Awards & Highlights

2009 - 2010 SCHOOL YEAR

O U T S T A N D I N G !!

The HONORS CONVOCATION assembly was held June 2nd to recognize scholarship, leadership, service, and character over the past 2009 - 2010 school year. It was a memorable moment for all students, and most of all, SENIORS, to applaud accomplishments from science, service, athletics, language and beyond. CLICK on the pdf links below to see all of the extraordinary young women of Mercy.

• Grades 9 - 11 Awards (pdf)
• Senior Class of 2009 Awards and Scholarships (pdf)
• Sr. Emily George Award ~ Christine Redmond
• Principal's Leadership Award ~ Katelyn Constantakis
• Garn Griffin Award ~ Megan Lawrence and Kara Weber
• Valedictorian ~ Lauren Richards
• Salutatorian ~ Lisa Carlson
• Teacher of the Year ~ Mrs. Kathy Sill

CONGRATS Class of 2010!
AMAZING! The Class of 2010 earned more than $8 million in college scholarships! See the list of all the grand graduates (pdf).

NEWSPRINT RECOGNITION

This year Newsprint won the prestigious SPARTAN AWARD, the highest award for journalistic excellence. Newsprint also won 28 individual awards from the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association, otherwise known as (MIPA) (pdf). 3 girls nominated by our department for The Detroit News/CATCH 2010 Outstanding High School Graduate program were selected as runner-ups. Though they did not claim first place, they were part of a select group of graduates chosen for recognition from among candidates throughout southeast Michigan. Lisa Carlson was named runner-up in the Against All Odds category. Regina Gilmour was named runner-up in the English category. Colleen Oberc was named runner-up in the Journalism category.  Each of these girls was featured in The Detroit News and received a certificate of achievement to recognize her outstanding high school performance.

LORE YEARBOOK RECOGNITION

The 2010 Lore "The Road Ahead" was selected to Walsworth Publishing Company's Gallery of Excellence. This distinction is given to less than 5% of the more than 5,000 high school yearbooks Walsworth publishes. Yearbooks selected to the gallery are distinguished by their comprehensive coverage, innovative design and superior copy and photographs.   Yearbook: Congratulation to the following girls who were selected for leadership positions for the 2011 Lore:   Editor-in-chief: Meghan Ronayne Academic Editor: Katrina Chornij Business Manager: Olivia Cholewa People Editor: Alyssa Fritz Sports Editor: Madeline Asta Staff Manager: Jessica Knapp Student Life Editor: Alyssa Muller.

Phenomenal Finalists

CONGRATULATIONS to these 12 super senior students who were finalists for the ultimate recognition of Valedictorian and Salutatorian: Kira Boneff; Lisa Carlson; Hayley Drozdowski; Michelle Ho (not pictured); Erin Kirkland; Elizabeth Krieg; Rachel Kurcz; Danielle Morrison; Natalie Nielsen; Lauren Richards; Bethany Rizik; and Kelly VanDenBerg.

This distinction considers not only academic record but also leadership, service, and extracurricular involvement. Staff and the senior class provided valuable input and each candidate responded to a series of questions and was interviewed by Principal Mrs. Witte and Associate Principal Mr. Gervais. The top honors go to Valedictorian Lauren Richards and Salutatorian Lisa Carlson who will take the stage to speak at graduation. Both girls plan to attend the University of Notre Dame. Lauren Richards '10 and Ellie Krieg '10 were named to the 2010 Observer & Eccentric Academic All-Star Team.

Bravo to Mrs. Kathy Sill - 2010 Teacher of the Year!

Teacher and director. Presenter and motivator. Mrs. Kathy Sill is the recipient of the prestigious 2010 Mercy Teacher of the Year Award. Mrs. Sill plays such an important role at Mercy High School guiding girls to be all they can be and has done so for the past 34 years. She has such a contagious creative spirit and passion for teaching speech, acting, oral interpretation, and directing the plays and musicals. Students remarked, "She dedicates her efforts for one goal - so that the student can shine. Mrs. Sill helped me realize my potential and gave me the skills to do many things I wouldn't have considered." A standing ovation for you, Mrs. Sill!

Read The Best of this year's ART & POETRY Compilation Image Is (pdf)!

CONGRATS to the 19 members of the Forensics Team who earned top medals and will advance to the Grand National Tournament over Memorial Weekend in Omaha.

WOW! There are a record number of winners for the MICHIGAN YOUTH ARTS FESTIVAL WRITING COMPETITION. Work by 24 seniors and juniors won top awards, a CERTIFICATE of MERIT, in this year's contest and the poems of an additional 7 students were given HONORABLE MENTION. Their winning poems are displayed in the English hallway. Well done!

AP Government and Politics students Alissa Gould, Colleen Oberc, Erin Kirkland, Hayley Drozdowski, Jenna Mizzi, Lauren Babb, Lauren Richards, Lisa Carlson, Michelle Ho, Regina Gilmour, Rosemary O'Malley, and Sarah Blau reflection videos hit iTunes! Apple posted their Challenge Based Learning videos to iTunes for their big K-12 Leadership Summit in Dallas this month. These tech savvy Mercy girls are on the cutting edge as Apple continues to promote CBL and mobile technology in education. Download them to your iPod or iPad! They also included the AP student driven web site Democracy of Tomorrow link and intro video to their web site. This media will be offered as iPod content to the school administrators attending the conference.

Congratulations to Erin Kirkland and Abbie Bowen who won awards at the 25th Annual Farmington Area Arts Commission Student Art Competition. Erin won first prize in the photography category for her photo titled, ?Artist ?s Palette. ? Abbie won an Honorable Mention for her sculpture titled, ?Life is Like a Box of Chocolates, ? made from toilet paper. The winning art will be displayed at the Farmington Community Library, downtown branch, during the month of May and at the Festival of the Arts at the Costick Center.

Rainbow Recognition

Seniors Maura Fitzsimons, Jenna Mizzi, Gabriela Castillo, Michelle Ho, and Danielle Morrison received the Multi Cultural Multi Racial Community Council of Farmington & Farmington Hills "Rainbow Recognition Award" at the 15th Annual Rainbow Recognition Breakfast held March 23rd at the Costick Center. They were recognized along with 61 other awardees for their work in promoting healthy diverse communities. Their outstanding leadership, dedication, and hard work have furthered the mission of the Multi Cultural Council and help to make Mercy a healthy, diverse school community.

FELICITATIONS!

These students were the recipients of National Awards: Hayley Rose Drozdowski, Outstanding Senior Award American Association of Teachers of French; Kylie Meyer, Northeast Conference Outstanding Senior Award; Emily Malinowski, Michigan World Language Association Outstanding Senior Award; Kelly Gilliken, Certificate of Merit from American Association of Teachers of French; Jacqueline Buckley, Certificate of Merit from American Association of Teachers of French. Kylie Meyer and Shannon Carpenter received the Members of the Year awards and Certificates of Outstanding Service were awarded to Lauren Banish; Andrea Czarnomski; Kylie Meyer; Hayley Drozdowski; Emily Malinowski; Lilliana Haddad; Meredith Clark; Kiara McCalvin; Sarah Chehab; Daisha Abdulnoor; Samantha Wenson.

ART EXHIBIT

The 2010 Mercy High School Student Art Exhibit will feature artwork from approximately 270 students. Media will include drawing, painting, ceramics, sculpture, jewelry, fiber arts, digital photography and computer graphics. Check out all the amazing show info!

HEART of MERCY

Rachel Yaldoo '10 and Registrar Mrs. Colleen Rozman were awarded the prestigious and heartfelt HEART of MERCY Award on February 1, 2010 to kick off Catholic Schools Week. Students and staff praised and applauded both of them for their uplifting spirits and everlasting loyalty to living out the Mercy Values.

RECORD BREAKING Art Awards

Vibrant acrylic painting by Portfolio Finalist Kelly Gillikin '10	Intricate self-portrait drawing by Sylvia Swierszczyk '10	Gorgeous landscape photograph by Stephanie O'Neil '11

A record number 17 students won an astounding 42 awards in this year’s Regional Scholastic Art Awards competition. Mercy artists captured either gold key, silver key, and/or certificate awards in mixed media, apparel design, painting, ceramics, glass, and digital photography. The winning pieces go on display at the College for Creative Studies. Special congratulations to Seniors Sarah Colbert, Sarah Donegan, Tara Ellis, and Kelly Gillikin. Their portfolios made finalist status and will compete in New York City for talent scholarships. Want to read the newspaper article featuring these talented Marlin artists? Read the Farmington Observer article (pdf).

• Caroline Auffenberg ’11: Certificate in Photography
• Sarah Brooks ’10: Certificate in Mixed Media
• Erica Canavan ’12: Silver Key in Drawing
• Sarah Colbert ’10: Gold Key in Art Portfolio
• Sarah Donegan ’10: Gold Key in Photography Portfolio; Silver Key and 3 Certificates in Photography; Certificate in Painting
• Tara Ellis ’10: Gold Key in Art Portfolio; 3 Silver Keys in Fashion; 2 Certificates in Painting; Certificate in Drawing
• Kelly Gillikin ’10: Gold Key in Art Portfolio; Gold Key in Photography Portfolio; 2 Silver Keys in Photography; 2 Certificates in Painting
• Celeste Gonzalez ’12: Silver Key in Photography
• Mary Haapala ’12: Silver Key in Drawing
• Alexis Jakubiak ’10: Silver Key in Drawing
• Elise Jelonek ’12: Silver Key in Drawing
• Erin Kirkland ’10: 3 Certificates in Photography
• Stephanie O’Neil ’11: 2 Silver Keys and 2 Certificates in Photography
• Emily Reamer ’10: Certificate in Photography
• Samantha Saroki ’10: Certificate in Sculpture; Certificate in Photography
• Michaelene Sartori ’10:  2 Certificates in Painting
• Sylvia Swierszczyk ’10: Silver Key and 2 Certificates in Drawing

HONOR ROLL

Honor roll of students from first semester FALL 2009 (pdf).

ART + TECHNOLOGY

The Mercy art department has applied for a grant from the Workshop on the Impact of Pen-Based Technology on Education. For this contest the Art Department Chair Ms. Susan Smith needed to create a four minute video explaining art and technology integration at Mercy High School. Judging for this contest occurs through YouTube ratings and views until December 18th. You can help by viewing at the link below and writing a positive review: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IV46YBoODbc. Definitely some amazing VIDEO ART!

Science Olympiad

Mercy's Science Olympiad Team competed on March 13 at the regional tournament. The students did an extraordinary job, finishing in 10th place and captured medals in seven events: Forensics; Ecology; Disease Detectives; Ornithology; Mission Possible; and Mousetrap Vehicle. Competing members included Serena Sana 10, Katie Conely 10, Kelsey McGill '10, Michelle Ho 10, Jessica Das '10, Rachel Zalupski '10, Christina Lehman '10, Tatum Matlock '10, Laura Grabowski 10, Madeline Ross '11, Hannah Constantakis '11, Emily Walsh '11, Paige Taliaferro '11, Claire Soave '11, and Christina Hadley '13. Other support team members included Shannon Carpenter 11, Michaelene Sartori '10, and Alexis Pinson '13.

DEMOCRACY of TOMORROW - Making Today's Democracy Accessible to Everybody AP Government students Michelle Ho, Erin Kirkland, Regina Gilmour, Colleen Oberc, Lauren Richards, and Hayley Drozdowski created an outstanding web site complete with videos and blogs and podcasts and even captured their own domain name at http://www.democracyoftomorrow.org/. The students' challenge was to design an authentic medium that would help to improve our democracy. Check it out, you might learn something! About DOT - Democracy of Tomorrow attempts to bring democracy into the lives of the average American citizens in an easy-to-understand format. Our mission is to bring the government "for the people and by the people" out of the ivory towers and into homes across America. Explore our website to gain information, expand your horizons, or just refresh your knowledge about our American government. Learn how you can get involved in the government, and how your vote matters.

THREE-PEAT! Marlins swim to another STATE CHAMPIONSHIP!

It was a race to the finish at the D2 State Swim Finals with the Marlins being victorious for a third consecutive championship. Mercy edged Holland by 4 points winning the last relay of the day in an absolutely exciting ending. Coach Dunworth said, "I think this is the best meet victory I’ve ever had because we’ve never gone down to the last relay to win a meet.” CLICK HERE to read more.

Dedication of Mercy's New Science Facilities

Celebrating Women in Science

Get the science scoop on Mercy's newly renovated labs and classrooms!

Student Successes . . . APPLAUSE! APPLAUSE!

Charlotte Morrow '10 attended the weeklong National Junior Classical League Convention held at the University of California this past summer. The NJCL is an international organization of secondary students who study the language, culture and literature of ancient Greece and rome. She was the only delegate from Michigan and was elected as the NJCL National Historian for this school year. In doing so, she became the first representative from Michigan to be elected to the National JCL Board since 1993 and only the third national officer ever to be elected from this state. Since she currently is President and Historian of the Michigan JCL she created an impressive state scrapbook which she presented at the National Convention to 1,300 student delegates. Now as the National Historian she will help plan next year's Convention and has been furnished with a Mac computer, printer, and 30" monitor to be used to put together the NJCL Scrapbook.

Lauren Richards '10, Shannon Carpenter '11, Diana Jasser '11, Kathryn Carolyn Kemp '11, Meghan Ronayne '11, Samantha Wenson '11, Mary Haapala '12, and Elaina Weber '12 were all recipients of the 2009 Scholastic All-Catholic Award.

Lisa Carlson '10, Lauren Richards '10, and Grace Ward '10 have been named Commended Students in the 2010 National Merit Scholarship Program in recognition of exceptional academic talent. Commended students placed among the top 5% of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2010 competition.

Alexis Jakubiak '10 was named an Outstanding Participant in the National Achievement Scholarship Program. She scored in the top 3% of more than 160,000 Black Americans who requested consideration in the 2010 National Achievement Program when they took the 2008 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Regina Gilmour '10 was selected as a winner in the 2009 National Council of Teachers of English Achievement Awards in Writing. NCTE Awards recognize some of the best student writers in the nation.

TABLETS are 1:1

2009 - 2010 brings Mercy full circle in its Tablet 1:1 Computing Program. With Tablet PC's in every staff and student's hand, Mercy has worked every year to realize a data projector and screen in every classroom.

Apple Distinguished Educator

English and AP Government Teacher Mr. Larry Baker was selected as an Apple Distinguished Educator and attended the premier professional development program sponsored by Apple and Full Sail University.

He networked with other visionary ADE's of the present and past, learned about Apple products and applications for the classroom, and embraced the Challenge Based Learning concept which emphasizes the teacher's role as a guide and uses tecnology to tap into global resources.

2009 AP SCHOLARS

117 students took 165 Advanced Placement Exams in May 2009. We salute these girls who have earned the honorary distinction of AP SCHOLAR in recognition of their exceptional achievement on the AP Exams.