Almost 22,000 students meet every other year to participate in the National Catholic Youth Conference. Students from BSM have attended the conference since 1997, typically preparing 25 to 30 songs for the conference. “Last year was a struggle to get the music learned before we left for the conference,” choir director Mrs. Nancy Stockhaus said. The musical needs of last year’s fall production, Fiddler on the Roof, took precedence over learning the songs for NCYC. “We changed the position of the fall musical so that I would have enough time to teach the NCYC kids their music,” Ms. Stockhaus said. Now, during the off-year of NCYC, BSM will put on a musical; this allows the next year’s production to be a play, meaning more time can be spent on better preparing for NCYC.