On Friday, September 15, Everest Collegiate High School & Academy celebrated its annual Founders’ Day. The day, first celebrated in 2021 on the occasion of Everest’s 30th anniversary, coincides with the liturgical feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. The special feast day holds significant because of the devotion of Everest’s founding priest, Fr. Lorenzo Gomez, LC, to Our Lady. The day draws the Mountaineer community back to its core mission and charism.
For this year’s celebration included an all-school Mass, a faculty and staff Oath of Fidelity to the Magisterium of the Holy Catholic Church, and a special blessing of our new innovation lab created in partnership with FANUC. A special invitation was extended to Everest’s Board of Directors, priests from the local Family of Parishes, representatives from the Archdiocese of Detroit Department of Catholic Schools including superintendent of school Ms. Laura Knaus, and supporters of the new innovation lab. EC alumnus, Fr. Jeremy Schupbach ’14, celebrated the Mass for the student body and guests. The oath of fidelity is a commitment of all Everest faculty and staff to complete their duties in line with Everest’s mission as a Catholic educational institution.
The blessing of the innovation lab took place immediately following Mass. Mr. Jeffrey Stencel and the students enrolled in the Robotics III elective demonstrated how the robots work for guests. The robots are industry-standard and are available in a handful of high schools in Michigan. Students are learning how to program the robots to complete tasks. These robots are used in many industries today including automotive, aerospace, manufacturing, agriculture, and more. The robots are an exciting addition to Everest’s technology offerings.
Everest places an important emphasis on the correct place of technology in learning while preparing its students to be leaders in today’s society. Everest students are formed in using properly cursive handwriting, physical books, and other skills that are often swept aside in favor of technology, while at the same time preparing them to use technology in college and beyond. Elementary students at Everest have the opportunity to learn coding skills through co-curricular STREAM programming. For the past several summers, STREAM camps have given upper elementary and middle school students the opportunity to work with autonomous vehicles/robots in cooperation with Square One Network. Robotics elective offerings introduce students to VEX robots, with the new addition of the FANUC robots and Robotics III. Everest is excited to continue expanding its offerings in the field for students across its PS-12 grade levels as a part of an ongoing Strategic Integral Formation Plan to provide cohesive offerings for students in line with Everest’s Integral Formation educational pedagogy.
Students currently taking Robotics III also shared their plans to continue to grow in these skills in the future. Senior Justin Brzezinski hopes to attend Lawrence Technological University next fall enrolled in their four-year robotics program.
Everest extends special thanks to all supporters and benefactors of this project including our FANUC partners: Paul Aiello, Neil Dueweke, and John Tuohy.
