YI Alumni Magazine 2017YI Alumni Magazine 2017 Read some Really gRRReat cReative wRiting on pages 9-10 Fly on oveR to pages 15-16 FoR a puRR-Fect supeRheRo! you must be baRking mad

YI Alumni Magazine 2017

Read some Really gRRReat cReative wRiting on pages 9-10

Fly on oveR to pages 15-16 FoR a puRR-Fect supeRheRo!

you must be baRking mad not to head oveR

to page 11

Table of Contents

Staff PageP.3

What its like to have a Big Family

- By Tehya BeckP.5

My Favor-

ite Books -

By Tehya BeckP. 6

Alumni Production

LogosP 7-8

Cupboard Creatures -By Annika KrugerP. 9-10

Dogs - By Cayden BrownP. 11

Super Mario - By Cayden BrownP. 12

FoxesP. 13-

14

The Alumni

ZooP.4

Super-

Girl - By

Sarah

Sewell

P. 15-16

The Memes of the 2017 Alumni - By Nation TheisP.17-18

Cathilic Theology

on Jesus Christ - By Allison Burmei ster

P. 19-20

Alumni

Class LogoP.21

The ugly truth behind a cathlic school Allison BurmiesterP. 22

Alexander Hamilton - By Kelbie PowersP. 23-24

Alumni PhotosP. 25-

26

Special Thanks to

SD Department of Education21st Century Community Learning Center

YMCA of Greater Long BeachBob Cabeza

YMCA of Rapid CityRoger GallimoreSandy StantonShawn HayfordBryan Konechne

Rapid City High School

A big thanks to

the YMCA!

The Youth Institute is a 8-week summer program for teens in 7th-12th grade, as well as an after-school pro-gram throughout the rest of the year. Alumni is the term we use for teens who come back to complete a second summer of the program. They build off of skills they learned during the first summer and the school year to complete more advanced projects. Some of those projects include creating a 3-8 minute film on a teen issue of their choice, a personal production logo for their film, creating a lesson plan and teaching that lesson to the first year students, and designing a mov-ie poster. This is my 5th summer with the Youth In-stitute, and my 4th summer running the alumni pro-gram. I love how each summer is never the same. I feel like each summer gets better then the year before as I learn more, and am able to refine what works and what doesn’t. Each alumni class has their own unique per-sonality and style, and this year is no different, as you will see when looking through our magazine. This year the theme chosen by the Alumni was Animals. We had a lot of fun doing an animal themed photo shoot and making each alumni into an animal for the cover. All the pages in this magazine were created by the teens. One new thing we created this year is our Youth Insti-tute website. The alumni this summer got a basic lesson in website design, and we will be adding some of their personal portfolio pages to it this fall. You can check

out our website at www.rcyi.org

I bet you want me to say how this summer was for me and stuff. Well here it is. This summer had so many ups and downs. But all in all, in the end it all worked out. We had some good movies and some good peo-ple that came out of this class. I had to do more then I thought I would. As staff I saw myself just teaching the kids what I knew, and all of my tricks. But that was just not the case, I had to be more then just their teacher, and that meant a lot to me. I loved seeing these teens grow close, were there fights, yes, but I mean when does a family not? Now more then ever, I want to see how this class will change and grow the program that I love so much, I also hope to see how they will grow with-in the YI family and get others to come into the YI family. It has been so much fun to see these teens work. I can’t say the amount of times me and Rebecca have had to change the day because they were a day ahead. But in the end we always had things for them to do to keep this class going. Their non-stop, back to work then off doing something else, then the cycle continues. I mean, don’t get me wrong, their all amazing teens, but they can get so lost talking to each other. If I had to say why, it would be because this class is more of a family then I have

ever seen, and I loved being a part of it.

Meet the Staff

Rebecca DeWitt

YI Alumni Director

Corbin Hayford

YI Second Year Staff

The Alumni Zoo

Our magazine theme this year is animals. With this in mind, we took individual pho-tos in different animal poses. Kelbie (KP) is a lion. Sarah (Kara) is a panther. Tehya (Shadow) is a black lab. Alli (Gator) is an

alligator. Nation (Fox) is a fox. Cayden (Shaggy) is a monkey. Last but not least,

Annika (The Supreme Trash Overlord) is a cat.

Youth Institute | 2017 Alumni Magazine 2017 Alumni Magazine | Youth Institute3 4

My name is Tehya. I live in a family with seven kids; I have six siblings, John, Emily, Shyanne, LaVaya, Serena, and Mariah. John is the old-est, Mariah the youngest, with me second old-est. Six of us are girls and I’m the oldest girl. Having seven kids can be havoc for my mom. She gets really stressed. Some-times, it can be really hard to have six siblings. I really like to cook, but cooking for a family of nine? Not as fun. My brother and I don’t really get along well. We fight a lot, a lot. Sometimes, he can be real-ly nice, though. Like the time when he actually gave me what I wanted for Christmas. Just kidding. He can be way nicer than that. Em-ily and I get along well most of the time. We both go to Youth Institute, which has become a second home for me. It’s Emily’s first summer here and my second, which makes her a New Class and me an Alumni. My sister Shyanne is the kind of person who believes every fairy tale she hears. Right now she’s really into mermaids. It’s al-most as bad as I’m into into dragons, except I don’t believe they’re real. LaVaya is the girl who really doesn’t have an actual set-in-stone “theme.” She is the kind of girl who will do just about anything for fun. Serena loves playing with Mariah. She likes playing dress-up. Mariah likes throwing fits, saying “uh-uh” and “no”. She enjoys watching movies and is rapidly becoming a “John’s Girl.”

I really like having as many siblings as I do. We usually have one birthday party for all of us in the summer. It’s usually at Outdoor Campus. We have a climbing wall and play games and then we do presents. But not this year!

This year is different. We are hav-ing a pool party! It’s really fun to do an all togeth-er birthday

party. However, sometimes I would rather have my own birthday party. My dad and I have the same mind in a lot of things. We both like to build things and dork around with Legos. We enjoy writing things and making things in Photoshop and Illustrator. In basics, I am a “Daddy’s Girl.” Our entire family goes to an awesome pri-vate school. The teachers are really good. They spend time with each kid so everyone stays on the same page. We take a lot of field trips. We

do activities on Friday, which is like a “Friday Fun Day” where we do activities. On the last day of the school year, we take a trip to Outdoor Campus and catch a turtle in the beaver pond. Then I wait two weeks and then YI starts! After that, I have an entire summer of fun, computers, people and filming. It’s really fun! Our family can have some weird days or difficult days, but we always make it. It ‘s good to have so many people supporting me.... I’m

glad my parents adopted me and my siblings!

What it’s Like to have a Big FamiLyBy tehya Beck


My Favorite Books, What They’re About and Why

By Tehya Beck

Here are some of my favorite books and why I like them so much.

The Rangers Apprentice Series by John Flanagan This series is about a teenage boy named

Will who has no parents. He gets accepted as an apprentice to the Ranger named Halt. Rangers are people that guard the land of Araluen. They are mysterious people who live in the shadows, but though most people are afraid of them, they are highly respected. The rest of the series goes on to tell about Will’s many adventures until he is a grown man and has earned his status as a full Ranger. Then he takes on an unexpected ap-prentice in book twelve..... Then that’s the end of the series so far. I like them because they combine all of my favorite elements in a book: Mystery, Adven-ture, and suspense.

Percy Jackson Series by Rick Riordan This series is about a boy named Percy Jack-

son, who finds out that he is a demigod. His dad was Poseidon from Greek Mythology. He gets sent on a quest to find Zeus’s stolen lightning bolt. The ending is awesome, but it gets real-ly twisted. The ending is sort of a cliff hanger, but it leads right into the story line of the next book, which is about how he leaves camp with-out permission and goes on this quest to save his satyr friend. I like these books because they give you some serious and also some not serious knowl-edge of Greek Mythology. Percy has a great sense of humor and puts a funny spin on things.

Molly of Mars: The Syndicate Series by Wyatt Davenport So far, I am only half way through the first

book of the series, but it is a really good one. It’s

a bout this girl who is very impulsive(like me) and is always getting in trouble(totally not like me). I like it because of the adventure, sus-pense, and because the girl is so much like me.

Magnus Chase Series by Rick Riordan This series is about a boy named Magnus,

whose father is Frigg, a god in Norse Mythol-ogy. His mother dies and he ends up homeless. He dies with honor and goes to Valhalla. Then he has to come back to go on a quest to save the world. These books have a lot of mystery, action and ad-venture, which is why I like them so much.

Left Behind Series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins

These are like, my favorite books ever . Save the best for last,

right? In one cataclysmic moment, millions of people around the world disappear. Rayford Steele, an airline captain, and his daughter, Chloe are two of the “left behind.” They form the Tribulation Force when the Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia rises to power. They stick to-gether with a news writer and editor named Cameron “Buck” Williams. Then when all the tribulations of Revelations in the Bible begin, they face them and are soon adding other people to the Tribulation Force. The rest of the series adds up to the Glorious Appearing, when Jesus appears and comes to bring Heaven to Earth. These are

my favorite books because they all have adventure, mystery and a grain of truth.

I enjoy reading all books except non-fiction (I just can’t handle facts. They’re not really fun to read and they get kind of boring.) I spend probably 45% of my time reading all sorts of books. So, now you know my favorite books and why I like them.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Sarah

Allison

Kelbie

Tehya

My inspiration for my logo was my obsession of corgis,

definitely. Im strangely obsessed with them and I probably need help. That

is how I got my logo.

I feel like It reflects my personality. I like the color black.I took a silhouette of Black

Widow from the Avengers movies and made longer

hair on her on the computer. It was really

fun to make.

I took my love for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and combined it with my love for the term Smol Bean. It was really fun to make and

I am really happy with how it turned out.

I love Supergirl and I also really like the elvish alphabet and I like

the way it looks on paper.

Alumni Production Logos

Annika

Cayden

Nation

I am Annika and I like cats.

A campfire represents where good memories are made.

Page By Allison Burmeister

I made my logo a fox because my nickname is fox and I feel like a

fox represents who I am.


Cupboard CreaturesI had simply been making my breakfast shortly after my parents left for work when it happened. I had been making toast for breakfast, and was struggling with a new peanut butter jar. That was fine, per-fectly normal in fact. I had turned from the peanut butter huffily, angry at my inability. Then it had happened. A small ginger kitten had pushed its way through the wooden doors where we kept cereal, and fell onto the marble countertops below. I had been confused, of course. It shouldn’t have been there. Yet there it was, small and meowing, as bewildered as I was.

Before I could even move to-ward it, a most peculiar thing happened. It turned its tiny head up, back to were it came from, and jumped. The leap was much to high for it with as small as it was, and it barely reached halfway up before it lost momentum. However, as it started falling, the fur on its shoulders spread out to show that it was not fur at all, but instead tiny wings! They

flapped once, and the kitten rocketed back to the cup-board.

The small animal had come and gone so quickly that I indeed

doubted that I had seen it at all. I had walked to the cup-board then, to prove to myself that I had not just seen what I had. I must have though, be-cause when I opened the cup-board a tiny glass door was inside instead of my favorite cereals.

I crawled up on the counter- top, and put my head near the door so I might see what was in-

side it. Behind the glass was a whole different world, ocean blue grass stood out against fiery skies and whitewashed trees. The kitten was there as well, standing amongst it all as normally as I do in my world.

Without a thought for conse-quences, I pushed the door

open. When I did, I suddenly found

myself shrink-ing so I could fit inside! I stepped though the door-way into the blue grass that now

reached up to my knees on my

shrunken body. A breeze, nei-ther cold or hot in temperature blew past me. Up above me,

birds that where only heads simply

floated along with the occa-sional bellow that was not unlike those of cows. A bright blue fox with 7 tails and sa-ber teeth

raced past me, on path for the kitten.

Instead of the

worst, as I expected, the

fox slowed and happily nudged the kitten before con-tinuing on.

The kitten meandered after the fox. I followed with mi-nor difficulty due to the high grass, but eventually made it to the forest were the fox had gone. The fox barked at us, a harsh sound like nails on a board, before slipping out of sight into bushes that shone in waxy sky blues. I heard a quiet, burring sound behind me, and turned just in time to see a black panther with pink spots giving me a judging look be-fore deciding I was a friend and jumping into the nearest tree.

A roar had me looking to the skies as a griffon swept over me. I turned back to the kit-ten. It was watching me, and seeing that it had my attention again, it moved away. I didn’t want to lose track of it, as it

was what brought me here in the first place, so I hurried after it. Walking through the forest led us to a steep drop off. The soils of the cliff were in varying shades of green, leading into the violet waters of a sea.

A smell much like that of regular ocean filled the air, but it held more spice, as if it had peppers in it in-stead of salt. Out of the ocean jumped dolphins with almost fairy-like wings. They glittered like rubies in the the sun(Can I even call it sun?)light before falling back into the ocean.

I looked back to my kitten guide, and was surprised to see that it now had friends of its kind in every color of the rainbow flock-ing around it. They greeted each other warmly, with gentle nudges of their noses and tiny flaps of their wings before they all turned to look at me. They moved toward me, brushing against my legs with their tiny bodies. A few even jumped up onto my shoulders.

Suddenly the kittens were pushing harder against my legs. They caught my pants with claws and teeth, forcing me uncomfortably close to the edge of the cliff. The ones in front of me dived off the cliff, wings opening to catch

them and let them fly up to me. The one’s that were flying moved behind me, pushing at my back with

tiny paws while the ones still

ground-ed took off.

I felt my-

self slipping and I

closed my eyes. There was a brief moment where all I could feel was air, the sensation of falling. Then there were paws clinging to my clothing and body, lifting me up.

I opened my eyes to find the tiny kittens all around me. Their wings beat, obscuring my view, but I could catch glances of the ocean below me, grow-ing farther away every time I glimpsed it. A sudden shadow fell over the flock of cats and several of them let out distressed meows. I struggled to turn my face upward, but found it impossible as several of the cats had paws in my hair and on my neck. My only clue was a roaring, crush-ing noise that vibrated the very air we were flying in.

Blue entered my field of view between the flickering wings. I just had time to brace myself before the kittens dropped me onto a grassy, floating island. In the distance, I saw some-thing dark and scaly swooping away from the island. That was probably the animal that roared.

The cats settled around me. The orange one that had led

me here had vanished among the rainbow pelts of the other kittens. They meowed at me nervously, staring after the scaled beast. I caught their worry as well when it banked steeply and started back to-ward us. Electric blue flashed along its scales. It opened its mouth and lightning built in its throat.

Gentle tugging on my pants brought my attention to one of the cats. It was crouched low, ears back, frightened. It made a strangled barking noise, and spit out something that grew in size to a jar of peanut butter.

My jar of peanut butter...

I knew what I had to do.

I bent to grab it, then I opened the jar determinedly, facing the incoming electric monster. It roared. I took my chance and chucked the jar at it. The jar fell in its mouth. The charging electricity melt-ed some of it and it stuck the monster’s mouth closed. The now suppressed electricity blew up in it’s mouth.

“Wait. I don’t believe you.” My sister interrupted me. “This sounds like a cheap story about how the power of fanta-sy let you open a jar of peanut butter.”

She huffed quietly. “I don’t feel like listening anymore.” She got up from where she had been sitting on the end of my bed, and walked out of my room.

A quiet purr alerted me to the kitten’s approach as it came and leapt onto my shoulder. It brushed against me, rubbing its tiny body and wings on my cheek. We stared after my sis-ter together. Written and illustrated by:

Annika KrugerYouth Institute | 2017 Alumni Magazine 2017 Alumni Magazine | Youth Institute9 10


DogsDogs are the best pet that there is. They show

companionship and they always love you. Your dog thinks you are the best person ever. There are many different breeds of dog. There

is Pomeranian, Shih Tzo, Lab, Retriever, Dalmatian, Corgi, Husky, Pug, Beagle, Rott-

weiler, Poodle, German Shepard, Bulldog, Pinscher,

Boxer, Terrier, Chihuahua, and

many more. There are small dogs,

like Pomeranian, Chihuahua, and Shih Tzo. There

are also really big dogs like Great Dane and Great Pyrenees. Dogs are helpful. Different dogs can do different things better. Some

can swim well, some are good hunting dogs, some are tiny dogs that are just fun to have

around. Dogs make way better pets than cats. Dogs actually care about you and are

companions. Cats could care less about you, most of the time they ignore you. Sometimes cats are good if a family member is allergic

to dogs. Dogs are funny and they are always good to you and just want a little love. Cats mostly ignore you and if you get too much in they’re face, they’ll scratch and claw you. Dogs can also bite you too. Cats can be very lovable and kittens are really small and cute. Don’t get me wrong, I like cats as well, but I just like dogs more and I think they are just overall better as a pet and companion. You

can also train your dog to do cool things like fetching a stick or catching a frisbee in the

By: Cayden Brown

air or just sitting. You can also tell them to lay down, shake your hand, and bark. Some

dogs can also become great watchdogs. Some are good at barking, or biting robbers or just barking and looking scary. You’d be surprised

how scared a robber could get if you had a huge dog braking and showing their teeth

at you. Cats would have just sit there and let the robbers take all of your stuff. Dogs could have scared the robbers. I have had a Dalma-tian named Misti. She was a really good dog. My personal favorite kind of dog is Pomera-nian. They are really cute and fluffy and they

care a lot about they’re owners. They don’t bark much and their face looks kinda like a

fox and they are so happy and friendly all the time. My Grand-ma had a dog

named Odie

who was a white Pomer-anian. He was so cute and he barked happily

when he saw me and when I saw him, he greeted me with a smile. I just love dogs so much, they bring so much happiness to the

world and they always put a smile on my face. Whether I’m having a good day or a bad day, seeing a dog brightens my day. Different dogs have different qualities that make peo-ple laugh. Some dogs always have a happy face, some dogs have cute faces, some dogs have floppy ears, and some dogs wag their

tail funny.

Super Mario

By: Cayden Brown

Mario is the best video game character ever. The 1st game that ever featured Mario

was when Donkey Kong came out in the arcade. Then Donkey Kong came out in Atari and Game and

Watch. Then Donkey Kong Jr came out in the arcade, Atari, and Game and Watch. The Green-

house came out on Game and Watch as well as Mario Bros that also came out on Game and Watch and Arcade. Then came Donkey Kong 2 and 3 and then all the games were available

on NES. After that, Mario’s Cement Factory and Mario’s Bombs Away came out on Game and

Watch. Then a lot of other games featured Mario came out as well, but I’m only mentioning the

most important. Then came Mario: The Lost Lev-els. Then came a LOT of other games that had Mario. SO many, that I wont even mention all of them. I will tell you that there was a Mario game called “Mario Party” that had 11 different games,

Mario Party 1-10 and Mario Party Island Tour. There was also many Super Mario games, Ma-rio Bros games, Super Mario Lands & Worlds, games with Donkey Kong, Wario, Yoshi, and

Luigi all up until 2018... They’ve planned ahead games! There were games on the “NES” which stands for Nintendo Entertainment System and “SNES” which stands for Super Nintendo Enter-tainment System, some call these two Ninten-do’s or Super Nintendo’s. I have a SNES and I

have the games Super Mario 1, 2, and 3 as well as Super Mario Lost Levels and Super Mario

World. There are other characters in the Mario games as the years go on like Luigi, who was first featured in Mario Is Missing! which was an

educational game, the second game he was fea-tured in was Luigi’s Mansion in 2001. The char-acters of Toad were one of Mario’s first compan-ions, starting in Super Mario Bros. As I have said earlier, Mario was first featured in Donkey Kong, and he had taken Princess Peach, so Princess Peach was first seen in the first game that Ma-rio was featured in. Peach has always been the

Princess that Mario has chased after to save from danger and bring her to safety to realize that she has, again, been taken! There are many other Princesses like Princess Daisy in Super Mario Land and Princess Rosalina in Super Mario Galaxy. Now lets talk about POW-ER-UPS! The first Mario power-up was the 1-up Mushroom. Take in mind that as the time went on, the items shape and appearance changed,

appearing better and that the power-ups get way crazy as more games come out. The basic ones,

make him bigger, such as the mushroom, su-per mushroom, mega mushroom. Others make him invincible, so that he may run into anything and kill anything, like the star or an invincibility

mushroom. Also other power-ups can make you fly or glide like the raccoon leaf or the feather

or a p-wing. Others let him throw fire or ice with a fire flower or ice flower or you can grab a ta-nooki suit to turn you into a raccoon or statue., or a cloud flower to magically make clouds un-der yourself to bounce or the bee mushroom to turn into a bee. Then there’s also a boomerang

flower, to allow Mario to turn into a turtle and throw boomerangs and a boo mushroom to turn Mario into a ghost. There’s always that shoe to pop into and bounce on your enemy’s heads, that carrot to turn you into a bunny, frog suit to turn into a frog and swim better as well as hop,

penguin suit to turn you into a penguin, a propel-ler mushroom that flies to allow you to fly, and that bell to turn you into a CAT! As I said, they

get crazier as the games go on, and in the end, Mario is that superhero that can do or turn into literally anything! The things that he can do are unlimited and I hope that many people continue to love Mario as much as I do, so that the games can continue on and that people wont just ignore the old games, but embrace them just the new. I’m excited for what Nintendo will think of next.

Fox Villiage Ruth is an Alumni Specialist in Graphic Design, and taught a lesson in Illustrator on making a fox . She had us costomize them after, and these are the results.

AlliNationCaydenSarah

RebeccaKelbieAnnikaTeyha

Youth Institute 13 Youth Institute 14

Youth Institute | 2017 Alumni Magazine14 2017 Alumni Magazine | Youth Institute 15

SupergirlSupergirl is my favorite thing. I hope that through this article, you too will come to enjoy Supergirl almost as much as I do. Kara Zor-el is from the planet Krypton and was sent to earth to protect her cousin, Kal-el, or as we know him, Clark Kent/Superman. But, as she was on her way, her planet ex-ploded and knocked her pod off course, causing her to get stuck in the “Phan-tom zone” (a black hole in space) where time doesn’t pass. As she was stuck in the Phantom zone, Kal-el was becoming Superman on earth. When Kara finally arrived on earth, her cousin had already become Superman and was loved across the U.S. She was adopted by Jeremiah and Eliza Danvers along with their biological daughter Alex. Kara and Alex ended up becoming very close sisters.

In season one, Kara was forced to use her powers to save her sister and therefore become “Super-girl”. Then she faced many enemies and devel-oped new allies such as, the Flash. She also be-came very close to Ms. Cat Grant, her boss, who also coined the name “Supergirl” to the mys-terious woman (Kara) that had shown her pow-ers. Kara also developed a crush on Jimmy Olsen, or “James”. He didn’t return her affection at first, though. Winn Schott, Kara’s best friend, was one of the first people she told about her powers after the incident where she had to reveal them. Lucy Lane, Lois Lane’s (Superman’s girlfriend) little sister was also James’ girl-

friend for a time. Hank Henshaw is the director of the DEO (Department of Extra-normal Operations). He is also known as J’onn J’onzz. The DEO is the organization that both Alex and Kara work for. Kara works for them as Super-girl and Alex is an agent.

So, that’s the jist of the main charac-ters. But, for the sake of spoilers, I will not go into the entire story line in case you would like to watch Super-girl after this article (it’s on Netflix ;) ).I will give you an idea of what happens, so you understand at least some of what I think will happen in season three.

So in season one, Supergirl was defined and Kara starts to figure out who she is as a person and assisting her mentor, Ms. Grant. She fought many enemies and learned her way around her powers. Sea-son two was a little different. Super-

girl already had enemies, and only one or two new enemies were introduced. At the very beginning, Mon-el was introduced. He arrived on earth in a space-pod at the very end of season one. Also, Mag-gie Sawyer is introduced in season two. She is a police detective and be-comes Alex’s girlfriend.

Mon-el came from the planet Daxam, Krypton’s sister-planet and also rival planet. Krypton and Daxam didn’t get along. Daxam was a planet full of party-

ing and slavery and op-pression while Krypton was a planet that valued integrity and honesty and responsibility. The two planets were nothing alike. Daxam was affect-ed when Krypton blew up, making Daxam unlivable. So when Mon-el came to earth, he lied and said he was

a palace-guard instead of saying he was the prince of Daxam. Kara found this out after they had started dating when his parents, King Lar-gand and Queen Rhea of Daxam came to earth in search of Mon-el. She got very angry with him, to say the least. She broke up with him even when he told her he was in love with her. Which, in all honesty, I applaud her for. He had messed up and tried to brush it off instead of confronting what he had done wrong.

So, when his parents came, they wanted him to return to Daxam and retake the kingdom that had been scattered. But Mon-el refused to go with them because he loved Kara. So it ended up that Queen Rhea wasn’t ready to let him go yet, even if King Lar-gand was ready. (Spoiler Alert) So, Queen Rhea killed the king so she could get her way. She pursued Lena Luthor, Lex Luthor’s little sister and Kara’s best friend. Lena Luthor is a certified genius and she is also very underesti-mated because of her family. Lex Luthor was Superman’s arch-nemesis and Lex almost killed Superman. Technically Su-pers and Luthors should hate each oth-er, but Kara and Lena are best friends nonetheless.

So, Rhea went to Lena, and of course Lena didn’t know that Rhea was bad. Rhea proposed a business deal with Lena to create a portal. Lena thought she was going to be able to use said portal

to end famine and world hunger, and help the world for the better. But Rhea used it to bring all the Daxamites from across the universe and tried to take over the world. She also tried to get Lena and Mon-el to marry. Luckily, Supergirl saved them before the marriage could fully take place.

In the end, the Daxamites were forced to leave because they’re fatally aller-

gic to lead and Lena managed to fix up a device to expel lead into the atmo-sphere, making it toxic to the invad-ers. Kara had to say goodbye to Mon-el

as the toxicity got to him.

So, now that you have an idea of what happened, here’s what I think might happen in season three or, what I wish would happen. I don’t believe Mon-el will return to earth, simply be-cause he can’t. With Lena, I believe she and Kara will become closer, and Kara might even tell Lena her true identity. I sincerely

hope that Lena joins the superfriends, consisting of Kara, Alex, James, Winn, and Maggie. And sometimes Lucy. Be-cause a Lena/Winn bro nerd friendship is my favorite thing.

I’m not entirely sure what will hap-pen with Maggie and Alex, though, be-cause Floriana Lima, the actress that plays Maggie has said that she isn’t going to stay with the show. So we’ll just have to wait and see what happens there. James I think will continue his work as a vigilante. Winn will contin-ue his tech work with the DEO.

J’onn will continue his work as the director of the DEO and as space dad to everyone in the DEO. I think that Lillian Luthor, Lena’s mother, will try to kill all of the aliens on earth (again) and Superman will likely vis-it National City again to have another Superhero team-up (#toomuchfun).

Now, you have heard all of my ideas and, basically, my synopsis of Super-girl. I love the show, and I personal-ly think it’s very easy to get hooked on, so that said, you can definitely blame me if you get sucked into my beautiful fandom. :D

Picture sources: Supergirl- Wikipedia.com Cast- GeekandSundry.com Lena Luthor - Supermanwiki.com

By: Sarah Sewell


This idea came from us joking around about how no one understood the jokes that we alum-ni, make when we go home or converse with the new class. It was obscure and a joke, but I think it will entertain you at the least. And hopefully let you have a peak at the minds of the alumni and the fun that we have together while working. There are very few people up here, so everything we do, we do because we are comfortable around each other. That took me a while, though, because I am the only alumni that wasn’t a new class last year. I was a new class two years ago and didn’t really know anybody. Now we’re all like family, but it took me a bit. Anyhow, I’m getting off track. The meme’s. We make a lot of jokes and things like that while we work and a lot of them are hilarious. So of course they keep re-surfacing over and over again.

First, what is a meme? A meme is a joke or behavior that spreads through a group or culture. One of the first meme’s was amongst all of Y.I. And it was started during the camping trip by a new class (Maddie), “Her eyes were as crispy as my chicken nugs” it is said with a slight lisp and with a type of over enunciation. She had an eye doctor’s appointment, and for some weird reason, her eye doctor said that her eyes were ‘crisp’ and it developed from there. The next one after that was Brad Mar-

shal Johnson. It started with the ‘artist circle’ consisting of Ruth, Moyra, Kelbie, and Annika; mainly Ruth for the meme, though. She drew a really buff body builder and put a bird head on it. Don’t ask don’t tell. I don’t know what was going through her head. ‘Twas weird. It has be-come a huge alumni meme and I believe that we are considering hav-ing it in the alumni class logo and I

am so happy with that. It is indeed hilarious

Then, well then we did the Mario theme. We do all of it but one note and the rest of the people do the last note in perfect sync. We do it almost every day with the new class, and multiple times a day amongst the

alumni. It is extremely entertaining. We do it pretty often. Sadly it is becoming less and less now as the year goes on, but it is still funny.

There’s Prince Kitnug, that was from An-nika’s object film. It was a small roll character but was very funny and still very Annika-like. It was kinda weird and it is not fully a meme but it is still used as a joke occasionally. It has been referenced multiple times and it may turn up in the alumni class logo.

“Close your parentheses Rebecca!” That one was started on the alumni training week, we were planning out the food and Rebecca didn’t close her parentheses and people were raging. This kept on all day until we had the

whole alumni class saying it. Now it only occa-sionally comes up but it is very hilarious. And hey, we still occasionally get to use it on each other and occasionally Rebecca. We also have a trash cat and boat dog

thing. It started as just constant-ly singing the boat dog remix by Markiplier. Then it stopped for a while, until eventually Annika de-cided that her production logo this year was going to be Trash Cat Pro-ductions, so now we use trash cat. We even change out lots of different

things to do instead of boat dog or trash cat. I can’t remember all of them but we have done a few.

“‘Those are some nice fingers!’ Who says that?” “well apparently I do, And I look at my hands and I’m like ‘well these hands aren’t to bad!’” don’t ask because I don’t know. The camera was rolling while Kelbie and I were making our object film and there was some pretty entertaining conversations that came out of that. That is the main one that I remember.

Foxes, those are somewhat of a meme. As a new class I constantly heard the joke ‘nation wide is on your side’ and I got pretty annoyed pretty fast. So this year I decided that I would avoid that, so I had everybody call me fox. Now everyone makes fox jokes and Annika has fox-es out where she lives so she teases about my ‘family’. It’s pretty fun, actually. So foxes are now about five types of jokes.

We also use quite a few of the meme’s and jokes off the internet and we always have ones that come and go. There are quite a few not list-ed but it can not be helped.

Then of course we poke a little fun at each other quite a bit, and we have fun with banter. We are like a second family to each other, heck we even get on each others nerves a little bit. Well, quite a bit, but hey, we are stuck around each other for a good sum of the week. Like all day every day for most of the week all summer. What can you expect?

Those are the main meme’s that we use and some that I had honestly forgotten about. Take them, and do with them what you will. Hopefully that can help you see a little into

the minds of the twenty-sev-enteen alumni class. We may still come up with meme’s of all sorts because that is what we do, whenever something happens, weather weird funny or frustrating, we try to joke about it. I hope you all got a kick out of this and that you enjoy my fellow alumni’s arti-cles. And of course I’ll see you later. Remember to use those nice fingers and close your parentheses. Keep those foxes happy so they don’t attack your

boat dogs. Keep Brad Marshall Johnson happy so he doesn’t attack the trash cat, and Mario theme out. See you later folks, meming out.

The Meme’s of the 2017 AlumniBy; Nation Theis

Catholic Theology On Jesus Christ Hi there, friend! My name is Allison Burmeister and I am 13 years old. As I was trying to come up with article ideas, I thought to myself Why not write about the thing you love most: Jesus! And while I was writing about Jesus, it cam to me: The Ugly Truth Behind A Catholic School. Anyway, I enjoyed writing my articles and I hope you enjoy them too! Jesus was a Jewish preach-er and a religious leader who later became the center of Christianity. Christians believe that he is the Son of God and he is the Messiah who is prophesied in the New Testament of the Bible. Most modern scholars be-lieve that Jesus existed historically. The Four canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) are the only sources for the life and message of Jesus. The Gospels were written by four different authors who all had close ties to Jesus. Jesus's birth was extraordinary. His mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, was 17-18 when she conceived and gave birth to Jesus. The angel Gabriel came to Mary and told her that she was going to have a child. He told her that her child was going to be conceived by the Holy Spirit and that he was going to be the Son of God/ Messiah. He told her to name him Jesus. His father, Jo-seph, was a carpenter. He tried to chicken out of being a father but then he had dreams where angels told him to not be afraid, and so he wasn't. The ruler at the time, Caesar Augustus, wanted all of the Jews to register in a census. While Mary and Jo-esph were on their way to register, Mary went into labor. They went to a bunch of hotels, who all didn’t have rooms. One said that they had a stable. Mary was desperate so she accepted. She gave birth to Jesus in a barn. Some Magi saw a star in the sky. It was hovering above the stable and they in-stantly knew that that must be a sign from God, and so they went. They brought gifts and when they got there, they got on their knees in worship for The Son Of God. Fast forward many years later. Jesus was walking along the Jordan River when he saw John the Baptist baptizing people. Jesus asked him if he would baptize him and John said “Rabbi, shouldn’t you be the one baptizing me?” When Jesus was baptized, it was the first time the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy

Spirit) was revealed. It was also Je-sus fulfilling the prophecies. The baptism was one of the most amazing things to happen. Throughout Jesus’s life, he would spread the message of Christianity. He often preformed miracles. Once his friend Lazarus died. Jesus raised him from the dead. This was one of many miracles. Jesus told stories known as Parables. Parables taught a lesson. He used them often.When Jesus was thirty-three years old, he made the ulti-mate sacrifice: he gave his life. Not just for me, or you. He gave his life for ALL of us, and that is the most amazing thing. The Jewish authorities were already looking for him, but Judas, one of his disciples, traded Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. He was arrested and entered willingly into his Passion (trial, persecution, and torture) He was tried under Pointus Pilate. He was sentenced to death by crucifixion. Jesus accepted his cross (it was a part of the plan) As he is carrying his cross, Jesus falls for the first time. Later, Jesus meets, Mary, his mother Simon, a friend, helps carry the cross. Veronica, (a friend) wipes the face of Jesus. Jesus fell two more times. Later, Jesus was stripped of his clothes. He was nailed to the cross and He died on the cross. His body was taken down from the cross and he was placed in the tomb. To Catholics, this is known as the Stations of the Cross. Jesus dying on the cross

was so that we could be forgiven for our sins. Jesus bridged the gap that sin put in between us and God. According to the “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” the Crucifixion represents the ultimate sacrifice and a gift from God to humankind. Because humans had repeatedly sinned and broken cove-nants (agreements between God and

the Jewish people), the only proper atonement was the sacrifice of God’s own son, poetical-ly described as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” Through agreeing to be put on trial and then accepting the penalty of death, “Jesus atoned for our faults and made satisfaction for our sins.” This

means that because of Jesus’ self less action, it was possible for God to erase the sins of humans. Three days later, Jesus resurrected from the dead. He finds his Disciples ( Peter, James, John, Andrew, Bartholomew, James the Lesser/Younger, Judas, Jude, Matthew, Simon, and Thomas) and prepares them to continue his ministry. Jesus ascends into Heaven. The Chris-tians are awaiting his Second Coming.

After Jesus ascended into Heav-en, his Disciples spread out and started building churches and preaching Christianity. Eventual-ly, they all died as Martyrs except John, who was exiled for the rest of his life. Peter gave his knowl-edge and power to his successor (today, known as the Pope). That is why the Popes are the leader of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church teaches that the Popes of the Catholic Church trace all the

way back to Peter. I am going to answer some frequently asked ques-tions about the Catholic Church: 1. Why Does the Catholic Church Believe That Jesus is Truly Present In The Eucharist? During the Last Supper, Jesus says “take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body which will be given up for you. In A simi-lar way when supper was ended, He took the chalice of wine and said “take this, all of you, and drink from it. This is my blood which will be poured out for you

and for many for the forgiveness of sins and for the new and eternal

covenant”. Protestants believe that Communion is a symbol/ representation of his body and blood. This statement implies or directly states that Communion is the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The Eucharist is Jesus’s body, blood, soul and divinity.2. Why Go to Confession Instead of God? Anytime you are aware of a sin, you can and should pray. But, prayer is only half of the answer. We are One body, united with Jesus. God put the

body together so there should be no division in the body, but that its parts have equal concern for each other. People think, no harm, no foul, right? Wrong. Sin hurts everyone, even if there is no harm. It hurts the body as a whole. The Priest is like a shoulder to lean on. You con-fess your sins to a Priest so that not only can God forgive you, but so that the whole body can forgive you. It is a common misconception that Confession is intended to replace God’s forgiveness. In no way is Confession trying

to replace the forgiveness that you get from God.

3. Why Do You Pray to Mary and The Saints? Catholics believe that worship is due to God alone. Catholics do, however, venerate Mary. In other words, we honor our Blessed Mother with great reverence and devotion because she is the Mother of God. (Jesus is God, she gave birth to Jesus) Mary is the model of perfect love and obedience to Christ. God preserved Mary from sin, and she conceived our Lord by the power of the Holy Spirit, bringing Christ into our world. Jesus is eternal. She was saved by her son before he was on earth. Mary is full of grace, the Mother of God and our Mother, for her “yes” to God that made the Incarnation (God becoming man) possible. And without the Incarnation, we would not have

salvation. Mary is the most beautiful model of total sub-mission to the will of God. Catholics do not view Mary as equal to Christ, but rather venerate Mary because of her relationship to Christ. Mary is the perfect Mother. We don’t “pray” to her. Because she is in Heaven, her prayer will be much more powerful. We ask her to pray for us. In a sim-

ilar way, we honor Saints. The Saints are models of love, obedience to God, Martyr-dom, and overcoming sin (not being sinless). They didn’t let sin stop them from achiev-ing Holy and Eternal Life. We ask for their intersession (to pray for us) just like how we ask for Mary’s Intersession.

By: Allison BurmeisterYouth Institute | 2017 Alumni Magazine19 2017 Alumni Magazine | Youth Institute 20

The Ugly Truth Behind A Catholic School!public school system. As a middle school kid, we are being taught at a high school level. As a high school kid, you will be taught at a college level. They believe in challenging your brain to the fullest extent. A lot

of kids are failing classes in my school because the curriculum is so challenging. At the beginning of the year, we had to read Moby Dick and give a 10 page book report on it. My grammar teacher said that we were just getting started and if we thought that that was hard, we would be in for a rough ride. He was right. It was a regular occurrence that I would stay up all night doing homework because it

would be so challeng-ing. We got homework in all subjects every single day. There is only allowed 75 kids per grade. Because of the lack of kids, everyone knows everyone. You are friends with everyone whether you like it or not. Private schools can be really sheltered. Sometimes they can ignore what is going on in the outside world because as long as you have Jesus, it’s okay! Everyone knows everything about you. If two peo-ple started dating, the whole grade would know in 5 minutes. Even if you don’t tell someone something, somehow people still find out. It is seriously really creepy. Politics. I’m not going to get all political but I will say this: You are a Republican or you are screwed. In social studies, you will probably talk

about politics a lot. Democrats and Independents shouldn’t offer their opinions because again: you will offend someone. If you aren’t pro-life or anti- LGBTQ+, you don’t talk in social studies. Not being a Republi-can, I found it really hard to sit there and and act like I didn’t know the answer to a question or to sit there and listen to them bash my party. Catholic schools have their flaws, just like every other school. Everyone thinks that Catholic school kids are brats. The truth is, we are just like you. This article was just for fun, don’t take every-thing I said to heart. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my articles. Bye!

I have gone to a Catholic school for a year. While it is great, there are some things that go on behind the scenes that aren’t all that glamor-ous. I am going to give you the truth behind a Catholic school. The social chain is like a food pyramid; The popular kids are on top, next are the people who used to be popular but lost their spot and moved down a level, after that is the people who are liked by a lot of people but don’t have the money to be popular. After that are the people who are anti-social and people who think they are popular but actually aren’t. After that is me: the bottom of the pyramid: the new kid. If you don’t have the money, you will never be on top. It is that simple. We go to Mass every Thursday. We also have a religion class. If you aren’t Catho-lic, you’d better keep your mouth shut because chances are, you will offend someone. During Mass, they force you to partici-pate, Catholic or not. Don’t even get me started on the Eucharist. You aren’t al-lowed to go up and get a blessing if you aren’t Catholic. Everyone will be staring at you like you have 3 eyes. It is torture. Religion class is worse. You don’t ask questions or offer your opinion if you aren’t Catholic. You probably will be reprimanded for saying something that contradicts the Catholic Church. If you are that lucky 0.0000001% that isn’t Catholic but still says something that goes along with Catholicism, you are lucky, seriously. We actually pray before and after every class. We pray at the beginning and the end of each day too. Uniforms. The worst thing, ever. It can be nice to know what you are going to wear every day but it isn’t nice to get detention for having your shirt untucked. The girls never wear pants and if you do, you will probably be bullied for it. That means that in the winter, you are a walking icicle. You ar-en’t allowed to wear legging under your skirt, only tights but everyone wears leggings anyway. The girls only get to wear skirts that are 2 inches above the knee. Anything more or less will get you detention. You aren’t allowed to dye your hair. It has to be natural colored: black, brown, or blonde. It can’t be an unnatural shade of blonde either. That means no platinum blonde. You can’t have red hair. If you have red hair, you don’t get to be there. You also don’t get to use contacts that change your eye color. Because we are a Catholic school, we aren’t a part of the By: Allison Burmeister

Youth Institute | 2017 Alumni Magazine

My Inspiration was how many shenanigans the Alumni class gets into because we’re all really great! The color choice was based on the fact that the word

shenanigans is quite a funny word, so it seems like it needs some fun colors. I did a bunch of different fonts because, again, the word shenanigans is fun and crazy, just like the Alumni group! Shenanigans is also somewhat of an Irish word, and I’m Irish, so it fits. I really love this logo because it is the

objectification of what the Alumni are this year. We’re all super nerdy and crazy and get into some crazy stuff, so shenanigans explains us perfectly. Everyone

else had logos that were really good, but I’m glad mine got picked.

Created by Sarah Sewell

Alumni Class Logo

21 2017 Alumni Magazine | Youth Institute 22


Alexander Hamilton was what some people call an American hero. He was the first Secretary of Treasury during the presidency of George Wash-ington, a writer of many things, and much more. He was an important man in the history of America. Hamilton was born on the island of Nevis in the Caribbean, but the exact date is unknown. His father left him, and his mother died. A hurri-cane hit his island, but he survived. He wrote about his pain, and the people in his town read this. They decid-ed to work to raise money so he could go to America and get a good education. When enough money was raised, they sent him on his way. When he arrived in America, Hamilton was in New York. He went to King’s College to study and he was very intelligent. The reason he was in America was because he was a good writer and people were im-pressed with his knowledge, so it was expected that he would be bright. He joined the farmers in their revolt and immedi-ately impressed everyone, but especially George Wash-ington. Hamilton was quick with a pen, and became an important asset to the revolution. He worked with people like the Marquis of Lafayette, who helped get the French involved the American revolution, and John Laurens, who worked to free the slaves. He met his wife, Elizabeth Schuyler, at a ball. They were married and were happy until Hamilton had to go back to fight. They had their first child, Philip, to-wards the end of the war and had seven more children, John, Angelica, Eliza, William, James, Alexander Jr., and a second son named Philip after Philip I was shot and killed in a duel

After the war, Hamilton became a lawyer with his partner, Aaron Burr. They went back to New York and worked on many cases together. Then he became the first Secretary of Treasury. This was around the time when Thomas Jefferson came back to America after being the Ambassador to France. He became the Secretary of State and Alexander Hamilton’s sworn enemy. Hamilton may have been intelligent, but there were times where he seemed like he had no idea what he was doing. One of those times was when he wrote the Reynolds Pamphlet. One day, while Elizabeth and their children were off visiting her father, a lady named Maria Reynolds appeared on

Hamilton’s doorstep. She needed help because her husband was abusing her, so he gave her some money. She only knew how to repay him in one way, so he ended up having an affair with her. She told her hus-band about this, and Alexander payed him to keep the secret. Eventually Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Aaron Burr came to him accusing him of embez-zling the nation’s funds. He told them of the affair, but to clear his name even further, he wrote the Reynolds Pamphlet. It was basically saying that he couldn’t have been spending government money because he was cheating on his wife. Soon after the Reynolds Pamphlet, the election of 1800 happened. It was Thomas Jefferson against Aaron Burr, and no one really wanted to hear from Hamilton as he had just ruined his life, his marriage, and his political career, but he gave his opinion any-way. He decided to endorse Jefferson in this race, even though they had been rivals in politics for years and had fought over just about everything, because Hamil-ton believed Burr had no beliefs or morals and he never spoke up about any sort of cause. This enraged Burr quite a bit, seeing as he had just lost an endorsement and ended up losing the race. He did become vice pres-ident, and later became the vice president that had shot Alexander Hamilton while in office. In 1801, tragedy struck the Hamilton family yet again, though this time it was not Alexander’s fault.

Eliza and Hamilton’s eldest son, Philip, was shot and killed in a duel against a man named George Eacker who was thought to have been working with Aar-on Burr. Philip was defending his father’s name and challenged the man. The Hamiltons were grieving, so Alexander asked Eliza to forgive him, and for some odd reason (even though he had messed up everything), said she would. Three years later, in 1804, Aaron Burr had been through enough. He chal-lenged Hamilton to a duel. They met on July 11th in Weehawken, New Jersey, which was the same place Philip Hamilton was shot. Hamilton did not think the duel was right, so he deliberately fired his gun in the air. This was his mistake as Burr fired and shot him in the side. He died the next day with Eliza by his side. After Hamilton died, his widow Eliza worked hard to make sure his legacy was protected. She spoke with many soldiers who fought in the war with Hamilton to make sure their voices were heard. She also raised money to establish a memorial for George Washington. Besides those things, she started the first orphanage in New York City. Eliza lived to be 90, and worked hard to raise the seven children that Alexander had left her with. Hamilton did so many other great things. For example, he wrote a lot. Some of the things he wrote were the Farmer Refuted, a document telling the Brit-ish that the farmers had a right to fight the monarchy. He also wrote 51 of the Federalist Papers, which were documents defending the Constitution, the Reynolds Pamphlet, which was defending himself against accu-sations, and some of George Washington’s Farewell Address, which was when Washington was leaving office. Some other things Hamilton did was found the Coast Guard and the New York Post. He also came up

with the idea for how the presidency works in America. He said that the people should elect a man, and that man would serve until he died. The colonists decided that was too much like a king, so they changed it up a bit so that the man was president for 4 years instead of a lifetime. Hamilton also designed America’s banking system and said the government should take over state debts. He was also thinking about running for presi-dent, but after publishing the Reynolds Pamphlet, he

couldn’t get the votes. Hamilton was a great man. He may have done some very stupid things like writing the Reynolds Pamphlet and spell ‘Pennsylvania’ wrong on the Constitution, but he did some very important things that changed history forever, like create the basis of how the gov-

ernment would function in America. He was an import-ant man in U.S history. In fact, he was so important that he’s on the $10 bill and a man named Lin Manuel Miranda decided to create an entire Broadway musical about him,which won plenty of Tony’s and teaches a lot of people about what the U.S was like during the Revolutionary War, walking people through Hamil-ton’s life and the things he did. In the end, Hamilton was an accomplished man who did many great things for America. He defended the U.S Constitution, without which the people of America wouldn’t have some of the basic rights they have today, such as the freedom of speech. He wrote the Farmer Refuted, and that helped the colonists free themselves from Britain. He fought in a war that helped America become independent, and he shaped the new country into a place where people had rights and they could be free.

Picture credits: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Hamiltonhttp://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/burr-slays-hamilton-in-duelhttp://hddfhm.com/clip-art/quill-pen-clipart.html

Alexander HamiltonBy Kelbie Powers

Alumni Pho tos!

Page designed by Hayden Kaleda!Youth Institute | 2017 Alumni Magazine25 2017 Alumni Magazine | Youth Institute 26

YI Alumni Magazine 2017YI Alumni Magazine 2017 Read some Really gRRReat cReative wRiting on pages 9-10 Fly on oveR to pages 15-16 FoR a puRR-Fect supeRheRo! you must be baRking mad

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