Penn High School Principal Steve Hope and STEM Academy Leader Rachel Fry announced that the Penn High School Grade 9-10 team won a TEAMS (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Math, Science) state championship, and a total of 53 students qualified for the National Championships in Orlando, Fla., June 21-25.

Becky Tagliaferri is the TEAMS coach for Penn.

Earning state champion status were: Larry Mattson, Priya Chaudhary, Celine Wang, Karen Wang, Keaton Smith, John Donaruma, Mia Schwartz and Komal Kumar.

Also qualifying for Nationals: Kia Heryadi, Meghan Amsler, Jo Eskildsen, Mads Eskildsen, Sidd Das, Ian Baker, Kwabena Lynn, Kemal Perdana, Nick Casetti, David Kim, Matt Shan, Baker Nasser, Dhruv Khanna, Muqsit Buchh, Hannah McGinness, Michelle Tapp, Elisabeth Casetti, Hassaan Khan, Courtney Sharpe, Ian Coates, Philipp Roehm, Michelle Kwok, Yewon Oh, Tingyi Lu, Chelsea Chen, Riya Patel, Corey Wang, Tara Devaraj, Lyvia Li, Amy Bernard, Seunghoon Sun, Leah Ingle, Trang Le, Moon Joy, Sydney Doshi, Emma Doshi, Charlotte Chang, Emily Duchine, Sabrina Kurian, Shivani Ghandi, Elena Mercurio, Arianna Hardy, Anjelica Zitto, Darbie Kwon, Abdulhamid El-Fadhl.

Penn High School Principal Steve Hope announced that 25 Penn High School students were inducted into the Elkhart Area Career Center chapter of the National Technical Honor Society.

A ceremony was held at Elkhart Memorial High School to honor the EACC inductees.

Penn’s National Technical Honor Society inductees are:

Abigale Corbett, Alan Turczynski, Callan Okrzesik, Citlali Villegas, Connor Stephenson, Elaine Popovix, Emma Freel, Grace Beagles, Jay Roy, Kendall Fisher, Kira Goudy, Lauren Kasznia, Madison Albright, Megan Lanko, Natosha Overholt, Nicholas Ewald, Patrick Brough, Price Washburn, Shelby Huggins, Sophie Fershin, Sydney Hill, Tara Roy, William McClellan, Zoe David, Natalie Hall.

Director of Food Services Jill Riggs has been named the 2017 Indiana School Food Service Director of the Year. As Indiana's state winner, Jill will be honored at the upcoming 2017 ISNA Annual Conference in South Bend, as well as the annual ISNA national conference in Atlanta in July where the national winner will be announced.

This award recognizes the contributions of school nutrition directors who manage effective, fiscally sound school meal programs that provide healthy, appetizing meals to students.

Riggs has been a member of the School Nutrition Association for the last 18 years and served on the ISNA Executive Board for the past 5 years. She started on the Board as the representative for Region 2 and was then elected to a second term. The past two years Riggs was the Co-Chair for Professional Development working on the planning of regional and statewide conferences and workshops. Riggs is the current Vice President for ISNA, the first year on the presidential track. She will move to President Elect, President and Past President through the next three years.

Penn High School’s Robotics Team 135 earned the coveted Chairman’s Award at the FIRST State Championship, and qualified for the FIRST Robotics World Competition in St. Louis on April 26-29.

Penn’s FIRST Robotics team of 36 students traveled to the FIRST State Championship in Huntington, Indiana,  to compete against the top 32 teams in Indiana on April 7-9. These 32 teams competed in 64 qualifying matches. Penn Robotics Team 135 achieved its goal of finishing as the first seeded team after the qualifying matches.

The team also came home with the most prestigious award in FIRST Robotics, the Chairman's award. This award recognizes a team for being a model for other teams to emulate. The Chairman's award celebrates community outreach, inspiring engineering, helping other teams grow, and acting with gracious professionalism. It is earned over an extended period of time and is strived for by all teams throughout the world.

Both the robot’s competition performance and winning the Chairman’s award earned Penn Robotics a spot at the FIRST Robotics World Competition in St. Louis from April 26-29.

Each student on the team plays multiple roles. The team is made up of both juniors and seniors who design, build and program a robot, volunteer in the community, as well as raise all funds needed to compete from the regional level all of the way to the World Championships.

The 2017 Penn Robotics team is made up of 36 students: Olivia Adam, Conrad Adams, Kelsey Anderson, Shino Antony, Sam Battalio, Thomas Blankenship, Maguire Burton, Drason Chow, Emma Clark, Kayla Cole, Daniel Datuel, Chris Dell, Adam Dewey, Italia Fields, Austin Finnessy, Kenny Ham, Cole Harding, Lizzie Heisler, Mia Heisler, Kaitlin Kelsey, Chase Kidder, Jonathan Laatz, David Li, Eric McDonald, Alyssa McNarney, Aidan Palonis, Nathan Petrie, Mackenzie Richards, Frank Salek, Alex Simmons, Parker Smithberger, Conner Swift, Jack Wheet, Blake Witchie, David Wojciechowski, and Brandon Ziegert.

Taking on their 20th year, Penn Robotics is led by Jim Langfeldt, Evan White, and Josiah Parker — the coordinators of this top-caliber FIRST Robotics team.

Students also work with professional mentors who help guide them along the engineering, business, and design process, while also helping them to establish best practices, and gain a practical understanding of machines. The Penn Robotics mentors include: Dave Adam, Allison Adams, Holly Austin, Joe Bishop, Grant Carlile, Andy Edelbrock, Tom Evans, Nancy Heisler, Tom Leathers, Troy Stabelfeldt, Bob Stevenson, Robin Varmette, Andrew Whiteman, Bill Whiteman, and Don Zmudzinski.

To help the team by giving your time to help with events to coordinate, to help students connect with the community, help plan with community partners, or to donate a trailer for traveling, donate a full drill index, or even donate some fasteners for the robot, contact the team at robotics@phm.k12.in.us or at (574) 254-2881.

About FIRST®

Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Based in Manchester, N.H., FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self- confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering. With support from over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies and more than $20 million in college scholarships, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST® Robotics Competition for students in Grades 9-12; FIRST® Tech Challenge for Grades 7-12; FIRST® LEGO® League for Grades 4-8; and Junior FIRST® LEGO® League for Grades K-3. Gracious Professionalism® is a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community. To learn more about FIRST, go to www.usfirst.org.

Notre Dame Law School is recruiting jurors for its Mock Trial Program. This program provides a fun and interactive, educational experience for high school-age students who serve as jurors. 

Students serving as jurors are given a unique opportunity to see the practice of law in action, learn the important role juries play in our democracy, and hopefully become more interested in a legal career.

Furthermore, this process can be very informative to any students participating in a governmental or constitutional based class. The trials are scheduled for Saturday April 29, and Sunday April 30,at the Saint Joseph County Courthouse in downtown South Bend.

Notre Dame Law Students in the Comprehensive Trial Advocacy class will serve as lawyers, and real​ judge​s​ or​ practicing attorneys will preside over every trial.

Students can also earn volunteer hours for attending.  For your convenience, I am attaching an electronic flyer that provides all the details.  All interested students can sign up on Google Forms by clicking here.

Join the Winning Tradition! 

Penn Boys & Girls Track combined have won 53 Sectional Titles and are defending Sectional Champions! And the Girls brought home the N.I.C. championship trophy in 2018.

This coed camp is open to any child. Your child does not have to be a P-H-M student to enroll. Your child will practice speed and strength … the foundations of all major sports! The areas emphasized will be sprinting, hurdling, long and high jump, weight events, distant running and relays.

Camp Staff: 

• Jon Carroll and Todd Crist, Penn Boys Track Coaches
• Melissa Danner, Penn Girls Head Track Coach

WHO: Open to all boys and girls currently in grades K-8 (for the 2018-19 SY)

WHEN: Monday – Thursday, June 17-20 (Please note the rain day will be made up Friday, June 21)

TIMES:  8:00 – 9:30 a.m., K – 4th
               9:30 – 11:00 a.m., 5th – 8th grade session
 

WHERE:  Penn High School’s TCU Freed Field

COST:  $50,  includes camp T-shirt if signed up before June 1 

Please fill out the online registration form below, filling out one registration per camper.

If you would prefer to print and mail your camp registration, please click here to download a pdf of the form.

​

Penn High School Principal Steve Hope announced that 19 students have been named the valedictorians for the Class of 2017.

Muqsit Buchh, Balajimonesh Devireddy, Alex Dobbins, Will Gruber, Keegan Hurst, David Kim, Sanjana Kulkarni, Julia Kwak, Mason Lee, Hannah McGinness, Logan McGuire, Baker Nasser, Cole Pollyea, Peter Rutkowski, Hannah Selis, Matthew Shan, Emma Schultz, Evan Shreiner and Kacey Wood will represent Penn’s Class of 2017 as valedictorians at the graduation ceremony on Friday, May 26 at the University of Notre Dame’s Purcell Pavilion.

“The Penn valedictorians for the class of 2017 are an exceptional group of scholars,” Hope said. “Within this group are National Merit Finalists who are among the top .05% of all students in our country.

“The valedictorians are attending some of the most revered colleges in our state and some of the most highly respected academic institutions in the world,” Hope continued. “One valedictorian (Logan McGuire) will be attending the United States Naval Academy. 

“These young scholars, who will undoubtedly be change-agents in our society over the next few generations, are set to study everything from psychology to bio-engineering to finance. We are proud to have all of these students represent Penn High School and they certainly bring distinction to the Penn High School class of 2017.”

Penn’s valedictorians traditionally are the top two percent of the class.

Penn High School’s FIRST Robotics team earned the most prestigious award in FIRST Robotics, the Chairman’s Award, in regional competition at Perry Meridian High School in Indianapolis on March 24-26.

Penn’s team of 36 students competed against 37 teams from the region. The Chairman’s Award recognizes a team for being a model for other teams, through community outreach, inspiring engineering, helping other teams grow, and for conducting themselves with gracious professionalism. This award is earned over an extended period of time and is coveted by all teams throughout the world.

By earning the Chairman’s Award, Penn earned a berth to the state finals April 6-8 in Huntington.

Penn Robotics Team 135 also qualified for state through competition at the Perry Meridian Regional. Team 135’s robot led its alliance to the highest score in the state before being eliminated in the semifinals. Each alliance is made up of three teams who work together to complete the challenge. The scoring system has multiple intricate phases, each match is 2 minutes and 30 seconds long, and the robots are designed, built, and programmed by high school students.

Every student plays multiple roles on a Robotics team. Penn’s team is made up of juniors and seniors: Conrad Adams, Sam Battalio, Kayla Cole, Emma Clark, Chris Dell, Adam Dewey, Austin Finnessy, Kenny Ham, Cole Harding, Elizabeth Heisler, Mia Heisler, Chase Kidder, Aidan Palonis, Nathan Petrie, Frank Salek, Connor Swift, Blake Witchie, David Wojciechowski, Brandon Ziegert, Shino Antony, Thomas Blankenship, Maguire Burton, Dragon Chow, Daniel Dautel, Italia Fields, Kait Kelsey, John Laatz, David Li, Eric McDonald, Alyssa McNarny, Mackenzie Richards, Parker Smithberger, Jack Wheat, Olivia Adam, Kelsey Anderson, Alex Simmons.

Taking on their 20th year, Penn Robotics is led by Jim Langfeldt and Evan White — the coordinators of this top-caliber FIRST Robotics team. Students work with professional mentors who help guide them along the engineering, business, and design process, while also helping them to establish best practices, gain a practical understanding of the machines, and to practice fabrication methods tailored to given constraints. The Penn Robotics mentors include: Bill Whiteman, Tom Evans, Andy Edelbrock, Tom Leathers, Andrew Whiteman, Joe Bishop, Allie Bishop, Don Zmudzinski, Dave Adam, Allison Adams, Nancy Heisler, Holly Austin, Robin Varmette, Grant Carlile, and Bob Stevenson.

To help the team by giving your time, they have many events to coordinate, connect with the community, and plan with community partners. To donate a full drill index, or even some fasteners for the robot, contact Penn Robotics at robotics@phm.k12.in.us or at (574) 254.2881.

"Good luck and we'll see you at the competition!"

About FIRST®

Accomplished inventor Dean Kamen founded FIRST® (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) in 1989 to inspire an appreciation of science and technology in young people. Based in Manchester, N.H., FIRST designs accessible, innovative programs to build self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills while motivating young people to pursue opportunities in science, technology, and engineering. With support from over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies and more than $20 million in college scholarships, the not-for-profit organization hosts the FIRST®Robotics Competition (FRC®) for students in Grades 9-12; FIRST® Tech Challenge (FTC® ) for Grades 7-12;FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL® ) for Grades 4-8; and Junior FIRST® LEGO® League (Jr.FLL®) for Grades K-3. Gracious Professionalism® is a way of doing things that encourages high-quality work, emphasizes the value of others, and respects individuals and the community. To learn more about FIRST, go to www.usfirst.org.

Penn High School Principal Steve Hope, and Penn Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) president Ann Amico Moran, announced the formation of Parent Academy, a program designed to provide parents with important parenting resources as they guide their children through high school.

The first Parent Academy presentation, “Trends in Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Use”, will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 30, in the LGI-A (enter through Door A).

The featured speaker will be Bryan Fox, a 22-year Mishawaka Police Department veteran and Certified Drug Recognition Expert.

“The Penn PTO Parent Academy is a chance for parents to hear about pertinent issues from drug use to study skills,” Hope said. “The Penn PTO will continue to bring relevant information to Penn parents to support the P-H-M triangle of success — parents, teachers and students.

“These parent nights are an opportunity to not only learn, but to share,” Hope continued. “There will be question and answer sessions associated with each academy night.” 

Moran encouraged Penn parents to take advantage of the Parent Academy presentations.

“As parents of teens, we are faced with complicated scenarios with little formal training on how to navigate them successfully,” Moran stated. “The Penn High School PTO wishes to address some of the "hottest" issues happening with our teens here at Penn High School through the Penn Parent Forum.  We will bring together experts and real parents to discuss topics that many of us have a hard time navigating, let alone admit that our teens are faced with the topics on a daily basis.

“The Penn PTO feels it is important to start the conversation so that we can guide our teens in the best way we can,” Moran added.  “We hope that you will join us for the open presentations and dialogue at these presentations.”

The concept of the “Parent Academy” emerged from several conversations between the Penn PTO and Hope, with the goal of creating a regular series of community outreach events.  

In addition to educating our student population, Penn High School is committed to educating the community about a wide range of topics geared to support the parents of Penn High School students.

The first Parent Academy presentation, “Trends in Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Use”, features Bryan Fox, a 22-year Mishawaka Police Department veteran and Certified Drug Recognition Expert.

Fox brings his expertise and knowledge of current drug trends to the Penn PTO Parent Academy Night. Fox is a familiar face at Penn High School. He has been a part-time School Resource Officer at Penn for the last nine years and has spoken to Penn freshmen students about the dangers of drinking and driving and drug use for the last eight years. As a Certified Drug Recognition Expert, Fox is specially trained to use his knowledge of physiology, to recognize not only the signs of impairment in an individual, but specifically what types of drugs a person may be using.

Future topics include:

• Navigating the college process (applying for college, applying for scholarships, filling out financial aid forms).
• Technology (HAC and Canvas help).
• General wellness and mental health support (suicide prevention, self-esteem, body image).
• How to be a good Penn Parent (assisting the transition from middle school to high school, supporting a successful academic and social experience in high school.
• Cyber security (online persona, screen addiction).
• LGBTQ support.

Penn High School senior Matthew Shan is one of 40 students in the state of Indiana to be named an Indiana Academic All-Star by the Indiana Association of School Principals.

Each high school in Indiana (nearly 400) is invited to nominate one student for consideration as an Indiana Academic All-Star, according to Penn High School Principal Steve Hope.

Shan is ranked No. 1 academically in this year’s Penn High School class of 747 students. He has a grade-point average of 4.5288 on a scale of 4.0

"It is truly an honor to have been nominated as Penn High School's representative and an even greater honor to have received this prestigious award from the IASP,” Shan said. “This award is a testament to the hard work I put forth through my four years of engaging studies and extra-curriculars and is motivation that will help me to continue to pursue my goals with purpose and ambition."

Shan plans to study engineering at Purdue University or the University of Notre Dame. He has been named an AP Scholar with Distinction, won a National AP Scholar Award, and is a National Merit Scholarship Finalist. A member of Penn’s National Honor Society, Shan was also on Penn’s TEAMS competition group that placed in the Top 10 in the nation, and was on the national championship MathCon team.

Shan named Penn High School Mathematics instructor Val Ong as his most influential teacher.

"Through my two years of derivatives, integrals, and seemingly infinite theorems and postulates, Mrs. Ong introduced me to a new realm mathematics and learning, pushing me to new limits while always being there to help me when I faltered along the way,” Shan said. “She showed me that even though the path through calculus could at times be either deceptively simple or frustratingly hard, it is always a fascinating journey."

Ong said that she was humbled to be named as Shan’s most influential teacher.

“I had the pleasure of having Matt his sophomore year for AP Calculus AB and as a junior for AP Calculus BC,” Ong said. “This was quite an achievement and not only showed his great mathematical ability, but his high degree of interest and motivation to excel and push his academic rigor. 

“Matt is an excellent math student who is naturally intuitive and can sort out and analyze key mathematical relationships quickly,” Ong said. “His dedication and zest for life will help make him successful in all his future endeavors.”

“I went into teaching with the hope that I would make a difference in my students’ lives, maybe instill just a little bit of that passion that I have for mathematics,” Ong said. “To now have a student acknowledge that, to say the least, I am quite humbled by this designation.  I am deeply honored that Matt feels this way about me.”