Montgomery Catholic's O'Mara Attended Women's Technology Program at MIT this Summer

Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School rising Senior, Maddie O'Mara attended the Women's Technology Program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for a month this summer. She was one of only forty young women from across the country, and the only student from Alabama selected to attend WTP in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. WTP is a summer academic and residential program for female high school students to explore engineering and computer science through hands-on classes, labs, and team-based projects in the summer after 11th grade. 

Maddie took three classes: Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, and Discrete Math, for the first three weeks, and the fourth week she participated in the WTP motor-building competition.  The competition required her to design and build a motor, finishing with a speed competition, in which Maddie placed 2nd, and won a digital multimeter.  Maddie explained what her days were like by saying, "I spent about seven hours in class everyday, and I had seven plus hours of homework every night."  In the Electrical Engineering Course, she learned about Current and Voltage, Resistor Circuits, Kirchoff's Laws, Capacitors, Waveforms, Inductors, Filters, Digital Abstraction, Logic Gates, Combinational Logic, Sequential Logic, Counters, VLSI and computer architecture, Signals and Systems, Robotics, Semiconductors, Fabrication, and did a clean room tour. The Computer Science Course focused on Programming where students learned the computer language Python, and were able to put the knowledge to use by building several computer programs, including Tetris, Tic Tac Toe, Blackjack, a program to tell if a deck of cards was "hot" or "cold", a program to generate random integers, a program to change numbers into binary numbers, a program to iteratively generate the Fibonacci sequence and convert it to binary, and a program to calculate GPAs on a report card, along with several others.  The Discrete Math course covered topics including Binary Numbers, Boolean Logic, Logarithms and Exponents, Algorithms, Induction, Recurrence Relations, Graph Theory, NP-Completeness, Cryptography, Probability, Information Theory, the Friedman and Kasiski Tests, and Networking.  Maddie said of her summer adventure at MIT "It was very rigorous, but I really learned a lot!"  

To learn more about the program visit http://wtp.mit.edu/eecs/index.html .

Maddie is the daughter of Col. and Mrs. Ray O'Mara of Montgomery, Alabama. 

Welcome home Maddie! What a wonderful representative for Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School, our City, and the State of Alabama.

The Knights of Columbus Council #893 Presents Two Scholarships to MCPS Students.

The Knights of Columbus take great pride in supporting Catholic education. Col. Jack Lauer, Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus Council # 893, announced two deserving MCPS students as recipients of the Ben and Alice Tokarz Memorial Scholarship in May.

Each year the Knights of Columbus #893 give two tuition scholarships to help students continue their education at Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School. One scholarship is given to a St. Bede campus sixth grade student who graduates to the MCPS Middle School. The other scholarship is for a MCPS Middle School campus eighth grade student who will be attending the High School. Students are chosen based on academic achievement, service to the school, their family, and the community. Applicants also share their personal views of Catholic education, and how it has it has helped strengthen their faith.

The winner of the St. Bede campus scholarship was Melody Taylor. It was presented by Col. Lauer at the MCPS St. Bede campus sixth grade completion Mass on Friday, May 24, 2013. Melody is the daughter of Lynda and Andy Taylor of Montgomery.

Madison Gaston receives scholarship from Col. Lauer.

The winner of the Middle School campus scholarship was Madison Gaston. It was presented by Col. Lauer at the MCPS eighth grade completion Mass on Thursday, May 23, 2013 at Holy Spirit Church. Madison is the daughter of Shannon and Collin Gaston of Pike Road.

Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School's Dr. Joe Profio receives Teacher Leadership Award from Auburn University

Congratulations to Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School's Dr. Joe Profio, recipient of the
War Eagle BEST, Auburn University Teacher Leadership Award, for inspiring the spirit of the
Auburn Creed in his BEST Students.

“I believe in education, which gives me the knowledge to work wisely and trains my mind and my hands to work skillfully” - from the Auburn Creed

BEST stands for Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology. BEST originated in Texas in 1993 when two engineers from Texas instruments organized what they thought was a one-shot robotics event for local high schools. Since then it has grown to nearly 1000 schools and 50 host sites. Its mission is to "inspire students to pursue careers in engineering, science, technology, and math through participation in a sports-like science- and engineering-based robotics competition." Each year teams develop robots to perform tasks simulating a different branch of engineering. Last year was MCPS's third year to participate. There are two competitions. The Robotics competition and the BEST competition including robotics plus marketing and oral presentation components. Montgomery Catholic finished 9th in the region last year out of 24.

The War Eagle BEST Teacher Leadership Award is given each year at the Auburn University regional BEST competitions to an individual who demonstrates the spirit of the BEST program in promoting interest in technology-related fields of study. BEST is administered at Auburn University by the College of Engineering and the College of Sciences and Mathematics. MCPS participated in many activities sponsored by these Colleges: BEST, TEAMS (another engineering themed competition), E-Day (Auburn's Engineering Open House), AMP'd (solving math puzzles, middle school and high school), and the Women's Leadership Symposium in Science and Mathematics.

 Dr. Joe Profio, is a current Faculty member at Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School and an Alumni. When asked about receiving the award Dr. Profio said, “I believe I was considered for the award because I participate in as many Math, Science and Engineering events as possible at Auburn. In addition, I support or coordinate MCPS participation in math competitions (University of Alabama, Vestavia Hills, AMC (state math competition), Science Olympiad, and the Math and Computing Olympiad at Alabama State University.

Math and Science are not just class subjects designed to torture unfortunate students. (That's just a perk!) Math and Science are alive and exciting. MCPS students benefit from associating and competing with the top students from other schools around Alabama and western Georgia. These events, whether we win or lose, provide perspective to students on what types of questions mathematicians, scientists, and engineers consider.”   

Montgomery Catholic looks forward to continued success in these programs, and are very proud of the dedication and success of Dr. Profio and our students.
 

13th Annual Partners In Catholic Education Golf Tournament Tees Off September 27

Partners In Catholic Education (PICE) will host its 13th annual charity golf tournament at the Capitol Hill Robert Trent Jones Golf Course in Prattville on September 27, 2013.

Sponsorship packages are available from $250 to $5,000. These packages offer great promotional opportunities for businesses in the form of pre- and post-event publicity, event banners, golf tee signage, golf cart logos, as well as players in the tournament.

The registration fee is $150 per player. Entry fee is $600 per foursome. Registration and lunch will begin at 11:00 am and the shotgun start, on both the Senator and Legislator courses, will be at 1:00 pm. Format will be best ball. The registration fee includes lunch, green fees, cart, range balls, gift bags for each player, golf shirt, refreshments on the course, post-tournament food and beverages, and many door prizes. Also, all par three holes will have a prize, plus four Hole-In-Ones consisting of a new car on both courses and cash prizes of  $20,000 or $40,000. There will be a $5,000 putting contest between 11:00 am and 1:00pm and the top three net and gross teams will receive superb prizes.

For more information about sponsorship's or playing in our tournament, contact Liz Sutton at 334-260-2488, ext 1311, Vicki Dickson at 334-272-7221, ext 32, or Jerry Lopez at 334-224-6607. PICE is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. More information can also be located at http://www.montgomerycatholic.org/.

Mark your calendar for this premier event that will be a great day of fun and benefit for Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School.

Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School Awards First Sally Evans Hodges Memorial Scholarship

Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School is proud to announce Miss Andrea Hayes as the first recipient of the Sally Evans Hodges Memorial Scholarship.

The Sally Evans Hodges Memorial Scholarship at Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School was established in 2013 by the family of Sally Evans Hodges.  Mrs. Hodges was a life-time believer in and supporter of Catholic education.  The scholarship is awarded annually to one student and provides a partial tuition scholarship for one school year for a Junior or Senior at Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School’s High School Campus.  Andrea met all of the qualifications for the Sally Evans Memorial Scholarship, including being a new or currently enrolled student at Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School’s High School Campus, exhibiting positive Christian characteristics,having a strong academic record, and it is believed she will contribute to making Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School a better institution, via service, time or energy.  

Andrea Hayes is a rising senior at Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School and the daughter of Ms. Julia Sosa and Mr. Paul Hayes. Mr. Dick Hodges presented the award to Andrea at the MCPS Academic Awards Ceremony on May 6, 2013.