On Wednesday, October 21st, ten St. John-Endicott freshmen and sophomore GEAR UP students, along with several SJE juniors and seniors, attended the "Math Is Cool" competition at Spokane Falls Community College. After a brief introduction and overview of the evening's activities, the contest began with an individual competition. This portion of the event required students to solve 9 multiple choice problems. Next, the students took part in a short team test (10 questions) and a pressure round (5 questions). After a short dinner break, students were back at work competing in several rounds of team competition. The event concluded with an awards ceremony acknowledging outstanding performances. Sophomore Evan Jones was rewarded for earning the highest individual score among his SJE freshman and sophomore teammates. GEAR UP would like to thank SJE math teacher Mr. Dick Shindler for the invitation to be a part of this event and for providing students the opportunity to challenge themselves and display their mathematical talents.

The American Flag waved in the air at Endicott-St. John School on Friday, September 11th, to remember those who were lost in 2001. The Leadership class, run by ESJ teacher Sue Lynch, put on the ceremony, which started with four GEAR UP students raising the flag to half mast. Each elementary and middle school student who attended the ceremony received and wore an American flag pin.

While “Proud to be an American” played, the school watched the students raise the flag to the top of the pole, then back down to half mast. The song concluded with the GEAR UP student from the Leadership class reciting the lyrics to “United We’ll Stand.”

Afterward, the Star Spangled Banner played, and then GEAR UP student Marika McCue led the school in the Pledge of Allegiance. Students and staff then honored all who had passed away with a moment of silence, then returned to their classrooms in silence. 

On July 17th, St. John-Endicott GEAR UP brought their Computer Aided Design or CAD summer program to a close. Nine students in grades 7 through 10 learned the basics of CAD using Pro Engineer software. GEAR UP teacher Mr. Kris Thrasher taught the students the skills needed to create some rather complicated designs. The class began with measuring real objects and then re-creating them using Pro Engineer. This process involved objects such as boxes and pieces of wood. Later in the sessions students moved on to re-creating more complicated objects such as bolts, nuts, and washers. Eventually, the students were creating and "assembling" water bottles, dressers, and tool cabinets using only the dimensions provided by Mr. Thrasher. The last couple of days, students were given the opportunity to create their own designs. Creations ranged from swords to basketball hoops to guitars and cars. The students had a great time learning and creating using the Pro Engineer software. This is the first year CAD has been offered to students in the form of a summer program and it was a tremendous success. The hope is to one day offer it as an elective class at St. John-Endicott High School. Thanks again to Mr. Thrasher for giving his time to this summer program. It was awesome!  

Alyssa Grisham has earned the right to be considered a GEAR UP success story. Alyssa came to the St. John-Endicott High School this past year as a new student. She has done a tremendous job of applying herself and adapting to her new surroundings. While she may have struggled in the beginning, she improved both academically and socially as the year progressed.

One particular area of improvement is math. According to her math teacher, Mr. Thrasher, Alyssa began the year with fairly limited math skills and had a difficult time in class. Now, with Mr. Thrasher's help, GEAR UP tutoring assistance, and a lot of hard work, Alyssa is ready to move on to Algebra next year.

Congratulations Alyssa, keep up the great work!