Penn’s Ishita Masetty named Indiana Academic All-Star

Ishita Masetty of Penn High School has been named an Indiana Academic All-Star, one of the state’s highest academic honors for graduating seniors. 

According to Penn High School Principal Rachel Fry, just 90 students across Indiana are selected as Regional Academic All-Stars, with only 40 advancing to earn the distinction of State Academic All-Star. This places Masetty among an elite group of scholars recognized for their excellence in academics, leadership, and service.

In addition to this prestigious recognition, Masetty was awarded the Rick Reed Academic Competitions Scholarship, earning a $1,000 scholarship in honor of her achievements. Her accomplishments reflect a strong commitment to academic success and represent Penn High School at the highest level across the state.

Masetty’s honor included her inspirational educator, Mrs. Catherine Maes (Advanced Placement Chemistry).

Masetty said that Maes helped chemistry change from a subject to a lens through which she sees the world.

“Entering her classroom as the only sophomore, I’d felt intimidated at the prospect of keeping pace with Juniors who seemed effortlessly fluent in a language I was just learning to speak,” Masetty said of starting her Chemistry class with Mrs. Maes. “But through patient guidance and unwavering encouragement, Ms. Maes slowly taught me to trust myself.

“She answered every confused question with genuine enthusiasm, stayed after school to work through problems until concepts clicked, and celebrated my growth as if it were her own. Ms. Maes has a rare gift: she makes every student feel capable of brilliance. She believe in me long before I believed in myself.”

Masetty is one of Penn’s Valedictorians for the Class of 2026. She is also a National Merit Scholarship Finalist and an AP Scholar with Distinction.

 

Penn names Valedictorians, Salutatorians for Class of 2026

Penn High School Principal Rachel Fry announced that 20 students have been selected to represent the Class of 2026 as Valedictorians and two students have been named Salutatorians.

Penn High School’s Class of 2025 Commencement Ceremony will be held at 7 p.m., Monday, June 8, 2026, at Purcell Pavilion at the Joyce Center on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. Doors open for parents at 5:30 p.m.

Fiona Bao, Sreeja Bhattacharjee, Mehreen Buchh, Gavin Doster, Sultaan Khan, Angie Liu, Trenton Mager, Ishita Masetty, Joseph McQueary, Kelsey Meyer, Leo Ni, Joshua Oh, Roman Ramos, Marie Roach, Henry Smoker, Grant Spadafore, Amina Spahic, Jocelyn Teeple, Zoya Turk and Brooqlin Vargas were named Valedictorians based on their academic achievements.

Diya Lahane and Aidan Lee have been named Salutatorians.

Additional information showcasing Penn’s Valedictorians and Salutatorians will be posted at a later date.

More information on Penn’s Class of 2026 Commencement Ceremony can be found here.

Pen High School class of 2026 graduation announcement of Salutatorians.

 

NHS sponsors Blood Drive on Wednesday, April 22

Penn’s National Honor Society is hosting a Blood Drive for students and staff only on Wednesday, April 22, 2026.

Sign up to donate blood here.

***Keep in mind that when signing up on the website, it says that the date is a black day, but it is actually a gold day.
 
Please note:
– There are limited spots available for each time, so if you intend to sign up, please do so sooner rather than later.
– If you are 16 years old, you MUST have a parental consent form filled out to bring at the time of donation.
***If you do sign up, please do not sign up during a test or a quiz, and coordinate with teachers to make sure you are signing up for a time at which you do not miss any educational or instructional material.
 

ON BLOOD DONATION DAY:

  • Drink PLENTY of water
  • Eat an iron-enriched dinner before
  • EAT BREAKFAST
    • Not something light, but a hearty breakfast
  • NO ENERGY DRINKS BEFORE
    • This is VERY important to avoid

We work with the South Bend Medical Foundation (SBMF), so they will set up near Door C, and you can expect donating to take around 45 minutes. Do not be late since they work on a tight schedule. We hope to see you all donating!!!

For students who have more questions, feel free to contact hsmoker478@phm.k12.in.us

Here is an informational video.

Penn AP Drawing students earn Scholastic honors

Penn High School AP Drawing students Ashton Hanover and Lucia Lozar have earned two of the five Northwest Indiana/Southwest Michigan Region’s American Vision Nominee awards through the Scholastic Art competition. Those are the top awards, selected from among all the Gold Key works in the area, which are selected from over 4,000 entries.
 
Hanover, a senior at Penn, also won a Notre Dame Award.
 
Both regional awards include scholarship checks.
 
Hanover was also awarded one of five National American Vision Medals, given to the top five artists selected from Indiana regions. These represent only two percent of all Scholastics Award winners. He will be invited to receive his medal this summer at Carnegie Hall in New York City.
 
The National American Vision also comes with a scholarship that is in addition to the financial awards from Notre Dame, and the Regional American Vision.
 
Hanover is the second student of Penn Art Instructor Anne Napoli in the past three years to earn a national award through Scholastic. Penn alum Charlie Sailor won one of only three National Herb Block Editorial Cartoon Awards for an artwork done in Penn’s Advanced Drawing Class when she was a senior. She received a $2,500 scholarship with the award at Carnegie Hall and then her artwork was displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art through the summer that year.

Penn students present at State Science Fair

 Penn High School students participated at the State Science Fair hosted by Indiana University-Indianapolis on Saturday, March 28, 2026.
 
Presentations included:
  • Eleanor Niemier 9th grade: Cisplatin Effects on Gene Expression in Lung and Colon Cancer
  • Viosa Hernandez 9th grade: How do iPhones, iPads and WiFi affect the development of living organisms? A case study of Raphanus Sativus and Lepidium Sativum
  • Ethan Doane 12th Grade: Fighting bacteria with liposomes: a better way to deliver antibiotics
 
They presented their research to scientific experts who judged their presentations. Eleanor Niemier and Viosa Hernandez were two of-18 ninth grade projects at the State Fair this year and Ethan Doane was one of 12 senior projects at the state fair this year.
 
“Although they did not win any placements or advance to nationals this year, they all represented Penn High School extremely well and we are very proud of all their hard work,” Sponsor Antonia Boger-May said of the students. 
 
Viosa Hernandez won a special award for her plant-based project: The Excellence in Environmental Science Senior Division from the Indiana Association of Environmental professionals. 
 

Penn Science Olympiad students earn Top 10 finishes at state

Penn Science Olympiad earned its first Top Ten finishes in two events at the Science Olympiad State competition at Northridge High School.

• Iniya Christopher & Alishba Syeda — 6th in Disease Detectives
• Joanna Lin & Emily Pearson — 8th in Botany

Penn’s season included a third-place finish at the Regional.

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[Show slideshow]

Sreeja Bhattacharjee earns Scholastic National Silver Medal

Penn High School student Sreeja Bhattacharjee is a 2026 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards national winner.

Bhattacharjee is one of 12 students nationwide to earn a National Silver Medal.
 
She is Penn’s first Scholastic National winner since 2016.
 
Bhattacharjee won the Silver Medal for her portfolio “Earthbound” and her short story “Over Easy.” 
 
Caelea Armstrong is the sponsor of Penn’s Literary Magazine, “Spectrum”, and is the instructor of the Creative Writing class.
 
 

Penn places third in Speech State Tournament

Penn High School hosted the 2026 Speech State Tournament.
 
Photo Gallery posted below.
 
Penn, coached by Jeremy Starkweather, placed third in the Triple A Class.
 
PENN HIGHLIGHTS:
 
Finalists
Andrew Dell- State Runner-Up – Dramatic Interpretation 
James Mason- State Runner-Up – Broadcasting
 
Semi-Finalists
Mugisha Gihozo – Original Performance
Hannah Luck – Poetry
Veerinder Turna – Discussion
 
Quarter-Finalists
Malika Mosley and Yolanis Fair – Original Performance
Hannah Luck – Programmed Oral Interpretation
Aiden Kennedy – Broadcasting
Kaiyi Zhao – International Extemp
Alex Geyer – Informative
Sobrin Fitwi – Informative
Rebeca Ramirez – United States Extemp
Mia Helm – Discussion
 

Penn DECA students excel at State

Penn’s DECA chapter competed at the State Career Development Conference in Indianapolis. Due to their outstanding performance at SCDC, 31 Penn students qualified for the International Career Development Conference, the most in chapter history.

Photos posted below

Receiving competency awards:

(85%+ on roleplay exam)

1) Mia Helm
2) David Ha
3) Joseph Imdieke
4) Connor Geoghegan

5) Danielle Ciliberti

International Career Development Conference Qualifiers:

State Champions:
Melody Matviyiv and Gracie Rowe (Business Services Operations Research)

Jennifer Chen and Marium Chaudry (International Business Plan)

Veerinder Turna and Vardaan Turna (Sports and Entertainment Marketing Operations Research)

Second Place:
Kaiyi Zhou and Joshua Seluzhitsky (Buying and Merchandising Operations Research)

Yuxuan Lin and Caitlyn McCrink (Innovation Plan)

Layla Hurley and Victoria Sanchez (Integrated Marketing Campaign – Event)

Danielle Ciliberti and Olivia Wu (Integrated Marketing Campaign – Service)

Gabi Martinez-Morales and Nia Lawson-Mitchell (Community Awareness Project)

Navya Ramanujan and Charlotte Chung (Marketing Management Team Decision Making)

Third Place:
Aarna Pathak and Ayvah Bell (Finance Operations Research)

Veer Verma and Mariam Ahmed (Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research)

Ishita Masetty and Abhijay Masetty (Franchise Business Plan)

Emma Wei and Alice Zhang (International Business Plan)

Johnson Chen (Entrepreneurship Series)

Fourth Place (Roleplay Only):
Vihaan Meda (Principles of Business Management and Administration)

 
Other ICDC Qualifiers:
Joon Jang (Business Finance Series)
 

Chase Pinckert and Lucas Eshowsky (Sports and Entertainment Marketing Team Decision Making)

 

Penn Speech & Debate Team qualifies students for Nationals

The following members of the Penn Speech and Debate Team have qualified for the national tournament, which will be held in Richmond, Va. on June 15-21. 
 
  • Daniel Zartman and Cathlyn Kulba – Policy 
  • Olivia Kiner and Mia Helm – Lincoln Douglas
  • Amina Spahic and Rebecca Wolter – Public Forum
  • Roman Gargis, David Ha, and Bray Councell – Congress
  • Selin Bilgicer – Humorous Interpretation
  • Rayna Doland and Rebecca Wagman – Original Oratory
  • Rebecca Ramirez – United States Extemporaneous Speaking
  • Victoria Sanchez, Mira Yaradi, Ishita Awasthi, and Ranveer Verma – World Schools
  • Emmanuel Singleton – Big Questions 

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