Friday, Dec. 13

5:00 p.m. in Penn’s Cafeteria (before 7:30 tip-off Penn vs. Concord boys basketball game)

$3.00 suggested donation to benefit Special Olympics Indiana

Penn’s Champions Together is hosting the first-time Winter Wonderland event.

This is an opportunity for the whole P-H-M Corporation to come together and enjoy candy, face painting, and festive games in Penn’s Cafeteria before the home basketball game against Concord High School. Tip-off is at 7:30 in Penn's Main Arena.

All P-H-M students & families are welcome to attend!!!

A $3.00 donation would be appreciated and proceeds will go to Special Olympics Indiana. In return, you will receive a coupon to reduce the price of the Penn Varsity Basketball Game to $1.00. Penn vs. Concord basketball game starts at 7:30 in Penn's Main Arena.

Champions Together is a collaborative partnership between the Indiana High School Athletic Association and Special Olympics Indiana. The main goal of Champions Together is 
to collaborate servant leadership among student athletes while changing their lives as well as the lives of those with intellectual disabilities. The main mission of Champions Together is to allow all students to be actively involved in sports and get intellectually disabled students involved in social events in all schools. 

Penn's national reputation for excellence is based on its outstanding academic, athletic and fine arts programs. 

Penn, Harris and Madison Township families whose children currently attend private schools but are considering enrolling their students at Penn for the 2020-2021 school year are invited to visit Penn (with their parents) on Wednesday, November 20, 2019 1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. in the Center for the Performing Arts. Only students who reside within P-H-M boundaries are eligible to attend Penn High School.

These are just some of Penn’s Points of Excellence:

• With the release of the Spring 2019 ISTEP (grade 10) results, P-H-M is 12th among public schools for combined ELA & Math scores.
• Penn High School was ranked 13th in Indiana—the only Top #20 high school in the Michiana area—in US News & World Report’s 2018 U.S. News Best High Schools listing. 
• The Indiana Department of Education has named Penn a Four Star School for the school years 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018.
• Early College Academy received an endorsement as an “Early College High School” by The Center of Excellence in Leadership of Learning.
• Penn earned the Project Lead the Way Distinguished School distinction in 2017-18 (for the 2016-17 school year)
• Penn’s STEM Academy has been certified as a Full STEM Certified Program by the Indiana Department of Education. 

Click to learn more about the academic and extracurricular excellence achieved by Penn High School students.

The November 20th event will include:

• An informational presentation by Counselors
• General tour of building led by Freshmen Mentors
• Q&A session for students with Freshmen Mentors in small group setting
• Q&A session for parents with Counselors

You must RSVP in advance to attend this event! Click here to complete the form.

The deadline for the RSVP is Friday, Nov. 15.

Click here for additional information.

Penn Girls Soccer won the Sectional Championship. 

A Photo Gallery of some of Penn’s Sectional action is posted below.

The Penn High School Freshmen Football Team played Mishawaka for their own version of the Backyard Brawl on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019. Mishawaka Cavemen won 7-6.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

For weeks, we’ve been documenting the joint student project to build a larger than life Hulk Halloween wheelchair costume for 4-year-old Zephan Cantu from Elkhart.

The local news coverage of the story got the attention of CBS Evening News producers and CBS National Correspondent Don Dahler.

They visited Penn High School to interview students and teachers on Oct. 17 and also attended the reveal for Zephan’s costume on Oct. 19. The story aired on national network news on Monday, Oct. 21. Click here or the image below to watch the story that aired on CBS Evening News …

Six weeks of hard work from countless Penn High School teachers, students and professionals who volunteered their time all lead up to the reveal event this past Saturday, Oct. 19, at  A Rosie Place for Children for Zephan Cantu and his family.

Everyone was anxious and excited … Zephan and his family to finally see his "Hulk Smash Machine" epic wheelchair costume, but also for the Penn students & teachers, and Magic Wheelchair Premier Arts volunteers. Their countless of hours of hard work and dedication all came down this moment … to see the look on Zephan’s face when he finally saw his Halloween costume. This is what #PHMExcellence looks like …

Just how did this project come together and what all went into it? Watch the video below for the story background …

The Penn High School Football Team defeated Mishawaka, 21-13, on Friday, Oct. 18, 2019, in the final meeting between the two storied rivals as members of the Northern Indiana Conference.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

Penn Biology Teacher and STEM Academy Leader John Gensic is being recognized in Washington, DC this week for being a 2017 national award recipient for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST). John was named an Indiana Finalist for the Science Award in October 2017. John is one of just four teacher finalists (two for Math and Two for Science) in Indiana to be recognized and receive this prestigious national award. The announcement was made on Tuesday, Oct. 15 by the White House.

Today (Friday, Oct. 18), John is visiting the White House, take a tour, and attend a VIP lunch for PAEMST alumni.

Last night (Thursday, Oct. 17) was the awards ceremony for the country’s PAEMST award winners.  Awardees from 2017 and 2018 were recognized last night and received their awards. Penn Principal Sean Galiher traveled to DC this week with John to also attend recognition events and professional development opportunities. Principal Galiher captured this video and these pictures …

John was among 215 teachers from all 50 States, the District of Columbia, the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools, and schools in the United States territories of Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. 

Presidential Awardees receive a certificate signed by the President of the United States; the trip to DC; and a $10,000 award from the National Science Foundation.

Established in 1983, PAEMST is the highest award given by the U.S. Government to kindergarten through 12th grade teachers of mathematics and science, including computer science.

Teachers are selected based on their distinction in the classroom and dedication to improving science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.

John Gensic was also P-H-M's 2016 Teacher of the Year and a Top 10 Finalist for Indiana Teacher of the year. He has been very creative in bringing STEM learning activities to life, not just for his Penn Early College Academy students, but also elementary students. In 2016, John used the funding he received from a P-H-M Education Foundation grant to plant fruit orchards first at Horizon Elementary, and then a year later at Elsie Rogers and Mary Frank. This September John literally saw the fruits of his labor bear fruit! The apple and pear trees at Horizon’s orchard were ripe for picking. Current Horizon 3rd graders and the elementary students who originally planted the trees (now in 6th grade at neighboring Discovery Middle School) got to pick the fruit. Click here for the full story, video and pictures.

Some big news came out of Dr. Thacker’s annual Superintendent’s Luncheon held on Tuesday, Oct. 15 …

In a surprise announcement made by P-H-M Education Foundation Executive Director Mari Linn Wise, Penn 2011 alumna and World Championship Wrestler Sarah Hildebrandt (and the rest of the 300+ luncheon attendees) learned that Chris and Nancy Hildebrandt had donated $15,000 to PHMEF to name the wrestling room at Penn High School “The Hildebrandt Family Wrestling Room!” The gift was made through PHMEF’s Naming Rights Campaign. 

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. 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 will directly fund professional development initiatives for P-H-M teachers. 

Sarah was the featured speaker at the annual luncheon. She was joined by her family Mom and Dad Chris and Nancy Hildebrandt, brothers Drew and Cory, sister Amy, and her grandmother. Sarah was just as surprised as everyone else to learn of the donation. Click to see all the highlights of the 2019 Superintendent’s Luncheon.

Sarah has made an indelible mark on Penn’s Wrestling history. She was Indiana’s first female wrestler to qualify for IHSAA Wrestling Semi-state her junior year under Penn Wrestling Coach Brad Harper. She accomplished this weighing just 103 pounds! Sarah also helped Penn win an IHSAA Team Regional Championship with a pin vs. Jimtown's Cody Koebel (4:54). Penn defeated Jimtown 37-25 for the Team Championship.

Sarah got her start in wrestling when she was in middle school. At Discovery she wrestled under Coaches Raoul Donati and Scott Vandergriff winning the Big 11 Conference!

Sarah got a very enthusiastic “Welcome Home” from the Luncheon crowd, thanks to Coach Harper who was thrilled to introduce her to the crowd. And Sarah did not disappoint with her heartfelt “Thank You” to all her teachers and coaches throughout her years as a P-H-M student. Sarah’s Discovery Middle School teachers and coaches were also present.

Her list of accomplishments since leaving Penn are long … This past August she earned another gold medal at the Pan Am Games, making that her 4th gold medal at Pan Am Games. She also won gold in 2013, 2015 and 2018 for USA Wrestling. Hildebrandt was the 2018 USA Wrestling Women’s Wrestler of the Year and also earned the Outstanding Wrestler Award at the Pan Am Games in 2018. She was last year’s U.S. Open champion and was a world silver medalist.

She was more than happy, elated and exuberant actually, to share her story with Penn’s current Female Wrestling team who attended the Luncheon as as Sarah and Coach Harper’s special guests. The students had a chance to practice with her on Monday evening. And after the Luncheon, they got to enjoy some “one-on-one” time with Sarah where she answered their questions about juggling wrestling, academics in high school and college, as well as how hard it is to compete in a male dominated sport. Sarah did a great job of not only giving great advice, but inspiring the next generation of female wrestlers! Click here to see the full photo gallery.

She truly is a Kingsmen Making a Difference!

Penn Sculpture and Robotics and Engineering students have been collaborating for the past five weeks on a unique cross discipline, hands-on, service learning project. 

The two groups have joined forces, under the guidance of their teachers and the national organization Magic Wheelchair, to build a larger than life wheelchair Halloween costume for an Elkhart boy. Click for more background details. Check out the project's progress in the “Excellence Happens Here” in the video below …