The Silver Mile was held this past weekend (Saturday, May 6).  First place overall male race winner was Penn’s Colton Shail, Junior track and cross country runner at Penn High School, with a time of 16:29.9. First place overall female was Erin Moore, 13-year-old Niles student, with a time of 20:07.6.

Meadow's Edge Elementary earned the top participation P-H-M school prize and will receive a $5,000 grant to be used for a fitness/health program.

Coming in at second place was Northpoint Elementary. They will receive a $1,000 grants. The school with the third most student participation was Madison, and they will receive a $500 grant.

Overall there were 500 participants in this year’s race.

This year’s Health and Fitness Fair was a huge success featuring health screenings by Saint Joseph Mishawaka Medical Center.

Healthy post-race snacks were provided by Whole Foods Market. Urban Swirl also helped runners cool off with frozen yogurt cups.

Penn Robotics Team 135 setup robot test drives so that younger children could learn to drive robots. And the Kingsmen Cheerleaders lent their face painting talents to make some prettier faces even prettier! Click here to see a list of  all this year’s sponsors. 

Penn Robotics closed out its 20th year of tournament competitions with a fourth-place finish in its division of 68 teams in the FIRST Robotics World Competition held last week (April 26-29) in St. Louis.

More than 700 teams from 33 countries competed in the FIRST Robotics World Competition.

Penn’s Team 135 had been as high as No. 2 in the qualification matches. The effort for Team 135 ended in the quarterfinal matches. More details on the overall team finishes can be found at https://www.thebluealliance.com/.

One of the highlights of the trip for the team was when three members –  Mia Heisler, Lizzie Heisler and Mackenzie Richards – kicked off the competition by singing the National Anthem before an audience of more than 20,000 at the Opening ceremonies held at the Edward Jones Dome.

The trip to World was a culmination of a great season for Team 135. The 36-student team won the coveted Chairman’s Award in previous back-to-back competitions: State Championship (Huntington, April 7-9) and Perry Meridian (Indianapolis, March 23-25).

Penn Robotics is led by Jim Langfeldt, Evan White, and Josiah Parker — the coordinators of this top-caliber FIRST Robotics team.

“Penn Robotics represented Indiana very well in St. Louis at the Championships last week,” Langfeldt said. “With a record of 9-1 and being seeded 4th in our division, the Penn Robotics team once again led their alliance into the finals before being eliminated in the quarter finals.” 

Team 135 is the only Indiana team to qualify for Championships every year in the district model. 

“This group of students worked tirelessly to iterate and improve on nearly every system on the robot!” Landfeldt said.  “I have never seen more dedication going into championships!

“Our State Champion Chairman's Award team made an overwhelming impact on the judges in the presentation room on Friday,” Langfeldt continued. “The work our entire team  puts into Chairman's (category) is the foundation of our experience!  This team continues to impress me with their willingness to spread FIRST and make a difference in our school and community!  It is more than robots!

Langfeldt said that having three of his students sing the national anthem at the Opening Ceremony was an added bonus.

“It was something I will never forget,” Langfeldt said of the Team 135 Trio singing the national anthem. “The diverse talents on our team this year has been an inspiration to everyone we have come in contact with.  I am very proud of the accomplishments Team 135 has made this season.”

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY ALLISON ADAMS AND CHASE KIDDER.

Penn High School’s Mathcon Team earned a second consecutive national championship, and senior David Kim repeated as an individual national champion at the MathCon National Championships at the University of Illinois Chicago on April 22.

MathCon is a national mathematics competition for students in grades 5-12. First, there is an online qualifying contest lasting 45 minutes. Approximately 50,000 students participated in this online qualifier. A total of 576 students qualified to go to Chicago for compete at the national event, which was the top 1 percent of the online scores. There were 43 states were represented at the nationals in Chicago.

Penn qualified 19 students for the nationals. The national contest consists of 50 questions and lasts 75 minutes. Individual awards are then determined for each grade level and for the best high school and middle school. Out of Penn’s 19 national qualifiers, 17 won an award.

“I would credit our success to our commitment for our academic extracurricular activities at Penn,” Penn Math Instructor and MathCon coach Brad Grounds said. “We offer many opportunities to help these students develop their problem solving skills with Indiana Math League, the American Mathematics Competition, Trig-Star, and Math Academic Super Bowl (weekly meetings practicing higher level problem solving).”

Seniors:

David Kim              National Champion (2nd year in a row)

Dat Luong             Gold Medal

Matthew Shan     Bronze Medal

Mason Lee            Bronze Medal

Muqsit Buchh      Honorable Mention

Baker Nasser       Honorable Mention

No junior qualifiers

Sophomores:

Tina Lu                   Silver Medal

Corey Wang         Honorable Mention

Chelsea Chen      Honorable Mention

Hasaan Kazi         National qualifier

Freshmen:

Seunghoon Sun     Bronze Medal

Lyvia Li                      Honorable Mention

Jeffrey Du                Honorable Mention

David Simonetti    Honorable Mention

Noah Lang              Honorable Mention

Tara Devaraj           Honorable Mention

Abhinov Kotaru    Honorable Mention

Rajeev Datta          Honorable Mention

Yewon Oh               National qualifier

Mrs. Anne Tschetter didn’t think anything of it when Principal Steve Hope and Fine Arts Academy Leader Glenn Northern asked to meet with her about the recent ISSMA competitions, especially since the Orchestra just won a Gold Rating with Distinction at this past weekend’s competitions. But she got the surprise of her life when Principal Hope and Mr. Northern walked her back to her classroom …

Penn-Harris-Madison Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker, Mrs. Tschetter’s husband, Lyndon, several members of P-H-M Administration and her students were waiting to surprise her that she had been named 2017 P-H-M Teacher of the Year!

Mrs. Tschetter is in her 21st year with P-H-M, spending her first 20 years at Discovery Middle School as Orchestra Director there as well. For six of those years, she also taught music at Penn High School, switching to the high school exclusively this school year.

Mr. Northern, who nominated Mrs. Tschetter for the Teacher of the Year award, describes her as a passionate, kind and inclusive teacher who “believes that music needs to be both challenging and fun … to touch learners in personal and exciting ways.” She believes in being firm, fair and be fun!

As a practicing violinist and violist herself, who performs regularly with the South Bend Symphony Orchestra and other local string quartets, Mrs. Tschetter models the techniques she seeks in her students, playing alongside them as she’s teaching. She has taught and trained some of the finest student orchestras in the region and country. 

Since 1998, her ensembles have been recognized consistently for their high level of performance at the local, regional, state and national levels winning Gold Ratings at Indiana State School Music Association (​ISSMA) and multiple “With Distinction” awards, including this year’s competition (April 28 & 29, 2017).

Among her other accomplishments, Mrs. Tschetter was a conductor with the Cincinnati Orchestra, working with the Symphonic Orchestra. In January 2016, she received the Indiana American String Teacher's Association "Middle School Teacher of the Year" Award; and in 2015, received the "Michiana Outstanding Music Educator Award" sponsored by Quinlan & Fabish Music Company.

Mrs. Tschetter will be officially recognized and receive her plaque and a grant from the P-H-M Education Foundation at P-H-M’s Employee Recognition Dinner on May 17th. Also being recognized at that dinner are P-H-M service award employees, retirees and Meadow’s Edge Teacher’s Aide Shari Cerney who was named the Employee of the Year on Thursday, April 27.

All five of Penn’s Fine Arts music groups competing in the ISSMA Group I qualifier competition this past weekend (April 28 & 29, Chesterton, Indiana) earned a Gold Rating with Distinction and one ensemble also qualified for State Finals for the 16th consecutive year!

Penn’s Choir, Women’s Chorale, Orchestra, Symphonic Band and Symphonic Winds all competed for the 16 Concert Choirs, 8 Treble/Men’s Choirs, 8 Orchestras and 16 Band open spots and the chance to compete in the ISSMA State Finals this coming Saturday, May 6.

The Symphonic Winds, under the direction of Glenn Northern, Chris Paulson and Aaron Griesser, received a Gold Rating with Distinction for their performance and also qualified for State Finals. They will perform at Lawrence Central High School in Indianapolis at the State Competition.

Penn’s other groups and ensembles received a Gold Rating with Distinction for their performances:

• Penn Concert Choir, under the direction of Andrew Nemeth, Lavon Oke and accompanist Andrew Napolitan
• Penn Women’s Chorale, under the Direction of Lavon Oke, Andrew Nemeth, and accompanist Andrew Napolitan
• Penn Orchestra, under the direction of Anne Tschetter and Elizabeth Cravens

Congratulations to all of these student and teachers for their outstanding achievements!

Penn High’s Kingsmen, ranked No. 1 in Indiana, open the Class 4-A softball sectional against No. 13 LaPorte on Tuesday, May 22, at 6:30 p.m. at Penn’s May Oberfell Lorber Field.

Coach Beth Zachary’s club, ranked No. 14 in the nation by USA Today, is seeking its fourth consecutive sectional crown.

Action in the Penn Sectional starts on Monday, May 22, when Plymouth plays Adams at 5 p.m., followed by Clay vs. Mishawaka.

Monday’s winners play at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 23, followed by the Penn vs. LaPorte game.

The championship is set for 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 25.

Penn finished state runner-up last season.

Penn High Senior and AP Studio Art Show is scheduled for Friday, May 19, from 6:30-9 p.m.

Join us on campus for a night of visual and performing arts. Enter: Door B Sunshine Hallway.

The event will be in the Kingsman Cafe, art hallway, photo & graphic design rooms and the Kingsman Art Gallery.

There will be extraordinary artwork from our Seniors and AP students along with food and music.

Student artists will be selling copies of their work, and all of PHM is invited.  Ask your friends about the art classes they are making art in and join us for light refreshment and enjoy creative ideas of our AP Studio and Senior here at Penn.

Other Art Shows that have Penn student's art work on view: IUSB Gallery – May 5-27 & 2nd District Congressional Art Awards at South Bend Airport now till May 13.

What a way to celebrate its 20th year … Penn Robotics Team 135 is heading to the FIRST Robotics World Competition!

The team of 36 students loaded up and left today (Wednesday, April 26) headed for St. Louis for the competition that begins today and runs through Saturday, April 29.

Last week before the team left, they were busy in Room 140 making last minute preparations for their big trip, doing everything from making 20 year commemorative buttons, to scouting out their completion online, to tracking down restaurants in the St. Louis area near the event venues.

Each team member of Team 135 plays multiple roles. The team is made up of both juniors and seniors who design, build and program a robot, volunteer in the community, as well as raise all funds needed to compete from the regional level all of the way to the World Championships.

In the Robotics Lab, students were practicing with the test robot on their practice field, testing last minute techniques and strategies.

In the Lab, you can get a glimpse back at Team 135’s 20 year history of competitions. Along the walls are shelving units that house the previous years’ competition robots, going back all the way to the team’s first robot from 1998!

Team 135 will compete against some 400 other high school robotics teams from around the globe in hopes to bring back another Chairman’s Award just like they’ve done in their past two competitions: State Championship (Huntington, April 7-9) and Perry Meridian (Indianapolis, March 23-25).

Penn Robotics is led by Jim Langfeldt, Evan White, and Josiah Parker — the coordinators of this top-caliber FIRST Robotics team.

Want to follow Team 135’s quest for the World Title?

Click here for the full schedule. 

Click here to watch the competitions LIVE as they are happening. 

Click to read an article in the South Bend Tribune on April 21st about the Team 135’s Preparations. 

Penn High School Principal Steve Hope and STEM Academy Leader Rachel Fry announced that the Penn High School Grade 9-10 team won a TEAMS (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Math, Science) state championship, and a total of 53 students qualified for the National Championships in Orlando, Fla., June 21-25.

Becky Tagliaferri is the TEAMS coach for Penn.

Earning state champion status were: Larry Mattson, Priya Chaudhary, Celine Wang, Karen Wang, Keaton Smith, John Donaruma, Mia Schwartz and Komal Kumar.

Also qualifying for Nationals: Kia Heryadi, Meghan Amsler, Jo Eskildsen, Mads Eskildsen, Sidd Das, Ian Baker, Kwabena Lynn, Kemal Perdana, Nick Casetti, David Kim, Matt Shan, Baker Nasser, Dhruv Khanna, Muqsit Buchh, Hannah McGinness, Michelle Tapp, Elisabeth Casetti, Hassaan Khan, Courtney Sharpe, Ian Coates, Philipp Roehm, Michelle Kwok, Yewon Oh, Tingyi Lu, Chelsea Chen, Riya Patel, Corey Wang, Tara Devaraj, Lyvia Li, Amy Bernard, Seunghoon Sun, Leah Ingle, Trang Le, Moon Joy, Sydney Doshi, Emma Doshi, Charlotte Chang, Emily Duchine, Sabrina Kurian, Shivani Ghandi, Elena Mercurio, Arianna Hardy, Anjelica Zitto, Darbie Kwon, Abdulhamid El-Fadhl.

Penn High School Principal Steve Hope announced that 25 Penn High School students were inducted into the Elkhart Area Career Center chapter of the National Technical Honor Society.

A ceremony was held at Elkhart Memorial High School to honor the EACC inductees.

Penn’s National Technical Honor Society inductees are:

Abigale Corbett, Alan Turczynski, Callan Okrzesik, Citlali Villegas, Connor Stephenson, Elaine Popovix, Emma Freel, Grace Beagles, Jay Roy, Kendall Fisher, Kira Goudy, Lauren Kasznia, Madison Albright, Megan Lanko, Natosha Overholt, Nicholas Ewald, Patrick Brough, Price Washburn, Shelby Huggins, Sophie Fershin, Sydney Hill, Tara Roy, William McClellan, Zoe David, Natalie Hall.