The Penn High School Girls Volleyball Team beat Elkhart Central, 3-1.

Student photographers Alex Lara and Phillip Murphy produced a Photo Gallery of the  match. The Photo Gallery is posted below. 

The Penn High School Freshman Academy held a Tailgate Party on Thursday, Sept. 7. The event helped build Kingsmen community among the freshmen.

About 150 students enjoyed the opportunity to display school spirit and socialize with Freshman Academy faculty and other students.

The Tailgate Party preceded a Freshmen Football Game between the Penn Kingsmen and the archrival Mishawaka Cavemen. Penn won the game 33-0.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

By CARSON COCQUYT

Student Reporter

Granting teachers the opportunity explore the world of education outside the United States is very promising. Given that the world offers such a great variety of culture, there is so much new knowledge to be gained abroad.

One of the ways an educator can explore and study in an unfamiliar country is through Fulbright Scholarship. This scholarship, which was proposed by Senator J. William Fulbright in 1945, sought to promote international learning for teaching professionals in the U.S.

There are more than 3,000 applicants who apply for a Fulbright Scholarship each year, but only just a handful of teaching faculty are awarded with the opportunity of a lifetime to research, study and teach in a country of their choice.

Eric Bowers, an AP European and AP U.S. History teacher and tennis coach at Penn High School, was one of the few applicants accepted into the program.

Bowers was assigned to visit Bavaria, Germany, and was permitted to study at Regensburg University.

Bowers spent a total of four weeks in Europe. Even though the scholarship only funded two weeks of the trip, Bowers decided to head to Europe and week early and stay a week late. By doing this, he was able to visit more countries other than just Germany.

During July, Bowers was in and out of countries daily, submerging himself a new culture each few days at a time. Click here to see the photo gallery below.

While in Germany, Bowers sat in on presentations, classes, and guest speakers at each level of study in Germany. His task in was to learn from the educators who live and work in Germany, and apply their work into his life back home at Penn.

Whenever he had freetime from his studies in the classroom, Bowers said he would, “walk the streets of Germany and get a taste for everything it had to offer. Whether it be visiting schools or local businesses, I saw a new aspect of life everywhere I went.”

One of the most eye-opening things Bowers witnessed on his trip was the Syrian Refugee camps located in Germany.

“I found it interesting that Germany was fond of welcoming the refugees into the country as they planned to help them assimilate into the population.”

It was situations like these that help Bowers realize the culture of Germany has endured great change since the World Wars they were responsible for.

Overall, Bowers truly did learn a lot about the system of education in Germany and the cultural life as well. By taking time out of his summer to do this trip, Bowers feels that it was worth it. The amount of knowledge he gained from the countries abroad have helped him understand the world better as a whole.

The biggest take-away that Bowers took from his trip was that he learned to accept new strategies of learning teaching in the classroom. Now that Mr. Bowers in back home, he can apply is experience and knowledge into the classroom at Penn High school.

By ERIC WOOD

The Kingsmen varsity volleyball team defeated the Jimtown Jimmies, 25-15, 24-26, 25-8, 25-11, on Thursday, Sept. 7.

Alyssa Torres and Rachel Rupert paced Penn’s attack with 11 kills each.

Naomi Willis’ 32 assists helped to boost the lethal Kingsmen offense. Willis also contributed 22 digs on the night.

By ALEX FADELY

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The Penn boy’s tennis team took on a tough opponent this past Thursday, facing Northern Indiana Conference rival South Bend St. Joseph.

The Kingsmen were able to show their dominance against the defending NIC champions with the overall score of 4-1.

Will Thurin led the charge at No. 2 singles, winning 6-1, 6-1.

Aidan Sucharetza also won his No. 3 singles match, winning his sets by scores of 6-2 and 6-0.

In doubles, Eric Spaargaren and Aiden O’Day won 6-4, 6-4, at No. 1 singles.

The second doubles match had Maity Spitters and Nick Casetti winning a close set 7-5 and then dominated the second, winning 6-1.

By BRADEN PITTMAN

The Penn freshmen football team topped the Mishawaka Cavemen in a 33-0 shutout on Thursday, Sept. 7.

Kyle Riffel raced 41 yards for a Kingsmen TD. 

Nick Favilla caught a 31 yard touchdown pass from quarterback Ryan Plummer.

Nate Ehmer had two rushing touchdowns one for a 31 yard run, and the other being a 5 yard run.

Plummer also threw a 3-yard pass to Aidan O’Connell for a touchdown to cushion the lead.

Ryan Majerek made three extra points.

On top of the stellar offense, Penn’s dominant defense kept the Cavemen scoreless. The Kingsmen recovered three fumbles, which were recovered by Colton Dennis and Jake Rairdon. Rairdon had two fumbles recovered.

The Freshmen team remains undefeated on the season and advances to a record of 3-0.

The Penn High School Girls Golf Team wrapped up a perfect 12-0 Northern Indiana Conference regular-season record on Tuesday, Sept. 5.

The Kingsmen Girls Golf Team honored senior Abbey Hamilton at the match.

Below is a provided Photo Gallery.

Penn High’s Football Team beat Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (Mich.) 38-17, on Friday, Sept. 8.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

The National Honor Society is accepting petitions for new members.

If you are a Penn High School junior or a senior who has a 3.5 or better grade-point average, you may apply for membership to the NHS.

Interested students may pick up petition packets in the Counseling Center or Room 250. 

Completed Petition  packets must be returned Ms. Johnson or Mrs. Knight in Room 250 by Sept. 15  by 3:30 p.m. 

Late Petitions will not be accepted. 

With the release of the Spring 2017 ISTEP+ results, Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation now ranks in the state’s top 4% of public school districts.

Based on both Math and ELA pass results of grades 3-8, P-H-M ranks 12th out of all 292 public school districts in Indiana. For grade 10, P-H-M ranks 9th out of all 292 public school corporations—the Michiana area’s only public school district to make the top 20!

P-H-M’s overall district pass rate for grades 3-8 was 70.8%, compared to Brownsburg Community School Corp. who received the highest overall pass rate of 83.1%. Penn-Harris-Madison’s pass rate for grade 10 was 59.9%, compared to Carmel Clay Schools 68.3%

“When you compare P-H-M to the state’s other top performing school districts, you can see the level of excellence that our students and teachers are achieving in the classrooms,” said P-H-M Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker commenting on yesterday afternoon’s (Wednesday, September 6, 2017) testing results release by the Indiana Department of Education. “P-H-M has been able to achieve high performing test results not just by teaching the academic standards, but by empowering our teachers with ongoing professional development, equipping them with technology providing timely and efficient student assessment, while also growing our students’ academic stamina with rigor and relevant preparatory tools.”

As part of Penn-Harris-Madison’s own self-district assessment, P-H-M administration reviewed the 2017 ISTEP+ results information from across the state and also notes the following successes:
 

• Northpoint is Indiana’s #1 public elementary school!
• Discovery ranks #3 out of the state’s 205 public middle schools.
• P-H-M has four schools (Northpoint, Prairie Vista and Horizon Elementary Schools, along with Discovery Middle School) ranked among the state’s top 50 of all 1,437 public schools.
• Penn ranks #4 of large high schools (student population more than 500).
   

After analyzing the data, Dr. Thacker also noted “I am extremely proud of what our students and teachers have been able to achieve. It is with the parent and community support that they receive that P-H-M is able to achieve academic excellence at all levels. I look forward to using the data from 2017 ISTEP to build on and improve for this coming 2018 spring testing.”