Penn High School’s Choir performed at the Waterside Stage of Disney Springs in Orlando on Wednesday, April 6. Click to watch the LiveStream on the Penn High School Choir Facebook Page.

A total of 45 Penn students performed a repertoire that included:

• Rhythm of Life
• When You Believe (Prince of Egypt)
• Friend Like Me (Aladdin)
• Coco Medley (Coco)
• We Don’t Talk About Bruno (Encanto)
• Touch the Sky (Brave)

Click to watch the LiveStream on the Penn High School Choir Facebook Page.

This performance kicked-off the anticipated Spring Concert (May 5-6), which has a theme of “Chase the Wind & Touch the Sky”, featuring Disney music and characters. This was the first time the choir has traveled and performed at Disney.

Three of Penn’s Theatre Arts students (two from Introduction to Theatre Arts and one from Advanced Theatre Arts) have been selected for a staged reading at Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Performing Arts Center as part of the 2022 Michiana Young Playwrights Project.

Penn Theatre Instructor Kathryn Hein said that the students were selected among area playwrights to have their work featured at Notre Dame Film, Television, and Theatre.

The chosen pieces and writers are:

• “F.L.O.W.” by Liam Palmer
• “I Don’t Dance” by Evelyn Shrout
• “Misfortune in the Mansura Marsh” by Allison Bridges

The reading will be at 7 p.m., Saturday, April 30, 2022.

Click here to reserve tickets.

“I am incredibly proud of all of our students who submitted following the masterclass that Stacey Stewart and Becca Campana led with the Intro classes,” Hein said.

Penn High School’s Short Hair Because We Care held a Hair Donation Event for people who are suffering hair loss due to medical conditions. The event was held at Penn on Saturday, March 26, 2022.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

Penn High School Social Studies instructor Eric Bowers has been selected to participate in the inaugural GenEd Teacher Fellowship Program sponsored by the Genocide Education Project (GenEd).

After a rigorous selection process, 16 highly qualified secondary-level educators from 14 states were chosen for the program. The group will embark on a ten-day intensive professional development program in Armenia in July 2022, based at the Armenian Genocide Museum and Institute.

Upon their return to the U.S., the GenEd Teacher Fellows will carry out their professional development activities for other teachers. 

Bowers has degrees in Social Studies Education and History. He teaches AP European History and AP U.S. History at Penn. He is the Model United Nations club sponsor, the Social Studies Academic Coach, and advises the Armenian Club.

Bowers was named a Fulbright Scholar in 2017, studying at Regensburg University at Germany for four weeks that summer. He is a graduate of Bethel University.

On Saturday, March 26, Penn’s “Short Hair Because We Care Club” will be holding a special hair donation event. This event helps many kids fighting hair loss from different illnesses. The hair donated will be going to an organization known as “Children with Hair Loss” (Click to follow them on Facebook). This organization works to provide children with wigs around the world.

The hair professionals from Salon Nouveau will be cutting hair for adults and students from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. in Penn’s Cafeteria on Saturday, March 26. Just enter Door F, which is behind the school (and opposite TCU Freed Football Field).

There is no cost to participate, it’s FREE! And the “Short Hair Because We Care Club” will take care of sending in the hair donation to “Children with Hair Loss.”

Follow us on Instagram @shbwc_phs for information about the day of the event. Please be aware that in order to participate in this donation (adult or student), you must have at least 8 inches of hair to donate. Hair that is chemically treated, color, perm or straightened is OK to donate! 

Any person younger than the age of 18 must have an adult present to participate in this event. Fill out the form below and return it to Miss Darr in Room 259 by end of school 3/25/22, or DM our Instagram account, @shbwc_phs, to reserve yourself a spot!

Click here for the permission slip.

Thank you to the sponsors of the event: Dayton Freight and Smoker Craft Boats. 

Penn High School’s Symphonic Orchestra, under the direction of Anne Tschetter, will compete at the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) National Orchestra Festival in Atlanta, Ga., on Friday, March 18. The ASTA National Convention is the orchestra music educators conference.  All events and performances will be at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta.

A Photo Gallery of practice for the National Orchestra Festival is posted below.

Penn is schedule to perform at 5 p.m. on Friday, March 18.

Penn students will also be visiting the Georgia Aquarium and Coca-Cola World, and a celebratory dinner will be at Hard Rock Cafe Atlanta.

The application process included a recorded video and two recommendations from professional music educators.

Penn’s Symphonic Orchestra was recommended by Mark Wood of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Dr. Orcenith Smith of DePauw University.

Penn students will be performing:

• Mendelssohn  Sinfonia No. 7 in d minor, I. Allegro
• Whitacre, October
• Rutter, Suite for Strings

   I. A-Roving
   II. I have a bonnet trimmed in blue
   III. O waly waly
   IV.  Dashing away

• Balmages, Lyric Metal
• Britten, Simple Symphony, IV. Frolicsome Finale

We want to thank the P-H-M Education Foundation and ALL of our local business and community partners for making our inaugural job fair a success!

Today EVERY senior had a chance to talk to local employers that offered everything from Summer Jobs to Apprenticeships and other Career Opportunities.

Local employers were thrilled to be able to educate our students about what they have to offer. Often times High School seniors might not be aware of all of the opportunities that are available to them.

This was an opportunity to bring students and employers together.

In addition to the job aspect, there were also financial literacy breakout sessions for the students to attend. Take a look!

Community Connections Fair

Saturday, March 26, 2022

10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Schmucker Middle School

56405 Bittersweet Rd., Mishawaka

The Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation’s ENL Services’ is sponsoring the District’s FREE Community Connections Fair!

Come check out what the Mishawaka, South Bend, and Elkhart communities have to offer to your families!

P-H-M is inviting area businesses who want to participate in the Community Connections Fair to sign up. Click here to request a table at the event. 

The Fair will also include cultural performances from P-H-M students and families. Families wishing to sign up to perform, click here.

Bilingual interpreters will be on hand at the event to assist those families who need it.

Come out and enjoy the many cultural performances and student work that will be on display representing countries from all over the world! 

Please join us!

For more information, please contact:

Nicole Parker
P-H-M Elementary ENL Coordinator
(574) 259-2486, Ext. 53261
nparker@phm.k12.in.us

They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky, they’re all together ooky, The Addams family is coming to Penn High School!

The Penn Fine Arts and Communications Academy is presenting, “The Addams Family, A New Musical”, at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 4, and Saturday, March 5. On Sunday, March 6^th there will be a 3 p.m. performance.

The showings will be held within the Center for Performing Arts (enter through Door C).

$10 presale tickets go on sale Monday, February 21^st  and may be purchased at Penn Theater’s ticket store TicketTracker.com.  Tickets are $12 at the door.

Click here to purchase tickets for the online streaming version of “The Addams Family, A New Musical”.

The plot of “The Addams Family A New Musical” revolves around America’s favorite macabre family “The Addams”. 

In its typical creepy and comical, mysterious and macabre fashion, the ghoulish Addams family is holed up at their Central Park, graveyard home for an annual gathering of all family members, living dead, and undecided, to celebrate what it is to be an Addams.

However, the family encounters an unforeseen obstacle when Wednesday Addams decides to introduce her “normal” boyfriend Lucas and his awkwardly normal parents to her family!

From a deeper point of view, The “Addams Family A New Musical” tells the story of love and friendship through adversity, with a comical and macabre yet poignant spin.

Penn High School Principal Sean Galiher announced that 10 students from Penn have been named National Merit Scholarship Finalists.

Hala Ansari, Manaal Buchh, Marin Chester, Alexander Du, Salem Fitwi, Arthur Haines, Evan Nayee, Luca Nijim, Jeremiah Roach and Matthew Zhang are among 15,000 Finalists nationwide who will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit Scholarships of $2,500.

A student’s academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, employment, and honors and awards received are considered in selecting Finalists

Finalists must have an outstanding academic record throughout high school, be endorsed and recommended by a high school official, write an essay, and earn SAT® or ACT® scores that confirm the student’s earlier performance on the qualifying test.