Penn High School’s National Honor Society held a ceremony to induct new members. The event took place at the Center for Performing Arts on Tuesday, Nov. 16.

Click here for a list of NHS inductees.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

The 2021 Penn High School Showcase will be held from 6-8 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 6.

The Showcase allows incoming Freshmen (current Eighth Graders) and their families the opportunity to tour Penn, meet with staff and students, hear about the opportunities that one of Indiana’s top high school has to offer. 

All prospective Penn students and current Penn 9-11 graders and their families are also welcome to join us!

• Student Last Names A-L:  Enter through Doors B, C, D.
• Begin in the CPA to hear a presentation from counselors at 6 p.m. 
• Student Last Names M-Z:  Enter through Doors A, M, L.
• Begin by touring the building, visiting open classrooms, talking to staff & students, then hear a presentation from counselors at 7 p.m. 

Penn High School is filled with so many opportunities that the choices can be overwhelming. We want to help match the right opportunities with your student's goals. The administration and staff of Penn High School extend a welcome to you and your student to attend the upcoming Penn Showcase, which will allow you to investigate the many opportunities available. This Showcase night is for all students who will be attending Penn during the 2022-23 school year to come tour and learn more about Penn High School. This is a great time to speak to teachers and current students about course options. Some classes will be available to see live in action!

Elective Areas To Tour (Live Classrooms):

• Visual Art
• Business
• Family and Consumer Science
• World Languages
• Performing Arts
• Health & Wellness
• STEM

Besides the Live Classrooms, students and parents are encouraged to visit the Academy booths, which will be set up around the building, to gain information into the Academy structure at Penn High School. Teachers representing both Academy and elective classes will be available to answer questions and provide information. We will also have representatives of the Early College Academy, Exceptional Education and the Elkhart Area Career Center.

Penn Freshmen Counselors will give presentations about diploma types, graduation pathways, four-year planning, and more.  Last names A-L will attend the presentation at 6 p.m., while last names M-Z will have this opportunity at 7 p.m. Counselors will also be on hand to answer questions and meet with students and families.

Your involvement in your child’s education is vital to making their high school experience a positive one. We value your participation in decisions related to planning your child’s class schedule.  A collaborative effort between parents, students, teachers and counselors is essential and represents P-H-M’s “Triangle of Success!”

Penn High School’s Spell Bowl Team placed second in the state in Class 1-A. The State Championship event was held on Saturday, Nov. 13, 2021.

Penn’s competitors spelled a season-high best 83-of-90 words correctly.

Perfect spellers were Tatiana Lambertt, Deena Baki, Areej Arif, Tasneem Ahmed and Sarah Ahmed.

Near perfect spellers were Felix Zhang, Maria Kallookulangara, Sam Tipton, and Ashley Oh. 

Marlen Lambertt spelled a personal best 7/9 words correctly. 
 

The Penn Winter Guard Open House will be from 6-8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 16, in the Auxiliary Gym.

The Open House is for all 4^th – 12^th  grade P-H-M students.

Questions, contact Jen at (574) 903-9200 for more information about Winter Guard.

Penn High School Art Instructor Barbara Miller received the Art Education Association of Indiana's Outstanding Educator Award at the state convention on Oct. 23, 2021.

Recipients of the award are recognized for demonstrating excellence in the classroom, active participation and leadership at the local, state, and/or national level, publications and/or exhibits, advocacy for the arts, and other art education related accomplishments.

Miller, who is also the curator/director of the Kingsmen Art Gallery, received her degree to teach art 1-12 from Ball State University in 1982. She taught at Mishawaka Catholic schools for two years, subbed for five years in four corporations, and taught Photography at Washington High School for one year prior to coming to Penn. She has been teaching at Penn since 1994.

“I love what I do as an Art Teacher,” Miller said. “I love art, teaching about art, and kids. I can't imagine doing anything else as a career. I love to make art of any kind, including drawing, photography, printmaking, jewelry, fiber art, sculpture, and poetry.

Miller’s works have been displayed in in numerous local exhibits in galleries and museums. She is a member of The Indiana Women’s Caucus for the Arts and the National Art Education Association. She has served on the Scholastic Art Committee since 1994 to help make worthy exhibition possible for students. It is the longest running and one of the largest and most prestigious art competitions for junior high and high school students in the nation.

A three-time Scholastic Award winner as a high school student, Miller has guided her students to numerous national, state and district awards.

“I feel truly honored to receive this award,” Miller said of the AEAI award. “As an art teacher who loves my job and my students, getting awards and honors for myself has never been my goal, however, it is an honor and very appreciated. I am truly humbled to receive this award. 

The Penn High School Orchestras performed a Fright Night Concert on Thursday, Oct. 28, 2021.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

The Penn High School choir and Discovery, Grissom and Schmucker Middle School choirs will perform a free Viva Voce concert at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 3, in the Penn Center for the Performing Arts.

Penn's Viva Voce will perform 7 pieces together, including a medley from Nightmare Before Christmas. The middle school choirs will perform three songs together, and then all of the choirs will join together for the final two songs, one of which is entitled "Sisi Ni Moja" which translates to "We Are One."

Penn High School presents the "Fright Night" Orchestra on Thursday, Oct. 28, and Friday, Oct. 29, in Penn's Center for the Performing Arts. The concert is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. each night. Cost is $5 a person.

The Fright Night Orchestra concert is a celebration of the Halloween spirit!  Our five orchestras will perform fun and scary music to delight all of our big and little Ghouls and friends! 

The playlist includes:

• Phantom of the Opera
• Ghostbusters
• Harry's Wondrous World – from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
• This is Halloween from Nightmare Before Christmas
• Cruella De Vil
• Danny Elfman Spooktacular (Corpse Bride, Dark Shadows, Beetlejuice)
• A Halloween Thriller

The Penn High School Fall Play will feature three student-directed one-act plays.

The performances are scheduled for 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 14, and 7 p.m., Friday, Oct. 15, in Penn’s Center for the Performing Arts (enter at Door C).

Tickets are $5 a person.

The one-act plays:

"Dinner With the MacGuffins," by Chris Sheppard & Jeff Grove

• Directed by Shelly Werner & Joe Villalba
• What seems like an ordinary family doing ordinary things one evening turns very quickly into a whirlwind of secret agents, suspicions, and noisy cell phone interruptions.

"10 Ways to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse," by Don Zolidis

• Directed by Molly Knight & Payton Mead
• If (and when) the zombie apocalypse happens, do you know what to do? Broken down into 10 options, each scenario is played out to humorous results.

"The Seussification of a Midsummer Night's Dream," by Pete Bloedel

• Directed by Paige Corwin & Ella Robertson
• Sure, you think that you know Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," but you'll soon be bamboozled by this theatrical team! The characters are here, And you may know their names, but the words that they say don't all sound quite the same. There are a few changes, and the story is loose. In fact all the zaniness may be closest to Seuss!

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

Hala Ansari, Manaal Buchh, Marin Chester, Alexander Du, Salem Fitwi, Arthur Haines, Evan Nayee, Luca Nijim, Jeremiah Roach and Matthew Zhang achieved the academic distinction of National Merit Scholar Semifinalist.

Nearly 16,000 high school students across the country have been named Semifinalists in the 67th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $30 million that will be offered next spring. To be considered for a Merit Scholarship award, Semifinalists must fulfill several requirements to advance to the Finalist level of the competition. About 95 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and approximately half of the Finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.

High school juniors entered the 2022 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2020 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.