ACADEMIC ELITE TEAM OF MMSST
MEET OUR STUDENT/ATHLETES OFF OF THE SNOW!!
The athletes have applied, we have reviewed applications and awarded the 2025 MMCF Academic Elite Team!
Each year in the late spring we open up our application for the MMCF Academic Elite Team. The MMCF Academic Elite Team Award honors student/athletes who excel in the classroom and on the slopes, which is no easy task! This application is not just a questionnaire for one to fill in the blanks. Along with pertinent information the requirements are as follows:
The student/athlete must be a member of MMSST or the Mammoth Nordic Team.
The student/athlete is in the third grade or higher.
The student/athlete has a 3.5 GPA or above.
The student/athlete will write a 100-500 word essay response to one of the provided prompts.
The essay prompts are age appropriate and are:
Elementary School Students
1. I will never forget the day…
2. Pretend you can trade places with someone real or imaginary, from the past or present. Describe who that person is and why you would like to trade places. Write about what you would do as that person for the day and how you would feel about it.
Middle School Students
1. Choose an event in your life, and write about it from the perspective of someone else who was there.
2. What would you like to tell adults in the future about being a young person during this time period?
High School Students
1. What's the worst thing about the internet?
2. Should everyone go to college?
The essays involved quite an array of subjects and many were thought provoking, interesting and encouraging as well. We, at MMCF, were impressed and so over the next several months, with the permission of the essay author, we would like to highlight and share some of the essays with you – our MMCF family!!
KARISHMA IYER
3rd GRADE
I will never forget the day…
when my friends, my family, and I went backpacking for the first time last summer. It was two nights and I had to carry my own backpack. We started from Lake George and climbed to the crest. We looked down from there and saw Mcleod. It was really fun but a hard climb and we went seven whole miles the first day to get to Deer Lakes.
At Deer Lakes, my sister, my friend Charlotte, and I went exploring by ourselves, found a giant rock and climbed it. After we played there, we helped pitch tents, ate noodles and chocolate pudding for dessert. Then we brushed our teeth and went into our tents and read and went to sleep.
The next day, we ate biscuits and gravy for breakfast then we all went to change into bathing suits and played in the lake. The water was so cold that my mom, my sister, my friend and I ran to a rock and jumped on it. My little sister and both the dads were the only ones who were able to dunk their heads under the freezing water. We had to leave right after lunch but ate freeze dried ice cream while we hiked — it was so good! Then the trail disappeared so we had to scramble up some rocks to Duck Lake then we got more freeze dried ice cream. We also found snow on the way and had a snowball fight. We spent the next night at Barney Lake and then walked to the cars.
My first backpacking trip was really really hard, but really really fun. I had such a good time we went backpacking again later in the summer.
CALVIN WONG
9th GRADE
What's the worst thing about the internet?
Throughout the years, the internet has completely changed the world. Information travels faster than ever. The world's information, entertainment, and friends and family are only a click away. It has even become an integral part of schools and businesses. However, all these innovations have come with drawbacks. The lack of data privacy is one of the worst things about the internet due to its prevalence, the little control users have over it, and the risks created by it.
A major reason for this loss of privacy is the widespread data collection. When someone opens an app, surfs the web, or visits a website, companies are trying to get their information. Websites and apps track activity, location, and other data. Although these small pieces of information on different sites seem harmless, together they can be used to identify someone and their interests. This is worsened by the fact that data can spread. Legally, data brokers and advertisers buy and sell data, while illegally, large breaches of data occur from hacks. As a result, data passes through multiple hands and can end up in the wrong hands. Additionally, since it gets distributed to multiple people, it is hard to try and erase this data.
To add on, government agencies also purchase data. Some might wonder why this would be a problem if they haven't done anything wrong and if it could even help catch criminals. In reality, though, there have been incidents where people have been wrongly accused of crimes simply because of connections with other people on social media. As for the argument on crime prevention, the mass surveillance of large amounts of data ends up making it harder to find criminals. The act of government surveillance also raises concerns about personal freedoms. It's an invasion of privacy, or in other words, an unreasonable search, a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. Being constantly watched discourages freedom of speech, and it could be used to target journalists, both threatening the First Amendment. Ultimately, data collection by the government endangers people's rights.
In conclusion, the worst thing about the internet has been the failure to protect data. It is widely common with practically everything on the internet to try to take data. The legal and illegal distribution of this data makes it hard to fully remove and poses a risk of both bad actors and the government finding your personal information. More action needs to be taken to protect the right to privacy of the people before it is lost.
MAXWELL MCCARTHY
6th GRADE
What would you like to tell adults in the future about being a young person during this time period?
If I were to tell an adult right now about living in this time, it would be that there are two sides of the world right now. The side that wants to work hard and the other side that wants to be lazy. The lazy side uses AI, social media and other online platforms to help them be more lazy. Social media can be good. It can be a good way to express your feelings and to show other people about your opinions. Social media can also be bad because there may be many people out there that don't like your opinion. Your opinion can get you in trouble and other people may not like your posts. People could hate on your social media post and people from other places could get mad at you. In this time, people like to start YouTube channels, gaming channels and have fun playing video games. I think playing video games is great, but there's also people that just sit inside all day and play video games. I don't think it's healthy to just sit around and play video games all day. It's almost like a chaotic speed train and you don't know where you're going, but you do at the same time. The reason why it's going so fast is because kids see things online and on social media, they are maturing too fast, but sometimes in the wrong way. This is how kids can be affected by both sides, working hard or being lazy. It's hard being a kid. I realize kids have different situations, but I hope you pick the right side!
JUDE JOHNSON
7th GRADE
Choose an event in your life, and write about it from the perspective of someone else who was there.
"Jude you made it to nationals!", I said. "I am so proud of you, son". Jude was so excited, we had never been to Colorado none the less skied there. "I can't wait!", Jude exclaimed. We packed everything we needed for the trip the night before we left for Colorado. After we packed everything in our bags, we put it all inside our car. At 4:30AM the morning that we left, I got a cup of coffee and woke up Jude and his mom. We had to leave at 5:00AM because we had a 12 hour drive to Colorado! On the drive to Colorado we had multiple sidestops. At one of the stops we saw dinosaur bones. "Those are awesome ", Jude commented. Another one of the spots we stopped at we looked at petroglyphs. We were very tired when we finally got to Copper Mountain. We stayed at the Foxpine Inn at Copper Mountain, Jude really liked staying on the slopes. The next day while Jude trained with his team and checked out the course, Janet and I skied the mountain. For lunch that day we got to meet up with Jude. "The course is amazing", Jude said as we were eating. Then Jude went back to training and we went back to skiing. The day after that was competition day. That morning Jude was a little nervous, but mostly excited. He got a couple practice runs on the skier cross course, and then the competition began. Janet and I watched from the bottom of the course. I was nervous and excited but I knew Jude would do well because he trained so hard. It was really fun to watch. The event took most of the day. It was a great family trip and I am glad that Jude got to experience a competition in another state.