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The Student News Site of Millard West High School

The Catalyst
The Student News Site of Millard West High School

The Catalyst
The Student News Site of Millard West High School

The Catalyst
During her Yearbook class, senior Kaitlin Reynolds was surprised by her advisor with the title of 2022 Nebraska Student Journalist of the Year. After spending three years working toward this moment, Reynolds reflects on her past and looks toward her bright future. “I am hoping that being the Nebraska Student Journalist of the Year will help me to get involved right away in college,” Reynolds said. “I think that by having it on my resume it will open doors for me to join publications in the future.”

A JOYous occasion

Quinn Burton, Staff Reporter
March 18, 2022
Education academy students work in class to prepare for the end of the semester. First and second-year students in the academy work in the ACP classroom to develop their lesson plan design and execution. “Both the first and second years do this internship but it looks different for each. Every week on Tuesday for nine weeks, you visit the ACP classroom during the academy. When you’re a first-year, you get paired with one buddy. You eventually write and perform a lesson plan working on something they may need help in. As a second-year, you alternate between the three ACP classes. You work with all the students instead of just one.”

Learning through experience

Kaden Roth, Online Editor-in-Chief
March 15, 2022
The library put up their blind date with a book display for the month of February. The table presented a creative opportunity to get more of the Millard West community engaged with reading.“It was very interesting that the first few days of the display being up, we had groups of students gather at the table all together,” teacher librarian Mindy Jorgensen said. “It was really nice to see numerous students interested at the same time, all talking about the books and giving each other advice on which one to pick. It also cleared out our table on the first afternoon. I think we had 14 books go out after school the first day we put out the display. All the students who stopped at the table seemed interested and very willing to give one of the books a try, even though it was sight unseen, with only a few details to go by to make their choice.”

Blind date with a book

Kaden Roth, Catalyst Online Editor-in-Chief
March 8, 2022
Comedy out of this world

Comedy out of this world

Riley Kramolisch, Staff Reporter
March 8, 2022
Health Science Academy students practice their emergency medical skills in class. The EMT class, taken by seniors, teaches them about everything from taking vital signs to delivering babies. “In my academy class to prepare, we have not only learned the textbook content material, but we spend half of the class working on skills like taking vital signs, transporting patients and setting up airway management,” senior Gwyneth Stocker said. “We also, multiple times a week, do scenarios where someone is a patient, and we are told what happened and their injuries so we can practice going through different assessments and working in a real situation.”

Riding along to a future in emergency medicine

Morgan Weir, Editor-in-Chief
March 4, 2022
The Justice and Diversity League put up a display that celebrates important women throughout our history. In hopes to educate the student body, the club worked hard to achieve this. “I also hope this inspires all females in our school to reach for their dreams, keep fighting, and not let others put them down,” sophomore and Justice and Diversity member Zianya Salgado said. “It would be great if more people acknowledged our display and maybe stopped to read the information to educate themselves about Women's history month, and for every history month this year.”

Sharing their stories

Brenna Batchelder, Arts & Entertainment Editor, Cartoonist
March 4, 2022
Projecting their voices, students from a dozen schools across the state spread awareness of the importance of theater. When advocating for theater, the students fight for every thespian in Nebraska to have equal funds to support their theater programs. “We met with our state senators to recognize theater as an important part of education, ” junior Isaiah Helenthal said. “ I contacted my senator and we asked to make an appointment to talk about theater, also how it affects us in hopes they recognize how impactful it can be, to students' lives, and the importance of theater education.”

Funding for the arts

Zianya Salgado, Staff Reporter
March 4, 2022
While Millard West was lacking in the beginning, they had the lead, beating out their rivals. The final score was 12475, almost double the second place school’s score. “It went amazingly well,” senior Micheal Boehm said. “It was a great success for the computer science program here at West.”

Capture the virtual flag

Alexis Bahensky, Opinions Editor
March 3, 2022
Millard West students and staff take on the Special Olympics POlar PLunge at Lake Zorinsky.

Freezing for a cause

Brooke Sliva, Social Media Manager
March 3, 2022
After leaving behind the stresses of exams and roleplays, the competitors put on a talent show during the score analysis period. On stage, junior Lillian McCrae and junior David Freiburger perform a karaoke routine in front of their peers. “After all the hard work we’ve done, we really needed a time where we could just have fun,” McCrae said. “We decided to do karaoke because it's something that would not only bring our DECA chapter together but also with other schools."

Leading in business

Quinn Burton, Staff Reporter
February 23, 2022
Wow Wordle

Wow Wordle

Riley Kramolisch, Staff Reporter
February 17, 2022
Throughout the month of February, Millard West, alongside the rest of the country, celebrates Black History Month. The Justice and Diversity League put up a display in front of the library on Feb. 1 that includes a timeline of Black historical figures, graphics, informational posters and interactive book QR codes for students to learn from. “Mostly it's informational and designed for anyone to stop by anytime and take a look,” social studies teacher and Justice and Diversity Leauge sponsor Bryant Bull said. “So it's not necessary for a person to read everything we included in one sitting. We hope people will stop by multiple times this month.”

Sharing a Black background

Kaitlin Reynolds, News Director
February 15, 2022
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