Because of COVID-19, students have missed out on experiences because they are not able to physically be at BSM and around each other. On Tuesday, April 7th, the senior class was supposed to attend their senior retreat at Camp Ihduhapi. Members of the BSM staff did not want to let the seniors completely miss out on the experience that seniors cherish every year.

Ms. Becca Meagher, campus minister and theology teacher, decided to provide seniors with some aspects of the senior retreat to uplift them during this time. “Retreats are an important part of the BSM experience and especially so the senior retreat. I thought it was important that seniors still have time to reflect on their time at BSM and also look to the future,” Meagher said.

Each year, the senior class nominates a teacher to speak to the class at the senior retreat and this year, the selected individual was Ms. Callianne Olson who has taught or coached 170 out of the 219 seniors. “Ms. Olson truly embodies what it means to be a Red Knight teacher. She always finds ways to connect to her students and understand them more deeply, so she was such a great teacher to speak to us,” senior Toby Curtiss said.

Olson recorded a video for seniors in place of the speech she would have given at the retreat in an attempt to encourage seniors. “I wanted to do the speech anyway because I felt you all deserved it. You are missing SO many cornerstone elements of Senior Year, that I figured if I could do anything to make that a little less painful, I would do it… [The class of 2020] quite honestly made me the teacher that I am, and I will be forever grateful to you for that,” Olson said.

The senior class was grateful to receive this video during this difficult time. “I thought it was really nice of her to send us the video. Obviously we’re missing out on a lot of things our senior year, so to see that the teachers and administration are still trying to make it as normal as possible for us is really encouraging. I think her video helped to brighten everyone’s day a little,” senior Maggie Murnan said.

Olson was equally as grateful to the senior class as they were to her after being nominated to be their speaker. “[The class of 2020] is really special to me, mostly because I feel like in a weird way, we’ve grown up together. I’ve watched most of [them] grow up since [they] were 7th/8th graders, and [they] all have watched me grow as a teacher. I know that it was mostly [the class of 2020] that won me the Apple Polisher award last year, which also meant so much to me. Of all the classes to have senior year cut short, [this] is the one I least want it to happen to. It just doesn’t feel right not to end our journey full circle together,” Olson said.

If seniors had been able to go to Camp Ihduhapi, they would have reflected on their past, participated in sharing circles, gone on nature walks, done yoga, and more. “It’s hard to translate what we would have done at Ihduhapi to an online experience but seniors still were able to hear from their selected faculty member, Ms. Olson and still will have the opportunity to do some reflection,” Meagher said.

In addition to Ms. Olson providing a speech of encouragement to the senior class, other BSM teachers and staff posted videos with words of wisdom in a Flipgrid that was then sent out to the class of 2020. “I really appreciated the Flipgrid videos teachers posted. It was nice to hear from a lot of the teachers I haven’t seen in a couple months,” Curtiss said.