Students in St. Mary’s Academy’s fifth grade class have been getting mentored by Olympic ski jumper Paige Jones of Utah. They were thrilled to track her competition at the Milan-Cortina Olympics. Pictured, front, from left, are Aspen Denney, Julia Michaels, Elizabeth Reiter, Anikah Hammel, Jesse Polehn, and Damian Regalado. In back, from left, Arielle Elias, Sadie Runyon, fifth grade teacher Catherine Powell, Harlan Lange, Sebastian Flores, Daniel Dong, Dylan Driscoll, Archer Anghilante, Lawrence Haynes, Cassius Castillo, Ludi Leclerc, and Erica Easling.
Archer Anghilante shows one of the ski jump dioramas the classroom created as they celebrated Jones participating in the ski jump at the Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Students in St. Mary’s Academy’s fifth grade class have been getting mentored by Olympic ski jumper Paige Jones of Utah. They were thrilled to track her competition at the Milan-Cortina Olympics. Pictured, front, from left, are Aspen Denney, Julia Michaels, Elizabeth Reiter, Anikah Hammel, Jesse Polehn, and Damian Regalado. In back, from left, Arielle Elias, Sadie Runyon, fifth grade teacher Catherine Powell, Harlan Lange, Sebastian Flores, Daniel Dong, Dylan Driscoll, Archer Anghilante, Lawrence Haynes, Cassius Castillo, Ludi Leclerc, and Erica Easling.
THE DALLES — Fifth graders at St. Mary’s Academy paid particular attention to the Winter Olympics this year. They have bragging rights about knowing one of the competitors.
The students are in a program called Classroom Champions, and their mentor is Olympian Paige Jones, 23, of Park City, Utah, who competed in the normal hill ski jump competition. She placed 23rd at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
Catherine Powell is in her first year teaching at St. Mary’s. She’d learned the previous year’s fifth graders had also participated in Classroom Champions, and “had overwhelmingly positive things to say” about it, she said.
“Our class was especially excited when they found out that Paige Jones was going to be our class mentor. The fact that we got to see her compete in the Olympics has made this experience even more impactful and meaningful,” Powell said.
Indeed, fifth grader Ludi LeClerc said, “Classroom Champions has been fun for us. We have talked about leadership and the different ways we can be leaders. I like to help people when they need it.”
Archer Anghilante shows one of the ski jump dioramas the classroom created as they celebrated Jones participating in the ski jump at the Milan-Cortina Olympics.
Neita Cecil photo
Classroom Champions matches elite athletes with classrooms to provide an engaging skill-building curriculum. It promotes the “champion mindset.”
“Through Classroom Champions, students don’t just learn about goal-setting, perseverance, teamwork, and resilience, they see those values modeled in real time by real people,” said a Classroom Champion official.
So far, they’ve seen videos done by Jones, but eventually they will get to visit with her live over video, Powell said.
Powell said the program has been “full of thoughtful topics like goal setting, perseverance, the importance of community, and emotional regulation.”
Their Olympian could certainly speak first-hand about perseverance: Jones crashed at Junior Nationals in 2021, leaving her with a broken leg and a torn ankle ligament. That kept her out of the 2022 Olympics, but she went on to make the 2026 Olympic team.
Classroom Champions is a program made available through YouthThink, Wasco County’s alcohol and drug prevention program.
“YouthThink loves this program and it has so many positive benefits for our youth,” said Director Debby Jones. “Classroom Champions is a fantastic partner and so relevant for today’s youth. We’d love to share it with additional schools.”
Demonstrating some of the things students are learning, fifth grader Daniel Dong said, “An important thing to remember when you are angry or having big emotions is that you can be upset, but you can’t inflict that on another person.”
Fellow student Anikah Hammel said, “We talked about how we can help our schools. One way I believed we can help is by keeping our schools and classes clean. It shows us responsibility.”
The program features eight videos from Jones that accompany lessons in the Classroom Champions curriculum.
The class kept track of Team USA’s medal count throughout the Olympics, and also made dioramas of ski jump competitions.
As students have watched videos from Jones, they’ve “been able to discuss their own goals and how they can achieve them. We heard her personal stories of success and setbacks, and this has resonated with a lot of students in our class,” Powell said.
Commented