The Pikes Peak Bulletin is proud to partner with the Manitou Springs High School newspaper, The Prospector, to bring you a selection of articles by student journalists. Read more at MSHSProspector.org.
Manitou Springs High School boasts 48 AP Scholars
This past academic year the Manitou Springs High School’s student body had 48 AP Scholars. To become an AP Scholar, students must have earned a three or higher on three or more AP exams. After that, an AP Scholar can work to become an AP Scholar with Honor and an AP Scholar with Distinction.
The AP Scholars work hard to earn a 3 or above within their subjects, and they know what a big deal it is to become a scholar. “It’s a huge achievement, really. It shows dedication to school, to our education and it shows that I’m trying to learn what I want to go into,” Noah Rasmusen (12) said.
Not only are the AP Scholars and their teachers excited about their achievements, but so are the administration. “I am thrilled, over the moon excited. I think that it is such a spectacular representation of students’ work ethic across time,” Principal Anna Conrad said.
Teachers enjoy teaching AP students because there isn’t a struggle with motivation. “You have students that are motivated. They’re willing. They want to be there. They’re up to the challenge, at least they think they are. But they’re willing to take on the challenge, which takes a little courage on their part,” Mike Talbott said. “They are my favorite classes in general because you don’t have a motivation problem.”
It is such a spectacular representation of students’ work ethic across time. – MSHS Principal Anna Conrad
These students see the positives that can come from being motivated. “People here genuinely want to be in those classes, they are actively trying to learn and they’re supporting you in that way,” Rasmusen said.
Even with the support, the pre-AP curriculum has room for improvement.
“I think we’re missing some other intermittent intermediary courses that would facilitate and help our students get to AP and do better on AP tests,” Talbott said.
Although many students earned a qualifying score last year, the school is working toward having even more students enrolled in AP classes. “We really increased our pass rate last year for AP classes, which I think is a huge testament to the number of not only students taking AP classes and challenging themselves across one or more classes, but also the work of our AP teachers,” Conrad said.
Manitou Springs offers 17 AP classes. College Board [a nonprofit dedicated to college readiness] highly encourages open enrollment so, any student who feels ready to take an AP class can.
“I think it’s fun to have something that challenges you a little bit more than just a basic class. And I think they’re very interesting and fun to take because you’re challenged, but they also make it fun for you, so it’s not a class that you dread,” Shaena Vigil (12) said.
Reintroduction of wolverines to Colorado is important for ecosystem
In May of 2024, Governor Jared Polis signed a bill stating the reintroduction of 30 female and 15 male wolverines to the state of Colorado. This reintroduction will be a three-year-long period of releasing the animals back into the state.
While some might say “But they are dangerous!” or “What about our livestock?” or maybe even “The only good wolverine is a dead wolverine”, the introduction of this animal is good for the state. These statements are incorrect because of how much livestock is killed by wolverines per year, how many people are injured or killed by wolverines per year, how many wolverines are killed by people each year, and wolverines’ role in the Colorado ecosystem.
Wolverines are carnivores, animals that primarily or only eat meat. They do hunt prey, primarily voles, squirrels, snowshoe hares and birds; but on occasion and sometimes rare cases, they will hunt moose, Dall sheep, caribou and probably deer when reintroduced back to Colorado. Attacks on livestock are rare, but it does happen. In May of 2022 in Utah, 18 sheep were attacked and some killed by a wolverine. And in Sweden and Norway, wolverines have been known to kill sheep and reindeer, a domestic version of a caribou. Despite this, wolverine attacks on livestock are very rare. The wolverine in Utah was one outside of his normal range and is an oddity, and the attacks in Sweden and Norway are still rare. So, wolverine attacks are like shark attacks. They almost never happen, but when they do people go bananas.
In the wild, there has been no record of wolverines attacking or killing people. There have been only a few stimulated attacks in captivity while handling cubs or being around the nest. Wolverines like to stay away from human activity due to how noisy we are as well as how weird we look as a mammal.
If you stumble across a wolverine out in the wild, the best thing to do is to remain calm and back away slowly from it; and whatever you do, don’t be loud or turn your back to the animal. This will trigger a prey response to the wolverine. To stay safe from a wolverine encounter hike with friends or family and talk to one another, this should scare off the animal. The only real times wolverines would want to interact with people is to steal food/garbage or if they think they or their kits, baby wolverines, are in danger. So, if you don’t interact with a wolverine, be loud, keep your food and trash locked up tight, and don’t try to interact with it as if it’s a dog.
In the state of Alaska alone, approximately 550 wolverines are killed a year due to legal hunting and trapping. Wolverine breeding season lasts from May through August. Wolverine pregnancy lasts up to 30-50 days giving birth 1 or 2 sometimes 3 kits each with a survival rate a little over 10% and only staying with their mothers for 6 months to up to a year. Due to the low chance of reaching adulthood, the life expectancy in the wild only being 5-7 years, and primarily a solitary species only coming together for breeding the wolverine population is fragile. Wolverines, despite being very hardy animals especially when it comes to them taking damage from other animals and bullets, can still be killed. So, in total, people have killed way more wolverines than wolverines have killed people.
Wolverine attacks are like shark attacks. They almost never happen, but when they do people go bananas. – Frank Brost
Before western settlement, wolverines lived in northern Eurasia as well as North America. In the Americas they lived all the way down into north Texas, most of California, as well as between the West Coast and the Rocky Mountains. But as Manifest Destiny expanded westward, people started to kill wolverines because of the perceived threats to people and livestock. This caused populations to dwindle drastically in Montana, Idaho, and a small sliver in Washington state.
Wolverines are super important to their environments due to them being small game hunters but primarily being scavengers. A scavenger is an animal that eats dead animals killed by other predators or disease, like vultures and hyenas for example. Scavengers help keep the spread of disease and decay in check. Without these animals, disease will be more common and more deadly, not to mention the amount of uneaten roadkill.
In conclusion, it is super important to bring back the wolverine to restore our ecosystem. They help keep the amount of small game and animal corpses in check, and they can bring in more ecotourism that is relatively safe, if you aren’t actively trying to get a wolverine to attack you.
Knowledge Bowl members wish to see a fresh perception of the team
Knowledge Bowl is a competitive, academic team at MSHS that participates in Jeopardy- style trivia competitions against other school teams. Their practice occurs during lunch, each Wednesday and Friday in Mr. Slama’s room, room 24. Members of the 2024-2025 Knowledge Bowl team hope to alter the perception of their team, highlighting that anyone can compete and enjoy doing so.
Knowledge Bowl team captain, Evan Fugate (grade 12) hopes to increase the Club’s notoriety on campus. “I feel like it’d be nice if people didn’t think of this as only a nerd club anymore,” Fugate said. “It’s just something cool to watch and maybe participate, if you want. I feel like not a whole lot of people know about us.”
It gives people a chance to have a team without needing to be athletic. – Kyle Blasi
Knowledge Bowl team captain, Kyle Blasi (grade 11) is grateful to have enough players to fill two teams and is excited to compete alongside the talented freshmen. “Two years ago, we’d end up going to competitions with three people in total, and the max you can have on a team is four; so, we were going shorthanded to a lot of competitions,” Blasi said.
Andrew Slama, Knowledge Bowl Coach, strives to create a space where each student has a platform. “I try to create an environment where all personalities can thrive and everybody feels included to help steer our ship,” Slama said. “I offer lots of ideas and mentorship, but ultimately the decision making – who is on what team, what we work on each practice round, etc., is decided by the more senior members of the group.”
Blasi is grateful for the community Knowledge Bowl has brought him beyond his involvement in sports. “I think there’s a lot of opportunities to be athletic in school or to do different things if you’re musically talented, or if you like to act, but there’s not a lot of things on the academic side, especially not competitively,” Blasi said. “Some of us play sports, but some of us don’t; so, I think it gives people a chance to have a team without needing to be athletic.”
Blasi feels that Knowledge Bowl encourages him to study and apply his academics outside of class. He has found more enjoyment in studying for Knowledge Bowl than for grades. “It just gives an extra incentive to learn for the fun of it,” Blasi said.
Fugate finds that sometimes the results of competitions are surprising, and it’s always fun when educated guesses are correct. “We got a music-based question, and Jason Jones, who was our music guy, wasn’t there; so, I just went off of what I did know,” Fugate said. “I know ‘allegro’ means fast, and it was allegro something, so I said fast just on a whim as a guess. I was asked to elaborate, so I said, ‘extra fast’ just as a complete and total guess and I got it right.”
Blasi has participated in competitions at the state level with the team the past two years. “I just think states is a huge bonding experience for us as a team,” Blasi said, “because we get to go up to Greeley, and even though it’s a little stinky, we get to share a hotel room together, and I think it’s a really unique way to bond.”
Slama enjoys the curiosity of students in Knowledge Bowl and their ability to take being wrong in stride. “My favorite part is watching how passionate each student can get about different categories: history, geography, math, science, English – everybody has a slight advantage over each other in specific categories,” Slama said. “Ultimately, I absolutely love the devotion to truth and understanding.”
Slama is uplifted by the students’ capacity to recover from incorrect answers and ultimately create a learning opportunity. “Seeing our students ask students from other schools how they understood how to solve a math problem or how they knew a fact, it is truly inspirational,” Slama said.
