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.

Principal Sean Galiher announced that 13 Penn High School students have earned academic honors from the College Board National Recognition Programs.

Tasneem Ahmed, Salem Fitwi, Aja Fowler, Zion Hackett, Johnnay Johnson, Sydney Kiner and Julius Smith were named College Board National African-American Recognition Program Scholars.

Grace Besse, Ethan Derby, Adia Holt, Tatiana Lambertt, Caroline Quinquio and Monica Ramirez were named College Board Hispanic Recognition Program Scholars.

These National Recognition Programs grant underrepresented students with academic honors that can be included on college and scholarship applications and connect students with universities across the country, helping them meaningfully connect to colleges and stand out during the admissions process. Colleges and scholarship programs identify students awarded National African American, Hispanic, Indigenous and/or Rural/Small Town Recognition through College Board’s Student Search Service.

Students who may be eligible have a GPA of 3.5 or higher and have excelled on the PSAT/NMSQT or PSAT 10, or earned a score of 3 or higher on two or more AP Exams; and are African American or Black, Hispanic American or Latinx, Indigenous, and/or attend school in a rural area or small town.

Penn High School will host the Carnival of Bands on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021, at TCU Freed Field.

The 30^th annual marching band showcase will begin at 2:55 p.m., followed by competition starting at 3 p.m.

The Penn Marching Kingsmen, under the direction of Glenn Northern, are scheduled to conclude the competition with a special exhibition performance at 9:15 p.m.

Tickets are $8 (children under 4 are admitted free) and can be purchased at the gate.

Click here for the complete schedule.

Penn student-athletes got a visit from a very special person today … Penn Class of 2012 alumna and Olympic Volleyball Gold Medalist Annie Drews! Students got to meet her, ask questions, hold the Gold Medal, deliver Kingsmen spirit wear and even take selfies with Annie! Click to see the photo gallery below.

Annie, in town to visit her family and to plan her wedding, stopped by her alma mater to talk with, provide some words of wisdom and inspire current Penn student-athletes.

Fresh off her return from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Annie met with three groups of students on Friday morning (August 27, 2021):

• Q&A with the Penn Volleyball Team
   
   
• Q&A with the Penn Student-Athlete Leadership Council. Annie talked about Servant Leadership, teamwork, being there for your team and teammates, selfless commitment to your team, the value of leadership to a team's success, and her faith.
  
   
• Q&A with Penn female student-athletes. Annie discussed the empowerment of female athletes, finding your voice, the value of sisterhood, and important takeaways from athletics.
  

On-hand for Annie’s visit with students was her former Penn Volleyball Coach. Annie is from Elkhart and started at Elkhart Central High School, but then transferred to Penn and helped the team win two 4A state championships in both 2010 and 2011. Annie graduated from Penn and went on to play for Purdue making Team USA in 2017. Annie is Indiana’s first-ever Olympic volleyball player! Annie lives and trains in Southern California and plays Pro Volleyball in Japan. Read Annie’s full athletic bio on the USA Volleyball website.

See the photo gallery below. To download high-resolution jpg files, 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!

Registration for the Penn Youth Girls Basketball League for students in Grades 3-8 will be held on Sunday, Sept. 12, from 12:00-2 p.m..

When: Sunday, Sept. 12, 12:00-2 p.m.

Where: Penn High School/ Enter through Door D 

Price: $125 

Space is limited to the first 108 athletes per age group.

Please read this flyer thoroughly! 

It’s August and that means Kingsmen sports and Marching Band practices are in high gear.

To recognize the hard work they’ve already put in and to wish them luck for their coming seasons, Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker stops by all of the fall sports practices to hand out popsicles!

It’s an annual tradition that students have come to expect and look forward to. He’s been doing it for over 15 years! This year, Chief Operating Officer Aaron Leniski joined Dr. Thacker in handing out the frozen treats.

Today (Friday, August 13) we caught up with Dr. Thacker and Mr. Leniski as they handed out frozen treats to Penn Band members. 

In a nice show of solidarity, the Penn Kingsmen football players came to the band practice area to wish them well.

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.

Student Parking passes will be available for eligible Juniors and Seniors from 7:30-11:30 a.m. and 12:30-3 p.m. on Monday-through-Friday, Aug. 9-13, and on Monday, Aug. 16, and Tuesday, Aug. 17. When in-person school is in session, parking passes are sold before school from 7:30-8:15 a.m. and after school from 3:17-3:30 p.m.

Students must bring the completed forms, ID, and other required items. Cash and checks (made out to Penn High School) are acceptable payments. We cannot accept credit cards at this time. Change will not be made so bring exact amounts.

Students will go to the Counseling Center office to show that required forms (posted below) have been filled out properly. After paperwork is filled out and approved, students will go to the bookstore to pay for parking pass.

Sophomores are not eligible for parking passes.

Click here for details and forms.