Penn High School principal Sean Galiher honored Seniors and Juniors who were named Academic Achievement Award winners for the 2021-2022 school year.

Students earn the Academic Achievement Award for maintaining a grade-point average of 3.5 or better over four or six semesters, without receiving a D or an F. 

Take a look at the video below!

Click here for a list of the Seniors and Juniors who were named Academic Achievement Award winners.

They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky, they’re all together ooky, The Addams family is coming to Penn High School!

The Penn Fine Arts and Communications Academy is presenting, “The Addams Family, A New Musical”, at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 4, and Saturday, March 5. On Sunday, March 6^th there will be a 3 p.m. performance.

The showings will be held within the Center for Performing Arts (enter through Door C).

$10 presale tickets go on sale Monday, February 21^st  and may be purchased at Penn Theater’s ticket store TicketTracker.com.  Tickets are $12 at the door.

Click here to purchase tickets for the online streaming version of “The Addams Family, A New Musical”.

The plot of “The Addams Family A New Musical” revolves around America’s favorite macabre family “The Addams”. 

In its typical creepy and comical, mysterious and macabre fashion, the ghoulish Addams family is holed up at their Central Park, graveyard home for an annual gathering of all family members, living dead, and undecided, to celebrate what it is to be an Addams.

However, the family encounters an unforeseen obstacle when Wednesday Addams decides to introduce her “normal” boyfriend Lucas and his awkwardly normal parents to her family!

From a deeper point of view, The “Addams Family A New Musical” tells the story of love and friendship through adversity, with a comical and macabre yet poignant spin.

Penn High School Principal Sean Galiher announced that 10 students from Penn have been named National Merit Scholarship Finalists.

Hala Ansari, Manaal Buchh, Marin Chester, Alexander Du, Salem Fitwi, Arthur Haines, Evan Nayee, Luca Nijim, Jeremiah Roach and Matthew Zhang are among 15,000 Finalists nationwide who will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit Scholarships of $2,500.

A student’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received are considered in selecting Finalists

Finalists must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT® or ACT® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.

Three Penn students have been selected to receive full scholarships to Purdue University!

Jake Huemmer, Johnnay Johnson, and Nikita Amin all applied and were chosen as part of the Posse Scholars program earning them full tuition and leadership scholarships from Posse partner colleges and universities. Click here to learn more about the Posse Scholarship Program.

Jake, Johnnay, and Nikita were selected from 1,300 nominations to become a recipient of the Posse Scholarship. As a part of Purdue University Posse, they become a member of a larger network of over 10,000 Posse Scholars and Alumni nationwide.

Later this month the students begin pre-collegiate Training (PCT). This is a seven-month program in which the Posse Scholars will train in leadership, academic success, team building, and cross-cultural communication. The sessions run from January through July to help prepare the students for when they attend Purdue Fall 2022.

The Posse model is based on concept that if a group of students go off to college they would “back each other up.” This idea became the impetus for a program that has identified, recruited and trained more than 10,000 students setting them up for academic success and building on their leadership potential.

Vanderbilt University was the first school to partner with Posse awarding scholarships to five students. Posse Scholars have awarded more than $1.6 billion in scholarships from 64 partner institutions, including Purdue University.

Congratulations to Jake, Johnnay, and Nikita on being selected to this prestigious program!

Snowball has been rescheduled for Sunday, Feb. 20 (7:30-11:00 p.m.). The dance will be in the Penn High School Main Arena.

Tickets will go on sale on Sunday, Feb. 6. at noon.

Click here to purchase tickets (the link will not be live until noon, Sunday, Feb. 6)

There will be no in-person sales of tickets. Tickets are limited to two (2) per student. Masks are required. A maximum of 1,200 tickets will be sold.

Click here for complete information.

Penn High School students excelled in the Scholastic Art Awards competition.

Click here for a list of Scholastic Art Award winners from Penn.

Scholastic Art Awards is the largest and longest running competition for junior and high school students in the country. It has gotten more selective and more prestigious over the years and the students that are have work selected to be entered, even if not chosen for an award, should be extremely proud of doing such high quality work. There are three levels of awards: Gold Key, Silver Key, and Honorable Mention. Gold Key winners compete at the national level. Recognition at the national level usually brings with it many scholarship offers as well as tremendous honors.

Art of three levels will be displayed in an impressive public exhibition in the Warner Gallery at the South Bend Museum of Art in the Century Center from Saturday, Feb. 5, until Saturday, March 12. This year’s reception for artists, families, and teachers will take place on Saturday, Feb. 5, from 12-5 p.m., as an open house featuring artist demonstrations, music, and more. Please join us at the South Bend Museum of Art to celebrate the exceptional work awarded in the 2022 Scholastic Art Awards. Entry is free and open to the public.

The Award Ceremony will take place virtually again this year on Sunday, Feb. 12, and will premiere at 11 a.m. on youtube, www.southbendart.org, and the South Bend Museum of Art’s social media pages. You are able to download your certificate from the https://artandwriting.org/ or wait until your teacher picks up your work after the exhibition.

The Scholastic exhibit displays some of the finest artwork you will see from junior and high school students and very worth the trip to go to the Century Center/ SBMA. Winning artwork by Penn students will be added to the Penn Kingsmen Art Gallery for display on Monday, March 14.

March 28, 29 and 30^th at Penn High School

If you are interested, please email Varsity Coach Rita Szweda at rszweda@phm.k12.in.us before March 25 and she will provide the tryout information and your name will be added to the tryout list.

“An Evening of Jazz” will be held at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 11, 2022, at St. Mark Missionary Church, 55240 Bittersweet Rd, Mishawaka, Ind., 46545.

The event will feature performances by jazz ensembles from Grissom Middle School, Discovery Middle School, and Penn High School.

Our guest artist, Mark Buselli, director of Jazz Studies at Ball State University, will work with students during the day and perform with the ensembles through the evening. We will also raffle off several exciting items and packages during the event.

Tickets are $10 per person and all proceeds will go toward the Penn Jazz program. Ticket sales will be at that door starting at 6 p.m. and will be general seating.

Due to COVID concerns and guidance from the P-H-M School Corporation and the CDC, we will not be serving a meal this year.

Penn High School’s Amrita Kulkarni qualified for the National Speech & Debate Association National Championships after placing first in the Lincoln-Douglas Debate category in regional competition at Penn on Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022.

Congratulations to the following Penn students for making the 2022 Indiana All-State Bands:

Honor Band:

• Guinn Hill, Bassoon
• Micah Sanchez-Hawkins, Bass Clarinet
• Luca Nijim, Tuba
• Blake Gibson-Ross, Percussion
• William Chenoweth, Percussion
• Caleb Cameron, Percussion
• Kyle Books, Percussion

All-State Band:

• Hannah Steele, Flute
• Michael Tapp, Oboe
• Natalia McCool, French Horn
• Ethan Brentliger, Percussion

Alternate: 

• Molly Oates, Flute
• Valentina Gianesi, Clarinet
• Jacob Retek, Alto Sax
• Colin Carter, Alto Sax
• Olivia Nijim, Trumpet
• Audrey Wise, French Horn
• Caitlin Price, Euphonium