Penn High School Athletic Director Jeff Hart announced that 21 Kingsmen student-athletes are signing college letters of intent on National Signing Day.

Click here for a PDF that features individual profiles of the student-athletes who are participating in National Signing Day.

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Penn High School Senior Logan Hill stopped by the Osceola Post Office on the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 23, to drop off a parcel.

Hill and another Postal customer noticed no one was at the counter. The other customer rang the bell, and a voice from behind the counter called out, “We can’t help right now. We have an emergency situation.”

While the other customer stepped out, Hill stepped up.

“I can help – I know CPR,” Hill called back as he hurried behind the counter.

Hill, using the knowledge and CPR skills that he learned in Penn’s Health class, applied chest compressions for about seven minutes on the Paul Anderson, who was suffering from cardiac arrest. While Hill applied chest compressions, a Postal employee applied mouth-to-mouth.

When police and medical personnel arrived, Hill let them take over. Medical personnel said that without Hill’s assistance, Anderson likely would not have survived.

Hill and Penn Health Instructor Rod Pawlik were honored by the American Heart Association, Penn-Harris-Madison Supt. Dr. Jerry Thacker and the Board of School Trustees on Monday, Nov. 12. Hill and Pawlik received the “Heartsaver Hero Award” from Stephanie Rosenberg, Youth Market Director of the AHA, and Sunni Rossi, AHA Regional Vice President in Youth Markets, at Monday’s School Board Meeting. Click to see the photo gallery of the recognition posted below.

A State Finalist last season as a wrestler for Penn and also a pole vaulter on the Kingsmen Track and Field team, Hill credited Penn Health instructor Rod Pawlik with teaching him CPR.

“I learned CPR my sophomore year,” Hill said. “I learned it from Mr. Pawlik in Health Class. He’s a really good teacher. He taught me the courage to actually do this.

“As a sophomore, I have to admit, I was thinking, ‘Man, I’ll never use this,’ when we started to learn CPR,” Hill said. “Mr. Pawlik got me to realize how important this was to learn. He stressed it a lot.

“I realized, what if something happens to someone in my family? I really need to learn this. So I really paid attention and tried to learn CPR and the Heimlich. When the time came to use CPR, it just all came back to me.”

Hill, who intends to pursue a career in law enforcement, said that Pawlik always stressed the importance of stepping up in the heat of action.

“You have to step up and be strong,” Hill said. “You have to do the right thing. That’s where our Kingsmen Strong motto in wrestling comes in. I was there at the right time. God put me there and gave me the courage to step up and help.”

“I’m thankful that Penn teaches CPR,” Hill said. “I would tell the younger students to always pay attention in all of your classes. You never know when you’re going to need what you’re learning.”

Pawlik has been teaching at Penn since 1997.

Penn’s Health classes have included CPR long before the State required it as a graduation requirement.

The American Heart Association championed a law requiring CPR training as a high school graduation requirement in Indiana in 2014, ensuring that every year thousands of graduating students are trained in this life-saving skill. Across the country, more than 350,000 people experience sudden cardiac arrest every year. Only 46 percent of those people receive immediate CPR from bystanders, and 90 percent of those individuals die. Immediate bystander CPR can triple a cardiac arrest victim’s chance of survival.

“At the beginning of class every semester, I try to explain how important this class can be to the students and I mention, even life-saving,” Pawlik said. “This is a great teaching moment that I can use for the rest of my teaching years.

“I’m so very proud of Logan, to step in and do what he did, because some people will just step back and not put themselves in a tough situation like this, but he did.”

Penn High School's Exceptional Education held their annual Halloween Fall Ball on Friday, November 2 at Schmucker Middle School.

Students from Penn & P-H-M's Young Adult program attended, but also Ex Ed students from Mishawaka High School and Elkhart Memorial High School. Penn's Peer Mentors danced & had fun with their friends; Penn's Art Club made art selfie cutouts; Penn Ex Ed Academy staff & P-H-M administrators also joined in on the fun!

Enjoy the photo gallery below.

Penn High School Ceramics Instructor Becky Brown put on a pair of orange welder’s gloves that reached up to her elbow. She then opened the door of a kiln that cooled off from a fiery temperature of more than 2,000 degrees, and took out shining bowls that beamed a dazzling array of reds, oranges, greens, blues and yellows.

Brown and her Ceramics students, along with the Penn Art Club, crafted nearly 160 bowls for the Empty Bowls Project, a fundraiser to fight hunger. A Charity Dinner was held on Friday, Nov. 2, at the Mishawaka Food Pantry (315 Lincolnway West, Mishawaka). Soup and bread from local restaurants was served to patrons, who then chose their favorite food-safe ceramic bowl crafted by a Penn student to take home.

This is the 10th year Penn has made bowls to help with a charity dinner dedicated to fighting hunger.

The Parrot Heads of Michiana, working with Penn students and area restaurants, raised several thousand dollars each year to benefit the Senior Nutrition Program of REAL Services in the past. This year’s event benefited the Mishawaka Food Pantry.

After a four-year hiatus, the event was re-started.

“It became difficult to find places to hold the event, so it was canceled for a few years,” Brown said. “It was sad to see it come to an end several years ago, so when I got email late September to see if I could help again, I decided to find a way to make it work, even though my students had already made their bowls (for a class assignment).

“Some of the students volunteered to give up their bowl, while others came it on their own time to make another bowl or two,” Brown continued. “We still needed more bowls, so I asked (Penn Art Instructor) Becky Hope if her art club students could help.”

For the next two weeks, Penn students came in after school or during their study halls to make enough bowls for the event.

“The empty bowl is to remind people when they leave, there are people in the community who don't always have food to fill their bowls,” Brown said. “I hope we have a great turn out this year because I look forward to continuing this important charity event again next year.”

Brown said that she appreciates the opportunity to blend a learning activity with service to the community.

“This helps students learn to give back to the community and that they came make a difference in someone's life who is in the need of help,” Brown said.

Penn High School STEM Academy students participated in the fifth annual Manufacturing Day in South Bend experience in October.

The event provided area high school students an opportunity to tour various local manufacturers and meet with current employees to discuss careers in the field.

“Manufacturing Day is a valuable experience for our students to see what manufacturing in the 21st Century looks like and opportunities in our area,” Penn High School Assistant Principal Josiah Parker said. “Students were able to visit the new SF Motors as they prepare to begin production of the new electric car. Students from Penn also visited South Bend Modern Molding, Allied Specialty Precision, B&B Molders, Ivy Tech, Daman Products, and Complexus Medical.”

The Penn Girls Basketball Team defeated LaPorte, 46-35, in its season opener on Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

Penn High School’s Spell Bowl Team, coached by Kate O’Brien, qualified for the 2018 State Championships by scoring an 82 at the Plymouth Regional on Saturday, Oct. 26.

Penn will compete for a State Championship on Saturday, Nov. 10, at the Loeb Playhouse on the University of Purdue campus. Competition is set to begin at 10:45 a.m.

Manaal Arif, Deena Baki, Yewon Oh, Abbie Hembrecht and JR Roach spelled perfectly for the Kingsmen in the Plymouth Regional. Oumayma Al-Shamary Erika Kalamaros, Matthew Zheng turned in near perfect efforts.

“I am so proud of all this team has accomplished!” O’Brien said. “They have dedicated hours and hours of practice time, and I am so excited with how it's paid for them!

“Spelling 82 out of 90 words is an impressive feat, and we beat our team goal of 80 (at state)!” O’Brien continued. “We are thrilled to be competing for state again, and are hopeful to bring home a State Title!”

When Indiana’s election takes place Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, Penn will serve as a polling center, as it has in years past. Polling hours are 6:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Penn school hours are 8:25 a.m. – 3:17 p.m.; you might want to avoid student arrival and departure times because of increased traffic congestion. 

Door L and Door M on Jefferson Road will be open to the public to access for voting. The first row of parking spaces in the staff lot between Doors L and M will be available for public parking. Voters must enter and exit through Doors L or M. Voters will not be allowed passage into the students’ area.

Other P-H-M schools that will serve as voting locations Election Day are Mary Frank Elementary School, Meadow’s Edge Elementary School, Prairie Vista Elementary School, Walt Disney Elementary School and Schmucker Middle School. Of course registered voters may only use the polling location that serves their precinct, based on home address.  Here is a link to the precincts maps and polling location information provided by St. Joseph County. 

The Penn Girls Volleyball Team battled No. 1 Yorktown in the Class 6-A Semi-state at Huntington North High School on Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018. Yorktown defeated Penn, 27-25, 26-24, 25-16.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

Penn’s Football Team defeated Warsaw, 16-7, in Class 6-A Sectional action on Friday, Oct. 26, 2018.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.