Scotus Central Catholic http://issuu.com/scotusjournalism Columbus, Nebraska 68601

Volume 18 • Issue IV • December 19, 2017

Rock Bottom

Speaker Sean Forrest tells stories of his faith at a school assembly on November 29th. Forrest also spoke with students after the assembly and gave a second talk that evening at Saint Isidore’s Church.

Angie Rusher/Journalism Advisor

Forrest shares testimony of faith the most was when he said, ‘if the devil can’t make you sin, he’ll make you busy,’” Carstens said. “I’ve been re-flecting on that a lot in a way that if I don’t have time, I’ll try and make time, because when you die, it won’t matter how much time you spent on school and extracurricular activities.”

Godparent program coordinator Lynn Heinrich and Steubenville coordinator Sarah Doerneman were the organizers in bringing Forrest to Columbus.

“[It] started with an email to see if he even comes to small towns to do talks; he was available in November and willing to come! Lynn checked the school calendar and emailed his agent, Vicky, back and forth until we nailed

From Buddhism to Hinduism to Atheism, Sean Forrest found truth in the Catholic Faith and now trav-els and shares his story.

On Wednesday, Novem-ber 29th, the Steubenville speaker spoke to Scotus teens about how Catholicism changed his life.

Scotus art teacher, Clyde Ericson, commented, “Sean Forrest seems to have a way of capturing his listener’s at-tention with his humor and by talking about things that con-cern all of us with regard to our faith. He confronted some questions that some believers might be afraid to ask.”

Forrest gave a talk in the afternoon at a Scotus assem-bly, and then a second talk that evening for other commu-nity members and the godpar-ents program at Saint Isidore’s Church. For some students, their questions were answered during these two talks.

Freshman Cassie Kouma said, “When Sean talked at Scotus, he spoke about dif-ferent religions. He said that the Catholic faith is the most fulfilling, but most religions bring people closer to God in some way. This stuck out to me because I had been wondering if only people with a certain faith can get to heaven.”

Twenty to thirty students stayed after school for an hour and talked with Forrest in the health classroom. One of these students was senior Emily Carstens.

“What stuck out to me

down a date. Advertising, getting another school to have him the night before to split costs, and making sure we had the equipment he needed, were all things that happened from August to November,” Doerneman explained. “We utilized Youth Ministry funds that come from all three Catholic parishes and were planning to ask for free will donations the night of the event. We didn’t want to sell tickets because we really wanted parents to see it as a ‘gift’ to them and didn’t want anyone not able to come due to cost.”

Junior Abe Perault would like to see more speakers brought in.

“They bring a lot of new information to the table for us. Plus, one of these speakers

could totally turn someone’s life around. A speaker like Sean could even start some-one’s life of becoming a saint,” Perault said.

Heinrich and Doerneman would like to fulfill this re-quest but must consider their budget.

“Powerful talks, along with the Holy Spirit, can be game changers in peo-ple’s faith. They can change hearts,” Doerneman conclud-ed. “Lynn and I will continue to work hard on doing events that can inspire and ignite the Catholic community in Columbus, in particular our teens. We have such a great Catholic community, we need to continue to build up our community on solid ground which is Jesus...not things of sand.”

By Caitlin SteinerStaff Reporter

Mock Trial makes Scotus history

Scotus walls are lined with large photos of state championship sports’ teams and shiny gold trophies. An additional trophy was added early this month for the histo-ry-making senior mock trial’s runner-up performance. Sco-tus sent two teams to the district finals; the sophomore team and the senior team. The seniors then advanced to the state mock trial tournament and placed 2nd.

Senior attorney Alaina Wallick said, “It was a shock. Up until that point, we knew we would be thrilled to make top five, and hearing that we were advancing to the finals with a 3-0 record was beyond exciting to hear. I could not have been more proud of us.”

The senior team won their first round at state on De-cember 4th, and they advanced to the finals. The two-day tournament of state competi-tors continued on to the 5th of December for the senior team. Although the team advanced to finals, the most intense part for senior Faith Przymus was

not in the final mock trial. “I think the most intense

point in the competition for us at state was our third round before finals. We all felt as if we potentially won our last two rounds, so we knew that if we competed to the best of our ability during our third round, that we could make it to the finals, and we did! But, it was very nerve-rack-ing,” Przymus said. “After losing consecutively in the

Photo Courtesy Jenna SalrenoSeniors Matthew Bichlmeier, Brock Kracman, Jenna Salerno, Caitlin Steiner, Trey Dallman, Judge John Gerrard, Coach Kelly Koranda, Coach Tonia Soukup, Alaina Wallick, Faith Przymus, Natalie Brutty, and Coach Bre Anderson pose with their second place trophy after the state tournament. They competed in the finals against Creighton Prep.

Kimball, felt differently about the climax of the competi-tions.

“I think hearing names called for finals was the most intense moment,” Steiner said. “After our first three rounds, we knew they had all been close, but we weren’t sure if we won.”

Wallick was an attorney for the team since freshman year.

district finals [to the class of 2017 seniors], our team’s goal was to finally make it to state. Every member of our team worked extremely hard to achieve this goal. Once we got to state, we knew that making it to state wasn’t enough anymore, we knew we wanted to compete to the best of our abilities.”

Senior Caitlin Stein-er, who played the role of the plaintiff, Jessie

What is a dance without the fancy dresses and un-comfortable shoes? Scotus students who attended Sadie Hawkins were able to dis-cover what an informal dance was like.

This year, student council hosted the Sadie Hawkins dance for the first time in five years. The dance was held on Saturday, December 9th from 8 to 11 p.m.

“We used to have it on a Friday night after the bas-ketball game, and then that Saturday there would either be speech or wrestling or ACT tests,” student council sponsor Joan Lahm explained. “So, we decided this year we would go ahead and move it to a Saturday because there weren’t any home basketball games where nothing was going on the next morning.”

The Sadie Hawkins dance proved to be much different than the ones Sco-tus normally hosts. It was much more casual than the dances that Scotus students have grown accustomed to. Students were allowed to ‘come as they are.’ This means that the student body got to ditch the itchy dresses and hot suits that normally go along with school dances. Instead, students were able to wear anything from jeans to athletic shorts, as long as they followed dress down day rules.

“It’s different because we are also raising money for charity,” Lahm added. “Two dollars or two food items, and the food items will go to Simon House.”

Another change was that Sadie Hawkins was held in the Memorial Hall gymnasi-um rather than the cafeteria. There was also no DJ present. Instead, student council mem-bers used the speakers in the gym to play music off of their phones. Most of the music that was played came from requests from the student body. Many Scotus students were surprised at the casual atmosphere of the dance and enjoyed the more ‘relaxed’ feel.

“I like the dressing up aspect of formal dances, but casual dress is so much more comfortable to dance in,” se-nior Emily Carstens admitted.

Despite the laid-back tone, Sadie Hawkins still had the typical conga lines, dance circles, and awkward slow dances of Homecoming and Winter Formal. Students were also able to make great memories with their peers and teachers just like any other dance.

“I was really surprised when Mr. Ericson started

Sadie Hawkins swings back to

ScotusBy Alaina Wallick

Staff Reporter

See MOCK, Page 2

See SADIE, Page 2

Merry Christmas from the Scotus Journalism Staff!

By Grace OdbertStaff Reporter