Turkey Legs Fundraiser underway

Penn High School’s annual Turkey Legs contest is underway as various teachers and staff members raise funds to benefit Riley Children’s Hospital.

Teachers wear shorts and/or dress up in costumes in the days leading up to Thanksgiving Break, and collect money in school from students and staff.

This year’s articipating teachers/staff members include:

  • Kyle Berres
  • Bennett Blazo
  • Endesha Bonner
  • Matt Cates
  • Vince DeDario
  • Sarah Dwigins
  • Annie Eutsey
  • Derrick Fairbotham
  • John Gensic
  • Jose Gutierrez
  • Fran Haughee
  • Sarah Hendricks
  • Delicia Huckleberry
  • Sandy Hunter
  • Ben Kase
  • Daire Lafleur
  • Bailey Mott
  • Glenn Northern
  • Matthew Rollins
  • Ally Starkweather
  • Jeremy Starkweather
  • Kaylie VanGalder
  • Hillary Huan Wang
  • Angela Yarrell

Students are encouraged to donate any spare change they may have when they see their favorite participating teacher in the hallway during passing period or in class.

P-H-M schools have a long standing tradition of holding various fundraising activities for Riley (click to learn more about the Bike-a-Thon fundraiser Madison Elementary held in October). At Penn, the annual Dodgeball Tournament has benefited Riley; and in 2018, Penn’s Dance Marathon for Riley raised more than $25,000!

Kaleidoscope Concerts set for Wednesday, Nov. 16, and Thursday, Nov. 17

Penn High School & PHM Middle School students will perform at the Kaleidoscope I Concert (Wed., Nov. 16, 2022) & Kaleidoscope II Concert (Thurs., Nov. 17, 2022).

Kaleidoscope I is sold out.

Tickets for Kaleidoscope II: https://www.ticketracker.com/SelectSection.aspx?eventId=158479

Wednesday’s concert:

  • Combined PHM 8th Grade Band from Grissom, Schmucker and Discovery
  • Symphonic Winds
  • Advanced Jazz Ensemble
  • Marching Kingsmen

Thursday’s concert:

  • Intermediate Jazz
  • Advanced Jazz
  • Intermediate Freshman Band
  • Advanced Freshman Band
  • Concert Band
  • Symphonic Band
  • Symphonic Winds

2022 Fall National Signing Day Includes Commits to Notre Dame & Purdue

Every year, approximately 40-50 Penn High School student-athletes go on to compete in athletics at the collegiate level. A majority of these students receive at least some scholarship money that helps open doors to attend a post secondary school that they otherwise might not be able to attend.

There are four national signing days throughout the year in order to accommodate the seasonality of sports. The first signing day of 2022-23 is on Wednesday, November 9th, 2022.

This week 11 Penn student-athletes will “sign on the dotted line,” thus committing them to their school of choice.

Headlining this group is Basketball Player Markus Burton and Cross Country & Track Athlete Julia Economou.

On why Markus Burton chose Notre Dame, he said “I feel like being home at Notre Dame is great because I have the whole 574 supporting me … Coach [Al] Rhodes was a part of my growth throughout the years I was at Penn and I thank him a lot.”

Julia Economou is another Penn standout who, although she excelled at Basketball, will be running at Purdue. 

Economou said she chose Purdue because of the program and the team community. “On my visit, the girls that would become my future teammates made me feel like a part of the team, and I loved the enthusiasm and dedication they showed to the sport and the team,” Economou said. “Additionally, Coach Oliver and the rest of the Coaching staff amazed me in both their coaching methods and the way they cared about the athletes wellness and success in and outside of the sport.” 

Julia and Markus will be joined at the signing table by 9 other Penn Seniors. Of the 11 who will be signing, 7 will be competing at Division 1 schools. 

  1. Markus Burton, Boys Basketball (Notre Dame)
  2. Julia Economou, Girls XC & T&F (Purdue University)
  3. Macy Hatkevich, Volleyball  (Toledo)
  4. Ian Hernandez, Baseball (Marietta College)
  5. Kiley Hinton, Softball (Austin Peay)
  6. Mackenzie Konanz, Girls Wrestling (Aurora University)
  7. Payton Ladson, Girls Soccer (Holy Cross)
  8. Adam Lehmann, Baseball (Western Michigan)
  9. Zoe Montgomery, Girls Lacrosse (Manhattan College)
  10. Emin Penic, Soccer (Holy Cross)
  11. Brayden Schoetzow, Baseball (Wright State)

 

For complete biographies of all 11 student-athletes click on the image below!

program

PHM Schools Polling Locations on Nov. 8

Election Day

Penn Spell Bowl Team qualifies for state

The Penn High School Spell Bowl Team qualified for the Spell Bowl State Championships.

The 38th Annual Indiana Academic Spell Bowl State Finals will be on Saturday, Nov. 12,  in the Loeb Playhouse on the Purdue University West Lafayette Campus. The event is sponsored by the Indiana Association of School Principals.

Penn is coached by Angela Yarrell. The Spell Bowl Program owns 17 State Championships.

Penn qualified by competing at a regional competition at Goshen.

Penn Perfect scorers (9 out of 9 words): Sreeja Bhattacharjee, Ishita Masetty, Ashley Oh, Felix Zhang.

Near perfect scorers (8 out of 9 words): Sarah Ahmed, Riley Springman, Samantha Tipton.

Participants: Sarah Ahmed, Tasneem Ahmed, Areej Arif, Sreeja Bhattacharjee, Ishita Masetty, Ashley Oh, Riley Springman, Robin Sullivan, Samantha Tipton, Felix Zhang.

New Short Circuits Sphero program partners Penn Robotics & 3rd grade students

What would make more than 200 elementary students and dozens of Penn High School students show up at school on a Saturday? It would have to be something pretty cool, and there’s no doubt that P-H-M’s new  “Short Circuits” Sphero is cool! Click here to see the full photo gallery on the P-H-M District website.

Teams of third graders from all 11 P-H-M elementary schools and their Penn Robotics Team 135 coaches/mentors were excited to show off what they had learned about coding, programming, and robotics to their parents, grandparents and family members. 

The idea for Short Circuits came about from a discussion between longtime, now retired, Penn Robotics Team 135 Coach Jim Langfeldt and P-H-M Education Foundation Executive Director Jennifer Turnblom.

Jim Langfeldt Robotics Camp Summer 2018
Jim Langfeldt with a student during Penn Robotics Camp

Current Team 135 Teacher Coach Kyle Marsh worked with Michael Niemier — a Professor in Computer Science and Engineering at Notre Dame — under the umbrella of his National Science Foundation Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) grant, which funded Mr. Marsh’s summer work to write the Short Circuits coding program. Co-developer and former P-H-M teacher Jim Langfeldt has also participated in Niemier’s RET program.

During the 4-week after school practices, the Penn students have coached and mentored 3rd grade teams at all 11 elementary schools; one or two teachers at each elementary school are also involved helping to oversee the students.

During Saturday’s celebration, the 3rd grade students will demonstrate for their parents and family members what they’ve learned, including programming the Sphero robots to maneuver through the Penn Robotics student built obstacle course.

Short Circuits is sponsored by P-H-M Education Foundation. Former longtime PHM Board Member Gary Fox, and his wife Tamera, generously committed to a $20,000 donation over four years to sponsor the program. $30,000 was raised at the PHMEF 25th Anniversary Gala to pay for Sphero kits for all the elementary schools. 

Oct. 29, 2022 Sphero
Supt. Dr. Jerry Thacker, PHM School Board Pres. Chris Riley, PHMEF Exec. Dir. Jennifer Turnblom, Fmr. School Board Pres. Gary Fox, & his wife Tamera Fox

Football Sectionals, Band Semi-State & Cross Country State Information

It’s a BIG Weekend for Penn competition across the state of Indiana. Here’s all the information you need to follow the action!

Penn Football vs Fort Wayne Carroll

Penn Girls and Boys Cross Country

Penn High School Marching Kingsmen

Penn boasts 15 National Merit Scholar semi-finalists

Penn High School Principal Sean Galiher announced that 15 Penn High School students have been awarded National Merit Scholar Semi-Finalist Designation, one of the largest groups ever to achieve the coveted academic status at Penn.

Sakina Al-Fadhl, Ryan Cheng, Tanya Datta, Noah Durand, Hadley Jessop, Eshaal Kizilbash, Gwyneth Lannon, Reagan Ludwig, Derick Shi, Grace Wang, Zichu Wang, Andrew Wolter, Allison Yu, Janet Yu and Madelyn Zavada were named Class of 2023 National Merit Scholar Semi-Finalists by the College board.

Additionally, William Chenoweth, Luke Johnson, Amelia Martin, Benjamin Marvin, Jacob Moehn, Samuel Palmer, Rudra Patel, Sydney Szklarek and Elaina Wright have been named commended scholars by the College Board.

“We are extremely proud of these students and their accomplishments,” Galiher said. “This recognition a culmination of the great efforts of these students including all the wonderful teachers they have had while attending P-H-M schools.”

In each annual National Merit Scholarship Program, about 50,000 academically talented high school students are honored, and 16,000 of them are named Semifinalists. Students who qualify as Semifinalists based on their performance on the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®) are the only program participants who have an opportunity to advance to the Finalist level and compete for National Merit Scholarships. About 7,250 of the outstanding Finalists will be chosen as Merit Scholarship® winners in the 2023 competition.

All Merit Scholar® designees are chosen based on their abilities, accomplishments, and potential for success in rigorous college studies—without regard to gender, race, ethnic origin, religious preference, or family financial circumstances. Although all students who become Finalists are outstanding, not all Finalists receive a Merit Scholarship award. Of the 15,000 Finalists in the 2023 program, about half will win an award, and no student will receive more than one scholarship offer from NMSC.

Considerations for selection as a National Merit Scholar include the academic record, the school’s recommendation of the Finalist, a student essay, extracurricular activities and scores on the PSAT/NMSQT.

Penn student ONLY STUDENT in the WORLD to Earn PERFECT Score on AP Calculus Exam

Penn High School junior Felix Zhang talked to South Bend local news media this afternoon about earning a perfect score, not missing a single question, on the college-level Advanced Placement® (AP®) Calculus AB Exam—the only student in the world to do so!

The media coverage of Felix Zhang’s amazing accomplishment continues to roll in, including a shout-out by Trevor Noah on “The Daily Show” with more than a million views …

Below is a sampling of local, state, national and international news coverage:

Click here to view the photo gallery below.

The College Board, which administers the AP® exams, recently notified Penn Principal Sean Galiher that Zhang not only attained a perfect score of 5 (on a scale of 1 to 5), but Zhang was the only student in the world to earn every point possible on the AP® Calculus AB exam! This means Zhang accomplished the maximum score on each portion of the exam (108 out of 108). In 2017, a student from Carmel, Indiana, was 1 of 3 people in the world to get a perfect AP Calculus score (click to read a story in Indy Star). In 2016, a student from California was 1 of 12 in the world  to get a perfect AP Calculus score (click to read the story in LA Times).

In an email sent to Principal Galiher notifying him of Zhang’s phenomenal achievement, Head of the Advanced Placement Program Trevor Packer said, “This outstanding accomplishment is likely a direct reflection of the top-quality education being offered at Penn High School. We applaud Felix’s hard work and the AP teacher responsible for engaging students and enabling them to excel in a college-level course.” 

“The teachers in Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation are some of the best in the state of Indiana,” said Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker. “Their incredible dedication and commitment to academic excellence and making sure every single student reaches their highest potential is nothing short of extraordinary; and they do this every day across our district, in all 15 schools. Felix Zhang and teacher Mrs. Denise White are just one of the many examples of great student/teacher relationships that result in phenomenal achievements for our students. It exemplifies our ‘Triangle of Success’—connecting students, teachers and parents!”

When asked by reporters if he was surprised with his score, Zhang replied “I felt pretty confident knowing that I knew what to do on the test, but there was always a chance I would make a small error or something. So I wasn’t really expecting to see a perfect score. And that was pretty surprising to me because I felt like, there’s a lot of other people out there who probably perform very well on this test, and I’m pretty surprised that no one else got a perfect score.”

Zhang took the AP® Calculus AB exam last spring 2022 when he was a sophomore along with approximately 270,000 students worldwide. Approximately 20% of students who took the test in May 2022 earned a 5—the largest percentage of 5s since 2016 (click here for more data related to the 2022 AP® Calculus AB exam).

Zhang’s AP® Calculus AB teacher at Penn High School last school year was Mrs. Denise White and this year she’s teaching Zhang again in the next level AP® Calculus CB class. Mrs. White has been a teacher for 30 years and is in her fourth year of teaching AP® Calculus at Penn.

“I love the students. I think that’s why I do it. I call them my kids because now I have a daughter that just graduated and she’s away at college. And so they have sort of fill that gap for me,” said Mrs. White talking to reporters. “I love to like go to their sporting events. I sponsor two clubs; and I used to coach here at Penn. So just getting involved in the students’ lives is very enjoyable for me. It’s not a profession that you probably can do without loving it. I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t teach.”

Mrs. White also told reporters that not only is she extremely proud of Zhang, but she’s also overjoyed with last year’s class overall performance sharing that 50% of her students last spring scored 5’s (click here for more information about the percentage breakdown of the 2022 AP® Calculus AB scores).

“There’s a lot of strategies that teachers can put in place to help students learn. But when you have kids scoring at a five, you know that the curriculum is intentional, it’s focused, the kids are engaged and there is a collaborative environment,” said Penn Principal Sean Galiher. “When you take an AP Calculus course in high school, you’re essentially taking the first year of Calculus as a college student; and that’s the whole reason why we we push dual credit and AP type courses here at Penn High School. We want students to feel prepared so they can succeed in college and finish college, in four years at least. So if we can expose them at the high school level and help them experience the rigor and the challenge and be successful, we know they’re going to be successful when they leave our our walls.”

Information supplied by the Advanced Placement® Program states that students who succeed in AP® are not only more likely to succeed in college, but have the chance to save a significant amount of time and money by earning college credit or placement. Colleges and universities around the world receive AP® scores for college.

Penn High School is the only high school within Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation, which is located in suburban South Bend, Indiana (home to the University of Notre Dame). P-H-M Corporation serves nearly 11,000 (K-12) students in 11 elementary schools and three middle schools which all feed into Penn High School. Penn has approximately 3,500 students. Zhang attended Northpoint Elementary and Discovery Middle School. With the release of the Spring 2022 ILEARN results and out of all 299 Indiana public schools that passed both ELA and Math, Northpoint Elementary is #1 is the number one public elementary school and Discovery Middle is #2 public middle school in the state. P-H-M is among Indiana’s top performing public school corporations. It in the Top 3.67%, #11 out of Indiana’s public school districts. The School Corporation has consistently received an “A” rating from the Indiana Department of Education since 2011.

P-H-M’s “Triangle of Success” connects students, teachers and parents for excellence in education. To learn more about academic excellence Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation, please click here. To learn about the achievements of Penn students and faculty, please click here.

Penn Art Gallery Exhibitions Schedule for 2022-2023

Penn High School is very fortunate to have a gallery that features both professional artists and student art work. Take time to come visit the gallery and enjoy the exhibitions.

Exhibitions for 2022-23

Professional Artists:

Friday, Sept. 23–Thursday, Nov. 18

  • In the Mind of an Artist
  • Paintings by Valerie Melisse Jones & Sculptures by Katharine Schmidt & Susan M. Ward
  • Silver Mile: Friday, Sept. 23, 4:30-7 p.m.
  • Indiana Women’s Caucus for the Arts gallery viewing and meeting, Oct. 18, 5 -6:30 p.m.

P-H-M Student Artists:

Wednesday, Dec. 7 – Tuesday, Jan. 24

  • Ceramics- Mrs. Brown & Miss Bretz
  • Drawing- Miss Miller
  • Introduction to 2D Art- Mrs. Hope & Miss Napoli
  • Photography- Miss Bretz & Mrs. Dunham

Wednesday, Feb. 9–Tuesday, March 14

  • AP Studio Art and Portfolio Class- Mrs. Hope
  • Digital/Graphic Design – Miss Dunfee
  • Introduction to 3D Art – Mrs. Hope & Miss Napoli
  • Painting – Mrs. Hope
  • Sculpture – Miss Bretz

Thursday, March 30–Tuesday, May 9

  • Teachers’ Choice
  • Tri Kappa Awards & Scholastic Regional Art Awards from P-H-M Student (color copies only per Scholastic work on display at SBMA until April 30)
  • Voting for People’s Choice Award- March 30-May 2