What's recently happened?
Students went back to Kouts High School (KHS) for the 2022-2023 school year on Wednesday, August 10. For the senior class of 2023, it is the beginning of the end of their high school journey, as graduation and the next chapter of their lives looms ahead. But for now, it’s assignments, quizzes, and tests, with the occasional college and scholarship application sprinkled in.
Angela Zengler is excited to be a senior this year and get started on student council projects.
“I’m excited there are so many things we’re doing this year. I’m excited for the trunk or treat in October and the bonfire,'' she said.
She's also looking forward to homecoming, and even farther out, prom.
What's coming up?
With the school year starting, so has the fall sports, one of which is cross country. The KHS girls cross country season has been really successful thus far.
Saturday, October 1, is the Porter County Conference (PCC) in which eight schools compete at Hebron High School in a 5k race which converts to about 3.1 miles. For KHS, their biggest competition in this race is Morgan Township High School (MTHS), who Kouts did win against last year.
To prepare for this upcoming race against its biggest rival and all races in between, the team practices six days a week: every day after school and on Saturdays anywhere in the ballpark of 40 to 80 minutes per practice, and running somewhere between three to six miles.
KHS senior Annysa Heniold is super dedicated to the sport,
“I’ve been in it since sixth grade. My favorite thing about it is running with the team and having fun at meets” she said.
While its conference meet is next month, the next race is this Tuesday, September 6, at the Kouts Invite.
Staff Spotlight
Michael Slys teaches a large variety of science at KHS: earth space, anatomy and physiology, integrated chemistry and physics, advanced placement chemistry, and biology. While he’s been a teacher for 24 years overall, he’s been at KHS for only seven of those years.
He never expected to be a teacher, even though both of his parents were teachers themselves. In fact, his father was a chemistry teacher. In college, Slys was in pre-med as an undergraduate student his plan was to go into pediatrics.
“Two weeks before I graduated, I decided I wasn’t going to med school. Then I did some substitute teaching and I got my calling into teaching, so I decided to go back to school to get my teacher’s license. There hasn’t been a day that’s gone by that I’ve regretted going into education,” he said.
His favorite thing about teaching science is the constant change of science itself, but it’s always rooted in fact.
“It’s always based on data and facts, so that’s what I love to deal with because I’m kind of a data nerd anyways so I love to deal with the math, the facts, and the data even since I was little. '' he said.
The most important thing that Slys has learned while being a teacher is that no two days are the same.
"Every day’s an adventure. There’s always something going on. When you’re dealing with teenagers there’s nothing stagnant," he said.
Like running water, Slys enjoys change and that may be why students love taking his class or just chatting with him in the hallway because there’s always something new to talk about with him.
Student Spotlight:
Emily Malone, a senior at KHS. has just helped direct a football broadcast on Friday September 2 at Valparaiso High School with her vocational class. This is her second year in the class.
“I decided to come back because I love the environment it provides with supportive students and staff of everyone’s study and focus.” she said.
There isn’t one thing that is Malone’s favorite part of vocational.
“My favorite thing to do in vocational is help out my teacher. Whether it’s editing, technical directing football games, setting up for livestreams and tearing down, classroom inventory, you name it, I love it,” she said.
Malone plans on attending Huntington University after graduating high school double majoring in film and tv production. Afterward, she is hoping to get a job in the field.
At KHS, Malone is involved in band, color guard, and basketball team management. This has led to great experiences like jamming out with her fellow band nerds and the ability to go to cool places like Hoosier gym and the basketball state championship.
“I would tell my younger self to not be afraid to try new and crazy things," she said.
Malone has big dreams and she definitely has the means and drive to achieve them.