The Mineral Point Kiwanis Club honored its February Students of the Month at its meeting Tuesday, March 3 at the Pointer Cafe.

The students, who are members of the senior class, are selected for this honor through a voting process by staff at the school, and their biographies are written by themselves.

Richie Haase

Richie is the son of Richard and Tamara Haase. He has two sisters, Mariah and Ariana. He will be the second in his family to attend and graduate from a Mineral Point school.

Richie has participated in Dodge-Point soccer during all four years of high school and was varsity captain this year. He has also been involved in Mock Trial, Science Club, Youth Group, and Band throughout high school.

Outside of school, Richie enjoys practicing soccer, playing piano, and hanging out with his friends. He would particularly like to thank his piano teacher, Donna Bellany, as well as Matthew Nevers, the band instructor at Mineral Point High School, for giving him enough musical instruction to continue playing on his own. He believes that music is something you can take with you throughout the rest of your life, and is something to be cherished.

After graduating high school, Richie plans on attending Edgewood College and pursuing a major in either Computer Science or General Music.

Finally, Richie would like to thank all of the teachers and staff at Mineral Point High School, as well as his peers, for giving him such a great experience with high school. Everyone has been supportive and friendly along the way, and he will take great memories on to college with him. He would especially like to thank the Kiwanis Club for honoring him as Student of the Month and congratulates Jordan in receving the honor as well.

“Richie is a tremendous asset to the high school band,” said Matt Nevers. “His mallet percussion skills are impeccable. One of my favorite joys of the day is when he comes down during his study hall and plays piano. If you have ever seen the Piano Guys YouTube videos, Richie is always playing their music and playing it extremely well.”

Jordan Kittleson

Hello, my name is Jordan Kittleson. My parents are Lisa and John Conway and Brian and Ayu Kittleson. I was born in Vail, Colorado. My mom and I moved to Mineral Point when I was ten months old. My mom grew up and graduated from Mineral Point with her parents, Dick and Geri Austin. My dad grew up and graduated in Belleville, but now lives out near Vail, Colorado with his wife.

I have played football, basketball and golf the past four years of high school, lettering in football the past three years, in basketball my junior and senior year. I lettered in golf my freshman and junior year and was selected second team all-conference my junior year.

I have participated in Skills USA the past three years and I am an officer this year. I have gone to State Skills USA every year that I have been in the club and competed in team problem solving. When I was younger, I was involved in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts through middle school.

During the last two summers, I babysat my special needs cousin. I drove him to swimming, library hour, his favorite restaurant Subway, and to the park to play. It helped me learn the responsibilities of taking care of someone that really needed my help.

Somebody that influenced me throughout high school is my tech ed teacher, Mr. Kyle Carey. He has taught me that if you have the resources to learn something to do it yourself, why would you ever pay somebody to do a simple job when it only takes a little while to learn. Why pay $200 to do it yourself for $10.

After this year, I hope to attend either UW-Platteville or Madison College and study either architecture or engineering.

I would like to thank the Kiwanis Club and the Mineral Point High School for selecting me and also congratulate Richie for being February Student of the Month. It is quite an honor to have this kind of opportunity in the community and hope it will continue and be available for Mineral Point students in the future.

“I have had the pleasure to work with Jordan as a coach and school counselor,” said Andy Palzkill. “It has been enjoyable to see Jordan grow into the fine young man he is in both roles. We have had great conversation in our meetings over the years regarding career and college information. Jordan has good options for himself as he prepares to finish off his senior year. As a football player, Jordan has been the ideal athlete to coach and has been a wonderful teammate. He is the type of person who does everything that he is supposed to in terms of the weight room and offseason workouts. In practice, he is a great leader. Jordan sets a good example of working hard and he really showed a great understanding of the game of football. Jordan has impressed me as a person and an athlete. He is intelligent, talented, and has great character. I could not be more proud of the young man Jordan has become and I wish him the best as he prepares to leave MPHS.”

New to the Student of the Month program is a book donation to the school library by the Kiwanis in honor of the students.

“Name of the Wind is probably my favorite book of all time,” said Haase. “It is a story told by Kvothe, an innkeeper who is actually much more than he initially lets on. Kvothe tells the story of his quest to master naming, the closest thing to magic in this world, and how he became the legend that he is today. The story will take him three days to tell, and the series is told in three books, each book being one day of his story. Name of the Wind is masterful in its writing and story, and I’d definitely recommend picking it up if you have any interest in fantasy. It’s a story like no other.”

“The book I chose is Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney,” said Kittleson. “I chose this book because because it is probably the first chapter book I read in school that I actually liked. I liked the first book so much that I read every book that the author wrote after. I recommend this book to young readers who have not enjoyed reading in the past and are trying to get into reading.”

Jordan and Richie are pictured with Superintendent, and Kiwanis President, Luke Francois.