2015-16 News and Photos

New Book by Fr. Thomas Esposito

With this collection of letters addressed to literary characters, saints, and historical figures, Fr. Thomas Esposito initiates a series of conversations spanning key concerns such as the human person made in the image and likeness of God, the nature of love and the fascination of creation. Beautifully written to a cast of personalities including Pope John Paul I, Hermione Granger, Albert Einstein, Noah, Rembrandt, Abraham Lincoln, Confucius, Joan of Arc, Audrey Hepburn, T.S. Eliot, Babe Ruth, Mother Earth and Narcissus these letters will touch a vital cord in all who read them. The book is available at St. Paul Press and also on Amazon.

Cistercian Junior Competes at Junior Nationals

From July 30—August 3, a Form VII student competed at the U.S. Junior Nationals for swimming in San Antonio, TX. As a 16-year old, the Cistercian Junior was competing against the country’s best high school swimmers. His program of 3 individual events (100 m. butterfly; 100 m. backstroke; 50 m. freestyle) and 2 relays yielded 2 Personal Best times (100 m. free & 100 m. butterfly). Currently, he is ranked 6th in the state of Texas for the Class of 2017 and has been recognized as a High School All American in swimming for his SPC time in the 100 yd. butterfly.

Fall Sports

Fall Sports have begun at Cistercian. Check out our calendar for upcoming games and come cheer on the Hawks!

Reflections Literary Competition

The staff of Cistercian’s literary magazine, Reflections, is pleased to announce a small literary competition for the first quarter: Aspirations. Our hope is that the creative freedom of the summer months and the experiences of the beginning of school have given rise to new works of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction. Students are invited to submit any literary work, with a limit of one entry per student. Reflections plans to award one $25 prize to the best Middle School piece, and another $25 prize to the best Upper School piece.

The winning pieces will also be published in Reflections 2016.

We are accepting submissions from now until Monday, September 28. Pieces should be submitted to cistercian.reflections@gmail.com (in a separate attachment) or directly to Fr. Stephen.

We anticipate another, larger competition this fall, Inspirations, with a deadline toward the end of November.

Unbound

Form VII students show a picture of a Kenyan student whose education they have sponsored through Unbound, a charity that helps children and their families with the resources they need to find a way out of poverty.

New French Teacher

Mme. Obels-Robinson, our new French teacher, is shown giving some private tutoring to a senior that wanted to improve his French.

A Word to Enkindle

Let us help our country; Let us be ourselves By Fr. John for Texas Catholic

Senior Seminar

Last week, as part of their Senior Seminar, four Form VIII students had the wonderful opportunity to visit the blockbuster exhibit now wrapping up at the Kimbell Museum in Fort Worth. In this collection of paintings, they found Renaissance masterpieces by Botticelli, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, and El Greco.

We Spy a Hawk-Horn!

Matthew Merrick, class of 2015, suited up as a true freshman for the Texas Longhorns in their opening game against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Matthew is one of five members of the class of 2015 continuing their athletic careers at Division I schools including: Dare Odeyingbo - Football, Vanderbilt; Nick Skalak - Football, Missouri; Ben Tilden - Rowing, Columbia; Ryan Watters - Soccer, Cornell.

North Texas Giving Day
A Tremendous Success -- Wow!

THANK YOU to everyone who contributed to Cistercian through yesterday's North Texas Giving Day!

The response from current parents, alumni, alumni parents, grandparents and friends of Cistercian was overwhelming, with $486,575 raised from 584 donors. This tops last year's total as a record fundraising day for the School. Further, because these donations were placed through this annual program, the Communities Foundation of Texas (CFT) will provide an additional percentage of bonus funds.

Thank you! We sincerely appreciate such a strong show of support in helping us to continue our mission of educating fine young men in the Cistercian tradition.

Please note: If you made an anonymous donation and would like your class to receive credit, please e-mail Erin Hart at ehart@cistercian.org. We will not publish your name.

Also, if your preference is to designate your gift to a named scholarship endowment, or if you want to split your gift between the Sustentation and the Monastic Fund, and you did not specify it in the comments section when making your gift, please let Erin know this as well.

Form II Dot Race

Congratulations to the Black Team on winning the Form II Dot Race! It was very well-orchestrated by their Form Master, Fr. Anthony, and the seniors who made even more fun with a humorous blow-by-blow sports commentary. As the first dot race Form Master in the fall of 1999, Mr. Haaser assisted with some of the details of the race. Click here for photos from the event!

Students Get a Charge out of Science

Students in Form III Science had a hair-raising experience this week as they learned about static charge with a Van de Graaff generator.

Latin Class

Fr. Justin took the boys out to the amphitheater to recite some lines from a play that they have been working on in class. The boys recited scenes in small groups in English first to help with comprehension, then in Latin. In this photo, a Form III student is setting up the scene as narrator in the story ‘Hermogenes’ (name of a wicked Greek merchant).

The Way

Fr. John and Fr. Gregory each have articles in the current issue of The Way, an international journal of contemporary Christian spirituality, published by British Jesuits. Click the following links to read "The Texas Oil Patch, Pope Francis and Laudato si’" by Fr. Gregory, and "‘A Voice Crying in the Desert’ Laudato si’ as Prophecy" by Fr. John.

Community Service

In late September, Cistercian students gathered at St. Francis Church to prepare food for the Austin Street Center. The community at Austin Street Center provides safe shelter and meets the basic needs of the most vulnerable homeless.

Leyendo en Español

Mrs. Lisa Hernandez's Spanish 2 class reads a story from their year-long reader, El Conde Lucanor.

"Do you want to go to Homecoming with me?"

A Cistercian Junior enrolled in the Chinese elective had a creative way to ask a young lady to the dance this weekend.

The Homecoming Game ison Friday, October 16. The BBQ dinner and silent auction begin at 6:00 p.m. and the game starts at 7:00. We hope you'll join us!

Language Lab

Form V students practice their Spanish listening and speaking skills in the library classroom

Pétanque

Upper School students experienced the classic French game, pétanque, as part of their French 2 and 3 classes. Similar to bocce ball, pétanque players must take turns tossing a ball as close as possible to a small ball called a cochonnet. One may use their turn to try to throw the ball toward the cochonnet, or they may try to knock the other player's ball away.

A Night on the Air

The Cistercian Homecoming dance, A Night on the Air, proved to be an evening of great fun for all who attended. The television-themed event had fantastic decorations and games based on shows such as Friends, Doctor Who, Sharknado, I Dream of Jeannie, Wheel of Fortune, and more.

Design-a-Play winner

Coach Dotson and the winner of the 7th Grade Design-a-Play auctioned at Homecoming.

Cistercian Speech League

We had a splendid turnout at the first Diocesan Speech League meet of the year, bringing our largest team yet! Three Second Formers placed in Prose Interpretation while a second former received an honorable mention in Poetry Interpretation. 

In the Fourth Form one student received a second place ribbon in Humurous Interpretation; four students placed first in 2-Man Improv; and two students received trophies for perfect scores in Dramatic Interpretation and Original Oratory.

Día de los Muertos celebration

Sophomores celebrated Día de los Muertos by creating altares which are now on display in the library. After presenting, the boys ate pan de muerto and answered questions in Spanish about their own observations of Halloween when they were younger.

Informer Staff

The Cistercian Informer newspaper staff are busy making edits to their first round of articles!

A Monk with Many Gifts

Faculty and students in the Science building often relish the captivating aroma of homemade bread. Fr. Mark Ripperger not only helps with technology and teaches Science classes—he makes mouthwatering bread, too!

Performing Artists

Four Upper School Students made a great performance in Ursuline Academy's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream earlier this month.

Go

This classic game is called Igo in Japanese, Wei-chi in Chinese, and Baduk in Korean. The Cistercian library has a series of books called Hikaru No Go, which tells the story of a Japanese middle school boy who learns to play Go and becomes a professional player. Several Form II students enjoyed the series so much, they learned to play the game.

Quiz Bowl

Congratulations to these Juniors and Senior whose team placed first in the Quiz Bowl tournament on November 7. Three Cistercian teams qualified for the NAQT Nationals!

Tip-Off tailgating, Cistercian style!

Students got together to enjoy hot dogs and beverages before Tip-Off, and the next day they made pancakes!

2015 Tip-Off Winners

Congratulations to the Varsity Basketball team for their 54-48 win against Grace Prep in the 2015 Cistercian Tip-Off!

Form 2 Latin

Brother Raphael's Form 2 Latin class debated the strengths and weaknesses of two different types of gladiators, murillo and retiarius.

Senior Rehearsals

Form VIII rehearses their lines for their upcoming performance of Shakespearean play "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Virgin of Guadalupe

Fr. Gregory gives a lesson on the Virgin of Guadalupe to the sophomores.

North Zone TISCA Swimming and Diving Invitational

This Cistercian Junior finished 3rd in the 50 Freestyle (21.20 seconds) and 2nd place in the 100 butterfly (49.78 seconds) at the at the U.I.L. 6A swimming meet. Both times are close to his personal bests. Congratulations to him for this early season performance!

Christmas Party

Form I students made cards to take to residents of a nursing home this week.

Form II Computer

Form II Computer students are learning about For and While loops in Python.

Cistercian Swim Team

Congratulations to the students who competed in the swim meet at St. Mark's! Many swimmers improved their times, and students scored points in 11 events.

Mousetrap Cars

As part of a project in Fr. Philip's Form VII Physics class, students made cars out of mousetraps, records, compact discs, string and other materials.

Virgen de Guadalupe

There are some lovely projects about Our Lady of Guadalupe on display in the Cistercian Library. You can also see some of the projects on the web by clicking here: La Virgen de Guadalupe CPS.

New Tradition

This year, a number of students have embraced what may become a new tradition -- volunteering to play seasonal songs during lunch each day on the Founders Hall piano. It is wonderful to hear such music resonating through the campus!

Greg Brownderville visits Creative Writing students

The poet Greg Brownderville spoke to the students in the Creative Writing elective. He read some of his own work, shared his thoughts on the writing process, and offered insights on what makes a good poem from his perspective as the new editor of The Southwest Review.

Alumni College Day

Yesterday, Juniors and Seniors attended a panel discussion by six recent Cistercian alumni who are presently in college/university. The panel tackled the topic of what one ought to give thoughtful consideration to in approaching life after Cistercian. Stephen Hoefer ’13 (Dickinson College), Robert Erickson ’14 (Middlebury College), Gabe Rogers ’14 (St Louis University), Luke Tomaso ’12 (Texas A&M University), Ben Horlick ‘13 (University of North Carolina), and Kyle Hartman ‘12 (Southern Methodist University) were our panelists.

Design Challenge

Students in the Technology Senior Seminar create prototypes in a Design Challenge exercise in which they are exposed to the Design Thinking approach to problem solving.

A Word to Enkindle

Click here to read "The importance of keeping holy the Sabbath day," by Fr. John for Texas Catholic.

Lights, Camera...

Just for fun, a Cistercian sophomore is shooting his own movie.

Spelling Bee Winner

The Form III Student who won the Cistercian Spelling Bee, has won the Diocesan Spelling Bee. He now goes on to compete in the Dallas County Bee.

Freezing-Point Depression

Sophomores studying freezing-point depression work with Mrs. Lourdes Baker to make ice cream. Freezing-point depression occurs when a compound is added to a liquid and the freezing point decreases as a result.

Impromptu Cello Recital

This morning, a Form IV student made a delightful impromptu cello performance in Founders' Hall.

Another Swimming Record

Congratulations to the Form VII swimmer who has broken the St. Mark’s pool record in the 100 yd. backstroke this week, adding to his already-gotten pool record in the 100 yd. butterfly, also at St. Mark’s! He is the first and only Cistercian to have his name up on the big board inside the natatorium at St. Mark’s – and it’s there twice.

MS Tournament Champs

Form III Hawks defeated St. Mark's by 2 points in double overtime to become Middle School Tournament Champs. Way to go!

Exodus Award

This photo shows three of our senior editors holding three awards Exodus has received for last year’s book, Enkindled. Last year, as juniors, these three worked hard to make the book the best it could be, and have stepped forward as leaders for this year’s book, set to be published in May. Enkindled has been named a First Class Book by the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA), a Silver Medalist from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA) and won an Award of Achievement by the Interscholastic League Press Conference (ILPC).

Aquahawks Update

Of the 11 men's events swum on February 4 against Greenhill and Oakridge, the Cistercian AquaHawks finished in first place in 9 events; in 5 of those events they finished 1st and 2nd! Congratulations!

Hands-On

A Cistercian sophomore finished the robot hand he began working on at the beginning of the school year. Nicely done!

2016 Catholic Foundation Honoree

Every year the Catholic Foundation honors a person who has made a significant impact in the Catholic community in Dallas. In 2016, it was Fr. Denis Farkasfalvy, Abbot Emeritus of Cistercian Abbey Our Lady of Dallas. Click here to see the video from the dinner.

Ursuline Musical: "Annie Get Your Gun"

Eight Cistercian students are participating in this year's Ursuline musical, "Annie Get Your Gun." The production opens tonight (Thursday, February 25) and runs through Saturday at 7:30 p.m. each evening.

Cistercian Soccer

Cistercian Soccer ended the season with a 13-3-3 record, and finished 3rd in SPC-North. Great job!

World Languages Seminars

The Spanish and French seminar students went to the restaurant, El Salvador as a special cultural excursion.

Upper School Drama: Arsenic & Lace

In a quiet neighborhood in Brooklyn, theater critic Mortimer Brewster decides to propose to his beloved Elaine. Before they can marry, he discovers a horrible truth about his two dear old aunts that he must cover up before his fiancé finds out. A classic comedy of love, murder, and family dysfunction. 

Cistercian presents its Spring Upper School Drama: Joseph Kesselring’s comedy Arsenic & Old Lace April 14th – 16th. Tickets are $7.00 and may be  purchased online or at the door prior to the performance. Seating will be limited. Advance purchase is recommended. For questions, please email Mr. Key at dkey@cistercian.org.

National Signing Day

Next year, three Cistercian seniors will be playing for Emory University, Brown University, and University of Chicago. Congratulations to these athletes!

Mural Project

Four Juniors completed this mural as part of a project in Spanish 3 class. This Voicethread Link provides more pictures showing the process of them creating the mural, and explains the importance of the various components. It is in Spanish, but even non-Spanish speakers can still appreciate it.

Election Season

Presidential campaigns are underway in the US!

Soles4Souls

Soles4Souls is a not for profit global social enterprise committed to fighting poverty through the collection and distribution of shoes. Since 2006 Soles4Souls has collected and distributed over 26 million pairs of shoes to those in need in 127 countries around the world and all 50 states in the U.S.

The two boys from Cistercian that ran the shoe drive are both members of the junior class. They collected over 750 pairs of shoes from Cistercian families last week.

Retail as Art

Saturday night was the awards ceremony for the 2015 Retail as Art Photography Scholarship competition, where two Juniors each received the Judges' prize and scholarship of $1,000. Congratulations to both and to their sponsor and mentor Mr. Jim Reisch!

Golf Tournament

In last week's golf tournament a Cistercian Freshman posted a tournament best score of 67 and his team posted an overall score of 338. A second Cistercian team entered and scored 431.

Rowing

A rowing "quad" which includes two Cistercian juniors came in 4th at state last weekend.

Water Polo Tournament

A number of our students performed extremely well in last weekend's water polo tournament, with a Cistercian Senior named Regional Tournament MVP.

The Resurrection and Disappearances of Jesus Christ

Click here to read The Resurrection and Disappearances of Jesus Christ by Fr. Thomas Esposito, special to The Texas Catholic.

Form V Baseball

Form V played baseball (with a tennis ball) with their Form Master, Fr. Ambrose, during P.E. It was their way of directing much of their positive energy before exams.

Alcala Open - Ultimate Frisbee Tournament

The tournament was a beautiful day on the game field. There were 6 teams representing the four upper school forms, and the winning team was made up of five students from Form VII and one from Form VI.

A Word to Enkindle

Click here to read Reflecting on the reason for our hope by Fr. John, Special to the Texas Catholic.