As part of the P-H-M Education Foundation naming rights campaign, Dr. and Mrs. Jerry Thacker have generously donated $25,000 to the Education Foundation to have the Kingsmen Athletic Center at TCU Freed Field named after Penn’s legendary championship coach, Chris Geesman, renaming the facility the Chris Geesman Kingsmen Athletic Center.

The donation commitment is $25,000, which will be paid at a rate of $5,000 per year over five years. The naming rights will last for 12 years.

The Penn-Harris-Madison Board of School Trustees voted to approve the sponsorship agreement Monday, Dec. 13, Board meeting.

“Donna and I are truly honored to have the Kingsmen Athletic Center named after this legendary coach who guided the Kingsmen to five state championships and three state runners-up,” said Dr. Thacker.

Geesman, a Hall of Famer coach, came to Penn 1973. The previous season, Penn had a 0-10 record. In Geesman’s first season, the Kingsmen posted a 5-5 record. Geesman led Penn to 309 wins, and the Kingsmen never had a losing season during the span of his 30-year career as head coach of the Kingsmen. Geesman coached the Kingsmen through 2002.

Penn’s Geesman Athletic Center is a 13,264 square-foot facility that was completed in October, 2018. It houses three locker rooms to be rotated during the Fall and Spring sports seasons: Football (Varsity, JV and Freshmen), Track & Field (Boys & Girls) and Girls Lacrosse. All three locker room areas have adjacent coaching staff office space and an on-site training room, giving Penn athletic trainers access to equipment and medical treatment supplies. Click here to read more details about the Athletic Center when it first opened.

Dr. and Mrs. Thacker’s donation to name the Athletic Center after the storied head coach was a natural decision, said Dr. Thacker. “It’s only fitting that a facility built to provide Penn student-athletes with the best on field playing experience be named after the coach that led Kingsmen Football to so many wins.”

The mission of the Education Foundation is to develop alternative sources of income to support education initiatives in the School Corporation by strengthening partnerships between the community and the District. PHMEF supports education through awarding innovative teaching grants, scholarships to students, staff development and other corporation-wide initiatives.

Per PHMEF’s naming rights fundraising initiative, 80 percent of the donation will go into the Foundation’s endowment, which will in turn provide alternative and additional funding for various co-curricular and extracurricular programs. The remaining 20 percent directly funds professional development initiatives for P-H-M teachers. Continuing education and training of teachers is a major priority for P-H-M School District.

“Our goal is to provide our students with an outstanding education to prepare them for college and career success,” said P-H-M Superintendent Dr. Thacker. “We do this by making sure our students are receiving the best education possible from the best educators. P-H-M’s ‘Triangle of Success’ is built upon students, teachers and parents. Community partners are vital to sustaining P-H-M excellence in education.”

Dr. Thacker has been superintendent of Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation since 2006 and has supported the Education Foundation wholeheartedly. Over the course of 15 years, Dr. and Mrs. Thacker have donated $192,500 to the P-H-M Education Foundation, including this most recent donation of the naming rights. Most of this money has either been unrestricted donations or used as matching funds for fundraising initiatives. This is the first time they have made a donation to the naming rights campaign.

“The Foundation Board and I are so appreciative of Dr. and Mrs. Thacker’s generosity through the years,” said Jennifer Turnblom, Executive Director of the P-H-M Education Foundation. “Their unwavering support has been a tremendous help to us fulfilling our mission. The Thacker’s donations alone have made it possible for the Foundation to fund approximately 20% more classroom grants, activities and programs possible for the students of all P-H-M’s 15 schools. Their impact has been nothing less than incredible!”

At the start of the 2022-2023 football season, a ceremony will be held at TCU Freed Field with Coach Geesman and his family.

About Penn Athletics
Penn boasts 21 IHSAA team state championships and 26 Penn student-athletes have been named winners of the IHSAA mental-attitude award. Penn Athletic Teams earned a remarkable seven Sectional Championships in the eight sports offered by the IHSAA in the 2021 Fall Sports season.
 

About P-H-M Education Foundation
In pursuit of excellence in education, the P-H-M Education Foundation has partnered with P-H-M School Corporation to grow the Foundation’s endowment in order to provide permanent additional funding of programs for outstanding students and teachers.

Naming rights is a 12-year partnership, payable over five years, that highlights a commitment to excellence in P-H-M. Signage will include name and/or company logo that will be associated with a specific property or program within the Corporation.

We invite you to be a part of a large and diverse group of individuals, professionals, and companies who support excellence in education. For more information, click here or please contact Executive Director Jennifer Turnblom at jturnblom@phmef.org. 

Principal Sean Galiher announced that Penn High School students Hala Ansari, Penn High School; Manaal Buchh, Penn High School; Salem Fitwi, Penn High School, and Luca Nijim were each awarded the prestigious 2022 Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship for St. Joseph County.

Lilly Endowment Community Scholars – awarded through the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County – are known for their community involvement, academic achievement, character and leadership.

The Community Foundation received 109 applications from 14 schools, and submitted final nominees to the statewide administrator of the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program, ICI, for the selection of scholarship recipients. Only four students from St. Joseph County were selected for a Lilly Scholarship, and all four are from Penn.

"We are very proud of our students who were selected for this scholarship," said Galiher. "Each student has excelled in their academic pursuits, community service endeavors and leadership opportunities." 

According to a release from the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, each Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship provides for full tuition, required fees, and a special allocation of up to $900 per year for required books and equipment for four years of undergraduate study on a full-time basis leading to a baccalaureate degree at any eligible Indiana public or private nonprofit college or university. Lilly Endowment Community Scholars may also participate in the Lilly Scholars Network (LSN), which connects scholars with resources and opportunities to be active leaders on their campuses and in their communities. Both the scholarship program and LSN are supported by grants from Lilly Endowment to Independent Colleges of Indiana (ICI).

Ansari, Buchh, Fitwi and Nijim were appreciative of the scholarship.

“Receiving the Lily scholarship is an honor I never thought I would be able to achieve, but I am so glad I did,” Ansari said. “The nature of the scholarship encourages me to pursue my postgraduate education at a nearby University, allowing me to stay involved in the community, and assisting me in accomplishing my goal of improving the quality of life in our beloved town.”

Ansari considering attending Indiana University or the University of Notre Dame to major in Accounting/Finance and minor in computer science.

Buchh is considering attending Notre Dame, Indiana University, or Northwestern.

“The Lilly Scholarship, to me, is the confidence that there are people in this community who genuinely see potential in my ability to give back to my community,” Buchh said. “Lilly is a great honor I shall continue to work earnestly to deserve, and a great assurance I shall undoubtedly cherish for the rest of my academic career.

“Lilly gives me the opportunity to pursue the passions and interests I have at high caliber colleges while staying relatively close to my family. It also introduces me to like-minded peers who enjoy a challenging academic atmosphere as I do.”

Buchh intends to pursue a double major of Neuroscience and International Studies, and hopes to attend medical school post-undergrad, and plans to be a physician.

Fitwi is considering Notre Dame, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard. His intended major is Finance.

“Being named a Lilly Scholar is a great honor,” Fitwi said. “I couldn't be more fortunate to receive this scholarship and be able to represent my school, my family, and my community in this amazing way. I look extremely forward to where this milestone will take me, and surely, will use this scholarship to accomplish great things.

“Lilly opens up a plethora of opportunities for me,m” Fitwi continued. “The Lilly Scholars Network is just phenomenal. It'll give me the chance to engage with my fellow and past scholars in being a leader and in working together towards ultimately improving the quality of life in Indiana and in my community.”

Nijim is considering the University of Notre Dame as a path to study the applications of math and computer science.

“Earning the Lilly scholarship was a tremendous honor, and it's a wonderful opportunity to be able to represent Penn on a larger scale,” Nijim said. I'm so excited to be a part of this community of Indiana learners and scholars! 

“After high school, I plan to continue my studies in the applications of math and computer science,” Nijim continued. “The biggest advancements of this century in technology and healthcare have been driven by data, and I want to be on the cutting edge of these advancements. I could see myself going on to create new statistical methods and machine learning algorithms, helping to make sense of and draw conclusions from the data available to us.”

Principal Sean Galiher announced that Penn High School students Hala Ansari, Manaal Buchh, Salem Fitwi and Luca Nijim were each awarded the prestigious 2022 Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship for St. Joseph County.

Lilly Endowment Community Scholars – awarded through the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County – are known for their community involvement, academic achievement, character and leadership.

The Community Foundation received 109 applications from 14 schools, and submitted final nominees to the statewide administrator of the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Program, ICI, for the selection of scholarship recipients. Only four students from St. Joseph County were selected for a Lilly Scholarship, and all four are from Penn.

“We are very proud of our students who were selected for this scholarship,” said Galiher. “Each student has excelled in their academic pursuits, community service endeavors and leadership opportunities.” 

According to a release from the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, each Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship provides for full tuition, required fees, and a special allocation of up to $900 per year for required books and equipment for four years of undergraduate study on a full-time basis leading to a baccalaureate degree at any eligible Indiana public or private nonprofit college or university. Lilly Endowment Community Scholars may also participate in the Lilly Scholars Network (LSN), which connects scholars with resources and opportunities to be active leaders on their campuses and in their communities. Both the scholarship program and LSN are supported by grants from Lilly Endowment to Independent Colleges of Indiana (ICI).

Ansari, Buchh, Fitwi and Nijim were appreciative of the scholarship.

“Receiving the Lily scholarship is an honor I never thought I would be able to achieve, but I am so glad I did,” Ansari said. “The nature of the scholarship encourages me to pursue my postgraduate education at a nearby University, allowing me to stay involved in the community, and assisting me in accomplishing my goal of improving the quality of life in our beloved town.”

Ansari considering attending Indiana University or the University of Notre Dame to major in Accounting/Finance and minor in computer science.

Buchh is considering attending Notre Dame, Indiana University, or Northwestern.

“The Lilly Scholarship, to me, is the confidence that there are people in this community who genuinely see potential in my ability to give back to my community,” Buchh said. “Lilly is a great honor I shall continue to work earnestly to deserve, and a great assurance I shall undoubtedly cherish for the rest of my academic career.

“Lilly gives me the opportunity to pursue the passions and interests I have at high caliber colleges while staying relatively close to my family. It also introduces me to like-minded peers who enjoy a challenging academic atmosphere as I do.”

Buchh intends to pursue a double major of Neuroscience and International Studies, and hopes to attend medical school post-undergrad, and plans to be a physician.

Fitwi is considering Notre Dame, the University of Pennsylvania, and Harvard. His intended major is Finance.

“Being named a Lilly Scholar is a great honor,” Fitwi said. “I couldn’t be more fortunate to receive this scholarship and be able to represent my school, my family, and my community in this amazing way. I look extremely forward to where this milestone will take me, and surely, will use this scholarship to accomplish great things.

“Lilly opens up a plethora of opportunities for me,m” Fitwi continued. “The Lilly Scholars Network is just phenomenal. It’ll give me the chance to engage with my fellow and past scholars in being a leader and in working together towards ultimately improving the quality of life in Indiana and in my community.”

Nijim is considering the University of Notre Dame as a path to study the applications of math and computer science.

“Earning the Lilly scholarship was a tremendous honor, and it’s a wonderful opportunity to be able to represent Penn on a larger scale,” Nijim said. I’m so excited to be a part of this community of Indiana learners and scholars! 

“After high school, I plan to continue my studies in the applications of math and computer science,” Nijim continued. “The biggest advancements of this century in technology and healthcare have been driven by data, and I want to be on the cutting edge of these advancements. I could see myself going on to create new statistical methods and machine learning algorithms, helping to make sense of and draw conclusions from the data available to us.”

Penn High School’s Sounds of the Season concert is back on for the Holiday Season. Student performers will be wearing masks, and audience members are also expected to wear a mask.

The performances are set for 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 9, 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 10, and 3 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 11.

Tickets are $6 in advance and $8 at the door.

Click here to purchase tickets online in advance or tickets can be purchased at Penn the night/day of the concert one hour before show time at the box office.

Penn High School Principal Sean Galiher announced that four Penn Juniors have been named Rising Stars of Indiana.

Tanya Datta, Allison Yu, Janet Yu and Zichu Wang have been named by the Indiana Association of School Principals, through its Department of Student Programs, as Rising Stars of Indiana.

The program honors 1020 juniors from 262 schools in Indiana.

“The Class of 2023 is surely promised success with these scholars,” according to an IASP statement. “We congratulate these young people on all they have already achieved, as well as offer support and encouragement as they continue their accomplishments and expand their knowledge, growth, and leadership skills well into the future.”

The Penn High School String, Concert, Philharmonic, Chamer and Symphonic Orchestras – under the direction of Anne Tschetter and Zac Coudret, performed at the Tis the Season Concert on Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

Penn High School and Discovery, Grissom and Schmucker Middle School students performed at the Kaleidoscope Concert on Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2021.

The Penn Symphonic Winds, the Advanced Jazz Ensemble, and the Penn Marching Kingsmen performed, as well as the combined middle school bands.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

Penn High School's Salem Fitwi has been selected as a Semifinalist in the 2021-2022 Coca-Cola Scholars Program.

Only 1,617 Semifinalists were chosen from more than 68,000 applicants based on outstanding leadership, academic achievements, and dedication to their community.

Three Penn Spellers competed in an Individual State competition.

Scores: Tasneem Ahmed 85/90, Ashley Oh 87/90, Felix Zhang 90/90.

Zhang earned the rank of Gold in the State, something only 1 other student achieved!
 

Penn placed second in the state as a team.

Everybody loves to buy pumpkins for their Autumn home decor, but what happens when Halloween passes and the pumpkins remain? 

Some people throw them in the trash, other people compost them and still others toss them in their garden to see if anything will grow.

Kylee Wetzel’s Hospitality Management class had other ideas, turn them into food!

The class took old, unwanted pumpkins and seeded, gutted and cleaned them.

They followed three different recipes to create delicious roasted pumpkin seeds! Take a look at the process below.

To download high-resolution jpg files from the photo gallery below, just simply click the “DOWNLOAD” button on the bottom right-hand corner of the photo while viewing it in the Photo Gallery function. We are happy to provide this service to you, free of charge!