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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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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Penn Jazz Ensemble qualifies for State

Penn is one of this year’s State Finalists for jazz ensemble. Penn earned a spot as one of only nine groups from across the state of Indiana.
 
This is the fifth time in school history that Penn has qualified for State Jazz Finals.
 
State Jazz Finals will be held Friday, March 20, at Pike High School in Indianapolis.
 
Penn High School Advanced Jazz Ensemble qualified by competing in the ISSMA Jazz State Qualifier event at Goshen Junior High School on Saturday, March 7.

Penn Theatre Dept. presents “Hadestown: Teen Edition”

Penn High School presents “Hadestown: Teen Edition” as the annual musical production.
 
A Photo Gallery of Dress Rehearsal is posted below.
 
This full-length musical is a retelling of the Greek story of Orpheus and Eurydice set in a steampunk world. With a live band, choreography, spectacular lighting, singing, and all of the technical elements, this show promises to be one of the most amazing musical productions!
 
Performances will be on Friday, March 6, and Saturday, March 7, at 7 p.m. and on Sunday, March 8, at 3 p.m. Shows will be in the E.O.S. Bengtsson CPA inside of Door C.
 
Tickets can be purchased at $13 for presale or $15 at the door, and are available on Hometown Ticketing (https://events.hometownticketing.com/boxoffice/phmschools/L2VtYmVkL2FsbA%3D%3D)
 

Penn Model U.N. wins delegation, individual honors at Indiana University competition

Penn High School’s Model United Nations team, sponsored by Eric Bowers, was named the Outstanding Small Delegation at the Indiana University Model U.N. competition.

Aydn Kurama was named Outstanding delegate, Marie Stambaugh earned honorable mention, and Rebecca Wagnam earned Verbal Commendation.