Student of the month: Megan Mahoney


MHS junior Megan Mahoney was named Student of the Month for March. With school closed for the remainder of the year, Mahoney has been sending out a weekly newsletter to help keep up morale among her classmates and teachers. Mahoney is very active in drama, as seen here in “Into the Woods.” (Express file photo)
By: 
Kim Brooks
Express Editor

     Each month, Monticello High School nominates a student who exhibits positive behavior, as part of an initiative called PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports). The students support the school’s characteristics of Respect, Responsibility, Caring, Safety, and Integrity.

     With schools closed for the reminder of the school year, MHS is still rewarding students for exhibiting PBIS behavior, but this time while at home.

     Junior Megan Mahoney was named Student of the Month for March. She was nominated by teachers/staff Kelli Osterkamp and Shannon Guyer for “spreading positivity and joy while we’ve been under quarantine by sending out a weekly newsletter to anyone who might need some cheering up.

     “She has gone above and beyond to come up with activities to get people active and keep their brains active as well.”

     Mahoney said during the school year, she and a fellow student, Kaci Rickels, would decorate the cafeteria tables for certain holidays or post signs around the school to make people smile.

     Now that school ended early, she decided to turn that idea into an upbeat e-newsletter called “Fancy Friday Forerunner.” Every Friday morning, Mahoney sends out her newsletter to anyone who subscribes to the Google doc, typically a couple of pages each issue. She wants to keep it short, so as not to bore people.

     “I wanted something for people to look forward to during this virus,” she said. “And people seem to enjoy it.”

     Each issue is centered on a theme and contains activities to get her peers outside or to give them a break from doing schoolwork from home. In her most recent newsletter, Mahoney included a crossword puzzle, virus-edition.

     Her audience not only includes her fellow students, but teachers and parents as well.

     She also plus her YouTube channel, “Meg Honey Vlogs,” where she’s working on uploading fun activities for the outdoors. She already has 52 subscribers.

     “I want to give people ideas to get them doing stuff outside,” she encouraged.

     Mahoney works on her newsletter throughout the week. Her YouTube videos take the most time.

     She said when she found out she was Student of Month, it as quite a surprise because Mahoney didn’t think the school was still recognizing students now that school was cancelled.

     “I didn’t do this for the recognition,” she said. “But it’s cool they still nominated me and that they’re still continuing to recognize students.”

     Despite being at home, Mahoney is trying to stay up on schoolwork.

     “My brain has to keep doing stuff,” she admitted of trying to stay busy. “I’ve always looked forward to learning new things, and the teachers want to keep teaching us. So I want them to know we’re still here on the other end. The school made a good call with online learning.”

     Mahoney enjoyed Spanish class, saying she always dedicated a lot of time to learning the foreign language. She plans to become a Spanish teacher.

     She said algebra was the hardest subject for her, but she did enjoy math classes.

     Mahoney was active on student council as a junior class officer, SODA, band, choir, speech and drama. She also worked as a lifeguard at the pool. She said she’s not sure if the pool will open for the summer season.

     As a class officer, Mahoney helped to plan for prom, which is also up in the air.

     “This was going to be my first prom experience,” she said. “But at least I didn’t buy a dress yet”

     If prom is not on option, Mahoney said she would still like to see the school give the juniors and seniors give-away items that would have been handed out at post prom.

     Mahoney is the daughter of Lori Mahoney and Phil Mahoney.

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