school.

One week later, when everybody was sitting in the living room, watch-ing the last minute votes coming in like rain pouring down, I couldn’t believe what was happening. For weeks we had been working hard and praying and now God finally answered our prayers and confirmed our faith. We cheered, celebrated, and praised.

In this school’s history, there were up times and there were down times. But no matter how hard the times could be, we have never lost our hope, faith, and unity. That’s what has kept us together as a student body and church family.

This year Joni has been chosen as our student blogger. As ASB president, a junior and a 3rd generation Mount Ellis Academy student as a result she gives readers a glimpse of MEA in a new fresh way.

Check out the blog @ www.mountellisacademy.blogspot.com

Join us on YouTube@ www.youtube.com/mountellisacademyTo view exclusive activities and happenings at MEA.

Introducing...Joni Harris

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Yellowstone Adventure

Mount Ellis Climb

The tradition of climbing Mount Ellis continues! Many of you may

remember the grueling trek up to the meadow or the even more exhausting sprint to the top. This year for the first time (that we know of) a girl took the golden spot. A huge pat on the back to Sarah Ojeda for reaching the top in 1 hour and 2 minutes! Ten minutes later

Justin Brown came in and newcomer Gilbert Lutes came in 3rd followed by Tayler Holbrook, Joseph Anderson and Randy Jimenez. Afterwards the rest of the girls came through: Joni Harris, Laura Hoyt, Emily Allen, then Hannah Curtis and Deanna Origas tied for 5th. Great job everyone!

Mud Bowl

Fall Classic 2011Volleyball placed 7th over all Soccer played 3rd in the challengers bracket.

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Girls’ RetreatJessica Perry, hailing from Collegedale, TN, is a close college friend of ESL teacher and mentor program organizer, Ingrid Stuart. Jessica’s passion for Christ and young people was very apparent throughout the weekend as she shared about her tragic early life and transformation by God. Freshman Meranie Vercio relates the impact Jessica’s story had on her life.

Girls’ Retreat was an awakening experience for me. There is something

about spending a quiet weekend in a comfy little ski lodge with other girls and our mentors that is refreshing. Getting away from our hectic day-to-day life more commonly known as ‘reality’ is so important. Too often we catch ourselves

going through the motions of life instead of stepping back and looking at things outside our own little world. Being able to do that as I listened to Jessica Perry share parts of her life with us was incredible. Discovering how blessed I am has changed my attitude toward life.

Class Scramble License plate! Passport! Shoelaces...just a few of our favorite things to call out during the class relay races. It was a night full of fun! Laura Hoyt enlightens us with her perspective on the evenings activities.

Any teen who has ever participated

in the annual Class Scramble knows that the first time you go,

you don’t know WHAT to expect. But the second time, you do - and you come better prepared for it! This was the case for me, as last year was my first year of attending Mount Ellis Academy. I came as a Ju-nior. Coincidentally our class ended up winning that Class Scramble, and the previous one before it. It seems we were on a roll.

The excitement was definitely in the air. This year was different in that each class had a color, and we were to dress accordingly. It was cool seeing four big groups, each dressed in one color. The Freshmen wore green, the Sophomores wore blue, the Juniors wore red, and the Seniors white. The class of 2013 had a cool touch: each person had a red tie on, whether it went with their outfit or not. But

dressing crazy is still the biggest theme of Class Scramble, so it worked out.

The big game of the night was the Pizza Box Relay Race. Each participant at one point had to take boxes from the previous runner, run the length of the gym, grab one more box, and run back. Jolly good fun, eh!

At the end of the night the points were tal-lied, and the Seniors came out victorious! The tradition is that the winning class gets taken out for ice cream at Perkins. But since our class defies tradition, we bought our own ice cream ahead of time, and treated the entire school to ice cream in the cafe. Ice cream, after all, tastes better shared.

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