![Minutes before the Activities Fair in the gym, president Abhi Gowda ‘26 prepares the stall for his club Helping Hands, Sept. 4. A relatively new club, Helping Hands was co-started by Gowda and focuses on assisting the homeless, and just last year they succeeded in raising a couple hundred donations to send to shelters. This year, they have goals to expand, with hopes to increase volunteer opportunities and take in-person trips to shelters, as well as extend their help beyond just homeless people. “The Activities Fair gives a lot of underclassmen the opportunity to really get to know the Canyon culture, and it gives them many opportunities for service and volunteering,” Gowda said. “[Through the Activities Fair,] I hope to find a bunch of new and passionate members about our club and just get our name out there and spread awareness to the cause that we’re fighting for.”](https://rockmediaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/1-2-1200x885.jpg)
![The winter guard team makes fifth place at the state championship finals in the Denver Coliseum, March 30. The team performed to Barnes Country's “Glitter and Gold,” lead by coaches Margo Sanford, Blair Bickerton and Anna Orgren. In their class there were a total of nine groups participating, and the top five who made it to finals received a plaque. “[Walking onto the stage] is very nerve-wracking, but also very exciting as well. When you first start color guard there's a lot of anxiety and uncertainty when you first perform in front of an audience, but once you've done it for a while, it starts to become the best part of the season,” Ella West ‘25 said. “It's very fulfilling to see an audience react to something you've put your heart and soul into.”](https://rockmediaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Both-socal-media-nd-website-main-1-1200x846.jpg)
![April marks the 25th anniversary of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, created by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC). This month is to spread awareness of the harassment, assault and abuse that happens around the world. The symbol that represented the month was a teal ribbon; however, some survivors of assault create different symbols and movements like the TikTok trend in 2022, where survivors would tattoo Medusa on their body, in honor of her backstory in Greek Mythology. “I don't think [this month is known] at all. I rarely see anybody talk about it. I rarely see much of an emphasis on posting it online, or much discussion about it, and I feel like there needs to be way more discussion,” an anonymous source said. “I think just validating every experience that a person has gone through, regardless of the degree of it, the severity, is an essential step into making sure that people are aware that this is a very real problem in a society and that we need to do better in addressing it.”](https://rockmediaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/IMG_0011-1200x900.jpg)
![Lesbian Visibility Day is April 26, and it’s a holiday to celebrate the lesbian community of the world. Lesbian Visibility day was established in 2008 by many queer activists and organizations who sought to raise more awareness for lesbian history and culture. “So this is why during Lesbian Visibility [Day] we celebrate and center all lesbians, both cis and trans, while also showing solidarity with all LGBTQ+ women and nonbinary people,” Linda Reily, in an article written by her, said.](https://rockmediaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/Lesbian-Visibility-day.jpeg)
As you walk into the classroom, students are greeted by a big smile covering the face of Mary Burnham, AP Seminar and English I Honors teacher.
The room is covered with pictures, dotted candles burning and stuffed animals littered about. She welcomes her students with open arms, asking about their day and how they are.
As she starts talking, she doesn’t jump right into content, but exchanges light and easy small talk with each of her students, giving students a second to catch their breath from the last class and take a break.
Burnham has been teaching English for 19 years: two years at Rocky Heights Middle School and seven years at Rock Canyon, with the earlier parts of her career spent teaching in California. She grew up in both Wheat Ridge, Colorado, and San Diego, California.
Burnham attended college at UC Irvine, California, experiencing very studious and educational college years.
“It was very studious, and academic, and I very much value my education, but it was not a social experience,” Burnham said.
During her childhood, Burnham grew up with three sisters. Her adventurous older sister, whom she was closer to due to age, grew closer and got into all kinds of mischief together.
“My older sister had an unchaperoned 16th birthday party. I don’t know why my parents decided that was okay,” Burnham said. “I was only 11, and during the party, she decided to go pick up her boyfriend, who lived in Cherry Creek. While driving back, my dad’s truck broke down. She didn’t even have her license yet and I was back at the house supervising this massive party.”
She has been married to her husband, Tony Burnham, for 27 years. The pair met each other at Bojo’s up in the mountains, when she started working there, she and him were coworkers–even despite their managers telling them to stay away from each other.
“The manager of the store interviewed me and he said, ‘We’re gonna give you the job, but you have to stay away from Tony Burnham.’ Then they told him, ‘We hired a new hostess, but you have to stay away from her.’ That just obviously intrigued both of us too much, obviously. Then, it was love at first sight. As soon as I saw him I was, ‘Oh, I’m head over heels in love’,” Burnham said.
During her career, Burnham did lots of fun projects with her kids, but with those projects some crazy stories also accompany them.
“So, a couple many years ago, I used to do this project for The Tell Tale Heart project where kids would make these really neat creative projects. Then, one year when school started, I couldn’t figure out why my room smelled so terrible. It was the worst smell you could ever possibly imagine like something was dying. So, I figured out that it was mostly coming out of my closet in my classroom. I went digging in there and then I realized a kid had used a real turkey heart in his Tell Tail Heart Project, and it was making the whole classroom smell,” Burnham said.
Along with her love of teaching, Burnham also enjoys reading, with her book clubs, with her family and also while teaching at school.
Her favorite book, “Song of Achilles,” has always stuck out to her, and remembers it to this day. Her current read is “What My Bone Know,” exploring an interesting story about trauma and PTSD.
“It’s interesting. It’s about this lady who used to work for this American light on NPR. She tells a story about how she has been healing from complex PTSD and being abused as a child. Also, experiencing epigenetics, which is when you’ve experienced some kind of complex trauma, can actually change your DNA and it can be passed on to kids. She has that on top of being abused, they did all these studies,” Burnham said.
Burnham’s love for books, her classroom, family and teaching allows for a fun and loving classroom kids can come to.