Falcon Staff Newsletter
March 10, 2014
MME Testing Update
First I would like to thank everyone involved in our 2014 MME Testing. Your professionalism helped provide a quality testing environment for our students. Make-Up testing will be held March 18th-20th. This will only impact a handful of students. I look forward to our student results showing continued forward progress.
2015-2015 Course Guide
1500 Club
The 1500 Club is reserved for students who have excelled with both their cumulative grade point average and ACT scores. In order to be included a student must earn 1500 out of 2000 possible points. A formula is used to determine a student’s academic point score that equally weights a student’s cumulative GPA and their best ACT score. Student’s in the 1500 club consistently earn excellent grades and have demonstrated high proficiency on a nationally normed standardized test.
Class of 2014 Honorees
Allison Fuller
Anthony Jaksa
Killian Devriendt
Lance Teeter
Annie Campbell
Carly Severt
Brittany Clark
Kimberly Dunckel
Savannah Coolman
Daniel Land
Callie Nelson
Zachery Delong
"Programs don't change people, relationships do." Bill Milliken
Focused Seminar Period
Counting Up
Last month I came to the realization that at 39 I had just crossed the half way point in average male U.S. life expectancy. I have been alive for over 14,000 days. Yet with all those days, I continue to have this overpowering feeling that I still have so much more to accomplish. My prior brushes with death have made me fully aware of the fragility of life; however I continue to be amazed at how fast the days seem to have flown by. I do not want to speak for everyone, but my first 39 years have slipped past so swiftly it is hard to comprehend.
I know that “live this day as if it were your last” is an old tired cliché that is often offered with little thought. It is important to understand we have all been dying since the day we were born. Now, I don’t mean this in a morbid way. My goal here is to advocate against counting the days down. Instead, we should count them up. Marvel at how many we have been permitted to spend on this planet. The number of hours in a day simply represents the amount of time potentially available for use. Be fully conscious of the present moment since it is the only moment you totally control.
I would like to provide my slightly modified list of questions first offered by Robert D. Smith titled, To Seize the Essence of Today. This list is intended to be addressed every morning that we are blessed with another day. These questions help create intensity and focus for how we can attack each day we are provided.
1. Whose life am I going to influence today?
2. What three things am I most appreciative for today?
3. What memories am I going to create today?
4. What challenge am I going to conquer today?
5. What value am I going to produce today?
6. Where can I create empowerment for others and myself today?
7. What life-changing decision(s) am I going to make today?
8. What question am I not asking yet today?
James Dean prophetically said, “Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live as if you’ll die today”. It is not about living each day as if it will be your last. It is about living each day presented to us to the fullest. We are all faced with our own daily struggles or obstacles that may seem insurmountable. The only question is whether we are willing to prepare ourselves daily in order to confront our issues. As I came to realize last month, my days are not half over. I had just reached the midway point and still have a lot of time to accomplish the things that I am intended to complete. My hope is that you will benefit from preparing to attack everyday with intensity and focus. No matter your age we are all counting up. Time should not be wasted counting down what has already past.