Letter from the President
BRIAN VOHDEN
Dear Crusaders,
As the saying goes, March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb, and just like that transition, we're feeling the vibrant energy of spring renewal here at Morris Catholic. With the thaw comes new beginnings and fresh opportunities. The most obvious of all is that we are just three months away from graduation!
Since our last update, we ' ve witnessed some incredible achievements. We celebrated the dedication and academic excellence of our newest honors society inductees, a testament to their commitment to scholarship and community. Our boys and girls basketball teams, after thrilling county championship games, brought home two county titles! We are also proudly supporting our teams as they head into the state tournament. Additionally we continue to be busy in admissions, registering new Crusaders who will soon join our ranks in the upcoming year.
As the days grow longer and the sun shines brighter, we're gearing up for our Spring Open House, where we'll showcase all that makes Morris Catholic a truly exceptional place to learn and grow. We look forward to welcoming prospective families and sharing our passion for our school. If you know a student who needs a change, encourage them to join us next month Our current families are the best evangelizers we have!
And speaking of exciting events, now is the perfect time to secure your tickets for our annual auction on April 11. This is a fantastic opportunity to support our school, connect with other Crusaders, and enjoy a memorable evening. Don't miss out!
We are so proud of our students, faculty, and families. Thank you for your continued support as we embrace the spirit of spring and look forward to a season of growth and achievement.
Sincerely,
Mr. Brian Vohden President
AROUND THE HALLS
Catholic Schools Week
The last week of January was Catholic Schools Week around the country. Each day of the week is set with a national theme to celebrate all those who make Catholic education possible. Student Council hosted a number of days to celebrate our community, our students, our nation, vocations, and our faculty, staff, and volunteers We celebrated the MC community, treated our students to ice cream at lunch, and celebrated Mass together. Throughout the week we held a collection for California to help our sister schools and parishes, raising just under $1,000 We ended the week by celebrating our faculty with “Dress like a Teacher Day,” complete with a morning coffee cart deliveries
Black History Month
Morris Catholic’s “Black Student Union” is a student-led organization that focuses on developing young African American leaders BSU seeks to provide a safe and comfortable setting for students to share thoughts, feelings, and views regarding the issues that affect our African American/ Black population Their goal is to celebrate black culture, educate students about black history, promote academic excellence, model leadership, and spread awareness about history and present experiences. Each year BSU holds morning trivia where teachers and students “call in,” like you would call into a radio station, to earn points for your class and spread awareness about Black History.
Advanced Science Academy
AMI Students visited Novartis Pharmaceuticals in East Hanover. The students got to take part in 10 different workshops, which included hands-on activities like micro-pipetting, working in a BioHazards Chemical Lab Suit, and taking on different tasks in augmented reality. The field trip is part of an ongoing partnership with Novartis, started by AMI Director, Ms. Priyanka Narayanan. The 65 students met and interacted with laboratory/research scientists to learn about everything from cancer research (CAR TCell Therapy) to biohazard storage to PPE (Personal protective equipment) to blood transfusions and cell sample analysis
Boosters Bingo
Thank you to all those who attended our first Boosters Bingo Night. This was an incredible event organized by the parents in our Booster Club and supported by local businesses and families. Participants played for basket and gift card prizes while enjoying BYO dinner and drinks Thank you for supporting MC Athletics.
Campus Ministry
This month we celebrated a special Mass in honor of all the Morris Catholic Grandparents. To celebrate the Feast of our Lady of Lourdes, the patroness of Morris Catholic, we invited grandparents to attend Mass and a special breakfast in their honor This was a beautiful and well-attended event where we had the opportunity to thank the grandparents of our community for their support of their grandchildren and our school
Soup-er Bowl Can Drive
Each year Morris Catholic holds our Soup-er Bowl of Giving This is a food drive to support local food banks and is hosted by Student Council We set a goal and if our community reaches that goal, we celebrate with the day off after the Super Bowl Our goal this year was 2,700 items Our community collectively brought in 2,978 items and $943 in monetary donations THANK YOU! Items were donated on Wednesday to the Interfaith Food Pantry
Lent at Morris Catholic
As we enter into this Holy Season of Lent, Morris Catholic offers the community a number of opportunities for the members of our community to deepen their faith. Below you will see a number of programs offered by our Office of Campus Ministry.
In addition, thirteen of our students attended the Bishop’s Youth Conference on March 4 Our students will also attend the Bishop’s Respect Life Conference and our full school will participate in Peace and Justice week in March We hope you will join us in prayer for a faith-filled Lenten season
Fine & Performing Arts Update
The Theatre Studies 3 and 4 Honors students are hard at work rehearsing for the annual Winter One Act production. The Winter One Act is entirely written, directed, and produced by the students in the honors theatre classes The play is intended to showcase new and rising talent at MC and is traditionally performed by ninth and tenth-grade students. The juniors and seniors in the advanced classes run the rehearsals, coordinate the design and technical elements, and handle all production details. This year’s play, Order Up, is a comedy set in a restaurant, exploring the chaotic lives of the staff and the customers. Performances will be on March 13 at 7 pm and March 15 at 2 pm in the KPAC. Tickets can be purchased at www.mcpad.booktix.com.
The Performing Arts students are also already rehearsing for the spring musical, Mamma Mia. To help promote and fundraise for the show, the cast and crew will host a Flapjack Fundraiser on March 22nd between 8 and 10 am, where they will serve breakfast and sing a medley from the show! Students in the cast also attended an open mic night in Mount Olive and performed several numbers, to previous and promote the musical. Tickets will go on sale later in April, but mark your calendars for May 1, 2 and 3!
MC Forensics Team Achieves Excellence!
For the second year in a row, the MC Forensics team has qualified for the National Catholic Forensics League National Tournament in Chicago. The team excelled at the Grand Tournament: Marissa Tufaro ‘25 earned First Place in Prose and Poetry, Lila Ashton ‘25 earned Second Place in Original Oratory, AJ Gervasio ‘25 earned Second Place in Extemporaneous Speaking and Cole Fedorchak ‘26 placed 4th in Original Oratory. Seniors Julia Keigher and Amanda Sorrentino placed First in Duo Interpretation!
Athletics
Winter Wrap Up
Our athletes have had an incredible winter season and for some teams the season continues! Our Girls Basketball team are four time Morris County Champions, ranked first in the state and ended their season undefeated. Our Boys Basketball team are also Morris County Champions and Liberty Division Champions. Both teams have advanced into the State Tournament Semi-Finals on their road to states! Our fencers had an incredible season with two students advancing to the Individual State Tournament and our Girls team ended their season with a record of 10-3. Three of our wrestlers competed in the district tournament, a great showing in our first season. Our Competition Cheer team place first and second in numerous competitions this season. Our Hockey team had a very competitive season with one student breaking MC's single scoring record. Finally our Track and Field team had a number of personal and sectional accomplishments with one student advancing to the Meet of Champions for shot put We are so proud of our Crusaders
Student Spotlights
1000 and 2000 Points
Congratulations to our students on reaching some incredible athletic accomplishments. Donnie Gregory and Cristian Nicholson hit their 1000 career point this past month, and Mia Pauldo on earning 2000 career points We are in the process of honoring all MC Alumni who have earned 1000 career points If you reached this milestone, contact our Athletic Director, James Smith at jsmith@morriscatholic.org.
Advertise and Support Athletics
Field Signage Sponsorship
Are you a business owner who would like to advertise on our athletic fields? Learn more HERE.
u m n i S p o t l i g h t
Alumni Spotlight
Col(R) Kevin Felix, Ph.D., ‘81 -
Dissertation Abstract
LEVERAGING ALLIES, PARTNERS, AND TECHNOLOGY
A CASE STUDY APPROACH TO IDENTIFYING BEST PRACTICES FOR IMPROVING US MILITARY ALLDOMAIN URBAN TRAINING
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2025 BAL 7009
ABSTRACT
IN THIS STUDY, THE RESEARCHER EXPLORED URBAN TRAINING GAPS, OPPORTUNITIES, AND SYNERGIES ACROSS THE UNITED STATES AND FIVE ALLIED AND PARTNER NATIONS AND HOW SYNTHETIC TRAINING ENVIRONMENT (STE) TECHNOLOGIES SHOULD BE OPTIMIZED NOW AND, IN THE FUTURE, TO IMPROVE US ALL-DOMAIN URBAN TRAINING.
THE RESEARCHER ADOPTED A QUALITATIVE MULTIPLE CASE STUDY APPROACH, ANALYZING MILITARY DOCTRINE, URBAN WARFARE TRAINING STRATEGIES, AND INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE UNITED STATES, GERMANY, FRANCE, BRITAIN, ISRAEL, AND SINGAPORE TO ESTABLISH BEST PRACTICES ACROSS THESE COUNTRIES. URBAN WARFARE REQUIRES SPECIALIZED SKILLS TO NEGOTIATE TERRAIN, INCLUDING HIGH-RISE BUILDINGS, SUBTERRANEAN NETWORKS, AND DENSE CIVILIAN POPULATIONS HOWEVER, THE EXISTING U S MILITARY URBAN TRAINING FACILITIES ARE INSUFFICIENT IN SCALE AND TECHNOLOGICAL SOPHISTICATION TO REPLICATE THEM REALISTICALLY
ALLIED AND PARTNER NATIONS HAVE CREATED ADVANCED URBAN TRAINING CENTERS THAT EMPLOY VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY SIMULATIONS OF URBAN COMPLEXITIES AND MULTIDOMAIN OPERATIONS LAVE AND WENGER’S (1991) SITUATED LEARNING THEORY WAS USED TO STRESS THE NEED FOR REALISTIC AND IMMERSIVE TRAINING ENVIRONMENTS THE POSSIBLE CAPABILITIES OF STE TO TRANSCEND PHYSICAL BOUNDS, IMPROVE OPERATIONAL REALISM, AND INCORPORATE TECHNOLOGIES SUCH AS AUGMENTED REALITY (AR), VIRTUAL REALITY (VR), ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI), AND CLOUD COMPUTING WERE REVEALED THE RESULTS SHOWCASED THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MODERNIZING U S TRAINING FRAMEWORKS BY ANALYZING TRAINING INFRASTRUCTURE ACROSS THE NATIONS STUDIED LESSONS LEARNED FROM ALLIED AND PARTNER NATIONS INVOLVED CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR COLLECTIVE TRAINING AND INTEROPERABILITY AND LEVERAGING SUPERIOR, COMPREHENSIVE STE TECHNOLOGIES.
RECOMMENDATIONS INCLUDE CREATING TRAINING SYNERGIES BY PARTNERING WITH ALLIED AND PARTNER NATIONS, IMPROVING DOMESTIC TRAINING INFRASTRUCTURE, AND INTEGRATING HYBRID TRAINING TECHNIQUES.
Reunions Up Next...
Class of 1965 - 60th Reunion - May 24
Saturday, May 24, 2025
10:00 AM Memorial Mass at Morris Catholic High School Chapel
5:30 pm - 9:00 PM Celebration at the Exchange Restaurant 60 East Main Street, Rockaway, NJ 07866
More information to follow
Contact Sandra Ragaglia Mazza at carcrazycuttie@yahoo.com or Kathie Shera at kathies1107@optimum.net
Class of 1970 - 55th Reunion - October 4
Saturday, October 4, 2025 7:00 PM - 11:00 PM
The Exchange Restaurant 160 East Main Street, Rockaway, NJ 07866
Contact Mary Lynne Mooney-Capen, at moonmommy7@aol.com or Tony Favale at anthonyfavale@optonline.net for more information.
Class of 1975- 50th Reunion - October 11
Friday, October 10, 2025
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Memorial Mass & Reception at Morris Catholic High School
Saturday, October 11, 2025
12:00 PM Alumni Homecoming and Football Game
7:00 PM - 11:00 PM - Celebration at the Hilton Garden Inn Rockaway, NJ 07866
Look for an invitation in the upcoming weeks. For more information, contact: Dave Dalia, at davidjdalia@gmail.com or Angela Timpani at angela.timpani@gmail.com
Class of 1980- 45th Reunion
Details to follow
Contact Maureen O’Connor at moconnor@morriscatholic.org
McDonald’s All American Games
ESPN Watch Party
Mia Pauldo was officially honored as being named one of twenty four athletes in the USA to join the McDonald’s All-American games This game will be played at 6:30 PM on ESPN2 on April 1, 2025. Stay tuned for information regarding a watch party on campus. Congratulations, Mia! We cannot wait to cheer you on!
Calling All Alumni!
From March 17 - April 8, we will be running a March Madness Alumni Challenge. MC Alumni are encouraged to make a donation OF ANY AMOUNT Each donation will count as one point towards your class, advancing you in our “bracket.” Thank you for your donations. Use the code below or visit www.morriscatholic.org/march to donate today!
WaystoDonate
Paving the Way Campaign
Leave your legacy at Morris Catholic Learn more about our Paving the Way legacy campaign HERE. This makes a great gift for a tricky to buy for MC Alum!
Spring Auction Sponsorship
We are looking for sponsors for our Spring Auction! See the form HERE and all of our sponsor levels below.
Purchase a Sponsorship Here
Crusader Camps
Registration is now open for select Crusader Summer Camps!
FENCING CAMP | JULY 7 - 11
Open to 5th - 8th grade students
Join our fencing camp this summer July 7 - 11, 2025 from 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM. Complete details can be found HERE. Click HERE to register.
SUMMER INSTITUTE | JULY 22 - 24
Open to incoming MC 9th graders
The Morris Catholic Summer Institute helps incoming ninth-grade students prepare for their first weeks of high school Each day consists of academic classes and social activities to introduce them to each other and daily life at Morris Catholic Students will take Math and English classes each day and will also participate in Theology, Science and Study Skills workshops. Click HERE to sign up.