Congratulations to John Firth, a student currently enrolled at Marian High School,
for achieving the highest score possible in math on the June ACT exams for college.
The son of John and Ann Firth of Mishawaka, John is one of only three students in Indiana
to score a perfect 36 (South Bend Tribune, December 28, 2005, Community section). We are proud of you John!

TMA Graduates Excel at Local High School
In December of 2005, an area high school sent us a report of our students and how they are performing during their freshman year. Of the twelve students who are attending this high school, six are high honors (3.75 and above), three are honor roll (3.40-3.74), and three are honorable mention (3.00-3.39). We are very proud of our graduates!

Congratulations to Lindsay Poulin
TMA Graduation Address, June 2004

Good evening. My name is Lindsay Poulin. I am honored tonight to be sending off the Montessori class of 2004! I will actually be part of a similar ceremony tomorrow night as I graduate with my senior class from Marian High School. Tonight, though, I hope to give these soon-to-be high school freshmen a bit of insight from my own high school experience.

Entering Marian as a freshman, I was rather intimidated by the new surroundings and the traditional approach to learning. Even though my Montessori class of 14 was the largest graduating class the school had at the time, entering a class of 200 unfamiliar students was certainly a scary situation. Being snubbed by upperclassmen didn't help much either and just for the record, now that I know what being an upperclassman is like, I think to myself, How could I have been intimidated by them? Yet I was, being so new to the high school social hierarchy. Fortunately, though, halfway through my freshmen year I fell in with a wonderful group of friends, all with whom I still remain very close. In fact, six of my closest friends and my twin sister Taylor and I will all be freshmen at the University of Notre Dame next year! We are all very excited to continue our education together.

Even though I certainly was not a social butterfly when I entered Marian, I did feel confident of both my education and my work ethic.
I excelled academically all throughout high school, finding useful the skills I learned at Montessori, especially the skill of time management. The unique system of freedom here helped me learn how best to use my time, and it prepared me for the workload I earned as I went through high school. Most importantly, though, all throughout my four years at high school I've had so much pride in Montessori. I still take pride in explaining the Montessori system to people who have never heard of it.

And now, thankfully, I can confidently say that those scary freshmen days are over. I've grown so much during high school and have become more open and outgoing through my experiences. I learned how to play golf and was on the girls team for two years, earning a varsity letter my junior year and meeting many wonderful new friends. I joined the show choir my sophomore year and discovered that somehow I inherited a talent to sing. I was also a member of the National Honor Society for two years and won the service award for tallying the most tutoring hours. All these activities really brought me out of my shell and forced me to look at myself in a new light.

In my opinion, high school is merely about finding out who you are and discovering what you really enjoy doing. You meet many new and different people and learn new things about yourself and your capabilities that you might not have known. Its a time where you make friends and memories that you'll likely remember forever. High school is about growth and learning and expanding the way you think about yourself and the world. It is truly an amazing experience! On that note, Id like to congratulate the Montessori class of 2004 and wish them all the best on their journey to self-discovery!

Many Congratulations go out to all of our very successful alumni.
The following list includes alumni currently attending St. Joseph's High School
and Marian High School who've made the honor roll.

Kyle C. Deane Kristen K. McCampbell Breanna N. Fifer Lauren A. McCay Tiffany R. Fifer Drew G. Olson John S. Firth Lauren M. Perri Blair A. Fulnecky Alexandra M. Posar Peter R. Gray Kelly A. Potts

Catherine E. Guentert Lindsay R. Poulin Alan D. Huang Taylor L. Poulin Ilse I. Jaksic Susannah M. Rooney Brian J. Kantor Micah Shields Julie L. Kocsis Zachary R. Stangebye Meryl C. Makeilski Elizabeth R. Stanish Colin B. Van Es

In other alumni news, Adams High School Freshmen Claire Alvis and Elizabeth Fleming
are two of only five students to achieve perfect 4.0 GPAs during their first semester.

Sarah Bryan Remembers TMA
I really enjoyed all the closeness and openness that the school had.
I am currently working within a Montessori School where I live in Virginia
and the reason I chose to work here was based on my own school and the way Montessori influenced my life,
by being treated as an individual, not a number.
I am also planning a wedding for March 2005 with my fianc Andrew Shultz.
(Email: Sebtheone@aol.com.)

Graduated from TMA in 1995
St. Josephs High School 1999
Manchester College, North Manchester, IN May 2003
BS - Elementary Education degree with Kindergarten Endorsement
AA - Early Childhood Education degree

Ilse Jaksic Donates to Locks of Love
January 2004
Ilse Arroyo had 10" of her hair cut off on Saturday, January 24 (at JaRoss Salon)
to donate to Locks of Love, http://www.locksoflove.org. This organization makes wigs
for children with cancer. Her hair was so long that she still has shoulder length hair!



Congratulations to Andrew Checca
January 2004
Congratulations to TMA alumnus Andrew Checca (St. Josephs High School Senior)
who has been designated a St. Joe Scholar. He has achieved a GPA of 4.0 or better
for SEVEN consecutive semesters!

Congratulations to Swapna Musunuru
TMA Graduation Address, June 2003

Swapna Musunuru, valedictorian of Penn High School class of 2003, had a very busy and productive career at Penn High School. She was a member of the Tennis Team, Science Academic Super Bowl, and was Opinion Editor of the school newspaper. With that busy schedule of extracurricular activities, Swapna was able to maintain her focus and excel in her academics. Swapna is a 1999 graduate of The Montessori Academy and is now attending Northwestern University, planning to continue on to medical school.

"I didnt learn how to use the locker until 8th grade. I didnt have to change classrooms for every class and I went to school with individuals whom I had known since Kindergartenindividuals I knew so well that I even knew their pets name. Going from a school where my graduating class was 14 students to a high school with almost 3000 students was going to be a huge change for me. However, I found the transition to be fairly smooth, mostly due to the skills that I learned at Montessori. By the first week of high school, you will learn that effective time management is a must. Each of your 7 teachers will assign you some ridiculous assignment disregarding the fact that you have 6 other classes to worry about and Band and Soccer practice after school.

Fortunately for you, though, Montessori has prepared you well. Silent work time actually does serve a purpose. By giving you a huge block of time where you can choose what to work on, or not work on, Montessori hones your time management skills and lets you decide your fate. You can get your work done and enjoy recess, or you can choose to talk and then receive that notorious yellow slip of paper entitled "Past Due List" and then spend a beautiful sunny day inside doing math. Then, of course, theres the folder check. You can either sit there relaxed waiting for your teacher to pick up the green marker and give you the evaluation you know you deserve, or you can be like I was in Upper Elementary biting my nails and praying that it will be any marker but the red marker. Lets not forget the dreaded 6th week of the cycle in Junior High where you have all of those tests so close together. This is probably one of the best inventions that Montessori has had yet. True, tests wont always be clustered in one week in high school, but many times they are and allowing you to prepare yourself for situations such as this in 7th and 8th grade itself will make high school a lot easier.

So, by being submissive to these ruthless, but necessary tactics, you will have turned into an expert on time management and gained a heightened sense of focus. I know that my main motivation for turning in all my homework on time during high school was the traumatic memories of the folder check and past due lists.

Montessori also taught me to be self-reliant and independent. You were responsible for deciding what you will work on, when you will work on it, and be responsible for signing up for help when you needed it. By making these decisions, confidence is instilled in you and it is this confidence that will make high school all the more easy for you. My advice to this years graduating class is to not stress out. Your teachers, your parents, and current high school students have all probably scared you about the strictness and difficulty of high school. However, although high school is no cakewalk, it certainly isnt near impossible. Youre already one step ahead of the game. Youve already had to deal with far worse things like those obnoxious past due lists and the evil 6th week of the cycle. Montessori has prepared you well and as long as you keep the skills youve learned with you, you have nothing to fear in the future. Regardless, I wish you the best of luck anyway!"